Bonnie Raitt | Something To Talk About

“Something to Talk About” is a single from Bonnie Raitt’s smash hit album Luck of the Draw (1991). The album exceeded even the strong success of her previous career-topping release Nick of Time (1989). These two albums helped Raitt transition from a respected but lesser-known Americana/blues musician to expanded fame as a blues-inflected rock artist — quite a tall order.

According to Songfacts, the Shirley Eikhard-penned tune “won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, beating out a field comprised of Oleta Adams, Mariah Carey, Amy Grant, and Whitney Houston…this was by far Raitt’s biggest chart hit in the United States.” Discogs reports that the liner notes included a dedication to blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who died in 1990. Vaughan had encouraged Raitt to stop her longtime alcohol abuse. The dedication is the simple phrase “still burning bright.”

The tune modulates up a minor third at 2:30, at the beginning of a section which sounds at first like a bridge but functions as an extended outro.

The Chicks | You Were Mine

Earlier today, the American country band The Dixie Chicks announced they would be dropping “Dixie” from their name, becoming simply The Chicks. The change was made without much fanfare; in a brief statement on its new website, the band states simply: “We want to meet this moment.” To accompany this news, they dropped a new single from their upcoming album Gaslighter (due out next month — the group’s first album in fourteen years) titled “March March,” featuring images of current and historical protests — for women’s rights, gay rights, environmental causes and Black Lives Matter.

While the new track doesn’t have a key change, we thought it would be an appropriate day to feature The Chicks. “You Were Mine” was released in 1998, the fourth single from their hit album Wide Open Spaces. The song is notable for being the first to feature Natalie Maines as the lead vocal; the Erwin sisters were so impressed with her performance on the original demo that she would go on to replace Laura Lynch in the band. It is also a deeply personal song for the group as the lyrics describe the breakup of the Erwin sisters’ parents. It spent two weeks in the #1 spot on the US Country Singles chart, and reached #34 on the Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart. Key change at 3:03.

The Who | Joker James

The Who, already very well-established in 1973, indulged in an ambitious adventure: the rock opera Quadrophenia. The soundtrack spanned a full double album. AllMusic reports that the plot was “built around the story of a young mod’s struggle to come of age in the mid-’60s…re-examining the roots of (the band’s) own birth in mod culture. In the end, there may have been too much weight, as Pete Townshend tried to combine the story of a mixed-up mod named Jimmy with the examination of a four-way split personality (hence the title), in turn meant to reflect the four conflicting personas at work within the Who itself.”

“Joker James” begins in D major, loses a bit of steam as it transitions to the bridge at 1:46, and then returns with renewed energy as it modulates to E major at 2:02.

Many thanks to MotD fan Aaron for submitting this tune!

I’d Give It All For You (from “Songs for a New World”)

In recognition of Jason Robert Brown‘s 50th birthday this past Saturday, today we feature “I’d Give It All For You” from his debut production Songs For A New World, which premiered Off-Broadway in 1995. Straddling the line between musical and song cycle, the songs are connected through their depictions of moments of decision for the show’s four characters. Brown has described Songs as being “about one moment. It’s about hitting a wall and having to make a choice, or take a stand, or turn around and go back.” Here, a pair of former lovers are reuniting after attempting to live without each other.

Beginning in D major, the song stays there while each character sings a verse and chorus, narrating their backstories and how they ended up where they are. With the onset of the bridge at 3:01, the key center becomes ambiguous, reflecting the more unsettled, striving nature of the lyrics as the characters engage in a call-and-response. When the dust settles, we emerge into the sunlight of the chorus at 4:04 in A major, followed by a wistful, concluding coda in G major.

Performed here by noted Brown interpreter Shoshana Bean and Brown himself at the keyboard at an event at the Library of Congress in 2016. Happy 50th, JRB!

Utopia | Only Human

An unapologetic ballad on Swing to the Right (1982), an album generally driven by uptempo tunes, Utopia‘s “Only Human” covers ground familiar to fans of Todd Rundgren, the band’s founder, primary frontman, co-writer, and guitarist. AllMusic.com reviewed the album as “doggedly pursu(ing) a weird fusion of new wave pop, arena rock, and soul, all spiked with social commentary” — perhaps not surprising, as the lead vocal and composition duties were distributed among the rock quartet.

The lyrics touch on existential challenges which confront us all, at one time or another. But there is also a typically Rundgren-esque affection for humanity overarching the melancholy. In the end, “Love Is the Answer” and mutual understanding is the end goal: never guaranteed, but therefore prized all the more.

After an intro and verses in B minor, the arrival of the chorus flips over into the relative major (D major) at 2:17; the pattern continues throughout. Utopia’s trademark close four-part harmonies overlay a harmonic complexity typical of the quartet.

Flight of the Conchords | I Told You I Was Freaky

AllMusic describes Flight of the Conchords as “New Zealand’s self-proclaimed ‘fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo a cappella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo,’ (who) became international stars in the 2000s thanks to a successful television series that fictionalized their exploits. Formed by actors, comedians, and musicians Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, FotC were the rare comedy band whose music was often as celebrated as their gags. Their songs fused witty lyrics with music that often parodied various artists and genres.”

The title track to the 2009 album I Told You I Was Freaky strays a long distance from the duo’s early days of acoustic self-accompaniment: an electronics-driven absurdist funk romp which lands somewhere near the stylistic confluence of Prince, Cameo, and George Clinton. Starting in G major for the intro, the verse transitions to a static G7 chord with a flexible “blue note” third degree at 0:18; at 0:53, the chorus transitions to Ab minor, then back to G7 at 1:11 for the next verse. At 2:05, the percussion drops out to bring us a hushed bridge in A major; 2:34 returns to G7 for a rap outro.

The shorter version included in the TV show lacks the rap outro, but gives an idea of the series’ fearlessly eccentric visual style.

Brenda Russell | Piano In The Dark

“Piano In The Dark” was the first single released from Brenda Russell‘s 1988 album Get Here. The track earned Russell two Grammy nominations in 1989, including one for Song Of The Year, and went on to be her biggest hit, peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. When asked about the genesis of the song in an interview, Russell said:

“Piano In The Dark” was a wonderful experience. I had two co-writers on that song. Scott Cutler and Jeffrey Hall. And they had sent me this music. And I’m a person that collects song titles. You know, if I hear a good title, like talking to a friend or whatever, I’ll write it down. I keep a little song title book. I always think that in every title there’s a song somewhere, and you’ve just got to thin it out. So when they sent me this music, I thought, Whoa, it’s so haunting and beautiful, I love that. And I was flipping through my title book and I just thought, piano in the dark, I wonder if that would go with that music I heard. That’s as easy as that happened. I had that title and I thought, Hmmm, maybe that’ll work.

…[the song is] about this woman. Her lover plays piano. And she wants to leave him, because she’s really kind of bored. But every time she does that, he sits down and starts playing. And it sucks her right back in. She’s so in love with the way he plays. And he plays in the dark, theoretically. It’s not that literal, necessarily. But that’s what keeps her to him, basically, is his music. And I just found that was an interesting story to write about.”

The verses are set in F minor, and Russell modulates seamlessly to the parallel major for the choruses at 1:03, 2:06, and 2:59.

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.

Mariah Carey | Always Be My Baby

The fourth single released from Mariah Carey’s fifth studio album, Daydream, “Always Be My Baby” was the most played song on the radio in 1996, and the first single to debut at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 list. The lyrics describes the lingering attachment the singer retains towards her former lover, even as they both go their separate ways. The track is one of Carey’s most successful, reaching Triple Platinum status with well over 2 million sales.

The key change is at 3:01. Many thanks to MotD fan Rob Penttinen for this submission!

My House (from “Matilda”)

After breaking through at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Australian comedian/composer Tim Minchin first made a name for himself as an edgy self-accompanying music satirist/social commentator. His piano style, ranging from raucous to refined, made him at home self-accompanying solo or playing out in front of symphony orchestras in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and the Sydney Opera House. Describing himself as a “hack pianist,” he was quoted by Interview One as saying “I’m a good musician for a comedian and I’m a good comedian for a musician, but if I had to do any of them in isolation, I dunno.”

In more recent years, he’s branched out into acting (including the TV series Californication; the TV series Upright, which he also wrote; and stage roles as Mozart in Amadeus and Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, among many others). More recently, Minchin has composed music and book for the musical Matilda, based on the 1988 Roald Dahl book of the same title. The show had successful runs on Broadway and the West End as well as tours of the US, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, winning myriad awards in the process.

Minchin is not generally known for his use of modulation, instead relying on his gifts for wide-ranging melody and evocative lyrics. But he throws a gorgeous key change into Matilda’s “My House” at 2:52 (the music starts at the 0:30 mark).