Author: Mod of the Day

A Tribe Called Quest | Check the Rhime

“If A Tribe Called Quest had stopped with their first album, People’s Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm, they’d still be regarded as a seminal hip hop act (BBC) … The laid back style of Q-Tip and Phife Dawg over the jazz sampleology of Ali Shaheed Muhammad, along with the daisy age raps of De La Soul, almost single-handedly defined the alternative rap scene … So when they followed it up with as close to a perfect album, The Low End Theory (1991), their place in history was assured.

Low End… pushed the jazz connection even further with a sparse but not quite minimal selection of grooves built around some exquisitely chosen upright bass samples, and in the case of ‘Verses From The Abstract’ actually utilising the real-time skills of legend Ron Carter … Like its predecessor, it combined humour with insight to show the world that ‘rap’ needn’t be equated with the worst aspects of the American dream. Q-Tip and Phife’s posse flows were, by this point, honed to perfection, with most tracks seeing them bounce off each other like some funked-up game of table tennis … this is another feel-good mix of smart grooves and the wittiest rhymes this side of Noel Coward. Acclaimed as one of the best 100 albums of all time by Rolling Stone, The Low End Theory remains one of hip hop’s defining moments and deserves to be in everyone’s record collection. Probably now more than ever…”

The track opens with an angular, heavily processed sax line that outlines C major and Bb major chords and doesn’t settle easily into any key, but shifts into a much clearer E minor as the first verse starts at 0:28. The two-chord vamp (A/B -> E) that underlies most of the tune is more complex than you might expect: the B bass note hits on beat one, but the A chord is delayed until the “and” of beat 2 and bleeds into the E bass note on beat 1 of the next measure. From 1:49 – 2:08 and again for the outro at 3:28, the C major intro riff returns.

Many thanks to Mark B. for this submission!

k.d. lang | Miss Chatelaine

“lang was an androgyne from rural Canada who considered herself to be the reincarnation of Patsy Cline, convinced she was born to be a country star,” (Pitchfork). “Even in outlaw terms, she was a long shot in conservative Nashville, a city nonetheless seduced by her punky verve and saucy rambunctiousness, a hay-bale alternative to the genre’s burgeoning cosmopolitanism. She was accepted, to a degree—her vegetarianism and PETA allegiance notwithstanding—but lang knew that acceptance was creative death. By the early ’90s, she felt that she had exploited country’s full creative potential. Now was time to develop her own romantic language.” Her 1992 release, Ingénue, was the embodiment of that effort.

“Miss Chatelaine” was the album’s second single (after the #38 US/#8 Canadian hit “Constant Craving,” for which lang is generally best known). The track “earned its high camp credentials even before lang accompanied it with a video where she wore the high-bouffanted, ballgown-clad drag of femininity, the lesbian Liberace … ‘Miss Chatelaine’ is a towering millefeuille of accordion, frisky percussion and strings, a succession of audible exclamation points—a song with so many ornate moving parts that it’s easier to imagine its blueprint as a cuckoo clock than a black and white musical staff.”

“Miss Chatelaine” is built in E major overall, its relatively languid harmonic rhythm taking a back seat to the rangy melody, lang’s crystalline vocal, and her distinctive phrasing. A new dance partner, an instrumental bridge which jumps up a minor third to G major, cordially cuts in between 1:59 and 2:20, but then the tune reverts to its original key.

Tommy Boyce + Bobby Hart | Alice Long

“The 1960s has the duo of Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart to thank for some of the biggest pop-rock hits to come out of the decade,” (American Songwriter). “The hit songwriting duo is behind some of The Monkees’ greatest hits including ‘Last Train to Clarksville.’ But they had multiple claims to fame before and after they were topping the charts with The Monkees and were even singers in their own right.

Both born in 1939, Boyce was a native of Charlottesville, Virginia, while Hart was raised in Phoenix, Arizona. Though they were from opposite ends of the country, the two came together through their mutual love of music and desire to make it a career that brought them to Los Angeles. After high school, Hart entered the Army, later moving to LA to pursue a career as a singer where Boyce was living and trying to make it as a songwriter.”

Along the way, the duo collaborated with Fats Domino, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Jay and the Americans, the aforementioned Monkees, etc. “Their success with The Monkees served as a launching pad for their own career as artists. From 1967 to 1969, Boyce and Hart released seven singles off three albums. Their most famous hit was ‘I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight’ in 1967, which reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.”

The duo released “Alice Long (You’re Still My Favorite Girlfriend)” in 1968. After starting in G major, the uptempo pop track jumps up chromatically and lands in Bb major at 2:00.

Many thanks to MotD regular Rob Penttinen, who has developed an uncanny ability to find half-forgotten ancient pop tracks on obscure AM radio stations!

O-Town | Baby I Would

O-Town is an American boy band that formed in 2000 as a result of the reality television series Making A Band. After releasing two albums, the group disbanded in 2003. “Baby I Would” is the last track on their eponymous debut record, written by MotD stalwart Diane Warren.

The song alternates between Bb for the verses and C for the choruses; coming out of the bridge, it subverts expectations by appearing as if it will modulate as usual up to C, but after a false start shifts up another whole step to D at 2:48.

Diana Ross | Theme from “Mahogany” (Do You Know Where You’re Going To)

“(Diana) Ross had always been something of an actress — a voice capable of conveying the entirely fictional emotional weight of the circumstances that the songs described,” (Stereogum). “She was beautiful and driven and precise and galactically famous, and it was only natural that she should become a movie star, too.” Ross had acted before, starring as jazz chanteuse Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues. But her Motown boss and romantic partner, Berry Gordy, was a first-time director for 1975’s Mahogany.

“Mahogany bombed. It got terrible reviews and did bad business. Gordy never directed another movie. Ross only took one more big-screen role, in the 1978 musical The Wiz. These days, Mahogany has its defenders, but it’s mostly just remembered for its camp value. The movie did, however, spawn one unqualified success: The soft and elegant theme song,” co-written by Michael Masser and Gerry Goffin, “became Ross’ third solo #1 … a slight song, but it’s a pretty one … It’s a song that practically drowns in its own drama, filling up the mix with sighing strings and wailing backup singers and fluttering acoustic guitars and pianos. Musically, the song has nothing to do with the effervescent pop-soul of Motown’s ’60s past. It’s closer to down-the-middle Los Angeles pop, and at its biggest crescendo, it sounds a bit like the work of Gerry Goffin’s old collaborator Phil Spector.”

Modulations between C minor and C major are front and center in this track, nearly from start to finish. The first shift to C major (0:44) is accentuated by the addition of percussion to the instrumentation, while the first transition back to C minor (1:10) is ushered in with an odd-metered measure. At 2:32, a long, string-saturated instrumental outro cycles through multiple keys as multiple instruments take the lead on the now-familiar theme.

~~~~~

Our thanks once again to the late Chris Larkosh, an energetic and consistent supporter of MotD. This submission is one of several he sent in over the years, even though we’re only now getting around to featuring it.

Anthem Lights | God Bless America

In observance of Independence Day in the US, today we feature Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” covered here by the Nashville-based a cappella Christian group Anthem Lights. The group, which includes Caleb Grimm, Chad Graham, Joey Stamper, and Spencer Kane, has released seven albums. This arrangement begins in A and modulates suddenly to B at 1:01.

Aaron Copland | Fanfare for the Common Man

“Copland’s fanfare is in the strong open-fourth and -fifth harmonies that cause it to sound open,” (LeoQuirk.com). “Also allowing it to sound open are the unisons in each instrument group, and the slower rhythms; for a fanfare, it is uncommonly slow, and is marked ‘Very deliberately.’ Copland alters rhythms and harmonies to great effect in this piece.  He could have easily repeated the same theme in the same way each time, but the piece is much more compelling thanks to his changes. This piece is also effective because it doesn’t have frills or flourishes. It is powerful in its simplicity, and ‘simplicity’ does not equal ‘boring.'”

Debuting in 1943, “The Fanfare has ecome a kind of national anthem for so-called ‘common’ men and women — like public radio listener Lynne Gilbert, who spoke with NPR from Bristol, Maine. ‘In spite of the current political landscape,” she says, ‘I guess I still believe that there is an American dream of peace and prosperity for everyone. Music that soars and inspires like this piece does bring hope for the future. It’s powerful, it’s direct and it’s really just American.'”

The piece is written in Bb major overall, but its majestic, stable bearing shifts at 2:47. From that point on (amounting to the final 20% or so of the piece), we continue to hear familiar intervals and phrasing. But the tonality has gone off in an entirely new direction, at times featuring E-natural and C# notes.

Eva Cassidy | Walkin’ After Midnight

“Walkin’ After Midnight” was written by Alan Block and Don Hecht in 1954, and originally offered to Kay Starr, whose label turned it down. A few years later, Patsy Cline recorded the tune. Though Cline didn’t especially like the tune, her 1957 recording was a big hit, becoming one of her signature songs. She recorded the song again in 1961, adding a modulation that did not appear in the original.

Patsy Cline died in a plane crash at age 30, at the peak of her career. Singer Eva Cassidy was not so well-known when she died in 1996 of a melanoma that had spread. Before her death, her recorded output was not extensive. But her posthumously-released recordings have sold tremendously well. New recordings continue to appear, including 2023’s I Can Only Be Me, which features new backing from the London Symphony Orchestra.

Eva’s recording of “Walkin’ After Midnight” appears on her 2008 album Somewhere. Her vocal is clearly inspired by the Patsy Cline original, taking a few more bluesy chances. There’s a half-step modulation for the final verse at 2:17, in the manner of Patsy Cline’s remake.

The Piano Guys | Arwen’s Vigil

The Piano Guys, a piano/cello duo featured on MotD before, describe the genesis of Arwen’s Vigil on their website as follows:

“When Aragorn was abroad, from afar Arwen watched over him in thought” –Lord of the Rings

“After signing with Sony we were putting together our first official release. Just before the deadline, we looked at the song list and all agreed the album needed to include a new original piece. But we had 48 hours…

As we prayed for help Jon recalled a tune he had almost included in a solo album, but for reasons he couldn’t remember he had not finished it. It was just the compositional catalyst we needed. Al, Steve, and Jon had the track written, recorded, mixed, mastered and handed off to press with minutes to spare. It needed a name. We felt like the tune was the personification of a storybook character – someone that was in need or in distress, but who harbored an inextinguishable hope. We went through several drafts and notions, finally arriving upon Arwen, daughter of Elrond in The Lord of the Rings. The Gaelic, Celtic feel that had naturally eventuated in the music sounded as an “elven” edge that seemed to fit this beautiful story – of Arwen’s timeless devotion to Aragorn as she waited for him to return for a mission that seemed doomed from its beginning. Convinced by her father to abandon her vigil for her own sake she turned back to wait once more as she saw in vision her future child, her son with Aragorn.

We filmed this in the Italian Gardens at Thanksgiving Point in Utah. As we write and as we film we try to find the “flow” – letting composition and cinematography lead out as much as possible. The autumn weather proved extremely volatile. One minute we had the sun, then the next rain, then snow, then sun again. We used this as best we could, letting the constant battle between clouds and sun match the conflict between despair and hope in the story and in the music. We furthered this dichotomy with day and night scenes – representing intense longing keeping faith in the future alive.”

The track starts in E minor and modulates up a step to F minor at 1:52.