Monthly Archives: December 2014

If I Didn’t Love You So Much

I wrote this with the feeling of a 1930s smoky club, possibly with a jazz band. I heard the sound of the song in my head before the song came together. I then worked on building the chords to give it a bit more punch. Someone commented “Yves Montand is alive and well and living in Southampton!” after hearing it, so I think the feel of the song worked out.

I’ve performed this with James from “Notice To The Builder” playing some excellent piano. I’ll be recoding a piano version with James early next year as he does a great job on it.

UPDATE: At last I have a recording with James on the Piano.

A Natural Woman: A Memoir:Carole King

I bought this book to find out a little more about how she wrote songs. “Will you still love me tomorrow ”  and “You’ve got a friend” are two of my favourites but she seems to have written for everyone. Check the Wiki Page. Lots of interesting stuff about how songwriters could go into a publishers office and play some songs.  She talks about the Brill building and working in a small room with a piano and table as the only furniture. Lots of songwriters competing to write follow up songs for big artists. It’s a great book but from a song writing perspective she doesn’t give much away.I recommend that you get the audio version of this book as carol sings all the bits of songs that she refers to. This seems a lot better than just reading it on the page.

I have only given it 3 stars because you won’t learn a lot about songwritign but it is an interesting history of the 60s and 70s.

Best Bit: Goffin and King worked 9 to 5 at the office. All those amazing songs were the result of solid work.

GStarGStarGStar