1970s – Page 17

Rickie Lee Jones | Last Chance Texaco

“With her expressive soprano voice employing sudden alterations of volume and force, and her lyrical focus on Los Angeles street life, Rickie Lee Jones comes on like the love child of Laura Nyro and Tom Waits on her self-titled debut album (1979),” (AllMusic).

The personnel on the album leaned heavily towards players from the jazz genre, creating a sound that “follows the contours of Jones’ impressionistic stories about scuffling people on the streets and in the bars. There is an undertow of melancholy that becomes more overt toward the end, as the narrator’s friends and lovers clear out … But then, the romance of the street is easily replaced by its loneliness. Rickie Lee Jones is an astounding debut album that simultaneously sounds like a synthesis of many familiar styles and like nothing that anybody’s ever done before.”

“Last Chance Texaco” starts out with an apparent focus on auto maintenance — and its elevated importance as one’s location grows increasingly remote. But it later becomes clear that the focus is much broader, even though the automotive euphemisms endure throughout. Intermittent swelling and fading hints of a lonesome highway are evoked instrumentally during the verses, joined by Jones’ own multi-layered wordless backup vocal around 3:30. The easy 6/8 feel of the F# major chorus transitions to a poignant, restive chorus in E minor (first heard from 1:01 – 1:39). Make sure to check out the gorgeous lyrics, as Jones’ delivery varies hugely in both volume and clarity.

It’s her last chance
Her timing’s all wrong
Her last chance
She can’t idle this long
Her last chance
Turn her over and go
Pullin’ out of the last chance Texaco
The last chance

Loretta Lynn | Coal Miner’s Daughter

“When President Obama gave Loretta Lynn the Medal of Freedom in 2013 – the nation’s highest honour recognising significant achievements in politics, world peace, science and culture – he noted that she began writing her own songs with a $17 dollar guitar,” (Holler.Country). “‘With it,’ he said, ‘this coal miner’s daughter gave voice to a generation, singing what no one wanted to talk about and saying what no one wanted to think about.’ … (Lynn’s) career has always been about her humble life story, something that’s perfectly expressed in 1971’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, a record which might just represent the peak of her singular songwriting and creativity. When Loretta signed her first recording contract in 1960, she already had a handful of kids and an immoral husband who’d married her when she was just a teen … On ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ every tiny, stark, heartfelt memory of Lynn’s life until that point came flooding to the fore. It’s an understated masterpiece of concision, drama and imagery – every verse a short story that’s rarely been equaled, even in a genre where storytelling and authenticity are the most prized assets.

Every song on Coal Miner’s Daughter would go on to hit home with Lynn’s fans, many of whom were women much like her, living near-identical lives. Throughout her career, she refused to be fenced in, kicking down country music complacency and putting up a flag for feminism (even if she was ambivalent about the label) with her honky-tonk directness … Infidelity, lechery, drunkenness – and even divorce – were grist to her mill … as fellow country legend Minnie Pearl simply put: ‘Loretta sang what women were thinking.'”

Lynn passed away this week at the age of 90. Of the 86 singles she released, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” might be her most memorable. It topped the Billboard country songs survey and becoming her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 (AllMusic). Textbook half-step key changes hit at 1:04 and 2:00.

Milton Nascimento | Raça

Brazilian vocalist Milton Nascimento “remembered how as a boy he had been obsessed with female singers and grew despondent when his voice began to break,” (The Guardian). “Only after hearing a Ray Charles recording of ‘Stella By Starlight’ age 13 did he grasp the beauty of the male voice. ‘He cured me that day,’ he said.” After many decades and 40+ albums, “News of Nascimento’s (Spring 2022) retirement has sparked an outpouring of nostalgia, a box office rush, and celebration of his astonishing vocal cords and vision. ‘[His voice] is strong at the same time that it’s delicate and fragile. It is precious … something that can convey such conflicting ideas at the same time. It’s unique,’ said Maria Rita, shedding tears as she described her affection for a man who took her under his wing after her mother’s premature death. ‘It feels like it’s from the soul … from a place that is familiar, but we don’t know yet – and I think that’s what my mom meant when she said that if God had a voice [it would be Milton’s].'”

” … Nascimento enjoys a vast global audience,” (AllMusic). “In addition to a resonant reedy tenor, he possesses an otherworldly falsetto that has led many to describe his music in spiritual terms. His self-titled 1967 debut established his meld of MPB, Brazilian folk forms, Tropicalia, rock, and samba” He went on to win several Grammy awards and recently completed a farewell tour at age 80.”

Released in 1976 as his material first became available in the United States, “Raça” (which translates to “race”) features a short melodic theme which alternates between two keys and cycles through many different strata of groove. The key shifts from C major and A major at 0:57, then back at 2:12.

The Real Thing | You To Me Are Everything

“You To Me Are Everything” was released as a single in 1976 by the British soul group The Real Thing. In an interview last month with the Guardian, Ken Gold, who produced and co-wrote the song, recalled that he and Mick Denne came up with the chorus quickly and wrote the whole song in less than an hour. “We were in the studio – the Roundhouse in London – the very next week,” Gold said, discussing the subsequent recording session. “Chris [the lead singer] wanted to take the melody in his own direction. He said he was trying to put some soul into it. But sitting up there in the control room, it just wasn’t working for me and I remember getting very nervous because he was starting to get a little combative. I said: “Honestly, Chris, I’d just like to hear you sing the melody exactly as it was written.” And that’s what we did. If you can write a melody that gets into someone’s head after just one play, then you have something people can sing.”

This track was the group’s only #1 hit, sitting atop the UK Singles chart for three weeks. The tune begins in C and shifts up to D at 2:41.

The Roches | Hammond Song

“The Roches were a magical musical act, influenced by barber-shop style tight harmonies, Irish melodies, bee-pop and the Brill Building writers,” (HotPress.com). “They wrote – either solo or in various combinations – songs about: their lives together and apart; sweaty train journeys; cheating husbands; dogs; waitressing; family secrets; trips to Ireland; and, sometimes, even an impossible and improbable relationship.

They didn’t fit in, but by not fitting in they presented the perfect template for all the rest of us who felt we didn’t fit in either. They eventually found a way to fit in by creating – stealing might even be a better word – a space for themselves in a music business distracted and preoccupied by rock, disco, and punk …they were not scared to show their horizons lay way beyond the perceived limits of folk, or any other contemporary music, for that matter.”

A track from the trio’s debut self-titled album (1979), “Hammond Song,” gives voice to the inevitable forks in life’s road and the consequences which follow. The Roche sisters’ keening vocal delivery is immediately recognizable after only a few notes. Their nearly vibrato-free vocal style would be quite unforgiving of any intonation issues, but the Roches’ excellent ears and unfettered originality turned into their force-of-nature delivery into their indelible signature. After a start in Eb major, 2:37 brings a shift to Bb major, and then there’s a reversion to the original key at 3:28. Both modulations slip by during relative lulls in the volume and texture of this otherwise rich vocal tapestry.

Natalie Cole | This Will Be

“Natalie Cole bloomed into a superstar with her debut single, ‘This Will Be,’ released in 1975 when she was 25 years old.” (JazzIz) With its funky, soulful sound, the song helped her step out of the shadow of her father, Nat ‘King’ Cole, one of the most iconic vocalists of the 20th century. Since its release, it has also been featured in several movies and was used in a long-running series of eHarmony commercials.

‘This Will Be’ was written and produced by Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy. It became a Billboard hit and earned Natalie a couple of GRAMMYs, including that for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, a category that had been dominated by Aretha Franklin up to that point. As mentioned, it also turned Cole into a major star and her popularity continued to soar through the ’70s. While drug issues would slow her down, she would launch a comeback that peaked with her 1991 album, Unforgettable … with Love.”

The track has a unique layout which doesn’t adhere to traditional songwriting structure; there doesn’t appear to be a chorus! After starting in Bb major with an extremely long groove-driven intro for a tune that clocks in at less than three minutes total, two verses unspool as Natalie sings an impeccable duet with herself. As the third verse begins, there’s a transition up to Db major at 1:02. Each verse has a different overlay of vocal melody, but the underlying chords are the same. A stop-time bridge appears at 1:29. The intensity ramps up right to the end; even as the volume fades, Cole unfurls more and more of her powerhouse upper range belt. The swing momentum, effortless vocal prowess, and the sheer joy she communicates through her performance are reminders of the Cole family’s jazz and pop legacy, which started in 1940.

The Street People | Jennifer Tomkins

In 1979, British-American singer-songwriter Rupert Holmes had a hit with “Escape (The Piña Colada song),” a Billboard #1, and a top song of the ’70s. But a decade earlier, he was working as a session musician on a planned release by the Cuff Links, a pop band with sugary hits like 1969’s “Tracy”. The Cuff Links’ singer was Ron Dante, also the voice of The Archies. Due to contractual restrictions, Dante was pulled from the project; Holmes released one of the tracks they’d been working on, 1970’s “Jennifer Tompkins,” under the name “The Street People.” That release made it to #36 on Billboard‘s Hot 100.

The lyrics tell the hard-luck tale of the song’s eponymous subject, offering an odd contrast with the sprightly musical track. Despite a running time of only 1:50, the song packs a satisfying series of modulations. The first half-step mod comes at 0:34. There’s a whole step mod at 1:18, followed by half-steps at 1:26, 1:34, and at 1:42 during the fade out.

Edison Lighthouse | Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes

The inclusion of Kate Bush’s distinctive mid-80s track “Running Up That Hill” in the streaming video hit Stranger Things might be the most prominent digital-age revival of a decades-old song — but it was hardly the first. “Proving that essentially all of pop history is now fair game for a TikTok revival, one of the biggest-growing streaming hits of 2022 now belongs to Nixon-era one-hit wonder Edison Lighthouse, with their bubblegum smash ‘Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes),'” (Billboard) … “The song, which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1970, has seen an explosion in its streaming consumption after the song started getting adapted into a TikTok meme of users posting clips and photos of themselves to accompany the song’s lyrics … ” Streams were up by 1,490% and the song also moved onto Spotify’s daily US top 200 chart, just outside the top 100.

“’Love Grows’ marked one of just two Hot 100 appearances for the British pop/rock quartet Edison Lighthouse — the other coming in early 1971 with the No. 72-peaking ‘It’s Up to You Petula.’ The group’s frontman, Tony Burrows, was perhaps the most prolific bubblegum singer of his era,” scoring hits under his own name as well as an anonymous vocalist for the groups White Plains, Brotherhood of Man (‘United We Stand,’ 1970), The Pipkins, and First Class (“Beach Baby,” 1974). “He also provided backing vocals on a pair of early Elton John classics ‘Levon’ and ‘Tiny Dancer.'”

The track shifts up a half-step at 1:57.

Eric Clapton | Layla

British guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, “with a band of stellar musicians that included the late Duane Allman, went into Florida’s Criteria Studios to record what would become one of the great classic albums of all time, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs,” (American Songwriter). “With its standout track ‘Layla,’ the album became a timeless record that helped determine the direction of 1970s rock guitar, performed by a band called Derek and the Dominos, as Clapton didn’t want to use his name for the marquee value.

‘Layla’ was a song Clapton wrote, with Dominos drummer Jim Gordon, about his forbidden love for the wife of his close friend George Harrison (she eventually became Clapton’s wife) … The album might have done big business had Clapton been up front about being the big name in the group, but instead, it stalled on the charts. When the edited version of ‘Layla’ was released to radio as a single in 1972, it did fairly well, but by this time Allman was dead and the band had broken up.” But in 1992, “propelled by ‘Layla’ and ‘Tears in Heaven,’ Unplugged became Clapton’s biggest selling-album, as well as one of the biggest-selling live albums in history, with a purported 26 million copies sold. ‘Layla’ won a Grammy, more than two decades after it was originally recorded, for Best Rock Song …”

After the iconic intro states the guitar-driven hook, a surprising downward half-step key change hits as verse 1 begins (0:24). We’re thrown off-kilter by a bar of 2/4 among the track’s overall 4/4 meter at 0:22, immediately preceding the modulation. The key reverts up a half-step for the first chorus, and the pattern continues from there. At 3:11, an instrumental section featuring piano drops a full step as it morphs into a more peaceful major key, taking up the second 50% of the track.

Talking Heads | With Our Love

On the Talking Heads’ album More Songs About Buildings and Food, “You can hear (producer Brian) Eno’s ‘studio as instrument’ approach in all sorts of sonic details.” But in comparison to the band’s early days as regular performers at spartan punk-centric clubs like CBGB’s, ” … these increasingly intricate aesthetics never threaten to overthrow the music’s pleasure center: an involuntary compulsion to move your body … Talking Heads were sorting out how to engage simultaneously with the mind and the soul (or at least the hips)—how to be both art-rock and dance music,” (Pitchfork).

Salon called the album “a backwards exorcism of frozen-brittle guitars, smeared textures, and super-ecstatic vocals. The record brought forth an essential darkness and didn’t try to extinguish it. These were songs about emotions that lurk, about the secret part of ourselves that knows people can see right through us on buses, planes, and subways, all sung by a disjointed, ferocious, manic, shivering guy named David Byrne. It was a kind of State of the Union address, examining the nation’s health from a dozen different angles, including the sky.”

Sharing real estate on the 1978 release with “Take Me to the River,” a languorous track which became the band’s first hit, is the up-tempo “With Our Love.” The verse is built around G minor, with prominent Bb minor chords. 0:30 – 0:37 brings an off-kilter section featuring Db minor and Cb minor chords before a return to the original G minor section. At 0:45, the chorus alternates between E minor, G major, and A minor chords. 1:36 starts the cycle again. The tune’s driving forces of groove, lyric, and texture seem to transcend any expectation of traditional rock chord progressions; it doesn’t so much modulate as it fails to ever settle into a specific tonality in the first place. Disjointed, ferocious, and manic, indeed.