AND THE MOON IS THE ONLY LIGHT WE SEE: Two legendary songwriters have passed away today -- Jerry Leiber, who with partner Mike Stoller created some of rock and roll's building blocks in the 1950s ("Hound Dog," "Love Potion No. 9," "Yakety Yak," and so many more), and Nick Ashford, who along with wife Valerie Simpson penned "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," "You're All I Need To Get By," "Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing," and "Reach Out And Touch Somebody's Hand," as well as recording their own hit with "Solid," as well as totally looking like Scar from The Lion King.
Below the fold, a clip we love to use here: Ashford, Simpson, and Pendergrass, July 13, 1985:
People here may not think of me as the Ashford & Simpson type, but those Gaye-Terrell duets were some of the greatest popular music ever written, just a perfect marriage of songwriters and singers. There's kind of a list of Motown songs that everybody knows, and then another list of Motown songs that are well known but crop up in a lot of people's blind spots, and it's on that second list where I think Ashford & Simpson thrived. "You're All I Need to Get By" is such a great song. It starts with that slow, quiet descending chromatic lyric, a background vocal in the foreground, and then in comes Gaye with the verse, picking up speed, accelerating as he goes, like he's too excited for the tempo, and then he and Terrell hit the chorus in perfect crescendoing harmony. A great bit of writing and a great bit of singing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Nick Ashford basically dressed Ren Faire every day of his life.
Dammit, the internet ate my post. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said, Isaac. It's sad that Ashford and Simpson are mostly known for "Solid," when they wrote so many truly brilliant songs for others.
I'm here, however, to mourn Jerry Lieber and his brilliant lyrics. The Lieber and Stoller songs are part of my DNA, and I marvel ever ytime I read about them at just how ridiculously prolific they were. Lieber's lyrics were often deceptively simply - if you write out the lyrics to "Stand By Me" they dont' look like much, but they're gorgeous, and when paired with the music, legendary. Something about that line "and the land is dark" that is so evocative - it's unnecessary, as we already know night has come, but the slight menace it provides perfectly explains why one might be afraid. (Yeah, I know analysis kills it.)
They have so many famous, and very funny, songs, but it's the ones I came to know later that makes me appreciate them even more. "Dance With Me," "I Keep Forgettin'," "Pearl's a Singer," and most especially "Don Juan," which makes me laugh every time I hear it. Today I'll be listening to my Smokey Joe's Cafe soundtrack in Lieber's honor.
When Teddy took the stage that day it was awesome. I don't know if the videos, which I've never watched catch how odd some of the crowd behavior was that day. Run DMC was really really poorly received, as was U2, but Teddy was a Philadelphia guy and the welcome seemed overwhelming from my vantage point. I had been lucky enough to meet Teddy once or twice a few years before, as part of my geekiness I had a job as the Boy Friday/Cashier/Salesperson at the Ardmore Allied Hobbies, and the owner, Jay Petkov had a way about him that brought in celebrities to play with cool hobby toys. I vaguely remember watching Teddy play with a gyroscopically self righting radio control motorcycle in the parking lot one day in what was probably 1980 or 1981. You should have seen the beautiful Ferrari he pulled up in that day. My memory say's it was a blue metallic Ferrari Dino. I also seem to think that color was not a standard Ferrari color. God could he sing. Love TKO and Come Go With Me still get me everytime.
ReplyDeleteAh, Nick Ashford was my first crush musically. Ashford & Simpson were tight my favourite song of theirs "Is It Good To You"~
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