Rock On, Songwriters, etc.
Riff and I happened to discuss songwriters when we spoke a few weeks ago. The topic came up when we started talking about the song Riff’s working on, which is for his school. The topic soon moved to vocalists – Riff said his respect for vocalists has increased since he started working on the song, especially now that he’s working on the phrasing. Very soon Rock On – the movie – came into the picture. Riff felt that the phrasing for the songs in that movie were pretty bad. Interestingly, a writer at Split magazine who reviewed the movie didn’t like the songs either, but in his case he was referring to the lyrics, not the way they were sung. As for me, I loved all the songs on the album. In fact I heard just two of the songs in repeat mode for about two weeks. I also liked the lyrics. They weren’t “great”, but they certainly weren’t bad, and they were perfect given the setting of the movie. From Rock On, the topic moved to songwriters.
The vocalists/songwriters we spoke about that day were Ian Gillan, David Gilmour, Ronnie James Dio, Robert Plant, David Coverdale, Joe Hughes, and Ozzy Osbourne, in that order. I thought I would share some of my views about these songwriters. Note that these are just my thoughts and only about the songwriting skills of these vocalists, not their singing.
Ian Gillan: Now Ian Gillan’s lyrics are very simple – a lot of them like Ted the mechanic, Smoke on Water discuss his personal experiences (literally, no metaphors here 
. They are no-brainers and no attempt is made to sound philosophical. In fact that is one reason I like his songs.
The songs written by David Gilmour (and Pink Floyd songwriters in general) on the other hand have much more depth to them; they have a mystical quality about them. Riff and I discussed the starting words of ‘Sorrow’ – “Sweet smell of great sorrow lies over the land” – imagine the combination of words – “sweet smell” and “great sorrow”. How does one think of lyrics like these? I’ve tried to come up with lyrics sometimes like ” rain drenched troubled furniture”, but they are no where near the mystical quality of Pink Floyd songs. And sorrow isn’t the only one. High Hopes, Learning to fly,, Comfortably Numb. Pink Floyd songs whether they’ve been written by Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright (RIP), Syd Barrett (RIP) have had this quality. Their songs remain enigmatic even after you’ve heard them hundreds of times. They say a “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say”. Pink Floyd songs in this sense are true classics (And no rock fan will debate that).
But then not everyone is a David Gilmour. Not everyone can smoke pot and write coherent yet wacky songs like these. But then not everyone is an Ian Gillian either – write songs simple enough to be understandable, yet not banal. Kansas songs had a similar quality. I’m not a lyrics person – when listening to songs I rarely pay attention to the lyrics. I pay attention to the music and the sound of the vocalist in relation to the other instrumental tracks. But with Kansas, I actually started paying attention to the lyrics too. They were not hard for me to follow and they were very nice. They had a certain ring to it, that made them memorable. Dust in the Wind, Carry on Wayword Son are of course well known. Among the lesser known songs by Kansas – check out Portrait (about Einstein), Closet Chronicles (a song about Howard Hughes).
Ronnie James Dio is considered a great song writer by legions of metal and music fans. But frankly, I don’t understand his songs or the references that he uses in his songs. I told Riff that for me Ronnie James Dio is somewhere between the David Gilmours and Ian Gillians of the world. Holy Diver is considerered a classic song both in terms of the song in general as well as the lyrics, but for me they make no sense. The songs he wrote for Black Sabbath – falling from the edge of the world, etc. are a little simpler to understand, but again they are nothing spectacular. They deal with topics that Black Sabbath’s music dealt with at the time – the religion, apocalypse, etc, and they do convey these well in the form of a good song, but I don’t understand the “greatness” of it.
Robert Plant – Riff said humorously that almost all his songs deal with a woman and love. Including “stairway to heaven” which involves a woman – some woman. I once read a comment by Jimmy Page that it was after Robert Plant penned ‘Stairway to Heaven’ that he recognized Plant’s songwriting abilities. Jimmy Page, may be, not me. I can’t make sense of that song.
David Coverdale – I’ve only heard ‘soldier of fortune’, on which he collaborated with Ritchie Blackmore. I like that song – I can listen to the song hundreds of times and more without getting tired of listening to it.
Joe Hughes wrote Stormbringer with David Coverdale. Riff said the song is excellent. I’ve heard the song, but never paid attention to the lyrics.
Ozzy Osbourne – One thing about his songs – at one point of time I used to spend nights in office because it was too late to get any kind of public transportation to get back home. I used to spend those nights listening to music. Ozzy Osbourne’s songs (from his solo career) were the only ones that could keep me awake all night long. His songs are not enigmatic, they are simple and again deal mostly with darker issues that metal generally deals with.
Now coming back to Rock On (you didn’t think I was going to let this go so easily, did you! . Javed Akhtar wrote those songs. I think everyone (including those who hate the lyrics of Rock On) will agree that he is a great lyricist and poet. For the movie, he had the challenge of having to write songs that appear (in the movie) to be written by a rock band – a band that doesn’t really have much success. And they have to feel like they were Rock and Roll songs. The songs sung by the band in the movie certainly convey that. The two other songs in the movie that play in the background on the other hand are much better songs and have excellent lyrics. Why would there be so much difference in the quality of the songs written by the same person for the same movie? Probably only if he really meant to have it that way.
Hey, I’m no judge of what makes for a great song or a Rock and Roll song, but I loved everyone of those songs. They had an Ian Gillian – quality to them. They were not great songs, but they were certainly not bad. They were no-brainers, and were catchy. If those songs weren’t in a movie, but were instead sung by a real band at a concert I was at, I think I would most definitely be singing along just like has been shown in the movie. For me that’s what makes a good song.
Themocracy
I think you’re a somewhat unfair to Robert Plant. Some of his lyrics (No Quarter, All of my Love) puzzle me no less than any of the Gilmour pieces. Interesting reading though!
Albertas: I was probably unfair to all the songwriters I mentioned in my post and whose lyrics I said didn’t make sense to me.
My post was about what I felt about these songwriters at the moment. I don’t doubt their abilities either as vocalists or songwriters – I can’t relate to their lyrics now, but that can change.
Regarding Robert Plant – Both No Quarter (I love the multi-layered instrumental/vocal textures in the song) and All of my Love are among my favorite Led Zeppelin songs although I must admit I didn’t really pay attention to the lyrics in either of them – mostly because I’m not a lyrics person (as I’d mentioned in the post). I liked these (and other Led Zeppelin songs like Kashmir, Whole Lotta Love, etc) because of the complexity and variety. I think Robert Plant is a great vocalist – I like a lot of his solo works too (I even went to one of his concerts) – it’s just that I can’t relate to their lyrics at the moment – but again that can change. On a relate note, I was going to mention Gallows Pole as another Led Zep. song that I like a lot and tackles a different topic in its lyrics, but I just saw that the song may not have been written by them.
Regarding No Quarter again, thanks for reminding me about the song! A few weeks ago I heard that song after a span of few months and I was reminded of why I love Led Zep’s music!