Rock Whiplash – Aerosmith…Phony?
In an interview with Gibson Guitars, guitar god Zakk Wylde called Aerosmith “as phony as Britney Spears” because they used outside songwriters. That’s a pretty big slap in the face to a pretty big, legendary rock band, but does Zakk have a point? He references bands like Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix who didn’t need outside writers, so why does Aerosmith need songwriters? Zakk even brings up a disappointing moment when “professional” song writers were brought in for Ozzy.
I see Zakk’s point. True musicians should be able to write their own music, especially if they’re at the level of Aerosmith. With all those years of experience, why would they need help writing music? Some music elitists would argue that bands who use outside writers aren’t nearly as talented, worthwhile or legitimate. Think about it for a minute…would you consider Britney Spears a REAL artist? Sure, she looks smokin’ hot, she can dance, and she’s got an incredible career, but how many songs has she written all by herself without any help from anyone? Let’s not even mention the fact that I’m not even sure she can really sing. Yes, I catch myself bobbing my head to her tunes when they come on the radio, but I’m not sure I’d be so quick to call her an artist. So if there are all these “artists” out there who sing other people’s songs and make millions and we don’t think that highly of them, then where does Aerosmith fall in this complicated equation?
Aerosmith is one of the greatest rock bands ever. They’ve written incredible music over the years, but are they “phony” because someone helped write some of their songs? I’m not so sure about that. Although I’m not a huge Desmond Child fan (that song he wrote for Vince Neil was AWFUL), he did co-write Angel and that song is amazing. Another favorite Aerosmith tune of mine is Cryin’ which was co-written with Taylor Rhodes. But Aerosmith’s demise was Don’t Want to Miss A Thing. For me that was Aerosmith’s lowest musical point, and that’s probably because they didn’t even write this song; song writing credit goes to Diane Warren (rumor has it the song was originally intended for Celine Dion…Yikes!). I don’t think Aerosmith, or any band for that matter, has any business performing songs that they didn’t at least help write.
Perhaps that’s what Zakk was talking about, that sappy, crappy musical moment where Aerosmith gave in and performed a song that wasn’t theirs; maybe he’s not even talking about songs that were co-written with other people. There are plenty of bands out there who use co-writers. Does that make them any less credible? According to Zakk, “If you can’t write songs you’re just a puppet as phony as Britney Spears and all those boy bands. If you can’t sit behind a piano or pick up a guitar and write a song, then you don’t have any business making records.” What do you think?
And check out the latest post on my blog about my ridiculous night with Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction.
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I have a life-time (so to speak) interest in Aerosmith and I used to hate seeing songs on their latest albums credited to so many different people, it drove me crazy. I also have a more recent interest in songwriting, and a few days ago I was doing some research on John Kalodner’s work (not a songwriter himself though) and came across an interview with Desmond Child where he talked about writing “Dude (Looks like a lady)” with Aerosmith. (http://www.ascap.com/playback/2008/summer/features/Desmond.aspx)
My opinion has now somehow changed. I think it is still a touchy subject but… I think it’s good for bands to write with different, new people with skills, if it brings fresh ideas into the mix. Especially bands with such long span careers, where composers might feel like the old marriage that has lost its spice. It might help them grow as artists, learn new stuff about themselves, open new ways for them. Sometimes we don’t like those changes, though… And if they take a song entirely written by another person, then it’s all a matter of making the song theirs, giving the song their own twist and style, their personality, like bands do when performing a good cover version. I guess it’s the concept of *hiring* a songwriter that still sounds awkward to me, I would rather have it happen *naturally*, but that might be a pretty naïve concept.
I think that as long as the artist(s) colaborated on a piece of music AND gave credit to those who colaborated with them, then you can’t call them phoneys. As for Aerosmith having someone else write some of their songs for them, so what! How many phenomenol songs have they writen in the past THREE decades? I mean really! As far as I’m concerned, they can fart beans out their rears and have a number one hit. Some people need to get over themselves and stop being nit picky whiney babies. One also must consider the overwhelming number of fantabulous song writers who for whatever reason, are incapable of performing their own music. Are we to deprive the world of their music because they don’t perform it?
Zakk what has he done? Lived on Randy Rhoads fame…
Hendrix did cover tunes– Watchtower written by Dylan. The Stones did Willie Dixon tunes. Almost every Motown and Stax artist did songs written by the in-house writers of those labels. Clapton’s done a ton of JJ Cale tunes. Van Halen did some covers– and although EVH prefers writing, they did great versions of other people’s songs. Although The Beatles were very original in certain contexts, musicologists who know their stuff can break Beatle tunes down into a catalog of classic melodies and sections. Most Blues music, even by the legends, breaks down into very derivative material. So it’s more about the performance that counts– and how the musician/group makes it their own.
I think Zakk Wylde is a good guitar player, and it’s cool that he’s into keeping it real as an artist. He probably didn’t think enough before making that statement, if he actually made the statement and wasn’t taken out of context by the article writer.
Songs are brought to the world in a variety of ways. Many times the original writers aren’t very good musicians or performers, but they can write good songs. Good performers are necessary to deliver good songs. In a perfect world, maybe all musicians can write and perform equally well. But collaborating or just doing one or the other isn’t necessarily a sin or something to find fault with.
Wow. Didn’t know that about Zeppelin !
I thought they wrote their own stuff…& that’s how the songs were credited, I believe.
Led zeppelin didn’t need outside writers? How about the fact that almost every song on their first two albums was written by someone else. Zeppelin just didn’t give those people any writing credits — hence the multiple law suits that Zeppelin settled out of court.
I think Frank Furter should go sit on a frank furter.
Zakk’s gotta good point.
What do I think? I think Zakk could’ve used some outside help on some of his Black Label Society……