Guilty, With An Explanation
Maybe my ten best song list should be explained a little. We all have our biases.
There are a few songwriters that I feel guilty for omitting. Rosanne Cash. Bacharach & David. Warren Zevon. Becker & Fagen. Hank Williams. Brian Wilson. Richard Thompson. Steve Forbert. Juliana Hatfield.
There are a few songwriters that I don't feel guilty omitting. Many largely due to lyrical faculty, or [as in the case of Neil Young], their inability to create music with wit or effervescence to it. Same goes for Elvis Costello, who just seems to exude too many calories, you know, as if the effort and the end result were the same thing.
There are a few songwriters that I feel guilty including on the list, because their high points were/are so few. But genius is undeniable.
If you think I'm saying that Juliana Hatfield is a better songwriter than Elvis Costello, you're right.
posted by Peevish @ 1:48 PM
2 Comments:
leonard cohen would be at the top of my list.
It took me a while to get to this one, so nobody may ever see this.
( sessions for solipsists, anyone? ) Juliana Hatfield is a cute trick and all, but....
as for Elvis II... three epochal albums in my salad days, one or two uneven ones in the 80's, then straight to Townsend land. Thus proving my theory that every songwriter, no matter how brilliant, has a finite capacity. Once it's gone, nothing can bring it back.
Except for Bob Dylan, who probably sold his soul to the Devil, or to Dock Boggs, who may be the devil anyway.
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