Songwriting Genius
Yesterday, I was watching some music videos when I realized that some musicians are simply geniuses. These are people that wrote great songs with more than one band.
Here is the beginning of a long list.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney:
No explanation needed here. Each wrote many songs for the Beatles, and also had many hits as a solo artist.
Neil Young:
He has been writing great songs for many decades. His songs are so strong that they are hits even though he's singing and playing lead guitar.
Ritchie Blackmore :
His video was the one that made me think of this list. He wrote a ton of great songs with Deep Purple, Rainbow (all iterations) and now Blackmore's Night. He proved that he was the driving force behind Deep Purple when he left to form Rainbow. There were many iterations of Rainbow, each having a great deal of great songs. Throughout the years, he has been able to produce great songs with many different people. He even made a few \"hits\" with Blackmore's Night, a complete genre change.
There are MANY more that should be on this list, add the artists you believe belong here.
One I left off this list is :
Jimmy Page:
I know, I'm crazy. He is one of the 2 reasons that I ever picked up a guitar. There is no denying that he wrote many great songs in Led Zeppelin, including the song that is always #1 in the greatest rock song lists. But, I left him off because of one thing, The Firm. The firm had a few songs that hit the radio, but none that ever came close to the stature Led Zeppelin. This may be due to the fact that Led Zeppelin had 4 incredible musicians that had incredible chemistry. The album \"In Through the out Door\" was proof of this. The album sounds so different from the rest because Page wasn't there for the most part. Even without his tremendous input, this album was a huge hit.
Here is the beginning of a long list.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney:
No explanation needed here. Each wrote many songs for the Beatles, and also had many hits as a solo artist.
Neil Young:
He has been writing great songs for many decades. His songs are so strong that they are hits even though he's singing and playing lead guitar.
Ritchie Blackmore :
His video was the one that made me think of this list. He wrote a ton of great songs with Deep Purple, Rainbow (all iterations) and now Blackmore's Night. He proved that he was the driving force behind Deep Purple when he left to form Rainbow. There were many iterations of Rainbow, each having a great deal of great songs. Throughout the years, he has been able to produce great songs with many different people. He even made a few \"hits\" with Blackmore's Night, a complete genre change.
There are MANY more that should be on this list, add the artists you believe belong here.
One I left off this list is :
Jimmy Page:
I know, I'm crazy. He is one of the 2 reasons that I ever picked up a guitar. There is no denying that he wrote many great songs in Led Zeppelin, including the song that is always #1 in the greatest rock song lists. But, I left him off because of one thing, The Firm. The firm had a few songs that hit the radio, but none that ever came close to the stature Led Zeppelin. This may be due to the fact that Led Zeppelin had 4 incredible musicians that had incredible chemistry. The album \"In Through the out Door\" was proof of this. The album sounds so different from the rest because Page wasn't there for the most part. Even without his tremendous input, this album was a huge hit.
Comments
You have to add George Harrison to the list, as well as Eric Clapton. Ted Nugent comes to mind....Tommy Shaw... Steve Howe... Michael Schenker....
Guitarists are awesome!
Chris chistofferson,
Bob Dylan,
Hank Williams Sr.
Merle Haggard..
George Jones...
For pure tunesmithing with guitar Top 5....
Jimi,
Zappa,
Muddy,
John Lee,
Robert Johnson.
For pure tunesmithing pop music Top 5
Neil Sedaka,
Lennon and Mcartney,
Rogers and Hammerstein,
Cole Porter,
Billy Joel,
This list could go on a long time with many more additions to the above categories PLUS many additional categories I could add. But I don't want to sound like Bubba describing to Forrest the many ways to cook shrimp.
EEEKKK...... Just one more........Stevie Wonder.........
See what I mean. BBQ shrimp, Fried Shrimp, Shrimp Salad... etc.....
See Ya,
Tal
I definitely second that. Blackmore's playing always seemed to me reflective of the overall song and underlying musical idea, rather than pure improvisation. It also has a unique energy, the entrance of which into mainstream rock can be credited, in part, to Ritchie.
As far as reaching the stature of Zep, very very few ever will. I don't disagree with you, I am just trying to say trhe Firm had great stuff.
MOST great music never gets radio time.
I agree, Billy Joe, or whatever his name is, is quite a musical talent. I hope someday he moves his target audience past Jr. High.
When I was 9, I went to NYC with my parents. I was just starting guitar and asked to go to a record store in the Village. Hippies were the big thing, but there were still remnants of the Beatnik generation around. One such person approached me as I was combing through the current rack of hit albums and said something along the line of....\"hey little daddio, you won't find the good stuff in that rack\". I replied, \"Where will I find the good stuff?\" His answer, \"You have to search for the good stuff, and most of the time, it will find you.\" The album I bought that day was Axis: Bold As Love. I've followed that advice all my life and discovered quite a few of the genius caliber. Most of whom have never been discovered by the general public, and probably never will. True genius never searches for fame, it is usually thrust upon them.
Would any of the artists in the above replies care if they were not famous? I'm certain they would not. The thing is, they have to write songs. They're compelled to write songs. They can't stop writing songs. For those of us that \"discover\" them, this is a very good thing.
Quote:
MOST great music never gets radio time.
Very true.... A couple of other quotes which I have found to be true over the years..
As a young lad taking classical guitar lessons, my teacher assigned me a work by Ponce.. I enquired, \"Who is this Ponce character. I've never heard of him?\"..
My teacher replied:
\"Just because You haven't heard of him does not make him any less famous!!!\".
The other memorable quote came when I was a young hot dog guitar player playing in college big band jazz....The instructor passed out an old chart \"Satin Doll\"... Everyone in the band groaned with excalmations of \"This Sucks!!!\"... Instructor started the tune out amongst much snickering about how this tune was beneath us etc.... To our amazement we couldn't play it. We sounded like crap!!!!
After our attempt the instructor said something I'll never forget..
\"If you can't play it, it probably doesn't suck\".
See Ya,
Tal