Pre-BeatleDylans, the idea of "singer/songwriter" wasn't a term yet. (I was only about 1 year old at the time, so correct me if I'm wrong.) Let's just say that it was far from a "serious" pop music rule that the person singing the song had to be the same person who wrote the song. I'm no pop historian, but we all know about the Brill Building and Leiber/Stoller and Carol King and Burt Bacharach. I'm not suggesting we go back to that time. In fact we never left. (See American Idol and most of the "official" Country Music Industry). In mainstream "pop" music it's STILL one person singing and some other person or people writing. But it all sucks right? The REAL good music isn't on the top ten, right? 'Cause the REAL good music is done by people who write their own stuff, not these fake Brittney Spears pop idiots with the songs by the song hacks, correct?
Well, I agree with all that. But a lot of people I know feel that the problem is that these "pop" stars for the most part don't "write" their own music. But think about it for a second. Do you really WANT to hear tunes actually written by Britney Spears? Of course not. That would suck worse than her singing. Which is pretty bad.
Okay, so what do we have. Top ten artists mostly suck. (I'm sticking in the pure top 40 vain here). And the people who write the songs for them mostly suck. But again, it's not because those two jobs should be done by one person.
Yes, the Beatles broke the mold. But like the missing link or that first fish freak that had an extra digit on their fin that enabled them to crawl onto dry land, the Beatles were exactly that. Total freaks. They sang amazing. The wrote amazing. It'll happen again. In about 1 thousand years. But I wouldn't wait around for it if I were you.
Dylan's another issue. To be honest, I'm one of those people who likes Dylan songs better when someone else sings them.
In fact, ten years ago I was hanging out by myself at the original Living Room. I was missing my girlfriend terribly, (she was in LA), when this singer who I had seen before, named Jesse Harris, ended his set with a cover. He didn't say who the songwriter was. But the song was "Mama, You've Been On My Mind". I didn't know it. I'm not ashamed to say, (on my little blog that reaches all of about 10 people) that it moved me to tears. I like Dylan enough. I saw him live in the early eighties and even got to shake his hand back stage. (Long story.) But I've never been moved by one of his songs while he was singing it.
I went through an art school phase, but my musical upbringing was pure melody and harmony. Beatles, Beach Boys. The friggin' Clancy Brothers too. My Mom & Dad singing "Delia's Gone" in perfect harmony. (Can't listen to the Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash version. No harmony and they screw the melody up in my opinion.)
My point is the song and the singer don't have to be different. But they sure don't have to be the same either. Jesse Harris nailed that song that night. (And I got a bit hammered, which may have affected my opinion of said nailing, but I digress.) I saw Jesse many other times after that. I discovered that indeed he was a great song writer himself. I swear to God I even recall thinking "Don't Know Why" should be a hit, (even though me and another patron one night figured out that he cribbed the melody from the Peanuts Christmas special.) Of course it was a HUGE hit for one Norah Jones a couple years later. I don't know many people outside of the NY folk scene who know who Jesse Harris is today. And most people I speak too just assume that SHE wrote that song. She didn't.
And if you're a fan of Norah's and that first record she made, then here's a test. Quick. Without googling. Name one song from her follow up record. Stumped? Well, Jesse Harris wrote four on the first one and none of the second one. I'm just saying.
Here's another example. Tonight a friend sent me a Youtube Clip of Norah Jones singing Jeff Tweedy's "Jesus, Etc." One of Wilco's best tunes. This clip is totally homemade, illegal, recorded on a camcorder. Not high fidelity. But she nails it. (And I'm NOT hammered tonight. I swear!) She's such an amazing singer that even though Tweedy's reedy voice is fine on the Wilco recording, she shows us what amazing voice can do with an amazing tune.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Wilco should hire Norah Jones as their singer. Or that Dylan shouldn't sing his own songs. (Calm down Dylan nuts.) I'm just saying that it's two different jobs, singing and songwritng. And if we all just admitted that a bit more, then maybe there'd be better music on the radio. (Okay, no one listens to radio anymore, but you get my point.)
I'll end on yet another blasphemous note. Wanna' hear the best version of Lennon's "Across The Universe"? It ain't the Beatles versions. Neither mix, Spector's on Let It Be or the single mix without the strings do it for me. (Lennon always said he hated the original recording of it.) The best recording of that song is Fiona Apple's version she did for the movie Plesantville. (Produced by the wonderful Jon Brion). Look it up and just try to disagree. I dare you.
In a nutshell, pop music sucks because all the good singers are trying to be songwriters and all the good songwriters are trying to be singers. There I said it. End blog.
2 comments:
Aha, my desire to get famous singers to sing my songs is right on :) Actualy, not even famous singers, just better singers. You could cover one of mine. Let's swap! Oh, now I have another idea... let's get all of our friends (you know who I mean) to cover each others' songs... see what happens... better yet, let's just ask the Maestra to do an album of redroomers' songs :))
xo Gypsy Woman
Good and interesting points. Regarding pop performer's writing, it's the same as director's writing. They direct a hit, that in turn allows backing for their dusty college, cross-country comedy script. And, 9 x's out of 10, the end result is horrible. This crap, then masks their true talent - which may be directing.
But, I don't believe it's necessarily song-writing, pop-performers, that are killing radio. It's where the money is going to and coming from. Demographics, and pie-charts. Payola of some form is still alive. And that may be in the form of advertising the artists - force feeding listeners. I can't count the number of atrocious songs I know (word for word) just because the radio was playing them in full rotation.
Great music (songwriters/performers) is living, it's just hidden in some garage in North Dakota or on some kids 4-track (ipod 4 track that is) that doesn't have the money behind him to get it to radio. If they did...if someone fed the mass public their work, it would sell.
True craftsman songwriters still write bad music because they're going for the dollar. "Let's write a song that Britney's fans would buy (as they hide their Dylan records)..." Should we blame them or praise them as true geniuses?
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