Tuesday, August 23, 2011

When the night has come, and the land is dark...



Nicholas Ashford, along with his wife, Valerie Simpson, wrote a string of hit records that defined the soul musical landscape of the 1960's, '70's and '80's.

That landscape was no more epitomised than in perhaps, the greatest, certainly the most joyous, performance of one of their songs - Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's magisterial 1967 hit, 'Ain't no mountain high enough,' undoubtedly one of the great pop moments of that halcyon decade.

Everyone will have their own favourites - whether as a writer or as a performer, Ashford set the benchmark for effortlessly crafted, instantly memorable music. A particular favourite is Aretha's marvellous 1964 recording of 'Cry like a baby,' sweet, pure soul music, expertly and sympathetically created, that brought out the very best in the very best.








It is difficult to imagine a world without the songs of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. They are unquestionably one of the great songwriting teams in musical history - able to break our hearts and, in a vital second, rescue us from our too private despair with the marriage of their unassailably beautiful words and music.

And marriage it most certainly was - Leiber's sharper than sharp lyrics dovetailing perfectly with Stoller's insistent staccato rhythms and similarly hectic counterpoint. Their groove was infectious and it caught the ears and lungs and legs of young America, who listened to and danced to and sang their music, venerating the bands who so fastidiously recorded and performed it.

For this writer, Jerry Leiber co-wrote two of the greatest songs of the Rock and Roll era.

And, courtesy of Youtube, we get to hear those songs, their songs, one more time.

For all time.





For Nicholas Ashford and Jerry Leiber.

1 comment:

  1. I like the fact that Jerry died at 78. As opposed to 33 or 45.

    ReplyDelete