Men Singing About Women in the late ’70s.
Lately I’ve been in a major late-70′s sad man singer-songwriter phase. Lots of Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, et al. For a bunch of guys singing about similar subjects with similar instruments, they sure found ways to set themselves apart from the pack. In some cases it’s the voice, sometimes it’s the melody, but for most, it’s both. Each of the aforementioned fellas is just so darn talented.
Nowadays we have our fair share of talented male singer-songwriters, but I find a lot of them to be more concerned with whining and pining to actually work some depth into the lyrics. These 70′s guys weren’t messing around though. Their songs are some of the most beautiful sonnets and couplets, set to music. They tell stories, they describe dreams, and, yes, they ache over lost love, but they do it with style. Lots and lots of heartbreaking style.
Check out Tom Waits’s “Martha” and Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne” below to catch my drift. These songs slay me.
Martha- Tom Waits (via You Ain’t No Picasso)- “Those were days of roses/ Of poetry and prose/ And Martha all I had was you/ And all you had was me.”
Suzanne- Leonard Cohen (via Song by Toad)- “She is wearing rags and feathers/ From Salvation Army counters/ And the sun pours down like honey/ On our lady of the harbor.”
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