Gunner
I am the guy who has updated the recording sessions from mid 73 thru to The River. PonyBoy is my boss and designer, lately I have researched and rewritten those pages. I will get to the turn of the century soon, after I get past BITUSA. You have the picture of his prolific songwriting, I have never seen anything like Bruce Springsteen.
I have made a special effort to consolidate the history of each song, especially the ones that are worked on over time. The Darkness songs he completed on The River have their full history with them. You will also see the name of the song worked on in the session; for instance, he did not use the titles Meeting Across the River or Factory until the very last sessions before the album, so most of the takes read "The Heist", and for the latter, "Come On Let's Go Tonight and The Factory Song. I do not rewrite or modify history to make it look good.
The most amazing thing I have learned I cannot write in the pages, it is how he works. His method is, first he thinks of a song title, then he writes the music, and teaches it to the band. The lyrics is the hard part, sometimes it takes months, but he keeps on hammering away. He gets little credit for the incredible music he writes, and the job he does as a bandleader. I listen to him teaching them a new song, calling out the chords and changes, it is amazing what they all do together.
Honestly, it took months of research to do the pages I have so far, so please be patient. There is no shortcut.
Remember
1. Title
2. Music
3. Words
he picks words that create images in his head, and rides the wave. When he's singing "Dying in the Street" he's just getting carried away with his song. The reason why his music is so great is he creates those images for us too.
See i got carried away too.
Dave
tillywilly