I asked for a book called "Songwriters on Songwriting" by Paul Zollo for Christmas. The book a massive 730 page brick of interviews with most of the greatest songwriters of the last 50 years.

It is not a "how to" book. Rather, it is a peek into how the minds of great songwriters work and what combination of stimuli converge to cause each songwriter to create. It is probably the most inspiring book on songwriting I have ever read. More on this book another time.

So it's Christmas Night and I am reading the interview with Randy Newman. He is talking about how he writes from the point of view of different characters; a technique he invented called "the untrustworthy narrator". His characters tell it like they see it. Sometimes they shade the truth. Sometimes they are totally naive. They always have some sort of agenda.

By now it is 11:30pm and I come up with this line "don't call me yellow". I'm not sure where it came from but it      reminds me of old western movies with Lee Van Cleff and it sounds cool! It feels cool. I think "Somebody             who says things like that usually tries to say 'no one understands ME'" So then I scribble down "you've             never been here". Then things started to flow. Justify myself! "Besides, I've never run out on anything that         didn't deserve it".

Hey. I'm going to use that "don't call me" motif for my structure. But Hmm. Don't call me what? Small,          cowardly  people try to look bigger by spewing out colorful, empty threats.....and they are so sensitive that         they will rise to any perceived criticism "I'll CUT your HEART out!" Ha ha. Yeah! "Don't call me subtle". I am         so superior. I bet you wouldn't even know what I am talking about.  I will avenge myself by...insulting you             without you even  knowing it. Some 'arcane' (I always liked that word. I heard it when someone applied it to         Dennis Miller's comedy) obscurish wit. Yeah mon. I can feel the irony oozing out now.

   
But it's not over. People still don't respect me. They think I am this snivelling little weakiling. I'm not brittle.           'Don't call me brittle......... Cuz YOU'LL never break me.'  Broken like little pieces of glass. Like a bunch of             red pieces of glass on the ground from a broken heart. That's what they used to use to make stained  glass windows these little pieces of glass and they sewed them all together with lead to kind of put it all back together... Cool. I'll make a stained glass window out of my shattered heart. Then everyone can see in  and  see what you did to me and they won't blame me anymore. They will know it was you and I'll FINALLY  get  some sympathy.

So that was the end of the first stream of conciousness. The flow felt good. The lyrics felt solid and powerful to me. I booted up my studio and started a little sketch recording and sent it to my buddy.

I took stock. I had a structure with from those "Don't call me" statements ending with either full or semi rhymed words. I basically had half a song. What was I going to do for the other half? This half was quite powerful. I hope I can find that groove again tomorrow. I need to find another cool "Don't call me" statement. I will finish it tomorrow.

Next day, said buddy phoned me up and said "that song you sent was great. It was funny. Angry."  I told him a bit about how some of it came about and he laughed and said "Gee. Don't call me bitter or anything".

I said "that's awesome. I'm going to use that".

So "Don't call me bitter" launched the second verse and launched me back into character. I will spare you the details of the rest of the song. But I will say that I know I broke the "don't call me" pattern by the second line of the second verse. So let me explain.

I felt, number one, I had already firmly established a solid pattern with the "Don't call me " statements. It could stand some variation. Number two, I loved the "Don't watch me shiver" line and it was still a statement which started with "Don't". So I used it and then went back to the pattern by using "don't call me brittle" as a refrain for the second verse.

I hope this was illuminating and somewhat entertaining. It will give you new ears to go back and listen to "Stained Glass Window " again.