Influences
Every artist has their influences...
Influences
Every artist has their influences. I'm not sure where the line is between influence and imitation. I don't think Tom Petty could have existed without Roger McGuinn having happened first. The electric 12-string guitar and the nasal vocal inflection are very similar. Still, they were two very different people, and Tom Petty's work reached a very big audience with many big hit songs. There are probably many Tom Petty fans who've never even heard of Roger McGuinn. Unless you're a heavy reader this may mean nothing to you, but Jack Kerouac couldn't have existed without Louis-Ferdinand Céline having come prior, and Kerouac opening a door that brought forth Charles Bukowski.
My friend commented recently that Jackson Browne reminded him of me. I'm afraid it's the other way around. Dave Mallet was a DJ on the college station at the University of Maine and he gave me a copy of Jackson's first album. What influenced me most was the depth of psychology in his lyrics. He, Leonard Cohen, and Joni Mitchell led me in that direction.
Bonnie Raitt once told me that Jackson would love my songs. I'm not sure that that is the case, but both she and The Eagles have recorded songs by both of us. Jackson wrote "These Days" at age 16, one of my favorite songs ever. It was also recorded by Nico, Greg Allman, Tom Rush and more.
My friend Louise Goffin commented once that my song "Beautiful Child" owes a heavy debt to Jackson Browne. If that is true, thank you Jackson for inspiring me. My music friend Richard Julian identified the similarity as the "holding out of vowels" when singing. Don Henley said that my music was "almost folk-music." Partially true, yes, and my folk-style songs do display the Jackson Browne influence, but most of my music is blues and jazz-influenced in a way that West Coast music usually is not. This song was written in New York to celebrate the birthday of my son.
Two other big influences on me were Mose Allison, and the Atlantic Records album that Boz Scaggs recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Mose's jazz-blues style and once again "psychological" lyrics are so cool. Bonnie Raitt sings a beautiful version of his song "Everybody's Cryin' Mercy.”
I had a room in a townhouse in Portland, Maine in my 20s, that I shared with my first love, Katie, for a while. We had a record player and we listened many times to Boz Scaggs singing "I'll Be Long Gone."
I think she was trying to tell me something, playing this song for me. She dove into marriage and having babies way before I was ready for that. How devastating it is, to break up with your first love. I had thought we would be together forever, but it wasn't meant to be. How naive and clueless I was at that age.
The Southern mix of soul and country that Boz created has stayed with me my whole life of creating music. His lyrics seemed to have been jotted down on a napkin in the studio, and his singing and guitar playing were very simple. Not a criticism, I still love that album. It gave me hope as the not-much-of-a-singer, guitarist, or lyricist I was at that time in my life. Arriving in Los Angeles I realized I'd have to put significant work into improving my skills in all 3 of those areas.
There are many more songs and artists that have influenced me, as well: Allen Toussaint, Lou Reed, Springsteen's "The River" and "Two Steps Forward", Aretha Franklin's "Young, Gifted & Black", Bonnie Raitt, of course, Gil Scott-Heron, Bill Evans, Bobby Womack, Tim Hardin and more. I have at least two thousand vinyl records at home with more coming in every month, all of them influencing me in ways small and large. I'll leave you with a few songs by others singers and writers that I love:
The Blue Nile:
Madison Cunningham:
Phoebe Bridgers:
Tiny Habits: