Areas Of The Music Industry

Landmark Songwriting analysis

Bob Dylan

“I began writing because I was singing. That’s the important thing. I started writing because things were changing all the time and a certain song needed to be written. I started writing them because I wanted to sing them. Anyway, one thing led to another and I just kept writing my own songs, but I stumbled into it really. It was nothing I had prepared myself for, but I did sing a lot of songs before I wrote any of my own. I think that’s important too." - Bob Dylan, Not Like a Rolling Stone Interview (1985)

Bob Dylan was born in Minnesota in 1941.  He is a prolific singer songwriter and musician, whose career has spanned over five decades. As an artist and writer, he expresses his opinion on politics, racism, poverty and social issues. He is commonly referred to as a folk artist, but is also clearly influenced by blues, country, gospel, rock and roll, rockabilly, jazz and swing. 

The instrumental parts of his songs are not very complicated. This is because his songs are about the lyrics more than about the instrumental. He makes the instrumentals as simple as possible to allow the lyrics to stand out. He uses sophisticated lyrical techniques to telescope his opinions and ideas and reflect the truth of life. He does not follow a specific lyric structure very often. It is very open and not repetitive as there hardly ever is a chorus. That is why it feels more like a poem or a story and it seems to be more about sending a message then to really entertain people.

He often tries to take a classical story and add something totally unexpected. For example, in his song 'As I Went Out One Morning', he takes the 'damsel in distress' theme and adds his own twist. He also says that the best songs he wrote were the ones that were written very quickly. 

His instrumentals mostly contain one or two instruments (acoustic guitar, harmonica, piano). Bob Dylan mostly uses a 1-4-5 progression, which is mainly used in blues and country.

  G        C            D        G                  

   How many roads must a man walk down, Before you 

  C          G    G        C           D          

    call him a man, How many Seas must a white dove

  G               C             D             G

   sail before she sleeps in the sand, Yes and how
'Blowin in the wind'

Stevie Wonder

"I can't say that I'm always writing in my head but I do spend a lot of time in my head writing or coming up with ideas. And what I do usually is write the music and melody and then, you know, maybe the basic idea. But when I feel that I don't have a song or just say, God, please give me another song. And I just am quiet and it happens." - Stevie Wonder (2010)

 Stevie Wonder was born in Michigan in 1950. Although he became blind shortly after his birth, he learnt to play the piano, synthesiser, harmonica, congas, drums, bass, guitar, bongos, organ, melodica, and clarinet from a very young age. He is mostly known for being a singer, songwriter and musician who writes in a funk, jazz, pop and R&B style. 
His instrumentals are very important in his songs, they are full and energetic, which he accomplishes by uses a lot of instruments, such as guitar, piano, drums, horns and more. Stevie has a habit of using extended chords, such as 7th's, 9th's, 11th's, 13th's and diminished 5th's, which make his songs very rich, dynamic and powerful. Because of the extended chords there is a lot of room for harmonies, which he uses a lot. He also uses melismatic techniques, which means that a syllable is sung over several notes. His melodies make unpredictable changes that keep your attention. One example is the key change in 'I Just Called To Say I love You'. He also uses a lot of interesting chord progressions, for example the chord progression at the end of each verse in 'Superstition', which makes his songs unique.

            E9      D#9    D9    C#9

But just be-cause a record has a groove,

      D9      D#9    E9

Don't make it in the groove.

            E9           D#9    D9     C#9

But you can tell right a-way at letter A,

         D9  D#9 E9    F9 F#9  F#7

When the peo-ple start to move.

Sir Duke

----------------

chorus2

F#        G#      C#

Called to say   I love you    I just

Ebm7      G#             Bbm7

Called to say how much I care I just

 chorus 3 

G         A       D

Called to say   I love you    I just

Em7       A              Bm7

Called to say how much I care I just

 chorus 4 

Ab        Bb    Eb

Called to say   I love you    I just

Fm7       Bb    Cm7

Called to say how much I care I just

I just called to say I love you

-------

Stevie's lyrics and voice are not less important. His lyrics are mainly about life, fun and love, but sometimes he uses it give is opinion in political issues. For example in 'Ebony and Ivory', he sings about ebony and ivory living in perfect harmony. As ebony stands for black people and ivory stand for white people, he is talking about the fact that white and black people should be able to live together in harmony. 

Johnny Cash

"I start a lot more songs than I finish, because I realise when I get into them, they're no good. I don't throw them away, I just put them away, store them, get them out of sight." Johnny Cash (1993)

Johnny Cash was born in Arkansas in 1932 and died in 2003. As well as being a singer, songwriter and musician, he was also an actor and author. He is known for country, rock, gospel blues and folk music.

Cash doesn't have a particular formula for writing his songs, because they just started coming to him, but he does have a theme, KISS; Keep It Simple Stupid. You can see that in the instrumentals of his songs, which mostly contain only three chords, for example in 'I Walk The Line' and 'Ring of Fire'.

Johnny's songs are very personal, he wrote them to express himself to the world, about love, life, his beliefs and his opinion about things happening in the world, writing about what he was feeling without obligations. 

I walk the line is a song about love, while 'Folsom Prison Blues' was a rockabilly prison song and 'The Man Comes Around' about the second coming of Christ.

         B7                           E
I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
          B7                     E
I keep my eyes wide open all the time.
           A                         E
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
               B7               E
Because you're mine, I walk the line

I walk the Line

The guitar is definitely his main instrument, but he also uses drums, bass, percussion and more. His songs contain little catchy riddles and lead parts to make his songs stand out, even though the structure is simple. 

His vocals are very simple and straight forward, no harmonies, ad libs or improvisation.

Bob Marley

“yeah me see myself as a revolutionary, wouldn't want no help and imma take no bribe from no one and fight it single handed with music” - Bob Marley 1979

Nesta Robert Marley was born in Jamaica in 1945 and died in 1981. He became internationally famous for his trademark style through a series of crossover reggae albums.

Bob Marley's one and only genre is reggae, which you can recognise because of the typical muted strumming, two quavers on the second and the fourth beat, by the electric guitar played by himself. There is a lot of percussion in his songs, an organ playing the chords and harmonies which make the song very rich and dynamic. All these features are typical of reggae.  He mostly wrote about the issues in his homeland, his political view on how the Jamaicans were treated. He is also motivated by his religion, Rastafarianism, which originates from Ethiopia in Africa. The underlying messages in his lyrics advocate freedom, unity, love, peace and spirituality.

A        E
One love, one heart
D           A          E        A
Let's get together and feel all right
                 A
As it was in the beginning (One love)
                      E
So shall it be in the end (One heart)
              D                        A               E      
 A
Alright, Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right.
D           A          E        A

Let's get together and feel all right. (One more thing)

One Love

Even though I chose very different songwriters, they do have a lot in common. I’m able to draw comparisons between Political and social messages in Bob Marley’s and Bob Dylan’s writing, where Stevie Wonder and Johnny cash are motivated by love, life and emotions. Although, Stevie Wonder has a very positive point of view whereas Johnny Cash tends to be quite melancholy and depressive. Harmony and instrumentation have a more simple form in the case of Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, while Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley use larger bands and additional vocal harmonies and instrumental solo passages. Even though Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan are very different artists, Stevie wonder clearly was inspired by Bob Dylan’s writing, as he covered his ‘Blowin in the wind’ with Dyonne Warwick in 1966. Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash collaborated on the song ‘Girl in the North country’.