RIP: John D. Loudermilk

[erik]

The music world has been hit with another loss, this one in the songwriters' community. John D. Loudermilk, whose vast songwriting catalog includes the C&W/rock standard "Break My Mind", which Linda covered on her 1969 solo debut album Hand Sown, Home Grown, has passed away at the age of 82:

www.cmt.com/news/1771190/songwriter-john-d-loudermilk-dead-at-82/

Loudermilk was also a cousin to Charlie and Ira Louvin; and others of his songs that have been recorded include: "Waterloo" (a #1 C&W/Top 10 pop hit for Stonewall Jackson in 1959); "Tobacco Road" (a Top 10 hit for England's Nashville Teens in late 1964); "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye" (Top Ten hit for the Casinos in 1967); and "Indian Reservation" (#1 pop hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders in the summer of 1971).

[sliderocker]

John Loudermilk and the Louvins were also distant relatives of mine. John was one of those rare songwriters whose works were sought after by rock and country artists, which made him something of a musical unifier in the late 50s and early 60s. It was almost impossible to pick up a country or rock album in those days that didn't have a song or two written by John. He sometimes wrote a good number of the songs on albums by certain artists. And his songs were often looked to for possible singles because he had a good track record of writing hits.

Curious thing about "Indian Reservation:" that song was a minor hit for British artist Don Fardon in 1967. That same year, the Lewis and Clarke Expedition recorded a version of the song for their debut album. Lewis and Clarke were Michael Murphy and the late Owen "Boomer" Castleman. The versions by Fardon and the Lewis and Clarke Expedition can both be found on youtube. The versions by the Raiders was and is the keep. And actually, the Raiders version was a solo recording by Mark Lindsay. Lindsay offered Paul Revere the choice of that song or another song from his then recent solo session to go on the next Raiders album. Revere chose "Indian Reservation," even though it had already been a hit. He chose right.

Sad to say, I never had the pleasure of meeting my distant relatives. They didn't live in the neck of the woods where they were born and if they were at family gatherings, I never would've known it. Which was always a possibility, there were and is always people at the family gatherings I didn't and don't recognize. If someone had pointed John out to me, I would've been picking his brain. But, he was one of those I found out too late was related and too late to have had the chance to have known him.

[erik]

A shame that we should lose Loudermilk, even if he was 82, because that kind of songwriting he had that bridged country and rock during the 1960s probably inspired tons of other young aspiring songwriters during that time and beyond. They definitely don't have that songwriting much in evidence on Music Row these days, I'm sorry to say.

[sliderocker]

Sept 22, 2016 18:43:29 GMT -5 erik said:

A shame that we should lose Loudermilk, even if he was 82, because that kind of songwriting he had that bridged country and rock during the 1960s probably inspired tons of other young aspiring songwriters during that time and beyond. They definitely don't have that songwriting much in evidence on Music Row these days, I'm sorry to say.

There's not much evidence of that kind of songwriting anywhere, given many songwriters try to copy whoever has a successful sound and run with that. Singers too. There's very little originality out there.

[erik]

The basic problem is that most of the stuff written these days, especially in (but not something limited exclusively to) Nashville, is written by committee; and the majority of what is heard on country radio nowadays has its head stuck in kegs of beer, screwing chicks on tailgates, and driving drunk down dirt roads while intoxicated, while them "Suth'n" boys do terrible versions of redneck rap and hip-hop: the Bro-Country Epidemic. All Loudermilk ever did was write songs that people recorded in spades. He would have to qualify for what Jimmy Webb would call a "tunesmith".

[sliderocker]

Songwriting by committee can result in some good tunes, but too many hands in the creation of a song can take a good tune and ruin it if they're all not on the same page. My late music teacher didn't understand why there would be three people credited on a song. I laughed to myself when he said that in 1969, because I knew hundreds of songs by that time that were written by three people, a handful written by three or four people. And still even some written by five or more people. And that's because it was a group situation, men and women who were in a group and likely to be on the same page.

But, even songwriters not in a group situation should be able to write a good song and I think the main songwriter should take control of the situation and not let things get out of hand. Because, more than likely, the song is the work of one main writer and maybe he or she isn't sure about what they have come up with and asks others what would they add, what would they take out. That's how I think I would do it. I write but my preference is to write alone. Took so long for me to learn how to do it that I'm just not comfortable writing with others on a regular basis. If it's my idea, I want to go where the song seems to be taking me. If an idea is compatible, I don't mind but when the idea is to turn it into another tune altogether, it makes more sense that idea should be its own idea and not piggybacking on a different idea.

But, I question why any songwriter would give away their share of the publishing royalty, puny as it still is, to four or five others who may have contributed single lyric line or added some notes to a bar of music, but not enough to justify being given a writing credit or taking part of the royalties. Artists, their producers and record company reps and their managers could control the type of songs they record. They could reject any song written by "committee" (I would define that as four people or more who are not part of a group) in favor of songs written by a single songwriter or two or three songwriters.

But, "hacks" can also be songwriters who write alone or partnered with one or two others. And that's what a "committee" songwriter is: a hack. You can try to intentionally write a hit but there's no guarantee of success. You try too hard, you come up with all the right lyrics, riffs and melody but it still sounds sterile at the end of the day. Oh sure, it becomes a hit but ten years from now, the last time it was played on any radio station or sold a copy was when it was a hit. It left a sour note in the listener's head because although it sounded good at the time, it's like the chewing gum in one's mouth that eventually loses its flavor. It's not as good as you thought it was and makes you cringe with embarrassment to think that you liked it. You don't even want your friends to know you liked it. And then you realize the hacks who wrote that song wrote a lot of others you liked at the time and you don't like them any longer. And you wonder, "What was I thinking?" But, hacks don't care - all they care about is the money they made in writing songs by committee or write(paint)-by-numbers.