Songwriting has been something I was inspired to take up by the great singer-songwriters of the 60s. Dylan, Donovan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and a bit later, and most particularly by Richard Thompson.
I wrote my very first songs in 1971 although they were pretty dire. In 1972 and 1973 I produced some stuff I still think is ok although it feels like someone else wrote it.
My last song of that era was “The Ship” written on 18th November 1973 – read about it here.
Then I more or less gave up songwriting. I wrote a single song in the 80s, “The Young Man’s Song”, and a single one in the 90s, “Devil’s Diamond”. I was playing lots through both decades but not my own stuff.
Then in 2005 I started again and haven’t looked back. I have about 40 songs in total now that are complete enough to perform and I’m still at it.
One of the best received songs on my People Watching CD is Monica Is Taller Than Me. I wrote a blog post with some info on the writing of the song a few years back and a minimally updated version can be viewed below. This includes a very early demo version of the song and […]
There’s a bit of a story about this song as it resulted from a songwriting technique I learned from Christine Collister in 2013 at Moniack Mhor near Loch Ness. I was attending my first ever songwriting workshop and Steve Tilston and Christine were our guides. Steve concentrated on the musical side of things and Christine […]
Sometimes I will write a song with a different well known song as its starting point. I don’t mean copying it or ripping it off in any way but more so taking inspiration from it. Those of you who know my song “Marching On” may not be entirely surprised to learn it was prompted by […]
Five String Hammer was written in June 2017 at Halsway Manor in Somerset by Monica Shepherd and Tony Burt. It’s an interesting example of a co-written song so I’ll try to give a bit of insight of how it came about. I’d never written a song with another person until I started attending songwriting workshops […]
Today is the 18th November and is the birthday of my good friend Pete Bath. It’s not so much that Pete’s birthday means so very much to me, though I wish him the very best, but what tended to happen in my life on his birthday. I met Pete in September 1970 when he left […]