Elise – Page 23

George Baker Selection | Little Green Bag

“Peaking at No. 21 on the national charts in the spring of 1970, ‘Little Green Bag’ scores a bounty of brownie points for being one of the most enigmatic songs ever placed on plastic,” (Something Else Reviews). “Driven by cheesy surf guitars, the zippy little tune sounds a bit like ‘She’s A Woman’ by the Beatles, accompanied by a sprinkling of bossa nova styled rhythms. The vocals are rather theatric, and the hooks are jarring and jaunty. The lyrics of ‘Little Green Bag,’ which are somewhat muddled, are just as quirky as the tone and structure of the song itself. Subtle references to pot are easy to imagine, but the truth is the theme is money.

A Dutch band, George Baker Selection went several years before courting the airwaves in a serious way. Early in 1976, the catchy and danceable ‘Paloma Blanca’ seized the Top 30. But that was that, making George Baker Selection a two-hit wonder. Released in an era when pop music was all for taking chances and nothing seemed too odd or alien for public consumption, ‘Little Green Bag’ still proved to be quite daring, different and downright curious at the time.”

The tune starts in G minor, but a shift to G major for the chorus is hinted at during a short pre-chorus instrumental section (0:46; the first several repeating choruses run from 0:55 – 2:00). At 2:01, another verse returns us to G minor; at 2:29, we revert back to the major chorus. 3:08 brings a wholesale shift up a half step to Ab major for another chorus, but 3:30 brings us back down to the original key.

Manfred Mann | Fox On the Run

The bluegrass standard ‘Fox On the Run’ “… (was) written by Tony Hazzard in 1968,” (Bluegrass Today) ” … Having been raised in the country on the outskirts of Liverpool as a young boy, Tony had a lot of inspiration to draw from for the imagery in the song. ‘The main source was an imagined scene, described in the chorus, of a hot summer’s day, a field of wheat sloping down to a river in the sunshine, and a blonde woman walking through the wheat field towards the river … The second source was really just the feel of the music. I was a fan of The Band in the late 60s, and their style was running through me at the time.’

… Tony played the song for British rockers Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and in 1968, ‘Fox on the Run’ became a hit song for them in the UK … In 1976, Tom T. Hall took ‘Fox On the Run’ to #9 on the US Billboard Charts and to #12 in Canada. The song went on to be recorded many more times by bluegrass and country bands all over the US. You can hardly walk past a festival jam without hearing a version of this beloved chestnut … (Tony adds) ‘I eventually realized it had become a standard, and I’m very proud of that fact; the song will remain long after I’m gone, and if people think it’s an old folk song, that’s fine by me!’”

After a start in C major, a surprising shift to Bb major hits at 0:33, ushered in by an odd time signature. At 0:57, the tune reverts to the original key. These sections alternate until 2:08, when a half-step key change to Db major unfolds and remains in effect for the balance of the tune.

For good measure, here’s an example of the tune’s frequent setting in the Bluegrass genre, as represented by Bolt Hill Band:

Genesis | You Might Recall

“On the one side stood their proggy past; on the other, pop stardom. Even the album itself – released in tandem with a film of the same name on June 1, 1982, it chronicles the tours in support of 1980’s Duke and 1981’s Abacab – seems to be peeking ahead,” (Ultimate Classic Rock). “The fourth side features a handful of sleek tracks left over from the Duke sessions and 1982’s 3×3 EP.

‘The direction we took is very obvious, having started off in a very complex and technical background,’ (guitarist) Mike Rutherford told the Oklahoman in 1982. ‘If you want to progress and change, where do you go? You don’t want to get more technical and complex. You have to go simpler in the sense you get more into feeling … you’ve got to do what you enjoy doing. It’s as simple as that. There’s no other way to do it and be honest with yourself.’ Three Sides Live (is) a recommended entry point for anyone who came to Genesis via the MTV-era hits, and is now curious about what came before. It’s a perfect bridge to the past.”

The “single side of studio tracks from the double album” conceit only worked during the vinyl era, which in 1982 was within five years of its end. “You Might Recall,” one of the tracks from the studio side, starts in C minor with an energetic, arpeggiated keyboard hook, prominently out front in the mix. As the verse begins at 0:19, keyboardist Tony Banks’ marshy comping texture lets the lavish chord progressions and Phil Collins’ rangy vocal melody shine. At 1:01, the three-section chorus arrives with a shift to C major, rich in compound chords, supported by a pedal-point G in the bass throughout. After eight measures (1:21), part two arrives with a shift to Bb major and a pedal-point F. Finally, part three features eight measures of F major with C in the bass (1:43). At 2:04, a C minor interlude mirroring the hook-centric intro returns, and we cycle through the pattern again. As a parting gift, the second interlude (following verse 2 and chorus 2) shifts up to to new territory — G major with D in the bass (3:47 – 4:08) — before the 3-segment chorus returns and fades.

Nat King Cole | Sweet Lorraine

“Written in 1928, ”Sweet Lorraine” found modest popularity with a recording by Rudy Vallee and his Heigh-Ho Yale Collegians,” (JazzStandards.com). “In that same year clarinetist Jimmie Noone’s Apex Club Orchestra made an instrumental recording of the song for the Vocalion label. Further recordings were made Isham Jones and His Orchestra (1932), and jazz violinist Joe Venuti (1933). It was Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra’s 1935 Brunswick recording, however, that made the pop charts for one week in October, rising to #17. ‘Sweet Lorraine’ was Clifford Burwell’s only hit composition.

The endurance of ‘Sweet Lorraine’ as a favorite among jazz performers may be attributed, at least in part, to Nat ‘King’ Cole, who kept the song in the limelight with his popular recordings. Cole’s fondness for ‘Sweet Lorraine’ began as a Chicago teenager listening to clarinetist Jimmie Noone play. ‘Sweet Lorraine’ would play a memorable part in Cole’s transition from piano player to vocalist … Initially Cole’s main interest was piano, but in 1938, while performing in a Los Angeles nightclub … Bob Lewis, the club owner, told Nat to sing — or else. So Nat sang ‘Sweet Lorraine’ … Lewis put a tinsel crown on Nat’s head and said, ‘I crown you Nat “King” Cole.'” Cole released the tune in 1940, when it became his first hit, and again in 1956.

Written with an AABA form, this version is written in G major overall. The B section, first heard from 0:57- 1:20 in this version, shifts to C major. We include another version by Dexter Gordon as well, since Cole’s interpretation of the tune was so much his own that the melody differed greatly from what was on the page!

Cheap Trick | Tonight It’s You

“Combining a love for British guitar pop songcraft with crunching power chords and a flair for the absurd, Cheap Trick provided the necessary links between ’60s pop, heavy metal, and punk,” (Qobuz). “Their sound provided a blueprint for both power pop and arena rock; it also had a long-lived effect on both alternative and heavy metal bands of the ’80s and ’90s (and beyond), who often relied on the same combination of loud riffs and catchy melodies.

The band’s early albums were filled with highly melodic, well-written songs that drew equally from the crafted pop of the Beatles, the sonic assault of the Who, and the tongue-in-cheek musical eclecticism and humor of the Move.” From most accounts, the mid-80s was a bit of a lull for the band creatively, but one strong single resulted from its 1985 album Standing on the Edge: “the silvery-sounding ‘Tonight It’s You,’ which peaked just outside the Top 40 at number 44 in the fall of 1985.”

Starting in F# major, the tune’s long pre-chorus in B major appears at 0:59 leading us to a chorus in D major (1:19 -1:41). The pattern continues from there.

Boston | Amanda

” … For the first half of the ’80s, Boston were the ghosts in the corporate-rock machine … When Boston’s third album did come out … the lead single from that third album gave Boston their first and only #1 hit … By 1986, Boston were men out of time,” (Stereogum). “Scholz was still conjuring symphonies of antiseptic harmony out of his guitars, and (vocalist) Brad Delp was still wailing out Scholz’s melodies with a high-pitched fervor. “Amanda,” Boston’s only chart-topping single, came out late in 1986, but it was so perfectly ’70s that the song didn’t even have a music video.

… Scholz made guitars sound like keyboards and violins. Boston took crunching riffage from the Grand Funks of the world, the huge-selling and arena-ready boogie bands. They took crystalline harmonies from British prog and art-rock bands. They took at least a bit of melodic charge from the Beatles and the Beach Boys. These were disparate influences, but Scholz made them sound as sealed-off and airtight as the spaceships that he always put on his album covers.

… Before any of his peers, Scholz had figured out how to remove all the grit and grime from rock records, and that ultra-clean sound persisted, largely unchanged, into the mid-’80s. Scholz was playing with synths, and with guitars that sounded like synths, long before most other rockers, so he sounded relatively comfortable in the ’80s synth-rock zeitgeist. And “Amanda” came out at just the right time to capitalize on the growing backlash against the arty British synthpop of the early MTV era. Boston’s sound was a distant ancestor to the big pop sound of the mid-’80s, and that sound, combined with whatever nostalgic affection people had for those first two Boston albums, presumably helped drive “Amanda” up the charts.”

Built in G major overall, this power ballad shifts upward to a I/v progression in E major for its short bridge at 2:59. The key change is compelling enough that the chord progression majestically unwinds not once but twice, unaccompanied by a vocal or an instrumental solo — just a gentle, minimal guitar hook! The lead vocal eventually rejoins, followed somehow by a sneaky broad-daylight reversion to the original key while the bridge is still in effect (3:30).

Love Unlimited | I Belong to You

“The popular worldwide group, Love Unlimited, sold millions of records and performed to sold-out crowds all over the world,” (EurWeb). “The three original members (were) Glodean White (lead singer), Linda James (now Linda Hunziker), and (the late) Diane Taylor. Love Unlimited enjoyed great success with their first single ‘Walking In The Rain With The One I Love,’ their first gold single from the album From a Girl’s Point of View;” the album went Platinum and was produced by Barry White … Barry (worked) with the group and became their manager/writer/producer … ” Glodean later became Barry’s wife.

“Love Unlimited’s second album, Under the Influence of Love (1974), reached #3 on Billboard’s Pop Albums chart; (the trio) became the first female group to reach the top five since Diana Ross and The Supremes. Love Unlimited continued their hot streak with a #1 R&B hit, “I Belong to You” from their gold selling album In Heat.

“I Belong to You,” a classic mid-tempo R+B track in an insistent 6/8, features vocal textures reminiscent of a sidewalk a cappella group. But there’s plenty of instrumental accompaniment, including strings that remind us of the trio’s notable hits with Barry White as the Love Unlimited Orchestra. At 2:49, an unprepared key change shifts up a half-step.

Tatiana Eva-Marie + Avalon Jazz Band | La Mer (Beyond the Sea)

“Accruing around 80 million views on YouTube, Tatiana Eva-Marie was acclaimed as a millennial shaking up the jazz scene by Vanity Fair,” (Old Town School). “Though her interests have led her to explore a wide range of musical styles, Eva-Marie’s craft is always inspired by her own French and Romanian-Gypsy heritage; a love for the Parisian art scene era spanning the 1920s to the 60s; a passion for traditional Gypsy songs; a fascination for New Orleans music; and a deep connection to the Great American Songbook.

Nicknamed the ‘Gypsy-jazz Warbler’ by the New York Times, Tatiana Eva-Marie is a transatlantic bandleader, singer, author, and actress based in Brooklyn. She is known for singing French popular music derived from the Django tradition with Balkan Gypsy and folk influences.”

Written by Jack Lawrence, the tune’s original title was “La Mer” (‘The Sea’), (JonKutner.com) first released in 1945. “Its French lyric was written by Charles Trenet … “It would be three years until Trenet actually recorded the song … he was told that it was ‘not swing enough’ to be a hit; for this reason it sat in a drawer for three years … It was used in the 1948 movie Every Girl Should Be Married, which starred Cary Grant. The song wasn’t quite so imaginative when it was given an English lyric interpretation by Jack Lawrence, but nonetheless it earned Bobby Darin a gold disc.”

Following an AABA form, starting in C major, the tune shifts up for the B section (first to E major from 0:53 – 1:03, then to G major from 1:04 – 1:15) before returning to C major for the final A section.

The Guess Who | No Time

“Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings of The Guess Who were aiming for a rock hit to follow their first gold record, the ballad ‘These Eyes,'” (Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame). “They found it in the contrasting hard-driving rocker ‘No Time.’

They had been impressed by the new country-rock sound of Buffalo Springfield, of which their Winnipeg friend Neil Young was a member. The inspiration for (the) opening guitar riff came from one in Springfield’s ‘Hung Upside Down’; Bachman said he ‘turned it upside down and made my own riff out of it,’ … by early 1970 it was another million-seller.” In February and March 1970, the track was a top 10 hit in the US and Canada alike. “The Guess Who were chosen as the Junos’ top group in 1970 and again in 1971.

… The BMI award-winning No Time is, in essence, a break-up song:

No time for a summer friend / No time for the love you send
Seasons change and so did I / There’s no time left for you.

The intriguing lyric ‘No time for the killing floor’ is anti-war slang that Cummings and Bachman had heard in San Francisco, equating the Viet Nam war – accurately – with a slaughterhouse.”

The tune’s intro and verse are in D minor; the chorus shifts to G major (heard for the first time from 0:37 – 1:04). Throughout, the track’s energetic feel runs counter to the heartbreaking lyrics.

Julian Cope | World Shut Your Mouth

“Retreating from the collapse of the (band) Teardrop Explodes to his hometown of Tamworth UK, Julian Cope produced his first solo effort,” (World Shut Your Mouth, 1984) … “The result is a surprisingly vibrant, rich album that shows Cope easily moving on from his group days while retaining his unique powerful and natural gifts for singing and songwriting,” (AllMusic). “If there’s something about the sound of World that suggests its early-’80s recording dates … Cope’s own particular, heavily psych-into-pop-inspired goals aren’t lost in it.

Some of his songs are so inspired that one just has to wonder how in the world they didn’t end up as hits somewhere … Throughout World, Cope demonstrates why he’s one of the best, most unaffected singers in rock around, his vocals carrying sweep and passion without sounding like he’s trying to impress himself or others.”

Built in an uptuned B major overall, there’s a brief key-of-the-moment shift (2:28 -2:36) up a whole step to C# after verses and choruses 1 and 2, an instrumental break, and another chorus before a return to the original key. But at 3:06, C# major is back to accompany us through the instrumental outro.