During the 80s, Simon helped bring what is often referred to as “world music” into the mainstream with his multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning Graceland album, which was inspired by the songs and rhythms of the townships of South Africa. Had his career ended with Simon And Garfunkel’s dissolution in 1970, Simon would still be ranked among the world’s best songwriters, but he’s since gone on to enjoy a stellar solo career, with his 70s output yielding hits including Mother And Child Reunion, Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard and 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover. Releasing five multi-million-selling albums together during the late 60s, the pair were responsible for evergreen hits such as The Sound Of Silence, America, Mrs Robinson, The Boxer and Bridge Over Troubled Water. It’s a good way to get to grips with Simon’s sprawling, yet seismic, 60-year catalogue of work, which began with his apprenticeship as a producer and songwriter for Amy Records before he hit paydirt as the songwriting half of folk-pop duo Simon And Garfunkel. In an interview with American Songwriter, New Jersey-born Paul Simon revealed that he breaks his catalogue down into three chunks: “I think you could look at my work as divided into three distinct periods: Simon And Garfunkel, pre- Graceland solo albums and Graceland to the present.” It’s impossible not to wonder what Buddy Holly might have achieved had he lived, but future superstars such as Bob Dylan, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones have long since paid tribute to his influence on their own careers, with Stones guitarist Keith Richards even telling Holly biographer Ellis Amburn, “Holly passed it on via The Beatles and via us… He’s in everybody.” Influenced by the country and gospel music of the US South, as well as rhythm’n’blues, Holly was a skilled and highly prolific singer-songwriter who scored massive hits with evergreens such as That’ll Be The Day, Peggy Sue and Oh! Boy, and he left a wealth of unfinished material behind after his tragically early death, aged just 22, in a plane crash, on 3 February 1959.Īrtistically, Holly’s songwriting skills were prodigious, and his final studio session – with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, in New York City, in October 1958 – yielded sophisticated material such as his True Love Ways. Arguably the most pioneering figure of his era, Holly not only defined the traditional rock’n’roll line-up of two guitars, bass and drums with his band, The Crickets, but he also placed the emphasis on writing his own material at a time when such a thing was virtually unheard of. Indeed, it’s this singular ability to balance the tough with the tender which has led Hynde to writing career-defining hits such as 2000 Miles, Brass In Pocket and I’ll Stand By You, securing her place in this august company.Įlvis Presley may be crowned “The King Of Rock’n’Roll”, but in terms of influencing the future course of modern music, Texan-born Buddy Holly trumps him every time. However, early classics such as Lovers Of Today and the county-tinged Kid showed that the best Pretenders songs had far more to offer than sass and sarcasm. Hynde first launched Pretenders in the aftermath of punk, and that music’s aggression and attitude has often seeped into the group’s harder-edged songs, not least the likes of Precious, The Adultress and Middle Of The Road. Yet while Hynde has skilfully chosen collaborators from James Honeyman-Scott through to Pretenders’ latter-day lead guitarist, James Walbourne, it’s her talents as a songsmith which have ensured her band has thrived for over four decades.
She’s a team player through and through and rates the idea of being in a band above an individual’s input.
Listen to our Rock Classics playlist here, and check out our 20 best songwriters, below.Ĭhrissie Hynde might be dismissive of her inclusion among the world’s very best songwriters. Here we pay tribute to those who have flipped music’s script, and countdown the 20 best songwriters of all time. It helps all great pop and rock acts to have a unique sound and a memorable image, but ultimately it’s the quality of their songs that rewards them with longevity.
0 kommentar(er)
