"If you don't have an idea, go mow the lawn."

[MarkRhodes]

Neil Young on the songwriting process.

“If you don’t have an idea, go mow the lawn": Follow Neil Young’s lead to demolish those frustrating songwriting barriers

[Mick-7]

Neil Young on the songwriting process - “If you don’t have an idea, go mow the lawn"

Neil must have said that a long time ago, because lawns are becoming extinct now, and Neil is very environmentally conscious, he drives a car that runs on vegetable oil.

What's the modern equivalent? "Go rearrange the rocks in your rock garden"? Actually If you're a rocker, that may be a more apt metaphor.

[Doctor Jeff]

I go work in the woodshop. Then I come back and still can’t write any songs.

Been that way for decades.

Actually, I have never written an actual song. I’ve written poetry (most of which doesn’t rhyme), and I’ve noodled around with chords, but I’ve never put the 2 together.

Being a narcissist, I think I probably could write songs if I put my mind to it. (Just like I think I could write a great novel if I could get past 10 pages of the first chapter.)

Maybe after I retire I will move into my “songwriting frenzy phase.”

[Doctor Jeff]

Neil of course was and is an incredible songwriter. If he had only written Harvest Moon, IMO, he would be remembered as one of the greats.

There have to be as many approaches to songwriting as there are songwriters. There are the mystics who depend upon inspiration, and the workhorses who just start writing and work it til they have a finished product, and the collaborationists, who start with a fragment of an idea and let their fellow band members contribute until it’s complete (REM comes to mind here).

Neil seems to me to be a combination of someone who lets the spirit strike him, but steadily works his ideas until they come to fruition.

Interesting to speculate why so many songwriters do their best work very young, with a falloff later in their career. Why would the muse strike them at one time, and not later?

That said—there are quite a few songwriters still capable of great stuff later in their career. I haven’t followed Neil’s work recently to be honest. He put out quite a few clinkers in his mid-career. But Leonard Cohen for instance…Bob Dylan to some extent…Lucinda Williams (who didn’t hit her stride until her 40’s)…Mark Knopfler…

[emanresu]

I was kinda hoping that this thread would be left empty... just to make the point stronger.

But whatevs. We need down time, happy time, chill time, hard time.. all kinds of times to.. achieve something in the end. What exactly?
A new tune, perhaps?

[Doctor Jeff]

I read today that Neil is playing a free concert in Ukraine in the near future.