POP MUSIC REVIEW : Songwriters’ Academy Puts King-Goffin Team in Spotlight

Comedian Paul Reiser kicked off the fourth annual “Salute to the American Songwriter” concert at the Wiltern Theatre on Saturday with an intentionally bad--and very funny--love song:

There are many reasons I love you, and here are just nine

One--I love both your eyes

Two--I love your hair, the hair you use is just fine

Three--you have a firm and hearty handshake

Four--you don’t use it all the time. . . .”

Reiser, the show’s co-host, went on to explain that the song is bad because it violates songwriting rules (never make lists, never mention luggage . . .).

The program that followed for the most part honored pop songwriters who have worked within the rules. But the best of them also made their own rules.

Tops among the latter Saturday was the team of Carole King and her ex-husband, Gerry Goffin, who were honored with the sponsoring National Academy of Songwriters’ Lifetime Achievement award for their treasure chest of songs including “Up on the Roof,” “One Fine Day” and “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” Those were included in a 17-song medley performed by King, her first real concert appearance in about four years.

Unfortunately, the Academy decided to play this show by someone else’s rules. Cable music channel VH-1, the softer sister of MTV, was taping the proceedings for airing in early January, and its needs--both in terms of the performers featured and the pacing of the show--too often took precedence.

The show was drawn out to a tedious 5 1/2 hours due to pauses, delays and retakes dictated by the TV crew. Because the show began an hour late, what was supposed to end at 11 p.m. didn’t reach its finale (a mass sing-along of Goffin and King’s “The Loco-Motion”) until 1:30 a.m.

More important, rather than carry on the tradition of the three previous salutes--which were of, by and for songwriters, regardless of public renown--this show seemed geared largely toward providing name acts and hits and scripted repartee from Reiser and VH-1 veejay Katherine Kinley for TV viewers.

Only Hollywood veterans Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, casually performing several songs they wrote for stage and screen, including “The Morning After,” were on hand to provide a connection to the American traditions of the likes of Irving Berlin and Sammy Cahn. And only a brief but spirited set by Los Lobos with Chicago blues legend Willie Dixon heralded the thriving roots of rock ‘n’ roll and R&B.;

Still, the focus was mostly on the songwriters and their music, and the evening had no dearth of highlights: Linda Ronstadt with Jimmy Webb on a lovely version of Webb’s “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress”; Brian Wilson sitting at the piano to sing three songs, including the heartbreaking “God Only Knows” and a catchy new song, “I Sleep Alone”; and a surprisingly loose, intimate set from Kenny Loggins, providing some needed energy as the clock struck 1.

Songwriter Stephen Bishop, a participant in the past three years but a member of the audience Saturday, defended the show, contrasting it to the much slicker, speech-laden Grammy and American Music Awards shows.

“This is more heartfelt,” Bishop said as the show dragged into its fourth hour. “It’s like a battle of the bands, without the battle and without the bands--just the songwriters. It’s for songwriters. . . .”

But then Bishop’s most famous song would have been the perfect theme for this evening/morning: “On and On.”