“During a live performance, Morissette told fans the story behind ‘Head Over Feet’ (1995), which finds the rage-fueled ‘You Oughta Know’ singer in the unfamiliar territory of a healthy relationship, (Songfacts). ‘ … When I wrote (the song) about this particular person, it was the first time that I actually had a glimpse of what it would be like to be in love and have it be something that was inducing heart palpitations, yet at the same time I could spend a couple minutes and actually not think about that person. It was very new to me.’
Creating the album was only part of the battle: Alanis didn’t have a record deal, so they were shopping it while they were recording it. They got lots of rejections before landing it with Maverick Records, Madonna’s label … ‘It’s very conversational and doesn’t adhere to any structure. I had been attempting to write without consideration for rhyming for quite a long time, and a lot of people would just stop writing with me – they would physically leave the room … ‘” Glen Ballard, a writer matched with Morissette via the record company, told Rolling Stone: “I just connected with her as a person, and, almost parenthetically, it was like ‘Wow, you’re 19?’ She was so intelligent and ready to take a chance on doing something that might have no commercial application. Although there was some question about what she wanted to do musically, she knew what she didn’t want to do, which was anything that wasn’t authentic and from her heart.”[
Forgoing an intro and jumping right into the verse in C major, Jagged Little Pill‘s fifth single shifts up to D major for the chorus at 0:38. Verse 2 returns to the original key; the pattern continues from there. The broader-ranging harmonic structures of the chorus, including an unusual chromatic bass motion, contrasts with the cliché chord progression and more repetitive melodic phrases of the verse.
“The nine players strong big band with the name that couldn’t possibly be more programmatic,” (Delrohsen) … “Even though their music has never been stuck in 60s/70s nostalgia and incorporates younger ideas like Hip Hop grooves or modern styles of guitar shredding, the overall vibe – no matter if the tune is smooth and soulful or a little more dirty and edgy – is one that makes you expect to see the ghosts of Charles Bradley and James Brown come down to join into the jam while Freddie Hubbard blows his horn at any given moment … ”
The band “continues the journey of broadening (its) sound with new influences and ideas, while maintaining their addictive easy accessibility. This is music for the soul, for good times – and to turn bad times around.”
Starting in D minor, “El Niño” (2019) at times covers its metric tracks a bit when it comes to “finding one,” including the moment the horn section makes its first entrance. But other sections have a groove that’s completely straightforward. At 1:52, an unprepared key change lifts us up to Eb minor in time for a tenor sax feature. After a percussion break clears the air, we return to D minor to close out the tune.
“Bowie’s cover of John Lennon’s ‘Across the Universe’ was a blatant, and successful, attempt to lure Lennon into the studio,” (Pushing Ahead of the Dame / BowieSongs). “Bowie and Lennon had first met in late 1974 at a small party in Bowie’s New York hotel suite. The two didn’t converse for hours until, cocaine and Cognac fueled, they began sketching caricatures of each other on notepads. Tony Visconti … recalled that the party ended with everyone in the room getting into ‘a dismally dark conversation about what does it all mean, it being life, which left us all staring dejectedly at the floor.’
About a week into New Year ’75, Bowie called up Lennon and said he was in Electric Lady Studios doing a cover of ‘Across the Universe’ (the whole thing seems like a set-up, as there was no need for another track on Young Americans; Visconti, oblivious to these developments, was in London doing string arrangements for a record he thought was completed). So Lennon went down, played acoustic guitar on ‘Universe,’ then stuck around to jam on another attempted take of ‘Foot Stompin” and wound up co-writing a #1 hit, ‘Fame.’ … It was likely a matter of Bowie being star-struck: how could he deny the temptation to include his very own Beatle collaboration? … Bowie’s interpretation seems to be a bungled attempt to mine the song’s thin vein of defiance. Calling the Beatles original ‘watery’ (no foul there), he decided instead to ‘hammer the hell out of it.‘” The reviewer doesn’t hold back: “Bowie finishes the track off with an extended tantrum … One of Bowie’s low points of the decade, just excruciatingly bad.”
After a start in D major, there’s a whole-step shift upward to E major at 1:58. Going beyond a garden-variety unprepared key change, this shift involves a metric hiccup via a stumble across a truncated measure as well.
“Formed in 1981, the Lords of the New Church had a formidable intercontinental punk rock pedigree. Singer Stiv Bators and guitarist Brian James were founding members of Cleveland’s Dead Boys and London’s The Damned, respectively, both successful and influential punk pioneers (Qobuz) … But while the Lords’ music had elements of punk, it was more melodic, better-produced, and played with a higher degree of professionalism. This alienated some of the hardcore punk audience, but brought the Lords a much wider and more diverse fan base.”
LOTNC’s 1983 cover of The Grass Roots’ 1967 hit single “Live for Today” features several key changes absent from the original. Built primarily in B minor, the track shifts briefly downward to A minor for an instrumental verse at 1:47; at 2:12, the tonality climbs up two whole steps to C# minor for the balance of the tune.
“The Tymes began as the Latineers in 1956,” (Philadelphia Music Alliance). In 1963, they released their hit record “So Much In Love” … “the song hit number one on the Billboard charts. The classic was also the first record to replace the Beatles in the number one slot on the British charts. ‘So Much In Love’ is currently number 38 on Billboard’s all time record list. Their other most requested chart toppers include ‘Wonderful, Wonderful,’ ‘Somewhere’ and ‘You Little Trustmaker.’ … The Tymes, now known as The Original Tymes, were the 2005 inductees of The Vocal Group Hall Of Fame Foundation in Youngstown, Ohio. They were also awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award and Retro Artist award in 2017 by The American Music Guild.” The group joined the Philly Music Walk of Fame in 2023.
RCA Records signed the group in late 1973. Soul Express: “Those days, RCA paid serious attention to developing their soul roster and they were awarded with some hits by the Hues Corporation (‘Rock the Boat’), Wilson Pickett (‘Mr. Magic Man’), the New Birth (‘I Can Understand It’), the Main Ingredient (‘Everybody Plays the Fool,’ ‘Just Don’t Want to Be Lonely’) and the Friends of Distinction (‘Grazing In the Grass,’ ‘Going In Circles,’ ‘Love Or Let Me Be Lonely’). In the summer of 1974, RCA released their first Tymes single … ‘You Little Trustmaker.’ Written by Christopher Mack Jackson, the single stayed on the Billboard charts for fourteen weeks and reached #12 (pop), #20 (soul) and #18 (UK pop).”
Starting with its intro featuring a distinctive wordless vocal, “You Little Trustmaker” is initially in F major. 1:53 shifts up to F# major, bringing an instrumental verse featuring a full compliment of strings and brass, augmented with another wordless moment. Stick around for the track’s genre-defying unresolved ending!
“There was a time when the fiddle was a complete ‘band’ unto itself. Barn dances, church gatherings, parties on the back porch, weddings, funerals (The Bluegrass Situation) … the musical cornerstone of these occasions, from Appalachia to Ireland and far beyond, was oftentimes a lone fiddle, standing apart, unencumbered. The ability of a fiddle to cut through the white noise and to wail at un-ignorable frequencies perfectly suited it to this role. There’s an immediacy to the droning sustain or slippery slurs, the humming double-stops or bouncing triplets of the instrument that, even solo, won’t leave your ears wanting more.
Canadian string ensemble the Fretless take this immediacy and multiply it by four. They translate the visceral, primal sounds that led fiddle to evolve into these one-instrument-band scenarios and weave them together so artfully that, all at once, they sound homogenous, as one cohesive unit, while the constituent parts remain perfectly distinct — as if they were each leading their own raucous living room step dance … you can feel the live audience leaning forward, reflecting the lilting energy of the modern-flavored percussive chopping and the timeless jig and reel drive back to the Fretless, who give it directly back to their audience. It’s almost as if they know they’re transporting each listener to a back porch, dance hall, or barn party with every bow stroke.”
Since forming in 2011, The Fretless “has toured extensively across Canada and worldwide, including Australia, South and North America, and seven European tours—playing historic small halls to prestigious stages such as the Cologne Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra Hall, Shetland Folk Festival, Festival Internacional Cervantino, and two sold-out shows at Celtic Connections (artist site). “At home, they’ve captivated audiences at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Small Halls, Hillside Festival, and Mariposa Folk Festival. They also had the honour of sharing the bill with legendary Canadian fiddler Natalie MacMaster for Canada Scene at the National Arts Centre.”
After a start in D minor and a shift to D major at 0:38, “Jenny Bear” (2018) alternates a bit more between these two key areas. The harmonic shifts and compelling groove would seem to provide plenty to keep the audience happy. But at 2:13 the tune shifts suddenly to E — and the jumps between major and minor accelerate to an even faster cadence.
“Each member of Toto played a part in bringing ‘Rosanna’ to fruition. Vocalist Bobby Kimball and guitarist Steve Lukather transposed the musical key so the verse and chorus could be traded between them as a duet,” (LouderSound). “(Keyboardists) Steve Porcaro and David Paich ironed out the keyboard solo at five o’clock in the morning. Late drummer Jeff Porcaro laid down a masterful shuffle inspired by John Bonham.
‘Jeff was really into Led Zeppelin,’ Lukather told Classic Rock, ‘and for ‘Rosanna’ he morphed ‘Fool In the Rain’ [from Zep’s 1979 album In Through The Out Door] with a Bernard Purdie drum groove [a renowned session drummer, Purdie invented the Purdie Shuffle]. And we took it from there.’ As former session musicians to a man, it was little surprise that Toto bottled ‘Rosanna’ fast in the studio. ‘In one afternoon we did the basic rhythm track,’ Lukather said. ‘And that first guitar solo was made up on the spot the first time we played it.'”
All the hard work certainly paid off: upon its release in the summer of 1982, the track reached US #2 and UK #12. Starting in G major, the key shifts down to F major for the second half of the verse. But the downward motion in key is muted by a rising melodic range (up a minor seventh) as the lead vocal shifts from Lukather to Kimball at 0:36.
Melanie Safka was only 22 when she performed at Woodstock. Prior to that appearance, the largest audiences she had faced were the intimate crowds at Greenwich Village folk clubs such as Café Wha? and the Bitter End.
Her appearance at the festival was basically a fluke. The Woodstock organizers had an office in the same NYC building as Melanie’s manager, Peter Schekeryk (who would ultimately marry Melanie). Very early in the planning process, before the organizers had lined up some of the major acts who ultimately performed at Woodstock, Peter asked them whether Melanie could appear at the festival, and they essentially said “sure, whatever”. Given all the chaotic, last minute changes to the running order, it was not clear that Melanie would even get a shot at performing. But on the first night of the festival, the storm rolled in, and the Incredible String Band and several other artists refused to go on in the inclement weather. As a solo act with only an acoustic guitar, Melanie was an easy setup, so she was thrust onstage on very short warning. She didn’t even have a prepared set-list; instead, she apparently played every song she knew that night.
Melanie has described herself as so terrified that she basically had an out-of-body experience as she took the stage and confronted a half million people, arrayed on the hillside before her. But unbeknownst to her, the Hog Farm (the informal “Please Force” for the concert) had been passing out candles to the audience, in an attempt to keep spirits up during the rainstorm. The audience started lighting their candles as Melanie’s performance progressed, and something about that connection with the audience transported her an almost fugue-like state for the balance of her performance. Years later, when she saw some archival footage of her performance, Melanie was shocked by how long she had been onstage. Although Melanie wrote “Lay Down” soon after Woodstock, it wasn’t released until 1970.
Melanie’s Woodstock performance was the first widespread example of a concert audience lighting candles en masse, a tradition that has been passed down from Bic lighters to iPhones.
The first 1:48 of the recording is a spoken-word prologue, describing the Woodstock candles-in-the-rain experience. [On the single, the “Candles” portion was released as the B-side, which was an interesting A&R decision, if nothing else].
The song proper finally commences after two minutes, with a dramatic cold open by the Edwin Hawkins Singers, belting out the chorus. Melanie then sings the much quieter, folkier verse alone. This gospel/folk alternation continues for the rest of the song, with a dynamic range that prefigures the standard grunge template of two decades later. The song ends with an extended gospel outro, loosely organized around call/response and an improvised vocal vamp.
The outro [which was omitted from both the single and the LP, but is captured in the 9-minute master being discussed here] has its own fascinating back-story: Apparently, the entire vocal track was recorded in a single take! The choir had rehearsed a much shorter outro, but during their first take in the studio, the producer was so pleased with the vamp that the singers had settled into that he kept signalling for another go-round. A careful listener will hear several junctures [5:45, 6:05, 6:15, 6:46, 7:10, etc.] where Melanie and/or the choir subtly fumble the call/response handoff before recovering on the fly. Improvisation like this from a 40-voice SATB choir was possible only because the singers had spent countless hours in live worship settings following Edwin Hawkins (who played piano on the take) as he arranged on the fly.
The chorus (1:48) is in G major, with a strong mixolydian skew due to the bVII -> I backdoor cadence. The verse (2:12) is in E Aeolian, and the bridge (3:07) is in E Dorian.
For many more stories about this amazing recording – including how the 9-minute version saved a helicopter crew during the Vietnam War – check out Sam Tweedle’s detailed history.
“One of the defining figures of mid-’80s synth pop, Howard Jones merged the technology-intensive sound of new wave with the cheery optimism of hippies and late-’60s pop … (The UK’s) Jones released his first single, ‘New Song,’ in England in the fall of 1983 and it became a big hit, peaking at number three,” (100PercentRock). “His second single, ‘What Is Love,’ was released a few months later and it reached number two. Humans Lib, Jones’ debut album, was released in the spring of 1984 and quickly rose to number one in England. Thanks to repeated exposure on MTV, the album became a moderate hit in the U.S. Later in 1984, ‘New Song’ and ‘What Is Love’ became American Top 40 hits, while ‘Pearl in the Shell’ became his third British Top Ten single.
In 1985, Jones … formed a touring band and released his second album, Dream Into Action. The record became his most successful, reaching number ten and going platinum in the U.S., spawning the hit singles ‘Things Can Only Get Better,’ ‘Like to Get to Know You Well,’ ‘Life in One Day,’ and ‘Look Mama.'” He’s continued releasing albums ever since, the most recent being Transform in 2019.
“City Song” is the album-closing track from Jones’ 1992 album In the Running. Starting with a desolate synthesized drone in Ab minor, the tune’s groove kicks in for the second section of the intro at the 1:00 mark, followed by the verse’s vocal at 1:41. At the 2:00 mark, a pre-chorus in B minor enters before a return to the original key for the next verse. The D minor chorus finally arrives at 3:03. The pattern continues from there — until 4:44, when C# minor is in effect for the bridge. The key changes are so frequent that the focus remains instead on Jones’ melodies and lyrics. Characteristically, Jones focuses on humanity writ large and the possibility of its betterment: What is it about this city, that brings us all to life / Ten millions souls vibrating / They’re shimmering in the night.
“Classic rock is known for having subversive songs, dealing with taboo topics. So, it’s not all that surprising to learn that quite a few tunes from the genre were not allowed on radio stations at one time or another,” (Yahoo) ” … Far Out ranked The Beatles’ 1967 song, ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,’ as the best classic rock song ‘banned from radio.’ According to the publication, the John Lennon-penned hit, off the acclaimed record, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was deemed not radio-friendly because of its initials. The official Beatles website reported that ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ was prohibited by the BBC due to theories that it was inspired by LSD. Far Out reported that Lennon stated the rumors were untrue.”
“… the Faberge psychedelic egg that was finally laid on the eve of the Summer of Love came so fully-realised that it changed the way we listened to recorded sound forever,” (BBC). “Sgt Pepper’s is at once warm and familiar, yet wild and strange … Yet what was revolutionary was the sonic carpet that enveloped the ears and sent the listener spinning into other realms.”
After the tune starts in A major, there’s a shift to Bb major for the pre-chorus at 0:32. At the 0:50 mark, the G major chorus begins, built around a repeated I-IV-V chord progression. At 1:08, the pattern repeats.
