Playing for Congress Songwriters Make Music at ASCAP Event

摘要

Paul Williams knows all about the blood, sweat, tears and toil that go into creating a memorable piece of music."It all begins with a blank piece of paper," said Williams, an Oscar-winning songwriter. "You stay up half the night. You write something. You pour blood on the paper.... You know that you have written something that is going to change the world. You get a little sleep. You get up and look at what you've written, and you realize you've rewritten "O Little Town of Bethlehem."Williams' joke about the trials of the songwriter kicked off a program at the Library of Congress on May 10 that was much more about celebration than heartache.The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Foundation staged "We Write the Songs" at the Coolidge Auditorium, a night of songwriters performing their own tunes and telling the stories behind their creations—with a lot of laughs thrown in for good measure. The event was the third staged by ASCAP at the Coolidge since the organization donated its vast papers to the Library in 2009.