scottfrazer wrote:

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Made me laugh, just a git i cant understand the language!

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 As it happens, there are not many musicians (or composers) in world like Jarvis Cocker. He does not write or read notes, and has never learned formal composition. Since we're on the subject, he is not a particularly talented vocalist either. He does not even have good hearing. However, despite these imaginary limitations to a musical career, he has a rare ability to write fantastic pop songs. What do you need to write a perfect song?

We have asked this question to Cocker, a british song writer, on lessons learned from television shows. We talked about fame, and who he did not want to become like: Phil Collins or Mick Hucknall; and about song writers he likes, such as Albert Hammond, known for such 60's standards as "The Air That I Breathe and "When I Need You" and for vocalists he's jealous of, such as Hugh Cornwell, formerly of The Stranglers, who does not need to answer for anything because he is punk. Trying to find a formula always produces shit! As the great 60's pop minstrel Donovan said  "You only have to count to 4". You don't need to know a lot to write songs.

You could be classically talented, like David Gray, an songwriter who has sold millions of copies of "Babylon ". Or you can build a song around any idea. Echo and the Bunnymen's songwriter Ian McCullough writes song as a form of therapy. "When I'm not writing songs I'm watching game shows".
Songs make ugly things romantic. That's the power of a pop song, but in
spite of it all, it still has principles. Usually it lasts 3-4 minutes or so, has
a chorus and a refrain, and it's based on a melody, which transfers emotions to the words, so the audience can identify themselves with you.

Most of the writers I talked to agree that it begins with the music. All the parts add up to a whole. However, it takes rare talent to create pop magic. Cocker's gift comes from observation. He once fell out of a window and developed his song writing technique while he was struck in a hospital. He was placed in a room with a bunch of sick coal miners and found more inspiration in the people around him than he did by watching the stars in the sky.