The products of my songwriting process cannot be compared with the art of real songwriters. They provide the sound tracks for the lives of millions of people.
Bob Dylan appeared at Lake Tahoe during the summer. I last saw him in the pre-electric folk days -- Bob Dylan and Joan Baez at the Greek Theatre at Berkeley. Forty-five years later, he is an icon. The electric sell-out debate is long passed except for a few diehard sexa-plus-genarians.
Bob Dylan is a songwriter for a couple of generations. “Blowin’ in the Wind” is a song for the civil rights movement of the early 60s. “Subterranean Homesick Blues” is a song for the mid-60s. “All Along the Watch Tower” was a hit for Jimi Hendrix. Bob Dylan wrote songs that became classics. The 60s, the 70s, and beyond. His catalog is so wide-ranging and so huge that any performance leaves the audience disappointed because he did not sing (fill in the blank).
Seeing Bob Dylan made me wonder who are my favorite songwriters. Then the next question to ponder is who are the important or influential songwriters in my life time? Once that list is started, somebody will be left out. Add some kind of ranking and somebody will be offended.
Where would the list begin? End? Would it be done alphabetically? Chronologically? By ranking? By importance? Pop? Meaningful? Serious? Genre? The possibilities are mind-boggling.
The potential list also is mind-boggling. Bob Dylan. John Lennon. Paul McCartney. Ray Davies. Neil Young. Paul Weller. Bruce Springsteen. Brian Wilson. Ray Charles. Doc Pomus. Willie Dixon. Chuck Berry. Patti Smith. Morrissey. Robert Smith. David Bowie. Carole King. Joni Mitchell. Peter Shelley. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Holland, Dozier, and Holland. Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Pete Seeger. Bono and The Edge.
Is country music to be included? Are instrumental writers like Gary Usher, Lee Hazelwood, Link Wray, and Joe Satriani included? What about Michael Jackson, whom a bunch of folks view as the chronicler of their generation? He would not be on my list. And we are not even thinking about jazz or classical music.
All this pondering brings me back to "Into the Flow." Of course, what we have to keep in mind is that those measly 8 truly simple songs never will make anybody’s list of favorites or list of songs of any significance. Recording them will remove an item from my “to do” or “bucket” list, and we will be able to say, “we recorded a CD.” That will separate us from hundreds of millions of others. But that will not threaten the legacies of any real songwriters.
Posterity may get our CD of 8 songs. But they never will have the impact on Posterity of any single Bob Dylan song or -- for that matter -- any song by a real songwriter. Real songwriters have nothing to fear!
Bob Dylan appeared at Lake Tahoe during the summer. I last saw him in the pre-electric folk days -- Bob Dylan and Joan Baez at the Greek Theatre at Berkeley. Forty-five years later, he is an icon. The electric sell-out debate is long passed except for a few diehard sexa-plus-genarians.
Bob Dylan is a songwriter for a couple of generations. “Blowin’ in the Wind” is a song for the civil rights movement of the early 60s. “Subterranean Homesick Blues” is a song for the mid-60s. “All Along the Watch Tower” was a hit for Jimi Hendrix. Bob Dylan wrote songs that became classics. The 60s, the 70s, and beyond. His catalog is so wide-ranging and so huge that any performance leaves the audience disappointed because he did not sing (fill in the blank).
Seeing Bob Dylan made me wonder who are my favorite songwriters. Then the next question to ponder is who are the important or influential songwriters in my life time? Once that list is started, somebody will be left out. Add some kind of ranking and somebody will be offended.
Where would the list begin? End? Would it be done alphabetically? Chronologically? By ranking? By importance? Pop? Meaningful? Serious? Genre? The possibilities are mind-boggling.
The potential list also is mind-boggling. Bob Dylan. John Lennon. Paul McCartney. Ray Davies. Neil Young. Paul Weller. Bruce Springsteen. Brian Wilson. Ray Charles. Doc Pomus. Willie Dixon. Chuck Berry. Patti Smith. Morrissey. Robert Smith. David Bowie. Carole King. Joni Mitchell. Peter Shelley. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Holland, Dozier, and Holland. Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Pete Seeger. Bono and The Edge.
Is country music to be included? Are instrumental writers like Gary Usher, Lee Hazelwood, Link Wray, and Joe Satriani included? What about Michael Jackson, whom a bunch of folks view as the chronicler of their generation? He would not be on my list. And we are not even thinking about jazz or classical music.
All this pondering brings me back to "Into the Flow." Of course, what we have to keep in mind is that those measly 8 truly simple songs never will make anybody’s list of favorites or list of songs of any significance. Recording them will remove an item from my “to do” or “bucket” list, and we will be able to say, “we recorded a CD.” That will separate us from hundreds of millions of others. But that will not threaten the legacies of any real songwriters.
Posterity may get our CD of 8 songs. But they never will have the impact on Posterity of any single Bob Dylan song or -- for that matter -- any song by a real songwriter. Real songwriters have nothing to fear!