Song #325 of 9999
Title: Do We? We Do
Artist: Frank & Jeff
Year: 2013
Album: Beck's Song Reader, Songs 1-10
So much musical collaboration these days is done across great distances over the internet. One of the absolute pure joys of this project for me was being in the same room with such a good friend and musician and collaborating in a face-to-face setting. Bouncing ideas off each other in real time, reading each other's facial expressions, playing music side by side. It's just such a rare experience in my pop music circle. I only hope that Jeff felt the same!
At some point, it dawned on me that we ought to do a duet and "Do We? We Do" seemed to suggest itself as the right choice. A series of questions that always ends with the titular refrain, it seemed obvious to me that the questions could be directed at one another and then agreed upon collectively.
One aspect of this song that I find intriguing is the harmonic dissonance created by the half-steps in the melody. We were very careful to perform the rhythm and melody exactly as it was inscribed by Beck to exploit these tonal clashes. (That accuracy helped when it came time to sing the last verse in unison, which comes off really well I think.) I think we created a good stylistic atmosphere with this song although it's worth noting that the chord diagrams in this song (and many others) are written for the ukelele! So perhaps Beck had something a little lighter in mind.
Tune in tomorrow for the final song of the week and the closer for "side one" of our little album. Track 6 will be presented on Sunday night.
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