Category: JB

Thank you, Brian Wilson (1942 – 2025)

“Brian Wilson, who co-founded the iconic California band The Beach Boys and turned teen pop into a poetic, modernist musical form, has died at age 82,” (NPR). “‘We realize that we are sharing our grief with the world,’ Wilson’s family wrote in a statement on his website Wednesday.

The most frequently invoked description of Wilson’s music came from the artist himself when, playing on a phrase coined by Phil Spector, he declared that his goal was to write a ‘teenage symphony to God.’ Grounded in dreams of an idealized youth, his songs reflected vast ambition enmeshed in the belief that pop could be a conduit to the sublime.

… His greatest musical works made room for the deep melancholy he experienced while evoking an almost otherworldly beauty, the sunset smear of a soul longing for peace.” After the upbeat sun-and-surf early hits, 1966’s Pet Sounds was “the apex of Top 40 pop as existential reverie … a modest success upon release (but) now generally acknowledged as one of the greatest albums of all time. (The rock-era canonizing institution Rolling Stone magazine ranks it at No. 2 — right behind Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On.)”

There are so many tunes we could feature today, but “When I Grow Up to Be a Man” is our choice — a track we initially featured in 2020. It’s a release from the band’s earlier days, but with a few odd chord qualities that only begin to hint at the complexity that Wilson’s writing increasingly brought to the Beach Boys. Written and composed by Wilson and Mike Love (1965), it reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song has a lyric written from an adolescent’s POV. According to the book Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece, Wilson had a “fervent desire to reinvent himself as an individual, not as a boy.” The single, with a run time of only two minutes, modulates at 1:32.

Sharon Shannon | Bag of Cats

“Irish President Michael D Higgins called her ‘A National Treasure’ and after 20 of her own albums, countless DVDs, filmed concerts, musical collaborations and a career that has spanned 40 years, Sharon Shannon in 2024 is still breaking new musical ground,” (artist website).

“… Sharon continues to redefine and re-imagine the boundaries of Irish traditional music, elevating the genre through her experimental collaborations with reggae, rap and classical musicians. Her list of collaborators is as extensive as her musical repertoire. She has recorded and toured with Bono, Willie Nelson, La Bottine Souriante, Shane Mc Gowan, Nigel Kennedy, Steve Earle, Justin Adams, Johnny Depp, Linton Kwesi Johnston, The Waterboys and Dessie O’Halloran, and the RTE Symphony Orchestra, to mention just a few.

… The genre-defying star has achieved multi-platinum album sales and has had several chart topping albums, singles and DVDs in her home country. Her album Galway Girl went 4x platinum in Ireland, with the title track winning her the Meteor award two years running for the most downloaded song. She also celebrates being the youngest ever recipient of the Meteor Lifetime Achievement Award.”

MotD regular JB adds: “Irish dance tunes are often played in sets of two or three tunes, where each tune is in a different key.  Because each tune is distinct, however, these mixed-key sets don’t really qualify as modulations. This tune has a very similar feel to a mixed-key set, but because it was composed as a single tune, the mods are fair game.”

Starting in D major, “Bag of Cats” (1997) by Shannon’s Big Band shifts nearly seamlessly to A minor at 1:07, A major at 2:43, then finally E major after a measure’s pause (3:47).

Four Tops | Baby I Need Your Loving

“Forming in Detroit, Michigan, the Four Tops would become one of Motown Records’ most successful groups,” (Cryptic Rock). “Having twenty-four of their singles reach the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, it all began in July of 1964 when radio stations debuted the single ‘Baby I Need Your Loving.’ A song that immediately caught many listeners’ ears, it would reach #11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was a prelude to a career that produced over fifty million records sold … some would consider ‘Baby I Need Your Loving’ one of the greatest songs ever.

… With a superior instrumental foundation in place thanks to the legendary Funk Brothers, Four Tops was largely the writing/production work of the Motown hitmaking trio of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland … Truly a classic Motown-sounding album, Four Tops would hit #1 on the R&B charts and #63 on the Billboard 200, but it was merely a prelude to grander success toward the end of 1965, when the group released the Four Tops’ Second Album which featured the mega hits ‘I Can’t Help Myself,’ ‘Something About You,’ and ‘It’s the Same Old Song.’

After a start in Bb major, the chorus shifts at 0:40 to the closely related key of Eb major. The second verse shifts back to the original key at 0:55. The pattern continues from there.

Heatwave | Whack That Axe

“Rod Temperton,” (Heatwave’s keyboardist) “could write … Temperton might have been the brains, but the rest of the guys did a great job executing his vision,” (SomethingElseReviews). “Party bands have gotten so pre-fab these days, relying so much on sampling and studio help. Heatwave, however, was a real band. The musicians who played on stage were the same ones who played it in the studio, with a minimal amount of session players brought in for Central Heating (1977). The musicianship … makes this period music hold up so well to the present day.

The vocals, led by brothers Keith and the late Johnnie Wilder, were well above the pack, too. Keith’s harder-edged vocal was perfectly complimented by Johnnie’s velvet-smooth croon. In the studio, they often added layers upon layers of choral vocals that rivaled in richness to contemporaries Earth Wind and Fire.” The band formed in the UK but had a mixed roster of two Brits, two Americans, a Swiss citizen, a Czechoslovak national, and a Jamaican!

Built in C major overall, “Whack That Axe” (written by Temperton and sharing an album with one of the band’s three biggest hits, “Grooveline”) gently flips over to the relative A minor for the brief bridge (2:08 – 2:26).

Jethro Tull | Teacher

“English progressive rock giants Jethro Tull are a unique phenomenon in popular music history,” (AllMusic). “Led by enigmatic frontman Ian Anderson — a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and rock’s premier flutist … their mix of heavy rock, flute-led folk melodies, blues licks, surreal, impossibly dense lyrics, and overall profundity defies easy analysis, yet in their 1970s heyday, they garnered a massive level of commercial success, notching a string of gold and platinum records and securing their place within the classic rock canon with releases like Aqualung (1971), Thick as a Brick (1972), and A Passion Play (1973). Even as critics cooled on them, Tull remained popular through later phases with their folk-rock records of the late ’70s, the electronic experimentation of the early ’80s, and eventually a Grammy Award-winning return to hard rock with 1987’s Crest of a Knave.

Benefit (1970) was the album on which the Jethro Tull sound solidified around folk music, abandoning blues entirely. Beginning with the opening number, “With You There to Help Me,” (Ian) Anderson adopts his now-familiar, slightly mournful folksinger/sage persona, with a rather sardonic outlook on life and the world…”

The mid-tempo track “Teacher” is built in A major overall, but the chorus features a D major/minor mix and then an instrumental section in B minor (first heard at 0:48 and 1:02). The pattern continues with verse 2.

Barrett Strong | Money and Me

“In July of 1959, Berry Gordy was working with Motown songwriter and office administrator Janie Bradford on a new song,” (Motown Museum). “He explained to her the thing he wanted most at that moment was not love but money. (Vocalist) Barrett Strong was in the studio that day and heard them working. He took over the piano playing from (Motown chief) Berry Gordy, and together the trio created ‘Money (That’s What I Want).’ The song took off, reaching #2 on the US R&B charts, and almost broke the top 20 on US Pop charts. It was Motown’s first major hit, and no one was prepared. Requests were coming from around the country for a copy of the iconic song and the small Tamla label struggled to keep up.

While Barrett Strong released a few follow-up songs including ‘Yes, No, Maybe So’ (1960), he eventually left Motown in 1961 … Strong would not return to Motown as a performer, but he began to write for other artists, including countless songs in partnership with Whitfield. They penned the iconic ‘Heard It Through The Grapevine’ performed by both Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight and the Pips, ‘War’ performed by Edwin Starr, and a slate of songs for the Temptations. His work helped usher in the ‘Psychedelic’ era for the Temptations, which included songs ‘Cloud Nine’ and Grammy-winning ‘Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone.’ Barrett Strong ended his working relationship with Motown in 1971, but his contributions to the company’s success would earn him induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004. 

“Money and Me” (1959) is much more harmonically and melodically basic than most Motown tunes, but the tune’s compelling groove gives a hint of the great future in store for the iconic Detroit record label. After a start in F major, a half step key change hits after an instrumental verse (1:30). Another half step key change drops at 1:53 as the intro starts.

Allman Brothers Band | Kind of Bird

“1990’s Seven Turns was a tentative comeback for (the Allman Brothers Band), which had gone nine long years without making a record,” (Ultimate Classic Rock). “Sparked by some new members, including guitarist Warren Haynes, the Allmans were blazing forward when they returned with Shades of Two Worlds. Haynes has a bigger role on the record, cowriting more than half of its songs. Veteran member Dickey Betts also turned in some of his strongest numbers.

… ‘There was just so much freedom, so much space,’ cofounder Butch Trucks told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. ‘For the first time since Duane (Allman) and Berry (Oakley) both died, there was a group of guys all going in the same direction, all feeling the same type of music and energy. It really (had been) a problem since that long ago.’ … Rooting themselves in tradition also set this lineup apart from the band’s doomed second edition, which saw what became a more pop-leaning 1978 comeback bid fizzle a couple of years later. Shades of Two Worlds would instead hearken back to the lengthy improvisational excursions found on 1971’s At Fillmore East, the last complete recording featuring Duane Allman.”

After starting in C minor, the instrumental track “Kind of Bird” shifts to Eb minor at 1:05, then cycles through both keys again before introducing an E minor section at 2:16. Angular melodies and the occasional odd meter keep listeners on their feet throughout the tune!

Sunrise, Sunset (from “Fiddler on the Roof”)

“Set in a shtetl in czarist Russia in 1905, the beloved musical Fiddler on the Roof has been staged hundreds of times around the world since its Tony Award-winning Broadway debut in 1964 … As for Fiddler’s enduring popularity, it’s perfectly written as a comedy and a tragedy and shows tradition in such a beautiful way, with the Sabbath candles and the family sitting around the table … tradition is also at the root of heartbreak: Tevye’s daughter Chava must choose between her family and her non-Jewish love,” (Jewish Journal).

“Lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who collaborated with composer Jerry Bock on Fiddler’s songs, spoke about the musical’s appeal in a telephone interview. ‘It’s a family show. It’s about a father and his children. So many people can identify with the problems of fatherhood and raising a family,’ he said, calling the musical’s success ‘astonishing. It’s the most popular and the most performed of everything that Jerry Bock and I did. I’m very surprised and very gratified.'”

Perhaps the most memorable of all of Fiddler‘s tunes is the waltz ballad “Sunrise, Sunset.” According to NPR, Harnick remembers “‘ … when we wrote ‘Sunrise Sunset,’ the first person we played it for was Jerry Bock’s wife… and when I finished, then I looked at Jerry’s wife Patti and I was startled to see that she was crying. And I thought, my goodness; this song must be more effective than we even know.'” Starting in Eb minor, the tune shifts up to E minor at 4:08.

Average White Band | Why

“Cut the Cake (1975) was a difficult album to make for the Average White Band. They were still mourning the loss of drummer Robbie McIntosh, who had died of a heroin overdose the previous year,” (Popdose). “It got to the point that producer Arif Mardin considered pulling the plug on the whole thing. Fortunately everyone soldiered on, and the result was an album that topped the R&B chart, and made it to #4 on the pop chart. AWB has made many more albums over the years, but they never again attained that lofty height.”

“Steve Ferrone, a black drummer from London, England, was hired as a replacement — ironically, he became the first black member of a Scottish soul/funk band that had a very African-American sound and a largely African-American following,” (AllMusic). “Despite the fact that AWB’s members still had McIntosh’s death on their minds when they were writing and recording Cut the Cake, this isn’t a depressing or consistently melancholy album; far from it … If anything, they honor McIntosh’s memory by showing their resilience and delivering one of their finest, most engaging albums.”

After both starting in E minor, the track’s first and second verses glide through quite a patch of key-of-the-moment color before arriving at the chorus, where the tonality shifts to E major (1:45). At 2:07, the verse continues after a jump to G major. 2:28 brings an interlude in E minor which then pivots into another chorus at 2:51, starting this time in F major but ending in Ab major at 3:12 as the tune fades.

Don Henley | The Heart of the Matter

“Don Henley knew to listen when Mike Campbell came calling with a piece of music,” (American Songwriter). “The first time it happened, Campbell provided Henley with the foundation for his biggest solo hit, 1984’s ‘The Boys Of Summer.’ When Campbell delivered another unused instrumental piece as Henley was making 1989’s The End Of The Innocence, the end result was ‘The Heart Of The Matter,’ which became the album’s closing track and turned into one of the most resonant ballads of the decade. Indeed, the first lines of ‘The Heart Of The Matter’ tell the news of the narrator’s former flame finding someone new, putting him in a wistful, reminiscing mood: ‘And I thought of all the bad luck and the struggles we went through/How I lost me and you lost you.’

Henley muses about the tendency for even those who are seemingly at peace in a relationship to seek greener pastures: ‘What are these voices outside love’s open door/Make us throw off our contentment and beg for something more?’ ‘The Heart Of The Matter’ strikes such a chord because the themes are universal, especially for those who have lived, and lost, a little. Many breakup songs get bogged down in rancor and recrimination, but here is one that strives for something nobler, even as it admits how hard it is to get there.”

Built in D major overall, the track shifts to C major for most of its brief bridge (3:32 – 3:49) before shifting back into D major via its Vsus/V chord (3:49-3:54). Then we drop back into another verse in the original key.