UK

The Kinks | You Really Got Me

“There are very few records whose influence can be so strongly felt after 45 years as the Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me.’ It is the song that has been widely touted as the blueprint for hard rock and heavy metal, long before the likes of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin came along,” (SoundOnSound). ” … the jarring, distorted two‑chord riff that opens the track and continues behind the lead vocal, and the fierce, deliberately sloppy guitar solo … paved the way for punk rock.

A UK chart‑topper in September 1964, and a number seven hit in America at the height of the so‑called British Invasion, ‘You Really Got Me’ was not only the breakthrough number for North London outfit the Kinks, but also a landmark recording that inspired the Who’s Pete Townshend to compose ‘I Can’t Explain’, and whose influence resonates to this day. All of which was quite an achievement for a group of teenagers who had only formed the previous year, and their innovative producer, who hadn’t been around a whole lot longer.

… In his 1984 book The Kinks: The Official Biography, author Jon Savage wrote, ‘What (producer) Shel Talmy and the Kinks did … was to concoct the perfect medium for expression of the adolescent white aggression that has been at the heart of white popular music …’ Those involved in its creation apparently agree. ‘When I left the studio I felt great,’ recalled Ray Davies, whose fruitful efforts on behalf of the song established him as the chief composer and — at least in his eyes — the leader of the Kinks. ‘It may sound conceited, but I knew it was a great record… I said I’d never write another song like it, and I haven’t.'”

The colorless guitar power chords don’t give any indication of the track’s tonality, but at 0:21 the slightly uptuned G-based two-chord riff shifts to a riff centering around A. It’s the vocal melody, using a major third degree of each chord, which gives away both the G and A chords as major. At that point, it’s spelled out that the A chord isn’t actually a ii chord within the context of G major, but rather a new tonic chord (a key change from G major to A major). More changes continue from there.

Astral Drive | Parallel Universe

“Astral Drive, aka (the UK’s) Phil Thornalley, is a lot of things. Producer (The Cure, Prefab Sprout, Pixie Lott), one-time member of aforementioned Cure, and co-writer of Natalie Imbruglia’s mega hit ‘Torn,’ with loads of other credits under his belt,” (PickingUpRocks). “He is also completely infatuated and crushing hard on Todd Rundgren. On his self-titled album (2018), the Todd influence is so overt, so brazen, so unabashed in its love and reverence that it’s nearly impossible to cast a critical eye … delivered so earnestly, so heart-on-the-sleeve, that complaining about them seems nonsensical.

… The entire LP is just melodic to the core, full of pretty glorious, un-cynical piano pop-soul, and hooks, hooks, hooks (of course). Want to mention that things get even more meta on tracks like ‘No One Escapes’ and the fab lead single ‘Summer of ’76,’ where the respective choruses brush shoulders with those of another wondrous artist who himself was openly influenced by Todd, namely New Radicals’ Gregg Alexander…and so if you dig that stuff at all, you will very likely be susceptible to the charms on display here.”

“Parallel Universe” is set in a fast but gentle 6/8, accompanied by a soft yet insistent clock-like ticking on the weak beats. Replete with a poignant hook and dense textures, the track seems like it might have fallen from the sky millennia ago, fully formed. Built in F# minor overall, the tune moves through two verses and two choruses before an unprepared shift up to A minor (2:08) for an extended hook-driven instrumental outro.

Sting | All This Time

“On the singer/songwriter side (to use the term in a strictly idiomatic sense), The Soul Cages (1991) marks the first time Sting fully divorced himself from his Police-era approach to writing,” (RockAndRollGlobe). “Sure, there were plenty of arty, harmonically sophisticated pieces on his first two solo records, but there were also songs with more groove-based settings that you could imagine as part of the Police continuum. There are none of those holdovers from Sting’s previous life here. Opinions will vary as to whether that’s a good or bad thing, but Sting stands or falls here as a man owing nothing to his past. And even his artiest applications of craft oThe Soul Cages feel more organic than they did his previous couple of times at bat.

Stylistically, Sting’s M.O. seems closer to the contemporaneous output of Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell or even Leonard Cohen than anything else. The free-flowing phrasing and poetic language spilling out over a solid rhythmic base on the album’s biggest single, “All This Time,” sure seems to suggest some quality time spent assimilating Simon’s Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints … A strong case can also be made for The Soul Cages as a sneaky sashay into prog territory. First of all, it’s a freakin’ concept album. Something about Sting’s late father always wanting to be a sailor — don’t worry about it, he probably made more sense of the maritime themes when he wrote his musical, The Last Ship, a couple of decades later. It makes more sense than Jethro Tull did on Thick as a Brick, and that’s a masterpiece, so there you go.”

All this time / The river flowed / Endlessly to the sea …
If I had my way / I’d take a boat from the river …

The cheerful feel and relentlessly major-key tonality of “All This Time” belie the tune’s existential weightiness. At 3:15, there’s an unprepared whole-step upward shift in key.

Aztec Camera | Good Morning Britain

“‘When I was 13 years old, I was a real Mick Jones, Joe Strummer freak. I used to go and see them in the Glasgow Apollo and stand in the front row,’ pipes Aztec Camera singer, songwriter, and all around chief Roddy Frame,” (KillermontStreet). The Scottish songwriter reported “‘Recently I got to meet Mick because we played the same kind of festivals together and we got to hang out. He was just such a positive guy, I called him guru Mick and we talked a lot about the state of the nation,’ he continues. ‘I was quite negative about the things in Britain and he was saying yeah, but there’s more to life than that.

So I went home and wrote this song for him in about 45 minutes. I said, Mick, this sounds so much like the Clash that you’re either gonna sue me or you’re going to wanna sing on it, and he wanted to sing, so it was fantastic.'” Aztec Camera’s 1990 release Stray features the resulting single, “Good Morning Britain.”

The pop/rock track, which certainly sounds like The Clash (or its younger cousin, Big Audio Dynamite) shifts up a full step at 2:25.

Roachford | Cuddly Toy

The band Roachford was centered around vocalist Andrew Roachford … ‘I got lucky enough to start gigging when I was about 14,” (Forgotten-Songs.com). “I was in the middle of that whole jazz scene, which was an interesting education. It taught me musically, how to listen and how to entertain. My uncle always told me that you had to give people a show.’

… Roachford was discovered by fellow performer Terence Trent D’Arby, for whom (Roachford’s) group opened at one point in 1988. This led to a contract with Columbia/CBS (depending on where in the world one was) … British singer Beverley Knight, when remaking the album’s biggest hit, said: ‘Roachford showed a cynical British media that British soul could also be fused with a rockier sound and not only work, but be a global hit. This, as well as many of his songs, influenced my own writing style.’

… ‘Cuddly Toy’ was re-released in early 1989 and became a top five hit” in the UK. “It was just after this success that Columbia released the single in the US, adding a subtitle and calling it ‘Cuddly Toy (Feel For Me).’ The track entered Billboard’s Hot 100 at a very modest #97 for the week ending April 15, 1989,” eventually peaked at #25, and stayed on the chart for 14 weeks.

Built in an uptuned F minor overall, the track shifts upwards to Bb minor during its short instrumental bridge (1:59 – 2:10).

Thomas Dolby | To the Lifeboats

“As recently conjectured by Mark Fisher’s audio-essay On Vanishing Land, the Suffolk (UK) coastline is a haunted landscape, littered with the relics of past conflicts, awash with ghosts and subject to the ever-intensifying erosion of the tides,” (The Quietus). “Electronic music pioneer Thomas Dolby is intimately acquainted with the strange magic of the place, having spent a sizeable portion of his childhood under its spell.”

Thomas Dolby’s extensive 2013 UK tour featured “a live soundtrack to his new film, The Invisible Lighthouse. This highly personal work was inspired by the closing of Orford Ness lighthouse, whose beam has illuminated the shingles since 1792. ‘It’s a love letter to this part of England,’ explains Dolby, who moved from California back to Suffolk in the latter part of the last decade. “It’s not the picture postcard England that we usually export to the rest of the world. It’s a fairly bleak place, and it has this eerie atmosphere. East Anglia is always the frontline when there’s an invasion threatening, so there are lumps of concrete dissolving into sand, bits of barbed wire and tank tracks that act as a constant reminder.’

On his return to East Anglia, Dolby set up studio in a solar and wind-powered 1930s lifeboat christened The Nutmeg Of Consolation. Here, docked on the very edge of England, he recorded his first album of original material for almost 20 years, A Map of the Floating City (2011). ‘The album really absorbed the atmosphere,’ he says. ‘I was immersed in it, surrounded by it, 360 degrees.’

The album’s East Anglian influence is felt most strongly on ‘To the Lifeboats’ … an elegy … for a future England finally engulfed by the waves.” Beginning in a quiet-textured A minor, the tune shifts to the parallel A major at 1:33, announcing a much denser chorus. 2:18 brings an instrumental verse, this time in F# minor, leading back to a vocal verse in the original A minor that seems nonetheless new.

Tears for Fears | Sowing the Seeds of Love

UK-based Tears for Fears’ third studio album was The Seeds of Love (1989). “Kicked off with the release of the titular single, Tears For Fears presented a new sound that drew strongly from the influence of The Beatles with a track that was at once deliberately nostalgic and fully present,” (Albumism). “An epic ode to the musical influence and production brilliance of the fab four (five if you include George Martin, and you should) “Sowing the Seeds of Love” plays to the strengths of Tears For Fears’ songwriting, weaving a tapestry of captivating melodies and sing-along lyrics that carry a serious undertone.

With a jubilant energy, it flourishes with kaleidoscopic production that transcends being a grab-all of Beatles production and becomes a joyful exuberance that is all its own. But anyone expecting a TFF meets Sgt. Pepper’s album was pleasantly surprised as The Seeds of Love unfurls. Pushing beyond the Beatles-esque psychedelia, the album embraces tones of soul, jazz, pop, world music and orchestral flourishes.”

Starting in G minor for the verse, the tune transitions to C major for chorus (heard for the first time at 0:40). At 0:57, verse 2 returns to G minor. At 1:48, a sprawling multi-section bridge unfolds: an instrumental interlude shifts into F major, shifting into a bridge with vocals at 2:22. At 3:12, a primarily instrumental chorus turns on the hot-and-cold running “Penny Lane”-era Beatles taps in full, complete with a sprightly trumpet feature in C major. 3:29 brings yet another bridge section to the table, this time in A minor. 3:59 provides a new section, returning to G minor; the harmonic material suggests another verse, but the melody and lyric structure are different from the initial verses, providing what might as well be a central tenet of the band’s trademark focus on self awareness: time to eat all your words / swallow your pride / open your eyes. At 4:49, the C major chorus makes its triumphant return. This track is arguably the most vivid section of The Seeds of Love, perhaps Tears for Fears’ most multi-layered canvas.

Wang Chung | To Live and Die in L.A.

“… A strong case can be made that To Live and Die in LA is (director William) Friedkin’s masterpiece … Friedkin (director of The French Connection and The Exorcist) gave the British pop group, Wang Chung, near free rein and the results chime perfectly with the gritty neon tinted vision of a city enslaved by Reagan era greed,” (Sense of Cinema). “The title track lays down the unsparing tone in the pre-credit opening. A presidential motorcade moves through the sun scorched streets towards a Beverly Hills hotel. Cut to night time; President Reagan can be heard giving a speech advocating tax cuts to a well-heeled banquet room crowd as his security team warily moves through the hotel …

With its fatalistic lyrics (‘I wonder why we waste our lives here / When we could run away to paradise / But I am held in some invisible vise’), the title track is not so much a love theme as a requiem for the casualty rate that ensues in the film. The song makes clear that Los Angeles in the mid-‘80s is a place whose glamour is out of reach for most inhabitants, but addictive all the same … Wang Chung’s music makes the film’s resonance with the grotesque Malthusian tenor of Trump’s America all the more haunting, but mercifully tinged with a hint of grace and absolution.”

Within the overall bounds of 1980s pop, the film’s atmospheric theme song “To Live and Die in LA” (1985) couldn’t be much more different from Wang Chung’s marquee hits (the relentlessly energetic “Dance Hall Days” and “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”). The intro starts in F minor and transitions to a verse in Bb minor (0:32), punctuated by a rapid-fire, percussive keyboard hook. After a grand pause grants us a moment to breathe, a gentler chorus begins at 1:09, shifting among several tonalities. At 1:31, the pattern repeats with another verse, followed by another chorus at 2:16. In the middle of an interlude (2:42), the track climbs up a whole step to G minor, for another verse and chorus (3:05). From 3:27 to the track’s end, we’ve returned back to the original F minor for an outro/chorus.

Limahl | Neverending Story

“In 1983, Limahl was abruptly, unceremoniously fired as the lead singer of Kajagoogoo, only a few months after the British new wave band had scored a massive hit with ‘Too Shy.’ But the following year … Limahl met super-producer Giorgio Moroder at the Tokyo Music Festival and was invited to test his voice on Moroder’s theme song for the epic fantasy film The NeverEnding Story.” (Yahoo Entertainment). “And a new chapter began. ‘The NeverEnding Story’ ended up being Limahl’s only major worldwide solo hit, but it has stood the test of time.

And now the kaleidoscopic pop song is adding yet another chapter to Limahl’s career story and finding new fans of all ages. That’s all due to its placement in an adorable Stranger Things scene … (when) Stranger Things Season 3 premiered, “The NeverEnding Story” shot to No. 4 on Spotify’s U.S. Viral 50 chart, with on-demand audio and video streams for the track surging by more than 2,000% and YouTube views increasing by 800%. Interestingly, this revival (coincided) almost exactly with the 35th anniversary of the film’s U.S. theatrical release on July 20, 1984.”

After a start in C major, the tune shifts quickly to Eb major for the chorus (first heard at 0:28). At 0:44, C major returns while the end of the chorus is still in progress. At 1:47, an interlude starts in G major before shifting to Bb major at 2:02; 2:22 brings a return to the original key with another verse. At times, vocalist Beth Andersen takes over the melody while Limahl harmonizes. Although it only reached #17 in the US, the track was a worldwide hit, reaching #1 in Sweden, Spain, and Norway and top 10 status in a dozen other countries, including Limahl’s native UK.

Tracey Ullman | Move Over Darling

“More often than not, when TV personalities dip their toe in the pop pool, it’s meant as a brief detour from the day job, with little expectation of prolonged success.” (Record Collector). “Comedienne Ullman bucked the trend with some style, going as far as chalking up her label Stiff Record’s only US Top 10 hit. That came with her carbon cope of Kirsty MacColl’s ‘They Don’t Know.” Her UK stats stretch to half a dozen hit singles and an album that hung around the charts for close to six months.

Ullman excelled at aping bygone girl pop sounds, be it the Shangri Las, Sandy Shaw, or Blondie … a strong of memorable videos clearly boosted her music profile, but that’s taking nothing away from Tracey’s own ability to inhabit the material with wit and radio-friendly pizazz.”

“Move Over Darling” (1983), originally recorded in 1963 by Doris Day for a movie of the same name, begins in A major, shifts up a half step at 1:02, and then drops another raise of a half step at 1:37.