Mike Errico - Music, Lyrics, and Life: A Field Guide for the Advancing Songwriter

Kevin Hicks, Hal Brooks, Jessica Helfand, Bronwen Hruska, Jake Schwartz, Kelly Corrigan, Ed Lichty, Evan Stanley, Andy Barzvi, Bill Washabaugh, John Devore, Adam Sternbergh, Amanda Petrusich, Ben Ratliff, Marat Berenstein, Matt Wang, David Schmittgens, Marc Plotkin, Jamie Siegel, David Staller, Kathleen Kennon, Stephen Brown-Fried, Dan Charnas, Greg Erickson, Ilene Donin, the good people at Books Are Magic, Bob McGrory, Laura Van Wie McGrory, Rebecca Lemov, Alex Schuh, Darin Strauss, Paul Giamatti, Maggie Rogers, Elyse Cheney, Jeb Brown, Tom Revelle, Nick Sansano, Al Coppola, Michael Blume, Paul Leo, Cyrus T. Elk, Ani Klang, Nick Cianci, Kate Yeager, Gabriella De La Cruz, Will Zesiger, Steph Butchko, Sofia DAngelo, Julie Hanse, the choir on Heres to the End of the World, Claire Hawkins, Kyle Duke, Jack Schneider, Chloe Gasparini, all Eclectics everywhere, Brett Castro, Madeline Boreham, Cameron Franklin, Hannah Gross, readers of Tallboy magazine (its all your fault), Pete Ganbarg, Brian Reed, Vivek J. Tiwary, Hana Elion, JJ Mitchell, Khaya Cohen, Hans Bilger, Sarah Solovay, Molly Kirschenbaum, Ben Lapidus, Matt Nathanson, Bob Power, Tim Pattison, Joe DAmbrosio, Josie Carrero, Machan Taylor, Linda Lorence-Critelli, Terry Tompkins, Jacob Slichter, Cynthia Kaplan, Brian Long, Molly Neuman, Jonatha Brooke, Stein Bjelland, Juliann Garey, Dan Freeman, Jonathan Bernstein, Susan Misner, Matt Morrissey, Kenny Gardner, the faculty and staff at New York Universitys Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, Yale University, and Wesleyan University.

And my students, who I root for every step of the way.

Heres a chunk of my bookshelf.

Each of these titles helped shape the thoughts in this book. There are moreoh God, so many morebut this list will hold you for a bit.

Abdurraqib, Hanif. They Cant Kill Us until They Kill Us

Azerrad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life

Ball, David. Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays

Brennan, Ian, and Tunde Adebimpe. Silenced by Sound: The Music Meritocracy Myth

Brookfield, Stephen D. The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom

Bryson, Bill. A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

Byrne, David. How Music Works

Cage, John. Silence: Lectures and Writing,

Cain, Susan. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Cant Stop Talking

Cameron, Julia. The Artists Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity

Chee, Alexander. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me

DiFranco, Ani. No Walls and the Recurring Dream: A Memoir

Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life

Dyer, Geoff. But Beautiful: A Book about Jazz

Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Hickey, Dave. Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy

Hindman, Jessica Chiccehitto. Sounds Like Titanic

Hoagland, Tony, with Kay Cosgrove. The Art of Voice: Poetic Principles and Practice

Hyde, Lewis. A Primer for Forgetting: Getting Past the Past

Kagge, Erling. Silence in the Age of Noise

Karr, Mary. The Art of Memoir

King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Klinkenborg, Verlyn. Several Short Sentences About Writing

Kurtz, Glenn. Practicing

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird

Lanier, Jaron. Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

Lanier, Jaron. Who Owns the Future?

Levin, Janna. Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space

Light, Alan. The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and the Unlikely Ascent of Hallelujah

Manson, Mark. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Martin, Steve. Born Standing Up

McPhee, John. Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process

Murakami, Haruki. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Nelson, Maggie. Bluets

Nunez, Sigrid. The Friend

Odell, Jenny. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

Pattison, Pat. Writing Better Lyrics

Petrusich, Amanda. Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the Worlds Rarest 78rpm Records

Pirsig, Robert. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

Questlove, with Ben Greenman. Creative Quest

Ruefle, Mary. Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures

Sagan, Carl. Contact

Saunders, George. The Braindead Megaphone

Smith, Patti. Just Kids

Smith, Zadie. Swing Time

Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost

Thompson, Derek. Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction

Tweedy, Jeff. Lets Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc.

Vuong, Ocean. On Earth Were Briefly Gorgeous

Watts, Alan. The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety

Yagoda, Ben. The B-Side: The Death of Tin Pan Alley and the Rebirth of the Great American Song

Full-length interviews, related chapters, playlists, articles, and other gems are available at my website, www.errico.com. If further immersion is what youre looking for, Id check there firstthe people I spoke to are endlessly fascinating, whether or not I was able to include them here.

Abdurraqib, Hanif. They Cant Kill Us until They Kill Us. Columbus, OH: Two Dollar Radio, 2017.

Aguayo, Rafael. Dr. Deming: The American Who Taught the Japanese about Quality. New York: Fireside Books, 1990.

Amazon Staff. Live from Las Vegas, its re:MARS 2019. Amazon, June 2, 2019. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/innovation/live-from-las-vegas-its-re-mars-2019

AnnaOutdoors. 10 Tips for Car Living. March 7, 2014. https://annaoutdoors.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/tips-for-living-out-of-a-car

Ball, David. Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983.

Benjamin, Walter. Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings. New York: Schocken Books, 1986.

Bergler, Edmund. Does Writers Block Exist? American Imago 7, no. 1 (1950): 4354. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26301237

Bradbury, Ray. Zen in the Art of Writing. Santa Barbara, CA: Joshua Odell Editions, 1996.

Brennan, Ian, and Tunde Adebimpe. Silenced by Sound: The Music Meritocracy Myth. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2019.

Brookfield, Stephen D. The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006.

Brooklyn Museum. Exhibit, Hip-Hop Nation: Roots, Rhymes, and Rage, Brooklyn, New York, September 22, 2000December 31, 2000. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/exhibitions/746