John Mayer – King Of California, Ryan Adams – Court Jester

A weekly column by Inside Songwriting contributor, Michael J Roberts.

It may be time to reassess the critical merits of John Mayer as a writer in relation to the comments from Mr Mandy Moore, the Alt-country aging enfante terrible Ryan Adams. Every songwriter has a benchmark work/artist that fills in the blank for “If I had written a song/album like _______ I’ll die a happy man/woman”, and for Adams it seemingly became John Mayer according to a quote in 2010 on Adam’s Twitter account. But is the situation as clear cut as it seems? The actual Twitter quote was “I wish I could make as good a record as John Mayer made. If I can do that I will be happy.” On the face of it you would assume Adams to be a huge Mayer fan, but given his previous form of goading and prodding Mayer over Jennifer Aniston, an actress that Adams seemingly drools over at every opportunity, it’s more likely a dark joke. The interesting thing it seems to have at least partially contributed to a change in approach from Mayer.

Ryan’s Slaughter

Adams is cursed, and/or blessed with an astonishing fecundity in terms of song output, reportedly writing 4 to 5 songs a day, the concomitant problem being his inability to find the edit button. This situation extends to his Jeckle and Hyde personality and belligerent and bombastic statements, hurled like missiles at anyone and everyone (check out his argument with folk legend Janis Ian after Ryan’s behaviour towards Neil Finn on a BBC Songwriter’s Circle episode), a proclivity complicated and exacerbated by his heroic drug taking over the journey. Adams has stretched the tolerance of his legion of fans with the sheer amount of material he’s released and at his best he is simply untouchable, but given his persona has largely been that of an approximation of Tom Hulce’s portrayal of Mozart as an irritating delinquent-genius in Milos Forman’s Amadeus, he makes it hard work to continue the love.

As with many songwriters going through a patch of producing work that does not inspire themselves, Adams was shamed into throwing out some of his solo work upon hearing Laura Marling’s I Speak Because I Can album in 2010. Sometimes a great songwriter needs to be reminded of the power of music and inspired to lift their game. Ryan had left the brilliant band The Cardinal’s to take a step back when Ethan John’s sent him Marling’s album, having just produced it. Adams was gobsmacked, changed direction, hired an ‘old school’ producer (Ethan’s old man and Rolling Stones veteran Glyn Johns) and made his finest album in years in Ashes and Fire.

Adams duly fired off his sarcastic salvo towards Mayer, but it coincided with the shit-storm that befell the talented guitarist after a bizarre interview in Rolling Stone titled, The Dirty Mind and Lonely Heart of John Mayer. It’s possible that Adams’ words resonated in a way they would not previously have done, as Mayer also changed direction, hired an old school producer (Rolling Stones veteran Don Was) and made his best album, Born and Raised.

New King in Town

As with the type of ‘credibility envy’ that can be plainly seen in Jon Bon Jovi towards Bruce Springsteen, it’s highly probable Mayer would have been aware of the critical gap between him and Adams. Mayer, like Bon Jovi, had made a series of mainstream, competent and slickly produced albums that safely showcased his skills as a fine guitarist and talented singer, full of hit songs that critics found broadly underwhelming. During the same time frame Adams made a series of wide ranging albums, selling nothing like the millions of units that Mayer routinely enjoyed but becoming the darling of the critics in the process. For someone with a healthy ego like Mayer, who had everything else except critical reverence, the gap would have grated. I think after Adams’ pithy quote Mayer set out to close that gap with an album that could justify Adams’ quote. Rivalry is a great creative spur; it worked for Lennon and McCartney for 23 years. Mayer wanted to make Ryan’s words ring true, the amazing thing is, he pulled it off.

Born and Raised is full of fine songs that would not be out of place on the best albums from the classic singer-songwriter era of the early 1970’s. Queen of California is a lovely shuffle, recalling the Grateful Dead in tone and name-checking queen of the scene Joni Mitchell, 1971 and a Bob Dylan couplet into the bargain; it’s sweet, smart and charming. If I Ever Get Around to Living is a genuinely fine ballad with an atmospheric keyboard guiding the tone, across an acoustic guitar that could have come off an early Neil Young album. Whiskey, Whiskey, Whiskey brings in the references even more clearly, some Neil like harmonica and Graham Nash and David Crosby singing the backing vocals. Mayer moved to the next level as a songwriter.

Whatever the motivation, John Mayer lifted his game to a whole new level with this approach, showing he’s not only a fine guitarist but a songwriter of note when he fully engages himself. After the embarrassment of the Rolling Stone fiasco, he even managed to sound like a grown up when talking about the album, “Every tune for me told me more about myself than I knew. So for me, that was a very personal revelation, saying to me, “This is a part of who you are.”

Oh, Oh…. Growing Up

The refrain for If I Ever Get Around To Living may have given the game away, “Think you better wise up boy”, as it revealed that Mayer had experienced an epiphany of self-awareness around the time of Ryan’s tweet. It’s hard growing up in public no doubt, and mistakes can be written off to youth to some extent, but Mayer (a sharp man not without humour and wit) turned it around. Mayer’s early work was undeniably classy in many respects, but for some tastes it suffered from sterility and a lack of depth, and his musicianship seemed to take priority over his song writing. Mayer woke up to the fact that engaging with his material by actually revealing something of his inner self was a far more potent artistic approach to take. The result was an album of compelling and fully committed songs, where the fine playing and tasteful production is a bonus and not the central feature.

Ryan Adams, mesmerising in Sydney

It took several years for Adams to grow up and find the same level of self-awareness as he happily set fire to every bridge he crossed. If his legion of fans have had their hearts in their mouths and their fingers crossed for years, some respite came recently, in live performance as (happily) he was self-deprecating, witty and funny when last I saw him solo at the Sydney Opera House a couple of years ago. He was a different man, the angry contrarian was tamed and his music was still mesmerising… but I’m guessing he’s not getting a Christmas card from Neil Finn anytime soon.

Another tale from the nether world of songwriters, happy writing

Musycks.

Stay tuned for news on Michael’s forthcoming brilliant book

“Becoming A Great Songwriter”

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