Bring on the Poets

Bob Leftsetz writes inspiring rants on the music business, and recently talked about how the CSN song Wooden Ships is still selling while nobody really cares about Whitney Houston's stuff.

I think what people often forget, although I know he's tried to remind them, is that great songs aren't written by pop stars, they're written by great songwriters. And the timeless songs are written by poets.

Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Paul McCartney, Neil Young - all poets.

The Grateful Dead, one of the most successful improvisational psychedelic touring rock bands ever, had great songs with incredible lyrics written by Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow. Even the most out there tune, Dark Star, has some of the most amazing words.

Like a Rolling Stone is a poem, with many more verses beyond the recorded version than radio could bare.

The music business has been built to look for the wrong things in the wrong places. While they're busy finding the next superstar to prop up and flash in the moment, there is a kid in his basement writing the next great ballad. The stuff that's been churned out is mostly just catchy rhymes that don't last the test of time.

Instead of looking for hits, we should be looking for poets.