Elise – Page 46

The Isley Brothers | The Highways of My Life

“Rudolph Isley, who held dual roles in the influential vocal group the Isley Brothers as a mellifluous harmony singer and co-writer of many of their greatest hits, died on Wednesday at his home in Chicago,” (New York Times). “He was 84. Mr. Isley spent much of his three decades with the Isley Brothers harmonizing with his brother O’Kelly in support of Ronald Isley’s lead vocals … He and his brothers wrote a number of pivotal hits, beginning with ‘Shout,’ the group’s 1959 breakthrough, which applied the dynamic of gospel music’s call-and-response to a pop context. They also wrote the enduring political anthem ‘Fight the Power,’ a Top Five Billboard hit, as well as the Top 10 pop hits ‘It’s Your Thing’ and ‘That Lady.'”

“The Highways of My Life” is the closing track of the Isley Brothers’ 1974 3+3 album, “the gateway to the Isley Brothers’ golden, shimmering 70s period,” (BBC). “This was the point where, after radicalizing since forming their T-Neck label, the original trio of Rudolph, Ronald and O’Kelly Isley augmented their sound with their younger brothers Ernie Isley, Marvin and Rudolph’s brother-in-law, Chris Jasper. They then enjoyed their third life (after their early doo-wop and subsequent Motown career) becoming an all-conquering rock-soul ensemble that produced a remarkable run of hits … Here was a band that could appeal in equal measure to rock fans and soul aficionados. The record mixed originals and covers, light and shade … (an) album which showcases them at the peak of their powers … brilliance writ large.”

After an intro that runs through 0:55 and touches on several keys (most prominently E major) and a first two verses in Ab minor, the chorus of “The Highways of My Life” (in Ab major) finally arrives at 2:09. Multiple interlocking vocal parts carry the chorus, further setting its sound apart from the simpler texture of the verse. At 2:37, we’re back into Ab minor for the next (and final) verse; 3:20 brings another chorus, which eventually does double-duty as a fading outro.

Al Green | The Message is Love

“The ’80s found Al Green again connecting to pop and R&B audiences with his brand of charming and sometimes erotic gospel,” (AllMusic). “After signing with the independent A&M in 1985, Green seemed to grow a little tired of straight-ahead gospel fare and satisfied his yen for pop by way of covers or songs with ambiguous meanings.” … on the 1989 release I Get Joy, “Green sings about everything from an indifferent landlord and returned money to sweating out employment woes, making you believe every syllable.”

“Vocally, Green’s a first cousin of Smokey Robinson, a Motown tenor with vocal cords more supple than rubber bands,” (Deseret News). “And listening to him bob and weave, listeners may feel deja vu for the heyday of The Temptations and the Four Tops … But Green has built on the groundwork such groups laid down and turns the tradition into his own. And that’s no easy trick … The man also has a knack for writing songs that are subtle enough to work on both romantic and religious levels.”

Green’s athletic performance of “The Message Is Love” is from the short-lived late night all-music program Night Music (1988-90, initially known as Sunday Night), hosted by saxophonist David Sanborn. “The show never became ‘popular’ per se, but it presented high quality and eclectic music on network TV … in a way that seems unfathomable …” (NoahJazz). Backed by the stellar house band with Hiram Bullock (guitar), Marcus Miller (bass) and Omar Hakim (drums) at its center, Green’s vocal fireworks fully ignite in the second half of the tune. The short bridge (2:50 – 3:08) shifts the tune from the original C major to Ab Lydian before leading us back to the original key for a romp of a solo by Sanborn. Effectively rehearsed tunes, always performed 100% live in the studio, were the stock and trade of the much-missed Night Music.

Neil Young | Theme from “Philadelphia”

“… Philadelphia (1993) gives us some star performances and was one of the first mainstream movies to address HIV/AIDS and homophobia with nuance and sensitivity,” (Collider.com). “The film was written by Ron Nyswaner and directed by Jonathan Demme.” From a review from Dan DeNicola: “Graced with splendid performances, this often stirring drama not only has its heart in the right place; it delivers a strong, convincing portrait, as well as a lesson about decency in a story aptly set in the City of Brotherly Love.”

Spoiler alert …

The film’s main character, attorney Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) succumbs to HIV after a hard fight not only for his life, but also for his rights after his law firm fired him due to his medical condition. But in the days before the drug AZT became available in the late 90s, HIV was nearly always a deadly disease. The film was quite a breakthrough and earned Hanks his first Oscar. “‘More people have stopped me on the street or come up to me in airplanes or sidled up to me in restaurants to talk about this movie than any other job I’ve done, and almost all of them have said something like, Thank you for doing it,’” (MentalFloss).

The film’s closing theme, Neil Young’s “Philadelphia” and the opening theme “Streets of Philadelphia” (Bruce Springsteen) were both nominated for Best Song Academy Awards in 1994; Springsteen’s track was the category’s winner. The short melody of Young’s track is a gently off-kilter seven measures of 4/4 featuring plenty of leisurely quarter-note triplets. The first and last iterations are in the same key, but there are many modulations among the repeated iterations in between.

Bo Donaldson + the Heywoods | Who Do You Think You Are

“One could argue that Bo Donaldson and The Heywoods were not a not a one hit wonder band because of the song “Who Do You Think You Are,” (ClassicRockHistory.com). “The song became the band’s second top 20 hit of their career, thereby kicking them out of the one-hit wonder category. (The track) reached all the way up to number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974. Its chart success was fueled by their previous hit “Billy Don’t Be A Hero.” The song was written by Des Dyer and Clive Scott. It was originally recorded by the group Candlewick Green in 1973.”

On balance, “WDYTYA” generated a much more positive reaction for the Cincinnati-based band than “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” did. Rolling Stone reports in its 2011 Readers’ Poll “10 Worst Songs of the 1970s” that “U.K. pop group Paper Lace wrote ‘Billy Don’t Be A Hero’ at the tail end of the Vietnam War, but it’s actually about the American Civil War. But much like M*A*S*H was about the Korean War but really about Vietnam, people will forever associate ‘Billy Don’t Be A Hero’ with Vietnam. They’ll also associate it with insipid 1970s drivel. Paper Lace were planning on releasing the song in America, but Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods beat them to it.” Was the tune’s fife-and-drum intro also a tip of the hat towards the growing US Bicentennial history trend? Anyone’s guess.

In any case, it’s not hard to consider Donaldson’s second hit as a bit of a step up from the band’s first hit — and quite a bit easier on the ears. Starting in G Dorian, the tune shifts to C# major at 1:01. Led by a sitar-centric hook, it’s back to the original key for the next verse at 1:23.

James Ingram | I Don’t Have the Heart

“If there’s one explanation for why the late James Ingram didn’t get the respect he deserved in life for being one of the great soul singers of the ’80s, it’s probably that most of his signature hits… well, they weren’t totally his,” (Billboard). “Ingram broke through in 1981 with two top 20 Hot 100 hits rightly seen as classics of their period, ‘Just Once’ and ‘One Hundred Ways’ — but both were as a guest vocalist, on tracks that ended up on legendary producer Quincy Jones’ set The Dude. He was nominated for best new artist at the 1982 Grammys, before he’d ever even released a single of his own. Then, his first hit apart from Quincy was 1982’s ‘Baby, Come to Me,’ a duet with Qwest labelmate Patti Austin that rode a General Hospital placement all the way to No. 1 on the Hot 100 in early 1983 — but which ended up being housed on Austin’s Every Home Should Have One album, never appearing on an Ingram LP.”

He later went on to more chart success, but as a duet partner to a very rangy list of artists: Michael McDonald, Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes, Linda Ronstadt, Barry White, Al B. Sure, El DeBarge, Dolly Parton, and Anita Baker. “All of this combined to make Ingram’s solo showcase ‘I Don’t Have the Heart’ one of the most unexpected Hot 100-topping singles of the early ’90s. ‘Heart’ was something of an anomaly, both within turn-of-the-’90s R&B and within Ingram’s own catalog. Melodically, the single was firmly in his wheelhouse — a massive showstopper co-written by pop-soul vets Allan Rich and Jud Friedman … It’s a torch song by proxy, a stunning expression of empathy … (for the track), Ingram (reached) all the way back to ’70s superproducer Thom Bell, one of the primary sonic architects of Philly Soul, via iconic hits for The Spinners, The Stylistics and The Delfonics.

… We may remember James Ingram better as a co-star than as a solo sensation, and that’s fine: Even just a compilation of his biggest collabs would be more impressive than a single disc of 90 percent of his peers’ solo greatest hits. But ‘I Don’t Have the Heart’ and the #1 chart success it briefly experienced remains a crucial part of Ingram’s legacy, showing how his voice and musical instincts were strong and bold enough to essentially materialize a memorable chart-topper out of nowhere — and giving him a signature hit that no one could claim as anyone’s but his …”

The inversion-heavy track, scored primarily for keyboard and strings, is built in D major overall. After the bridge (2:27 – 2:47), another iteration of the chorus at first leads us to believe that the tune will simply fade out without ever having transcended the borders set within the first few measures. But another run through the chorus at 3:10 finally brings percussion, electric guitar, Ingram’s trademark high wordless falsetto, and a crashing whole-step key change up to E major as the track kicks the power ballad afterburners into gear.

Sarah Vaughan + Count Basie Orchestra | Moonlight in Vermont

“Ben and Jerry’s, Bernie Sanders, and maple bourbon are some of things that Vermont is world-famous for,” (Burlington Free Press). “But for some, what truly puts the state on the global map is (the) jazz standard ‘Moonlight in Vermont.’ An unofficial anthem of Vermont, the tune has been recorded hundreds of times, including by Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Sam Cooke, Sarah Vaughan, and Willie Nelson.

The song was written in 1944 by Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn … The song’s lyrics are unusual for not rhyming, but instead following a haiku pattern … They also pay tribute to the sycamore tree, which is native to Vermont, but is not among its most common trees … Still, its quirky charm had wide appeal, especially for soldiers stationed away from home for World War II … In the 1990s, a group of lawmakers tried to make ‘Moonlight in Vermont’ the state’s official song, but were ultimately defeated. Some thought the song’s melody would be too difficult for the average person to sing.”

Vaughan performs the tune in Db major in this version, although it generally appears in Eb major (see below). The middle eight travels far afield from the overall key before returning, but this 1957 arrangement of the standard also modulates in earnest up to D major at 2:37.

Joe Jackson | Jamie G.

“In 1990, Joe Jackson had just signed a spiffy new deal with Virgin Records after spending 10 years and 11 albums under A&M,” (Popdose). “Many bands use the first album with a new label as an opportunity to make a fresh start and try new things (or, perhaps, sell out) … Jackson, however, had no interest in changing, diminishing returns be damned.”

After his 1982 album Night and Day, featuring the hit “Steppin’ Out,” was certified Gold in the UK, the US, and New Zealand and Platinum in Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands, it would likely have been difficult to achieve anything other than “diminishing returns.” But Jackson has seemed most interested in following his own muse rather than sustaining stardom, wrapping insightful and often cutting lyrics in musical styles ranging from edgy pop to jazz-inflected cabaret ballads, from textbook New Wave to uptempo salsa. “In his 1999 memoir A Cure for Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage, Joe Jackson writes approvingly of George Gershwin as a musician who kept one foot in the popular realm and one in the classical realm of music,” (AllMusic). “Like Gershwin, Jackson possesses a restless musical imagination that has found him straddling musical genres unapologetically, disinclined to pick one style and stick to it.”

Although Jackson, a UK native, has often toured with smaller bands — at times even paring the instrumentation down to his trademark piano/bass/drums trio — this larger band format shows the effortless precision that Jackson is known for. The spirited “Jamie G.” features a late unprepared half-step modulation at 2:03.

Classics IV | Traces

“Anyone who doesn’t have a clear image of the Classics IV can be forgiven — they went through so many shifts in personnel and sound … they were little more than a name attached to some excellent (and very good-selling) records of the second half of the 1960s, without a personality or identity to grab onto easily,” (Tivo).

“They’re one of those bands that will never, ever get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” (BestClassicBands), “but we bet you fondly recall their three Top 10 hits—all logged within a period of less than a year and a half—and wouldn’t turn them off if they came on the radio right now … those soft-rock hits with the single-word titles—’Spooky,’ ‘Stormy,’ and ‘Traces’—were true classics of the late ’60s AM radio scene.”

Released in 1969, “Traces” was a single from an album of the same name. The track is full of jazz voicings and a surprisingly broad harmonic vocabulary, carried by gentle instrumentation (oboe, guitar, vibes, strings, an ambling bass line, and muted percussion); the vocal couldn’t be any more prominent in the mix. The track which likely launched 1,000 prom themes was also named part of BMI’s Top 100 Songs of the Century. The single hit #2 on both the US Pop and Easy Listening charts — certainly, one of the last of that category. The intro begins in B minor, but the emphasis flips over to D major for verse 1 (0:19). As the bridge ends at 1:55, there’s a shift upwards to Eb major. The track ends rather jarringly when an instrumental verse (2:31) withers on the vine with a fast fade midway through — likely an attempt to keep the single under three minutes in length.

The Ventures | Theme from “Hawaii 5-0”

Regular contributor JB writes: “This track really ticks all the boxes: A one-hit wonder surf rock band in psychedelic costumes, playing a track with a ladder of ascending mods. All in all, an important historical/cultural artifact. They really should have included this one in the Voyager space probe — it tells alien intelligences all they need to know about life on earth in the ’70s … ” The Ventures’ website proclaims the band “the best selling instrumental rock band in music history.”

The band’s nominal regular rock instrumentation had plenty of orchestral help, including the opening bars’ signature syncopated tympani hits, brass poking out of just about every corner, and a piccolo flourish on the piccardy third D major ending. Starting in C minor, we climb up by half steps, starting at 0:36.

The theme as heard at both the opening and closing of Hawaii 5-0 is somehow even more bombastic. IMDB summarizes the show’s premise: “The investigations of Hawaii Five-0, an elite branch of the Hawaii State Police answerable only to the governor and headed by stalwart Steve McGarrett.” Scoring four Emmy wins out of 23 nominations, the show ran 12 seasons (1968 – 1980). The theme also won TV Land Awards for “TV Theme Song You Want for Your Ringtone” in both 2007 and 2008, and was nominated in 2003 for “Drama Theme Song You Can’t Get Out of Your Head.”

Genesis | Taking It All Too Hard

“Moments of Genesis (1983) are as spooky and arty as those on Abacab — in particular, there’s the tortured howl of ‘Mama,’ uncannily reminiscent of Phil Collins’ Face Value, and the two-part ‘Second Home by the Sea’ — but this eponymous 1983 album is indeed a rebirth, as so many self-titled albums delivered in the thick of a band’s career often are,” (AllMusic).

“Here the art rock functions as coloring to the pop songs, unlike on Abacab and Duke, where the reverse is true. Some of this may be covering their bets — to ensure that the longtime fans didn’t jump ship, they gave them a bit of art — some of it may be that the band just couldn’t leave prog behind, but the end result is the same: as of this record, Genesis was now primarily a pop band. Anybody who paid attention to ‘Misunderstanding’ and ‘No Reply at All’ could tell that this was a good pop band, primarily thanks to the rapidly escalating confidence of Phil Collins, but Genesis illustrates just how good they could be, by balancing such sleek, pulsating pop tunes as ‘That’s All’ with a newfound touch for aching ballads, as on ‘Taking It All Too Hard.’ It has a little bit too much of everything — too much pop, too much art, too much silliness — so it doesn’t pull together, but if taken individually, most of these moments are very strong testaments to the increasing confidence and pop power of the trio, even if it’s not quite what longtime fans might care to hear.” Released as a single during the summer of 1984, the track got stuck at #50 on the pop chart but reached #11 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

“Taking It All Too Hard” starts in E major, with the chorus placed first in the lineup. At 0:36, the verse starts in E minor, but features unprepared shifts to A major via a syncopated kick at 0:51, C major at 1:02, and Ab major at 1:11. The bass line moves down a half step for the next verse. Collins’ vocal delivery on the verses is quieter, almost to the point of sounding like so much interior monologue. But then he shifts to a louder, more agitated sound as the chorus returns at 1:20. The patterns persist throughout.