Song #174 of 9999 Title: Someday, Someway Artist: Marshall Crenshaw Year: 1982 Album: Marshall Crenshaw
"Someday, Someway" is the sole top 40 hit for Detroit singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw, peaking at #36. Crenshaw got his first big break performing as John Lennon in the off-Broadway cast of Beatlemania before eventually landing a record deal with Warner Bros. But while his music has always garnered critical acclaim, he has failed to make a dent commercially. Anyway, the song pretty much speaks for itself—similar to Buddy Holly (whom he played in the film La Bamba) and very catchy. If you like this song, check out "Something's Gonna Happen" his debut single from 1981. That's all for tonight!
Song #173 of 9999 Title: Come on Eileen Artist: Dexy's Midnight Runners Year: 1982 Album: Too-Rye-Ay
This is a song most everyone knows and it's probably a song you either love or hate. But there are multiple reasons it spent so many weeks at the top of the charts in 1982. It's ridiculously catchy, well-structured and -arranged and participatory. Let me expound.
1) Catchy: Well, if I could figure out what makes songs catchy and memorable, I'd be rich and/or famous. But in this case, I think there are obvious factors. The fiddle riff is pretty infectious and the lilting dotted-eighth/sixteenth groove at this specific tempo makes you want to move instantly. The chorus, particularly the bass and drums, is straight out of the Motown songbook. Add to that the "too-rye-ay" nursery rhyme lyric and you pretty much have everyone feeling like a 5-year-old which is a pretty good feeling.
2) Well-structured and -arranged: I am fascinated by the key relationships in this song. Three different keys for the intro (F Major), verses (C Major) and chorus (D Major). Each modulation is direct with no transition yet they seem so natural and seamless. The move from C to D for the chorus is particularly brilliant and uplifting. (It must have been cool to be in the room when someone came up with that idea—wow!) But the real stroke of genius is the slow bridge and accelerando leading into the final chorus. This section with its quasi-chanted countermelody gives Kevin Rowland a chance to flex his Northern Soul muscle, his impressive tenor creating lovely counterpoint with the boys in the band. The Celtic-meets-Motown orchestration with its fiddle, banjo and accordion sounds as fresh today as it did thirty years ago.
3) Participatory: This is a song that not only invites you to join in, it insists. The call-and-response chorus is made for a sing-along and the tempo change in the bridge is designed to get your heart racing right along with the kick drum. But for me, it's the ascending scale on "too-ra-loo-ra too-ra-loo-rye-ay" that really begs for your participation. Sing a melody that is simple, catchy and wordless and you will have a legion of followers. Guaranteed.
For the record, I fall on the side of loving the song. So much fun.
Song #172 of 9999 Title: Tug of War Artist: Paul McCartney Year: 1982 Album: Tug of War
By 1982, I had pretty much abandoned my obsession with The Beatles and Paul McCartney for the technical musical precision of progressive rock. Songs like "Ebony and Ivory" seemed too hokey for my tastes and McCartney II had been such a disappointment to me two years earlier. As an active songwriter, I would eventually come back to The Beatles and their solo work but it was John's output that resonated with me in my adult years. In fact, I've even become disenchanted with the Paul songs most people enjoy ("Band on the Run," "Live and Let Die," and "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," for example), all of which seem like unfinished song snippets tied together with weak or silly lyrics.
So I pretty much skipped Tug of War completely and I'm glad I checked back in thirty years later to give it another spin. Two months into the recording of this record, John Lennon was murdered and it seemed to have a profound impact on Paul's direction as a solo artist. He had already dissolved Wings and enlisted famed Beatles producer George Martin for the sessions, but to me, it seems like Lennon's death led McCartney to produce a more mature, serious, personal record. While the album's tribute song to Lennon ("Here Today") is touching, it's the title track I find the most ambitious and satisfying in terms of composition and performance.
For me, the most compelling thing about the track is the meter. The song has a bit of a Spanish feel (it reminds me of "Barcelona" by Rufus Wainwright) and McCartney lets the lyric dictate the meter, even if it means inserting a random 2/4 or 3/4 bar to accommodate extra syllables (something Lennon did masterfully in songs like "Across the Universe"). The song also has a very slow harmonic rhythm, with individual chords sustaining through the verses for up to five or six measures. The "dancing to the beat" lyric is set to a rhythm and meter that is hard to discern but it seems like a quick 3/8 or 6/8 sandwiched among the slow quarter-note pulse. It's an exciting propulsion of rhythm in a fairly laid-back song that is both jarring and invigorating.
It's hard to say with certainty whether the song is about his relationship with Lennon but if it is, I think it's an even better tribute than "Here Today" which captures the camaraderie but not the struggles. This song, with a tremendous arrangement by George Martin, is as complex as their relationship and as moving as anything McCartney has ever written.
Song #171 of 9999 Title: The Number of the Beast Artist: Iron Maiden Year: 1982 Album: The Number of the Beast
Listening to this song for the first time in decades just brings a huge smile to my face. Music was so diverse in the 80s and most people listened to music of a variety of genres. Pop radio stations played a mix of new wave, roots rock, heavy metal—it was pretty wide open. MTV was the same—Michael Jackson one minute, Mötely Crüe the next. I played in a cover band that pretty much subscribed to this philosophy not quite on purpose, but because everyone in the band liked different things and we played just about whatever anyone wanted to play. So on any given night, we'd play a set that went something like this: "Jane" by Jefferson Starship, "YYZ" by Rush, "Reelin' in the Years" by Steely Dan, "Talking in Your Sleep" by The Romantics and "Number of the Beast" by Iron Maiden. It was an insane mix but we somehow managed to get gigs and make people happy for the most part.
Iron Maiden astonishes me with their continuing popularity. I see more Iron Maiden t-shirts at the high school where I teach than any other artist. The Number of the Beast was their third album and first with their most well-known (and current) singer Bruce Dickinson. Dickinson's operatic tenor became the trademark of a group already known for excess in their music, lyrics, cover art, etc. Their success was further heightened by the negative attention given to them by socially conservative groups in the United States who were convinced they were satanists. They weren't; just well-read.
I have very fond memories of playing and singing this song. The open riff in 5/4 was tricky to work out with the band. I can't say for sure if I sounded good attempting the amazing scream during the stop-time section that follows the opening verses, but maybe one of my childhood friends can chime in with the answer. It felt good though and it was an enjoyable and challenging song to sing. Great bass-playing by primary songwriter Steve Harris really tested and helped develop my chops. Hmmm....maybe I should re-form that band....
Title: I Melt With YouTitle: I Ran (So Far Away) Artist: Modern English Artist: A Flock of Seagulls
Year: 1982 Year: 1982 Album: After the Snow Album: A Flock of Seagulls
Last night's blog post took a long time to write, what with the opera research and such so I'm going to make this a quickie. It is TWOsday so I thought I would just post two representative songs from the post-punk/new wave era from groups few of us have heard from since their 1982 debuts and say very little about them. :)
For me, "I Melt With You" is the better of the two songs, its apocalyptic love story dripping with emotional resonance even as digital music technology and severe hair and fashion were working hard to strip away such feelings from the pop charts. One of the things I really like about this song is how each musician in the band plays such an integral role in the arrangement. I never noticed it before, probably because I was too busy mimicking Robbie Grey's vocal delivery at maximum volume while jumping up and down.
"I Ran" is a simpler song about your run-of-the-mill alien abduction. This song really benefits from the call-and-response relationship between Mike Score's monotone vocal delivery and Paul Reynolds's clever two-note guitar lick. The thing I most remember about this song when it came out was Mike Score's haircut which seemed so bizarre and interesting at the time. Very catchy minor key song, probably a little too long and repetitive for the current market.
Song #168 of 9999 Title: O Superman (For Massenet) Artist: Laurie Anderson Year: 1982 Album: Big Science
There's so much great pop music from 1982 that I was having a hard time choosing a song with which to start the week. Rather than choose, I just went in the complete opposite direction. "O Superman (For Massenet)" is a piece of art music inspired by the aria "Ô Souverain, ô juge, ô père" from Jules Massenet's 1884 opera El Cid. Rodrigo, an 11th century knight, prays for victory ("Oh Sovereign, O Judge, O Father") as he prepares to fight a battle with an overwhelming army of Moors. Laurie Anderson's overwhelming force is that of the American military establishment, which was engaged in attempts to rescue the hostages being held in Iran around the time this work was constructed.
Anderson employs the use of new digital audio sampling technology and an instrument called a vocoder that harmonizes vocal melodies with notes played by the performer simultaneously on a keyboard. (At least, I think that's how it works--feel free to correct me.) The song has just two chords (Ab Major and C Minor) linked by the common note C sung repeatedly from the beginning of the work ("ha, ha, ha, ha...."). I find this cadence-free alternation of major and minor chords to be hypnotic and soothing (it reminds me of the strings in Charles Ives's The Unanswered Question) although some people claim the piece sounds sinister to them. Interestingly, the lyrics of the piece seem to caution against technology even as the musical arrangement is consumed by it.
More proof that Brits are infinitely more interesting than Americans, "O Superman" peaked at #2 on their pop charts! (It also hit the top ten in the Netherlands and #11 in Ireland.) At least we were clever enough to install its accompanying video at New York's MOMA in 1983. It's an intriguing, evocative piece and its central themes are still resonant thirty years later (even if we have mostly given up our answering machines).
Song #167 of 9999 Title: Without You Artist: Harry Nilsson Year: 1972 Album: Nilsson Schmilsson
Look, I'm just going to admit right up front that I am ignoring The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stadust and the Spiders from Mars and Exile on Main St. and a whole lot of other great music that came out in 1972. It was a great year for music.
And you may think this ballad by Nilsson is sappy and melodramatic and I should probably be featuring "I Saw the Light" by Todd Rundgren or Nick Drake's "Pink Moon." I understand and maybe you're right! But that doesn't make this any less of a great song. It pushes all the right buttons and tugs all the right strings mostly due to Nilsson's amazing vocal performance. I dare you to listen to this and not ball your eyes out at 2:10.
That's really all I have to say. What else is there, really? Okay, a couple of fun facts: 1) the song was written by Pete Ham of Badfinger; 2) Nilsson never performed publicly or toured in support of his records; 3) his grandparents were Swedish circus performers.
