Defending the indefensible: DIANE WARREN

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There's someone here who likes her. I know there is. Someone here has a soft spot for, say, the Aerosmith song. And there's someone else who knows all the words to "Look Away" by Chicago (that someone is me). And if we meet on the street someday, and I don't know WHAT TO SAY... look away, baby, look away...

So what do you think? Is the most hated professional songwriter of our time actually a talented and occasionally insightful lyricist and underrated composer?

My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

Of course she's talented. That kind of sustained success is no fluke. She's just working in an idiom most of us don't like much.

"Unbreak My Heart"..."I Don't Want to Miss a Thing"..."Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now"..."How Do I Live" are all decent pop songs. Sometimes they're a little under-written but that actually sorta makes sense given current production and vocal vogues.

amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

Also the "professional songwriter" is an increasing rarity these days, in her own way she's keeping alive the tradition of Bacharach/David, Goffin/King, etc.

amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

my big guilty pleasure, and perhaps the only one I would define as such, is the Diane Warren/Albert Hammond triumph that is Starship, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now". A more authoritarian pop song I might never have heard.

derrick (derrick), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

Scary, what's happening here. ;-)

At the end of the day I'll take Diane Warren over Lisa Perry.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

ditto to that!

nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

Warren's songs always wind up in the throats of the most bombastic singers, which is no accident of course, but I wonder if someone who didn't equate singing with sustained melodramatic intensity might interpret her. Has Aretha ever done a DW tune?

Keith Harris (kharris1128), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yes, she had a minor hit with one...whose name I forget ack ack. But Aretha is k-guilty of overwrought singing herself.

amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 19:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

"unbreak my heart" is fantastic.

Asymmetric Cocktails (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 20:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

Dianne Warren is a terrific short-story writer from Regina who has been nominated for the prestigious Governor-General's Award. I gave a copy of her latest book, Reckless Moon, to my sister for Christmas.
You guys should quit hating.

Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 20:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" is one of my favourite songs to sing at karaoke, which means I like it. Though I probably like singing it more than I like hearing it.

s1utsky (slutsky), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 20:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

i like love will lead you back by taylor dayne and don't turn around by ace of base

scott seward, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 20:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Unbreak My Heart" oh yes, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" less so. out of thousands, though, that's only two that spring to mind, maybe there's more? or maybe there's not.

M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 20:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

feel the beat of the rhythm of the night

nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 22:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

blame it on the rain

nnnh oh oh nnnh nnnh oh (James Blount), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 22:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

You people make me sick.

"There You'll Be" = Worst. Song. Ever.

Evan (Evan), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 09:56 (twenty-one years ago) link

Someone once told me they read a quote from her where she said (more or less) "I've got a golden crop and it's pure corn!" which made my day. I think "Can't fight the moonlight" is totally amazing pop. Hey, there's room for lots of things in my record collection...

elisabeth k, Wednesday, 6 August 2003 12:36 (twenty-one years ago) link

"I'm Getting Used to You," up-tempo disco song, one of the best tracks on Selena's Dreaming of You. "Love Can Move Mountains," up-tempo dance track, one of the best of the early Celine Dion hits. "Can't Fight the Moonlight," up-tempo dance track, esp. in the dance remix, one of the great records of the '00s, helped LeAnn Rimes shed dance cred.

Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 18:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

fifteen years pass...

2019 is off to a winning start!!!😁 pic.twitter.com/LNxUO1M8C4

— Diane Warren (@Diane_Warren) January 1, 2019

... (Eazy), Tuesday, 1 January 2019 06:35 (five years ago) link

six months pass...

Listening to her interview on Rupaul's podcast, it's kind of interesting to learn that the person who's written so many hyper-emotional love songs that speak to so many people does not bother with romantic relationships in her own life. Apparently hasn't been in a relationship since 1992. I imagine there are other songwriters like this, but can't think of who.

Josefa, Friday, 12 July 2019 15:50 (five years ago) link

Some years back she was a keynote speaker at the Pop Conference and frankly she was amazing -- funny as hell, a real sense of distance from what happens to her own work, a true craftsperson who otherwise just seemed to want to enjoy life on her terms.

Ned Raggett, Friday, 12 July 2019 15:59 (five years ago) link

one year passes...

Hoping someday I can write a song as great as Wet ass pussy(WAP) #goals #WAP

— Diane Warren (@Diane_Warren) August 7, 2020

... (Eazy), Friday, 7 August 2020 21:06 (four years ago) link

she should aim higher, imo

Rob, give a listen to Iggy Stooge (morrisp), Friday, 7 August 2020 21:17 (four years ago) link

Adam Schlesinger (RIP) had a hilarious anecdote about Diane Warren:

Adam Schlesinger: “I was up against Andrew Lloyd Webber and Diane Warren. You know, all my peers, basically,” Schlesinger said in that 2001 interview of losing the 1997 Oscar to Lloyd Webber for Evita’s “You Must Love Me.” “It was funny, because Diane Warren was sitting right in front of me, and she writes these really sappy love ballads, but her personality does not fit her music. When he won, she was like, ‘That piece of shit won?’”

The Onion AV Club: I've heard she's really salty, yeah.

AS: She's funny.

Chris Collingwood: On her web site, if you go to dianewarren.com, there's a listing of all the songs, and about 75 percent of them have "love" or "heart" in the title. So we were gonna do this Diane Warren tribute called "Suck My Heart." What was the other?

AS: "Blow it Out Your Heart." Chris and another guy actually wrote this song once, which thankfully they didn't submit, for the Wilsons' comeback album.

CC: Wilson Phillips.

AS: It was actually after (Chynna) Phillips left, so it was just the Wilson sisters. They wrote this song called "For All Time," and the first line was, "For all time, there was always tenderness," which is an anagram for "fat twat." We were hoping that they would love the song and put it on the album, and you'd sort of leak this rumor about it later.

CC: I have no idea what you're talking about. I had nothing to do with that.

birdistheword, Friday, 7 August 2020 23:02 (four years ago) link

two years pass...

The only data that matters with songs is DOES IT MAKE U FUCKING FEEL SOMETHING.

— Diane Warren (@Diane_Warren) June 10, 2023

underwater as a compliment (Eazy), Saturday, 10 June 2023 18:46 (one year ago) link

like repulsion

c u (crüt), Saturday, 10 June 2023 19:35 (one year ago) link

Indifference?

you gotta roll with the pączki to get to what's real (snoball), Saturday, 10 June 2023 19:37 (one year ago) link

one year passes...

While the soft rock track was specifically written for Cher, the singer initially disliked the song upon hearing a demo and turned it down. Warren claimed in 1991: "I got on my knees and pleaded. I told her I wasn't going to leave the room until she said yes, and finally, just to get rid of me, she did." In 2014, she further added: "She really hated it, but I held her leg down during a session and said, 'You have to record it!'" According to Warren, Cher reportedly responded: "'Fuck you, bitch! You're hurting my leg! OK, I'll try it.' Once Cher sang it, she gave me this look like, 'You were right'."

Joe Boudin (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 12 November 2024 21:49 (two days ago) link

Life goals have Cher tell you “Fuck you, bitch!”

Lavator Shemmelpennick, Wednesday, 13 November 2024 00:13 (yesterday) link


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