Have you ever wondered how an artist made their songs? Sometimes, when a song is just right, it feels like a miracle. The execution feels just right, it stirs all the right emotions, the construction of it is mind-blowing. Oftentimes, it can trace back to the songwriting, something that John Prine thrived in as an artist. You think of the raw honesty, the emotional complexity, and just the sheer memorability of it. A great song can last in your mind forever when it's perfect.
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However, you're typically hard-pressed to find out the anatomy of a record. Usually, it's supposed to be a mystery of sorts, to avoid the taboo and keep the songwriting sacred. However, Prine lends us a little insight to his creative process in an old 1972 interview. There, he admits that, at the end of the day, he writes for himself, "just as a pastime" as he says.
"I wanted to get down to earth and just relate like one-to-one. I got more and more into country music 'cos that was the only place where I could find any lyrics I liked," Prine explains. "You've really gotta look hard 'cos there's there's a whole lotta trash there too, but there's also some real good stuff."
John Prine Opens Up About His Creative Process As a Writer
Now that we know the 'why' behind his work, how exactly does he do it? Ultimately, he just elaborates on a core idea he has in mind. Sometimes, they become songs immediately. Other times, he revisits the well down the line to explore the idea further. But it's always about the initial inception point, to exorcise an idea from his brain and put it together.
"I've had stuff where I've had verses lying around for a long time, and what I'm waiting for is the chorus," Prine says. "There's a thread running through to tie it all in - the chorus ties in all the different situations. You put down like three different situations in three different verses with no connection - that's when you gotta find something to get them all together and that's where a chorus comes in.
"Now I'm trying to learn just how to write it using just a bridge in the middle to break it up," Prine continues. "I'll write a song, part of it in waltz time and the other part in 4/4 just to create different moods. That's why I'd like to improve the melodies on my stuff so that when there's a time that I can't get the right words, the right lines to say something to change the mood, I can use the music to say it."
