Firstly, apologies for the lack of post last month but
things have been getting hectic! But now I’m back on track. Rebel’s back and
yelling louder than ever!
As none of you know I’ve recently started university. That’s
right folks I’m one of those clinically insane people who actually decide to
stick with education longer than legally required AND pay huge amount of money
for it! But you should be use to my lunacy by now. Besides in the words of Mr.
Billie Joe Armstrong “the most punk thing
to do is to do the things no one expects”…or something along those lines…the
point is a musician going to university? Well…this next fact could blow you
right of the water (if you’ve been living under a rock all of this century) but
I’m at an actual music school working towards a degree in Songwriting. Yupp. I
know what you’re all thinking…”How can
you do a degree in Songwriting?” and “What
does it entail? Just sitting round
writing songs?” but that my friends is another story for another time.
 |
| Left to right: Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly |
Trust me there is a point to me informing you about my
current lifestyle choices, in a recent class I learnt that one of my favourite
songs was not actually written by the band themselves, instead professional
songwriters are behind the piece. The song being “Alone” by Heart,
was in fact written by two men called Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. Within
this class it was also unveiled that they are in fact the masterminds behind
classics such as “Eternal Flame” by The Bangles and The Pretenders “I’ll Stand ByYou” as well as writing the song
that arguable put Madonna on her pedestal “Like a Virgin”.
Again why am I telling you all of this? Because I am fully
aware of how stubborn and ignorant musicians, fans and writers are when it
comes to the role of commercial songwriters thing. Myself included in this. We
tend to assume that it is only Pop artists such as One Direction and 5
Seconds of Summer rely on other professionals to write their music;
sometimes even collaborating with these writers. But this is not the case at
all. Some of the largest names in the Rock world have been created through
others, for instance, a man called Jim Steinman founded the artist Meat
Loaf, you know who he is right? To me Steinman is a legend. Up
in the same league as Elton John and Michael Jackson.
Some of his most well known songs include:
- "Bat Outta
Hell" – Meat Loaf
Artist such as Frank Sinatra and Elvis
Presley had professional songwriters writing their music. To the degree
that Sinatra
was known to make writers compete with each other in order to get the
best songs on to his albums. Another artist who doesn’t get the recognition she
deserves by the general public is Diana Warren, her hits list include:
- "I Don’t
Want To Miss a Thing" – Aerosmith
- "Bed of
Nails" – Alice Cooper
- "Loving You
Is All I Know" – The Pretenders
- "Blue Eyes
Blues" – Eric Clapton
- "Cruel
Nights" – Heart
Basically, these passed few lessons I’ve been subjected to
made me realise as a fan and musician that there are so many people behind the
scenes and back stage that help artists tremendously. To the degree that most
bands wouldn’t be where they are today if it wasn’t for these writers.
So the point of this Rebel Yell article? To (hopefully) make
you see that there are some insanely talented people out there who are either
unknown, undiscovered, or simply don’t want the same version of ‘fame and
fortune’ as artists. I guess that’s it really…I realise there isn’t much to go
off of in this article. I am also aware it is very different from my usual
entries, but hey see I can be somewhat sophisticated too!
Don’t worry everything won’t be like this, I will go back
and forth, sticking primarily to my little quirky reviews and what not. But
every now and again I will drop something insightful your way…like this…after
all I’m a uni girl and all that jazz now aye!
I am also aware I may have shatter some of you own illusions
about some of your favourite artists…such as I was with Heart. Don’t worry you’ll get over it, and hopefully make something
useful of it! But I’m sorry(!!!) if
I’ve destroyed some of your little, perfect worlds…or just wasted some of your
time. Maybe I should have put a disclaimer at the top of here…hmmm…ahh well…
Until next time…”unpleasant
dreams”
(Yes I just stole that line from Elvira…for all of you who knew that reference I salute you! If you
didn’t get yourself educated on her now!)
Rebel Yell.
