Songs and poems - the crucial difference

As a veteran of many mixed mode live events (singer-songwriters sharing the stage with poets), I think it's hard, though not impossible, to make such nights work.

From a poet's point of view, too many of the singers, and their output, can seem bland. Abd the musicians take too long setting up, are ampl;ified way too much, and their patter between songs is garbage.

Worst of all are those nights where people who sing covers are allowed slots alongside poets performing original material. There is no artistic equivalence.

Much as I quote enjoy a live rendition of "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" sandwiched between some live poetry, I really do not want to hear or see some pot-bellied, balding fool raunching it up with "Mustang Sally".

That's not to say song-writers who peform their own material are necessarily any better.

And I'm sorry to have to say this, but young female song-writers are often FANTASTICALLY BORING.

It seems that for a certain (and numerically dominant) group of whining wimmin singers the thematic seams to be mined for the the composition fo songs are limited to the following three...

(1) My man doesn't understand me.
(2) Men are awful.
(3) Errr, actually, there isn't 3 (see above, repeat and fade).

And while there are good poetic male song-writers, such as Steve Forbert, Morrissey, Paul Weller, Roddy Frame, and Bob Dylan (though it's a shame Dylan's singing voice is so awful), I can't think of ANY female ones that float my boat.

Dido might as well raise that white flag of surrender, as far as I'm concerned.

Mainly, and increasingly as Western rock and pop grows old and jaded, the newer songs are vapid and unambitious conceptually.

That's not to say mnodern pop singers or their songs aren't popular. Of course they are - because people are so thick they lap up crap and fall for all the marketing hype. Girls Aloud,Zzzzz.

Perhaps we shouldn't be too suprised at this. After all, in general terms, song-writing is about the banal expression of easy-to-please sentiment.

Whereas performance poetry, at its best, is the precise opposite of that.