JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Difference between Liking and Appreciating

That's correct. Something that always sort of bothers me with some writers are LACK OF CONTEXT, when it comes to songs. Over my years as an evaluator, teaching workshops, working with private writers and artists, etc. on songwriting, and certain songs, there are always writers that have this 5, 6, 7 and 8 minute songs that tend to drift around, really don't ever get their points across, and are more "tone poems" than actual songs. When you say something about how hard it is to get people to focus on songs to begin with, much less some of these "long forays" they will bring up the same things: "Inna Gadda Divida", "wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, American Pie, Stairway to Heave, some of Dylans songs, "Like a Rolling Stone."

CONTEXT is always in order. By the time Zepplin got to Stairway, they had dozens of hits, on their other records. "Whole Lotta Love" "Rock and Roll" and their tours were HUGE. So by the time "Stairway" came along, they were cemented in the firmiament of rock and roll.They could have done anything and sold millions of records. Same with most all artists throughout history. "Amerian Pie" was one of Don McClean's hits along with Vincent and others. But that one hit like nothing else. Gordon Lightfoot had "SUNDOWN" "IF YOU CAN READ MY MIND" and was already a standard on FM radio before "FITZGERALD."
And to be honest, those longer songs are usually VERY WELL WRITTEN. Many hold up today and some are even more popular. "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY" is arguably one of the most famous songs in rock history. Again, had Queen not had a HUGE track record before that song, it probably would not have done that. But today it is still very well written and constructed. A pleasure to listen to from beginning to end.

Also, you have to consider the advent of "flower power" experimental music, and of course, the advent of FM radio, where an 18 minute song with a 7 minute drum solo allowed the DJ to go eat, go to the bathroom, smoke pot, or....other things. Long solos and extended songs were a staple of that format, back where the guitar player, drummer, keyboards, bass solos, were as big a part of the music as the song itself. It was actually the standard.

Then time and formats changed, and actually changed back to where it was before the 60's and 70's, with shorter formats, clear channel, and now the Internet and the shorter attention spans, getting and keeping attention is one of the hardest things to do even on shorter songs.

But yes, star power can have a lot ot to with the success of a song. All in the context of those songs.