Title: Lily Dreams On
Artist: Cotton Mather
Year: 1997
Album: Kon Tiki
My friend Glenn referenced a band called Tame Impala in a Facebook post today, remarking about how much the singer sounds like John Lennon. Coincidentally, I had just heard this band in a record shop in London a week ago and thought the album may have come out in 1967 or something--it just had such a late 60s vibe. Well, it turns out that record came out just last year and this band that sounds so British is actually Australian.
Which reminded me of Cotton Mather. The band Cotton Mather hailed from Austin, TX (they're now defunct) but sound like they're straight outta Liverpool. And, in fact, they did make a small splash in England, attracting the likes of Noel Gallagher, but never found their footing here at home. Their album Kon Tiki is one of my absolute favorites and I have spent way too much time trying to decide which song to post. If you like the ballad "Lily Dreams On," go find "She's Only Cool," "My Before and After" and "Camp Hill Rail Operator."
Title: Dance Yrself Clean
Artist: LCD Soundsystem
Year: 2010
Album: This is Happening
On my recent trip to London, I learned something both shocking and delightful: Brits love the Muppets. Who knew? I have never seen two people so excited to see a Muppet movie as my friends who were so---dare I say---jealous that it had already been released in the states and was still months away from the local Odeon. So when I decided to post the opening track to LCD Soundsystem's swan song LP and stumbled upon this "unofficial" video set in Brighton, I knew I had to use it.
James Murphy is the spitting image of uncool. In fact, I would go so far as to say he is the coolest uncool man I have ever scene. Everything he touches becomes instantly fashionable to everyone and yet, he remains at a distance to fashion himself. He's kind of my hero in that sense. But even more important, he has an amazing sense of balance and proportion in music. Many of his songs are quite long, but they seem long only to those lacking even an average attention span. This song is nine minutes and has TWO CHORDS. But I love it and it never lets me down. Even if the lyrics were inane, it would still be awesome, but they're quite clever. My favorite stanza:
Talking like a jerk
Except you are an actual jerk
And living proof that sometimes friends are mean
Stick around until the end--you won't be disappointed.
Title: Letter From an Occupant
Artist: The New Pornographers
Year: 2000
Album: Mass Romantic
Yesterday, I talked about the harmonic progression in The Cowsills' "The Rain, The Park & Other Things," specifically about the avoidance of the tonic chord. In that case, both the verse and the chorus begin on the minor ii chord, which kind of masks the song's major key. This got me thinking about other songs that begin main sections of the song, especially the chorus, on a chord other than the tonic.
Which led me to today's track. There's certainly no shortage of the I chord in the verse that opens The New Pornographers' first hit. It's pretty much right in your face for most of the opening minute. But the chorus begins on a IV chord that, coupled with Neko Case's wail and the sudden change in drumming, really propels the song forward. (I should state for the record that it's really not all that uncommon for choruses to start on chords other than the tonic--I just think it works particularly well here.) The song could have easily ended at 2:35, but the band pushes it into overdrive for a second bridge that lifts the song to a new power pop level. It's so powerful, in fact, that I think they should have just faded at 3:13 instead of going back to the chorus. But they didn't ask me. :D
Title: The Rain, The Park & Other Things
Artist: The Cowsills
Year: 1967
Album: The Cowsills
I heard The Mamas and Papas singing "California Dreamin'" on the radio today and it reminded me of how overrated they are and how much I like The Cowsills. I did not know this until today, but the Cowsills were the real-life prototype for The Partridge Family: six siblings and their diminutive mom singing flower power songs that belie their Rhode Island roots. This song went to #2 on the charts when charts mattered and they later scored the same position with the title track from the movie "Hair," a much lesser song, but gimmicky enough to sell records.
I never thought about why I like this song so much or why it sounds so different from other songs. So I sat down and plunked it out on the guitar to find something very interesting. The song is in the key of B (well, according to my likely out-of-tune guitar), but the tonic chord is avoided almost entirely! Here's the structure:
Verse: ii iii IV I
Pre-Chorus: ii V I II V
Chorus: ii iii IV V ii iii IV V
Post-Chorus fall-off: V IV iii ii V---harp
The progression through the song works to create a constant sense of rising right up until the feather-like descent of chords and vocals that follows the chorus lands the listener on a soft pillow of harp glissandi. Too flowery? Remember, this was 1967 and any trip that ended like that would have been considered a success.
Transatlantic air travel and a nasty cold forced a two-day hiatus from my blog. Today, I catch up and then some with an unprecedented and truly ridiculous QUADRUPLE PLAY which links four songs, including one of my own just to add an element of shameless self-promotion. Let's begin!
Song #31 of 9999
Title: Be My Baby
Artist: The Ronettes
Year: 1963
Album: Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes
This is the song that started it all with a drumbeat drenched in reverb and a production style that would become famously known as the "Wall of Sound." Phil Spector wrote, arranged and produced the song for the group The Ronettes, named for lead singer Ronnie Bennett who would later become Spector's wife. His unique production style included doubling or tripling instrumental lines, adding orchestral instruments and percussion, and projecting the sound into an echo chamber where it would be re-recorded. The song is considered one of the greatest pop songs in history and led to...
Song #32 of 9999
Title: Don't Worry Baby
Artist: The Beach Boys
Year: 1965
Album: Shut Down, Volume 2
Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was obsessed with "Be My Baby," claiming he listened to the song 100 times a day! Wilson set out to write and record the "male answer" to "Be My Baby" and "Don't Worry Baby" is his effort. In my opinion, Wilson not only matched the Spector creation, but surpassed it. I won't argue which production is better, but those large-interval leaps in the verses and pre-chorus make me giddy every time I hear the song. Fast-forward a dozen years or so to...
Song #33 of 9999
Title: Say Goodbye to Hollywood
Artist: Billy Joel
Year: 1976
Album: Turnstiles
Man, remember when Billy Joel wrote really great songs? Raw emotional songs that are arguably the equivalent of Springsteen's early work. Opening the track, we have the familiar "Be My Baby" drum beat married to the "root root-root 5th" pedal bass line from "Don't Worry Baby." Although the subject matter has changed, Joel does manage to work the word "baby" into the chorus, which I appreciate. The only mis-step in this studio recording is the disco beat of the bridge, which Joel wisely toned down for the live version released in 1981 to great acclaim. Which brings me to....
Listen, I'm not comparing myself to any of these artists so let's get that out of the way from the start. But when I first learned of the link between "Be My Baby" and "Don't Worry Baby," I was immediately determined to write my own "response song." My parameters were pretty simple: the song had to retain the original drum beat and tempo (I sampled it), the chorus had to have significant use of the word "baby" and there needed to be a ton of backing vocals. I kept the pedal bass at the beginning, wrote some typical FBF lyrics (with one particularly clever line--"I'm gonna find the devil who did this if I gotta check every mirror in this town"), added some "96 Tears"-style organ and voilà!
Was without internet access during my last day in England and was unable to post. I'm home now but super-sick so I'm going to bed. What does this mean? Wednesday may have to be the first-ever TRIPLE PLAY. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, watch this incredible video set to Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger."
In celebration of my trip to Greenwich, England today, where I straddled the Prime Meridian with literally one foot in the east and one in the west, I give you this Chicago classic. It's an okay song, much better 40 years ago than now, and to be honest, I'm much more of a Blood, Sweat & Tears fan myself, but...you know, I straddled the Prime Meridian today!
