"I never sit down and write. I just sorta let things form in my brain"
About this Quote
Mose Allison makes artistry sound like loafing, and that’s exactly the point. “I never sit down and write” isn’t a denial of craft so much as a quiet flex: the work happens offstage, in the long simmer of attention. For a musician who lived in the pocket between jazz sophistication and blues plainspokenness, the line reads like a manifesto against the romantic image of the tortured composer hunched over manuscript paper. Allison’s persona was always a little sideways - amused, dry, suspicious of grand gestures. Here, he undercuts the myth of inspiration without turning creation into a productivity ritual.
The subtext is discipline disguised as ease. “Let things form in my brain” suggests a kind of internal jam session: motifs, punchlines, chord changes, and observations accumulating through listening, living, and playing. It’s improvisation’s worldview applied to songwriting. Jazz isn’t built on the sanctity of the page; it’s built on the player’s capacity to hear structure in real time. Allison’s songs often feel conversational, like he’s talking you into the truth with a smirk. That casualness is engineered.
Context matters: Allison came up when authenticity was policed in American music - blues had its purity tests, jazz had its gatekeepers, pop had its factories. By refusing the “sit down and write” narrative, he sidesteps all of it. He positions composition as something organic, almost inevitable, which protects the music from sounding “made.” The line is a reminder that effort doesn’t always announce itself; sometimes it hides inside the cool.
The subtext is discipline disguised as ease. “Let things form in my brain” suggests a kind of internal jam session: motifs, punchlines, chord changes, and observations accumulating through listening, living, and playing. It’s improvisation’s worldview applied to songwriting. Jazz isn’t built on the sanctity of the page; it’s built on the player’s capacity to hear structure in real time. Allison’s songs often feel conversational, like he’s talking you into the truth with a smirk. That casualness is engineered.
Context matters: Allison came up when authenticity was policed in American music - blues had its purity tests, jazz had its gatekeepers, pop had its factories. By refusing the “sit down and write” narrative, he sidesteps all of it. He positions composition as something organic, almost inevitable, which protects the music from sounding “made.” The line is a reminder that effort doesn’t always announce itself; sometimes it hides inside the cool.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|
More Quotes by Mose
Add to List
