I Want You To Hurt Like I Do

The bar on songwriting is sometimes set so low that I forget what songs are capable of. So, here's a reminder:



Randy Newman, from Paul Zollo's "Songwriters on Songwriting" (highly recommended):

"I'm interested in regular stuff. Like what a guy who threads pipe does, what a carpenter does, and all the stuff they know. I like shows on television that are about things I know nothing about, like gardening. Or that guy who paints...I like hearing them talk, their accents. Like "This Old House" with Bob Vila. It's arcane to me. It's like the world, because I don't know how to do anything.
I like to know what makes people tick, what their mothers and fathers were. Why they talk the way they do; using this sort of word or that sort of word. What it all means. I've always had to listen very closely. I always have listened very closely."

Randy Newman will be playing at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco on October 17, 2008.