{"id":11078,"date":"2021-05-10T07:30:14","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T11:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stephenbarkley.com\/?p=11078"},"modified":"2020-11-28T17:09:24","modified_gmt":"2020-11-28T22:09:24","slug":"how-to-write-one-song-jeff-tweedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephenbarkley.com\/2021\/05\/10\/how-to-write-one-song-jeff-tweedy\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write One Song | Jeff Tweedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0593183525\/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=meditonezeki-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=0593183525&amp;linkId=51f4427cfa7c19a2bf62ed8cda94076a\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11079 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stephenbarkley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/81Ax1hz6AEL-e1606601184794.jpg?resize=200%2C293&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"The cover of Tweedy's How to Write One Song\" width=\"200\" height=\"293\" \/><\/a>The title eases the pressure: <em>How to Write <\/em>One <em>Song<\/em>. Not an album\u2019s worth, just one. In reality, this short and winsome book by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy is full of motivation and practical advice to make the creative process part of your everyday life.<\/p>\n<p>Tweedy is passionate about songwriting.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[S]ongs, to me, are much more like individual thoughts than other works of art are. They\u2019re hard to hold on to\u2014airlike and ephemeral. They pass through time. They\u2019re here, then gone . . . Yet they\u2019re portable, they can linger as a memory, and, even crazier, they can just pop into our minds for no discernible reason. Other art forms like paintings and books have physical shapes and permanence, but how many of them can you hum a few bars of? (2)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>His approach to lyricism is fascinating. He uses a variety of techniques to inspire his creativity, from leafing through the gnostic gospels to matching nouns within his field of vision to verbs associated with another domain. The title of his song, \u201cMuzzle of Bees,\u201d is the fruit of one of these association techniques. Meaning attaches itself over time.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the most important advice Tweedy has to share is relevant for any passion: just do it. Stuck with it and make it a regular daily practice. Over time, the cream will rise to the top.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re like me\u2014someone who has dabbled in songwriting but gets stuck in the details and self-doubt\u2014<em>How to Write One Song<\/em> is a breath of life from one of the greatest songwriters of our time.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"hangingindent\">Tweedy, Jeff. <em>How to Write One Song<\/em>. Penguin Random House, 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The title eases the pressure: How to Write One Song. Not an album\u2019s worth, just one. In reality, this short and winsome book by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy is full of motivation and practical advice to make the creative process part of your everyday life. Tweedy is passionate about songwriting. [S]ongs, to me, are much more like individual thoughts than other works of art are. They\u2019re hard to hold on to\u2014airlike and ephemeral. They pass through time. They\u2019re here, then gone . . . Yet they\u2019re portable, they can linger as a memory, and, even crazier, they can just pop into our minds for no discernible reason. Other art forms like paintings and books have physical shapes and permanence, but how many of them can you hum a few bars of? (2) His approach to lyricism is fascinating. He uses a variety of techniques to inspire his creativity, from leafing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1145],"tags":[2673,163,2877,3082],"class_list":["post-11078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-resource","tag-jeff-tweedy","tag-music","tag-penguin-random-house","tag-song-writing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Write One Song | Jeff Tweedy - Stephen Barkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/stephenbarkley.com\/2021\/05\/10\/how-to-write-one-song-jeff-tweedy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Write One Song | Jeff Tweedy - Stephen Barkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The title eases the pressure: How to Write One Song. Not an album\u2019s worth, just one. In reality, this short and winsome book by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy is full of motivation and practical advice to make the creative process part of your everyday life. Tweedy is passionate about songwriting. [S]ongs, to me, are much more like individual thoughts than other works of art are. They\u2019re hard to hold on to\u2014airlike and ephemeral. They pass through time. They\u2019re here, then gone . . . Yet they\u2019re portable, they can linger as a memory, and, even crazier, they can just pop into our minds for no discernible reason. Other art forms like paintings and books have physical shapes and permanence, but how many of them can you hum a few bars of? (2) His approach to lyricism is fascinating. 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