[quote= "rkm"]Neil Finn said something along the lines of, “you can spend a long time in the studio trying to make an average song work, but with a great song, you can do just about anything with it and it will still be great”.
I’d agree with that. With that in mind, I’d suggest a good test of “artists with the largest number of perfect songs” would be to see how many times those songs have been covered by other artists. A perfect song will be almost indestructible, and will transcend things like genre and generation.
By that metric of the sheer number of times their songs have been covered, in the Rock era, the winners would be the Beatles, Carole King and Bob Dylan in that order. This is according to the music publishing companies. Whether or not that's a good metric to use I don't know, but technically those would be the top artists.
so basically white artists from the 60s?
actually, i'm a little surprised to see Carole King at #2. i feel like Nina Simone has a few that get covered quite a bit more than Carole King... i can think of one(?) Carole King cover i've heard, off the top of my head. maybe i'm out of touch on that point.
the problem with this metric though is that it favors POP songs that have been around for a while. relatively few artists are going to bother covering something like Paranoid Android or Bohemian Rhapsody, despite their popularity, due to the complexity of learning and memorizing the pieces. at least, relative to learning Hey Jude or All Along the Watchtower. and those are relatively simple... imagine covering A Love Supreme or Theme For The Eulipions. it's just not something your average person CAN cover. are they not perfect songs? heck, i think Da Slockit Light is one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and i know of very few studio covers of it, but it's a traditional song that's been around for years, covered by thousands of people. i believe i've digressed though.
Spot on. No one can play like Coltrane, no one can compose like Beethoven (etc), so one tends to find a much smaller talent pool to cover or mimic the most extraordinary/most singular artists (not always, but tends to...).
Michael1981 wrote:
Yeah, but the ability to write multiple standards that are covered by lots of people is also extraordinary.
It certainly (in most cases) takes a competent and talented artist in their own right. I would consider very few examples to be extraordinary in the truest sense though (Bob Dylan's best work comes to mind most from the prolific examples). But these are certainly not the once in human history event that a Beethoven, or a Mozart, or a Bach is. Or, once in a lifetime examples in Rock/Jazz, inimitable works like Trout Mask Replica, A Love Supreme or Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, or -- to use some examples a little bit closer to the general consensus and spirit of these selections: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea or Astral Weeks or The Doors debut. All inimitable, singular talents and musical events. Is it possible to surpass the originals in such cases? Or The Velvet Underground and Nico ... good luck finding another Nico or reproducing that abject expressionist/German expressionist sound world, or even finding a collision of talents so synergistic, individual from each other, and uniquely oriented to the metaphoric codification and emotional conception of their portrayals (etc). _________________ Best Classical Best Films Best Paintings
It certainly (in most cases) takes a competent and talented artist in their own right. I would consider very few examples to be extraordinary in the truest sense though (Bob Dylan's best work comes to mind most from the prolific examples). But these are certainly not the once in human history event that a Beethoven, or a Mozart, or a Bach is. Or, once in a lifetime examples in Rock/Jazz, inimitable works like Trout Mask Replica, A Love Supreme or Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, or -- to use some examples a little bit closer to the general consensus and spirit of these selections: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea or Astral Weeks or The Doors debut. All inimitable, singular talents and musical events. Is it possible to surpass the originals in such cases? Or The Velvet Underground and Nico ... good luck finding another Nico or reproducing that abject expressionist/German expressionist sound world, or even finding a collision of talents so synergistic, individual from each other, and uniquely oriented to the metaphoric codification and emotional conception of their portrayals (etc).
Yes. I say... this is even better than the Velvets and Nico version!!!
It certainly (in most cases) takes a competent and talented artist in their own right. I would consider very few examples to be extraordinary in the truest sense though (Bob Dylan's best work comes to mind most from the prolific examples). But these are certainly not the once in human history event that a Beethoven, or a Mozart, or a Bach is. Or, once in a lifetime examples in Rock/Jazz, inimitable works like Trout Mask Replica, A Love Supreme or Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom, or -- to use some examples a little bit closer to the general consensus and spirit of these selections: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea or Astral Weeks or The Doors debut. All inimitable, singular talents and musical events. Is it possible to surpass the originals in such cases? Or The Velvet Underground and Nico ... good luck finding another Nico or reproducing that abject expressionist/German expressionist sound world, or even finding a collision of talents so synergistic, individual from each other, and uniquely oriented to the metaphoric codification and emotional conception of their portrayals (etc).
Yes. I say... this is even better than the Velvets and Nico version!!!
If we’re talking about perfect songs, then in my mind we’re talking about compositions, and specifically compositions that have a vocal melody. If we’re talking about perfect performances, recordings, tracks, or singles, then that’s quite a different thing.
If we’re talking about perfect songs, then in my mind we’re talking about compositions, and specifically compositions that have a vocal melody. If we’re talking about perfect performances, recordings, tracks, or singles, then that’s quite a different thing.
My answer is going to be Susanne Sundfør -- in terms of having songs that to me literally do feel perfect, transcendent, whatever. Her highs are just... so high.
Songs of hers that really are perfect for me:
-The Brothel
-It's All Gone Tomorrow
-Undercover
-Mountaineers
-Rome
-When
-Darlings
-Fade Away
-Slowly
After her the runner-ups would be Joanna Newsom, Beirut, and then the Beach Boys -- and then a bit more of a margin to whoever is next. _________________ My top songs of the 2010s
and
Spotify link
There is no quantitative way to measure how good a song is, plus it's subjective. Thus, the word "perfect" doesn't make sense when it comes to describing music.
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