Songwriters on Songwriting By Paul Zollo Published by Da Capo Press New York 656 pages $19.95 Paul Zollo's Web site

I feel this is the definitive book on the art and craft of songwriting because it provides the wisdom of 52 of the world's greatest songwriters, covering all genres and generations of popular music. Starting with folk legend Pete Seeger and Tin Pan Alley, legends like Sammy Cahn and Livingston & Evans ("Silver Bells," "Que Sera Sera,") through blues great Willie Dixon, jazz legends Dave Brubeck and Mose Allison, sixties songwriting superstars like Donovan, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Jimmy Webb and Burt Bacharach, through the great singer-songwriters starting with Bob Dylan -- in his only in-depth interview in more than ten years and one of the only one of his entire career that focusses directly on songwriting -- Paul Simon, in a very in-depth interview that covers his thoughts on his whole career, plus Randy Newman, Leonard Cohen, Todd Rundgren, Laura Nyro, Carole King, Jackson Browne, and Neil Young, then the influential songwriters of the seventies, such as Yoko Ono, Walter Becker of Steely Dan, Santana, David Byrne of Talking Heads, and Rickie Lee Jones, then into the eighties with Los Lobos, Bruce Hornsby, Suzanne Vega, and into the present with k.d. lang, Richard Thompson, Tom Petty, Madonna, and R.E.M.

And there's even more: comic legend Tom Lehrer, f amous for albums he recorded in the fities and sixties, surfaces here for his first interview in some thirty years, after being mysteriously missing.

Also surfacing for the first time in decades here is the legendary P.F. Sloan, who wrote famous songs in the sixties such as "Eve of Destruction, "Secret Agent Man" and "You Baby" and then disappeared for so many years many believed he was dead. His mystery was so evasive that Jimmy Webb (also included here) wrote a song about him, recorded by The Association, called "P.F. Sloan."

When asked what the most memorable aspects of doing all these interviews is, I think of so many:

• Being with Bob Dylan as he sang the song "People" for me and openly wondered, "Are people who need people really the luckiest people in the world?" Also, Dylan saying that if someone wants to be a songwriter they should study music. And also saying, "The world doesn't need any more songs. We've already got enough." This was Dylan's first interview in more than ten years, and meeting him at a bungalow in an L.A. hotel was a guarded and secretive as meeting Salman Rushdie.
  
  
• Madonna saying, " Why don't people know I'm a songwriter? Because they think I'm a slut?"
  
  
• Leonard Cohen saying, "Most musicians have chops. I have one chop. But it's a good chop."
  
  
• Being in the studio with Paul Simon as he worked on the album Rhythm Of The Saints and being in his home studio with him as he worked on his CD boxed set, just after marrying Edie Brickell.
  
  
• Spending six years convincing Laura Nyro to do an interview, after which she was so happy she wanted to do another the next day, which we did.
  
  
• Going out for a grand lunch with Harry Nilsson, then driving around in the hills with him listening to tapes of he and John Lennon writing songs, touching Harry so deeply he started to cry.
  
  
• Being with Frank Zappa in his home studio as he experimented with compositions on his newly acquired Synclavier. Zappa stated his love of the song "Louie Louie."
  
  
• Meeting Brian Wilson in his doctor's office, where Brian laid on the couch and talked to me as if I was the doctor.
  
  
• Playing chess with Gerry Goffin and quickly losing.
  
  
• Interviewing the mysterious P.F. Sloan -- his first interview after being missing for 20 years.
  
  
• Interviewing the mysterious comic legend Tom Lehrer -- his first interview in more than 20 years. "I'm glad we could talk," I said, and he answered, "Well, talk is cheap."
  
  
• Meeting Yoko Ono in the "white room" of her Dakota apartment, where she and John lived and where John died. Talking about her songs and his songs, and their mutual influence on each other.
  
  
• Meeting k.d. lang at her Hollywood home just months after "Constant Craving" became a huge hit -- the lyrics to ther song were still her manual typewriter, yellowing in the sun.
  
  
• Meeting David Byrne at the (now defunct) Ben Franks diner on the Sunset Strip, where he ate a tuna sandwich and corn chowder and was polite to everyone, even an obnoxious waiter.
  
  
• Meeting Tom Petty at his home, where he invited me twice, talking at length about the people who influenced him the most -- Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Dave Stewart.
  
  
• Meeting R.E.M. at a Hollywood hotel, where they were distracted by Cindy Crawford's modeling at poolside. As was I.
  
  
• And so much more. It was definitely a grand adventure compiling all these interviews and meeting with so many of the world's wonderful songwriters. I'm also very grateful to DaCapo Press for printing the entire book -- at 656 pages it is a "whopper"and a "feast" as Britain's Mojo magazine called it.
  
  
• Gene Poole, writing in Britain's Vox magazine, gave "Songwriters On Songwriting" four stars and wrote, " Formidable tete-a-tetes with a startling range of tunesmiths--Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Michael Stipe. Zollo's approach is both conversational and in depth, so you get Dylan talking about Greek philosophy, Harry Nilsson's sweet memories of life with Lennon, Sammy Cahn on the genius of Frank Sinatra, and much much more. A veritable goldmine."

Price $13.59 ~ You Save: $3.40 (20%)