Songwriting Legends

[easilyspooked]

i'm in the mood for some good old lifestyle mythology this morning.

 

my father once told me a story about Lyle Lovett, who is one of my alltime favorite songwriters. He wrote a song called the "Flyswatter/Ice Water Blues (Monte Trenckmann's Blues)" after someone bet him he couldn't rhyme Flyswatter in a song. The result is what I consider to be an amazing tune about family and work and i think back on this anecdote often when i overhear odd words that have a good meter.

 

Point Is:

Got any good Songwriting Legends you've heard along the way to share with the group this fine morning?

[Matximus]

Fun thread. some of my favorites:

 

-After waiting around for him to finish the tune, Bob Dylan's Nashville session musicians got wasted at 2 a.m. or whatever ahead of recording Rainy Day Women. Bob said he wasn't going to play that song sober. Said he wanted it to sound like a drunken marching band. Some of the players are playing multiple instruments. Like the piano player is playing the bass too. They thought it was a joke, the session. And were stunned when Dylan said that's a wrap after one take.

 

-Richie Havens improvised his famous "Freedom" right there on stage at Woodstack (although it is based on old hymnal Motherless child.) They wouldn't let him off stage cause all the other acts were late getting to the show.

 

-John Fogerty sued in the 1980s for essentially plagiarizing himself. Old record company tried to say "The Old Man Down The Road" shared the same chorus as "Run Through The Jungle." Fogerty took the stand with his guitar to prove that wasn't the case. Won the suit.

 

-Paul McCartney composed the music to "Yesterday" in his head in that moment between waking and dreaming. He later composed the lyrics on a long card ride. He describes it as his most "complete" work and wished he had more dreams like that.

 

-Axl writes "One In a Million" on acoustic guitar, an instrument he doesn't even really know how to play. He composes it using only two strings on the guitar. It's first song he wrote for GNR. It creates national outrage for its use of racial slurs and homophobia. And, of course, GNR sells a boatload of more records. Suckers. It makes no sense to me....

[blue2blue]

So many greats... in no order, here are some faves of mine off the top of my head:

 

Leonard Cohen, Hoagie Carmichael, Leiber and Stoller, Hank Williams, Goffin and King, Lennon and McCartney, Joao Gilberto, Gillian Welch, Neil Young, Andy Pratt (his pre-religious conversion stuff, anyhow), Judee Sill, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Guy Clark, Anthony Newly (although he had a way of swiping melodic bits), Arthur Lee, Andy Stodola (of 70s punk band, the Alley Cats), Bob Marley, Astor Piazzolla (more a composer than songwriter, per se), Howard Devoto, Harry Nilsson, Gram Parsons, Rory Gallagher, Pete Brown and Jack Bruce, Robert Johnson, Bob Dylan (the early years), Jagger and Richards, Thelonious Monk, Sam Beam (Iron & Wine), Captain Beefheart, Elvis Costello, Jesse Winchester, Rub

[Chicken Monkey]

 

So many greats... in no order, here are some faves of mine off the top of my head:   Leonard Cohen, Hoagie Carmichael, Leiber and Stoller, Hank Williams, Goffin and King, Lennon and McCartney, Joao Gilberto, Gillian Welch, Neil Young, Andy Pratt (his pre-religious conversion stuff, anyhow), Judee Sill, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Guy Clark, Anthony Newly (although he had a way of swiping melodic bits), Arthur Lee, Andy Stodola (of 70s punk band, the Alley Cats), Bob Marley, Astor Piazzolla (more a composer than songwriter, per se), Howard Devoto, Harry Nilsson, Gram Parsons, Rory Gallagher, Pete Brown and Jack Bruce, Robert Johnson, Bob Dylan (the early years), Jagger and Richards, Thelonious Monk, Sam Beam (Iron & Wine), Captain Beefheart, Elvis Costello, Jesse Winchester, Rub

[live-I-evil]

Blue, thats a great list you got there. Elliott Smith is one of, if not my all time favorite, songwriter, and the rest are solid too. No Townes Van Zandt on the list? Often described as a songwriter's songwriter, his songs are extremely powerful though sometimes rather simple.

 

By the by Easily, I just got to see Lyle Lovette with Madeline Peyroux and it was Fan F-ing Tastic! One of the best shows I've seen to date.

[easilyspooked]

love the dylan story maxtimus!

 

man, blue, you got a lot of great names on that list kicking around in your head, you know what they say about a man with a big head...

 

evil- i'm officially wicked jealous! that show must have been something else. i saw him up in VT with the big band and that was a top notch show, but his duets are really something else! i can't even imagine how their voices must have blended, thanks for sharing!

[blue2blue]

Blue, thats a great list you got there. Elliott Smith is one of, if not my all time favorite, songwriter, and the rest are solid too. No Townes Van Zandt on the list? Often described as a songwriter's songwriter, his songs are extremely powerful though sometimes rather simple. By the by Easily, I just got to see Lyle Lovette with Madeline Peyroux and it was Fan F-ing Tastic! One of the best shows I've seen to date.

You know... I own (or owned, I can't remember if it was in the ~300 LPs that were stolen when I was in my early 20s, knocking out most of my collection at the time) Townes' first record, which I bought for, like 29 cents in the cut-out bin soon after it came out, and I was pretty into him for a while at that point, although my pals gave me a hard time over it, and it's not a mature record, at all; I listened recently and there were more than a couple of embarrassing Dylan-me-too songs; but now my friends are big TVZ fans but I never really kept up with him -- despite his growing reputation...

 

Oddly, it was the TVZ connection, I think, that made me finally dig into Guy Clark, who I'd had on my list to check out for years.

 

I considered including TVZ on general principle -- but I really feel like I ought to see what he did with the rest of his career, first. Not that I doubt the mountains of praise heaped on him in the decades since I "discovered" him in the cut-out bin... but the list above are folks I personally can say, yeah, some of their songs have really moved me, intrigued me, impressed me, etc...

 

Let's say that I suspect TVZ will probably make the next version of this list...

 

And that said... there are probably scores more names that should be on my personal list that I just couldn't think about. (As it was, I went through my the 'my library' list in Rhapsody, which has some but not all of my Mp3s as well as a number of things I've found on Rhap.)

 

I have a hard time narrowing these things down...

 

 

Did Lovette and Peyroux perform together or did Peyroux open for Lyle? When I first heard Peyroux, I was knocked out by her uncanny Billie Holiday impressions... but that's kind of a trap, you know? After a while, I found that she really bothered me for the same reason. There's another gal, from earlier, in the 70s, who also had a heavy Holiday trip going with her vocals... I've put her name out of my mind but she kept popping up on a 'station' I created on Rhapsody -- but after a while that Billie-trip started to bug me so much I had to stop playing the station. Frankly, Tom Waits' Satchmo thing has always bothered me for the same reason (although he's sort of carved out his own space in that). Of course, there are people who apparently think I try to sound like Tom Petty -- so I'm sympathetic on some level... but those gals' voices just bug me. I love Billie Holiday.

[live-I-evil]

Did Lovette and Peyroux perform together or did Peyroux open for Lyle?

 

They played together as a duet and it was incredible. I do understand what you're saying about her Holiday sound, though. I'm still a fan. Interestingly enough the first song I heard by her was her Elliott Smith cover of Between the Bars and my first thought was, "What the F- is this?"