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Sunday 6 November 2022

The Songwriter

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.  



22 comments:

  1. 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....
    When 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!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank 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.

      If 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

      Delete
    2. Was that couplet by Tasker and The Dunhams by any chance?

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    3. Rodgers and Hart - who did know how to write songs.

      Delete
  2. Miracles 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Didn't know that. You could think it had all been about Phil Collins now.

      Delete
  3. Reg Guest looks just like our milkman from the 1960s.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds 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"!

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    2. But were his deliveries as good as our politicians claim they are now?

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  4. It's as likely as becoming an artist by entering a contest in a match book cover.

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    Replies
    1. Jim Liddane seems to have made a living out of it, although not my writing songs.

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  5. In my last art class, the teacher said that drawing art for two hours was worth more than reading about art for six hours.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree. I'd say it applies to anything creative.

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  6. I 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.

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    Replies
    1. The sort of person who seeks success out of others' efforts.

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  7. My 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Does he sing while he works? It might be profitable to record him.

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  8. Definitely a step up from those body building adverts.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That would be something I'd toss out.

    ReplyDelete

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