Songwriterobit: Curly Putman

Curly Putman, songwriter, has died at the age of 85.

Yes, Green Green Grass of Home. Yes, DIVORCE. But, mostly, this is his masterwork:

Bobby Braddock remembered how Putnam breathed life into DIVORCE:

"I said, 'Curly, why is it that we don't have any takers on this song?' Nobody was jumping on board with it. He said, 'I think it seems a little bit too happy for such a sad song.' I said, 'Do you think it needs a new melody?' He said, Well, just in a couple of places. The last line of the verse and the last line of the chorus.' What I had, looking back, it sounded kind of like a soap commercial... I thought we should split the writer's share on the song, and he didn't want to take it, so we compromised. He took 25 percent, and we put his name on there. If we'd done it today, we probably would have split it right down the middle because the song had been sitting around and nothing had happened with it. Then, Curly made that little change and it made so much difference."

Putman, like the Waltons, spent his early years living on a mountain which bore the family name.

As if his own work wasn't immortality enough, he's also recorded in a Paul McCartney song, Junior's Farm - written after Putman had rented his farm to Paul and Linda for a period in the early 1970s.

Songwriterobit: Gerry Goffin

Gerry Goffin has died.

What a songbook.

Although not always an uncontroversial songbook.

Talking about He Hit Me And It Felt Like A Kiss to NPR in 2011, Carole King said that the Gerry Goffin had heard a friend use the phrase; a survivor of domestic violence herself (although not during her marriage to Goffin), King told NPR she wishes they'd never written the song.

That a reputation as a great songwriting team could survive writing the line "a chugga chugga motion like a railway train now".

Gerry Goffin's private life wasn't always easy - his mental health was disrupted by incidents bookended by bad trips and electroconvulsive shock therapy; his marriage to King was less resilient than their songwriting partnership. Oddly, this was all considered perfect material for a Broadway musical.

Gerry Goffin died June 19th; he was 75.

Motownobit: Deke Richards

Deke Richards, Motown songwriter, has died.

Richards was one of the four members of The Clan, and - after the Clan disbanded - was one of the four members of The Corporation - alongside Berry Gordy, Alphonzo Mizell and Freddie Perren. Both groups of songwriters were created by Berry Gordy, desperate to avoid the creation of more "back room superstars" after Holland-Dozier-Holland grew too large for the label.

Although only partially successful at burying the characters of the team, both groups did well as creative forces. The Clan was short-lived, but produced a couple of outstanding tracks for Diana Ross & The Supremes:

The Corporation were even more powerful creatively:

The team was disbanded in 1972 - their main focus had been writing for the Jackson 5, a role that was being taken on by Hal David. Subsequently, Motown relented and allowed their group credit to be replaced by the names of the individuals involved.

Last year, Richards was involved in selecting and polishing a collection of Jackson 5 rarities, Come And Get It.

Deke Richards had been suffering from oesophageal cancer. He died March 24th, at the age of 68.

Bad news for artists who want to sound like a bad Beatles pastiche

How does Noel Gallagher react when people ask him to write a song for them? (No, he claims it happens all the time.)

With good grace, of course:

'I must have been asked to write songs for people about 20 times, 'Hey man, we should write some songs together,' F***ing write your own songs. I spent 46 years busting my a**e to get here, slaving over a line in a song for a month.

So no, I won't f***ing write a song with you, you little prick. F**k off! It just annoys me.''

I think the most telling thing about that - apart from how he sounds more and more like Karl Pilkington - is that he's only been asked 20 times to write for anyone. That's about once a year.

The thought there are lines in Gallagher songs which took him a month to write is also a little bit boggling. "He thought he was King Creole" took as long to construct as a solid two-storey village hall would. Blimey.

Songwriterobit: Bill Dees

Bill Dees, who co-wrote some of Roy Orbison's keynote songs, has died.

Dees also wrote songs for Glen Campbell and Johnny Cash, but it was with Orbison that he created his best work. This was part of that:

Bill Dees was 73; he died in Arkansas on October 24th. The cause of death does not appear to have been made public.

Gordon in the morning: Song for whoever

Presumably assuming we don't understand that most chart pop hits are now made like Per Una trousersuits, sitched together to a basic design and then offered up to someone in the hope they'll fit, Rita Ora turns up to insist that she was given the chance to do the new Cheryl Cole song first:

She decided the house track — which is written and produced by Calvin Harris — was too dance orientated. She said: “I heard Call My Name quite a while ago because I was offered it.

“I turned it down. I do like the song but I didn’t want to sing it ’cos it’s not really me.

“I don’t want to go down the dance route that a lot of other pop stars are doing.

“I prefer to have my own sound and do my own thing.”

That would be the "doing your own thing" which, er, involves auditioning songs written for whoever fancies doing them.

Gordon in the morning: Cheryl's Ray of hope

Oddly, the news that Cheryl Cole is supposedly going to record an unwanted Lana DelRay song is brought to us by...

By COLIN ROBERTSON, TV Editor

Which seems a bit surprising. Perhaps so many people are being kept busy at Wapping helping the police with their enquiries articles are written by anyone who happens to be around.

Of course, it's all down to a "source":

A source said last night: "Cheryl is a big fan of Lana and was intrigued to hear she had lots of songs written which she wasn't going to sing herself. She got hold of one and was really taken with it.

"The record label are pretty happy about it because Lana has a massive following."

And it's well known that pop singles tend to sell on the basis of the writer's credit.

Gordon in the morning: Chris Martin isn't wrong

From Gordon, Chris Martin on Lady GaGa:

"I just admire all of the hats and the dresses and the madness and everything because I know that underneath it all she can beat me at writing choruses."

Chris, sweetheart, the kids in my schoolplayground who wrote 'bum, tit, tit/ bum, tit, tit/ turn your willy round' beat you at writing choruses.

Songwriterobit: Nick Ashford

Songwriting legend, Nick Ashford, has died.

Working with his wife Valerie Simpson, the pair had hits in their own right - most notably Solid:



But, it's fair to say, their best work they did for other people.

The pair met in 1964 and, while husband and wife teams aren't unusual in entertainment, it's still noteworthy for a couple of have a four decade partnership that is successful both professionally and personally.

There songs were so well constructed, they could even cope with being taken from Ray Charles and being covered by Manfred Mann, which was to be the fate of their breakthrough song, Lets Go Get Stoned:



If they had a signature song, though, it'd be this:



Nick Ashford, who was 70, had been ill with throat cancer. He's survived by his wife and two daughters.

Songwriterobit: Jerry Leiber

The headlines are calling him Elvis Presley's songwriter, but Jerry Leiber, who has died, was more than that.

Of course, the Presley songs helped fix the idea of rock and roll in the popular mind - though it's worth remembering that they weren't so much writing for Presley. Hound Dog, for example, was originally created for Big Mama Thornton, and sounded like this:



With his partner Mike Stoller, Jerry produced as well as wrote, and for a while also ran a label, Spark, which would eventually be absorbed by Atlantic. But mainly they wrote - dozens and dozens and dozens of songs, many of which are now so familiar that it's hard to imagine the music world without them. There's also a bunch which showed a range and a subtlety of talent that could be squeezed out of their work in the hands of Presley.



Edith Piaf translated Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots in the French for L'Homme A La Moto; they were also responsible for Is That All There Is:



The pair were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and achieved 15 hits during their career.

Jerry Leiber died of cardiopulmonary failure. He was 78.

Eurovision 2011: A sneak hint of what we won't see

The man who holds joint responsibility for writing this year's UK entry to Eurovision hasn't watched the show in years but has broken all sorts of embargoes by revealing something about Blue's act tonight:

[Ciaron] Bell went on to say "I haven't watched the show since I was a child but maybe this will change my mind.

"My favourite moment was Buckz Fizz performing when they ripped the skirts off - but I don't think Blue are planning to do that."

I'm taking this to mean that Blue will be keeping skirts on during the whole length of their song.

That's potentially added a smattering of interest to their act, then.

The song wasn't written with the intention of coming third-from-bottom on a chilly Spring night in Dusseldorf, though:

"It was utter fluke on my part. We weren't trying to write a Eurovision song. We were just writing a good bit of honest pop.

"A couple of the lads [Lee Ryan and Duncan James] wrote the track with us, they are bona fide songwriters."

"Blue were aware that it was a big risk taking part in the competition but as a writer I don't have that much to lose."

Fascinating. They were setting out to write a decent pop song, not a Eurovision entry, and ended up with exact opposite. Funny thing, life, isn't it?

[Assuming Blogger is able to keep it together, and there's not a long queue at Sainsburys, there's going to be a Eurovision Liveblog here tonight.]

Webb on the internet

I'm not sure Jimmy Webb's analysis of modern songwriting is quite right - he says there's no more pure songwriters, but there are, surely? Writing for production line bands and game show winners, perhaps, but they're still there, polishing a line to turn a dollar.

But, still, in this video from Today, he's spot-on about American Idol and plays a bit of Wichita Lineman.

Countryobit: Hank Cochran

Hank Cochran, country songwriter, has died.

Hank had started out as a performer, and briefly had an act with Eddie Cochrane, the Cochrane brothers. They weren't brothers. Despite achieving mild success in the early 1960s, it was a shift to crafting instead of singing which really made his success. A role at Ray Price's Pamper Music meant he was able to bring his friend into the company - and, since that friend was Willie Nelson, it worked out nicely for all parties.

He wrote for a number of country legends, including Patsy Cline and Burl Ives. His approach - "make it short, make it sweet and make it rhyme" - allowed his work to move easily across from the country charts to the main Top 40.

This, surely, is his golden moment:



Hank Cochran was 74.

Morrissey is the greatest

It's always wise to approach any claims that X is the greatest at Y with extreme caution, especially when the 'X' in question is the subject of the a book by the person making the claims.

Still, you can at least see why Dr Gavin Hopps is coming from:

The launch of Dr Hopps' book, "Morrissey: The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart", will take place in Manchester.

The event will be held on Saturday at Blackwell's University bookshop in the city's Oxford Road.

Dr Hopps believes Morrissey's work is comparable not only to great writers but also to comedy greats such as Frankie Howerd and George Formby.

The book explores all the major subjects in the singer's writing - such as love, melancholy, monstrosity and alienation.

If you're starting to make grand claims, calling George Formby a comedy great is going to start to undermine you from the get-go. It's like suggesting that William Hague is every bit as witty as James Corden.

And the rather than one of the greatest? Jarvis Cocker might have a thing to say about that...

Michael Jackson posthumous career as much a mess as prehumous one

Good lord, it was hard to imagine that the management of Michael Jackson's career could have got worse once he was taken out the equation, but it's happened.

That new Michael Jackson song? It turns out it's nearly twenty years old, was originally recorded by a totally different artist and- oh, yes - Paul Anka says the tapes were stolen from his studio and had already been returned once:

Anka said that Jackson returned the tapes after he threatened the star with legal action, but, he claimed, Jackson made a copy and used the track with his voice from I Never Heard, re-titling it This Is It.

I Never Heard was eventually released in 1991 after Anka placed it with an unknown singer named Safire.

Hours after Anka made his claim on the showbusiness website TMZ, administrators for Jackson's estate made him a 50 per cent partner in the publishing rights to the song.

Remember, everybody: stealing music is wrong, unless it's the music industry doing the stealing, when we can always cut a deal.

[Thanks to Mike E and Michael M]

Eddie Vedder: Speed king

Eddie Vedder has revealed - to not very much surprise - that he never spends longer than 30 minutes writing a song.

From this, we can surmise that it must take Vedder about 23 minutes or so to find a pen and paper when he has an idea for a song.

PRS ask members to do its lobbying for them

I'm getting confused now - isn't the PRS meant to be the organisation that speaks for its members? Only now, it's starting to look a lot like it's asking the membership to speak for it:


This image comes from TwitPic; it's a screengrab of the PRS asking its members to go on those well-known blogs Google and BBC to put across the PRS line in the YouTube dispute. Is there any more compelling evidence that the PRS don't understand the internet and are probably ill-equipped to represent songwriters in engaging with the new world than the clumsy wording of that message?

Or, indeed, the apparent belief on behalf of PRS that "collection agency" and "songwriters and composers" must have the same best interests?

Chris Martin regrets a gift

Chris Martin is kicking himself, as he's given Natalie Imbruglia 'the best Coldplay song ever'.

He doesn't say how he took it off Starsailor first.

Oh, hang about, he's serious:

"A bit annoyingly we've given her the best Coldplay song of all time," Martin joked to Heraldsun.com.au. "But because we're off-cycle we can't do it ourselves."

He added: "Half of me wishes we still had it. But she sounds brilliant on it. I think she has a very unique talent and an incredibly unique voice."

Has anyone explained to Chris that it's possible for there to be more than one interpretation of the same song? Perhaps somebody should. They might also mention that you can do more than one interpretation of lots of different songs, too.

Ghost for President

Can this be right? Epic have appointed a songwriter to be President of the company?

Alright, it might only be Amanda Ghost - whose credits sit on the more disappointing parts of I Am Sasha Fierce, the theme toon to Journeyman, and You're Beautiful - and President of Epic, being occupied territory, means being a puppet for the Sony organisation. But still: a musician in the boardroom. A proper musician.

Ghost has already praised the Sony overlords:

“I’m not a conventional choice as an executive in the music business, but it is testament to the new mood at Sony where content is now king and the music business is being put back in the hands of creative talent such as myself," says Ghost. "I’m here to draw on my experiences as an artist, songwriter and producer to make the new and existing artists signed to Epic as brilliant and successful as possible”.

She has run a label in the past - Universal gave her her own imprint, Plan A, for a while back in 2006. Which managed - as far as we can tell - just the one release. Almost certainly a bar which she will leap now she's at Epic.

Songwriterobit: Clint Ballard Jr

Clint Ballard Junior - whose name would have delighted Adam Trimingham and his Department of Appropriate Names - has died.

Born in Texas in 1931, Ballard spent time in the army before entering the music business as manager of the Kalin Twins, but it was as a songwriter that he really found success. He wrote Linda Rondstadt's hit You're No Good, and also created The Game Of Love for Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders.



Since the 80s, Ballard had been making a living in the property business.