October 2011
Guild Tidings
The official publication of
The International Songwriters Guild
Volume 16, No. 10
NEXT MEETING 5:00pm Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
Officers:
President/Treasurer
Russ Robinson (407) 382-9942
Vice President/Newsletter
Matthew Griffin (407) 903-1212
Secretary
Jacquelyn Gould, campkittycat@gmail.com
Membership
Susan Foster-Trewick, susiecool2001@yahoo.com
Newsletter
Jeff Mason, jeffrey_mason@me.com
Matthew Campbell, matthew_sax77@yahoo.com
Website
Carlos Colon (352) 326-4295
The International Songwriter’s Guild meets at 5 PM on the first Sunday of every month at the Central Florida Musician’s Union building, 3020 East Robinson (at the extreme east end of Robinson, near Orlando Executive Airport ) in Orlando .
Songwriters, composers, performers, publishers, and the curious are encouraged to join us. Non-members are invited to attend a meeting or two to get a feel for our group and what we do. For more information, visit our website at www.isgorlando.org or myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/internationalsongwritersguildorlando .
President's Letter
Dear Members,
Happy October! Well, happier for me than it might have been. I was scheduled to be laid off from my job September 30th, but was just extended for another 3 months. Of course, that could make Christmas a little dicey. J ISG member (and fellow software engineer) Asli Walker was recently laid off from her job too. It’s a tough time to be unemployed. I’m sure the economy will rebound, but it might not be too soon.
For those of you who missed our September meeting, you missed a good one; excellent songs and interesting discussions. In one of those discussions we decided to bring back critique scoring, sometimes anyway. The main concern of the folks at the meeting was how meaningless scoring is when there’s only two people scoring, or only three songs to score. So from now on, the magic number is 5. If there are 5 songs that people want scored and 5 scorers, then we’ll do it. If one of the songs to be scored is submitted by a scorer, then we need 6 scorers (because that person cannot score his/her own song). Get it? Kudos to Matthew Campbell for coming up with the compromise idea. Based on the numbers we’ve had this year, we probably will be scoring songs at fewer than half of the meetings.
I hope you all can make it to the October meeting. As Russ always said, bring your latest composition for us to hear. I’m looking forward to it!
Matt (for Russ)
All the King’s Men
By Jeff Mason
Jerry Lieber passed away last month. He and his partner Mike Stoller wrote about two dozen songs for Elvis Presley. They were among a skilled group of songwriters who supplied material to Presley.
The songs were well crafted. Lieber was a skilled lyricist who was able to write witty, satirical stories in his songs. They met in LA when they were 17 years old. Stoller was a pianist and they both had a love of rhythm and blues. Their first hit for Presley was “Hound Dog” which was originally written for and recorded by Big Mama Thornton. Their next assignment for Presley was for the movie Jailhouse Rock. They wrote and produced four songs for the film including the title track. Lieber and Stoller went on to write the title songs for three Presley movies.
One of the first vocal groups they wrote for was The Robins. The most notable songs were “Smokey Joes’s Cafe” and “Riot in Cell Block #9.” These songs were released on their own Spark label. Spark was later bought by Atlantic Records and, in a unique and lucrative deal, Lieber and Stoller were hired by Atlantic . This deal allowed them to produce for other labels too, and so they became the first independent record producers.
In the early 1960s the Brill Building in New York was the hub of the American music business. Lieber and Stoller arrived with a strong catalog of songs and began to write and produce for The Coasters. This association produced such classics as “Charlie Brown,” ”Searchin’,“ and “Yakety Yak.” They also revitalized the career of The Drifters, coming up with collaborations for “Stand By Me” and “On Broadway.” Their most famous song might be “ Kansas City ” which is an R&B staple, not a bad achievement for two Jewish boys. Another classic was “Love Potion No 9” recorded by The Clovers and later by The Searchers. A favorite of mine was “Poison Ivy;” the Rolling Stones did a great version of it. While working at the Brill Building , they had so much work they had to find other songwriters to help share the load. They became the inspiration for people like Carol King.
What stands out in many of their songs is the sense of humor. The craftsmanship is incredible and the titles are short, sweet, and totally unique. Like other songwriting partnerships, there was a friendly competitive spirit pushing each other to greater creative heights. If you want to find out more about them there is an excellent documentary on YouTube. Rest in Peace Mr. Lieber.
Another songwriting team behind Presley was Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman. Second only to Lieber and Stoller, and not nearly as famous, they wrote such classics as “Little Sister,” “Surrender,” “His Latest Flame,” and “Viva Las Vegas”. All were recorded by The King.
Beside their work for Presley they wrote “Save The Last Dance For Me,” “This Magic Moment” and “Sweets For My Sweet,” all recorded by The Drifters. There is a documentary in the works about Pomus and Shuman.
Another unheralded power behind the throne was Otis Blackwell, who composed “Don’t Be Cruel”, “All Shook Up,” “Return To Sender,” and “Paralyzed.” Blackwell never met Presley and I don’t think he made the money he should have. “Don’t Be Cruel” was sold for $25.00. He also wrote the Jerry Lee Lewis classic “Great Balls Of Fire.”
Mac Davis and Billy Strange, Ben Weisman and Aaron Schroeder and the brilliant guitarist Jerry Reed also wrote for Elvis. I hope they were paid better than Blackwell. The music business was cruel in those days. It’s not changed. Keep up with your copyrights. See you next month.
ISG Bulletin Board
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Meeting space graciously provided by Central Florida Musicians Association, Local 389. You are invited to join the largest union in the world, representing the interests of the professional musician. Visit their website at afm389.org for more information. You may reach them by phone at: 407-894-8666.
We’re always looking for material for the newsletter. If you have any information that you would like to see added to the newsletter, please see Matt Griffin at the meetings or email him at isgorl@cfl.rr.com . Please keep your articles brief and to the point. Print deadline for the newsletter is approximately two weeks prior to the monthly meeting.
Classified advertising may be placed free of charge to members in good standing with the ISG . For more information on display advertising and/or classified advertising for non-members, please call Matt or email: isgorl@cfl.rr.com .
Why isn't your gig announced here? Call us with your appearance schedule!
Place your classified ad or gig announcement here! Free to ISG members as always! Just get your text to Matt by the print deadline (usually the Friday 16 days prior to the monthly meeting); email is best ( isgorl@cfl.rr.com ).
New members always welcome!
© 2011 ISG