Posted on 11/21/2008 10:56:14 AM PST by weegee
...Elvis Costello asked James Taylor to name his favorite new songwriters. Mr. Taylor seemed momentarily stunned by the question, as if he'd never considered it.
Finally, he cited his talented son Ben and conceded he didn't listen to much new music. Which means when Mr. Taylor sets out to record an album of other people's songs, he's off to the familiar recycling bin... written in the '50s, '60s and '70s. As for the past three decades of great songs...
...If talented singers like these don't have to pay attention to new songwriters, what happens to the great American songbook? ...Other singers may discover unexplored meaning in a lyrical thread or reveal melodic possibilities beyond the writer's capacity as a vocalist. Performed at a different tempo, transposed to another key, given a new arrangement or sung by a gifted singer, a song takes on a new life.
...Listen to Solomon Burke's reading of a couple of songs by Jesse Harris on his "Like a Fire"... and you'll hear that the marriage of a veteran singer and a relatively new songwriter works just fine.
...It doesn't take much vision to see that if these trusted artists were to introduce their fans to new songs, the fans might turn around and buy albums by the promising young singer-songwriters who wrote them. Wouldn't it be a good thing if the industry expanded its customer base by re-energizing an older demographic?
...Is it so impossible to imagine that these music lovers might buy something by new artists, too, if they were familiar with their work? A snippet of a song dropped under the third act of TV's "House" is one way... But I suspect that it would be much more effective to ask... singers with solid reputations and fan bases to handle the introductions....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
The entertainment industry needs to get over the baby boom generation artists and realize that is not the only market or generation that ever sang. The industry complains about "declining sales" but has never moved on. Commercial radio stations are a menu of different "old music" formats, with a few giving play to "adult contemporary" artists listened to by no adults I know (even offices no longer play it in the reception area), modern Nashvegas country that ignores many notable country music artists who play real country, and hip hop/dance. Don't expect to be able to hear much new rock and roll on the radio. Too many "edgey" stations are still clinging to 15 year old Pearl Jam and Nirvana songs on the playlist.
An I excerpted as much as necessary to meet the limitations but have tried to preserve the gist of it for those who don't read the full articles.
And I am unfamiliar with the new artists this writer is citing. It seems to me that a better approach would have been to discuss who ARE the great songwriters and the overlooked gems of the past 30 years, songwriters who don't always get their due.
Tom Waits has been widely covered (with Scarlett Johnasen even recording a vanity project album of covers) and enough other covers to fill an album with recordings by different artists (including Lydia Lunch and Screaming Jay Hawkins, although they were not A-list industry artists, as legendary as they may be). Even the Ramones (who sang a Tom Waits song on their final album) were not respected by radio or television or the publishing industry in their lifetime.
Anyway, perhaps FReepers can use this thread to take on the issue suggested by the writer (agree or disagree with his premise or mine?) and also acknowledge some of the good songwriters/songs of the past 30 years that are begging for re-interpretation or needing more exposure.
Not just rock and roll but...
Rock and Roll PING!
Have to agree with Sweet Baby James, the best “new music” I have heard in the last 5 years was Rod Stewart crooning tunes from Cole Porter and that era.
Next year, Rod Stewart will be covering the Faces material (they are doing a reunion).
Weegee
I am so frequently amazed by your knowledge/understanding of music. You put me to shame and I am a retired musician with a Masters in Music. I’m very impressed by this thread. Great food for thought.
Pinging you.
Thank you.
I don’t always agree with some of the people interviewed or focused on in the series “All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music” but I find it interesting in all of the episodes I have rented so far...
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/All_You_Need_Is_Love_The_Story_of_Popular_Music/70095350?
“Originally broadcast in the late 1970s, this groundbreaking documentary series explores the history of popular music through a variety of genres and reveals the impact each has had on its own and future eras. From ragtime and jazz to country, rock ‘n’ roll and even the Broadway and vaudeville stages, the program looks at how each form has left its mark on the culture and provided the soundtrack to the modern era.”
“The British TV series that aired from 1976 to 1981 has been described as THE definitive music documentary. Thank you for preserving and sharing over 1,000 minutes of one amazing historic performance after another. In the mid-70s, at the suggestion of John Lennon, film director Tony Palmer decided to document the Story of Popular Music and set about interviewing and filming all the major players in the industry at that time, past and present. It includes complete archive performances and many original interviews with some of the major names in music including John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimi Hendrix, Benny Goodman, Hoagy Carmichael, Stephen Sondheim, Harold Arlen, Bing Crosby, Cab Calloway, Mike Oldfield, The Beach Boys, Tina Turner, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Rogers, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Phil Spector, Bill Monroe, Bill Graham, Bill Wyman, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton and many others.”
“...Don’t bother putting Disc 1 in your queue. It is an hour long “introduction” to what you will see on discs 2-5. All the other discs have several episodes on it but disc 1 only has just the one.”
Nick Cave, Paul Westerberg, Richard Hawley, Jeff Tweedy.
Ryan Adams may be the most overrated.
Next year, Rod Stewart will be covering the Faces material (they are doing a reunion).
Heard that. I’m already cringing at what the record might be like. No Ronnie Lane, and frankly Rod’s output has been brutal for, what, 30 some years?
Live might be fun though. Love the Faces.
Agreed. I have really gotten into alternative country the last few years and have hundreds of alternative country albums. I have yet to find a Ryan Adams album that's good enough to be among them.
There are so many great songwriters who are little known and under appreciated. David Olney is one of them. It's amazing to me that a guy like David Olney plays before crowds of fifteen people and Britney Spears (or Madonna for that matter) is a multi-millionaire.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Pigs-Fly-Various-Artists/dp/B000067FTM
1. Unforgettable - Ani DiFranco, Jackie Chan
2. Ohio - Devo
3. Call Me - The Box Tops
4. Insane in the Brain - Connells
5. Shock the Monkey - Don Ho
6. What a Wonderful World - Roy Clark
7. Girls on Film - Billy Preston
8. These Boots Are Made for Walkin' - The Fixx
9. Carry on Wayward Son - Oak Ridge Boys
10. Get It On (Bang A Gong) - The Neanderthal Spongecake
11. White Wedding - Herman's Hermits
12. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - Lesley Gore
Virtually every new song I have heard with interesting and compelling lyrics is in the genre of “New Country”.
But there seems to be just so much pure crap out there these days. I mean, there has always been a bit o’ junk, but never in the sheer volume we now see.
“I’m waitin’ on the sunset, ‘cause yesterday ain’t over yet.” - Kerosene
I love that line!
I have been in several cover bands, mostly classic rock. Then I discovered new country a couple of years ago. I always HATED country music.
It is now my favorite. Also, as a bass player, it is one of the most difficult genre’s to play, generally speaking. The lyrics are alive, real, funny, sexy, and yes, sometimes even thought provoking. Even dixie chicks stuff (I hate to admit it). We do “Not ready to make nice” but change the words so it is about a boyfriend instead of those that hated her remarks about Bush.
There is lots of good new stuff, but there is a huge volume of it in new country. And many are talking about the concept that the current genre which most represents the logical progression from “classic rock” is, in fact, new country.
Here is a new one for me that I really like, on all levels. Patty Loveless, “You don’t even know who I am”: http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/patty-loveless/you-dont-even-know-who-i-am-7893.html
If you look at his best stuff, I don't think so. The problem is that he's released so much material, and some of it's awful. But some of his good songs verge on greatness.
I'd add Neko Case to your list. I sometimes think about what songs I'd cover if I were a musician, and high on my list would be "We've Never Met" (written with Ron Sexsmith).
Nick Lowe continues to write good songs. And if you look past the boop-beep instrumentation, the Postal Service has a couple of lovely songs; "Such Great Heights" was covered by Iron & Wine in a way that shows just how lovely it is.
The songs are out there, and I agree with the author of the article. I first learned about Joni Mitchell from Judy Collins, about Jackson Browne from Tom Rush, and about Tom Waits from the Eagles. Of course, they were contemporaries of the songwriters--maybe the real problem is that there's not much room now for new singers who primarily cover other people's songs.
I’m a sucker for “funny” stereotype songs like “Hick town”
Well you can see the neighbors butt crack nailing on his shingles
And his woman’s’ smokin’ Pall Mall’s watchin’ Laura Ingalls
And Granny’s getting’ lit she’s headin’ out to bingo
Yeah my buddies and me are goin’ muddin’ down on Blue Hole Road
And then there is the Libertarian Anthem (it’s how I label it to the crowd just before my band plays it), Copperhead Road.
Prince?
I was going to say that overrated isn’t the best word to describe Ryan Adams. Uneven is. I will say that his last two, Easy Tiger and Cardinology, have been pretty solid throughout.
I can’t believe they don’t have Craig Finn of The Hold Steady on their list of great recent songwriters.
I also question the idea that older artists covering younger ones will bring older listeners to younger artists. I guess the true test of this would be what did Johnny Cash do for the younger artists he covered. Did baby boomers and older go out and grab some Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails CDs?
I have my own list of everlooked songwriters and recording artists, and they're not Tom Waitses or members of grunge rock groups. I mean, Mick Jagger himself once said that anyone can write a song, it's not rocket science. Irving Berlin could turn out hundreds of them (most of them deservedly forgotten), and he could barely play the piano. If you're old enough, you'll remember what a perennial hit Sunny was, now what happened to that one? Yesterday shall pass too.
Steve does write some good songs. Ever hear Shawn Colvin's Cover Girl album? She does very nice covers of Earle's "Someday," Talking Heads' "This Must Be the Place," Waits' "Heart of Saturday Night," and others of her favorites.
As I read this and other threads regarding this sort of stuff, in the back of my mind the phrase “art is subjective” repeats.
I am no fan of Philip Dick, nor his book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, but I loved BladeRunner. But my nephew thinks Philip is the sh!!.
Awesome. I’m hoping my wife buys me his latest for Christmas.
Marc Cohn is, IMHO, one of the most underrated song writers of the last 20 years. His last album is pretty darned good.
www.marccohn.net
A nine pound hammer or a woman like you"
Love this guy
A nine pound hammer or a woman like you"
Love this guy
Most of us songwriters are at least half crazy and sometimes that helps. Sometimes it gets in the way. If you ever get to Nashville, there are a number of great places to catch some of it “live in the dives”. I’m almost always part of the writers’ night show over at Bobby’s Idle Hour on Music Row. A bunch of my writer friends show up on my MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/emmettgrayson If you like Dave Olney’s stuff, you might enjoy my friend Jay Craik’s stuff, but there are a bunch over there who have some real neat kinda off-kilter non-mainstream stuff.
I also checked out Jay Craik's songs, which I do like. He sounds a little quirky, which is a good thing when it comes to music and songwriting.
By the way, Dot Kelly = yummy!
Nashville is definitely on my to-do list.
Hi Kevin - I appreciate your comments. I need to go back and figure out how to make things available for sale there. It’s my shortcoming not the website’s. I’ve mostly used the internet postings as a way to have things available for listening without people having to open an mp3 file on their own computer.
Bobby’s Idle Hour?
Hey, check this out:
Click on the thumbnail photo. This will give you a view of the street. Click on “full screen”, then left click as you drag your mouse around. It’s a 360 view. And if you click on the arrows on the line in the street, you will move up and down the street.
I love Broadway. I’m in two country bands in Seattle and Nashville is a treat. Music all day, bands play for tips. I do the rounds and then tip the ones I like.
Meanwhile, here’s Bobby’s Idle Hour. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1028+16th+Ave+S,+Nashville,+TN+37212&sll=36.162045,-86.777798&sspn=0.006644,0.009613&g=414+BROADWAY,+Nashville,+TN&layer=c&ie=UTF8&ll=36.164765,-86.781178&spn=0.106296,0.153809&z=13&cbll=36.144705,-86.7929&panoid=MuigNs2pNtpMvby9ZuSKvA&cbp=1,95.67116277746982,,0,11.205967722483576
It’s really nowhere near Music row though... I’ll have to check it out next time I’m there.
Maybe being from Seattle you may not be exactly sure what is “Music Row” and may be confusing it with “Lower Broad”. Many music venues on Lower Broad, but Music Row is basically the streets which were once called 16th and 17th Avenues between Division Street and up to about Wedgewood . They are now called Music Square East and Music Square West respectively. Bobby’s Idle Hour is on 16th just off Tremont and is in the very heart of Music Row. There are also some venues over on Division Street of the sort you describe. That is perhap marginally part of Music Row, but it is the more “touristy” part. It’s been over 30 years since I first came to Nashville and I’ve been here completely and full-time for 22 years.
I suspected that was the case. My friend used to work at Word records and last month we drove by their old building. He called that area the “corporate music row”, or something like that.
I’m gonna check out that area by Bobby’s when we come back in January. BTW, I bought 15 acres in central Kentucky and expect to move there in a year or two. It’s a 2 hour drive to Nashville. We’ll be going there much more often.
At night, there’s little going on as far as music on Music Row. Bobby’s is about it as far as I know. It is a struggling holdover from days past when you’d stop into these beer dives and pass guitar around trading songs often with guys whose names you’d know. Still, Bobby’s remains a great place to meet other writers/artists and such. I’ve made friends from all over the world there who come in whenever they’re in town. Maybe you’ll get in there and visit, play a few of your own songs. It’s all original stuff, no “covers”. I’ve been meaning to get one of mine over to Word actually. Maybe you could have your friend go over to http://www.myspace.com/emmettgrayson The first song which comes up is called “That Rock Is Gonna Roll”. I think it would fit right into their catalogue. Let me know when you might visist Nashville again.
Despite being called the next Lennon/McCartney, Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford (Squeeze) never really got their due. They had a couple of minor hits (Tempted, Hourglass, etc.), but never really got the “sell out 50,000 seats a night” fame they should have had. Other good songwriters of “late” are Matthew Sweet (his minor hit “Girlfriend” from 1991 is the best three-chord rock song of the last 30 years), Prince (yes, he qualifies under your criteria), Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning (Jellyfish), Danny Wilde and Phil Solem (the Rembrandts), and Karl Wallinger (World Party).
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