Kevin Berger of Salon Magazine has written a great tribute to singer-songwriter Neil Finn (of Split Enz and Crowded House). It’s the kind of article you see published in newspapers after the death of a public personnality but Finn is alive and well, and it’s great that someone thought about giving him all the credit he deserves as one of the best songwriters out there.
How often do you read an article about a pop musician where the journalist quotes Yeats and makes comparisons to Raymond Chandler?
« In every Finn song, you sense a shrewd musician at work. You sense he has sought and found the perfect chord and instrument to express each idea and emotion. It’s what Yeats meant when he said that a successful poem will « come shut with a click, like a closing box. » Listen to « It’s Only Natural » from Crowded House’s third album, « Woodface, » and the world all of a sudden makes sense in a three-minute pop song. It’s a fantastic feeling and why you wouldn’t want to try to parse the song for meaning. (…)
In Finn’s homeland New Zealand, though, his career is another story. His celebrity stature is second only to that of a handful of rugby players and « Lord of the Rings » director Peter Jackson. »
