I spend a lot of time, in my life and on this blog, thinking about and analyzing songs. When it comes to certain things (like songs), I do have an analytical turn of mind, even though when I’m writing I’m like most other songwriters, just stumbling in the dark.

But once I’ve got my teeth into a song idea, I do tend to revisit it a number of different times, look at from a lot of different angles… and I often end up writing about those angles here.

But there are many ways to be a songwriter. To illustrate that, I turn to my friend Neil Young.

(I’ve never actually met Neil, but I admire many of his songs, his decades-long commitment to songwriting, his integrity, and overall his unique way with a song – and a guitar… and a vocal.)

When asked about his songwriting process, this is what Neil had to say:

“Usually I sit down and I go until I’m trying to think. As soon as I start thinking, I quit.”

That’s not the way I and a lot of other songwriters do it, but it sure works for him. His songs feel like they come from a very pure, unfiltered place… because they do.

There’s a naive, childlike quality to his writing. Coming so directly from his subconscious, his songs can verge on incoherence. But they can also be singularly beautiful, verging on the ineffable.

“Then when I have an idea out of nowhere, I start up again.When that idea stops, I stop. I don’t force it.”

Neil’s process is that he always stops writing when he starts thinking. But he also always writes when he does have an idea. He writes in cars, bathrooms… on pianos, guitars, or by just singing a melody.

When his muse visits, he never turns it away. That’s the other side of writing only when you feel it. You have to answer the call… or that phone will just stop ringing.

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