At the start of the 70s, a new musical term came into vogue – “the singer-songwriter”. It referred to a swelling wave of stars that included James Taylor, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne, all of whom, it turns out, hated the term with a passion. “I don’t know one musician who used it,” said Danny Kortchmar, a guitarist who played with all those stars. “Everyone loathed it.”
A new documentary, titled Immediate Family, helps explain why. “When you say ‘singer-songwriter’ it makes it sound like you’re talking about a solo act,” said the film’s director Denny Tedesco. “It was just the opposite of that. The musicians who played on the albums by all those stars were integral. They weren’t just playing along on the tracks. They were helping to create them.”
