There are essentially two schools of thought regarding songwriting. I've written a lot of songs, and maybe a couple of them were decent...
All mine came in a rush, "out of the air", much as Young describes. Rarely spend more than a few minutes writing down the lyric. Indeed, if it takes longer than that, chances are it won't "come".
The other school is the "songsmith" method. Merle Travis, in an old Guitar Player interview, said he really admired the "Tin Pan Alley" type of songwriters who could knock out a tune on demand on whatever subject was presented.
Some guys recommend coming up with a good "hook" and building the song around that.
Some say "work backwards". Come up with a good strong ending and work the thing back from there...
Whatever works, I suppose; all have been successful.
I read an interview with Guy Clark, who is a plodder. He takes months or even years to perfect a song... Keeps little scraps of lines or ideas in a big folder and goes through them constantly to see if anything clicks..
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