Tag: rock

Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul | A World of Our Own

AllMusic calls Little Steven Van Zandt a “renaissance man and champion of the rock & roll underdog … one of rock’s most colorful figures.” In addition to his multiple lengthy stints in Bruce Springsteen’s bands going all the way back to the late 1960s, Van Zandt has worked with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes; written for Gary “U.S.” Bonds; formed Artists United Against Apartheid, which produced the all-star Top 40 1985 single “Sun City”; intermittently fronted his own band, The Disciples of Soul; and was a featured actor on the groundbreaking TV drama The Sopranos.

With a sound that stands somewhere between that of his longtime employer Springsteen and one of the several pop phases of rock chameleon Elvis Costello, Van Zandt’s “A World of Our Own” (2019) starts big — and stays there. Rather than relying on burgeoning dynamics or lyrical arc to build interest, Van Zandt uses modulations to propel the listener through a wall of sound.

Starting in A major, the tune shifts to C major at 1:35, then to G major at 2:02. At 2:35, we’ve arrived back to A major, but by then, it feels like a new chapter rather than a return.

Many thanks to perpetual mod submitter JB for this contribution!

Elton John | This Song Has No Title

“This Song Has No Title” is an album track from Elton John’s smash hit 1973 double album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. According to the BBC Review, the album sold 30 million copies worldwide; the RIAA ranked it as an 8x platinum seller. In 2003, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Rolling Stone ranked the album #91 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list: “Elton John compared this double album to the Beatles‘ White Album, and why not? By this point he was the most consistent hitmaker since the Fab Four, and soon enough he would be recording with John Lennon. Everything about Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is supersonically huge…” From AllMusic’s review: “It was designed to be a blockbuster — and it was…a statement of purpose spilling over two LPs, which was all the better to showcase every element of John‘s spangled personality.”

The tune starts simply enough: A D minor verse featuring an acoustic sound with a straightforward lead vocal, piano accompaniment, and a gentle synth overlay. At 0:48, the chorus blooms abruptly, featuring a mix of keys, an electronics-inflected wall of sound, and Elton’s familiar layered vocal textures.

Many thanks to MotD regular JB for this submission!

Nickelback | Far Away

Nickelback, one of the most commercially successful Canadian rock bands, makes their MotD debut with their 2006 single “Far Away.” Featured originally in their fifth studio album, All The Right Reasons, the track has been described as the group’s “only real love long” by lead guitarist Chad Kroeger, and was included on the 2010 compilation album Now That’s What I Call Love with other love ballads from the previous decade. Beginning in B major, the tune modulates up a step to Db Major for the final chorus at 2:52.

Jonathan Coulton | Shop Vac

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.

Gnarls Barkley | Going On

Gnarls Barkley’s smash debut hit “Crazy” was considered by many to be 2006’s global song of the summer. Last.FM reports that it was “the first #1 UK single to be obtained solely through Internet downloads.” The band, a duo comprised of producer/multi-instrumentalist Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton and funk/soul vocalist Cee Lo Green, continued to crank out unpredictable tunes until 2010, straddling multiple genres of psychedelia-tinged hiphop, soul, neo-soul, and funk.

Playing up the psychedelic aspect, the video for “Going On,” filmed in Jamaica, centers around “a group of people celebrating the discovery of a door that leads to another dimension,” according to MTV.com. The song garnered a 2009 Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Performance; in 2011, Time Magazine listed the lo-fi, dance-centric video among its 30 All-Time Best Music Videos, calling it a “sucker punch of joy …(a) three-minute piece of percussive pop perfection.”

Featured on the duo’s second album, The Odd Couple (2008), “Going On” alternates between an uptuned Eb minor and F minor throughout. The tune features an intro in Eb minor, verse one in F minor (0:18), chorus in Eb minor (0:47), etc.

Toad the Wet Sprocket | Scenes From a Vinyl Recliner

Many thanks to chronic mod submitter JB for today’s feature: “Scenes from a Vinyl Recliner,” a 1989 release (and MotD debut) by Toad the Wet Sprocket. AllMusic reports that the band was “named in honor of a sketch by the Monty Python comedy troupe … one of the most successful alternative rock bands of the early ’90s, boasting a thoughtful folk-pop sound that wielded enough melody and R.E.M.-styled jangle to straddle both the modern rock and adult contemporary markets. The group broke into the mainstream with the 1991 release of their third album, Fear, and its hits ‘All I Want’ and ‘Walk on the Ocean.'” The tune alternates between C# minor and E minor.

JB writes: “While lots of Toad’s tunes have juicy mods, this is one of their less-known songs. Even though the ‘structure’ of the mods is just the vanilla A/B verse/chorus structure, the subjective tonal quality of each mod is pretty unusual. Some of this is the direction and interval of each mod, but the instrumentation is also critical: The mod into each chorus (0:38, etc.) is very abrupt, and is primarily announced by the vibes (or synth equivalent thereof), striking a note in the new key in relative isolation. Likewise, the mod back to each verse (1:10, etc.) is announced by a single note on the piano, again in relative isolation. These timbres, sounding in isolation, make a nice contrast to the rest of the song, which follows the sort of cliched soft/loud verse/chorus structure that was one of the things that made TTWS alt-rock adjacent, rather than a pure folk-rock sound.”

Danny + The Juniors | Rock + Roll Is Here to Stay

Although a little less well known than “At the Hop,” their biggest hit, “Rock’n’Roll is Here to Stay” was a hit for doo-wop group Danny and the Juniors; the single reached #19 on the pop charts and somehow also attained a #16 peak on the R&B chart. The quartet, originally called The Juvenaires, was comprised of four Philadelphia-area high school classmates. The group was a natural to be featured performers on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, but had to wait until a last-minute call when Little Anthony + the Imperials cancelled!

There are half-step modulations at 1:40 and 1:56. In addition to singing, the boys do a great job of helping the entire crowd clap on two and four!

The Dregs | Bloodsucking Leeches

“One of the top jazz-rock fusion ensembles ever, the Dixie Dregs combined virtuoso technique with eclecticism and a sense of humor and spirit too frequently lacking in similar project,” reports AllMusic. From Music Aficionado’s profile on the band: “During the Georgia-based Dregs’ heyday in the late 70s and early 80s, their output consisted of longish instrumental workouts that mixed elements of southern rock, bluegrass, prog, metal, classical, jazz and fusion, among other styles, all of it shot through with ridiculously complex technical acrobatics,” The band’s name was initially The Dixie Dregs, but the group dropped “Dixie” from the name towards the end of its run. The group was led by guitarist Steve Morse (also known for his work with Deep Purple).

Founding bassist Andy West says of “Bloodsucking Leeches” (1982), via Music Aficionado: “This song is our statement on the music industry at the time, which is where the title comes from. The feel of this one, to me, it’s not quite metal, but it’s definitely rock. If you trace it back, it’s like a Led Zeppelin kind of thing, if Led Zeppelin had kept on going.” Maybe — if Zeppelin had “kept on going” right off the edge of the planet and into its own unique universe of southern-fried funk/rock!

Starting in E major, 0:38 shifts to a focus on the closely-related key of A major, a much bigger jump to G major at 1:25, back to A at 1:53, and a return to E at 2:13. The shifts continue until the tune settles back into E major in its final seconds (3:54).

Grateful Dead | Sugar Magnolia

Grateful Dead makes their MotD debut today, with one of their most loved and well-known tunes, “Sugar Magnolia.” Originally released on the group’s fifth studio album, American Beauty, in 1970, it was subsequently included on many live albums, including Europe ’72, where it peaked at #91 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1973. The majority of the tune is in A major, but it abruptly modulates up a step to B at 2:30, where it remains for the duration.

Sly + the Family Stone | Stand

A much-overdue MotD debut for the famously eclectic Sly & the Family Stone today. The band “harnessed all of the disparate musical and social trends of the late ’60s,” AllMusic explains, “creating a wild, brilliant fusion of soul, rock, R&B, psychedelia, and funk that broke boundaries down without a second thought. Led by Sly Stone, the Family Stone was comprised of men and women, and blacks and whites, making the band the first fully integrated group in rock’s history. That integration shone through the music, as well as the group’s message. Before Stone, very few soul and R&B groups delved into political and social commentary; after him, it became a tradition in soul, funk, and hip-hop.”

Released in 1968, “Stand” is just one of a full line of unusual singles from S&TFS, not easily described by the vocabulary that preceded them. AllMusic continues: “Like Brian Wilson, Sly Stone incorporated beautiful, magical moments on his records that were some of the most musically progressive. In this song, a simple but brilliant four-on-the-floor drum pattern and gospel vocals create what would be the virtual blueprint for what was to become known as disco. Moreover, the song is yet another message song that helped bridge the gap between the black and white rock audiences…one of the most timely records of its age.”

The verse is built around a de-tuned Ab major (I / IV / I / bVII); the bVII major serves as a sub-V for the new key of F major (0:14), repeating the same pattern for Verse 2 (0:28) before reverting to Ab for the one-word chorus (0:51). Each switch from Ab to F is accentuated by a 2/4 bar among the overall 4/4 meter (heard for the first time at 0:13 – 0:14). An entirely new groove, built around a 4-bar pattern, kicks in for an extended outro in C minor at 2:18. The outro is a joyful, uproarious shout chorus featuring multiple vocalists on a repeated wordless vocal hook, instrumentalists playing at full tilt, and gospel-style eighth-note claps building on the already high energy — just as the slow final fade kicks in.