Duos, Anyone?

In bands that that have two main co-authors, I've always reflexively gravitated to one or the other. There's no logic behind these affinities. I suppose some of it might be something as shallow as how they look, or something they once said in an interview. Perhaps it's something about who I perceive to be the underrated one in the relationship. So here goes:

- Morrissey/Johnny Marr: I think this was generally equal early on, but at some point, Morrissey's various shenanigans ensured the decline of his status, but I think also, as an amateur guitarist, I had always felt awed by Marr, and this awe has only grown over the years, given his all-around good-natured public persona. Morrissey was undoubtedly a true original, a genius, if you will, for the aesthetic he conjured out of discarded British culture of the '60s. But...I lean very heavily towards Marr for reasons that I cannot explain entirely even though his solo career has been mostly pedestrian.

- John Lennon/Paul McCartney: This is a hard one and although Lennon was in the ascendance for a long time, I would have to grant them exactly equal levels of occupation in my psyche.

- Donald Fagen/Walter Becker: Definitely Becker, the more cynical fucked up bitch who seems to have written "Haitian Divorce" and "Time out of Mind," not to mention "Book of Liars." Also, in interviews, Becker seems to be the more biting and entropic one. Walter Becker, king of the fucked up '70s.

- Mick Jagger/Keith Richards: I have a controversial take on this since my affinity is to Jagger -- yes, I know, shocking! Look, I love Keith and his golden riffs, but I find he's a bit mumbly and incoherent, and there's something a bit trad-blues about Keith. On the other hand, there's something oddly interesting about Jagger's total disinterest in wallowing in nostalgia/myth-making by writing a memoir. Also his desperation in the '80s to sound contemporary with those awful solo albums -- there's something admirable about that. Also he wrote the riff to "Brown Sugar" which guarantees a seat at the table.

- Elton John/Bernie Taupin: Bernie strikes me as being a bit weird, and Elton John wrote some of the greatest pop music this side of Smokie Robinson, so I am giving this to Elton.

- Joe Strummer/Mick Jones: Strummer by far. I really can't stand the way Jones sings with that faux-earnestness, although I admire his guitar-playing chops and I think he wrote "Complete Control" and "Stay Free," two killer tracks, and I do love Big Audio Dynamite, at least the first album, and no, "Lost in the Supermarket" was actually written by Strummer completely.

- Jimmy Page/Robert Plant: This is a hard one as I think Jimmy Page is a beautiful guitar player but Plant seems a bit more adventurous, unpredictable, a live wire, he was, after all, the one who got Steve Fucking Albini to produce the one and only post-Zeppelin album Plant did with Page. So I think I'll give the slight edge to Plant on this.

- Carole King/Gerry Goffin: I think this is clearly Carole.

- Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller: I don't know enough about what each did to make an informed decision on this, but they did write some good shit!

- Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff: I also don't know enough about their individual contributions so I'll just say, both.

- Isaac Hayes/David Porter: Same as above, some brilliant singles in the '60s, but I guess Isaac Hayes is more name-friendly to me because of Shaft and stuff.

- Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards: Ooh, this is a hard one, they were both such geniuses, Bernie gets the nod for the killer bass lines, Nile for the killer guitar, who can really say?

- Don Henley/Glen Frey: Definitely Henley although they both suck so horribly as to almost destroy this listing like a supernova of cringe personalities exploding into a galaxy of boomer worlds.

- Rick Davies/Rodger Hodgson: Rick Davies, although it's clear that Hodgson wrote way more good songs than Davies. So why Davies? See below:

Rick Davies died recently. Now, no one cares about Supertramp. Every other band in the world (including Slipknot, apparently!) has been resurrected from critical oblivion but this will never happen to Supertramp. There will be no Sunday morning review on Pitchfork of a Supertramp album to remind us of their singular brilliance. AOR slop has consigned them to the black hole of '70s music. Unremembered, not even important to be made fun of, occasionally invoked by a 60-year old white man at a bar who has had a few too many drinks.

But let me make a futile and embarrassing case for Supertramp, especially their classic '70s run from 1974 to 1979. Those four albums--Crime of the Century (1974), Crisis? What Crisis (1975), Even the Quietest Moments (1977), and Breakfast in America (1979)--are really fabulous. They inhabit this weird space of producing smart pop (think 10cc), with touches of prog rock (vanilla Genesis), but handled with slightly iconoclastic sensibilities that none of their contemporaries had. That iconoclasm--bordering on nihilism--packaged in slick '70s rock vibes, puts them in a slightly different category than, say, more vanilla '70s rock bands.

Their best album, with ten bangers, is Crime of the Century which balances Davies' iconoclasm with Hodgson's hippie curiosity perfectly. I could write a lot about this album but I'll just post the final and title track which is a monumental achievement in minimalist drama. I have no idea what it's about but Hodgson turns in a brilliant guitar solo. But it's primarily a Rick Davies song -- he sings the crap out of it.

Rest in peace, Mr. Rick.