Advice on good books?

[nomiyah]

Last April I was in Hollywood for the ASCAP convention. Jimmy Webb was a featured performer. He blew away everyone playing hit after hit and playing them all so well he could have cut a live CD on the spot. I didn't even appreciate him before then. http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/event ... 02d/02.jpg

[jh]

I keep saying this, but I think the best book on songwriting (that I´ve read) is How Music Really Works. http://www.howmusicreallyworks.com/ To me it´s like the "Holy Grail of Songwriting". Many songwriters can write hits, but they can´t explain how they do it. My experience have been that many songwriting books are talking about the process but this book is showing you the process. When it explains what works, it also explains why it works. By the way, you can read over 400 pages of that book for free on the homepage. I wish that someone would have told me about it earlier.btw. Hey Mazz, I ordered that book you told me about.

[jchitty]

Quote:Quote:"Someone left the cake out in the rain....." Chits,Interesting trivia. Q. What do the following songs have in common?"Wichita Lineman""All I know""Galveston""Worst That Could Happen""By the Time I Get to Phoenix""MacArthur Park" ... melting cake song. A. All were written by Jimmy Webb!!! Yep, Dogs....very good list there....and we can also add, "Up, Up and Away" (My Beautiful Balloon Song)

[edteja]

I confess... I left the cake out in the rain. But the screener said it would be okay and was appropriate for the listing. That is a good book, although some of the whining about the relationship with Johnny Rivers didn't make much sense, or hold up on the third go around. But the MUSIC stuff is great.

[gitarrero]

since about a year I'm reading LOTS of books - on the taxi page are some good recommendations ("books we love"). I read both musical and business related books.

[nomiyah]

The most useful book on songwriting I've read is "Writing Better Lyrics" by Pat Pattison. He has some great practical methods. Most books seem to say the same thing over and over. But his book I use almost as much as my thesaurus.

[nomiyah]

[quote author=nomiyah board=songwriters thread=1189637859 post=1189665320]Last April I was in Hollywood for the ASCAP convention. Jimmy Webb was a featured performer. He blew away everyone playing hit after hit and playing them all so well he could have cut a live CD on the spot. I didn't even appreciate him before then. http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/event ... 02d/02.jpg[/quote}Don't mean to go for overkill on the subject, but I remembered a cool little story about Jimmy Webb. When I saw him perform at the ASCAP event, it was a songwriter-in-the-round thing and each one would tell a story about the song before they sang it. When it was Jimmy's turn, he told about going to college and discovering the practice rooms in the music department. Each room had a piano. He spent many hours there as was starting out writing songs. One day someone put up signs that said "No Songwriting". He said he wrote this song there and started playing "Up, up in my beautiful balloon".

[tedsingingfox]

And for the past couple of weeks, I've been reading and rereading (over and over again) Rob Brezsney's "Pronoia (...is the antidote for Paranoia". Amazing, funny, uplifting and provocative. From the heart of a true poet.in.the.works. This book deserves to be taught in schools across the world. Check it out.Ted

[tedsingingfox]

Although ROB actually put the closing parenthesis on HIS version of the book title... Ted

[edteja]

Quote:Although ROB actually put the closing parenthesis on HIS version of the book title... TedAn opening parenthesis is good enough for us Ted....