Songwriters on Songwriting: Randy Newman

I wrote my first song when I was 14 years old. Over the years, I’ve composed hundreds of songs. It was that interest — music — that led me to take a year off from pursuing a doctorate and led me down the circuitous path that has been the rest of my life.

I don’t write songs nowadays, more focused on screenplays and writing about writing. But I can’t help but think at least some of who I am as a writer derives from all that time studying and composing songs.

Which is why I say that one of my favorite ‘screenwriting’ books is “Songwriters on Songwriting,” a collection of interviews by Paul Zollo with some of the great songwriters of our time, from Mose Allison to Frank Zappa. For what are songs but stories?

Each day this week at this time, I will post insights from a songwriter about their craft in the hope their words may inspire us as writers.

Today: Randy Newman, singer-songwriter, arranger, and composer of film scores.

Your first album came out in 1968. Do you think that after all these years you have a better understanding of how to get in touch with the source of ideas?

My first advice would be to be tough enough to hang in there… You’ve got to hang in there. And fight it… Sometimes you just put anything down. The other day I was talking to Lenny Waronker, and he was talking about Prince He said, “That’s all he ever does: he works.” And I’m thinking, “Jesus Christ, I get out so little, I wonder if I could write a song a day.” So I did it, and I never listened to it again. But I just went through it and didn’t think, or let myself exercise my critical faculties. And it probably isn’t too bad. I did it again the next day, just to see if I could work that way.

That isn’t a bad idea for people… Don’t let the critic become bigger than the creator. Don’t let it strangle you. Go ahead and say, “I saw this girl / She was the best girl in the world.” Let it go. Put a string of stuff together. Go ahead.

And then — I can’t always follow this advice myself — and then futz with it. But make something happen. Write something down. Do something. Go ahead. And stay there. Stay there four hours. Three hours, four hours. And good things will happen.

“Don’t let the critic become bigger than the creator. Don’t let it strangle you.”

Ah, VON: Voices Of Negativity. They never go away. You have to learn to live with them. Your Creator must be bigger than your Critic. What practical approach can you use to achieve that?

“Write something down. Do something. Go ahead.”

Take the Zero Draft approach: Put words down on paper. That way you have something. And something is almost always better than nothing.

“And stay there. Stay there four hours. Three hours, four hours. And good things will happen.”

Often it’s just keeping your ass on chair for a sustained period of time working which will result in favorable creative results. Believe it: If you do that, good things will happen.

We may think of Randy Newman for his sardonic and wry tunes, but here is a beautiful love song he wrote called “Marie”:

What’s your favorite Randy Newman song?

For the rest of the Songwriters on Songwriting series, go here.