http://www.geocities.com/abexile/keithintgpl.htmKeith Richards view on songwriting and 'writerblocks':
Do your songs typically begin when you find a riff?
Mm hmm. First I find a riff and a chord sequence. And if that's any good, then I start to play it with some other guys and pump it up. If that's great, then I check the attitude and the atmosphere of the track. What the hell is this putting out? There's no point in writing songs on a sheet of paper, going verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and regarding this as a song. No, it ain't. A song is music, and I'd rather start with the music and then get into the attitude of the track and put something on top of it. What are you going to put on top of it, because you could have spent months writing? I can't divorce lyrics from the music. Songwriting is a marrying of the both. To me, the easiest way is to get the track. I mean, the odd brilliant and rare occasions where a song actually presents itself to you in totality from the beginning to the end, with the bridge and the hook, is very rare.
Was "Gimme Shelter" one of those?
Yeah, "Satisfaction" was one of those, "Make No Mistake" was one of those. Those three - and that's about it - actually presented themselves in totality.
It must have been a stunning experience.
It is, but at the same time it's humbling, because you realize, "Hey, I didn't write this. I just happened to be around when it came by." People today run themselves into a corner thinking they actually created these things. I'd rather look upon myself as an antenna or some go-between. I'm just around. Songs are running around - they're all there, ready to grab. You play an instrument and pick it up. What I generally do is like, "Fingers are getting a bit soft right now. I'll go through the Buddy Holly songbook"- because I love Buddy's songs. Then I start playing 'em for half an hour. [Sings "Maybe Baby.'] "Let's try Eddie Cochrane or the Everly Brothers or a little Chuck." And after about an hour, I get fed up with other people's songs, and there's something that I'm playing of theirs that suggests something else to me, and I'll start to follow that. It'll either end up as a song or it'll end up as a disaster, and I'll get bored with it. It doesn't bother me. I never sit down and say, "Time to write a song. Now I'm going to write." To me, that would be fatal. I know other guys work in other ways. There's no one system to this. It's what's right for you. But me, I always like to sit down and play the guitar a couple of hours a day, and something will come. If something interests me, then I think, "Hey, there it is," and then I hang on to the end and follow the motherfucker. To me the important thing is recognizing something when it comes by.
The idea that you create it, again, is alien and can also fuck you up, because then it's all on your back, whether you've written something or not there. Treat it in a lighter way and say, "This is what I do." If you can write one song, you can write 900. They're there. Your method of going about that - you can either try and regiment it, make it a task, or you can make it part of your everyday life and just sit around and play and not think about writing. Play anything you want.
There's only one song in the world, and Adam and Eve wrote it. And the rest of them's variations. I'm the antenna. You just stick your finger in the air and you grab a bit of it and you go off. And that's the way to avoid writer's block, because that's what happens to people that think they actually create things. Nobody creates anything. It's there, and you just fucking grab a hold of it.
http://www.geocities.com/abexile/musician.htmAfter all these years, is it getting harder to find fresh ideas?
It's easier. I don't force them now. I used to, but I realized a long time ago that you don't write songs, you receive them. I'll start off by sitting down and playing any thing. I'll attempt a bit of Mozart at the piano, or I'll play a bit of Otis Redding o some Buddy Holly stuff. Within twenty minutes or half an hour, there's something else coming, and I'm following that, playing around with it. Some days it don' come, so I'll just carry on with the Otis Redding songbook [laughs]. It's a matter of recognition: [ducks imaginary hand grenade] "Incoming!" All you've got to do is formulate it a little and transmit it. People are too serious about writing. The writer's block theory is crap: That's only because you think you write your own songs in the first place. You think you're God and you create this masterpiece. No, you just receive and transmit. That way, you don't get into this idea of "What am I gonna write?" A lot of it is accidents: You hit a chord and you can think either 'that's wrong" or "that's interesting."
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