Great songwriting quote

Whether you pen songs yourself or not, you will appreciate these next couple of paragraphs from songwriter Thom Schuyler. I came across this via Andrea Stolpe's great songwriting blog:

Somehow the collective wisdom of Music Row has determined that if we put two or three or even four songwriters together in a room the result will be a song that is two or three or four times better when, in reality, the creative process is diluted, the focus blurred and the result is an innocuous little ditty that has all the right parts and then some unrecognizable 24 year old kid from Oklahoma will record it, a promotion team will run it up the charts, someone, somewhere will hear it on their car radio and think to themselves, “That sounds just like the last song they played,” and then the song will win a BMI Award, the songwriters and publishers will make money and so the publishers will encourage the writers to write more of these ditties, the promotion team will urge the A&R department to get the kid from Oklahoma to record more of these kinds of songs because they can run them up the charts, the guy in the car will start listening to the Top 40 station because, “He just can’t stand this shit anymore,” the head of the sales department will tell the label head, “That kid from Oklahoma may be having hits but, he’s not selling records,” the kid will be dropped, staffers at the label will be let go, the songwriters’ option will not be picked up, stand-up comedians will make jokes about country music and, eventually, we will all die. This, in my opinion, is the unnecessary result of co-writing.

Finally, let me say this about Garth Brooks. There is much spoken and
written about his remarkable accomplishments but, our opinions of him,
positive or otherwise, are irrelevant. The people have voted. He has
reached them. He did it with shrewd, global marketing, with an astonishingly
exciting live show and with a very vital, world-wide partnership with his
record label. When it is all counted up, factored out, studied and analyzed,
may it be remembered that he also did this:

And now I’m glad I didn’t know
the way it all would end
the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance
I could’ve missed the pain
but, I’d have had to miss The Dance

Of all the wonderful opportunities that have been afforded me in this
town, in this business, it fills me with the greatest joy and satisfaction to
be able to say that I am a songwriter.

Comments

[cool dad]

Garth Brooks is a great example. I don't care for country music at all, but a few of his songs (like The Dance) reached me.

I'm a believer that well-crafted songs transcend genres anyway. One of my favorite examples is Honeywagon's rendition of "When I Come Around". (i tried to find the full version somewhere, but all i could find was this sample)

[Mark]

No, Shchuyler's definitely saying he loves the song. The point is everybody talked about and tried to mimick the marketing side of Garth (which was brilliant, mind you), but at the heart, it was the songs. And he was (is!) an amazing songwriter.

[rhonda]

I could not tell if the guy really liked "The Dance" by Garth Brooks or not. Wa she saying that besides all the marketing and whatnot, at the core he was a good songwriter? Or was he saying, he was a brilliant marketer and a not so good songwriter? I think it was the latter, but I am not all that perceptive. For what it's worth I loved that song.