They write the songs-and share their stories
By Marty Berry, FRESNO BEE
Inside Bay
Area
WRITING A hit song is said to be more difficult than catching lightning in a
bottle, but five songwriters who have done just that recently took some time
to share their secrets. For Bonnie Hayes, her big break came when she landed
two songs on the Grammy-winning 1989 album by Bonnie Raitt, "Nick of Time."
For Eric Lowen and Dan Navarro, it was when their song "We Belong" became a
huge hit for Pat Benatar in 1984.
For Wendy Waldman, it was "Save the Best for Last," a song performed by
Vanessa Williams that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Singles chart — and
stayed there for five weeks, was nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year
and won American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' Song of the
Year Award for being the most-performed song of 1992.
For Phil Roy, it was his own performance of his song "Melt," which he
co-wrote with actor Nicolas Cage.
The five are coming to the California State University Summer Arts program
at Fresno State this month to perform and talk about their careers.
"It had a huge impact," Roy says of his breakthrough with "Melt" eight years
ago. Although Roy refers to his career as "more an indie movie than a
blockbuster," he's had the kind of success that many singer-songwriters
would envy.
While he remembers writing "Melt" — "it happened so quickly, it was very
immediate" — he didn't know it would be a hit.
"I knew I liked it, but I didn't know it would move mountains," he says with
a laugh. "Because of one song, I was headlining the Bottom Line in New York.
"My songs are heard in every country in the world," he says, as if he still
can't believe it himself. "I sold out Lincoln Center. The New York Times
said my album was one of the best two or three by an American
singer-songwriter."
For some, a hit also can breed writer's block. Hayes says her worst blocks
come after she writes a successful song.
"Even on a micro level, it happens every time," says Hayes, who also has
written songs for Cher and Bette Midler, among others. "When I had a
publishing deal, I'd have to trick myself into believing that it didn't
matter to me if the next song was good, or successful."
"It's a mysterious process," Lowen says. "You don't know it when you're
writing."
"We thought we had a hit single with the song 'Life Is Good,' but it never
happened," his partner, Navarro, says. "It ended up being the background
music for MTV and VH1 reality shows, about 25 different reality shows, which
tells me that maybe it could've been a hit song.
"We just do what we do. If you sit down and try to write a hit, there's no
indication that it will have emotional resonance, that it will connect with
people. You try to come to a writing session with your strongest game, and
some days you might feel like writing something a little quirky, or edgy,
and other days you might just want to write something real simple, put it
right between the posts. But some of my favorite songs are not hits."
Hayes says she's not looking for a hit so much as for "three chords and the
truth," which is how songwriting legend Harlan Howard ("I Fall to Pieces")
famously described good country music.
"That's my motto right now," she says. "I want something simple."
James Taylor and Carole King are two examples she cites of songwriters who
write emotionally straightforward songs, but with complicated structures and
subtle intricacies.
"Once I get the technical stuff out of the way, I get into the creative
phase. I spend a lot of time vetting my ideas, until I get what I really
feel resonates for me."
Looking for emotional resonance takes on an extra urgency for Lowen and
Navarro, in that Lowen was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, last year. There is no cure for ALS.
"I'm still looking toward the future," Lowen says, "but I'm a little more
focused. We're booked through April of next year, so I'd like to get my
health a little more stabilized for that. And I'd like to do one more
original record, and a children's record."
He's also written some songs that reflect the change his health has brought
to his life — songs such as "How Mighty Is the Silence."
"Sometimes the biggest things in life happen in silence," he says softly.
"When I was diagnosed, I was just sitting in this room with the doctor. It
changes your life, but there's no choir."
"It's every clich you can think of," Navarro says of the diagnosis. "It's
'Run for Your Life,' that show with Ben Gazzara. Ben Gazzara had a year to
live, and he went to every exotic locale, got into every scrape, meddled in
everything, had an adventure.
"That's like us. We are running for our lives. We're playing like there's no
tomorrow. We're doing all that. He's playing better than ever, on an
emotional level. If this is how you go out, I'll take it."