Stephen Sondheim’s 1990 musical Assassins depicts the inner lives of various real-life figures who tried (and sometimes succeeded) to assassinate the president of the United States, and the repercussions their actions had on themselves and the country and its history. “Unworthy of Your Love” is sung by John Hinckley to his fantasy girlfriend Jodie Foster; he is joined by partway through by Squeaky Fromme, who declares her love Charles Manson.
By Sondheim standards, the tune is a remarkably conventional love ballad. It begins in B, shifts down to A for Squeaky’s verse at 1:42, and returns to B for the final chorus at 2:57.
“When President Obama gave Loretta Lynn the Medal of Freedom in 2013 – the nation’s highest honour recognising significant achievements in politics, world peace, science and culture – he noted that she began writing her own songs with a $17 dollar guitar,” (Holler.Country). “‘With it,’ he said, ‘this coal miner’s daughter gave voice to a generation, singing what no one wanted to talk about and saying what no one wanted to think about.’ … (Lynn’s) career has always been about her humble life story, something that’s perfectly expressed in 1971’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, a record which might just represent the peak of her singular songwriting and creativity. When Loretta signed her first recording contract in 1960, she already had a handful of kids and an immoral husband who’d married her when she was just a teen … On ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter,’ every tiny, stark, heartfelt memory of Lynn’s life until that point came flooding to the fore. It’s an understated masterpiece of concision, drama and imagery – every verse a short story that’s rarely been equaled, even in a genre where storytelling and authenticity are the most prized assets.
Every song on Coal Miner’s Daughter would go on to hit home with Lynn’s fans, many of whom were women much like her, living near-identical lives. Throughout her career, she refused to be fenced in, kicking down country music complacency and putting up a flag for feminism (even if she was ambivalent about the label) with her honky-tonk directness … Infidelity, lechery, drunkenness – and even divorce – were grist to her mill … as fellow country legend Minnie Pearl simply put: ‘Loretta sang what women were thinking.'”
Lynn passed away this week at the age of 90. Of the 86 singles she released, “Coal Miner’s Daughter” might be her most memorable. It topped the Billboard country songs survey and becoming her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100 (AllMusic). Textbook half-step key changes hit at 1:04 and 2:00.
Written and produced by the Bee Gees, “Chain Reaction” was recorded in 1985 by Diana Ross, featured on her album Eaten Alive. “‘Chain Reaction’ was never originally meant to be on the album,” Barry Gibbs explained in an interview. “It was the last song we cut. We’d done the whole album and Diana said, ‘Well, we still need one more song from somewhere.’ We had ‘Chain Reaction’ all along but didn’t have the nerve to play it to her because it was so Motown-ish that we were scared she wouldn’t go back there. Robin Gibb persuaded her by saying, ‘We think it’s time you did something that you would have done with The Supremes and not just Diana Ross.’ Once Diana had recorded it, she sat down and heard the playback and realized it was a credible tribute to the past.”
While the tune did not perform well in the US, it reached #1 in the UK, Ireland, Australia and Zimbabwe. There are modulations sprinkled throughout the song: just in the first verse it moves from B to Db at 0:56 and D at 1:11, returning to B for verse 2 at 1:43 and moving through the same cycle again. A shift to Eb occurs at 3:00, followed by a half-step modulation up to E at 3:15, and it continues to alternate between those two keys as it fades to the end.
“House music is a genre of electronic dance music first created by club DJs and music producers in Chicago in the early 1980s,” (Linguazza.com). “Early house music was generally characterized by repetitive 4/4 beats, rhythms mainly provided by drum machines, off-beat hi-hat cymbals, and synthesized bass lines. While house displayed several characteristics similar to disco music, which preceded and influenced it (as both were DJ and record producer-created dance music) house was more electronic and minimalistic. The mechanical, repetitive rhythm of house was one of its main components.”
Neo-Soul/r+b/hiphop duo The Foreign Exchange, the collaboration of American rapper/vocalist Phonté and Dutch producer Nicolay, have branched out to supporting other artists in addition to the Grammy-nominated work they’ve accomplished together. Diviniti is among those artists: “A true lady of Detroit house, she writes uplifting songs and has a distinctive vocal style which incorporates eloquent wordplay (ThisIsDiviniti.com) … She has collaborated with producers such as Louie Vega, Josh Milan, Pirahnahead, DJ Minx … and has performed live in Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Detroit, and New York … The highlight of her career thus far is receiving a Grammy nomination as a result of her contribution to Louie Vega’s album Louis Vega Starring…XXXVIII.”
“The Beauty of Life,” featuring Diviniti and producer Piranhahead, was curated for the multi-artist compilation series Hide&Seek by The Foreign Exchange and Reel People Music in 2017. After lulling us into a trance with three minutes of gentle but insistent groove in F# major, the tune breaks away to modulate up a half-step to G (3:54).
“Deniece Williams’ ‘Let’s Hear It For The Boy,’ … was a last-second addition to the Footloose soundtrack, (Stereogum) … Like Michael Sembello, another relatively anonymous artist who scored a #1 single by soundtracking a dance montage in an early-’80s blockbuster, Williams had gotten her start backing up Stevie Wonder … Williams recorded (the tune) with the producer George Duke, a jazz-fluent polymath who’d made records with Cannonball Adderly and Frank Zappa … (and) gives a whole lot of room to backup singers George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam, who would go on to form the duo Boy Meets Girl and peak at #5 with ‘Waiting For A Star To Fall.’
As a singer, Williams is pretty great at conveying the idea of pure, overwhelming happiness. She’s the reason why ‘Let’s Hear It For The Boy’ doesn’t carry the immediate threat of doom for this couple. When she sings about this boy, hopeless schlub though he may be, she sounds utterly transported with joy … Putting a gospel singer like Williams on a giddy dance-pop track like this is a smart decision. Whitney Houston, someone who will be in this column a ton of times, first became famous singing songs like that. After ‘Let’s Hear It For The Boy,’ Deniece Williams never came anywhere near the top 10 again. Instead, she pulled a reverse Whitney Houston: After spending years as a successful pop singer, she became a full-time gospel singer. She’s won four Grammys, all in gospel categories, and she seems plenty happy in that world.”
After a start in C major for the intro and the verse, the chorus pivots up to D major for the chorus (0:43). From 1:06 to 1:15, some instrumental connective tissue provides some space for the tune to sidestep back down into C. The pattern continues from there. From 3:07 and onward, Williams seems to have fun effervescing at the very high end of her four-octave range through the extended outro.
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!
” … having played many of Jaco’s compositions while the bass player was part of Weather Report, (Weather Report bandleader Joe Zawinul) held the opinion that ‘Three Views of a Secret’ was Jaco’s best composition,” (JazzInEurope). “1981 was a critical year in Jaco Pastorius’ career. Musically he was held by many as the most innovative bass player in modern jazz. Five years have passed since he joined Weather Report, replacing Alphonso Johnson while the band was recording the album Black Market. During those five years, the band released its most successful albums and became well known beyond jazz audiences, performing at major festivals and large concert halls all over the world. The band’s appeal can be attributed to Zawnul’s compositions which became more melodic and structured (‘Birdland,’ ‘A Remark You Made’), but Pastorius played a major role in driving the band towards new audiences. His live performance showmanship, the incorporation of Hendrix licks like ‘Third Stone from the Sun,’ the feet work (enhanced by talc powder spread over the floor prior to the show), the rapid signature 16th-note runs and the wild harmonics, all found the adoration of younger folks, many of them introduced to jazz because of him.
… Pastorius was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but in 1981, his behavior was simply considered eccentric and unstable. Amazingly, through that period he was able to write and produce Word of Mouth, his major achievement as a bandleader, composer, and arranger … ‘Three Views of a Secret’ is a great piece of music, moving between calm and dramatic orchestral passages and truly utilizing the full impact of a combined orchestra and jazz big band …”
The studio version is a classic, but the 1985 live version, featuring Pastorius’ obvious joy and rapt attention in his able accompaniment of Thielemans, by then a musical elder statesman, is also required listening and is our focus here; both are included below. Shifting from E major to C# major at 1:38, the bouyant jazz waltz sneaks back into E at 2:22.
Lauded as “arguably the most important and ground-breaking electric bassist in history” by New Directions in Modern Guitar, Jaco died 35 years ago this month — at the age of only 35. His influence on the contemporary jazz and electric bass worlds continues to reverberate strongly.
“‘I Am What I Am’, (Jerry Herman’s) signature anthem from La Cage aux Folles, is a song to be scaled whenever drink has been taken and identity totters: by a spangled diva in the spotlight, a club kid staking a claim, a bridesmaid clinging desperately to dignity,” (The Guardian).
“La Cage is a Feydeau farce with show tunes, pitting a cabaret queen against the moral majority, with a book by Harvey Fierstein (who later lent his gravel-pit register to the song on Broadway). When drag queen Albin is disinvited from his own son’s wedding, he refuses to shuffle out of the picture. One draft speech included the line, ‘I am what I am and there’s nothing I can do.’ Herman’s synapses rippled. ‘Hold everything,’ he exclaimed. ‘I want to take those five words, if you will give them to me … I can write you a first-act closer that will be a killer because I feel that emotion in me.’ The next morning, he gathered everyone in his 61st Street studio and sang through the mounting choruses. ‘The reaction was cataclysmic.’ … Away from the show, ‘I Am’ has been a lip-synch love bomb, of course it has … it provided the (2019) Pride theme for Belfast club Harland and Poof … It naturally slotted into Shirley Bassey’s repertoire – though the diva hardly struggles for self-belief – and attained disco fervour with Gloria Gaynor.”
Released in 1984, Gaynor’s version reached #82 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. After a poised rubato intro, the tune kicks into its groove gear at 0:37. After a long instrumental break, there’s a whole-step key change at 3:26 — and then another unexpected upward half-step skip at 3:48. The groove isn’t quite 100% disco, but its 1984 release date was certainly past the heyday of the disco craze. Nonetheless, this track was a club-driven hit.
“Separate Ways” is featured on American country singer Rick Trevino’s 2011 studio album Whole Town Blue. The track was initially released as a single in 2007, but when it failed to reach the Top 40 the album release was delayed. Trevino, who is of Mexican descent, has made it a practice to release both Spanish and English versions of many of his songs, one of the first mainstream artists to do so.
The song begins in E and shifts without warning or preparation up to F for the second verse at 1:47.
“The Capitols, an R&B doo-wop trio originally known as the Three Caps, was formed in Detroit in 1962,” (BlackPast.org). “… The group primarily recorded dance-themed songs in the Detroit area.” After struggling for several years, “in 1966 they released the top ten hit, ‘Cool Jerk.’ The song composed by Don Storball and recorded at Golden World Studios in Detroit with the legendary Motown house band, The Funk Brothers, became their biggest hit. It was the lead single from their first album, Dance the Cool Jerk, and peaked at #2 on the Billboard R&B and #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.
During their limited career, the Capitols released 6 albums and 19 singles … The group finished the decade in 1969 with the single ‘Soul Brother, Soul Sister’ that peaked at no. 42 on the Billboard R&B chart.” Very little additional information about this track is available online, but the trio’s signature sound is as clear here as it was on the smash hit single ‘Cool Jerk.”
After a short break in the groove, the tune shifts up a whole step at 1:26.
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