By Eric Friedmann

The word "songwriter" is a hairy one. One may think of the "singer-songwriter" a la James Taylor or Jewel or Dave Matthews, the legendary "songwriting team" a la Lennon & McCartney or Lieber & Stoller, iconic national treasures like Steven Foster, or your mulletted downstairs neighbor with the BC Rich working out his new 'song' for your enjoyment about half an hour after last call.

Wolfy Mozart was essentially a songwriter, underappreciated and marginalized during his lifetime. Just look at him now. Antonio Vivaldi, also one of the world's most beloved songwriters, was considered a profound mediocrity during his lifetime by most people, died in crippling poverty, and his music fell into obscurity until the beginning of the 20th century. Now you can scarcely go a week without hearing "The Four Seasons" being piped into your favorite elevator. Some might suggest that he is still the standard bearer for profound musical hackery, and that he really only wrote one piece and played it over and over again. But that's for the enlightened musical pundits to bandy about until the wee hours and beyond our scope here.

One undeniable reality of songwriting, and it's not a happy one, is that the quality of a song is only truly measurable by the passage of time. Another one, and I'm sure you've heard it a thousand times, is that in order to write a good song you need to first write a hundred bad ones. Really bad ones. The powers that be (thanks Deb!) have tapped me to write on the subject of songwriting, I suppose because someone somewhere thinks I do it right. For that I'm grateful, and following installments will be something of a view into my toolbox. As of this introductory writing I am not a financially successful songwriter. I have a dumb day job which I dream of quitting. But as I keep writing and recording and playing, more and more people come up and say "I just love so and so song." So you just never know.

In the meantime I'm excited to babble about all this, and hope you find it at least entertaining and maybe even helpful. Dare I say inspirational? Probably not...

Next time I'll go on and on about what I'll call "The Bolt From The Blue," and why I'd love to pick Celine Dion's nose.

Eric Friedmann is a San Francisco-based songwriter and frontman of his band Eric Friedmann and the Lucky Rubes. In his spare time from 9-5 he dreams about quitting his job.