Bryan Ferry on the man who wrote songs “singers love to sing”
Bryan Ferry is no stranger to excellent songwriting. While fronting Roxy Music, some of the music he put together has stood the test of time and are still celebrated as classics today. Consider songs like ‘Jealous Guy’, which has been covered repeatedly since it was originally written, to have such a way with words and melody is a true talent.
Despite writing music being a subjective art form, it tends to be the case that a lot of artists who are good songwriters can recognise people who are equally good at their craft. This is why Ferry is a good person to listen to when looking for other exceptional songwriters. While there are a lot of people he references, there is one folk artist who he says had songs that everyone loved to cover and who stood out despite his simplicity compared to other artists.
“I wasn’t heavily into Dylan back then; I just thought they were really interesting songs,” said Ferry. “He was different from all the other people I liked back then, who were all Black American artists, pretty much, with smatterings of Europeans: Piaf and people like that. The oddballs.”
When he talks about Bob Dylan, he brings up a good point: he was hailed as a prolific songwriter despite having a relatively simplistic approach to his songs. When you listen to a lot of his music, his chord progressions are standard; it’s his words and inflexions that stand out. They come together to make a melody that feels uncopiable despite it only being put together using a few chords.
“I subsequently found myself going back to Dylan, if I was looking for something to do in between my own writing. Great songs, great words, that singers love to sing,” he said. “Usually, a lot of his work was done in a plain way – just a guitar and some singing – so there’s ample room to do something different. I wasn’t a die-hard devotee, so I could go in with gusto and start banging the keys. We found a way to do it that was very me.”
Graham Nash said something similar when discussing The Beatles song ‘A Day In The Life’. He noted that it was one of the most adventurous songs ever written and is so wonderfully put together that he believes it’s proof the universe was responsible for putting the band together. He goes on to emphasise that this song wonderfully highlights that The Beatles were able to put together simple yet complex melodies while only using a limited chord structure.
“Their incredible simplicity and their incredible melodic structure is stunning to this day,” he said. “With all due respect, within this Western scale of music, there’s what? Twelve notes? Are you kidding me? The Beatles were unbelievable, and I think we all knew it.”
Both Bob Dylan and The Beatles are hailed as some of the best songwriters of all time by their contemporaries, such as Bryan Ferry and the public. This shows that being a great songwriter doesn’t come with complicated structure but instead is the result of using simple chords and putting them together in a beautiful way.
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