In the car I just heard Patti Smith’s “Gloria” and it reminded me how I first knew of her as a poet. Maybe she was “respected” only in my little circle, but it was before she became a pop star. Which got me thinking about Leonard Cohen. I was first exposed to “Suzanne” when Noel Harrison recorded it (did he do it on The Girl From UNCLE?), but I didn’t know Cohen wrote it. I first saw “Famous Blue Raincoat” in a collection of poetry and was surprised that he fancied himself a singer. In retrospect I believe he became a pop star both for the chicks (the reason he tried Scientology) and so that he could rhyme without embarrassment.
Who else first made at least a minor name for themselves in print before moving into music?
“Respected poet” is kind of a hard one. I gather Jim Morrison thought of himself as a poet first and a rock star degenerate second, but that opinion isn’t widely held outside of his immediate family. Snark aside, how are we defining our terms here? “Award-winning”? Critical or commercial success? Poets before WWII held a very different place in the culture than poets afterward.
Well, there’s the author of the book of Ecclesiastes whose Turn, Turn, Turn (done with help from Pete Seeger) became a hit when the Byrds covered it in 1965. But he was too dead to appreciate it then.
It’s kinda like Sheryl Crow turning poet Wyn Cooper’s “Fun” into the song “All I wanna do” , which gave Cooper much more exposure and royalties.
On the other hand, I don’t think this is what you’re after.
Jim Carroll was a successful poet and author of The Basketball Diaries (later made into a movie). Later, he became a musician and released the well-regarded album Catholic Boy. He had a minor hit with “People Who Died,” which may have been a poem first.
Carroll was clearly well-respected as a poet beforehand: his work appeared in high-toned literary magazines like The Paris Review and Poetry.
Not exactly a pop star, but Brazilian Vinicius de Moraes had been a respected poet for decades when he shot to stardom as a songwriter and recording artist during the bossa nova years.
Wyn Cooper is a very well regarded poet who became a top-40 songwriter when Sheryl Crow took his “All I Wanna Do” and added music; the song was a monster hit.
William Saroyan was a Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright and Oscar-winning screenwriter. “Come On-a My House,” a song he wrote with his cousin Ross “David Seville” Bagdasarian became a major hit in the early 50s for Rosemary Clooney.
First and last? Close enough. I used to have a Rod McKuen songbook in junior high. I couldn’t read music and never heard any of his songs (no need for help–I can find my way around YouTube if I want to, which I don’t). But was any Kristofferson published as poems before he became a songwriter?
Regarding Jim Morrison, I never really understood “sophomoric” before I co-edited a college literary magazine and saw that it literally means “like the crap sophomores write.” Morrison’s poetry is sophomoric, but again did he get published before The Doors?