Unfortunately, WhammyBar, your whole argument falls apart under the fact that Pink Floyd were not a Progressive Rock band.
*puts can opener away, laughing maniacally*
an arranger should NEVER create a line that didn't exist in the original work
Says who? Because if I understand music theory correctly, the "Ultimate Rule" is that there are no rules. I should think that that would also extend to production, arranging and all other music related fields.
There has to be an original part to be arranged
There has to be a SONG to be arranged...I'll get behind you on that.
In prog rock, though, the musicians tend to be of a higher calibre, often with a classical background, and they really compose a song.
Well...now we KNOW that you're not talking about the self-taught, technically average members of Pink Floyd.
That means lyrics and a melody are written, but there are then many ways to harmonise a melody. Yes, the implied harmonic structure is obvious when you're creating melody, but when you have the rest of the band working with you on the song, sometimes they throw in a harmonic twist, re-writing the obvious into something exciting and unexpected. Musicianship means using your skill to be inventive, not just doing the obvious.
This sounds to me like overcomplicating a song just to show off how good a musician thinks he is. It's certainly serving the musician more so than the song.
Which, I guess, is why so much Prog is rubbish, imo. *shrug*
I've had a new song come into the studio from another band member, and we've actually put it together in several different ways, used bits of each, even changed the end of the verse so we can get into a different key for the chorus to give it and extra lift. Don't tell me that isn't "writing" when the tune has changed, the harmony has changed, the rhythm has changed, and sometimes the words have changed to scan better at the speed we finally settled on! The songwriting credit STILL goes to the guy who brought it in though, unless we wrote a whole new verse or chorus.
I'd say it depends on whether you actually WROTE those differences yourself, or if you simply encouraged the original writer to explore different options on his own.
If you came up with the changes yourself, then yes; you co-wrote the song and got screwed out of the credit.
If you simply coached the original writer into these new directions, then you produced and arranged the track.
Would you like to continue insisting that I don't understand the difference between these terms simply because I don't subscribe to your own, personal definition?
You know, I know a lot of musicians that work the other way around, first they come with a melody or "tune" and then they choose which chords are they going to use as "background". If they are in a traditional mood the chosen chords are determined by the inherent harmonic structure given by the main melody. If they are in a "experimental" mood they throw away the rules and come with disonant stuff that has nothing to do with the main melody or dramatically contrast with it.
Sure...there's more than one way to write a song.
I'm curious, though; do these other people (since you know them) allow other people to attach their names to the songwriting credit for doing next to nothing in the creation of the song itself?
You could say the same about the mid section of Interstellar Overdrive, nobody wrote nothing they just improvised, but those improvisations became the main body of the piece and they give the song its identity.
One could also point out that Interstellar Overdrive is a song by a young band, on their first album, made before they really understood the finer points about songwriting credits.
One could also say that they credited everyone because they recorded more than one version of the song and didn't know which version they would end up using (and maybe it's really an edit of multiple versions,) so they were just covering all bases.
You are totally right, providing what the artist wants is the point ..when you are a session musician , but back then Richard Wright was not a "hired musician" he was a "member of the band". Perhaps he got fed up by the inconsistency of being a member of the band and feeling treated as a hired musician by Waters.
Then perhaps Wright should have put down the coke spoon, gotten off the boat and actually written some songs instead of waiting for Roger and Dave to write everything and give him a solo to be counted towards a songwriting credit?
Just a thought.
