rock

Big Brother + The Holding Company (feat. Janis Joplin) | Combination of the Two

“Cheap Thrills (1968) was the breakthrough album for Janis Joplin and Big Brother & The Holding Company,” (Daily Vault). “Topping the charts for eight weeks and spawning a top 20 single, this was the album that solidified the reputation that the band had spawned with their set at the Monterey Pop festival. It also marked the end of the band; not terribly long after the album’s release, Joplin left the band to pursue a solo career.

… Musically, (Big Brother co-founder, songwriter, and guitarist) Sam Andrew and crew had worked themselves into a tight musical unit by the time these tracks (some of which were recorded live at the Fillmore Auditorium) were cut. But on the other end of the spectrum, you can hear the strain on Joplin’s vocals … She had vocal power beyond many female blues singers; pity that she overused that power. ‘Piece of My Heart,’ the hit single from Cheap Thrills, remains a classic song that has lost little of its power over the course of three decades. Likewise, ‘Combination of the Two’ is an underrated classic that allows Joplin the fiery freedom to cut loose with her vocal abilities.”

After starting with an instrumental intro in A minor, “Combination of the Two” shifts up to B major for its first verse at 0:54. At 1:16, another verse falls into place, this time in G# major. 1:29 brings a whoa-only vocals section in E major which leads into a short chorus. At 2:00, we’ve returned to the B major verse; the sections repeat from there.

Eagles | Already Gone

“Eagles were an ascendant country-rock band by 1974, with a handful of hits to their name,” (Ultimate Classic Rock). “With their third album, On the Border, they began courting the rock listeners they so desperately wanted to win over — beginning with the LP’s lead single, ‘Already Gone.'” The tune was “built around a rousing guitar riff from their newest member, Don Felder, and his and Glen Frey’s dueling solos.

… Released on April 19, 1974, ‘Already Gone’ peaked at #32 on the Billboard Hot 100 — no small feat, but one that paled in comparison to On the Border’s third single, the chart-topping ballad ‘Best of My Love'”

The track is built primary in G major, but after two verses, two choruses, the guitar feature, then another verse and chorus, 3:18 brings a late key change up a fourth to C major for the chorus-based outro.

The Jaggerz | The Rapper

“From the ‘Club Naturale’ in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, to Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, the homegrown band The Jaggerz paved their way to success … Among the band’s accolades, the Jaggerz received a gold record for having the number one song in the country,” (TribLive). “With sales exceeding 5 million copies, ‘The Rapper’ found itself being blasted all over the country.” The Jaggerz have performed with artists including The Beach Boys, The Temptations, The Supremes, The Dells, Tommy James, and B.J. Thomas and released four albums.

After a nominal start in A major, the entire verse of “The Rapper” (1970) is constructed from major chords (A, B, D, and E), so it’s essentially a parade of keys of the moment. From 0:35-0:51, there’s a shift to F# major for the chorus before a return to the next verse’s cavalcade of keys.

Keven Eknes | Falls

“Keven Eknes is a Norwegian guitarist and composer based in Los Angeles, CA,” (artist website). “He is developing his first full-length instrumental album, Dark Canyon, created in collaboration with keyboardist and producer Alex Argento, following earlier solo releases.

… As a touring and session guitarist, Keven has performed and recorded with Jonathan Cain (Journey), Engelbert Humperdinck, Jesse McCartney, Leslie Odom Jr., among others. He was part of the house band for NBC’s American Song Contest, performing with artists including Michael Bolton, and has worked extensively with the Deadline Hollywood Orchestra on projects featuring artists and composers such as Mark Ronson, Diane Warren, Jaeil Jung, Brian Tyler, and Bear McCreary.”

Eknes’ 2014 track “Falls” is largely built in A minor. From the first bars, its lyrical melody soars above a peaceful 12/8 feel. A chorus arrives at 1:38 — initially in Bb major. But after a shift in the groove and a falling chromatic bass line, the section eventually ends on a sustained D major chord, fading to the 2:11 mark. Next is a soft-spoken dialogue among drums, bass, and guitar. At 3:04, the cycle repeats, with the guitar melody augmented and developed along the way. A blistering bridge in E minor hits at 4:13, shifting over to A major at 4:48. 5:20 brings a gentle restatement of the theme, starting in A minor but concluding in D major.

21 Guns (from “American Idiot”)

“When young dirtbag punk trio Green Day signed to a major label in 1994, their first album, Dookie, captured the small pleasures of a disconnected working-class youth that was fast running out of options,” (The Guardian). “Their songs about getting high, jerking off and defiantly refusing to participate in the system were relatable and catchy – pleasingly melodic with 1950s doo-wop influences, coupled with California punk-style bass and drums. Pop-punk would later explode as a genre, in part to emulate Green Day’s singable raucousness.

Their ideas back then were scattershot, more informed by feeling than sociopolitical thought. But 10 years later, the band found their political voice and released their manifesto: American Idiot. Billed as a “rock opera”, the album was a sophisticated, horrified portrait of America in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the conservative Bush presidency, and rapidly disappearing opportunities for those living close to America’s poverty line. American Idiot was a smash, selling 15 million records – and in 2010, a stage adaptation landed on Broadway. The album’s driving rock structure was coupled with songs from Green Day’s next album, 21st Century Breakdown, and caressed into soaring, edgy vocal arrangements and new orchestrations by the band and composer Tom Kitt, whose musical Next to Normal picked up a Pulitzer prize that same year.”

The original “21 Guns,” released on 2009’s 21st Century Breakdown, was written in one key throughout. But the Broadway version, while built around the same repeating melodic phrases and lyrics-forward delivery, features several changes in tonality. Starting in G minor, the tune shifts (after two verses and a chorus in the relative Bb major performed by female vocalists) to D minor as Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong takes the reins. For the second chorus, the key flips over to the relative F major at 2:34. More key changes follow throghout.

The original video by the band is included after the cast version from the 2010 stage producion, below.

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!

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.

Tom Petty | Mary Jane’s Last Dance

“Tom Petty wrote dozens of hit songs over the course of his four-decade career as frontman of the Heartbreakers, but not all of them impressed his bandmates. At least not right away,” (Ultimate Classic Rock). “Such was the case with ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance,’ a song that Petty started one day and didn’t finish. ‘I wrote all but the chorus,’ he recalled for 2005’s Conversations With Tom Petty. ‘I just had the loop going around and around and really had most of the words and everything. And I played the tape for Rick [Rubin] and he liked it a lot and suggested I write a chorus. So I tried to finish it up while I was making [1994’s] Wildflowers, and there were maybe five years between the writing of the verses and the chorus.’

… For those who hastily assumed ‘Mary Jane’ was a reference to marijuana, Petty cleared that up later on. ‘I don’t think I was writing about pot,’ he said in 2005. ‘I think it was just a girl’s name. I can’t imagine that I’d write a song about pot. I don’t think there’s enough there to write about [laughs].’ Though it took years for ‘Mary Jane’s Last Dance’ to take its final form, it clearly paid off. By the time Petty died in 2017, the band had played the song live in concert over 500 times, and it’s remained an important touchstone of their catalog.”

Starting with an intro and verse in an uptuned A minor, the chorus (first heard from 1:09 – 1:31) shifts to A major — somewhat obscured by a prominent minor v chord (E minor).

OK Go | Here It Goes Again

“Dancing in a beautiful synchronicity has long been part of OK Go singer Damian Kulash’s life,” (The Guardian). ” … he recalls his formative years in Kulash Alarm System, with big sister (and current choreographer and video director) Trish Sie. ‘I was seven and Trish must have been 11,’ he says, ‘and every morning when we’d wait for the school bus, we’d do this heavily thought-out dance routine outside our house, shouting, KULASH! ALARM! SYSTEM! like Kraftwerky robots.’

2006’s ‘Here It Goes Again’ has been viewed a staggering (68 million) times. ‘We saw that by dropping our instruments in the middle of the show and breaking into dance, it completely broke that fourth wall of expectations in a rock show … I love cultural products where you can see the effort people have put in to make something weird and unlikely.’ … Kulash points out that the ‘one take’ operates in a unique position in the current climate. ‘In the hypermediated world that we live in, we immediately go into ‘suspension of disbelief mode’. Like we see so much impossible shit in commercials, on films, in music. We assume artifice in everything we consume.'”

“Here It Goes Again,” a tune whose popularity is driven by a video that is arguably the band’s best known, was the fifth single from the 2005 album Oh No. The tune is built primarily in C major and C mixolydian, but during the nearly wordless bridge (1:40 – 1:59), there’s a shift to Eb major before a return to the original key. Eb also makes another appearance for the closing chord.

Todd Rundgren | Someday

“Fifty (plus) years into a career that includes more than twenty solo studio albums, another ten with the band Utopia, plus production credits on albums by the Grand Funk Railroad, The Tubes, New York Dolls, Psychedelic Furs, and Meatloaf’s mega-selling multiplatinum Bat Out of Hell, among others, plus a tour with a post-Ocasek Cars, and currently touring with Adrian Belew performing an all-star tribute to the music of David Bowie, Todd Rundgren can pretty much do whatever he wants. And usually he does,” (TheFireNote). “When finally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (in 2021) largely at the behest of his long-suffering fans, Rundgren came close to pulling a Sex Pistols-like rejection, ignoring the auspicious proceedings, leaving the producer of the online version of the Award show to pull an excerpt from a graduation speech where he offered the standard disclaimer, ‘if nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve.’

So, here on his 24^th album under his own name (Space Force, 2022), Rundgren takes the direction of his 2017 duets album, White Knight, to the next level. On that record, Rundgren wrote most all of the music with collaborators in mind, and then invited them to sing and play with him on the tracks. It worked well much of the time, especially on the single ‘Tin Foil Hat,’ written in the style of Steely Dan with guest Donald Fagen. Upping the ante for Space Force, Rundgren approached a variety of artists, some he’d worked with previously and others he’d hoped to work with, and asked them to contribute a piece of unfinished music or recording that they’d laid aside for one reason or another, offering to complete it and bring the duet to completion. The result is stylistically diverse, but with Todd, who described his role as “curator and producer” as well as performer, the album’s 12 tracks hang together fairly well, often pointing to different periods and styles in Rundgren’s long and varied musical explorations.”

“Someday,” a pop-centric collaboration between Rundgren and Australian musician Davey Lane, features quite a few metric hiccups to go along with its key changes. Starting in F major, the tune shifts to G major for its first chorus at 0:49 before returning to the original key for a short interlude and another verse at 1:08. More changes follow from there.