The Reverend Will the Thrill Presents the Album of the Week!

I get the impression that when most people appreciate a song, they only tend to notice the artist performing it.  They pay little attention to who actually wrote the song unless it's a "standard" from back in the day or a piece of classical/opera music where the composer always seems to get top billing.  I first got this impression in 1991 when Guns N' Roses released a cover version of "Live and Let Die" which had originally been a hit for Paul McCartney & Wings in 1973.  It was the title song to the James Bond film of the same name and the song became the first Bond theme to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.  Anyway, most of my friends didn't seem to understand that while this might be a new single by Guns 'N Roses, it was not a new song.  One friend of mine, who did the best impression of Axl Rose I've ever seen, was showing off this talent and singing the chorus of that song one day.  Not really being a fan of GN'R at that time, I snidely commented that Paul McCartney did it better.  My friend said, "Yeah, but he didn't write it."  I was very quick to point out that yes, in fact, he did write it, and it says so in the liner notes of Use Your Illusion 1.

Since then, I've noticed that unless the artist in question writes their own material, the art of songwriting--in fact the role of the songwriter--is often disregarded, as if somehow songs just magically appear, or every artist writes all their own songs.  Every time I buy a new CD, I rip the music to my computer and upload it to my iTunes library.  Invariably, I have to either fill in the songwriting credits myself or, more often than not, correct the information that pops up because it's either incomplete or incorrect.  This usually involves careful examination of the liner notes.  Since those often use first initials instead of complete names (for example, P. McCartney and L. McCartney instead of Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney), this sometimes also includes searches through Wikipedia and/or Genius Lyrics in order to get the complete information--and if it's a blues album released on Alligator Records, for some reason this is an incredibly difficult task.  Frankly, this bothers me.  It bothers me that I seem to be the only one who cares.  It bothers me because the fact that I do care causes words like "autistic" to get bandied about--as if, somehow, I'm weird or even at fault for noticing these things.  I mean, I realize that not everyone is as passionate as I am about music, but how hard is it to put out complete information and, God forbid, give credit where credit is due?

This week, we lost an important songwriter.  Wilbur Herschel "Will" Jennings died on 6 September at the age of 80.  As I told my sister Heather, you may not recognize his name, but you know his work.  His obituaries all listed his big hits--he co-wrote songs like "Tears in Heaven" with Eric Clapton, "Higher Love" "Back in the High Life Again," and "Roll With It" all with Steve Winwood, "Somewhere in the Night" and "Looks Like We Made It" for Barry Manilow, "Didn't We Almost Have It All" for Whitney Houston... as Heather said, "Wow.  If you were to give me a big pile of songs I would never intentionally put on..." (although, I personally do like Steve Winwood).  He even won two Oscars for Best Original Song for "Up Where We Belong" (with Jack Nietzsche and Buffy Saint-Marie) from the movie An Officer and a Gentleman (performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes) and--speaking of songs I would never intentionally put on--"My Heart Will Go On" (with James Horner) from the movie Titanic (performed, as we all remember, by Celine Dion).

In a career that prolific, some stuff is going to get left out.  Sadly, that's the stuff I usually love the most.  In 1984 and 1985, Jennings co-wrote the bulk of two albums for Jimmy Buffett.  In fact, at one time, I actually thought he was just a member of the Coral Reefer Band.  This week's album is one of my personal favourites of Jimmy's for a number of reasons.  Jennings co-wrote eight of the ten songs on it including such favourites as "Jolly Mon Sing, "Gypsies in the Palace," "Please Bypass This Heart," and "If the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me."  I'm also fond of pointing out that the bullwhip cracking on "Desperation Samba (Halloween in Tijuana)" was provided by Harrison Ford himself.  And in the process of writing this, I just discovered that the great Roy Orbison sang background vocals on the closing track--one of my all-time favourite Buffett tunes--"Beyond the End."

So, to commemorate the life, work, and legacy of Will Jennings, please enjoy Jimmy Buffett with his 1985 album, Last Mango in Paris.

Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.

Yours in peace, love, and rock and roll!

The Reverend Will the Thrill