It’s The Singer, Not The Song

I was listening to one of my favorite albums recently, Vital Signs by Survivor. One of the songs on it is called “It’s The Singer, Not The Song.” It got me thinking: is that true?

Granted, most of my musical knowledge comes from the 1980’s, but I started to think about rock groups that have had hits with different lead singers, as well as singers that left their groups that went on to have successful solo careers. I

t seems a common story from bands around that time was that they would get popular, and then the lead singer would leave for any number of reasons to pursue a solo career. Sometimes that worked out for the lead singer, most times it didn’t. And sometimes the band carried on and did fine.

Some lead singers that left successful groups to have hit solo songs include Sting from The Police, Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel from Genesis, and Peter Cetera from Chicago.

Peter Cetera

 

I recently posted the question on Facebook about which groups had a lead singer leave, and still managed to get a hit with a different lead singer. I got all sorts of responses.

Probably the most well-known is Van Halen. With David Lee Roth, they had hits like “Jump” and “Panama.” With Sammy Hagar, their hits included “Why Can’t This Be Love?” and “Right Now.”

The group that led me down this train of thought was one as well. Survivor had a mega hit with “Eye of the Tiger” sung by Dave Bickler, yet after he left the band and was replaced by Jimi Jamison, other hits included “High On You,” “I Can’t Hold Back” and “The Search is Over.”

 

One of the most popular groups to have a revolving door of lead singers is Toto. Granted, some of these musicians have been with the group the whole time, but take a look of which of them sang on various hits: Bobby Kimball sang “Hold the Line.” David Paich sang “Africa.” Fergie Frederiksen sang with Paich on “Stranger in Town.” Steve Lukather sang “I’ll Be Over You.” Joseph Williams sang “Pamela.” They even had yet another lead singer in Jean-Michel Byron who sang on some new songs, though none of them were hits.

So, is it the singer, or the song that makes the difference? John Wetton of Asia had a number of hits with the group, and while he put out many solo albums, none of those songs got heavy radio play.

Personally, I think successful groups are due to the collective members of the band—though the singer tends to get the most attention. A perfect example of this is the group Genesis.

Picture of Genesis back in the day

 

Phil Collins had huge hits both as a solo artist ("In the Air Tonight," "Sussudio,” and "Against All Odds") and also as the singer for Genesis (“Invisible Touch,” “Land of Confusion,” and “Misunderstanding”).

But Genesis as a group also had hits with different lead singers. Before Peter Gabriel left the group, he sang on the hit, “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)” before having solo hits like “Sledgehammer,” “Solsbury Hill,” “Shock the Monkey” and “In Your Eyes.”

A little less know is a song by Genesis called “Congo” that was considered a hit by yet a different lead singer for Genesis, Ray Wilson, who took over for Phil Collins in 1997.

Mike Rutherford, who also played in Genesis, had quite a successful career outside of Genesis with his band Mike + The Mechanics, probably best known for their songs “The Living Years” and “All I Need is a Miracle.”

But wait, there’s more! Steven Hackett who was the original guitarist for Genesis had a solo hit with “Cell 151” and later, he joined GTR who had a huge hit with “When the Heart Rules the Mind.”

So, is it the singer, or the song? I say it’s a combo. After all, how many songs have been redone by other artists and have become hits. But that’s a blog for another time.

The Hunger Games: Inspiration vs Plagiarism

One of the most popular movies in America right now is The Hunger Games. A critic said of the book that it was part The Most Dangerous Game, Lord of the Flies and the TV show Survivor.

This struck a chord with me because it’s been said there are no more original stories—just recycled ones. That’s a fairly pessimistic view and one that could quite intimidating to inspiring authors.

I’ll openly admit I’ve been influenced by different books, movies, characters and such in what I’ve written. Having said that, I have never consciously plagiarized anything. Yet, there times when I’ll be re-watching a favorite movie or TV show, or rereading book when I’ll come across something that inspired me. It may be something someone said, or perhaps a sequence of events—yet I can draw a line between it and something I’ve written.

When this first started happening, I’ll have to admit I was concerned. Was I a fraud? Was I just taking other people’s ideas and recycling them? However, the more I thought about it, the more I came to a conclusion: the significant difference is intention.

In writing The Hidden Sun, I fully intended to create an original story. Are there certain elements and characters that are familiar? Yes. Were these copied with the intention to get gain from someone else’s work? No.

I enjoy including metaphors in my books. In The Hidden Sun, there is a scene where a gardener creates a tree sculpture that he calls “joy”. The owner of the garden doesn’t see it. The tree relates to the book I was writing and the owner represents those who thought it a foolish pursuit.

In my upcoming book, The Waxing Moon, there is a character named Bearach. He’s a crafter with a gift for mechanics. I’d be lying if I didn’t say he was somewhat inspired by MacGyver.

In the scene where he is introduced, Bearach demonstrates to the king and queen an invention of sorts. After they observe it, the king and queen ask how he came up with such an idea. Bearach’s answer was that he took elements he was familiar with and combined them into something new.

In a sense, I believe that is what most, if not all writers do.

So, does The Hunger Games have elements of The Most Dangerous Game, Lord of the Flies and the TV show Survivor?

Yes.

Is it a wholly unique book?

I for one would say yes.

The Tribe has Spoken

It's all about being the best. Isn't it? Case in point: how early are the stores opening on the day after thanksgiving? Does it seem to be getting earlier every year? It seems that way to me. It's almost like, "Hey! Our competitor is opening at 6:00 am! We need to open at 5:30!" Then next year, "Hey! They opened at 5:30 am, we need to open at 5:00!" At this rate, stores will be opening up early on the day after Christmas for the following Christmas.

But it isn't just opening up early. Last year, I was especially turned off by an ad from Best Buy where they had animated characters make a big deal how the store and support folks would be working Christmas. Why? So they can out do their competition. Never mind all those folks that would have to work instead of being home with their families.

That's why I applaud companies that stand up for what they believe in, no matter what the others are doing. Chick-Fil-A? Closed on Sundays. B&H photo and video store? Closed Friday at 2:00 pm and all day Saturday. Whether their beliefs are the same as mine doesn't matter. I'm just happy there are those in world that see that there are certain lines you don't cross.

Time for a confession: my wife and I love to watch the TV show Survivor. Yes, yes, there are some of you out there that might condemn us for such an action, but let me explain why I enjoy it so much. The show is really a microcosm of the world around us. The goal is to be the last man (or woman) standing at the end of the game. I won't go into all the details, but there are certain rules that need to be explained to prove my point.

First, there are about 18 or so people that start the game. One by one they are voted off by the rest of the players (their "tribe"). Now the tricky part comes about halfway through the game. Why? Well, the people voted off go onto something called the "jury". This jury of people will pick the final winner. In other words, the final contestants will be held accountable for their actions.

The motto of the game is "Outwit, Outlast, Outplay". The show has been on for something like 20 seasons (2 seasons per year) and all sorts of people have won. There was a recent contestant that got to play in back to back seasons. He was mean. He was a bully. He did things to cause conflict with his teammates. (Like burning socks, draining their water supply, telling lies to anyone who would listen) He did it to gain control.

In both cases he weaseled his way to the end. . . and lost. Why? Because he eventually was judged for his actions. Had it made it near the top? Yes. In the end, did he win? No. And to read interviews about him later, he kept saying how the game was stupid and that he should have won.

As I remember it, in Death of a Salesman, the main character becomes a salesman because he attended a funeral when he was young of a salesman and was amazed about how many people were there and how respected this man was. That's the kind of funeral he wanted. He was miserable though, and at in the end, very few attended his funeral.

Why?

Well, I would suggest you go to any graveyard and see how many gravestones say, "So and so worked and such and such a place for x amount of years."