Ridiculous statement in Toronto Star

Subject: RE: Ridiculous statement in Toronto Star
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 11:09 PM

If there was a #1, I would be inclined to award it to Tom Waits - especially as Time is the song I play when ever I am feeling sad.

Thinking of Tom Waits, I am surprised how few people in my part of the UK have even heard of him.

Jon

Subject: RE: Ridiculous statement in Toronto Star
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 10:55 PM

Ridiculous is an understatement. If you were talking about most INFLUENTAL songwriter, a case could be made for Dylan (and George M Cohan, John Phillips Sousa, etc.)

BEST Songwriters? I'd bet a million bucks that the reviewer has never even heard of 3/4 of the songwriters that get mentioned on Mudcat. Unless you're a Beach Boy fan, you'd be hard pressed to name more than five or six Wilson songs.

Just silly and shows total ignorance. Now the KEY question is how many Star readers, would be able to name ten quality songwriters period? Very few I'll bet.

Rick

Subject: RE: Ridiculous statement in Toronto Star
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 10:39 PM

And one of them was gay--but that belongs on another thread--

Subject: RE: Ridiculous statement in Toronto Star
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 08:53 PM

Ah, like Gilbert and Sullivan! But only one of them got the knightship, right? And did the Star really specify songwriters?

Subject: RE: Ridiculous statement in Toronto Star
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 07:06 PM

Brian Wilson is a great arranger and record producer, probably one of the most important ever, and Paul McCartney is very open about acknowledging his influence(and Paul is not one who gives out much praise) with Pet Sounds, on the concept and execution of Sgt Pepper. Pet Sounds pretty much determined what recorded music has sounded like ever since.

His compositions are amazingly sophisticated music that sound very simple. A lot of people never could get past the seeming simple mindedness of many of the Beach Boys songs to hear the music, which is kind of a shame.

Anyway, if Dylan was the major influence on all lyricists that followed him, Brian Wilson was just as much an influence on the way that the music actually sounded--

If you could combine the Dylan approach to lyrics with the Brian Wilson sound, you would really have something--and that is what everyone has tried to do since--

Subject: RE: Ridiculous statement in Toronto Star
From: Jeri
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 06:10 PM

Depends on exactly what they meant by #2. :-o
(Probably someone just being a little overexcited. Brian Wilson - Yikes!!!)

Subject: RE: Ridiculous statement in Toronto Star
From: Peter T.
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 05:43 PM

Well, I don't know about Brian Wilson ( I can take or leave most of his stuff), but Dylan is certainly high on the list. Stephen Sondheim is widely acknowledged to be the greatest American songwriter of the last 40 years (and gets my vote).

yours, Peter T.

Subject: Ridiculous statement in Toronto Star
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 17 Jul 00 - 05:36 PM

Saturdays Toronto Star had an article about Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson as they are both playing here this week.

It opened with a statement something like: When rating the great American songwriters of the last 40 years, these two have to be considered number one and two.

I have no problem with Dylan as #1, but Brian Wilson #2???? I think he was a jingle writer whose lyrics were meaningless, his melodies were often just slightly altered variations of his other works.

This statment really bothered me. It is a slap in the face to Willie Nelson, John Prine, Rickie Lee Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Kris Kristoffersen, Willie Dixon, Tom Waits and many, many other fine writers.