Comments on: Who Can Tell The Singer From The Song?

By: Stephanie C. Brown

Stephanie C. Brown — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:47:56 +0000

Thank you. I am a songwriter.

By: Casey Rae-Hunter

Casey Rae-Hunter — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:13:01 +0000

Only had DN in my guypod.

Either way, I’m ashamed at lapse in comprehension here. [hangs head.]

By: Terry B

Terry B — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:24:04 +0000

Double Nickels will suffice, but it’s off ‘What Makes a Man Start Fires?”

By: Casey

Casey — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:45:30 +0000

Oh, damn.

It’s Double Nickels on my drive to NC, then.

By: Neil Cleary

Neil Cleary — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 11:39:00 +0000

Missing a Minutemen reference on your own music blog, Casey? Really? Don’t be that guy.

By: Casey

Casey — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:49:19 +0000

Bob Dylan wrote propaganda songs? Propaganda songs for whom? One-eyed midget dwarfs on acid? Motorcycle Black Madonna Two-Wheeled Gypsy Queens?

Check yo’self, TerryB. His Bobness wrote ALOT of stuff, much of it esoteric symbolist gibberish.

By: TerryB

TerryB — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:35:57 +0000

Bob Dylan wrote propaganda songs.

By: Neil Cleary

Neil Cleary — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:56:22 +0000

Let me clarify myself, Nick. I’m not pulling that tired old musical-superiority trip on rap, or metal, or dance or anything. I love rap — RUN DMC’s debut was my first record. And I’m not begrudging the record industry their right to make money on any old flashy dross. I love that shit too. In fact, I’m hard-pressed to believe ANY musical-superiority argument from anyone. So let’s put that right out. This isn’t about “integrity”. All I’m doing is making sure we distinguish one form from another.

And with regard to authenticity: if you’re responding to a back-story, you’re responding to a context, not content. Again, nothing wrong with that, let’s just be able to distinguish. A falsely-accused convict who’s been imprisoned for 50 years can walk out of a jail and sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat and it might kill — doesn’t make it a great song. A great song can survive on a lyric sheet and a melody alone.

I’m afraid however when you insist that artists & repertoire be the same thing, you misunderstand the beauty of each. To paraphrase Mitch Hedberg: “You come out to Hollywood as a comedian and everyone wants you to write. Can you write? Write me a screenplay. It’s as if I work my ass off all my life to be the best cook I can be and then someone’s like great, you’re a cook. Can you farm?”

By: Neil Cleary

Neil Cleary — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:24:24 +0000

You’re right Rick, the old model definitely still survives. Still, across the board it’s largely preferred that people write their own, or at least be ‘involved’ in the writing of their material, the way The Matrix “co-writes” with Avril Lavigne. And I believe this valuing of personality above craft has even infected the old model of songwriting: writers are now hired to sound as shitty as every other amateur song on the radio. So now these writers get called great songwriters, when what they are is great hit-writers. And don’t get me wrong, I love a hit. They’re just not songs.

I second you on Christina too. But it’s not a matter of not being talented with her, it’s a matter of taste, ie singing every goddamn note to death. I was listening to Aretha Franklin today and was amazed at how simply and directly she sings. Then again, she had great songs.

By: Nick Taylor

Nick Taylor — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:16:56 +0000

I once heard this record exec say that sometime in the 90s, the big record companies found the best way of making the most money, in the shortest time, with the lowest risk: get singing models to re-record the existing back-catalogue of songs the label already owned the publishing for.

This is a major reason why suddenly everything sucks.

Added to that, there have been successive waves of major-money-spinning musical genres that haven’t been about “songs”: rap, dance, metal in various forms etc.

And authenticity IS important. Music is an emotional resonator – if it has back-story, then it will resonate more… but more often than not I suspect, covers tend to sound a bit shite because the singers have better voices than the writers. David Byrne once said “the better someone’s voice, the harder it is for people to believe what they’re singing”.

So when someone who does a cover tries to make it sound “better”, it may be more polished, but it’s actually less credible.

Authenticity via back-story is an important innovation. Music from the days when Artistes and Repetoire meant separate things, sucked.