‘Songs you wish you’d written’ is tonight’s theme. If you are a budding Brian Wilson, then get posting and tell me about your secret hankering to be one of the great songwriters.
Bob Dylan is arguably the most influential songwriter ever, and with so many great Lennon and McCartney songs it would be hard to pin down the one you wish you’d come up with. Yesterday was voted the best song of the 20th century, but was it the one that made you wish you were Paul McCartney?
I always wanted to be one of the great Nashville songwriters like Harlan Howard or Hank Cochran. I have this fantasy of hanging out with those guys, drinking beer in Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and then going off to write something like I Fall To Pieces or Crazy.
The one song I wished I’d written was Sunday Morning Coming’ Down by Kris Kristofferson, who along with Willie Nelson was a regular at Tootsies in the 60s. How about this for an opening verse:
“Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
Then I washed my face and combed my hair
And stumbled down the stairs to meet the dayâ€
I don’t think there’s been a song that’s been written that better describes that ‘hung-over on a Sunday morning feeling sorry for yourself ‘ state of mind.
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