rock – Page 12

Little River Band | Happy Anniversary

“If you were listening to Top 40 around 1977-78, you know all about ‘Happy Anniversary,’ which narrowly missed the Top 10 at that time,” (Something Else Reviews). “For those of you who weren’t around, ‘Happy Anniversary’ was one of those snappy, mildly country-ish pop tunes laden with rich harmonies that sounded like soft California rock at its finest –except that these blokes were from Down Under. The deal-sealer is that funky undercurrent; the popping bassline not only works with the Nashville elements of the song, it makes the song downright irresistible.

The upbeat tone … belies that fact that it’s about a busted relationship, but hey, it’s got that funky bassline, so everything’s good. In fact, the album from which this ditty came, … Diamantina Cocktail, is arguably the best CSN album that Crosby, Stills and Nash never made.”

After the tune starts in E minor, there’s a shift at 1:15 – 1:36 for the early bridge, which features a lighter feel, agile ornamentation from a (likely real) string section, and a D major tonality. After the bridge, the return to E minor also brings a rock feel driven by an energetic funk-inspired bassline. There are several ingredients here that might suggest yacht rock. Yacht or Nyacht lists several LRB tunes, but they score low on YON’s scale. “Happy Anniversary” doesn’t make the list at all; despite checking a few boxes, it was released a little too early, and was a bit too short on breezy escapism, to have made the cut.

Michael Bolton | When a Man Loves a Woman

Written by Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright, “When a Man Loves a Woman” was originally recorded by singer R&B singer Percy Sledge in 1966 and became his biggest hit. Michael Bolton included a cover of the tune on his 1991 album Time, Love & Tenderness, winning a Grammy for the track and making it the seventh tune reach the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 as recorded by multiple artists.

The song begins in Db and directly modulates up a half step to D at 2:04.

Toto | One Road

“Toto was a lab accident. Obviously, not a tragedy, like Chernobyl. More like Bruce Banner getting exposed to Gamma Rays and becoming The Hulk,” (PastPrime). “With time, their odd greatness and great oddness have become much clearer. But back in 1982, they sounded both hulkingly awesome and completely normal. They won the Grammys for best song (‘Rosanna’) and album (IV) of the year. They sold over ten million records. They were proof that Rock music could be sonically pristine and exceedingly popular; that musicians could look just like regular guys — or worse — and still be stars; and that Pop music could be ‘all encompassing’ (in toto).”

During the 21st century, after more than a fair share of personnel changes and the untimely death of one of the band’s founding members (drummer Jeff Porcaro), guitarist Steve Lukather has become the band’s undisputed center. “When Lukather gets exposed to those Gamma Rays, he reunites some version of the mutant supergroup … But, contrary to their name, no band — not even The Beatles — can be all encompassing. Toto was perhaps the only band to have ever really tried. Their hypothesis ultimately proved invalid or, at least, inconclusive. But, in 1982, after the Iran Hostage Crisis but before Thriller, they sounded like a miracle of science.” The band’s website details the towering influence of its members’ contributions as first-call LA studio musicians: “… the band members’ performances can be heard on an astonishing 5,000 albums that together amass a sales history of half a billion albums. Amongst these recordings, NARAS applauded the collected works with 225 Grammy nominations.”

The 1999 version of the band heard on “One Road,” however, sounds “alternately like Richard Marx fronting Aerosmith … or Donald Fagen writing and producing for Foreigner.” The term mutant fits, as the band doesn’t conform to any one particular genre. For a rock/pop/kitchen sink band with a multi-decade reputation for rich harmonic sensibilities and meticulously crafted arrangements, Toto’s discography features surprisingly few outright modulations. But “One Road” starts in E minor, then shifts up to F# minor (2:30-2:45) for an instrumental bridge built around a Lukather guitar solo.

Jonas Brothers | Poison Ivy

“Poison Ivy” is featured on the Jonas Brothers’ 2009 album Lines, Vines and Trying Times. The track, which features a horn section, was partially inspired by the English indie rock band The Zutons. “We were really inspired by the Zutons,” Joe Jonas said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “We heard their new record, You Can Do Anything, when we were in Europe last year and got everyone around us hooked on it.”

The song begins in G and modulates down to Eb at 3:06.

The Hollies | Bus Stop

“Bus Stop,” The Hollies’ 1966 hit, “was written by Graham Gouldman, who went on to form the band 10cc, best known for their hit ‘I’m Not In Love,’ (Songfacts). Gouldman was just 19 when he wrote ‘Bus Stop,” but he had already written three Yardbirds songs: ‘For Your Love,’ ‘Heart Full of Soul‘ and ‘Evil Hearted You.’

According to Gouldman, this song’s middle eight was one of the few instances in his songwriting career when he had a sudden inspiration rather than having to resort to hard toil. He explained to Mojo magazine in a 2011 interview: ‘You have to be working to make something happen. Occasionally you can wait for some magic, like McCartney waking up with ‘Yesterday’ already written in his mind, which does happen — it’s like a gift from your own subconscious. Or sometimes, it’s like a tap’s turned on.’ The middle eight section ‘all came to me in one gush, and I couldn’t wait to get home to try it. When that sort of thing happens, it’s really amazing. But that’s rare. Mostly, you have to do the slog.'” The tune reached #5 on the UK Singles chart and was also the band’s first US top ten hit, peaking at #5 on the Billboard charts in September 1966.

After a start in A minor, that lucky middle eight (0:35) shifts to E minor before reverting back to the A minor at 1:03. During that section, the melody shifts from a lower, smaller range to a more emphatic, higher one, while the melody’s compelling syncopation continues throughout. From 1:31 – 1:45, there’s an instrumental interlude which ends in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it piccardy third before the transition into another middle eight.

Dakota Moon | Looking For a Place to Land

“Dakota Moon is an unusual urban R&B group, one that’s equally influenced by Boyz II Men and ’70s soft rock, such as Eric Clapton and James Taylor … The quartet met at a recording session in Los Angeles for producers Andrew Logan and Mike More. The musicians had such a chemistry that they decided to form a band,” (AllMusic). ” … Before they made their debut album, they toured as Tina Turner’s opening act in 1997. By the end of the year, they had recorded their debut … the resulting record, entitled Dakota Moon, was released in April 1998.”

A Place to Land (2002), the band’s second release, features a “somewhat uncanny synthesis of early-2000s urban pop and ’70s soft rock. The album-opening title track (sounds) like half Backstreet Boys and half Eagles.”

“Looking For a Place to Land” certainly does inhabit territory somewhere between pop, rock, and r&b — with even a few brief country touches thrown into the mix. The verses feature several singers taking turns on lead; the choruses are a mix of vocalists combining for richly stacked vocal harmonies. A short drum break hits the re-set button before a half-step modulation kicks in at 2:49.

Jonatha Brooke | Steady Pull

“Jonatha Brooke first earned kudos during the mid-’90s as a member of the folk/rock duo The Story.” (Billboard) “Her reputation as a tunesmith of poetic proportions heightened when she went solo, issuing two deservedly revered discs on Refuge/MCA. The projects, largely folk/pop in tone, amassed an active cult following.”

“… Steady Pull (is) a recording that reveals a markedly different side to the often introspective artist. ‘I didn’t want to wallow in the drama and darkness any more. That would’ve been too easy, too comfortable. I wanted to get sexy. I wanted to romp.” … Steady Pull (2001) … is a blissful sonic marriage … the title track, an anthemic stomper … ”

After the track’s start in G minor, we’re led through an uprooting of the tonality via a dizzying B major note from the backing vocals (first at 1:12 – 1:15). After two verses and choruses, the bridge (2:12) brings a downward modulation to F# minor; the track’s strong percussion falls away except for a persistent hi-hat, but the intensity manages to keep winding up anyway. Temporarily abandoning its funk-tinged riffs, the electric guitar’s distant echoing siren lofts us back into G minor for the next verse at 2:36. Ambitiously surveying the landscape of a burgeoning new romance, the tune’s lyrics — tame on a per-word basis — seem anything but when taken in combination:

Now there’s evidence I’ve been here but no one knows how long
My change is in your pocket and the whisper of my song
My clothes are in your closet and my books surround your bed
Wonder what you expected, baby, and what you got instead … What you got …

… Where there is ruin there is hope for treasure
And out of the ashes come comfort and pleasure
This is the love that no one could measure
I have you, I hold you … We are birds of a feather

JVA | Not Gonna Beg

Jim Walker was born in Los Angeles and performed with several bands before forming “the schizophrenic pop group, Lost Anthony, which existed in the late 80s,” (JvaMusic.com). Walker found success writing film and TV scores.

With musical Tim Ellis, Walker formed a Portland-based acoustic power duo, Tim & Jim, which later opened for Crash Test Dummies, Loverboy, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Little Feat, Karla Bonoff, Boz Scaggs, Warren Zevon and many others.

The textbook rock track “Not Gonna Beg” (2020) shifts up a half-step at 1:52. At 2:16, another key change hits — but it takes awhile to realize that it returned the tune to the original key!

Genesis | Evidence of Autumn

“Guitarist Steve Hackett left Genesis in 1977, following their Wind & Wuthering tour, and the remaining trio (Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks) struggled to find their creative footing on the next year’s lukewarm …And Then There Were Three,” (Rolling Stone). “But they rebounded in a major way with 1980’s Duke, a more cohesive set of songs that balanced virtuosity with accessibility. ‘Evidence of Autumn,’ a starry-eyed ballad driven by Banks’ lush keyboards, was recorded during the sessions but pushed aside – winding up as the B-side to pop staple ‘Misunderstanding’ and rounding out the original studio section of 1982’s Three Sides Live. It’s a classic Banks composition, built on a deceptively complex chord structure and a winding, winsome vocal melody.”

You have a pretty good idea that you’re in for a complex ride when a tune starts with nothing more than a gently pulsing yet forboding tritone. But from the time Banks’ angular right hand part enters at 0:08, the listener descends — at first gradually, and then with all the force of a cinematic thriller’s score — into the first chorus at 0:45; the chorus-first form is quite surprising! The intro passes through several brief keys of the moment, but simplifies into Db major at the first verse. At 0:52, the bass note hammers on E with a strong syncopated kick and doesn’t move away until 1:01 — but the chords layered above it couldn’t shift any more profoundly over that pedal point.

At 1:01, the verse shifts to Ab major/F minor, ending with a small snippet of the intro’s piano theme (1:16). The verse (1:21), which also cycles through several keys of the moment, features a comparatively light texture and the song’s only mention of the title (you’d be forgiven for thinking that the tune is called “The Girl from All Those Songs”). The transition from the verse (which ends in A major) to the chorus’ return at 2:03 in C# major is a high point. At 2:34, the intro snippet is back, but is soon obliterated by a bridge in C# minor (2:44). Next is a gratuitous double-time instrumental break in C# major (3:20 – 3:32) that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Keystone Cops movie, but which serves as nothing more than pointless buzzkill here. At 3:31, we’re back to the tune’s overarching nostalgic feel; as the lead vocal exits at 4:21, Banks once more revisits the intro, coming full circle. Starry-eyed, indeed.

Britney Spears | I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman

Featured on Britney Spears’ third studio album, Britney, “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman” is a coming-of-age song that Spears says is one of her favorites to perform. Writing a review for the Yale Daily News in 2001, Catherine Halaby said the song “comes across as a hybrid of advice to her young female fans on how to deal with puberty, and an explanation of her girly but not childlike attitude.”

The song was not a big hit in the United States, but was more successful in Europe, reaching the Top 10 in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Sweden and the UK.

The tune begins in Eb and shifts up to F for the last chorus at 2:40.