Eddy Raven: Bring Me Hit Songs

Living life to its fullest, experiencing a myriad of emotions and then putting those feelings into words and music others can relate to is what makes a songwriter successful. Few people are more adept at it than Eddy Raven.Living life to its fullest, experiencing a myriad of emotions and then putting those feelings into words and music others can relate to is what makes a songwriter successful. Few people are more adept at it than Eddy Raven.

His song “Thank God for Kids” was a big hit for the Oak Ridge Boys and went on to be come an anthem for parents everywhere. Raven tunes such as “Touch the Morning” and “Country Green” were made popular by country veteran Don Gibson.

Through the years Raven has proven himself adept at penning hits for himself and others, and has also shrewdly selected other writers tunes and turned them into hits for himself. Such Raven chart-climbers as the Dennis Linde tune “I’m Gonna Get You,” Gary Scruggs’ “Right Hand Man” and Keith Stegall’s “You’re Playing Hard To Forget” indicate that Raven has an ear for a good song when it’s pitched to him.

Unlike some writer/artists who say they have trouble writing on the road, Raven says some of his best ideas come while out on tour.

“I have a lot of ideas on the road,” he said. “I have probably got more songs ideas stored up right now than I’ve ever had. I’ve just not been able to sit down and finish them up. But I’ve written a lot on the road. “Sometimes a Lady” was written on the road. “You Should’ve Been Gone By Now” was finished up on the road. I think my best ideas come from the road.”

As a songwriter who is also a successful recording artist, Raven has had to learn to set priorities.

“It’s a real problem for me because I don’t have time to address all the issues in my life right now. I’ve got to prioritize,” he commented. “However, I know as a songwriter that I’m only as good as my last song. And I’ve been lucky; I don’t know any other artist in town who’s been luckier than I am with songs.”

Though many artists who are strong songwriters refuse to record other writer’s material, or are quick to record one of their tunes over someone else’s, Raven said when it comes down to choosing between one of his tunes and one written by another writer, he’ll record the other writers song.

“I’ve had to say ‘okay I can cut my song or I can cut this song I didn’t write,’” the writer muses. “Well if I don’t cut the other writer’s song, then it’s a double bullet because not only do you risk missing the hit on it yourself, but you run the risk of someone else recording it and having the hit on it.”

Though he vows to never pass up a hit no matter who wrote it, as a songwriter himself, he obviously enjoys seeing one of his own tunes hit the top of the charts. To have a song hit the top of the charts, you have to write it first and Raven admits to having not written as much in the past year.

“Being a songwriter, songwriting is my first love. It always has been and probably always will be, but I haven’t written as much this year as I should,” he confesses. “I’ve been going through a lot of traumatic things with my mother’s death in December ’86 and Don Gant’s death in March ’87. Career-wise, it’s been the biggest time of my life and the most successful years of my life, but personally they’ve been the most traumatic and trying times.”

Songwriters’ tunes obviously reflect the joys and sorrows of their personal lives and although Raven acknowledges that is a natural process, he says it’s a situation songwriters should be wary of as well.

“I found I’ve had to watch myself,” Raven says candidly, “because when a songwriter goes through a personal tragedy he’ll start writing about it because he needs to get it out of his system and sometimes that’s a safety valve for a person.

“But you have to be careful. You have to write what you feel and you have to write reality, but sometimes you over react. Sometimes if you start writing about your personal tragedies, nobody wants to hear it.

“For example, I found myself wanting to write songs about Don Gant (Nashville producer and long-time friend) and how dare they not recognize how important he was and how dare Nashville not appreciate what he did – and you know nobody wanted to hear that but me. And that’s what you have to watch. I saw that and I wrote things down and I decided I had to back away from it. I still want to write those songs, but I want to let it temper down a bit and calm down to where I can write a normal song, something that makes a difference to somebody.”

The introspection and dedication with which Raven approaches his craft come from years of work in a field he passionately loves. The Louisiana native began penning tunes at an early age and performing around the bayou country where he was raised.

“My style is just Eddy Raven,” he said. “It’s a combination of all kinds of influences – blues, country and sometimes an island feel. There are also underlying Cajun influences. I grew up listening to a lot of different music and I think it’s all in there.”

He credits some of Nashville’s greatest tunesmiths with helping shape him as a songwriter during his early days with Acuff-Rose Publishing.

“Mickey Newbury was one of my major influences,” he says. “I also learned a lot from John D. Loudermilk and Wesley Rose.

“Wesley was an administrator and he was a strong-willed person. He taught me a lot and I have always loved him. He was a big part of my career for a long time and he taught me that if you take care of a song and the music, if you write the best possible song you can, everything else will happen. The awards will come and the money will come if you believe in yourself and stick to it.”

One of the gifted songwriters Raven has high praise for is his frequent co-writer Frank Meyers.

“I can write with Frank and we can argue about something and it’s not a problem,” Raven reveals. “We agree and we disagree, but we always do what’d best for the song.

“There are some writers you’ll write with who do what’s best for them and not the song. They’ll have a great line, but it doesn’t fit the song and it’s like putting a tutu on a 6’8″ lineman. It doesn’t fit.”

Raven says he thinks the out of town writers who find success in Nashville are the ones who take time to get a feel for the city and spend time in Nashville getting to know other songwriters and how the creative process works here.

“Some people who would spend days on an opening in pop music, come in and expect to knock out six songs in a day, like this is simple music. That’s wrong.”

Raven definitely doesn’t believe in forcing or rushing the creative process. He says he basically starts writing a song from a title or a line, and sometimes it takes a long time for the tune to fully develop.

“I’ve been writing a song called “Love and Other Childhood Diseases” for 20 years,” he admits. “I used part of that idea for an album titled Love and Other Hard Times. It’s a great idea and I’ve got it written, but not the way it should be.”

Raven said he once wrote a song because someone told him they didn’t think he could use the word ‘chemistry’ in a song. He proved them wrong and the result was a beautiful tune he recorded early in his career titled “Free To Be.”

One Raven tune that took awhile to develop, but was definitely worth the wait, was “Thank God for Kids.”

“I was coming back from North Carolina with Johnny Duncan,” Raven remembers. “We were coming back from doing a show and we stopped in the Smokies and pulled off on the side of the road and there were these kids running up and down the side of the mountain, playing at the rest area. Johnny said ‘look at them kids up there’ and I said ‘yeah thank God for kids’. And he said ‘that’s a great idea for a song – you ought to write that’.”

Raven said he jotted the idea down and when he got home it sat on his desk for months before he finally finished it with a little help from his son Ryan who came into his office one day with his little plastic guitar.

“he said ‘what are you trying to do Daddy?’ and I said ‘I’m trying to write a song.’ He said ‘oh good, can I help?’ I said ‘sure, what do you want to write about?’ So he got his guitar and sat next to the microphone and said ‘well I want to write about Mickey Mouse.’ Well I didn’t know anything about Mickey Mouse except Annette Funicello and the Mousketeers. I said ‘who else do you want to write about?’ and he said ‘Big Bird.’

“So he sat there a few minutes and said ‘I’ll come back.’ Well he never came back, but he’d given me the idea for the song. All at once when he walked out of the room I looked down and there was the title “Thank God for Kids.” And I realized how the song should open.”

When it comes to songwriting success, Raven says it’s hard for him to share any words of wisdom.

“You can’t give sound advice in a business that has no rules and no boundaries,” he explains his reasoning. “It’s a one on one situation and each one is different.”

It’s getting late in the afternoon and as enjoyable as the conversation with Raven has been, it’s time to pack up the recorder. There’s time for one more question and the final one seems obvious. For a talented individual who has achieved success both as a singer and a songwriter, for which would he most like to be remembered.

“If there’s a way to be remembered as both that’s fine, but that’s getting greedy,” he says with a smile. “I would like to be remembered as the ultimate songwriters’ friend. I think the ultimate songwriters’ friend is a guy who can record other songs and does record outside songs, but can also write his own songs.

“I think new songwriters are the life of our industry. I just hope the new writers continue to come and continue to send me good songs,” he continues, adding that he feels it’s important for artists to thank songwriters. “As artists sometimes we don’t take time to say thanks and it’s not because we don’t mean to, we’re just stupid and forget. But the best way to really say thanks is to continue to cut the songs.”