Singer/Songwriters

Poststructural Pub
21

Let me add one more clarification. To me, vocalist, implies using the voice as an instrument. Like a cello player, a person must master the basics of hitting proper notes, being able to play up and down more than a basic range to be considered a great player.

For performers, entertainers, anything goes, and likes and dislikes are fine. Perhaps it is a semantic distinction and some folks seem to have an opposite meaning in their mind, that a singer must have the ability to hit basic notes, and a vocalist is more in line of what I see as a performer.

Oh well, rule number one is that no one ever wins an argument on the Internet.

22

Isn’t that true.

If I had been meaning to argue I would not have voted for Queen and Oingo Boingo. :slight_smile:

It’s only my opinion.

23

Hmm…Well, I’m a big Elvis Costello fan. Other great singer/songwriters I might include would be Joni Mitchell, Arto Lindsay, Bob Dylan, Caetano Veloso, João Gilberto, David Byrne, and the great songwriting partnerships of the 20th century: Lennon & McCartney, Strummer & Jones, and Robert Forster & Grant McLennan (a.k.a. “The Go-Betweens”).

At the moment, my favorite new singer/songwriter is ex-Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. Here are the lyrics to his recent song “Quantum Theory” which was featured in the closing credits of the acclaimed film Children of Men. It’s got quite a catchy little chorus. If you feel like singing along, there’s a singalong video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_M22STINYw

Well did you hear, there’s a natural order?
Those most deserving will end up with the most?
That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top,

Well I say,… “Shit floats”.

If you thought things had changed,
Friend, you’d better think again,
Bluntly put, in the fewest of words:

Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world.

Now the working classes are obsolete,
They are surplus to society’s needs,
So let 'em all kill each other,
And get it made overseas.
That’s the word, don’t you know,
From the guys that’s running the show,
Lets be perfectly clear boys and girls,

Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world.

Oh feed your children on crayfish and lobster tails,
Find a school near the top of the league,
In theory I respect your right to exist,
I will kill you if you move in next to me,

Ah, it stinks, it sucks, it’s anthropologically unjust,
Oh but the takings are up by a third,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world.
(Cunts are still running the world)
(Cunts are still running the world)

The free market is perfectly natural,
Do you think that I’m some kind of dummy?
It’s the ideal way to order the world;
“F**k the morals, does it make any money?”

And if you don’t like it? Then leave.
Or use your right to protest on the street,
Yeah, use your right but don’t imagine that it’s heard,


Not whilst cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world,
Cunts are still running the world,

Cunts are still running… the world.

24

Well know.


a frightfully delightfull song

I am assuming here that the Fucking C word is something that should be ignored..apart from those who have never been anywhere near dere…

Slan,
D.

25

Ahhh…see, I didn’t know that. Well, maybe somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I did, but it had been long forgotten if that be the case. Thanks :slight_smile:

26

This is one of my favorite songs which Sinéad herself wrote. It’s called No Man’s Woman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCyKEKi4fP4

I remember once a few years ago when she was on The View (a popular American women’s talk show) and she was criticized for the song and video, by people who said it was anti-man. She responded “Look at Lenny Kravitz’ ‘American Woman’ (which was also popular at the time) and tell me that’s not anti-woman.” I really love her songwriting.

In the video, you can actually see something rare–Sinéad O’Connor with hair! It only lasts a little while, though. :wink:

With a head full of hair, she really looks like a different person. :boggle:

27

Interesting, few could pull off the no-hair look, but she can. Strange sentiment, that song… not sure about that…

28

I know that appearances don’t make the musician, but I think I like her better with no (or very short) hair. It just seems kind of weird to see her with long hair in the video, although it’s probably just because I’m accustomed to less hair. She still sounds the same. :slight_smile:

29

Steve Earle has written some mighty fine songs–the kind that have cowtime’s idea of truth in them, it seems to me.

carrie

30

Leonard Cohen

31

Agreed.

32

I’m joining this late so the discussion may be pretty much over, but:

You can’t beat Stan Rogers for a fine singer-songwriter.

Some others I really like are Bill Staines and Si Kahn.

33

Ewan MacColl
http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/ewan_a_to_z.htm
Man did he ever write.

Shane MacGowan.