Throughout all of the genres explored here, there are musicians who mainly perform their own songs, mainly perform songs written by others, or perform some combination of original and borrowed repertoire. Even in a genre like blues, which is still frequently, and often mistakenly, construed as a superiorly authentic genre whose performers express their most profound personal emotions through descriptions of their literal autobiographical experience, many musicians frequently perform songs written by others. For instance, Bessie Smith composed many of her own lyrics, but also recorded songs by Percy Grainger, Fletcher Henderson, and many others. Indeed, many of the songs that Taft cites in his study of the blues lyric formula were written by someone other than the performer, but he simply attributes the songs to the performers who made them familiar to audiences.
This same mix of borrowing and originality holds true for early country music, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and again brings up the question of which artists should, in a study like this, receive attribution for the songs under consideration, when the singer and songwriter are different people. Following Taft, my solution here is simply to identify the songs with the musicians who are most prominently featured on the singles, albums, and compilations that I’m working with... Elvis Presley was primarily a performer who recorded songs written by multiple songwriters, and yet many of those songs remain more closely associated with Presley than with the composer, by virtue of both his exceptional interpretations and his access to a wider market than was available to Black musicians whose songs he performed; Willie Dixon, by contrast, was not only a performer but also a prodigious songwriter whose work was performed by a wide range of artists, but his songs nonetheless remain closely associated with Dixon the songwriter.
One of the most direct ways that songs resonate with listeners is, of course, through their lyrics, and these pre-rock singers, and their handlers, correspondingly chose to record and issue the songs, whether original or not, that they hoped would speak to their audience most persuasively, and therefore sell the most records.
Source: Blues Lyric Formulas in Early Country Music, Rhythm and Blues, and Rock and Roll by Nicholas Stoia
This same mix of borrowing and originality holds true for early country music, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, and again brings up the question of which artists should, in a study like this, receive attribution for the songs under consideration, when the singer and songwriter are different people. Following Taft, my solution here is simply to identify the songs with the musicians who are most prominently featured on the singles, albums, and compilations that I’m working with... Elvis Presley was primarily a performer who recorded songs written by multiple songwriters, and yet many of those songs remain more closely associated with Presley than with the composer, by virtue of both his exceptional interpretations and his access to a wider market than was available to Black musicians whose songs he performed; Willie Dixon, by contrast, was not only a performer but also a prodigious songwriter whose work was performed by a wide range of artists, but his songs nonetheless remain closely associated with Dixon the songwriter.
One of the most direct ways that songs resonate with listeners is, of course, through their lyrics, and these pre-rock singers, and their handlers, correspondingly chose to record and issue the songs, whether original or not, that they hoped would speak to their audience most persuasively, and therefore sell the most records.
Source: Blues Lyric Formulas in Early Country Music, Rhythm and Blues, and Rock and Roll by Nicholas Stoia
Christine McVie - Bad Journey
- Released: 09/07/2004
- Produced by: Christine McVie, Ken Caillat, Dan Perfect
- Released on: In The Meantime album
"In 1998, the Fleetwood Mac was induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006, McVie was awarded the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors' Gold Badge of Merit."
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