From seasoned mod collector JB comes “Trial Before Pilate” from Jesus Christ Superstar. The show started as a rock opera concept album (1970), then debuted on Broadway in 1971.
“The UK’s Andrew Lloyd Webber has always been a sucker for hyperbole, but this has got to be the MotD version of ‘more cowbell’: I count at least two dozen mods, including at least 10 gratuitous half-steps in the ‘Crucify Him’ chorus. The only time the song stays in the same key for more than two bars is when Pilate is counting out 40 lashes.”
From our follower @EJGleske, a former DJ and chronic videographer, comes a tongue-in-cheek country tune called “You Never Even Call Me By My Name” by Steve Goodman (1971). The tune attempts to cover every known country music lyric cliche — no easy task.
@EJGleske explains: “Goodman was known perhaps best for ‘City of New Orleans,’ which was known most by Arlo Guthrie‘s cover version, but that’s not his best song. ‘A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request’ and ‘Chicken Cordon Bleus’ hit my spot, and when I want to wow folks who know not who Goodman is, I introduce them to ‘Talk Backwards.’
Steve wasn’t only about songs written from the funny bone; his ballads, from ‘City of New Orleans’ to ‘I Can’t Sleep’ to ‘If She Were You,’ tell a story in vivid detail, his voice and picking painting the most marvelous pictures.
Steve was a singer-songwriter’s
singer-songwriter. His songs were covered by, well, everyone…from Baez
to Denver to Guthrie to Kristofferson to Nelson and on down the line.
Bumping into John Prine
on the same circuit as often as he did, it was our good luck they
collaborated on a number of songs. Many of them come at us with the full
force of both men’s wit, which brings me to my submission. Goodman and
Prine set out to write the ultimate country song, and put every hook and
cliche of the genre into one thick mess. The obligatory modulation is
at 1:54, and it works on all levels, musically and as satire.”
Another mod from frequent contributor JB: “On Broadway” was first a hit for The Drifters in 1963. In 1978, guitarist/vocalist George Benson covered the tune, which is part of his smash hit album Weekend in LA. Benson’s version became a sustained adult contemporary and smooth jazz radio mainstay and won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance.
The several modulations couldn’t be clearer (there’s a mini-“intro” after each one before the lyrics of the next verse start!), so we won’t timeslate them.
“So Lonely” was the third and final single from The Police‘s debut studio album,Outlandos d’ Amour(1978). Bassist and frontman Sting has this to say about the band’s unique sound:
“People thrashing out three chords didn’t really interest us musically. Reggae was accepted in punk circles and musically more sophisticated, and we could play it, so we veered off in that direction. I mean let’s be honest here, ‘So Lonely’ was unabashedly culled from ‘No Woman No Cry’ by Bob Marley & The Wailers. Same chorus. What we invented was this thing of going back and forth between thrash punk and reggae. That was the little niche we created for ourselves.”
AllMusic adds: “Although Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland were all superb instrumentalists with jazz backgrounds, it was much easier to get a record contract in late-’70s England if you were a punk/new wave artist, so the band decided to mask their instrumental prowess with a set of strong, adrenaline-charged rock, albeit with a reggae tinge.”
The video features the not-yet-famous UK trio strolling through Hong Kong and riding around on the Tokyo subway. A whole-step modulation hits at 2:04.
Q: What do Ry Cooder, Linda Ronstadt, The Eels, and Cat Power all have in common with Aretha Franklin?
A: They’ve all covered “The Dark End of the Street,” originally recorded by the unfairly overlooked soul singer James Carr in 1967.
Our Twitter follower @bradfarberman submitted Aretha’s 1970 version, which modulates at 2:28; it clearly illustrates why the Queen of Soul won the #1 slot on Rolling Stone‘s “Best Singers of All Time” list.
“One of my ten year old girls has become completely besotted by Kate Bush after watching a BBC TV documentary on her, and finds her completely inspiring. As a result, I was listening to ‘Wuthering Heights’ (1978) thinking ‘this has to be my favourite key change/chord change moment in music.'” (2:14)
Bush’s unique bio is nicely summarized by AllMusic: “One of the most successful and popular solo female performers to come out of England during the second half of the 20th century, Kate Bush was also one of the most unusual, with her keening vocals and unusually literate and complex body of songs. Bush‘s music is an ambitious and idiosyncratic melange of folk rock, art rock, prog, and pop, often performed with the bold brio of a West End stage production; her lyrics are artful meditations full of drama, fantasy, danger, and a sense of wonder at the human and natural worlds.”
Quick key-of-the-moment (KotM) shifts are a hallmark of this tune, a flagship within Bush’s catalog and the first single of her career. Starting in A major (more or less!), plenty of KotMs flash by as the fast harmonic rhythm hits us relentlessly (a good example being the repeating 4-chord passage from 0:08 to 0:15, which presents a contradictory jumble harmonically). As the chorus begins at 0:47, we transition to C# major. At 1:12, we’re back to A major (ish), etc. At 2:14 – 2:39, the brief bridge could be heard as a shift to A# major — or merely a huge passing emphasis on the iii chord of F# major. Unusual harmonic progressions and ambiguity of tonality are often part of the fun when it comes to Bush’s catalog.
From Dave Mandl, who follows us via Twitter: “Palm Grease,” from Herbie Hancock‘s Thrust (1974).
After the tonality wanders around a bit in the first few minutes of the tune, a stronger key change happens at 3:00, where Dave explains that “the piece moves from a bridge in F minor back to the tonic, A minor. I’ve always loved the way the bassist (Paul Jackson) slinks back to A minor. That main bass riff is a classic — the drum beat, even moreso. The piece is in 4/4, but drummer Mike Clark kind of splits it up as 9/8 + 7/8. It’s got to be one of the greatest funk grooves of all time — and that key change is one of my favorites.”
“(Gotta Get a) Meal Ticket” is a track from Elton John‘s 1975 album Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy.
Contributor JB writes that the tune is “from the golden days when Elton John was still an unabashed rocker. If he’d never done anything beyond playing rock piano, he still would have been inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame. There are outright mods at the beginning and end of each chorus. But the most interesting part of the song is all the keys-of-the-moment, especially the fleeting shifts from D minor to D major (and back) during the chorus.”
In an interview with Cameron Crowe, Elton said “I’ve always thought that Captain Fantastic was probably my finest album because it wasn’t commercial in any way. (It) was written from start to finish in running order, as a kind of story about coming to terms with failure—or trying desperately not to be one. We lived that story.”
A bonus weekend mod from our frequent contributor Paul Steckler:
“‘Celebrate’ was a hit for Three Dog Night, reaching #15 on the Billboard chart in 1970. The studio version had no modulations. But this live 1975 version features an endless series of modulations beginning at 2:36, eventually posing health risks to performers and audience alike.”
“I’m Every Woman” was Chaka Khan‘s debut solo single in 1978 after many releases with Rufus and Chaka Khan. Produced by Arif Mardin and written by married songwriting team and recording artists Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, the single went straight to #1 on the R&B charts. The slow tempo of the tune only accentuates how it somehow successfully straddles the line between a disco feel and a heavier funk groove: a full string orchestra duels it out to a draw with an ornate slap bass line.
In 1989, a lighter, poppier version of the song saw a resurrection as a duo featuring Chaka and Whitney Houston; the track reached top 10 in the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
At 2:51, Chaka alternates up and down by a minor third every four bars, over and over, all the way to the fade out.
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