Where are the Smiths? (as in “tune” and “word”)

On occasion I hear “main-stream” FM radio and I have realized that virtually all of the popular artists are singing songs that I call “slab compositions,” a term I have coined myself for lack of a better identifier. What seems to be going on is that composers (even some of the better singer/songwriters) just take a bunch of chord changes and then sing only notes that fall in the chord and what comes out is this “slab” of a song. If you want a sample of what I am talking about, just check out “The Pulse,” channel 26 on Sirius/XM satellite radio. And, the lyrics, when sung in this monotonous, often-single note repetition, come out boring and lifeless. (I actually can write one these type songs pretty easily by just getting out my guitar and working out a nice chord sequence and then simply singing some notes that fall under the hand).

The problem is that we have pretty much lost the tunesmiths and the wordsmiths these days, at least in pop and modern rock. It’s difficult and tricky to write really cool tunes that don’t come out as simple slabs, and it’s just as hard to write lyrics that have some soul and zest yet aren’t corny or cheesy. I could give you a hundred examples “the real deal,” ranging from pretty much anything Paul Simon wrote more than 10 years ago (“American Tune” is sheer genius) to the songs from most of the great traditional musicals (“I Loves You Porgy” indeed). But one example that just popped into my head as I was thinking about this was this:

“And if you should survive to 105
Think of all you’ll derive out of being alive
And here is the best part
You’ll have a head start
If you are among the very young at heart.”

Of course this is from the great song “Young at Heart” written by Carolyn Leigh, lyrics, and Johnny Richards, tune, popularized by Sinatra in the mid-fifties and covered hundreds of times by other artists, including of late none other than Tom Waits!

Perhaps I will weigh in further on this subject in later posts with actual links to the music I am discussing, but that will have to wait for another day.

~ Tom of the young at heart