Thanks to the endless fountain of music Spotify, and its features to look for like-minded music, I found myself piling up a playlist of great singer-songwriters. Funny enough, many of them made their best work around 1973. To name a few: Gene Clark, Jackson Browne, James Taylor, and Graham Nash. Part of the particular timing of their greatest work could have something to do with the technical developments in studios in those years making the sound a whole lot warmer, more personal and at the same time more possibilities for orchestrating songs with more layers of horns, and strings. Another thing that strikes me when you read a little about the circumstances of these performers, is the period of their lives and carreers. Many of them were members of some kind of super group, and they took the most out of the swinging sixties as possible. As the next decade began, they found themselves on the wastelands of broken relationships, torn up bands, and a hell of a serious drug problem. What better way of dealing with those circumstances then making your own album, writing therapeutic songs, and taking all the time necessary to get the best out of those studios?
Of course, super singing-songwriters were not limited to those few years in the seventies. Before that you had Fred Neil, and Tim Hardin, just to name a few of my own favorites. Their recordings were much simpler then the latter ones, but their drug consumption (and related personal problems) were notorious as well. I could mention many others over the decades, but I think we can conclude that most of those guys were not half as popular as the big bands, or performing artists of their times. Most singer-songwriters had only a limited group of fans, probably those that took their time to have a closer look at the lyrics, and found some personal attraction to them. Funny enough, it seems that nowadays singer-songwriters are just as popular as any act, playing the big stages of pop festivals by themselves; just a guy and a guitar. In The Netherlands there is even a popular TV show looking for the best singer-songwriter of the country. What could be the reason for this?
Let's just for a minute stipulate who I am referring to. I saw this guy that calls himself Passenger play the big stage at Pinkpop, Ed Sheeran is a popular guy, Damian Rice, and I think Ben Howard is a good example of a true modern, and very popular, singer-songwriter of our day and age. They manage to touch the hearts of many fans by playing, what seem to be, simple songs with a simple message. In that way they may be not as craftly as their ancestors, who knew how to bring forward big emotions in unforgettable melodies. And maybe that is just what has changed: making the lyrics just a touch simpler, easier to sing along to by bigger crowds, taking the singer-songwriters from the off-stage, to the main stage. And that is quite an accomplishment.
Apart from the talent the just mentioned modern singer-songwriters, there is of course a technical feature that makes it much easier to become one. All it takes is a microphone and a laptop, plus the free software download, and anyone can make their own tune. You don't even have to have a record label: put it on youtube and see what happens. This way the singer-songwriting business gets more democratic: you don't have to have been a member of a super group, or have gone through a drug addiction to be able to put your music forward. From one side, that could mean that any will get their fair chance. But from the other; where'd someone get his or her inspiration from? And isn't that just what is missing from the popular guys nowadays? Shouldn't we be looking at their lyrics, their song ideas, the originality of it all? That is more or less what this blog is about. Pretentious, maybe, but I believe good music is more then a catchy phrase on a number of simple chords. A good singer-songwriter has a heart and soul story, and crafts a great melody to tell it you.
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