Tag: ballad

Annie Lennox | Cold

“From the very beginning of her rise to international stardom, Annie Lennox desperately wanted to transcend her own fame,” (Pitchfork). “Her breakout single as one half of Eurythmics, 1983’s ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),’ encapsulated her anxieties as a frontwoman in the increasingly panoptic public eye: ‘Everybody’s looking for something,’ she warned … Like an international spy, Lennox used clothing and makeup as tools of professional disguise, continuously shapeshifting … many of Lennox’s characters served as commentary on societal perceptions of fame, wealth, and gender … But even if her facades had successfully warded off the media’s leering eye—even if she hadn’t been dubbed ‘Britain’s most tortured rock star’ … Lennox might still have justifiably burnt out by the end of the decade. Eurythmics were incredibly prolific, releasing almost an album a year starting with their 1981 debut In the Garden. Almost every album begot an international tour, with little downtime to recuperate. ‘I had this vision constantly towards the end of the Eurythmics period,’ Lennox later told Q, ‘my life was a bus, but I was running behind it. I just could not catch up with that fucking bus.'”

After she stepped away from Eurythmics and her longtime artistic partner Dave Stewart, “Diva (1992) broke dramatically with Eurythmics in style and substance: Where her work with Stewart trafficked in restless anxieties, her solo work was a step towards the wistful, patient resolve of womanhood … Despite the velveteen, varied instrumentation on Diva, Lennox’s voice is the album’s most essential and expansive element … a veritable one-woman orchestra.

In a decade marked by the meteoric rise of prefab boy bands, the explosion and subsequent implosion of Britpop, and the tragic, paparazzi-fueled death of Princess Diana, Diva is a prophetic warning about the acceleration of fame … In her eerily predictive manner, Lennox identified Ivana Trump as a bellwether for the growing influence wielded by, as she put it in 1992, ‘people famous for being famous.'”

On “Cold,” one of Diva‘s ballads, the verses never settle into one key (the music starts at 0:44, after a cinematic intro). The first progression, I – bIII – IV – I in G major (0:56 – 1:19), alternates with a second progression (1:20 – 1:43), which features the ii-V (and eventually the I) of the closely related key of D major. This tonality shift continues throughout all of the verses. Amid the rangy yet fluid melody and intensely emotive lyrics, somehow not a hair seems out of place.

Burt Bacharach | The Look of Love (feat. Diana Krall)

We usually wrap up our week with an up-tempo rock or dance tune, but this week we’ll continue to look back at the singular career of legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach, whose work has been a frequent feature on MotD. Bacharach’s work not only featured a broad harmonic vocabulary — including plenty of modulations. It generally stepped lightly through complex harmonic and meter transitions which only fully came to light after several listening sessions, rarely “telegraphing” themselves in advance. Bacharach generally avoided cliché half-step or whole-step key changes; rather, he favored transitions between closely-related keys, which don’t hit the listener like a brick upside the head, but a bit more like the sun gradually peeking through the clouds. He hid all the seams and made the final result sound effortless.

Bacharach studied composition with composer Darius Milhaud, one of the members of the informal but influential guild of progressive French composers, “Les Six.” Key changes and meter changes were not special effects for Bacharach, but rather organic tools for expression. Composer/pianist Ethan Iverson reports that Milhaud “told Bacharach that he shouldn’t worry about dodecaphony and keep composing those nice melodies.”

Iverson continues: “In his 60s songs, Bacharach undoes conventional pop from deep underneath the surface. ‘Hooks’ are almost always a bit asymmetrical, but Burt’s are truly lopsided. In the background of his radio-friendly hits, there is an echo of bebop logic, an echo of Schoenbergian logic.” Lyricist Hal David, Iverson suggests, “searched a surreal and overcast meadow for unexpected rhyme and reason.” Iverson continues by saying that jazz musician Dave Frishberg, when learning to write memorable themes, studied “the ‘4 Bs’: The Beach Boys, the Beatles, Brazilian, and Bacharach. (‘Brazilian’ means Jobim, Gilberto, Mendes, etc.)”

“The Look of Love,” originally released by Dusty Springfield in 1967, was covered by jazz vocalist/pianist Diana Krall for a 2012 performance at the White House as part of the In Performance at the White House | Burt Bacharach + Hal David: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song PBS broadcast in May 2012. While Bacharach was present for the performance, Krall’s emotional mention of David hints at the ill health of the lyricist, who lived only a few more months. Krall’s version of the #22 US pop hit, which features plenty of “Burt-isms” in her piano work, is in Bb major overall, but shifts to Bb minor from 3:59 – 4:10. The modulation is situated in the heart of an outro that seems lit only by hushed twilight (3:59 onward), during which Krall communes with her bassist as the two negotiate the subtle ritardando that brings the tune in for a landing. The final Bb major tonic chord rings out at 4:10, complicated by the quintessentially Bachrachian #11 tension Krall repeats several times.

Dane Vannatter | The Best Part of Me

Cleveland-based cabaret vocalist Dane Vannatter “is the recipient of two BackStage Bistro Awards, for Outstanding Vocalist and for his second CD Flight,” (The Music Settlement). “The Boston Globe acclaims Dane for ‘ … a style that blends facets of cabaret and jazz with intelligence and care, and a distinctive style that leaves an imprint on whatever music he sings.’

In Boston, Dane sang “God Bless America” for Fenway Park’s 100th anniversary before a record crowd of 40,000. Dane is a nominee for four MAC awards and is a Nightlife Award finalist … (he) performs regularly in venues in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Boston, and Cape Cod. Dane’s fourth CD Give Me Something Real was released in 2016 to much critical acclaim. Dane is currently working on a holiday CD It’s December with legendary guitarist Joe Negri.”

Released in 2020, “The Best Part of Me” gives Vannatter an opportunity to work with a pop ballad sound — one with a rich harmonic vocabulary. With music written by Alex Rybeck and lyrics by Bob Levy, the track features Daniel May on piano. After two verses in F major, 1:22 brings a bridge featuring a fluid key change to D major; at 1:54, the tune reverts to its original key.

for Todd

David Crosby + Graham Nash | Guinnevere

“David Crosby, a founding member of iconic 1960s rock bands the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and one of the most celebrated musicians of his generation, has died at the age of 81,” (Spin). A tribute on Facebook from Graham Nash: ” … what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years. David was fearless in life and in music. He leaves behind a tremendous void as far as sheer personality and talent in this world. He spoke his mind, his heart, and his passion through his beautiful music and leaves an incredible legacy. These are the things that matter most … “

“The early 1970s BBC series In Concert featured some of the greatest performers of the folk rock / singer-songwriter era, including Joni Mitchell, Carole King, James Taylor, Cat Stevens and Neil Young in front of intimate crowds at the old BBC Television Centre in London,” (Dangerous Minds). In the case of each of the artists featured, the BBC sets are probably the very best records we have of these performers in their youthful prime. This is almost certainly the case with the gorgeous Crosby & Nash performance linked here. It’s a stunner.

After the success of their monstrously popular Déjà Vu album, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young,“the American Beatles” as they were often called (never mind that one was a Brit and another Canadian) broke up in the summer of 1970, with all four members of CSNY recording solo albums. Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name and Nash’s Songs for Beginners appeared the following year. In the fall of 1970, the two toured as an acoustic duo previewing tunes from their upcoming albums and singing fan favorites.”

Written in E minor overall, there are several short passages in G minor (for instance, 1:59 – 2:07).

The Beach Boys | ‘Til I Die

‘Til I Die” from The Beach Boys’ 1971 album Surf’s Up was “one of the only songs written by Brian (Wilson) for which he wrote the lyrics as well the music, (American Songwriter). “Usually other lyricists, such as Mike Love, Van Dyke Parks and Tony Asher, wrote the words to his songs. This one was inspired by Brian’s confrontation with the immensity of the universe. ‘The ocean was so incredibly vast,’ Brian said, ‘the universe was so large, and suddenly I saw myself in proportion to that, a little pebble of sand, a jellyfish floating on top of the water; traveling with the current I felt dwarfed, temporary. The next day I began writing Til I Die, perhaps the most personal song I ever wrote for The Beach Boys.’

Don Was, (the noted producer), said that Brian told him the chords for the song were created by the way they looked geometrically. ‘He essentially created this masterpiece by contorting his fingers into really groovy shapes (on the piano),’ said Was.”

“‘Til I Die’ is the most personal and revealing track he ever wrote, depicting the troubled young songwriter as … an isolated, helplessly adrift person who will be at the mercy of others ‘until I die,” (Sputnik Music). “Surf’s Up represents desolation and despair, not visceral in nature, but rather submissive to fate and the hell it will bring. Anyone with a basic knowledge of Beach Boys history can connect the dots regarding what this album is representing: the woes of Brian Wilson as his struggles with addiction and depression spiraled to some of their lowest points.”

Dropping right into the first verse without so much as a note of introduction, the tune shifts tonality often, meandering among several keys but never quite finding a home in any of them. At 1:40, a prominent repeating bass vocal part finally provides some grounding for the outro, which is an extended one given the tune’s overall length of only 2:33.

Robert Glasper (feat. Ledisi + Gregory Porter) | It Don’t Matter

“Robert Glasper’s 2012 album Black Radio was a groundbreaking collection that combined hip-hop, R&B, jazz and more into a diverse yet cohesive package … (SoulTracks.com). It was justly honored with the Best R&B Album award at the 55th Grammys, recognizing both its ambitiousness and its near flawless execution. It also begat the critically acclaimed Black Radio 2 a year later.”

“Glasper has released two albums of what you might call neo-soul, or maybe organic R&B, featuring a core band (The Robert Glasper Experiment) and guest stars like Erykah Badu, Lupe Fiasco and Norah Jones. Black Radio and last year’s sequel, Black Radio 2, aren’t heard much on ‘urban’ radio, but the point is that they ought to be,” (NPR Music). “Glasper builds his songs with old-school values: singers and MCs who don’t need software to carry a melody, improvising within a band, hand-building beats and vamps with live instruments.”

After a start in Bb major, the bridge of this slow but cutting ballad shifts to Bb minor from 2:50 – 3:24 before reverting to the original key.

Tommy James | I Think We’re Alone Now

Tommy James, along with his band, The Shondells, scored a Billboard #4 in 1967 with the just-over-2-minutes bubblegum rocker “I Think We’re Alone Now”. The song, written by Ritchie Cordell (who also co-wrote another Shondells hit, “Mony Mony”), stuck to one key throughout.

Over 50 years later, in 2019, James reprised the song on his album Alive, featuring only acoustic guitar and background vocals, and a much slower tempo. Missing in this version are the percussive “heartbeats” from the original, perhaps because at this tempo, they would be suggestive of brachycardia. James’ voice, perhaps sweetened by a touch of autotune, is really the highlight here.

The song starts in A; in addition to some subtle re-harmonization here and there, it features an elegant modulation to C at 2:18.

Jacob Collier (feat. Lizzy McAlpine + John Mayer) | Never Gonna Be Alone

“For ‘Never Gonna Be Alone,’ his first single since the award-winning Djesse Vol. 3, Jacob Collier enlisted the help of Lizzy McAlpine and John Mayer to create a celestial soundscape that spans the depths of isolation, loss and memory,” (NPR).

“There’s much to experience over the course of this one multifaceted and emotional song. ‘It speaks to my experience of the world as a hugely beautiful and fragile place,’ Collier writes in a press statement, adding that the song ‘has helped me process some of the grief I think we’re all feeling for our pasts and futures, in a myriad of different ways.'”

From the video description on Collier’s YouTube channel: “After eighteen months of FaceTime and virtual collaboration, we got to play this song in real life! Performed live at Lizzy’s show at the Troubadour on October 7th 2022.” After a few verses and choruses in C major, 2:21 brings a masterful but understated guitar solo from Mayer. At 3:02, the end of the solo intersects with a few chords outside the key, but the overarching key is unchanged. McAlpine’s crystalline soprano leads a soft-spoken mid-phrase modulation up a half-step to Db major at 3:19.

Lamont Dozier | Reach Out, I’ll Be There (feat. Jo Harman)

Lamont Dozier, who died earlier this month at the age of 81, “played his part in many of the songs that built the Motown legend and which now seem as impervious to the ravages of time as those of Rodgers and Hart or Lennon and McCartney,” (The Guardian). As Dozier worked with the songwriting team of brothers Eddie and Brian Holland, the “Holland-Dozier-Holland” catalog grew to include classics such as “‘Heat Wave’ and ‘Nowhere to Run’ (with Martha and the Vandellas), ‘Can I Get a Witness’ (Marvin Gaye), ‘Baby I Need Your Loving,’ ‘I Can’t Help Myself’ and ‘Reach Out I’ll Be There’ (Four Tops), ‘This Old Heart of Mine’ (Isley Brothers), ‘Take Me in Your Arms’ (Kim Weston) and a record-breaking string of #1 hits in the US charts for the Supremes, starting with ‘Where Did Our Love Go’ in 1964 and including ‘Baby Love,’ ‘Stop! In the Name of Love,’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ and ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On.'”

The Guardian continues: “Long after their original radio and chart success had faded away, many of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s million-sellers turned out to have embedded themselves so deeply in the public consciousness that they enjoyed second lives, reimagined for new audiences in cover versions by non-Motown artists. Rod Stewart’s ‘This Old Heart of Mine,’ Kim Wilde’s ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ and Phil Collins’ ‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ were among the many reinterpretations that kept a smile on the faces of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s song publishers as the years went by … In later years he provided songs for Alison Moyet, Debbie Gibson, Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle, wrote with Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall … Phil Collins, and Kelly Rowland. Dozier and the Hollands were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.”

Dozier released the album Reimagination in 2018, “a collection of twelve tracks previously written for other artists while at Motown, but Dozier performs them in a way that will make you forget the original,” (BlackGrooves.org). For a rendition of the Four Tops’ uptempo 1967 hit, “Reach Out, I’ll Be There,” Dozier and British vocalist Jo Harman have transformed the up-tempo classic into a gospel-tinged ballad. After a start in E major, 1:59 brings a shift to C# major. At 2:40, we revert to the original key for a piano solo before the arrangement beautifully unfolds into a full gospel texture. The cover is so earnest and so self-assured that yes, the distinctive original is indeed forgotten, at least for a time!

For reference, here’s the original:

Astral Drive | Love, Light + Happiness

After performing with, producing, and/or writing for The Jam, Paul McCartney, XTC, Duran Duran, The Cure, Thompson Twins, Sting, Hot Chocolate, Cyndi Lauper, Natalie Imbruglia, Pixie Lott, and Bryan Adams, what does one do for an encore?

“After decades of making records, hits and misses for other artists, Phil Thornalley began making his own under the Astral Drive moniker in 2017, a combination of seventies recording techniques, impromptu jam sessions (with himself) and starry-eyed idealism,” (The Progressive Aspect) … Thornalley seems to have enjoyed the broader focus allowed by working for himself: “In my days as a songwriter-for-hire, I could happily contrive a tune at the drop of a hat, imagining the artist’s voice and sensibilities as I made choices about melody or chords. But for my own music I have the freedom to allow the songs to bubble up from the unconscious. Perhaps that’s a more natural and organic route than writing in a caffeinated sweat, hoping to deliver something for an impatient platinum-selling artist.”

Astral Drive’s 2021 single “Love, Light and Happiness” opens in A minor with a deceptively simple five-step ascending melodic run (the tonic to the fifth degree of the scale). Via a common tone, the melody lofts right over the border of the A minor tonality and makes an ecstatic landing in the anthemic chorus (an F# minor/E minor vamp) at 0:55. F/G provides some sleight of hand for the transition back into the A minor verse (1:18 – 1:24).