songwriting raze t: what makes a good song? j: i think you'll probably get a different answer to that question from everyone you ask, because like they say, beauty is in the eye of the beer holder. for me, what makes a song good or great isn't its ability to touch people, or even that it's anything anyone finds relatable or enjoyable to listen to. i think a good song — a successful piece of music — is something that fulfills a need for the writer, whatever that may be. it communicates something the artist felt a need to say. or it serves as a vehicle or a catalyst for catharsis. or it carries an idea or a series of ideas the writer was compelled to express. it works on its own terms, irrespective of what anyone else makes of it. take something like the cat_power track "names", which is this emotionally brutal, unguarded journal entry of a song that's almost physically painful to listen to. then look at "so_what" by miles_davis, which employs a musical mode instead of a chord progression as its framework. the first song is incredibly simple from a melodic and structural standpoint. it's really just a few very simple chords that are barely chords at all, played on a piano that sounds ancient and malnourished. the words do all the heavy lifting. it's about memory, and pain, and grief. the second song has no words at all. it's about sound and harmonic movement. it never stands still. both are brilliant works of art, but for different reasons, and in profoundly different ways. i think it's a tricky thing to pin down. there are songs i wish i'd written, and i can't even articulate why i think they're great outside of the understanding that they move me in some way. and i'm sure there are songs i love that are total pieces of shit from any critical songwriting perspective. but that doesn't make me love them any less. t: well, that was ... an answer. 220815 what's it to you? who go blather from