{"id":8902,"date":"2021-05-21T11:57:36","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T11:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/?p=8902"},"modified":"2021-05-21T12:00:06","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T12:00:06","slug":"tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/","title":{"rendered":"TIP FOR SONGWRITERS – YOU’VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO"},"content":{"rendered":"

If writers and musicians have a token bird that symbolises what they do, it is not, however much they may like it to be, a nightingale, a skylark or a peacock.<\/p>\n

It’s a magpie.<\/p>\n

We are all, while writing, scavenging around for something shiny and brilliant from the past to take back to our own little nest.<\/p>\n

In my view, there are no exceptions to this rule of creativity\u00a0 – indeed, one could argue that the greater the writer, they more he or she helps themselves to little gifts from their fellow-writers. ‘Stealing’ may seem too harsh a word to describe this process\u00a0 –\u00a0 some might prefer ‘influence’ or ‘inspiration’ – but I think it’s the right one. No one who is any good is entirely innocent of a little pick-pocketing now and then.<\/p>\n

The brilliantly talented subject of the first of my series of short videos Some Songs I Have Stolen<\/em><\/a> is a case in point. When Paul Simon returned to America from hanging out in English folk clubs in the early 1960s, he returned with a hatful of songs and tunes he learned from young folkies like Martin Carthy, the most famous of which was ‘Scarborough Fair<\/a>‘, and he weaved them into his pioneeringly original first album The Paul Simon Songbook<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Throughout his career, Paul Simon took rhythms and riffs from around the world (notably South Africa, Brazil and Cuba) and let them act as a sort of springboard into his own songs.<\/p>\n

The most perfect example of the process is one of his greatest songs ‘An American Tune’<\/a>. The melody, as is now well-known, was taken from one of the chorales in JS Bach’s St Matthew Passion<\/em><\/a>. What makes the example revealing is that Bach himself borrowed it from a hymn written in 1653 called ‘O Haupt voll Lut and Wunden’, Translated as ‘O Sacred Heart Now Wounded’<\/a> which, in its turn, used the melody of a secular song, written in around 1600 by Hans Leo Hassler, called\u00a0 ‘Mein G’m\u00fct ist mir verwirret’. And, before Paul Simon came along to give it a turn, Tchaikovsky had a go at it in his Serenade for Strings Op 48<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

So the confessions behind\u00a0Some Songs I Have Stolen<\/em> are perhaps not so shocking. But they are interesting, I think.<\/p>\n

Every week, I’m going to take one of my songs and fossick around for the influences and musical ideas that helped it along its way. It also happens to be a perfect excuse for me to talk about songwriters I love and how their songs work.<\/p>\n

And if those who watch the short videos on Facebook<\/a> and YouTube<\/a> are shocked by the acts of theft they reveal, I promise not to be too upset.<\/p>\n

After all, I’m in good company.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If writers and musicians have a token bird that symbolises what they do, it is not, however much they may like it to be, a nightingale, a skylark or a peacock. It’s a magpie. We are all, while writing, scavenging around for something shiny and brilliant from the past to take back to our own… Continue reading TIP FOR SONGWRITERS – YOU’VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1160,1153,1161,1159,1158,1156,1155,1157,861,1152,1162,1154,1163],"class_list":["post-8902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-american-tune","tag-influence","tag-js-bach","tag-paul-simon","tag-plagiarism","tag-playing-for-time","tag-saved-by-a-song","tag-singer-songwriter","tag-songs","tag-songwriting","tag-st-matthew-passion","tag-stealing-songs","tag-stolen-songs","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTIP FOR SONGWRITERS - YOU'VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO - Terence-Blacker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TIP FOR SONGWRITERS - YOU'VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO - Terence-Blacker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If writers and musicians have a token bird that symbolises what they do, it is not, however much they may like it to be, a nightingale, a skylark or a peacock. It’s a magpie. We are all, while writing, scavenging around for something shiny and brilliant from the past to take back to our own… Continue reading TIP FOR SONGWRITERS – YOU’VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terence-Blacker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-21T11:57:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-21T12:00:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Some-Songs-I-Have-Stolen.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Terence Blacker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Terence Blacker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/\",\"name\":\"TIP FOR SONGWRITERS - YOU'VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO - Terence-Blacker\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-21T11:57:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-21T12:00:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/#\/schema\/person\/fdf2412ef669de59edc2fd2cf07e4bb9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"TIP FOR SONGWRITERS – YOU’VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/\",\"name\":\"Terence-Blacker\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/#\/schema\/person\/fdf2412ef669de59edc2fd2cf07e4bb9\",\"name\":\"Terence Blacker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4a152d4af5e8e57ffc8d3ac034ca68b5a958717e8ed1a88fc1ff1ea2453c6161?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4a152d4af5e8e57ffc8d3ac034ca68b5a958717e8ed1a88fc1ff1ea2453c6161?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Terence Blacker\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/author\/terence\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"TIP FOR SONGWRITERS - YOU'VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO - Terence-Blacker","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"TIP FOR SONGWRITERS - YOU'VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO - Terence-Blacker","og_description":"If writers and musicians have a token bird that symbolises what they do, it is not, however much they may like it to be, a nightingale, a skylark or a peacock. It’s a magpie. We are all, while writing, scavenging around for something shiny and brilliant from the past to take back to our own… Continue reading TIP FOR SONGWRITERS – YOU’VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO","og_url":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/","og_site_name":"Terence-Blacker","article_published_time":"2021-05-21T11:57:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-21T12:00:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":300,"height":250,"url":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Some-Songs-I-Have-Stolen.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Terence Blacker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Terence Blacker","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/","url":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/","name":"TIP FOR SONGWRITERS - YOU'VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO - Terence-Blacker","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-05-21T11:57:36+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-21T12:00:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/#\/schema\/person\/fdf2412ef669de59edc2fd2cf07e4bb9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/tip-for-songwriters-youve-got-to-pick-a-pocket-or-two\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TIP FOR SONGWRITERS – YOU’VE GOT TO PICK A POCKET OR TWO"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/#website","url":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/","name":"Terence-Blacker","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/#\/schema\/person\/fdf2412ef669de59edc2fd2cf07e4bb9","name":"Terence Blacker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4a152d4af5e8e57ffc8d3ac034ca68b5a958717e8ed1a88fc1ff1ea2453c6161?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4a152d4af5e8e57ffc8d3ac034ca68b5a958717e8ed1a88fc1ff1ea2453c6161?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Terence Blacker"},"url":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/author\/terence\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8902"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8909,"href":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8902\/revisions\/8909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/terenceblacker.com\/New\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}