In the immortal lyrics of Peter Green
"I might not give the answer that you want me to"
OT: Greatest Songwriters
Jul 29, 2018
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For fans of the EU
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I'd personally nominate Carole King.
no 12 strings but nice hurdy gurdy ........
Although she started off in a Tin Pan Alley sweatshop as the other half of Goffin & King, I'd agree she's written some unique material.
I always liked the reply given by Sammy Kahn - another great songsmith - when asked "Which comes first, the words or the music?"
And his reply was "The phone call."
Nick
Yes, another great candidate. "Summertime" may be the most covered song, but I bet "modern major general" is the most parodied.
And George Formby.
I know I'm a sad git, but Burt Bacharach or Tony Hatch. If I'm feeling very 'hip', then Chick Corea.
If you're into that kind of stuff, these guys are the tops:
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Good, but not prolific enough. Can't beat Paul McCartney.
I've always felt that the 'ballad of eskimo nell' represented a pinnacle of something.
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very best, then listen to the Cole Porter songbook vol I and II and sung by the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald.
In message , newshound writes
I'm feeling old. The lovely Kate is 60 today.
That would depend on what sort of music you like and the criteria you use I suppose. If you mean the most populist with the general public, then I guess its possibly easier than if you are thinking musicals, classics etc. There are so many different genres. Many people enjoy the songs of Abba and many cannot stand them. Many say the Beatles yet others say they are derivative, yet others say Bacharach and David, but you could say they are all very sugary and wallpaper. Its really not a question with any one answer. To me many musicals contain songs that are jaw dropping but the Musical itself is a really artificial medium. Brian
Aye, a classic. At school, on the bog wall (an education in themselves), someone had written something that I believe was called Poor Blind Nell. I think I preferred that version.
Whatever became of the wonderful shithouse poets we had in the 1970s? I haven't seen any shithouse poetry for over 35yrs. They must have been displaced in the minds of the masses by the materialism of the 1980s and never recovered from it. Shame!
Over-zealous, Philistine bog-cleaners is my guess. The ones at our school were probably hosed-down once every five years, or something; whereas the ones at our lad's school are spotless. I feel like he's missing out on a whole world of lavatorial terror.
I liked the answer Don Maclean once gave when asked what "American Pie" meant.
"It means I don't have to work again."
And we mustn't forget this:
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