I wrote a column on this topic some time ago, but following some recent brouhaha in our local media over the quality of a particular artistic production, it is clearly a focus we have to keep revisiting,
It’s not obvious – in fact it’s often completely overlooked – but the truth is that in every high quality performance in the arts, the writing is the key. You can have great singers, great musicians, great actors and directors, and great editors, but the foundation of it all – the one unswerving essential – is the writing, and it is so across the board.
The greatest songs, the ones that rise above the rest – Paul McCartney’s Yesterday, Otis Redding’s Dock of the Bay, Elton John’s Daniel; Sparrow’s Jean and Dinah; Black Stalin’s Black Man Feeling To Party; Joe Cocker’s Up Where We Belong; Amazing Grace (it could take pages) – we associate those songs with the performers and the stirring renditions, but in every case, the songs were great long before they were sung because of the writer. Frank Sinatra brought us a song in My Way that will live forever; bands play it; the karaoke crowd loves it, it’s a favourite at testimonials; and yes Sinatra’s rendition is one of the best, but before Sinatra opened his mouth, the song, written specifically for him by the Canadian Paul Anka, was already great.