If I wanted to disagree with this more strongly I couldn't ! It's almost as though it's regarded as blasphemy to say, 'actually, these songs I've written or that they've written are better than loads of stuff I have on records'. After listening to home recorded albums like "Cloud" or songs like "Save you now", "So high solo" and "You jumped the gun", believe me, it is not blasphemous at all !Speak for yourself mate ! The only way your statement could even hope to stand up is if you had heard almost everyone's home recorded efforts......which you couldn't possibly have. It's a bit like a country and western lover saying "all heavy rock and reggae is lame....." having listened to Matumbi, Black Slate, Bunny Wailer, Led Zeppelin, Mahogany Rush and Lone Star.
I feel the opposite way. You see, both in the old days and now, there has often been so much more to making recordings and netting and keeping recording contracts than "having songs", even good ones. For instance, many a time, a groups' songs were rejected and they were made to record what the producer {or A&R man in the really old days} thought was something safe that the public would like. It often had nothing to do with what was 'good'. And then you have situations where company execs changed and the new guy didn't like the band that had been signed by the old exec. Nothing to do with whether the music was good. Not to mention all the sexual favours and payola that have been such a fundamental part of music history. And then what about all the novelty hits that are almost universally reviled except that they sold a bundle ? Were they good ?
To me, the home recordist is no less or more capable of writing good songs than the professional that does it every day. There is nothing in writing songs daily that
intrinsically means you will write good stuff. It's a bit like the DIYer. The decorator/plumber/electrician that does it for a living is by no means guaranteed to create a more beautiful result than the guy that enjoys it but does it now and then. I have seen work by people that were not professionals and you would never guess it. For me, the same applies to music.There are so many kinds of songs across so many genres. And not only do different standards apply to different genres, they applied in different eras.
On top of that, not everything that emerged from professional studios was necesarilly good. You had good producers, engineers, masterers, cutters......and average and lame ones. It's quite interesting hearing engineers criticizing the work of other engineers. Very revealing.That would apply if we were manufacturing fridges or rubber toys. It's a somewhat different thing with a song. Often, one has vested emotional energy and more in a song and the way one wants to do it.
In a way, I completely agree with you. I'm often fascinated about artists that will declare how much they dislike the actual recording that came out and was a hit. I've lost count over the years how many times I've heard or read of someone saying that what the producer did to their song/album wasn't what they wanted or what they would have done. And there's me thinking "I'm glad you
didn't get your way, because I love your song/album !"
AtoDeficient and I were agreeing on this in another thread. I sometimes wonder if it's an age thing. I don't often see people that are beyond, say, their 30s shouting from the rooftops about their awesome songs. Other things, yes.
I have alot of 'professionally' recorded albums of 'questionable' and varied quality. It runs both ways but sometimes, I wonder if we aren't a little too taken with 'pro' and not pro. Of course, I have consider the very real possibility that the standard of what I can enjoy is just shockingly low !Same here. I like the process but I'm more interested in the result. It's a hobby but I also want to listen to decent music in my old age.
