Tribute to Singer -Songwriters

Today, I'll be paying tribute to singer-songwriters who made some deep impressions on me. These people write the songs they sing on their own. First, there is Bob Dylan. A lot of you might think of him as that old guy who mumbles when he sings in that nasal voice. And you are right, that's him now. I'm not too crazy about the way he sings now either, but his lyrics are amazing. His albums from early 60's through mid 70's like Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blood on the Tracks are masterpieces of folk and rock music. Visions of Johanna is my favorite, check out the live acoustic version from the Biograph box set. It's Alright Ma, (I'm Only Bleeding) is also excellent. His songs makes me feel like most of the songs I hear on the radio are so cheap and meaningless. What I love about his songs is that every time you listen to the songs, you can interpret the lyrics in different ways.






















David Bowie went through a lot of changes during his career that spans almost 40 years, but I love his songs from the 70's the most. My favorite albums are Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust and Station to Station. His 1969 Space Oddity is one of my all time favorite songs ever. They should've chosen better 30 seconds as sample though... He skillfully and tastefully incorporated diminished chords, half-diminished chords and augmented chords in his songwriting. He's definitely not the first one to use those chords in rock music, the Beatles had done it well, but I love how he puts songs together with unusual chord sequences. It sounds fresh. His lyrics can be as abstract as Dylan's and he writes less about everyday life. Chord progression for Life on Mars? gave me the chills when I first learned it.






















Joni Mitchell started out as a folk singer in the late 60's. Some of her early classic albums are Blue and Court and Spark. She tunes her guitars her own way when she wirtes songs. She's worked with some first class jazz musicians such as Charles Mingus, Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker and Jaco Pastorius throughout her career and some of her albums after mid 70's are heavily influenced by jazz music. Her Grammy winning Turbulent Indigo from 1994 has many great moments, and the song The Magdelene Laundries digs deep.













There are many other sontwriters worth mentioning that I adore like the Beatles (not just Lennon & McCartney, but George Harrison wrote some amazing stuff), Sting and Lou Reed from Velvet Underground, but maybe some other time.