Marriage material

Musical partnerships where the wife writes the words. Here are four more…

TOM WAITS AND KATHLEEN BRENNAN

Brennan was a script analyst on Francis Ford Coppola’s One From The Heart – for which Waits was composing the score – when she met her future husband. He subsequently dedicated his 1980 song “Jersey Girl” to her, and by the time he released Rain Dogs five years later, her name was starting to appear on his records. Having introduced Waits to Captain Beefheart, Brennan is credited with his move towards sonic experimentation. “She doesn’t like the limelight,” he explained in 1999, “but she’s an incandescent presence on all the songs we work on together.”

BRETT AND RENNIE SPARKS

The two halves of The Handsome Family were an item for five years before they embarked on a collaboration that has so far yielded 11 albums. They were both at New York State University when they met – he a music history student, she a philosopher. Rennie’s facility for a beautifully turned Southern Gothic parable grew from her initial penchant for short stories – a perfect complement to Brett Sparks’ audible adoration for twangy titans of tragedy The Louvin Brothers and The Delmore Brothers.

ROBERT WYATT AND ALFIE BENGE

Before Alfreda Benge started contributing lyrics to Robert Wyatt’s songs, she inspired “Alife/ Alifib” and “Sea Song” from 1974’s Rock Bottom album. An artist and poet in her own right, Benge has also created the artwork for all of Wyatt’s subsequent albums. Phil Manzanera, in whose studio Wyatt has recorded most of his recent albums, has observed that “Alfie’s role… is incredibly, incredibly, incredibly important – I can’t emphasise that enough. There is no Robert without Alfie.”

FELICE AND BOUDLEAUX BRYANT

Felice Bryant was a lift operator at a Milwaukee hotel when she first met future husband Boudleaux Bryant, who was playing a show there. Together, they would write over 6,500 songs – many of the Everly Brothers’ best-loved songs included. For all of that, they recorded just one album themselves. Released in 1980, A Touch Of Bryant saw Felice sing standouts from their extensive songbook, such as “Rocky Top” and “Bye Bye Love” over an accompaniment that featured Boudleaux on guitar.