JB – Page 23

Elton John | This Song Has No Title

“This Song Has No Title” is an album track from Elton John’s smash hit 1973 double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. According to the BBC Review, the album sold 30 million copies worldwide; the RIAA ranked it as an 8x platinum seller. In 2003, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Rolling Stone ranked the album #91 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list: “Elton John compared this double album to the Beatles‘ White Album, and why not? By this point he was the most consistent hitmaker since the Fab Four, and soon enough he would be recording with John Lennon. Everything about Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is supersonically huge…” From AllMusic’s review: “It was designed to be a blockbuster — and it was…a statement of purpose spilling over two LPs, which was all the better to showcase every element of John‘s spangled personality.”

The tune starts simply enough: A D minor verse featuring an acoustic sound with a straightforward lead vocal, piano accompaniment, and a gentle synth overlay. At 0:48, the chorus blooms abruptly, featuring a mix of keys, an electronics-inflected wall of sound, and Elton’s familiar layered vocal textures.

Many thanks to MotD regular JB for this submission!

Terry Jacks | Seasons In the Sun

Q: What do Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel, mid-20th century American folk singers The Kingston Trio, pop music masterminds Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, and 1990s grunge rock pioneers Nirvana all have in common?

A: They are all connected, directly or obliquely, to the maudlin 1974 #1 hit “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks. It’s a tale far too complex to summarize here, but please read the whole story as presented by Stereogum!

According to AllMusic, “It’s been a long time since ‘Seasons in the Sun’ became a monster hit for Canadian Terry Jacks, but the syrupy 1974 single is still top dog among all best-sellers issued by Canadian acts. The release spent more than three months on the U.S. charts and more than four months on the charts in Jacks‘ native country. Its accumulated sales topped more than 11 million copies. Jacks, who moved on to producing for artists such as the Beach Boys, Nana Mouskouri, DOA, and Chilliwack, reaped the good life from the monster hit’s royalties.”

Regular contributor JB is responsible for this submission. He sent it in with a note detailing the love/hate relationship with the song which many people seem to share: “The key changes are like a dump truck grinding through its gears as it climbs a hill: no warbles, no ambiguity … just slam the song into a new key.” We won’t time slate the modulations for this one; if you don’t detect them, please check your pulse.

Toad the Wet Sprocket | Scenes From a Vinyl Recliner

Many thanks to chronic mod submitter JB for today’s feature: “Scenes from a Vinyl Recliner,” a 1989 release (and MotD debut) by Toad the Wet Sprocket. AllMusic reports that the band was “named in honor of a sketch by the Monty Python comedy troupe … one of the most successful alternative rock bands of the early ’90s, boasting a thoughtful folk-pop sound that wielded enough melody and R.E.M.-styled jangle to straddle both the modern rock and adult contemporary markets. The group broke into the mainstream with the 1991 release of their third album, Fear, and its hits ‘All I Want’ and ‘Walk on the Ocean.'” The tune alternates between C# minor and E minor.

JB writes: “While lots of Toad’s tunes have juicy mods, this is one of their less-known songs. Even though the ‘structure’ of the mods is just the vanilla A/B verse/chorus structure, the subjective tonal quality of each mod is pretty unusual. Some of this is the direction and interval of each mod, but the instrumentation is also critical: The mod into each chorus (0:38, etc.) is very abrupt, and is primarily announced by the vibes (or synth equivalent thereof), striking a note in the new key in relative isolation. Likewise, the mod back to each verse (1:10, etc.) is announced by a single note on the piano, again in relative isolation. These timbres, sounding in isolation, make a nice contrast to the rest of the song, which follows the sort of cliched soft/loud verse/chorus structure that was one of the things that made TTWS alt-rock adjacent, rather than a pure folk-rock sound.”

Genesis | Please Don’t Ask

Released on Genesis’ 1980 album Duke, “Please Don’t Ask” couldn’t have been a bigger part of the Western world’s cultural zeitgeist: with the longtime stigma against divorce lifting quickly, marriages were ending at rates which would have been unimaginable even a decade before. The lyric covers feelings of hurt, remorse, and ambivalence, as well as a splitting couple’s love and care for their children: a tall order indeed.

Duke likely marks the completion of Phil Collins’ ascendance as the second vocalist and frontman of the prog rock band, which moved towards a more broadly accessible focus after the departure of founding vocalist Peter Gabriel. As Collins’ first marriage ended in 1980, it’s hardly surprising that one of his songwriting contributions to this wide-ranging album would be so unflinching in its treatment of such a difficult subject. Classic Rock Review reports that Duke “was the first album by Genesis to reach the top of the UK Album charts and it has been certified Platinum on both sides of the Atlantic.” The book Genesis: Chapter and Verse quotes Collins as saying it’s “the most personal song I’ve probably ever written.”

The tune starts in F major, but its opening progression is a repeated ii -> iii, making the tonality tricky to pin down and somehow putting even more emphasis on the heart-rending lyric. Further, the first note of the vocal is an emphatic tension (an 11, when taken in the context of the ii chord), throwing the listener off the scent even more in terms of tonality. From 0:34 – 0:45, a jarring second section of the verse shifts to Eb major and back — and then again from 1:09 – 1:19. The plaintive chorus (1:20) is built around F minor/Ab major. At 2:14, the transition from the end of the chorus into the second verse involves a bruising tri-tone drop in the bass line. The tune ends with a relatively uncomplicated Ab major, although the protagonist seems to find no such easy resolution.

Many thanks to the wide-ranging mod plugger JB for suggesting this tune!

Chicago | Make Me Smile

“(‘Make Me Smile’) was written by James Pankow, a founding member of Chicago, whose primary instrument is the trombone,” reports Songfacts. “What made him smile was the thought of a beautiful relationship: ‘Relationships, if they’re good, put a big smile on our faces. Love songs have always been a powerful ingredient in the song’s process – the songwriting process has often taken writers to that place.’

(The 1970 single) is the first section from the 13-minute musical suite ‘Ballet for a Girl from Buchannon’ on the group’s second album (‘Colour My World‘ is also part of this suite). Without the band’s knowledge, their record company excerpted the ‘Make Me Smile’ section and pushed it to AM radio stations, which had thus far ignored the band. The band had mixed emotions upon hearing their musical masterpiece chopped down for radio play, but were thrilled when the song became their first hit. The first Pankow heard this song on the radio was when he flipped on the mighty Los Angeles radio station KHJ-AM in his car and the song came on. He had no idea the record company had packaged it as a single.”

This album version includes an extended intro not found on the single version (0:00 – 0:38), as well as an extended outro (3:44 – 4:10) before the single version’s ending picks back up at 4:11. Both the intro and the outro are unsettled, giving the horn section free rein over meters that shift on a dime; a settled 4/4 is reached as the first verse starts at 0:42, before the most noticeable key change hits as the bridge starts at 2:14. The band’s trademark horn-saturated kicks and ambitious multi-layered backing vocals were well on their way to icon status with this hit track.

Many thanks to our diligent stringer JB for contributing this tune!

The Association | Cherish

The Association, AllMusic reports, “was one of the more underrated groups to come out of the mid-to-late ’60s. Creators of an enviable string of hits from 1966 through 1969 … the group’s smooth harmonies and pop-oriented sound … made them regular occupants of the highest reaches of the pop charts for two years. Their biggest hits became instant staples of AM radio play lists, which was a respectable achievement for most musicians at the time. That same sound, along with their AM radio popularity, however, proved a liability as the music environment around them changed at the end of the decade.”

“Cherish” reached #22 on BMI’s list of the 100 Most Played Songs on Television and Radio of the 20th century. Written by Terry Kirkman, the track reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, holding that position for three weeks. Billboard reported it as the #7 song of 1966. According to reporting by the Myrtle Beach Sun News, the band’s record label originally claimed that the tune sounded “too old and archaic.” But original band member Jim Yester retorted that the band “showed we can have archaic and eat it, too.”

Regular mod scout JB adds a few words about this submission: “It truly is an iconic song; the modulation at 2:18 — with its bridge build-up starting at 1:50 — has enough wattage to power LA for a day. Truly a piece of pop perfection!”

Kajagoogoo | Too Shy

Another tune from our frequent contributor JB: Kajagoogoo’s 1983 hit “Too Shy” is “both harmonically interesting and a completely formulaic relic of the epoch in which it was made: a lush, synth-dominated arrangement, big hair, vaseline-on-the-lens music video, etc.”

According to AllMusic, the track reached #1 in the UK and #5 in the US. But between lead singer Limahl’s departure for a solo career and the UK group’s “similarities with Duran Duran and Naked Eyes — they were pretty and played immediately accessible, polished pop,” the band wasn’t destined for a sustained string of hits. “Kajagoogoo was essentially a synth pop variation of a bubblegum group.”

With the overall key flattened from A 440 by more than just a few cents, the tune has an extended intro built around ambiguous suspended chords, settles into Bb minor for the first verse at 0:47, and shifts to Eb minor at the chorus (1:13). At 2:18, the suspended chords from the intro return for a wordless bridge — but this time are clarified by a more complex Bb major bassline. At 2:53, we return to the chorus for the duration.

Genesis | Can-Utility + the Coastliners

In its first iteration with Peter Gabriel on vocals, UK prog rock pioneers Genesis released the 1972 album Foxtrot. The album showed the group hitting its stride, including the 20+ minute long prog classic “Supper’s Ready.”

From AllMusic.com’s review: “Foxtrot is where Genesis began to pull all of its varied inspirations into a cohesive sound — which doesn’t necessarily mean that the album is streamlined, for this is a group that always was grandiose even when they were cohesive, or even when they rocked, which they truly do for the first time here…This is the rare art-rock album that excels at both the art and the rock, and it’s a pinnacle of the genre (and decade) because of it.”

“Can-Utility and the Coastliners” might as well be titled “Don’t Get Too Comfortable” … harmonically, at least. The track was primarily written by the band’s guitarist, Steve Hackett, whose site explains that the tune is “based on the legend of King Canute, who supposedly ordered the seas to retreat to mock the sycophancy of his followers.” It centers around D until 3:59; around F# at 3:59; and C from 4:56 to the end. Within each key center, the “tonic” chord can be heard as major, minor, compound … they’re all in the mix. In addition, short excursions away from those respective key centers abound, often accompanied by quick shifts and fillips in the meter. There are no epic modulations, but as this track respects no cliches whatsoever, it will keep listeners on their toes from start to finish. Thanks to MotD regular JB for this contribution!

Steel Pulse | Ravers

AllMusic notes that “Steel Pulse are one of Britain’s greatest reggae bands. Generally a politically minded Rastafarian outfit, it started out playing authentic roots reggae with touches of jazz and Latin music and earned a substantial audience among U.K. punks as well as reggae loyalists.”

From AllMusic’s review of “Ravers” (1978): “…for all its debt to the Jamaican dancehalls, the Birmingham bandmembers don’t so much emulate the current island craze as bend it to their own will…set(ting) the stage with (a) flurried tattoo of militant beats and percussion…only partially soften(ed) with a pulsing bassline. One of the many highlights of Steel Pulse‘s True Democracy album.”

A brief bridge from 2:20 – 2:32 shifts the key from G major to Bb major. As the verses continue to the end, the percussion becomes increasingly free, adding unexpected kicks and tumbling triplets over the otherwise classic reggae feel.

Many thanks to regular contributor JB for submitting this track!

Tommy James + The Shondells | Crimson + Clover

Tommy James + The Shondell’s “Crimson and Clover” had an unexpectedly quick release in 1968 after it was leaked by a radio station. The track went to #1 in the US, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, and South Africa. Pitchfork named it the 57th best song of the 1960s.

According to Wikipedia, the tune has been covered by many artists, including Joan Jett and Prince. However, the tune’s cultural impact goes far beyond cover versions: it’s mentioned in the movie Less than Zero and dozens of other films and TV shows. Its distinctive title has been dropped into lyrics by artists and bands including The Dandy Warhols, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Eat World, Kings of Leon, Elliott Smith, Liz Phair, Green Day, and Lana Del Rey.

As the tune builds in intensity near its end, the modulation hits (4:19) and the extreme tremolo used by the guitars throughout the tune spreads to the vocals. Many thanks to expert mod stringer JB for this contribution.