Tag: 1970s

Renaissance | Touching Once (Is So Hard to Keep)

Renaissance is a prog rock band which frequently has amibtions which were symphonic in scope. Founded in the late 1960s, it’s been intermittently active through the present day; in fact, it’s currently on tour as of this writing! Its sound has centered primarily around the voice of Annie Haslam.

“Their album Prologue, released in 1972, (featured) extended instrumental passages and soaring vocals by Haslam,” (AllMusic). “Their breakthrough came with their next record, Ashes Are Burning, issued in 1973 … their next record, Turn of the Cards … had a much more ornate songwriting style and was awash in lyrics that alternated between the topical and the mystical. The group’s ambitions were growing faster than its audience, which was concentrated on America’s East Coast, especially in New York and Philadelphia — Scheherazade (1975) was built around a 20-minute extended suite for rock group and orchestra that dazzled the fans but made no new converts … The band’s next two albums, Novella and A Song for All Seasons, failed to find new listeners; as the 1970s closed out, the group was running headlong into the punk and new wave booms that made them seem increasingly anachronistic and doomed to cult status.” Several breakups and revivals followed over the next decades.

“Touching Once (Is So Hard to Keep),” a track from Novella (1977), starts with a short intro in E minor before settling into a verse in B minor (0:09). Plenty of quickly passing keys of the moment, further adorned and obscured with plentiful chromaticism, lead us to the next notable shift in tonality at the chorus (1:10), which starts in F major. 1:35 brings us back to the next verse in B minor. Pace yourself: the 9.5 minute track unfolds from there with an extended midsection loaded with twists and turns, then unfolds some more before ending with a half-time restatement of some of the opening sections.

Joni Mitchell | My Old Man

“Joni Mitchell’s ‘My Old Man’ is quintessentially Joni: whimsically metaphorical, groundedly realistic, and fiercely independent with its laissez-faire approach to long-term, committed relationships,” (American Songwriter). “She wrote the iconic track, which she included on the 1971 album Blue while living on Lookout Mountain in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles. At the time, Mitchell was in a whirlwind relationship with Graham Nash—a relationship that, although doomed from the start, produced other enduring tracks like ‘Our House’ and ‘A Case of You,’ the latter of which is also on ‘Blue.’

A definitive musical power couple, Mitchell and Nash’s relationship was bigger than either party and, as the song clearly states, antiquated ideas of legal domesticity through marriage. Within the context of Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash’s relationship, the opening lines of ‘My Old Man’ paint a clear picture of the creative duo: My old man is a singer in the park; he’s a walker in the rain; he’s a dancer in the dark. Almost immediately, Mitchell asserts the fact that neither party feels the need to validate their bond through traditional means of marriage. We don’t need no piece of paper from the City Hall keeping us tied and true, she sings in the chorus. “

The intro and choruses are built in A major; the melody soars to Mitchell’s legendary high range as she details times spent together with her partner. From 1:17 -1 1:42, a verse (bridge?) cycles through several keys, all providing vivid contrast to A major! After another chorus, the verse/bridge (which returns at 2:17 – 2:42), which recounts the couple’s time apart, features a lower melody and more complex, darker harmonies.

Earth, Wind + Fire | Mighty Mighty

“It wasn’t until their fifth album, 1974’s Open Our Eyes, that EW+F started to have hits. (Lead singer Maurice) White had brought in Charles Stepney, a friend and colleague from Chicago (and also in-house arranger and producer at Chess Records, where White had cut his teeth as a session drummer in the late 60s), to co-produce, and sessions took place in Colorado in 1973,” (The Guardian).

“Philip Bailey had joined, and he and Maurice became a potent force with their striking dual vocals – an idea the band patterned in part on Sérgio Mendes’s Brasil 66. The first single from the album, ‘Mighty Mighty,’ echoes key EW+F influences (Sly + the Family Stone formally; Curtis Mayfield in the title and lyrical tone), but is definably the work of a band in charge of their own sound and style.”

The 1974 tune hit #29 on Billboard‘s pop chart and #4 on its Hot Soul Singles chart. Its heavy funk groove drives the track to its first upward half-step key change (0:52). After the first chorus, the tonality falls back to the original key at 1:25. The cycle repeats from there.

Yes | I’ve Seen All Good People

“Yes’ ‘I’ve Seen All Good People’ (1971) is an unlikely rock masterpiece. The song, an arrangement of two separate pieces (‘Your Move’ by Jon Anderson and ‘All Good People’ by Chris Squire), contains many elements not commonly contained in rock music,” (Something Else Reviews). “The combination works in this case, however, producing the most-played Yes song in the band’s cannon.

‘I’ve Seen All Good People’ starts with a compelling three-part harmony a capella opening by Anderson, Squire and Howe. The Yes choir has never sounded so resolved … Instead of an electric power-chord introduction, Steve Howe utilizes a Portuguese guitar in a fleet-fingered opening to accompany Jon Anderson. His vivid lyrics are in turn buoyed only by the bass drum of Bill Bruford. In another unusual move, Yes utilizes a non-band member in Colin Goldring, whose recorder adds additional colors to the song. By this time, Anderson’s lyrics shift from person to spiritual: ‘ … ’cause his time is time in time with your time’ … The harmonies build to a powerful wave of voices … Tony Kaye’s Hammond organ joins over a background chorus, which references John Lennon’s classic ‘Give Peace a Chance’ … Howe provides a now-classic electric guitar solo … while Bill Bruford and Chris Squire continue to amp up Yes’ energy. By the coda of ‘I’ve Seen All Good People’ … you’ve experienced one the very best songs recorded by the world’s greatest progressive rock band.”

Beginning in E major, the track grows from the a cappella intro to a gentle first verse and onward from there, eventually expanding to an expansive pipe organ accompaniment. At 3:32, the second movement begins — at first apparently also in E major and built around a hard swing feel. The bass motion wanders all over the place, with passing hints that we’re continuing in E major, A major, or B major. But the most prominent feature is bass motion from E down to D natural and then down to C natural, ruling out any of those options. At 5:58, the grooveless outro features multiple downward modulations as the volume fades — along with any chance for a clear guidline on the tonality of the second movement!

Neil Diamond | Hello Again

“If 1980’s Bob Gaudio-produced The Jazz Singer marks the point at which Diamond crossed over from respected, rugged torch balladeer to schmaltzy cabaret act, he could take solace in phenomenal sales,” (BBC). “His biggest in the States, it shifted over six million. This despite the fact that the film which it soundtracked, in which Diamond starred as a Jewish singer opposite one Laurence Olivier, was generally panned. (It was a conceptually bizarre remake of the Al Jolson classic.) Still, it spawned songs as emotionally domineering as ‘Love on the Rocks,’ ‘Hello Again,’ and the patriotic (and therefore enormously commercial) ‘America.’

Neil’s acting gained him nominations for both a Golden Globe and the first ever Razzie Award for Worst Actor (he won the latter). To add painful injury to insult, he’d recently been wheelchair-bound for months, having had a tumour removed from his spine. So for all its gaudy sentimentality, The Jazz Singer was a personal triumph over adversity. If he now traded in the tingling presence of his earlier, rawer recordings, he hit on a polished soft-rock sound that even today is being rehabilitated by hungry ironists. ‘Hello Again’ is a Lionel Richie-style weepie, the lady in question awkwardly addressed as ‘my friend.’ It became Diamond’s calling card for the next few years.”

‘Hello Again,’ released as a single in 1981, was co-written by Diamond and Alan Lindgren, hit #70 on Billboard’s year-end singles chart. After a cinematic intro whose sustained chords at first seem to be written in G major, 0:17 brings an apparent shift to F major. But at 0:25, C major takes over. Neil’s voice is beyond center-stage — it’s absolutely primary, with a gentle piano-and-strings ensemble backing him up. At 3:11, a half-step shift up to Db major unfolds. Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for this submission!

Sparks | Amateur Hour

The US-based brother act Sparks, founded by Ron and Russell Mael, “are the epitome of the genre-defying act,” (Nialler9). “Over the course of a career spanning four decades they’ve released 23 albums and undergone several major metamorphoses … their stylized sound and sensibility varies radically from album to album … Yet while there are chapters of the Sparks saga that aren’t to everyone’s taste, these chameleonic fluctuations should be seen as symptomatic of a determination to constantly evolve.

While there is frivolity in some of Sparks’ songs, there’s nothing frivolous about the audacious aesthetic decisions they’ve made in their attempts to find new ways of presenting their work … While a tendency toward radical change characterizes the music of Sparks, there are also elements that have remained consistent throughout. It is these facets that make Sparks so special … never willing to sacrifice aesthetic convictions for the sake of mass success, their integrity and resolute sense of adventure remains intact … This is why numerous bands from New Order to Nirvana have lauded them and why they continue to be contemporary and significant.”

“Amateur Hour,” a track from 1974’s Kimono My House, features a rhythmic concept known as a hemiola in classical music terminology; it isn’t very common in pop music! A hemiola occurs when a short phrase is repeated, but doesn’t fit perfectly with the meter of a piece — so it’s slightly rhythmically displaced each time it’s consecutively repeated. For this track, the concept is most clearly stated in the opening bars, by the guitar: the four-note upward step-wise melody is repeated multiple times, but begins both on and off the beat due to the displacement. It’s repeated later in the vocals during the choruses … a lot. At 2:08, the track shifts up a full step from Bb major to C major.

Mel + Tim | Starting All Over Again

“Cousins Melvin Hardin and Tim McPherson were from Mississippi, but they eventually moved to Chicago, where they were discovered by Gene Chandler,” (Popdose). “He … co-produced the smash hit ‘Backfield in Motion’ for them. Stax Records, as they often did, sent (Mel + Tim) to Muscle Shoals to record with the Swampers, two of whom, Barry Beckett and Roger Hawkins, produced the next Mel + Tim hit. ‘Starting All Over Again’ was written by Phillip Mitchell and released on Stax in 1972. The record, with its production modeled on the Chi-Lites hit ‘Have You Seen Her’ (including the use of the electric sitar), was a Top 20 hit on the Pop chart and reached #4 on the R&B chart. It remained on the charts for 20 weeks, and became Mel & Tim’s second million-seller.

It’s hard to know why some talented artists have long lasting careers while others fade away. Mel + Tim performed at the fabled Wattstax concert in 1972, but even that highly visible appearance didn’t help them find any real chart success with their subsequent releases. ‘I May Not Be What You Want’ (1973), ‘That’s the Way I Want to Live My Life’ (1974), and ‘Forever and a Day’ (1974) all found a place in the Top 100 on the R&B chart, but unlike Mel + Tim’s earlier hits, did not have much in the way of crossover success … ” In 1991, a nearly note-for-note cover of ‘Starting All Over Again’ by Daryl Hall and John Oates “became a Top 10 hit on the Adult Contemporary chart.”

At 2:41, an unprepared half-step key change hits during an instrumental section leading into the extended outro.

George Benson | This Masquerade

“Originally recorded by singer-songwriter Leon Russell, ‘This Masquerade’ comes from George Benson’s 1976 album Breezin’, which was a major critical and commercial success for the guitarist,” (JazzIz). “Benson’s first ever single … (featured his) intricate guitar work” combined with his “now-famous overlaid vocals.”

Benson “transformed the song into a masterpiece of crossover jazz-pop. Benson, at the time, had never even heard of the song—or Leon Russell,” (TheChurchStudio.com). “He later revealed that producer and manager Tommy LiPuma pushed him to record it. But once he did, Benson called it ‘one of the finest tunes of our time, with a beautiful melody and a great story.’ He later discovered that the song’s harmonic structure was loosely based on the jazz standard ‘Angel Eyes,‘ which, he said, is why ‘so many jazz musicians dig playing it … Leon did us all a great favor when he wrote it.’

That recording made music history. ‘This Masquerade’ became the first song ever to simultaneously top the Jazz, Pop, and Rhythm & Blues charts, a groundbreaking achievement that reflected its universal appeal. The track went on to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1977, solidifying the song as an American classic.”

After a 30-second intro, the tune is built primarily in F minor for the first one-third of the form. The tune shifts to a less melancholic sound (though the lyrics refuse to follow suit) when it switches to Db major at 1:14, then C major at 1:36. For the final third, there’s a return to a doleful F minor.

Freddy Weller | The Roadmaster

” … a solid traditional country release from the often overlooked career of Freddy Weller: ‘The Roadmaster’ (1972),” (IfThatAintCountry.net). “As a member of popular rock/pop act Paul Revere & The Raiders in the late 60s, it was his version of Joe South’s ‘Games People Play’ which shot him to country stardom. Weller never recaptured that level of fame, but spent most of the 70s recording country to mixed commercial results.

His hits dropped off completely after 1980, but as a writer he kept an iron in the fire and scored considerable success with a BMI one-million spinner in Reba McEntire’s ‘They Asked About You’ as well as ‘Lonely Women Make Good Lovers’ for Bob Luman. Freddy Weller also co-wrote every single one of the tracks on The Roadmaster (frequently collaborating with Muscle Shoals session staple Spooner Oldham) and solid gold country cuts like ‘Bars Have Made a Prisoner of Me,’ the dark but humorous ‘Ballad of a Hillbilly Singer,’ some wonderful trembling steel in ‘An Oldie But a Goodie’ and the kicking title track warrant a revisiting of Freddy Weller’s underrated but extremely worthy place in country music history.”

After two verses, the track shifts up a half step (0:56), again at 1:26, and lastly just in time for the turnaround at 1:50. Written by Weller and Spooner Oldham, the tune hit #17 on the Country charts in 1972. The lyrics are definitely … vintage(?) but the groove is undeniable! Many thanks to our regular contributor Rob P. for sending in this tune!

Christopher Cross | I Really Don’t Know Anymore

“Quick! What do Christopher Cross and Billie Eilish have in common?

Answer: They are the only artists who have won the four major Grammy Awards (Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best New Artist) in the same year,” (BestClassicBands). “They achieved this feat in 1981 and 2020, respectively: Eilish is 50 years younger than the man born Christopher Charles Geppert in San Antonio, Texas. Only time will tell if she endures the kind of backlash that, after a spectacular start with hits ‘Ride Like the Wind’ and ‘Sailing,’ cast Cross into music business purgatory and back to fame again. Good luck to her.”

“I Really Don’t Know Anymore” wasn’t one of the three initial singles which propelled Cross’ eponymous debut album (released in the closing days of 1979) into the multi-platinum sales stratosphere in 1980 (“Sailing,” “Ride Like the Wind,” and “Never Be the Same”), but the album was such a smash hit that it received plenty of airplay nonetheless. The tune benefits from an assist by Michael McDonald, who intermittently joins Cross for vocal counter lines. The energetic, syncopated groove lends some much-needed life to the inert lyrics: “What do you think about love? … I really don’t know anymore / I really can’t say / I really don’t know anymore / I’m just that way.”

Starting with a verse in C# minor, the tonality flips over into the relative E major for the choruses (first heard from 0:46 – 1:05). Although they share similar vocal ranges, it’s always a treat to hear these two voices side by side: Cross’s clipped, nearly vibrato-free delivery couldn’t be more different from McDonald’s instantly recognizable vowel-centric and foggy timbre.