Saturday, August 27, 2011

Song Writers

Music is highly personal. Ask a group of people to tell you some of their favourite songs and you will get a wide variety of answers. A friend of mine recently blogged about choosing his perfect music for a long road trip. Although I could appreciate his list and even liked some of the songs, his road songs and my road songs would be quite different. Many people tell me they never listen to lyrics; but I am a lyrics first person. Intelligent lyrics that I can sing are a must for me to engage a song. Good rhythm and melody are important but they come second.

This got me thinking and I decided to put together a list of some of my favourite song-writers and some of their songs. So, read this list and then let me know of one of your favourite song-writers and why you think they should be on my list.

Annie Tate, Dave Berg, and Sam Tate, writers of Moments
Dan Haseltine, Charlie Lowell, Stephen Mason, and Matt Odmark, writers of Faith Enough
Don Henley and Steuart Smith, writers of Waiting in the Weeds
Greg Keelor and Jim Cuddy, writers of Bad Timing
Harry Chapin, writer of Taxi
James Page and Robert Plant, writers of Stairway to Heaven
James Taylor, writer of Copperline
Jimmy Webb, writer of The Wichita Lineman
Mac McAnaly, writer of Down the Road
Marcus Mumford, writer of The Cave
Robbie Robertson, writer of The Weight
Wayne Kirkpatrick, Gordon Kennedy, and Tommy Simms, writers of Change the World

4 comments:

Chris Lantz said...

mmmmm... The Band. I should have included "Up on Cripple Creek" in my Road Trip Playlist (big thanks for the shout out by the way!).

How much time have you spent with Arcade Fire? Or Sufjan Stevens? They have a gift for lyrical portraits, and the music is always perfectly matched.

That's a pretty solid list you've got up there... I'd like to give Blue Rodeo another chance to win me over.

Keith Shields said...

I do not know those bands. Thanks for the suggestions.

Twila said...

Dad, you forgot your ultimate car traveling song...
"Nobody hurt, nobody harmed, nobody's business but my own..."
You've got a great list here though. You and Chris have made me want to create a new playlist on my i-pod!

Keith Shields said...

Ah yes, Twila, that would be "Nothin' Better To Do" written by Leann Rimes, Dean Sheremet, and Darrell Brown. Those are great lyrics and a great driving song.
http://www.metrolyrics.com/nothing-better-to-do-lyrics-leann-rimes.html