Song Club #58: Borrowed Tales
Writing songs when you have nothing to say
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At Isaac Gillespie’s Songwriter’s Circle this week1 I heard the most beautiful set of narrative lyrics. It was a tale of NYC firefighters, stunningly clear and affecting in its observations. I asked the performer about it afterwards. ‘They’re my grandfather’s stories’ he said. ’Almost word for word’.
Sometimes we don’t have our own words, and so we think we cannot write a song. In those moments, reaching for other people’s stories and other people’s words is a way to keep writing songs. Which makes it awesome, not less than.
This week, some ways to do that.
May they bear you fruit,
Lucy
‘Entry Points’
