Jailbreak - Thin Lizzy

Thin Lizzy is a staple of the Classic Rock format in the form of their two major hits, both from 1976, The Boys are Back in Town and Jailbreak. But I bet few American radio listeners know that they were from Ireland. Their sound, from guitar riffs through Phil Lynott’s vocals, is quintessentially American. In fact they were doing this early enough to arguably lay claim to partially inventing a sound that later Southern Rock bands like 38 Special were still mining well into the 80s. It would make an interesting musicology master’s thesis project to quantify exactly what makes Thin Lizzy sound this way and what mix of influences produced such an iconic result. The live version of Jailbreak linked above is a little too fast and doesn’t quite capture the simple power of its central guitar riff. I recommend picking up the studio version. But on the other hand, as a document of the live hard rock experience in its heydey, the video is perfect.

Motorhead

Like many in the states, my first exposure to Motorhead was their appearance on the classic BBC comedy The Young Ones. These guys absolutely rocked then, and they rocked about 15 years later when my bandmate (in U-pump) Matt and I saw them play in Madison, WI. Lemmy cruises above it all like a larger than life hood ornament leaning into the heavy metal future at 95 mph.

Treat Me Right - Pat Benatar

No one made straight ahead rock in the early 80s better than Pat Benatar. There weren’t that many female artists doing this at the time (the pantheon included Heart and Joan Jett on the rock side and Blondie, Stevie Nicks, Quarterflash, the Go Gos, and later on the Bangles on the poppier side) but I’m not just talking about female artists here. Benatar’s songs and production were among the best stuff that any rockers were putting out. There was a very nice fusion between guitar and keyboards in these songs (also true of the first few Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers albums) that disappeared in the 90s and really has never come back. Things got way too guitar oriented (both toward electric/distorted/lead sounds and jangly/acoustic/rhythm work) and the production values got too bass/drums heavy and overorchestrated. Plus, at least in America, there eventually was a general reaction against 80s synth pop which led to an overall dismissal of keyboards and, in my opinion, an overall degradation of pop and rock sounds that inevitably affected the songwriting (and still does today). Anyway, I digress…

Treat Me Right, from 1981, is one of Benatar’s less well known hits, although it got a decent amount of airplay on rock and pop stations at the time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the video of this on Youtube. So you’ll have to settle for this bizarre fan scrapbook of anime, Harry Potter, Capt. Jack Sparrow, and random other stuff that was set to the song (sound quality is pretty good, actually).

Slow Dancer - Robert Plant

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.