Before it hit on its trademark R&B sound, the legendary Motown label apparently did some wandering (or was it reckless driving?) in the wilderness.
” … a finger-wagging sermon against dangerous driving, delivered by a dead narrator following a fatal car accident, complete with another knuckle-bitingly terrible spoken-word bit,” (Motown Junkies) ” … it’s inescapable that (“Pushing Up Daisies”) is destined to be a piece of short-lived novelty nonsense and not a useful parable about the importance of road safety, never mind a half-decent pop song … Manifestly silly despite the macabre subject matter, this is still very much below Motown Quality Control’s usual threshold; it’s a mystery how it managed to find its way into actual record shops. The Stylers weren’t invited back for a follow-up; this was their one and only Motown release.”
“Pushing Up Daisies” (1963) shifts up a half-step at 0:38 and 1:30 — that much is clear. But why does this video feature a 45 of Martha + the Vandellas’ “Heat Wave”?
“The Foreign Exchange — the vocalist/producer brainchild of Phonte (Coleman) and Nicolay (Matthijs Rook) — has always moved somewhat outside of its time.
Amid the radio eminence of early 2000s hip-hop, it was an online chat room where the North Carolina emcee and the Netherlands-based producer first linked on the then-budding hiphop superfan site Okayplayer,” (Super Empty). “Their transatlantic file sharing led to a cheekily named 2004 LP, Connected, before the two ever even met on the same continent — one of the first albums to be co-created remotely over the Internet.”
Released on the duo’s 2013 album Love in Flying Colors, “Right After Midnight” begins in Db mixolydian. At 0:58, the pre-chorus hits, alternating lines in Bb major and Bb minor. The chorus enters at 1:17 with a return to the original key; the pattern continues from there. Phonte alternates rapping with singing on many of the group’s tracks, but this track is 100% driven by melody, with a prominent support role by vocalist Sy Smith.
“‘Got to Get You Into My Life,’ from 1978’s soundtrack to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, (is) a stroke of genius; the horns are over the top, and the Fire slick up the original, playing it at a faster tempo and in general kicking the ass of the original,” (The Vinyl District). “Phillip Bailey (falsetto) and Maurice White (tenor) swap vocals, White plays the kalimba (or African thumb piano), and the guitarist wails, and what you’ve got is one perky slice of eminently likable funk, lightweight division.”
“The Los Angeles-based funk band were enjoying a run of hits when impresario Robert Stigwood invited them to appear in a movie based around Beatles songs (Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band),” (Financial Times). Their leader, Maurice White, smelled a turkey but, having sifted through The Beatles’ catalogue, thought ‘Got to Get You Into My Life’ had crossover potential. He signed EW&F up, recorded the song in an afternoon and insisted it be released prior to the film (in 1978).
It was a wise move, as the film and its double LP soundtrack tanked to such an extent that it hampered the careers of its stars (Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees) while EW&F scored a huge US hit — their version, with its bright horns, disco shimmy and loose, funky ebullience, remains a club classic today. In White’s autobiography he says word reached him that McCartney considers EW&F’s version his favorite ever Beatles cover.”
The track features a (relatively!) soft-spoken intro in G minor featuring a complex hook (first stated at the very top of the track and returning throughout). The tune gets started in earnest at 1:02 with a shift to a verse in G major and a jump into a different groove. There’s a return to minor at 2:14, then a return of that hook, followed by a visit back to major for an instrumental verse featuring a short guitar solo at 2:45. At 3:13, we return back to minor for the balance of the tune.
” … The Supremes—all three members—all close together (on the album cover) and looking happy, instead of cheap artwork like on the last two LPs because Motown couldn’t bother to put the ladies together and waste Diana Ross’s time,” (Soulfinger). ” And not only did Mary Wilson, Cindy Birdsong, and new member Jean Terrell take a picture together, they also got to work together in the studio! No Supremes album since The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland (released three years earlier) had the Supremes singing every song on a Supremes album.
As for the music itself, this album is by no means groundbreaking. The ‘new’ (Diana-free) Supremes would never be trendsetters. This LP is an excellent case of how a group, songwriters, and producers can exist in a moment, assess the situation, and produce some high quality music that simultaneously evokes a particular point in time without being trapped by the gimmicks of that point in time.
Simply put, Right On is an album that clearly sounds like it was made in 1970 but is not trapped by being made in 1970. It was also a solid seller reaching #4 on the R&B album chart and #25 on the pop register.” One of the singles from the album, ‘Everybody’s Got the Right to Love,'” is “obviously playing off the various social movements of the late 1960s demanding greater freedom and rights for marginalized Americans … “
Built around an easy 12/8 groove, the tune is initially built in F major. A whole-step shift upward to G major hits suddenly at 1:30. The tune certainly didn’t match the group’s previous single, “Up the Ladder to the Roof,” but it reached #11 on the US R&B charts and #25 on the Pop chart. Written by Lou Stallman, the tune was released by Motown in 1970.
“Silly Wizard were pioneers in developing the modern Scottish folk group blueprint, popularizing Scottish music around the world through playing traditional music with a never-before-heard energy, spirit, and spontaneity and introducing original songs and tunes written from within the tradition,” (Hands Up for Trad).
“Formed in 1972 by guitarists Gordon Jones, Bob Thomas, and Bill Watkins and named after a character who shared their Edinburgh flat, Silly Wizard began playing at the capital’s Triangle Folk Club. Soon after singer Chris Pritchard replaced Bill Watkins, they added a teenager who would go on to play a crucial part in the band’s image as well as their music, Johnny Cunningham. A tremendously exciting, virtuosic fiddler, who was still at school and often had to be picked up from and returned to the school gates after overnight drives from gigs, Johnny energised the band’s live performances and helped to generate a new young following for folk music.
… Booked to play an opening twenty-minute spot in front of an audience of thousands at Philadelphia Folk Festival in 1979, Silly Wizard, now in its classic five-piece line-up (Bob Thomas having left), won a standing ovation and almost instantly created a huge demand in the US for a brand of folk music that could be as passionate in the low gears as it could be rousingly intense at full tilt and was always presented with wit and an infectious sense of fun.”
Originally released in 1983, “Finlay M. MacRae” initially features a mid-tempo waltz feel in A minor. At 1:34, a penny whistle joins the accordion, bringing a more sprightly tempo and a transition to a 4/4 feel. 2:17 brings a return to a focus on the accordion and a shift upward to B minor. A close listen also reveals many fast-firing repeating notes in the accordion melody, using sequential flicks of multiple fingers — some fancy playing indeed!
15 years ago yesterday, Modulation of the Day made a humble debut on Facebook.
Since then, we’ve had:
half a dozen regular contributors
scores of one-time or occasional contributors from around the world
102,000+ page views
62,000+ visitors from nearly every nation on earth
Our top posts cover a huge portion of the range represented by our overall content: classical (choral and symphonic), a cappella, musical theatre, pop, jazz, R+B, and soul.
All the thanks go to our readers/listeners spreading the word. Plenty of visitors find us via search engines and social media posts, but the largest source of our traffic is now direct: people bookmark the site, or remember our site name as a search term. No matter the method, we couldn’t be more grateful for all the visits, whether they’re a first or a 100th!
“Peter Gabriel is one of the great sonic explorers of pop-music history, a classic restless spirt whose wanderings have always demanded attention,” (Stereogum). “Gabriel has a decades-long history of big, bold gestures. He was early on all sorts of things — art-rock theatricality, massive drum-sound reverberations, the pop-music embrace of various different forms of African music. He championed worthy global political causes and worthy global musicians, exposing them to people who would’ve never otherwise known much about them. Few artists have had as much effect on the texture of pop music, on the way that you can turn songs into complete sonic environments. So naturally, the one time Peter Gabriel hit #1 in the US, he did it with a janky, digital white-soul song about his dick. That’s pop music for you.
(1986’s) ‘Sledgehammer,’ Peter Gabriel’s big hit, is one of the many, many songs that owes a great deal of its success to its music video. That’s another thing that Peter Gabriel embraced early: The warping, convulsive possibilities of music videos as an art form. Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ video is one of the all-time masterpieces of the medium … By some estimates, ‘Sledgehammer’ is the most-played video in the entire history of MTV.
… Gabriel’s early singles did pretty well on the UK charts. In the US, Gabriel was less of a presence. A couple of tracks charted: 1977’s ‘Solsbury Hill’ at #68, 1980’s ‘Games Without Frontiers’ at #48. But Gabriel was more of a culty, esoteric figure until the advent of MTV made him harder to ignore. 1982’s ‘Shock The Monkey’ reached #29, largely on the strength of its memorably freaked-out video. Still, a song like “Sledgehammer” represented a real and self-conscious turn towards the pop mainstream … Gabriel has acknowledged that ‘Sledgehammer’ owes much of its pop success to the video … But on its own, ‘Sledgehammer’ is a charmingly goofy dance-pop song with production that makes it sound fucking huge, like a spaceship taking off. Even without the video, it would’ve been a hit. Even without the video, it’s a lot of fun.”
After an intro in Eb minor, the verse shifts to Eb major (with the major third prominently placed as the vocal melody’s opening note) at 0:52. At 3:11, there’s a return to the original key for an interlude, with the vocal re-joining the mix at 3:41 for the bridge.
“Tanya Tucker is a living country music legend,” (AllMusic). “She first engraved her name in the genre’s history books in 1972 when, at 13, she hit with the Top Ten single ‘Delta Dawn.’ Across the following decade, Tucker transitioned into adulthood and maintained her fan base (no mean feat). Since then, she has notched a remarkable streak of hits including the chart-topping ‘What’s Your Mama’s Name’ and ‘Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone).’ She’s placed many titles on the Top Country Albums charts, nine singles in the general Hot 100, and more than a dozen on the Top Country Songs list.
Between 1988 and 1997, she charted a comeback that netted three gold albums. In the 21st century, she started her own label and was inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame, while continuing to tour. After an extended break from recording, she released the full-length While I’m Livin’ in 2019, co-produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings. They reunited with the artist to helm the sessions for 2023’s Sweet Western Sound.”
“I Don’t Believe My Heart Can Stand Another You” (1975), an absolutely textbook mid-tempo country tune, shifts up a half-step at 1:23 during a short interlude. Written by Billy Ray Reynolds, the track reached #4 and #1 on the US and Canadian Country charts, respectively. Many thanks to regular MotD contributor Rob P. for submitting this tune!
“If your childhood was anything like mine, you owned Marlo Thomas’ illustrated book Free to Be…You and Me and its companion CD, featuring recordings by Diana Ross, Shel Silverstein, Mel Brooks and The New Seekers. Released in 1972 in collaboration with the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Free to Be project—which later included an ABC television special—aimed to teach children about gender equality (Miscellany News) … The impact of Free to Be was tremendous. The book became a classic. The series won a Peabody Award. And in 2021, the album was inducted into The Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. Former Supreme Court Justice and trailblazer for women’s rights Ruth Bader Ginsberg called the titular song the definition of feminism.
My mom and dad may have had very different parenting styles, but in raising three daughters, they agreed on one thing: My sisters and I would be empowered girls. We would know that we could do anything and be anything we wanted. They encouraged us to wear princess dresses and practice taekwondo; to paint jewelry boxes and look at bugs under microscopes; to speak up in class and speak up when we were angry … I cannot remember a time in my childhood that predates that sweet book. As I grew older, I grew out of ‘The land where the river runs free,’ as the opening poem imagines. It felt dated. Who did not believe that girls could be firemen and that boys could cry? … Free to Be had served its purpose in becoming a relic. My generation was proof that progress is real.”
The book and album were released in 1972; the TV special followed in 1974. The album’s title track is performed by the UK group The New Seekers (probably best known for their 1970 cover of Melanie’s “Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma”). Featuring banjo, glockenspiel, a small chorus (which sounds like it might be adult singers impersonating a children’s choir), and an odd false ending at 2:40, the track shifts up a half step at 1:41.
“Sam + Dave electrified audiences with livewire performances, blending gospel-rooted vocal interplay and exhilarating stage presence,” (Stax Records). Their music pulsed with energy, driven by the call-and-response firepower of Sam Moore and Dave Prater. However, their voices alone weren’t enough to define their legacy — it took the songwriting brilliance of Stax’s Isaac Hayes and David Porter to tailor anthems that matched the duo’s intensity as performers.
… in 1967, ” … the United States was facing heightened racial tensions, culminating in the Detroit riots in July. As Isaac Hayes watched television coverage of the destruction, he noticed something: Black-owned businesses, marked with the word soul, were left untouched by looters. In a moment of strife, the word, to Black Detroiters in the know, was a covert symbol of solidarity, encouraging protection for Black businesses in the community. Hayes and Porter knew they had a pervasive concept to work with, shaping ‘Soul Man,’ deriving a personified embodiment of the phenomenon in Detroit. Porter built the lyrics around this idea, creating a protagonist who had endured hardship but emerged stronger through his connection to community and allegiance to soulfulness as a north star.
After recording the song, Sam + Dave released “Soul Man” in August 1967. The song quickly rose the charts. By October, it sat in the #1 seat on the R&B chart, remaining for seven weeks. On the pop charts, it soared to #2. Beyond its commercial success, “Soul Man” was an anthem—one that resonated deeply with audiences at a time when Black identity and empowerment were at the forefront of national conversations. In early 1968, ‘Soul Man’ won Sam + Dave a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance, beating out competition from Otis Redding and Carla Thomas.
Built primarily in an alternating G major, “Soul Man” reaches a bridge at the 2:00 mark, providing a late transition to Ab major at 2:10. (“Late” is quite the relative term here, as the track’s entire runtime is only 2:38!).
