Benny Bartek gave me a suggestion for one of my Monday Morning Musings. He opines that the 60s, 70s and 80s had all the best songs and songwriters and wanted to know if I had any opinion as to why that was. Better producers? Better musicians? Healthier snacks?
Time to settle this question once and for all.
In my opinion it is a whole lot of little things…
Back then:
Everything was new. A song came out and you said…”Wow. I never heard anything like THAT before!” And you HADN’T. Everyone was making shit up as they go and not sitting down to write and saying, “Let’s write something today that sounds like….”
What you heard on the record was a bunch of guys all in the room playing the song at the same time. Now it’s a guy with a laptop overdubbing one instrument at a time…a lot of times the same guy playing all the instruments so there is never a chance to say, “Hey…I never would have thought to play THAT!”
There is an argument that labels let artists mature and grow into their style…today if you don’t get a hit right out of the box you are probably back bagging groceries before you can say “Wha Hoppened?” That makes artists aim for bigger targets so they don’t miss… it makes them scared to try something outside the box.
There was an artist down here in Nashville that cut a great song. A “Song of the Year,” in my opinion. But his promotion people told him it would take a lot of hard work to get that great song up the charts as opposed to putting out something light and fluffy that would fly up the charts.
Radio got a heap of light and fluffy that month my friend.
Plus, on the minor advantage side of the ledger…. those decades had some darn good writers. Who you might ask? (go ahead…ask.)
Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Billy Joel, Elton John, Buddy Holly, Phil Everly, Goffin /King, Mann/Weil, Neil Diamond, Mick and Keef, Barry Gibb, Otis Blackwell, John Prine, Roger Cook, Sam Cooke.
Shall I go on?
Okay
Gamble and Huff, James Taylor, Doc Pomus, Harry Nilsson, Henley/Frey, Bernie Taupin, Laura Nyro, Sly Stone, Jimmy Webb, John Fogerty, Jackson Browne, Burt Bacharach/Hal David, Pete Townsand, Dolly Parton, Woody Guthrie, Randy Newman, Pete Fucking Seeger, Van Fucking Morrison, Robert Fucking Johnson, LIEBER/STOLLER!!!, Holland, Dozier, Holland, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder.
That’s about it. No Wait…
Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Chuck Berry, Smokey Robinson….
Anyone want to put up a list of great songwriters of the last ten years? Hell, I’VE been writing during the last ten years and I wouldn’t put my name anywhere NEAR this list.
This wasn’t a Musing. This was a rant. But I kinda dug it….
See you next week.