Another item from the old electric guitar case: the November 1977 edition of The Songwriter, the magazine of the International Songwriters Association. Not very inspiring, is it! I have no idea how I acquired it or why I kept it. Perhaps I thought I would be the next Bjorn or Benny.
Can you become a songwriter by reading a magazine? It seems to me like all that stuff about how to be a published writer. If you look up “memoir blogs”, for instance, there are lots of people all too ready to tell you how to do it, but not many who actually do.
Did J. K. Rowling spend her time reading magazines about how to write books, or did she just get on with it?
The chap on the cover of ‘The Songwriter’, by the way, turns out to be one Reg Guest, apparently a successful arranger and session musician, but not much of a songwriter. The president and founder of the Association, Jim Liddane, does not seem to have written many songs either.
I think it’s another item for the recycling bin.
Reg Guest looks rather like Len Fairclough - formerly of "Coronation Street" fame. I wondered where he had got to. Maybe he was writing songs about Ena Sharples or more likely - Elsie Tanner....
ReplyDeleteWhen I turned my spanner
I thought of Elsie Tanner
A sweeter gal you'd never meet
Me and her with low-vers
In the tap room of The Rovers
Way back when on Coronation Street
Gie uz a job! I can do that. Gie uz a job!
I thought he was Alfie Bass.
DeleteThank you for applying for the post of songwriter. The standard was extremely high. We would like to have been able to appoint to more posts, but unfortunately only one position was available at this time. I regret to inform you that your application has not been successful on this occasion, but wish you success in the future.
DeleteIf it is helpful, the team appointed wrote the following lyric:
I'll sing to him each spring to him
And worship the trousers that cling to him
Was that couplet by Tasker and The Dunhams by any chance?
DeleteRodgers and Hart - who did know how to write songs.
DeleteMiracles do happen. Peter Gabriel placed an advert in Melody Maker in 1970 for a guitarist for a Prog Rock band. Steve Hackett rang the phone number and he became part of Genesis.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know that. You could think it had all been about Phil Collins now.
DeleteReg Guest looks just like our milkman from the 1960s.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a line out of Mrs Harris Goes to Paris where she has Christian Dior pointed out to her and says "he looks just like my milkman"!
DeleteBut were his deliveries as good as our politicians claim they are now?
DeleteIt's as likely as becoming an artist by entering a contest in a match book cover.
ReplyDeleteJim Liddane seems to have made a living out of it, although not my writing songs.
DeleteIn my last art class, the teacher said that drawing art for two hours was worth more than reading about art for six hours.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I'd say it applies to anything creative.
DeleteI remember those Success Can Be Yours adverts. They use to appear in lots of publications like Titbits, Reveille, News of the World etc. Reminded me of Horace Batchelor and the football pools too.
ReplyDeleteThe sort of person who seeks success out of others' efforts.
DeleteMy Goodness! Jim Liddane looks exactly like my Mum‘s friend‘s nephew, minus the specs. I have no idea whether he has ever written a song, but he is very handy with all sorts of things around the house and has single-handedly renovated my Mum’s bathroom.
ReplyDeleteDoes he sing while he works? It might be profitable to record him.
DeleteDefinitely a step up from those body building adverts.
ReplyDeleteBut not a lot!
DeleteThat would be something I'd toss out.
ReplyDeleteWill be in the next recycling bin.
Delete