John Fogerty says this thing is more important to musical success than being a good guitar player: “Even if your playing is kind of average, you can go far”
Refining your chops isn’t necessarily the key to attaining musical success. According to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty, the path to success actually lies in something a lot more obvious, but a lot harder to woodshed – strong songwriting.
Speaking to The Guardian, Fogerty reveals how Creedence became one of the defining rock acts of the 60s – they had a rock-solid catalogue of great tracks. “I’m a great believer in songs,” the guitarist says. “If you have enough songs, even if your playing is kind of average, you can go far.”
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In Fogerty’s opinion, artists should always focus on writing, writing, writing – even if that means 90% of your work is left on the cutting room floor. “For every song I wrote I threw 10 away,” he admits. “When you heard one of my songs, I wanted there to be no doubt it was a really good song. It sounds grandiose to say it, but I was trying to have that as my career goal.”
Considering Creedence are the second most streamed act of the 60s, just behind The Beatles, there’s certainly proof that Fogerty is on to something; cuts like Bad Moon Rising, Proud Mary and Have You Ever Seen The Sun continue to rake in listeners even six decades on.
But don’t just take Fogerty’s word for it. Other artists have also asserted the importance of songwriting over technical ability, with Aerosmith’s Joe Perry stating as such just last year. “If you spend all your time learning technique, scales and all that, you’re not going to write something new and interesting!” he told Guitarist magazine in October.
Avenged Sevenfold’s Synyster Gates has also gone on record preaching the importance of songwriting over flashy guitar playing. Speaking to 93XRadio, he pointed out the band’s 2007 track A Little Piece of Heaven: “That’s a fan favorite, that has hardly any guitar in it… That’s probably our best song. And it’s very, very little guitar work. So to me, it’s songwriting first” [via Metal Injection].
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