Customer Reviews

Song Man: A Melodic Adventure, or, My Single-Minded Approach to Songwriting

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Will Hodgkinson is an utterly charming guy - a first rate raconteur and a delight to hang with through this entertaining book.
What first appears to be naught but a first person account of someone with little talent for and less of a clue to song writing, is actually a vessel for interviews with some of the best songwriters of the mid-late 20th Century. Some of the interviews are more revealing than others; some are revealing only of interviewee (Keith Richards, Ray Davies), some also of the songwriting craft (Andy Partridge, Andrew Lloyd Webber).
That such luminaries agreed to meet and open up to Hodgkinson is evidence enough of his charm, but he charms us too, with a breezy, conversational style but also with his gall, naïveté (we don't even care if its put on or not), and affection for his friends and family (liberally laced throughout the book).
I'm inspired to return the affection - in thanks for a couple of very pleasant evenings (the perfect book for a cross country or trans-Atlantic flight!) and surprising amount - albeit mostly superficially but, so what! - of insight into the craft of songwriting (a craft I've practiced myself). A most creative approach to the subject. Hodgkinson may not be able to write a song, but he most certainly can write a book!

I've been an instrumentalist and singer for a long time and while I enjoy interpreting other people's material I would like to write songs as well. This book is full of interviews with good songwriters, from retired folkies to Andrew Lloyd Webber. There's a lot of good stuff here, ranging from warnings against letting your song go on too long, how to write for singers, writing what you know, and so on. While "Song Man" has book proposal written all over it (it whetted my appetite for more complete memoirs writtens by career songwriters), Hodgkinson is entertaining and it all comes to a satisfying conclusion.

One doesn't have to be a songwriter to appreciate Will Hodgkinson's odyssey. He does an admirable job of summing up the highs and lows of the creative process, regardless of genre. I thought _Song Man_ was particularly skilled at presenting the challenges of writing music in a way that doesn't require four years at a conservatory to appreciate.

The interviews with a diverse range of musicians are amazing. It's not a surprise that most of their advice conflicts -- that seems to be one of the book's central themes -- but I heard plenty of observations by artists that were nothing like what I would have expected.

And it's hilarious. I laughed out loud so often while reading _Song Man_ that people would stop me in public and ask about it. What a treat!

As a fan of Hodgkinsons excellent first book about learning the guitar, I was glad to find he'd lost none of his insight when graduating to something much tougher - writing a song that really touches people. On the way, he finds some of the funniest and most tragic people in the music industry. I thought the scene from Narcotics Anonymous with failed and desperate songwriter Lawrence (who I assume is an ex-star under a false name). Keef Richards agrees to help out as well, and you can't say fairer than that. Where Guitar Man was funny and self depreciating, Song Man is more about talent than skill - the mystery of what makes someone creative and how destructive that can be. Its made me listen to my favourite tunes in a compeletely different way.

Will Hodgkinson writes with a good sense of humor. Just like in his book, Guitar Man, he tells the story from the point-of-view of an ordinary guy trying to do something extraordinary for him. Great fun!