Elise – Page 50

Talking Heads | And She Was

“According to David Byrne, who is the only writer credited on the track, this was written about a girl he knew who used to take LSD in a field next to the Yoo-Hoo drink factory in Baltimore,” (Songfacts). “‘Somehow that image seemed fitting, the junk food factory and this young girl tripping her brains out gazing at the sky,’ he told Q Magazine in 1992. ‘But it wasn’t a drugs song at all and I don’t think people took it that way. I think it gives the impression of a spiritual or emotional experience, instantaneous and unprovoked. The sublime can come out of the ridiculous.’ Talking Heads never performed this live: They stopped touring in 1984 after their Stop Making Sense concert film was released.”

The video was the first created by Jim Blashfield, who pioneered a collage-animation style with his short film, Suspicious Circumstances. That got the attention of Talking Heads, which wanted a similar motif for their ‘And She Was’ video. The resulting clip earned MTV Video Music Award nominations for Best Group Video and Best Concept Video. Blashfield was commissioned for more videos in this style; his work can be seen in ‘The Boy in the Bubble’ (Paul Simon) (and) ‘Sowing the Seeds of Love’ (Tears For Fears).”

After a start in E major, the pre-chorus shifts into F major (0:29 – 0:44) before a return to E major for the chorus. The bridge (1:53 – 2:08) drops into B minor before returning to the overall pattern.

Teenage Fanclub | I Don’t Want Control of You

“Initially lauded for the sonically dense, guitar-driven anthems that heralded them as unexpected stars of the alternative rock era, the perception of Scotland’s Teenage Fanclub transformed over time, eventually earning the group a reputation as pop craftsmen famous for a distinctive brand of classicist ’60s- and ’70s-style power pop and folk-rock,” (Qobuz). “Originally centered on the talents of three singer/songwriters — Norman Blake, Gerard Love, and Raymond McGinley — Teenage Fanclub emerged in the late ’80s mixing sludgy guitar riffs and memorably hooky choruses that drew inspiration from iconic guitar rock bands like Big Star, Badfinger, and the Byrds.

… The band broke through with its 1991 Geffen major-label debut, Bandwagonesque, which hit #1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, and spawned three Top 20 modern rock hits … They eschewed larger pop culture trends like grunge and Brit-pop in favor of further honing their sparkling, guitar-based sound, a choice that only worked to endear them to their loyal cult fan base.” The Glasgow-based band has pursued a “continued dedication to writing heartfelt songs imbued with timeless lyricism, nuanced maturity, and warm vocal harmonies.” In 1991, “they joined Nirvana on tour, after which Kurt Cobain was famously quoted as saying they were the ‘best band in the world.’ By year’s end, Bandwagonesque had landed at the top of Spin Magazine’s Best-Of list, surpassing Nirvana’s Nevermind … and R.E.M.’s Out of Time.” The band has continued to release albums into the 2020s.

Released on the 1997 album Songs From Northern Britain, “I Don’t Want Control of You” features a dense guitar-centric arrangement, a broad harmonic vocabulary, and tight vocal harmonies. The single reached only #43 in the UK, the only place where it hit the charts. An economical guitar solo (1:48 -2:06) doesn’t hit many notes — just the right ones. Some 6/4 measures are mixed in with the otherwise standard-issue 4/4 meter rock feel, including right before the key change. Determining the power pop pedigree of mid-tempo tracks is an inexact science, but the dense tapestry of this track seems to qualify.

The Beatles | If I Fell

“John Lennon wrote this song, which may have been influenced by the ambivalence he felt during his first marriage,” (Songfacts). “Lennon called this song ‘my first attempt at a ballad… it’s semi-autobiographical, but not consciously.’ Lennon and McCartney sang together into the same microphone when recording this song. John sang the lead on the intro, then Paul sang in a higher lead while John sang harmony.” The tune “was used as the B-side of ‘And I Love Her.’

Paul McCartney said of his songwriting partner: ‘People tend to forget that John wrote some pretty nice ballads. People tend to think of him as an acerbic wit and aggressive and abrasive, but he did have a very warm side to him really, which he didn’t like to show too much in case he got rejected. We wrote ‘If I Fell’ together but with the emphasis on John because he sang it. It was a nice harmony number, very much a ballad,'” (BeatlesBible.com).

The intro of the 1964 track, a single from the Hard Days Night album, is largely in C major, but transitions to to C# major at 0:34, where it stays for the balance of the tune.

Art Tatum | Have You Met Miss Jones? (Rogers + Hart)

“From the first moment, there was no doubt that (Dick Rogers and Lorenz Hart) would work together: it was love at first sight,” (The Atlantic). “Larry was twenty-three, Dick not yet seventeen. ‘I left Hart’s house,’ wrote Rodgers a lifetime later, ‘having acquired in one afternoon a career, a partner, a best friend, and a source of permanent irritation.'” The duo wrote over 500 songs together, many from the 28 musicals they on which they collaborated, including “My Funny Valentine,” “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered,” “My Romance,” and “Have You Met Miss Jones?”

“Have You Met Miss Jones” was written by Rogers/Hart for the 1937 musical I’d Rather Be Right. The dizzy middle eight is completely unmoored from the overall key of F major and features the lyric:

And all at once I lost my breath,
And all at once was scared to death
And all at once I owned the earth and sky.

In the hands of legendary pianist Art Tatum, who was famous for his reharmonization and ability to play lightning-fast runs, the tune becomes even more sublimely unhinged from its written tonality as it progresses.

Nate Wood | Become

“Grammy nominated Nate Wood is a drummer/multi-instrumentalist and mastering engineer based in New York City,” (NateWoodMusic.net). “Nate is a founding member of the Grammy nominated quintet Kneebody, Kneebody released their self-titled debut album in 2005 on trumpeter Dave Douglas’s label Greenleaf Music. In 2007, Kneebody released Low Electrical Worker on Colortone Media. They completed an album of arrangements of Charles Ives compositions with singer Theo Bleckmann and released the recording 12 Songs of Charles Ives, which was nominated “Best Classical Crossover Album” Grammy Award (2009).

Nate has also performed or recorded with many notable artists including … Dave Grohl, Brian May and Roger Taylor (Queen), Chris Squire (Yes), Elliot Easton (The Cars), Chaka Khan, Wayne Krantz, Billy Childs, Tigran Hamasyan, Donny McCaslin, Sting, and many others. Nate was featured in Modern Drummer in March of 2014 and placed in the 2015 Modern Drummer reader’s poll among the top 5 drummers in the fusion category.” He’s since released four of his own albums “and masters records for artists from around the world.”

“Become,” from Wood’s debut solo album Reliving (2003), moves like clockwork through its first two groove-driven verses and choruses. Then 2:10 brings a soft-spoken bridge which pivots down a whole step to Ab major (2:32) as the groove returns and a guitar solo begins. At 2:45, there’s another shift to B major, but at 2:57, we drop back into the slot of the original key as the solo continues to build in advance of the vocal’s return. Wordless vocals and a huge syncopated kick on the fifth degree of the scale bring the tune to its conclusion.

Junior Senior | Take My Time

“Junior Senior were a Danish pop duo. The duo consisted of Jesper ‘Junior’ Mortensen and Jeppe ‘Senior’ Laursen,” (Discogs). “They were well known for their 2002 single ‘Move Your Feet,’ which gained worldwide success in 2003, most notably in the United Kingdom.” The track barely made a scratch in the US, peaking at #45 on the US Dance chart — the band’s most prominent release in the States. But the tune reached #4 in Denmark, #20 in Australia, #11 in France, and #3 in the UK.

The duo’s 2005 release “Take My Time,” from the album Hey Hey My My Yo Yo, sounds like an update on the sound of the US-based band B-52s because … it is: B-52s vocalists Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson are both featured on the track.

Sounding for all the world like a late ’80s/early ’90s B-52s hit with a bit less frenetic energy, a lot less intra-band banter, and a broader harmonic vocabulary, “Take My Time” is a pop/funk fête delivered by a band that brings “joyful energy … mix(ing) all kinds of genres in a melting funky pot with a big smile on their faces,” (MTV). The track features half-step modulations at 2:48 (with an uninterrupted groove) and 3:14 (after what seems like a false ending — until the decrescendo shifts into reverse and the groove returns).

Gayle McCormick | It’s a Crying Shame

“Gayle McCormick’s music career had begun in the mid-60s in Missouri, where she performed with Steve Cummings + the Klassmen,” (Exclaim.ca). “She moved to California with the band, but left the group upon arriving on the West Coast. From there, she hooked up with an act called the Smiths (not to be confused with the later group from the UK), who changed their name to Smith by the release of 1969’s debut album, A Group Called Smith.

The record’s biggest hit was their cover of the Burt Bacharach-penned ‘Baby It’s You.’ While the song had been recorded by the Shirelles, the Beatles and more, the smooth, soul rock groove Smith grafted to the piece gave the tune its highest chart position, climbing to #5 in late 1969.

Smith followed up their debut with a sophomore collection in 1970, but they disbanded, leaving McCormick to start a solo career. She yielded a minor hit with ‘It’s a Cryin’ Shame’ from an eponymous solo set in 1971.” The energetic track features a mid-phrase modulation up a half-step at 2:07.

Ludwig van Beethoven | Piano Sonata 5, Op. 10 #1, Third Movement

“Beethoven was a classical musician. He used the same grammar rules that you can find in Haydn’s works,” (Jaime Kardontchik, “Modulation in Beethoven’s Sonatas“). “So why does his keyboard music sound so vastly different from Haydn’s or Mozart’s music? For one thing, he was a son of the French Revolution with its Republican ideas of Liberty, Fraternity and Equality. He was an eighteen year old teenager when in 1789 the French Revolution shattered the pillars of the old monarchical world and he enthusiastically embraced these new ideas.

But what made in the end his keyboard music so distinctive is that papa Haydn and the younger Mozart grew up with and perfected the technique of playing and composing for the 4.5-octave harpsichord … Mozart died prematurely in 1791. The young Beethoven grew up together with this new and different keyboard instrument, the forte-piano. He extracted from the forte-piano every new sound possible as the piano makers were improving the instrument and expanding its range up to the present 7.5-octave piano as it is known today. Beethoven loved its sound, however imperfect the instrument was in his time; he understood the almost unlimited possibilities it opened for the expression of new musical ideas, took the risk, and bet on it. And two hundred years later, we are happy he did so. But historical circumstances and technical developments are clearly not enough to explain the individual and his contribution: he was simply Beethoven.”

After a start in C minor, a modulation into the relative major key (Eb) is in effect between 0:33 – 1:11). The 1798 sonata’s sprightly prestissimo movement continues to transition between the two relative keys throughout, passing through other keys (C major included) in the process.

Petula Clark | I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love

“The most commercially successful female singer in British chart history,” (AllMusic) Petula Clark spent her childhood “entertaining British troops alongside fellow child stars Julie Andrews and Anthony Newley … by the dawn of the ’50s, she was a superstar throughout the UK, with a résumé of close to two dozen films” and released several charting pop tunes … “Riding the wave of the British Invasion, Clark was finally able to penetrate the U.S. market in 1964 with the Grammy-winning ‘Downtown,’ the first single by a British woman ever to reach number one on the American pop charts.”

‘Downtown’ was also the first in a series of American Top Ten hits … that also included 1965’s ‘I Know a Place’ and 1966’s ‘I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love,’ and the number one smash ‘My Love.'” Over the years, she’s acted in multiple stage productions and movies. During the 1960s, she released popular singles in French, German, Italian, and Spanish, building a strong fanbase across Europe. In January 2023 at age 90, she appeared in Stephen Sondheim‘s Old Friends concert on the BBC, where she performed “I’m Still Here” from Follies.

“I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love” (1966), heard here on French television with Clark chatting with the host in French, does a quick harmonic sidestep during the verses (heard for the first time from 0:58 – 1:05). But it permanently modulates up a half step at 2:20.

Hall + Oates | She’s Gone

In an interview with American Songwriter, John Oates, songwriter/guitarist/vocalist for Hall and Oates, spoke about “She’s Gone,” from the band’s 1973 album Abandoned Luncheonette (re-released to larger acclaim in 1976): “I don’t know if it’s the best song we’ve ever written, but it’s certainly one of the most enduring songs. I think it’s a song that is certainly emblematic of our collaborative relationship … We knew it was a good song. We knew it was unique. But really that song – don’t confuse that song with the record. The song was the thing that happened in our living room with him on the piano and me on the acoustic guitar. The record is what happened when we went into Atlantic studios with the legendary producer, Arif Mardin, and this incredible collection of musicians who he surrounded us with and his string arrangement and the chemistry. I call it the perfect storm of creativity. It turned that song into a classic record that has really stood the test.”

From Songfacts: “This is one of the duo’s favorite Hall & Oates songs. Daryl Hall told Entertainment Weekly: ‘It’s very autobiographical. What we wrote about was real, even though it was two different situations. And it’s very thematic with us: this soaring melody and uplifting chord progression, but about a very sad thing.'” In Songfacts‘ 2011 interview with John Oates, he explained: “‘We started out as songwriters. And both Daryl and myself, individually and collectively, have a wide variety of musical tastes. Just because the music we made may have fallen into a certain category doesn’t mean we weren’t aware of and interested in other kinds of music. When Hall & Oates got together, I brought a traditional American folk-y approach, and it was something Daryl wasn’t really even aware of. And Daryl brought a lot more of the urban R&B side. And when we blended those together, we eventually created a sound.'”

In what might be a high water mark for the duo’s vocals, lead vocal duties are shared and harmonies alternate with octave unisons. Although the single peaked at only #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, it also placed in the top 10 on the Canada Top Singles chart and both the US and Canadian Adult Contemporary charts. It only reached #93 on the US R&B chart. Though the duo’s unprecedented run of early-80s hits almost entirely arose from the pop genre, this earlier outing was textbook blue-eyed soul. Between 4:08 – 4:34, a late instrumental bridge brings three half-step modulations, ushered in with a IV/V compound chord in each new key.