Quote:

if he favours lyric changes or structure changes, I'll consider them



What do you do when he FAVORS them? LOL!!!

The main reason I don't like to do it is that I have an idea in my head and I can't explain it to you but only I will know when the sound matches what is in my head. I will consider advice, which is just what Ian said, but if someone suggests that one line o one verse be phrased differently so the phrasing more closely aligns with the melody and tempo, that is hardly co-writing.

One of my songs that I have posted, The One That Got Away, did not have the 2 measure caesura before the last tag in it until a musician (who's opinion I value and respect beyond depths of explanation) listened to it at my house and suggested it. I recorded it again with that pause in it, listened to many times it both ways, and it stayed. But again, he didn't co write it. In fact, what he "wrote" was 8 beats of silence.

Now, if you and I sit down and write lyrics, sit and go back and forth with a lot of the "how about this progression on the bridges" kind of thing, THAT is co writing and I don't mind it at all because it wasn't my thought to start with. Obviously songwriting teams from the Beatles to Broadway partnered to write wonderful music, but every song at some point comes from one brain and grows from there.

Where I get annoyed is when some media darling superstar has their name as a co writer and you can hear the style and be 100% sure that the other party wrote it all and just allowed the other name to be listed. Stevie Nicks comes to mind. Leather and Lace, Stop Draggin' My Heart Around.... the male half (Henley and Petty) wrote those but they were on her albums, so.... and one of her biggest was Stand Back, written by Prince. It's just the chords from Little Red Corvette with a different groove....

That my dime on the subject. Hope to collect more dimes on this one because I am interested in knowing.