Robert Plant recently released a nine disc Retrospective Box Set and I thought it would be a good time to blog about one of my main influences from the hard rock genre. While respecting the work of Led Zeppelin, I am not a huge fan, except of the album Houses of the Holy, which I think is a rock masterpiece (possibly to be blogged about in the future here). I discovered Plant during my late junior high – early high school days when I was a fervent listener to rock on the radio. In Rochester, NY this meant two stations at the time, WMJQ, which was once called “the Album Station” (a literal example of the album-oriented rock format that had its heyday in the 70s) and WCMF, which at the time was considered the weaker sibling but ultimately became the only rock station in Rochester (now “classic rock”, I believe) after WMJQ abandoned the rock format for country sometime in the mid-80s (and changed its call letters to WBEE; no link because any radio station that abandons a quality format for profits doesn’t deserved to be linked to).
Plant was recently interviewed on NPR and as is seemingly inevitable, the interviewer (in his narration of the piece) slipped in a slam of Plant’s solo work in the 80s because it used keyboards (clearly suggesting that this was somehow less sophisticated and simply a trendy sign of the times). This is probably the biggest pet peeve I have as a fan and student of 80s pop music. The suggestion that just because of its instrumentation, the songs and songwriting were somehow less sophisticated than either the music that came before or what happened after the 80s (which was far less diverse for a very long time, and used no fewer keyboards and synthetic technologies) is simply bogus. And any music critic who suggests such a lack of sophistication for this music is simply a fraud.
With that small rant out of the way, onto the song. Slow Dancer was one of the rock radio hits on Plant’s debut solo album, Pictures at Eleven, the other being Burning Down One Side. This album is characterized by an edgy sound, that is heavy in guitar and drums (played on most tracks by Phil Collins), and in which Plant’s singing seems to be at least somewhat emulative of his Zeppelin vocal work. Solo work (especially early after an artist departs a band) is typically quite interesting, revealing individual flavors and interests that that artist had brought to the band, and in Slow Dancer we find a middle-eastern-esque influence (suggested primarily by chromatic minor scale motifs) that was also apparent in the Zeppelin song Kashmir, and which would appear in Plant’s later work (e.g. Heaven Knows, on his fourth album Now and Zen).
The song is quite simple in structure, but the sophistication lies in the power and articulation of both the verse and chorus parts. It’s majestic intro wastes no time in setting the exotic atmosphere, and also introducing the solo guitar stylings of Robbie Blunt, whose lead guitar work played a large role in defining Plant’s early solo sound. The verse stays on the same root with a downward transitional fall from stanza to stanza. A simple two chord guitar riff defines the top end of the instrumental sound with coupled bass and synth providing the bottom over straightforward drumming. The tempo is a bombastic slowish midtempo. The simplicity of the verse is a great set up for the melt into the bridge/chorus, which brings through the atmosphere with an intriguing repeating three chord phrase, defined by ascending guitar arpeggios. The three chords are equally timed, providing contrast against the standard four element rock phrasing. In this way the song achieves a sort of emergent-property dynamic. After the first of these, there is a brief keyboard solo that lays on the middle eastern touch with its nondiscrete pitch-bending changes. Then we’re back to another brief intro with a solo guitar phrase. After another verse chorus cycle (drums get very active under the extended second chorus), an “ah-ah ah-ah” vocal backing comes in that sounds like a multiple layering of Plant himself. Then we are into the main guitar solo with simple changes underneath continuing the atmospherics. This gives way to a repeat of the pitchbending keyboard and a new theme with some more “ah ah ah” vocals, this time in a more forward, marching-like poetic. High fast guitar and some screaming “No no no no!” bring us back into the final verse-chorus segment. The three chord cycle extends with vocal vamping and guitar soloing as the song fades. You have to listen to it for a while to realize that there are just three chords cycling the entire time. Less is definitely more in this progression. The fade is perfect for the atmospherics. All in all, a very satisfying, and even somewhat draining song.
I would recommend the entirety of Plant’s first three solo albums: Pictures at Eleven, The Principle of Moments, and Shaken ‘n’ Stirred to experience a visionary rock artist who has a lot of ideas he wants to get out there and is doing things in his own way (on his own label, Es Paranza records). These albums pushed the envelope of hard rock’s interface with pop.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Monday, January 22, 2007
Winning the War - 'Til Tuesday
‘Til Tuesday’ seems to get doubly blasted by people with opinions on pop music. First, they were supposedly one hit wonders on the success of their 1985 monster hit single Voices Carry, but were otherwise one of the many forgettable light-weight pop bands that were around seemingly briefly (at least on radio). Second, fans of Aimee Mann’s later solo work tend to dismiss the band for many of the same reasons a lot of 80s music got dismissed: too poppy, too much synthesizer, etc.
I couldn’t disagree with both of these opinions more. Voices Carry is a nice pop song, the song that initially attracted me to the band. But the band is way way more than that song. In fact, I would argue that VC is one of their least interesting songs (I have the same argument with Men Without Hats and The Safety Dance, and the Cars’ album Heartbeat City: the non hit songs are the best). I am not well versed in Mann’s work. It’s on my list of stuff to check out eventually. But you absolutely cannot do better songwriting than 'Til Tuesday, particularly their first album. As to the instrumentation, the keyboard driven sounds of the 80s have never gotten much respect from the rock world. But to my ear, the best music combines keyboard and guitar sounds seamlessly. 'Til Tuesday did that (as did a lot of rock in the late 70s/early 80s, in particular Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who made their best music, in my opinion, during this period). I am a keyboardist, and therefore biased, so take that with however many grains of salt you like.
It was really hard to pick a song from the Voices Carry album to blog about, but I chose Winning the War, because it has maybe some of the most unexpected elements for a pop song. (The other really really great unheralded songs on this album I would recommend checking out are: I Could Get Used to This, You Know the Rest, Are You Serious?, and Don’t Watch Me Bleed, but really the whole album is excellent. Sadly, I can’t find Youtube videos for any of these songs.)
The song (lyrics here) starts out with a big guitar blast into a upper midtempo groovy intro guitar riff. Then the guitar plays the vocal line of the verse second part of the intro, still guitar driven. The blasts begin each verse line, and the rhythmic line builds into the first verse. Aimee’s sweet high vocals with her quirky phrasing match the instrumental backing of the verses. And the chorus is withheld, like a good pop song should do. There's nice minimalism in these verses, just clean drums with light bouncy bass, midrange groaning guitar, and Aimee's earnest, sugary soprano. Then we hit the first chorus, which is actually bridge like, the vocal line is "winning the war" but it's delivered in a lower register, more furtive than the verse vocals. This element is played twice. The real chorus comes after this, in which a different phrasing contains “I know…. You know… Winning the war’s….not…. Winning at all.” High, with nice harmony (also by Aimee?). This is again over a catchy and seamless fusion of guitar and synthesizer. The bass line of this part changes after two cycles. First, it is specialized to this part, but then it goes back to the bass line of the first chorus flavor, which gives it a funky continuation for the repetition of the chorus message. Finally, the faster high harmonic “Winning the war" vocal is continued with the slower solo “Winning the war” vocal of the first chorus part, with some vamping as the song fades. It’s a short song with a simple but yet sophisticated construction. For a band’s first album, this reflects some very nice crafting. There are instances of this throughout the other two 'Til Tuesday albums ( Welcome Home [1986] and Everything’s Different Now [1988]). I look forward to studying Mann’s solo stuff for similar elements, but I wanted to emphasize here how I feel that 'Til Tuesday has largely gone unappreciated and overlooked. I for one was hugely influenced by this music.
I couldn’t disagree with both of these opinions more. Voices Carry is a nice pop song, the song that initially attracted me to the band. But the band is way way more than that song. In fact, I would argue that VC is one of their least interesting songs (I have the same argument with Men Without Hats and The Safety Dance, and the Cars’ album Heartbeat City: the non hit songs are the best). I am not well versed in Mann’s work. It’s on my list of stuff to check out eventually. But you absolutely cannot do better songwriting than 'Til Tuesday, particularly their first album. As to the instrumentation, the keyboard driven sounds of the 80s have never gotten much respect from the rock world. But to my ear, the best music combines keyboard and guitar sounds seamlessly. 'Til Tuesday did that (as did a lot of rock in the late 70s/early 80s, in particular Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who made their best music, in my opinion, during this period). I am a keyboardist, and therefore biased, so take that with however many grains of salt you like.
It was really hard to pick a song from the Voices Carry album to blog about, but I chose Winning the War, because it has maybe some of the most unexpected elements for a pop song. (The other really really great unheralded songs on this album I would recommend checking out are: I Could Get Used to This, You Know the Rest, Are You Serious?, and Don’t Watch Me Bleed, but really the whole album is excellent. Sadly, I can’t find Youtube videos for any of these songs.)
The song (lyrics here) starts out with a big guitar blast into a upper midtempo groovy intro guitar riff. Then the guitar plays the vocal line of the verse second part of the intro, still guitar driven. The blasts begin each verse line, and the rhythmic line builds into the first verse. Aimee’s sweet high vocals with her quirky phrasing match the instrumental backing of the verses. And the chorus is withheld, like a good pop song should do. There's nice minimalism in these verses, just clean drums with light bouncy bass, midrange groaning guitar, and Aimee's earnest, sugary soprano. Then we hit the first chorus, which is actually bridge like, the vocal line is "winning the war" but it's delivered in a lower register, more furtive than the verse vocals. This element is played twice. The real chorus comes after this, in which a different phrasing contains “I know…. You know… Winning the war’s….not…. Winning at all.” High, with nice harmony (also by Aimee?). This is again over a catchy and seamless fusion of guitar and synthesizer. The bass line of this part changes after two cycles. First, it is specialized to this part, but then it goes back to the bass line of the first chorus flavor, which gives it a funky continuation for the repetition of the chorus message. Finally, the faster high harmonic “Winning the war" vocal is continued with the slower solo “Winning the war” vocal of the first chorus part, with some vamping as the song fades. It’s a short song with a simple but yet sophisticated construction. For a band’s first album, this reflects some very nice crafting. There are instances of this throughout the other two 'Til Tuesday albums ( Welcome Home [1986] and Everything’s Different Now [1988]). I look forward to studying Mann’s solo stuff for similar elements, but I wanted to emphasize here how I feel that 'Til Tuesday has largely gone unappreciated and overlooked. I for one was hugely influenced by this music.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Candy - Talk Talk
Talk Talk is one of the main influences on my songwriting (and vocal style). Their Wikipedia entry states that the group is best known in pop circles for its New Wave singles like "Talk Talk" and "It's My Life" but best appreciated by musicians in their more experimental "post rock" material on the albums Spirit of Eden, Laughing Stock and afterward. All true, but my favorite Talk Talk songs are the more obscure ones of their early period. These have conventional pop structures, although you can hear where they are going (toward the experimental stuff) through their signature instrumentation and the roomy sound of the production. The things that have always stood out for me in Talk Talk are the terrific songwriting, fused with very strong atmospherics and simple but hooky chord progressions, and the vocals of lead singer Mark Hollis, which are quite high and extremely soulful - a perfect match for the songs.
Candy, the final track on their debut 1982 album The Party's Over is my favorite Talk Talk song. It's a masterpiece of downtempo emotional intensity. It begins with a little bell dinging on the off beat and then the intro/verse digs in with a slow basic rock beat (the percussion track is quite high in the mix throughout) and a high, pulsing synth theme. Then the piano theme wafts in, along with their distinctive rubbery bass line. The toms in the drumkit during the verse sound somewhat electronic, but it's unmistakably human drumming. There's a very nice build into the first chorus, whose volume is filled by a compelling running piano line, which jumps around as the bridge approaches. The vocal harmony in the chorus mixes a sweetness into the overall sad tone and during the chorus the bassline is tighter, less rubbery, and slightly funky in its repeating figure. The bridge reduces the drumkit to a military snare figure, and comes across as sort of a personal anthem somewhat outside the main thought line of the verse and chorus. The formula builds downward with the rhythm track returning to verse music leading to the big final chorus. The final chorus and big slow ending, somewhat rare outside of orchestral rock, provide a wonderful denouement with a sense of emotional drain afterward. There is an interesting demo version of this song on their 1998 compilation Asides Besides, with cleaner drumming that is lower in the mix, quite a bit more treble (but the initial bell sound is missing), and a backing vocal in the chorus that sounds higher (possibly a different person).
I won't often highlight lyrics, but in the case of Talk Talk it's a must. Here they are:
Candy
This sure is some kind of party
It's so useful
Surrounds my life with excuses
For what I choose to lose
And my name
Doesn't look the same to me
And inside
Don't you know I feel so bad
Candy,
When I tried to turn away
To feel new again
My emotion cost me pain
Did I look the same
When I think about the times
That I laughed away the idea you'd cheat me
But look again
What do you say 'That's my name'
And I hope that I've kept you amused
To wipe that spit right off my boots
And when I'm home and thinking in the dark
I hope that none of this has had to go too far
When it gets too late
To see me any other way
And it gets so hard to hold on
To everything that I want so bad
It's a relationship song. Apparently surrounding a woman named Candy (What do you say "That's my name") who has been unfaithful and broken the protagonist's heart. But there seems to be an analogy to the other kind of candy as well.
I never studied the lyrics of this song until I had heard it probably dozens of times and it had become my favorite Talk Talk song. In this case, discovering the full lyrics (instead of the partial understanding I could get from hearing the song) was like a picture emerging from fog. Not that I could immediately understand them, but they became beautiful immediately. This was both because they were associated with this amazingly beautiful song and also because they linked the whole work together. This has happened with other Talk Talk songs (e.g. Renee).
From Renee: "And maybe when the cheat plays
Maybe when the ace falls from his suit
And he tells you
'Yeah that's the game, I didn't want to lose it on the two'
You're playing his way
But the prize that you've been losing was youth"
These are genius lyrics but they are even more amazing if you have been steeped in the song first.
Interestingly, Tim Friese-Greene, the band's producer (a de facto band member), also produced and became the keyboard player for Catherine Wheel. This shows in the beautiful atmospherics. It's not a coincidence that I was attracted to the music of the two bands independently.
Candy, the final track on their debut 1982 album The Party's Over is my favorite Talk Talk song. It's a masterpiece of downtempo emotional intensity. It begins with a little bell dinging on the off beat and then the intro/verse digs in with a slow basic rock beat (the percussion track is quite high in the mix throughout) and a high, pulsing synth theme. Then the piano theme wafts in, along with their distinctive rubbery bass line. The toms in the drumkit during the verse sound somewhat electronic, but it's unmistakably human drumming. There's a very nice build into the first chorus, whose volume is filled by a compelling running piano line, which jumps around as the bridge approaches. The vocal harmony in the chorus mixes a sweetness into the overall sad tone and during the chorus the bassline is tighter, less rubbery, and slightly funky in its repeating figure. The bridge reduces the drumkit to a military snare figure, and comes across as sort of a personal anthem somewhat outside the main thought line of the verse and chorus. The formula builds downward with the rhythm track returning to verse music leading to the big final chorus. The final chorus and big slow ending, somewhat rare outside of orchestral rock, provide a wonderful denouement with a sense of emotional drain afterward. There is an interesting demo version of this song on their 1998 compilation Asides Besides, with cleaner drumming that is lower in the mix, quite a bit more treble (but the initial bell sound is missing), and a backing vocal in the chorus that sounds higher (possibly a different person).
I won't often highlight lyrics, but in the case of Talk Talk it's a must. Here they are:
Candy
This sure is some kind of party
It's so useful
Surrounds my life with excuses
For what I choose to lose
And my name
Doesn't look the same to me
And inside
Don't you know I feel so bad
Candy,
When I tried to turn away
To feel new again
My emotion cost me pain
Did I look the same
When I think about the times
That I laughed away the idea you'd cheat me
But look again
What do you say 'That's my name'
And I hope that I've kept you amused
To wipe that spit right off my boots
And when I'm home and thinking in the dark
I hope that none of this has had to go too far
When it gets too late
To see me any other way
And it gets so hard to hold on
To everything that I want so bad
It's a relationship song. Apparently surrounding a woman named Candy (What do you say "That's my name") who has been unfaithful and broken the protagonist's heart. But there seems to be an analogy to the other kind of candy as well.
I never studied the lyrics of this song until I had heard it probably dozens of times and it had become my favorite Talk Talk song. In this case, discovering the full lyrics (instead of the partial understanding I could get from hearing the song) was like a picture emerging from fog. Not that I could immediately understand them, but they became beautiful immediately. This was both because they were associated with this amazingly beautiful song and also because they linked the whole work together. This has happened with other Talk Talk songs (e.g. Renee).
From Renee: "And maybe when the cheat plays
Maybe when the ace falls from his suit
And he tells you
'Yeah that's the game, I didn't want to lose it on the two'
You're playing his way
But the prize that you've been losing was youth"
These are genius lyrics but they are even more amazing if you have been steeped in the song first.
Interestingly, Tim Friese-Greene, the band's producer (a de facto band member), also produced and became the keyboard player for Catherine Wheel. This shows in the beautiful atmospherics. It's not a coincidence that I was attracted to the music of the two bands independently.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Love Like Blood - Killing Joke
The three elements crucial to a great rock song, in my opinion, are: hooky chord changes, a beat, and atmosphere (achievable in a number of ways but usually through the use of keyboards and/or guitars). Love Like Blood, by Killing Joke, has all of three of these in spades. A solid, danceable midtempo beat throughout, played by a real drummer ("Big Paul" Ferguson) with a lot of adrenaline, riveted exactly with precise bass and distorted rhythm guitar. The intro builds the perfect atmosphere, a simple guitar arpeggio and the two distant keyboard chords, and the beat comes flailing two measures in. A simple but spooky one chord bridge (sounding a little Dr. Who esque even), then the chorus descends through some major chords, all very tightly leading back to the intro/verse.
The lyrics are here. Frankly they don't matter to the impact of the music, but they do shed a little light on the sort of live action socialist realism clips in the video (click on song link above) "We must dream of promised lands and fields. That never fade in season. As we move towards no end we learn to die. Red tears are shed on grey." Looks to be a critique of the Cold War Soviet something or other. I don't know too much about this band, other than that they received a lot of college radio airplay in the 80s (probably their biggest stateside hit was Eighties, an obvious commentary on late Cold War politics). Their Wikipedia entry describes them as one of the most influential post-punk bands (a pretty large and nebulous genre). At least from the two songs I mention here, they certainly compress the hard edges of punk into organized pop song structures that drive pretty hard. Definitely worth pursuing a deeper understanding of this band.
One interesting, if a little annoying, thing about the studio version of Love Like Blood is an apparent production glitch in the extended instrumental part toward the end of the song (I think the Youtube video linked above cuts out before this). Either extra beats are thrown in or a fragment of a measure is deleted. I don't know why the song was left this way but someone has probably written about it somewhere...
The lyrics are here. Frankly they don't matter to the impact of the music, but they do shed a little light on the sort of live action socialist realism clips in the video (click on song link above) "We must dream of promised lands and fields. That never fade in season. As we move towards no end we learn to die. Red tears are shed on grey." Looks to be a critique of the Cold War Soviet something or other. I don't know too much about this band, other than that they received a lot of college radio airplay in the 80s (probably their biggest stateside hit was Eighties, an obvious commentary on late Cold War politics). Their Wikipedia entry describes them as one of the most influential post-punk bands (a pretty large and nebulous genre). At least from the two songs I mention here, they certainly compress the hard edges of punk into organized pop song structures that drive pretty hard. Definitely worth pursuing a deeper understanding of this band.
One interesting, if a little annoying, thing about the studio version of Love Like Blood is an apparent production glitch in the extended instrumental part toward the end of the song (I think the Youtube video linked above cuts out before this). Either extra beats are thrown in or a fragment of a measure is deleted. I don't know why the song was left this way but someone has probably written about it somewhere...
Sunday, January 14, 2007
For Love - Lush
Lush was a band I became aware of because of my friend Dave in grad school in the early 90s. He gave me a tape of their Gala EP compliation and Joy: 1967-1990 by Ultra Vivid Scene (also on 4AD records ) on the other side. I played the hell out of that tape. The mood and atmosphere of both bands were really really nice. Dark, somewhat lonely, but with good tempos/rhythm tracks and a sort of detached melodicism.
Then I didn't think very much about Lush for almost ten years. This was my loss, because in the late 90s they broke up following the suicide of their drummer. I've recently begun to study the Shoegaze genre, in which Lush was classified. When I first heard the term Shoegaze or Shoegazer, my impression of what this actually meant was false. It wasn't music for people who stood around and looked at their feet. It was music made by bands that used big walls of guitar effects. The guitarists gave the appearance of frequently looking at their feet while switching and adjusting their effects pedals. The genre was one of the more interesting trends in 90s alternative music and I'll probably talk about it a lot more in the future, especially in reference to Catherine Wheel, another of my favorite 90s bands.
Lush's position in Shoegaze was interesting and evolved as their sound evolved. Initially they pursued an "ethereal" sound, like their well established 4AD label-mates Cocteau Twins. A few albums in, their sound tightened into harder rock, and toward the end of their run they seemed to be on the rock side of pop. Nevertheless, throughout, the guitar and vocal sounds of their two vocalist/guitarists Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson provided a compelling and powerful top end to their sound. The combination of the guitar noise wall and the airy and often unconventional soprano harmonies of Berenyi and Anderson made them, for lack of a better word, perfect. Especially with the duo's amazing songwriting.
For Love (video here; live version here; a very classic depiction of how hard it is to play live and how fragile the sound can be, but still quite well done) is the perfect song by the perfect band. It's on the Spooky album (it was actually on an earlier EP), which seemed to mark Lush's emergence from the ether towards a deliberately somewhat more poppy sound (which is definitely not a strike against them in my book). The chord progressions are solid, hooky but there is some intelligent modulation of top and bottom parts during the later bridge/chorus work. For me, the chord progression defines the narrative content of the song. The actual lyrics ( here) depict a fairly straightforward relationship meme, but that's really secondary to the sound here. The icy guitar leads and haunting high harmonization (alliteration warranted) are thrilling. Definitely a song that repays many listens and never gets stale.
Then I didn't think very much about Lush for almost ten years. This was my loss, because in the late 90s they broke up following the suicide of their drummer. I've recently begun to study the Shoegaze genre, in which Lush was classified. When I first heard the term Shoegaze or Shoegazer, my impression of what this actually meant was false. It wasn't music for people who stood around and looked at their feet. It was music made by bands that used big walls of guitar effects. The guitarists gave the appearance of frequently looking at their feet while switching and adjusting their effects pedals. The genre was one of the more interesting trends in 90s alternative music and I'll probably talk about it a lot more in the future, especially in reference to Catherine Wheel, another of my favorite 90s bands.
Lush's position in Shoegaze was interesting and evolved as their sound evolved. Initially they pursued an "ethereal" sound, like their well established 4AD label-mates Cocteau Twins. A few albums in, their sound tightened into harder rock, and toward the end of their run they seemed to be on the rock side of pop. Nevertheless, throughout, the guitar and vocal sounds of their two vocalist/guitarists Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson provided a compelling and powerful top end to their sound. The combination of the guitar noise wall and the airy and often unconventional soprano harmonies of Berenyi and Anderson made them, for lack of a better word, perfect. Especially with the duo's amazing songwriting.
For Love (video here; live version here; a very classic depiction of how hard it is to play live and how fragile the sound can be, but still quite well done) is the perfect song by the perfect band. It's on the Spooky album (it was actually on an earlier EP), which seemed to mark Lush's emergence from the ether towards a deliberately somewhat more poppy sound (which is definitely not a strike against them in my book). The chord progressions are solid, hooky but there is some intelligent modulation of top and bottom parts during the later bridge/chorus work. For me, the chord progression defines the narrative content of the song. The actual lyrics ( here) depict a fairly straightforward relationship meme, but that's really secondary to the sound here. The icy guitar leads and haunting high harmonization (alliteration warranted) are thrilling. Definitely a song that repays many listens and never gets stale.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Napoleon Sheds His Skin - Red Rider
Before I do my first song post, a word about what I'm actually trying to accomplish here. First, I am an amateur musician but I am not an expert on pop music or music history. For all of the bands I talk about here, there are people who know far more than I do. And there are usually fan web sites and Wikipedia pages for the bands (which is actually where I get a lot of my information). This blog is not really about being a fan of particular bands. It's about the songs.
For each of the songs I will talk about, there are particular musical reasons, often fine details or a combination of them, which are why I like the song a lot. What I'm interested in is defining what makes good pop and rock music, to my ears, and maybe to yours as well. Now, onto the song...
The reason why I chose a Red Rider song for my first song post is that Red Rider was the first band I saw live - with the Romantics (the headliners) and a one hit wonder metal-ish band called Orion the Hunter, around July 4, 1984 at Silver Stadium in Rochester, NY. Red Rider was a straightahead rock band from Canada. Their only hit (not counting hits by their later incarnation Tom Cochrane and Red Rider and later solo stuff by lead singer Tom Cochrane) on US radio was the fairly hard rock song Lunatic Fringe . Their signature sounds at the time were Cochrane's somewhat edgy vocal qualities, tight bass lines, and the use of a pedal steel guitar, with (apparently) distortion and other effects, for solos. This last element is rare outside of country music and the sound Red Rider achieved with the instrument was unique and extremely powerful. In the Youtube link above for Lunatic Fringe, you can see the pedal steel in action.
Napoleon Sheds His Skin, on their third album, Neruda , achieves the apex of the pedal steel sound, with a long solo at the end, which is absolutely amazing. (Unfortunately I can't find any samples of this song on the web and the Itunes store only has As Far as Siam , the previous Red Rider album), so you'll just have to buy the disc or borrow it from a friend with good taste in music! ;-)
The song itself (lyrics here ) is a rumination on Napoleon's exile on Elba Island, providing a grim and lonely atmosphere. The song is mid-downtempo and opens with its A part, a sad piano riff falling into pulsating strings which back the verse section. The chorus has a few more chord changes that follow the rhythm of the lyrics "Napolean sheds his skin in the summer when the sun is high. He never knew when to quit, when to stop, or when to say die." The song structure is a standard verse chorus formula with a bridge after the second chorus. The bridge introduces two new sections, one guitar driven, then leading to a quieter string driven progression with a high piano line flitting in and out, which sets the stage for the most powerful section of the lyrics. This is followed by the third chorus, which is doubled with a new stanza. Then there is some vocal vamping on the title line and we hear the pedal steel for the first time, first coming in on chords and then soloing out with the pulsating strings and simplified intro-like bass changes in the background. This solo takes the song to a tremendous crescendo of emotion. Every time you think that the instrument has peaked out in pitch, it goes higher, and never without power. After the steel solo digs back down into the chord progression, the song fades out on the solo, which is the best possible way it could end. I've always liked fadeouts in songs because it seems like the song still goes on forever, it just moved over the horizon.
So there you have it: Napoleon Sheds His Skin by Red Rider. One of my favorite songs of all time. I like it because of the atmosphere, the complex bridge, and the amazing use of pedal steel guitar. I actually don't remember whether Red Rider played this song when I saw them live (they were then supporting their next album Breaking Curfew ). They probably did. I would not discover their music in full until my college years, 1985-1989, during which I listened to all of the above albums (and some of the later Cochrane and Red Rider stuff) quite a bit. Definitely in my top 10 of bands that I listen to, as well as those that have inspired my own music. But that list is a subject for another post...
For each of the songs I will talk about, there are particular musical reasons, often fine details or a combination of them, which are why I like the song a lot. What I'm interested in is defining what makes good pop and rock music, to my ears, and maybe to yours as well. Now, onto the song...
The reason why I chose a Red Rider song for my first song post is that Red Rider was the first band I saw live - with the Romantics (the headliners) and a one hit wonder metal-ish band called Orion the Hunter, around July 4, 1984 at Silver Stadium in Rochester, NY. Red Rider was a straightahead rock band from Canada. Their only hit (not counting hits by their later incarnation Tom Cochrane and Red Rider and later solo stuff by lead singer Tom Cochrane) on US radio was the fairly hard rock song Lunatic Fringe . Their signature sounds at the time were Cochrane's somewhat edgy vocal qualities, tight bass lines, and the use of a pedal steel guitar, with (apparently) distortion and other effects, for solos. This last element is rare outside of country music and the sound Red Rider achieved with the instrument was unique and extremely powerful. In the Youtube link above for Lunatic Fringe, you can see the pedal steel in action.
Napoleon Sheds His Skin, on their third album, Neruda , achieves the apex of the pedal steel sound, with a long solo at the end, which is absolutely amazing. (Unfortunately I can't find any samples of this song on the web and the Itunes store only has As Far as Siam , the previous Red Rider album), so you'll just have to buy the disc or borrow it from a friend with good taste in music! ;-)
The song itself (lyrics here ) is a rumination on Napoleon's exile on Elba Island, providing a grim and lonely atmosphere. The song is mid-downtempo and opens with its A part, a sad piano riff falling into pulsating strings which back the verse section. The chorus has a few more chord changes that follow the rhythm of the lyrics "Napolean sheds his skin in the summer when the sun is high. He never knew when to quit, when to stop, or when to say die." The song structure is a standard verse chorus formula with a bridge after the second chorus. The bridge introduces two new sections, one guitar driven, then leading to a quieter string driven progression with a high piano line flitting in and out, which sets the stage for the most powerful section of the lyrics. This is followed by the third chorus, which is doubled with a new stanza. Then there is some vocal vamping on the title line and we hear the pedal steel for the first time, first coming in on chords and then soloing out with the pulsating strings and simplified intro-like bass changes in the background. This solo takes the song to a tremendous crescendo of emotion. Every time you think that the instrument has peaked out in pitch, it goes higher, and never without power. After the steel solo digs back down into the chord progression, the song fades out on the solo, which is the best possible way it could end. I've always liked fadeouts in songs because it seems like the song still goes on forever, it just moved over the horizon.
So there you have it: Napoleon Sheds His Skin by Red Rider. One of my favorite songs of all time. I like it because of the atmosphere, the complex bridge, and the amazing use of pedal steel guitar. I actually don't remember whether Red Rider played this song when I saw them live (they were then supporting their next album Breaking Curfew ). They probably did. I would not discover their music in full until my college years, 1985-1989, during which I listened to all of the above albums (and some of the later Cochrane and Red Rider stuff) quite a bit. Definitely in my top 10 of bands that I listen to, as well as those that have inspired my own music. But that list is a subject for another post...
Welcome to Onsongs!
Hi! My name is Slig Solitude. This blog is about songs, principally pop songs of the late 70s thru early 90s. It's also about many other things, such as band names, my own band, science (what I do in real life).
Stay tuned for my first actual posting (a bit about the science of band names).
Stay tuned for my first actual posting (a bit about the science of band names).
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