I realised recently that many of my favorite artists often went against the flow of commercial expectations from music companies and fans. Back in 1970s I first started listening to Neil Young and some four decades on I still love his music. Neil would periodically take a left turn that would shock his record company and albums like “Time Fades Away” “Tonight’s the Night” and “On the Beach” remain in my view some of the best music ever created. He is one of those artists that also speaks his mind and takes a position with such comments as
“Back then people closed their eyes and listened to music. Today there’s a lot of images that go with the music. A lot of music is crap and it’s all commercial and the images are all trying to sell the record.”
Another artist who definitely takes a position is of course Bob Dylan. Blood on the Tracks remains my all-time favorite album, wonderful lyrics and great tunes. Similarly Time out of Mind and Oh Mercy are fantastic. Bob’s X Mas album which I have as part of a giant box set will probably never get played!
Have more Tom Waits albums than any other artist and similarly Tom is known for creating a wide range of music, always provocative and fascinating. “Small Change” inspired the name for the band “The Small Change Diaries” and
again Tom has always had a very definite musical position. Like Bob and Neil at times the record company and the fans must have wondered what on earth was going on when he released “Black Rider” which even I found to be a tough listening experience!
Great Technical skills don’t always equate to great entertainment
When I first started playing the ukulele I had no formal tuition and simply transposed my previous guitar experience. Interestingly a number of people have suggested that my playing style is “bluegrass” which is mystifying to me as I have never consciously studied that music or consciously learned that approach. Technical skills are essential as a musician, but often technical flourishes alone don’t make for great entertainment. Like many people when I first saw Jake Shimabukuro play Bohemian Rhapsody I was amazed by his skills and it was a wonderful entertaining piece of playing. That said when I watched a DVD of him live despite all the technical flourishes I fast forwarded through the footage and was quite frankly not that enthused by what I saw and heard. The same is true for the guitar world. I’d rather hear Peter Green play a few notes than hear a modern day nu metal shredder.
STOP PRESS – Later in 2015 I interviewed Jake and saw him life and TOTALLY changed my mind about his playing!
Soul and Expression
For me music is all about soul and expression. A great song needs considered through provoking lyrics that tell some kind of story and a terrific melody. Many of the greatest songs are simple in structure, but wonderfully well considered. A great song will transport the listener to some other place, both lyrically and musically. In The Small Change Diaries Jessica and I play ukuleles, but we also can play a variety of other instruments, including flute, acoustic and electric guitars as well as dobro. Personally I’m not a fan of stereotyping any musical genre, whether this is blues, acoustic, country or any other approach. Ukulele players are often portrayed as eccentric, quirky almost in a music hall tradition. I appreciate that some folks might like this but it’s not to my taste. Like any profession developing song writing skills requires ongoing practice and application. Like Neil I lament what often passes for song’s these days where the writing is in my view often lazy and not that well considered.
Steve Earle commented
“All we do as songwriters is rewrite the songs that have impressed us till we find our own voice. It’s part of learning the craft” and I couldn’t agree more
