"There aren't any rules, as far as anything-and that applies especially to writing songs, whatever gets the point across. So you're just kind of brought up to feel-in any field, if you say you can do it, do it. There it is"
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It sounds like a manifesto, but it’s really a permission slip delivered in Guy Clark’s plainspoken Texas cadence: stop asking for a hall pass. “There aren’t any rules” isn’t the lazy shrug of someone who can’t be bothered with craft; it’s the working songwriter’s refusal to let etiquette masquerade as truth. Clark came up in a tradition where people fetishize authenticity and police genre borders - country vs. folk, poet vs. picker - and he answers with a pragmatic standard that’s almost brutal: “whatever gets the point across.”
That phrase reveals the subtext. The “point” isn’t a thesis statement, it’s the emotional payload: the small, sharp detail that makes a listener feel seen. Clark’s best songs are full of carpenter’s joints - clean lines, sturdy structure - but he’s insisting that structure is a tool, not a shrine. If a line breaks the rulebook but lands the knife, it’s the right line.
Then he pivots from art to identity: “if you say you can do it, do it.” That’s not motivational poster talk. It’s the ethic of a scene built on self-invention and quiet bravado, where your credibility comes from making the thing, not theorizing about it. “There it is” seals it: no mystique, no gatekeepers, no apology. In an era that often treats creativity like a brand strategy, Clark’s credo is refreshingly unmarketable - less about being discovered than about showing up, making the work, and letting the song prove you meant it.
That phrase reveals the subtext. The “point” isn’t a thesis statement, it’s the emotional payload: the small, sharp detail that makes a listener feel seen. Clark’s best songs are full of carpenter’s joints - clean lines, sturdy structure - but he’s insisting that structure is a tool, not a shrine. If a line breaks the rulebook but lands the knife, it’s the right line.
Then he pivots from art to identity: “if you say you can do it, do it.” That’s not motivational poster talk. It’s the ethic of a scene built on self-invention and quiet bravado, where your credibility comes from making the thing, not theorizing about it. “There it is” seals it: no mystique, no gatekeepers, no apology. In an era that often treats creativity like a brand strategy, Clark’s credo is refreshingly unmarketable - less about being discovered than about showing up, making the work, and letting the song prove you meant it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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