Smokey and HDH are my songwriting heroes

[Coppelia-Birdsong]

Hi gang, I love the Supremes so much, and they ignited my lifelong dream of being a good singer/songwriter. I really love listening to the lyrics of the songs Smokey and HDH wrote and I would say they are my favourite songwriters.

HDH I find especially interesting because they put serious thought into who they were writing for and its lovely seeing how they refined the raw vocal talent of Diana, Mary and Florence by making songs that were fun to sing, easy to pick up, but are able to imbue deeply complex metaphors and heartbreaking/complicated subject matter by making the verses almost have a nursery rhyme structure to them. It's a wonderful fusion of really complex subject matter with song and verse structure that is truly elegant in its simplicity.

My favourite HDH song is Send me no Flowers. I love that song: it makes me think of the boy I once loved very deeply but broke my heart in a horrible, cowardly way when I was at my lowest. Diana's voice is haunting here. I am working on a cover of it to sing at a talent show, and I am adding additional lyrics:

You send red roses because the price is right

But my favourites are pink, orange and white

I also changed "get well card" to "store bought card".

I think Send me no Flowers is a gorgeous song and one of the girls's bests as well as one of HDH's best and it should not have been shelved. I think my absolute absolute supreme favourite record in my collection is the A side of the 3rd record in the 25th anniversery boxset: I love love love love LOVE Ooowee Baby, Send me no Flowers, Treat me Right John Henry and Are You Sure Love is the Name of This Game.

[arr&bee]

You're talking about the best there is with those legends.

[marv2]

You're talking about the best there is with those legends.

I totally agree.

[WaitingWatchingLookingForAChance]

It's almost spooky reading your posts because you tend to say things I've always felt but didn't know how to phrase it. Like this:

"HDH I find especially interesting...making songs that were fun to sing, easy to pick up, but are able to imbue deeply complex metaphors and heartbreaking/complicated subject matter by making the verses almost have a nursery rhyme structure to them. It's a wonderful fusion of really complex subject matter with song and verse structure that is truly elegant in its simplicity."

I just could never say it that well and I didn't think anyone else would have understood what I was getting at. Yes, H-D-H had this way of saying very deep things with very simple words. And just like you, I got into songwriting because of H-D-H and Smokey Robinson [[and also James Dean and William Weatherspoon.) Oddly, I found that I could approximate something that was like a poor man's version of a Smokey lyric much easier than an H-D-H lyric. That isn't to say that a Smokey Robinson-esque song is easy to write, NOT BY A LONGSHOT! The thing is, Smokey's songs appealed to my love of language and the power of using precisely the right words at the right time. As he said, everything has been pretty much said before, so the trick is to find new and clever ways of phrasing thoughts. I've always loved word play and how powerful the use of words can be so I think find a Smokey lyric was always much closer to my heart to begin with.

On the other hand, an H-D-H lyric is deceptive. It's as you say, they almost come across as nursery rhymes. No fancy frills or puns or word play. Just straight forward and to the point. But I don't think anyone has ever expressed such complex concepts and emotions with such straightforward language like H-D-H. On paper, the words may not amaze or impress, but when sung, suddenly you're hit all over the head with the full emotional impact of those simple words. Try as I might, I can't come up with lyrics as compact and direct as H-D-H. Nobody else really has to my mind; maybe the ones who came closest were James Dean and William Weatherspoon, but they had something altogether unique in their lyrics too. They wrote lyrics that sounded as if they could have been written by the gods of Greek mythology.

[Motown4Ever518]

Coppelia-Birdsong, a very interesting thread. Because of my love of language, I was under the Wm. Robinson, et al, or solo songwriting sphere. I remember reading a long time ago, that Smokey had written 1,000 songs, since upped to, I believe 4,000. I also began calling myself Smokey, though I kept to myself why. I remember long winded discussions with my best friend who was, and probably still is a HDH fan. What we had in common was a love for the songs of Ashford and Simpson.
It is so nice to meet someone who is at ease expressing oneself in song, and those who wrote them.

[TomatoTom123]

I'd say Smokey has the most easily identifiable lyric style, with those clever, witty rhymes!!! To me Smokey is a great maker of music but a great writer of lyrics in particular...

[RanRan79]

HDH surely are great songwriters in my book. But I think I'm more impressed with their overall production skills. Smokey is easily on the list of my all time favorite songwriters. As Tom says above, clever, witty. He really is a masterful storyteller. I think my fav song of his from a purely written angle is "Two Lovers". The fact that Mary Wells has been talking about one dude the whole time gets me every time.

[waynesville]

Didn't Bob Dylan say that Smokey was America's greatest living poet? Nuff said....

[144man]

I'd say Smokey has the most easily identifiable lyric style, with those clever, witty rhymes!!! To me Smokey is a great maker of music but a great writer of lyrics in particular...

Have you noticed how HDH were more inclined to use vowel rhymes as much as conventional rhymes as in "...give you all the love I need… depend on me", or "...can't help myself… no one else"?

[TomatoTom123]

Have you noticed how HDH were more inclined to use vowel rhymes as much as conventional rhymes as in "...give you all the love I need… depend on me", or "...can't help myself… no one else"?

Yes indeed!!!! I noticed only the other day when trying remember the exact lyrics to "I Can't Help Myself" that half of the lines in it don't really rhyme... just near-rhymes as you say martin. Interesting