Complex sentence: While he had always taken notice of the current state of affairs, he had never written about it in song, as he had never felt it was his position or his role "to put it to paper as a song writer".
Split into simpler sentences: While he had always taken notice of the current state of affairs, he had never written about it in song. He had never felt it was his position or his role "to put it to paper as a song writer".