Released in 1984, “Girls” was one of singer/songwriter Dwight Tilley’s most popular songs, peaking at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In an interview with Songfacts in 2010, Tilley elaborated on his inspiration for the tune:
Well, as I sit and look back over the years, I’ve written quite a damn number of songs. So to specifically go back and think of the stories for each and every one of them… But I’m a songwriter, so I’m always thinking about what is a song, what does a songwriter do, and really, a person who writes songs is just a communicator. A song is a communication. Sometimes it’s the simplest way that you can say something that everybody knows but hasn’t been said quite the same way. And so it catches their attention, and you make that little bit of communication.
I remember at one point thinking to myself, it’s so basic, but how many people have ever said just “girls”? And what is that all about? What are all the good and bad and the problems, and what is that whole really confusing but really simple problem all about? And after maybe two or three weeks of going around and asking people in a dumb way, “What’s this about? What’s that about?”, it was like summing the whole thing up to three and a half minutes. And so it’s sometimes just that simple.
The tune begins in G and modulates up to A at 3:13.
“Perennially underrated” are the first words of the headline on AllMusic’s Utopia page. The band was a sustained 1970s/1980s side project for songwriter/producer/performer Todd Rundgren, rock’s consummate hyphenate. Starting as a prog rock outfit in the early 70s, Utopia “evolved into a shiny mainstream rock quartet … Rundgren retreated into the background as each of his bandmates contributed songs and lead vocals to the albums. By the early ’80s, Utopia had developed into a hit-making entity in their own right.” 1980’s “Set Me Free,” a tune written by Utopia bassist Kasim Sulton, led the band’s singles by reaching #27 on the US pop charts.
According to the Rundgren-centric TRConnection, Rundgren remembers that “… at a certain point in time, Utopia was performing live as well as any quartet in the world.” But the band’s fanbase was miles deep, without nearly enough breadth to match. Drummer Willie Wilcox added, “The fan/band relationship was still fine. But when you’re still playing the same halls after ten years, getting the same guarantees, and expenses are going up, there start to be repercussions.” In addition to the band’s fervent but oddly finite following, Utopia went through a series of record label woes resulting from corporate consolidations, internecine squabbling, and pure bad luck. By the mid-80s, Utopia finally decided to call it a day, though they never officially disbanded.
Given Utopia’s often cerebral focus, 1986’s “Monument” certainly might have been written in the abstract. But for plenty of the band’s fans, the tune measures the distance between the quartet’s democratic ideals and the cold realities of making ends meet. At their collective best, each member wrote songs, sang lead vocals, and covered notoriously complex backup vocal harmonies in addition to top-drawer instrumental playing. But as one of the band’s final releases, “Monument” strongly evokes the tone of elegiac anthem not for a person, but for a time and place: “you can’t go home again.”
I got the message in my mailbox / Nobody goes to church no more They’re closing down your little altar / They’ve locked the sanctuary door Don’t fight it / Who can say that you didn’t try Don’t fight it / Old soldiers never die …
Starting in G minor, the intro then jumps to a verse in Ab minor (0:36) as Sulton’s expressive tenor outlines a stark endgame, despite all efforts. At 0:58, the pre-chorus shifts to F minor; 1:10 brings a return to another verse and pre-chorus. The F major chorus (1:44 – 2:06) seemingly provides a reflection on the band’s unique vision, meticulous craft, and overarching legacy:
And if we don’t meet again I know somewhere a monument Stands in the name of our love …
Postscript:
Once the aftermath of its effective dissolution subsided, the band eventually reunited in Japan in the early 90s and a presented a full North American tour in 2018. Rundgren and Sulton continue to collaborate regularly. Demonstrating that the band was anything but a studio creation despite Rundgren’s famed production abilities, here’s a live 2018 version: the only change in the lineup is keyboardist/vocalist GLASYS in original keys player Roger Powell’s stead.
For years, Jonathan Coulton has flown under the radar for many listeners while becoming required listening for the tech set. Online tech commons Slashdot praises Coulton:
“If you haven’t heard the news, Jonathan Coulton can do anything. In 2005 he quit his job in software and became an “internet rock star and former code monkey,” eventually opening for music legends like Aimee Mann and They Might Be Giants … Coulton’s work was eventually featured in three different Valve videogames … In 2017 he was even nominated for a Tony for his work on Broadway’s SpongeBob Musical, and while co-writing some songs for Aimee Mann, he was also creating his own concept album about our tech-saturated society. Oh, and Coulton also released a crowdfunded album of 1970s soft rock covers ‘that sound exactly like the originals‘ — because he can.”
Coulton’s 2005 album Thing a Week One featured “Shop Vac,” a jaunty tribute to the banality of stereotypical suburban life. This video version, featuring wall-to-wall typography of popular brand logos, couldn’t be more fitting. The bridge at 1:59 features a modulation, followed next by a guitar solo with a beautifully animated graphic transcription. At 2:30, there’s a return to the original key.
Owsley had a brief but distinguished career as a band member, solo artist, and session/touring musician. Sadly, he apparently took his own life at age 44 in 2010, but his short discography is memorable. AllMusic reports: “Alabama-born multi-instrumentalist Will Owsley followed a career path not unlike Sheryl Crow‘s, by backing up big mainstream pop artists, collecting the rewards and channeling them into his own solo work. Owsley plied his wares in the bands of Shania Twain and Amy Grant in the mid-’90s, then recorded his own material at home, and offered the finished product to record companies on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.” Owsley’s early-90s band, The Semantics, briefly featured a young Ben Folds on keyboards; AllMusic describes the two musicians’ “likemindedness” as “hard to miss.”
“Oh No the Radio” (1999) is an account of the hold that radio had on music fans’ lives during a time when that medium was the primary way that music reached our ears. The tune seems to describe a music fan’s love/hate relationship with a medium so omnipresent that going to a drive-in movie provides a welcome but brief respite.
The intro and verse, both in C# major, feature the guitar’s crunchy, relentless battery of eighth-note seventh chords in a I7 – bVII7 vamp. This rock-solid foundation frees up the bass to intermittently depart from covering the roots, going airborne and adding harmonic context from the rafters. The chorus shifts to C# minor (for the first time at 1:47), bringing with it a far smoother and lyrical feel, before returning to the original C# major.
According to AllMusic, LA-based Fitz & The Tantrums plays a “hooky, danceable brand of pop infused with retro soul and ’80s new wave influences.” The band is probably best known for its 2013 single “Out of My League.”
“L.O.V.,” a track submitted by MotD frequent flyer JB, was released on the band’s 2010 debut album. After verses in D minor and choruses in C major, the groove drops out (at first) for a largely instrumental break which alternates between Ab major and Bb major (a bVII major -> I major vamp) from 2:00 to 2:31.
Utopia, an American rock band formed in 1973 by songwriter, performer, and producer Todd Rundgren, started with a progressive rock sound and a fluid personnel list. In the late 70s, the band morphed into a tight power pop format with a stable quartet of players. Its only top-40 hit was 1980’s “Set Me Free,” written and sung by bassist Kasim Sulton (who later became known for his work with Meatloaf, Hall & Oates, and Joan Jett as well as his own solo releases).
A whole-tone modulation hits towards the end of the track (2:36), which just might be the bounciest song ever written about a doomed relationship (in this case, reportedly, between Sulton and his record company).
“Stacy’s Mom,” a 2003 power pop classic by Fountains Of Wayne, written by Adam Schlesinger, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance. The New Yorker magazine’s Ben Greenman called it the “second-catchiest song ever written about a girlfriend’s parent” (after Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson.”) The initial key of E Major shifts to G major at the bridge (2:25).
Rolling Stone magazine called it “the ultimate 70s teen anthem” and ranked it #471 of its “500 Best Songs of All Time.” One of the most well-known bands on the 1970s global rock circuit, Cheap Trick released “Surrender” in 1978 and then re-released it on their live album Live at Budokan. The intro’s key is raised a half-step at the start of the first verse (0:14), then another half-step upward modulation at 2:16.
During the summer of 1981, Rick Springfield‘s
power pop hit “Jessie’s Girl” completed its climb up the charts,
finally hitting #1 in August — six months after its release and just as
MTV hit the airwaves. Song of the summer? An understatement.
The bridge, starting at 1:39, transitions with a direct modulation to an instrumental section at 2:00, changing back to the original key at 2:14.
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