Studying at the feet of the greats

A song worth singing together. Laine was a singer, not the writer of these songs. But “Mule Train” and “Hell Bent for Leather” were on repeat on our family road trips, and they are what first made me want to write one of my own.

Listen for itMule Train, Rawhide, Hell Bent for Leather. In “Mule Train,” the rhythm and the whip cracks put you on the wagon, and the chorus is built to be shouted along.

Show, don’t explain. Let the picture carry the meaning, and trust the listener to arrive at it on their own.

Listen for itA Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, Visions of Johanna. The first answers its questions with a string of images and never explains them. The second builds a late-night room out of objects and sounds, and never names the feeling.

The small true thing. A Randall knife, a homegrown tomato — one exact detail that makes the whole song ring true.

Listen for itHomegrown Tomatoes, The Randall Knife, Desperados Waiting for a Train. One ordinary object carries the song. In “The Randall Knife,” the knife holds the grief and the feeling is never stated.

Say it straight. Hard feeling told without a coat of paint, so the sadness lands clean.

Listen for itWaiting Around to Die, Tecumseh Valley. Hard times told flatly, with nothing added to soften them.

Everyday words, set exactly. Ordinary language placed so precisely it turns, quietly, into poetry.

Listen for itHello in There, Sam Stone. Plain speech about growing old and lonely, and about a veteran’s fall, lands hard because the words are so simple.

Write like you’ve nothing left to protect. The honest line costs something; that’s how you know it’s right.

Listen for itSunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, Me and Bobby McGee, Help Me Make It Through the Night. A rough morning, a loss, a plain request, with nothing hidden. “Bobby McGee” holds his best-known idea, about freedom and having nothing left to lose.

Rewrite until every word has to be there. A song isn’t found, it’s earned — one draft at a time.

Listen for itHallelujah, Anthem. Cohen reportedly wrote dozens of draft verses for “Hallelujah” over several years, and “Anthem” is said to have taken about ten.