Procol Harum | Repent Walpurgis

Best known for their hit “Whiter Shade of Pale” (1967), the UK-based prog rock band Procol Harum “developed a really new sound with two keyboards (piano and Hammond organ) and a guitarist extraordinaire called Robin Trower who was greatly influenced by Jimi Hendrix,” (ProgArchive). “They quickly became one of the precursors of progressive rock (along with the Moody Blues and the Nice), mixed in some classical influences, and sold millions of singles but also albums.” Anyone who’s heard “Whiter Shade,” which is likely a lot of people, would recognize the band’s sound immediately on “Repent Walpurgis,” the closing track on the band’s 1967 self-titled first album. The album also featured the track “Conquistador,” which became a hit single, albeit several years later).

JB, who contributed this tune, adds: “PH always managed to retain a rock sensibility, which kept them from crossing the line from melodrama into bombast, or even self-parody … one of the most under-rated bands of the 60s, in my opinion.  It’s at least as progressive (at least along certain dimensions) as Pet Sounds or Sgt. Pepper. But even though nearly every self-respecting hippie that I was exposed to during that period seemed to have a copy of this album in their collection, PH never really broke through to the same level of success as Yes, ELP, or other bands mining the same musical vein. My guess is that PH was about 3-4 years too early to really hit the sweet spot of Art/Prog Rock, although arguably they were one of the principal progenitors of that movement.”

Built primarily around C minor, a big transition at 2:15 leads us through a peaceful patch — a melody-less accompaniment for the Bach/Gounod version of “Ave Maria” in C major. At 2:59, we return to C minor.

Boyz II Men | The Color of Love

“The Color of Love” was the lead single released from the 2002 Boyz II Men album Full Circle. For the music video, each band member filmed their segment in a different country to capture the color and spirit of different people. “Boyz II Men have always maintained a certain mood with their music,” said Antonio “L.A.” Reid, the president of Arista Records which produced the album. “And that couldn’t be better reflected than with the theme of this clip–unity and brotherhood, a multi-cultural celebration in these difficult times. There is no better group to pull it off than these four guys.”

The track has a traditional half-step modulation from D to Eb at 2:45.

Marcela Mangabeira | Para Ti

Born in the Brazilian city of Recife in 1981, Marcela Mangabeira “participated in the first European tour of the group Bossacucanova in 2001, passing through Spain, Denmark, Germany, France, England, and Wales,” the Brazilian website Som13.com reports. “She moved to Rio de Janeiro in 2003 … Her first album, Simples, was released in 2005 in Japan, where it had a great reception.” According to her own website, Mangabeira has released two other albums: Colors of Rio (2011) and Closer Project (2017); her music is also part of 40 compilations worldwide.

“Para Ti” (For You) was released on Simples. Its breezy contemporary sound rolls along beautifully as the Mangabeira finishes the first section. A wordless vocals section from the backup singers begins at 1:33; a half-step modulation catches us by surprise at 1:36, right in the middle of a phrase. At 2:42, an amorphous outro floats onward until the tune’s end.

Boney M. | Rasputin

“Although they never had much success in America, the Euro-disco group Boney M. were a European phenomenon during the ’70s” (AllMusic) “Fronted by German record producer Frank Farian, the group also included four West Indian vocalists who had been working as session singers in Germany … In October 1978, ‘Rasputin’ became one of the band’s UK Top Ten hits. Their music continues to sell well in Europe, with a compilation hitting the U.K. Top Ten in 1994 … Farian went on to create the late-’80s dance sensation Milli Vanilli.” The band was late-70s mainstay on the UK TV show Top of the Pops.

“Rasputin” (1978) certainly takes a unique approach towards Russian history. Dangerous Minds reports that “the Soviet Union banned the song, which probably didn’t bother Boney M. too much.” The lyrics from the chorus set the tone:

Ra ra Rasputin
Lover of the Russian queen
There was a cat that really was gone
Ra ra Rasputin
Russia’s greatest love machine
It was a shame how he carried on

At the 0:40 mark, the key falls approximately a quarter-step to B minor: an unusual way of working its way out of an intro!

Key + Peele | The Power of Wings

When it comes to comedy duo Key and Peele, “the title comedians are surprisingly good singers,” (Screenrant). The sketches on Comedy Central’s Key & Peele series “ran the gamut from touching on politics or race to skits on famous movies or TV shows. The pair also had some spot-on parodies of music artists, from the hilarious ‘Ray Parker Theme Songs’ – where the Ghostbusters singer reveals a catalog of horrible, unused themes for other movies – to ‘Outkast Reunion,’ where Andre 3000 and Big Boi awkwardly cross paths. Key & Peele remains a treasure trove of great sketches, with the show coming to an end back in 2015. While Keegan-Michael Key has continued to act, Jordan Peele has mostly retired from performing to step behind the camera, reinventing himself as a horror auteur with movies like Get Out.”

Wendell, a nerd and comic book fan of the highest order, is a recurring K+P character. But “Wings” took him to the next level of fantasy: If a Lord of the Rings Fandom Con had a baby with a power metal band, this video might be the result.

Unfortunately, the video’s modest budget is drained very visibly to zero dollars just before the bridge. Thereafter, even the half-step modulation at 1:53 and an “E for Effort” aren’t enough to save Wendell.

Jeff Beck | You Know, We Know

In its review of Jeff Beck’s Flash, Rolling Stone ranks it as “one of Beck’s best ever, a record of awesome guitar prowess and startling commercial daring. It is also irrefutable proof that his kind of flash never goes out of fashion.”

Trading on the huge cachet he’d built up during the 1960s and 1970s with garden variety music fans and tech-obsessed guitarists alike, Beck rested on his laurels a bit in the 80s: 1985’s Flash was his first release in five years. His work with The Yardbirds in the late 60s was legendary, but “while he was as innovative as Jimmy Page, as tasteful as Eric Clapton, and nearly as visionary as Jimi Hendrix,” explains AllMusic, “Jeff Beck never achieved the same commercial success as any of those contemporaries, primarily because of the haphazard way he approached his career. After Rod Stewart left the Jeff Beck Group in 1971, Beck never worked with a charismatic lead singer who could have helped sell his music to a wide audience. Furthermore, he was simply too idiosyncratic, moving from heavy metal to jazz fusion within a blink of an eye … releasing only one album during the course of the ’90s. All the while, Beck retained the respect of fellow guitarists, who found his reclusiveness all the more alluring.”

“You Know, We Know,” the closing track of Flash, is based on a simple hook. After an intro in C major, the hook is first stated at 0:33, along with a rasping unprepared modulation to C# minor. Another jarring key change to D minor drops at 4:35. The mid-80s production fingerprint of Chic’s Nile Rogers, catching perhaps the most synth-centric sound of the entire decade, couldn’t be clearer on this track. Robert Christgau’s snarky review gave the album a B grade, opining that Beck “turns in the best LP of his pathologically spotty career by countenancing Rodgers’ production on five tracks. So what do we have here? We have half a good Nile Rodgers album, more or less.”

Talking Heads | Nothing But Flowers

After its initial waves of success in the late 70s and early 80s, the future of Talking Heads seemed more precarious. But you wouldn’t know it from the sound of “Nothing But Flowers,” a single from the 1988 album Naked, the band’s final release. The energetic, bouncy track bears the clear signature of several guest musicians from Africa. But Naked turned out to be the band’s final album. “It was touch-and-go for the band ever since their fourth album, Remain In Light, was released in 1980.” (Songfacts) “After that one, David Byrne embarked on various projects and it wasn’t always clear if or when he would re-convene Talking Heads.” The band broke up in 1991.

Songfacts contines: “The lyrics describe a post-apocalyptic world in which modern technology has been largely eliminated. Lead singer David Byrne, as the song’s protagonist, is torn between his appreciation for nature’s beauty and his dependency on such disappeared items as lawnmowers and fast food. It’s kind of the opposite of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Big Yellow Taxi,’ where they paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Here, nature has re-claimed the land, and now the shopping malls are covered with flowers. Throughout the video, strong visual elements make the band’s origins at Rhode Island School of Design clear. The 1991 Bret Easton Ellis novel American Psycho opens with an epigraph quoting some lyrics from this song: And as things fell apart / Nobody paid much attention.”

Starting in C major, there’s a shift to D major partway through the chorus at 1:31, then a return to C major for another verse at 1:47. At 3:15, the second half of another split chorus is elevated up to D major, remaining there for the balance of the tune. Along the way, several short sections are propelled by the frisson of departures from the primary keys (for instance, 0:59 – 1:06).


Jennifer Warnes | Right Time of the Night

Written and originally recorded by songwriter Peter McCann, “Right Time of the Night” was made a top ten hit by Jennifer Warnes on her eponymous 1977 album. Warnes wrote new lyrics for the second verse that she believed were more appropriate for a female performer, but McCann rejected her revision and wrote his own, which eventually made it onto the record. The track is Warnes’ most successful solo hit. Starting in Bb, the tune modulates up a whole step to C at 2:11.