My friend Michael, the chap who suggests songs from the 1980s for this blog's Educating Peter series (Hi, Michael!), spotted this coincidence involving a not-so-well-known French band and a better-known non-French band.
In both excerpts there is a verse comprising two melodies, like so:
Verse melody: first half (two bars)
Verse melody: second half (two bars)
In the coincidence, the first-half melody isn't all that similar – although they both share a fairly similar rhythm. The melody in the second-half, however, is where we hit the coincidence jackpot.
I mentioned that in case you started listening and thought "They're not alike at all. Michael and Peter don't know what they're talking about. Pah!"
Choc with Richard Kennings - "I Want You To Be My Girl" (1970) (excerpt)
"Dreamboat Jack" appears on Hey Geronimo's self-titled EP. (See below.) When I listened to it I thought: "Yep, I'm buying that." Not just for the irresistible "Dreamboat Jack", but also for early-ABBA vibe of "Why Don't We Do Something?", the wonderful vocal harmonies in "Carbon Affair", the energy in "I Got No Money", the glam of "Co-Op Bookshop", and the Sixties psychedelia vibe that pervades pretty much every song.
I'm in a full-on King Crimson phase at the moment. I don't know how it started, and I don't know why it started, but it started. I'm now listening to as much King Crimson as I can, but I fear it's going to take a while because they have an enormous discography. (13 studio albums, 25 live albums, 8 compilation albums, and 3 EPs. Eek!)
I'm currently diggin' the 80's incarnation of King Crimson (the band's been through a few line-up changes since it began in 1968), and during my 80's-model KC listening travels I came across a bit of music that immediately reminded me of the start of a very well-known number 1 song that's also from the 1980s.
Rather than waste your time with a few more paragraphs about King Crimson (I'd like to, but I'm picturing you yawning right now), I'll get to the point. Otherwise this post may end up a little longer than I had originally planned. (I had originally planned it to be short.)
The CRY! is an American band that I've mentioned in the past – but I'm not here to tell you that. I'm here to tell you that they have themselves a new song.
It's called "Discoteque"*, and unlike the late-70s/early-80s new wave/power pop flavour of the band's previous efforts, this new one is redolent of glam.
No, not redolent – it's positively soaked in glam. To me, "Discoteque" sounds like almost every glam song ever recorded.
If you're in a glam mood, then The CRY! can help you out in a major way:
Although my friend Steve suggested this particular coincidence (Hi, Steve!), he did so wondering if it was a strong enough one to go on the blog, and if I'd reject it.
Reject? A friend? Never!
I had a listen and thought "Well, both songs are sharing only a slow foot stomp, but what the hey – that's enough for me."
So, throwing caution to wherever gets thrown, here are Elton John and Billy Joel slowing things down and stomping their feet in a fairly similar fashion:
Oh, and Ben Folds Five added a bit of a slow foot-stomper to the end of one of their songs that sounds suspiciously similar to "Bennie And The Jets" or "Big Shot". I don't know if it was intended to be an "ironic statement" or anything (it's hard to tell with Mr. Folds), but the band certainly seems to be referencing at least one of those songs:
The enjoyable / informative / enlightening / illuminating / remarkable (that's enough, Peter) blogger Rushbo has an enjoyable / informative / enlightening (stop it) blog called Big Plans For Everybody.
Rushbo recently posted his views on a new 10cc box set, Tenology. Rushbo is a bigger fan of 10cc than I am, and he was terribly enthusiastic about the set. I got the impression that he couldn't get enough of it, whereas from what I've seen of it, I, er, could. (I voiced my irritations on Facebook. But I'm definitely interested in the DVD that's included in it.)
Anyway, Rushbo's unbridled enthusiasm for Tenology reminded me that I haven't played you a 10cc song in ages. ("Thank goodness", I hear non-fans of 10cc exclaim.)
To make up for the recent lack of 10cc in the general vicinity of this blog, I'll play you three of my favourite post-Godley/Creme tracks. (If you have no idea what the phrase "post-Godley/Creme" means, then you are definitely not a 10cc fan – and you'd probably be better off reading a different blog today.)
I'll start with "Reds In My Bed". I think it's a gorgeous pop song:
Now here's 10cc gettin' a bit raunchier (well, as raunchy a 10cc could get) with a song that's like a dirtier version of "I'm Mandy I'm Fly" in which a chap has a bit of a liaison with a woman who is not what she seems. (Hint: she seems real.) This song is one of 10cc's specialties: it's a multi-part, mini-opera. This has six distinct sections:
By the way, the other two tracks in today's post are in that box set, but "Shock On The Tube (Don't Want Love)" isn't. Grrr.
And here's 10cc "in the groove" (sort of), as they head out to the dancefloor. This one has seven different parts to it (maybe the band don't want to bore the listener):
This post is a request from a musician named John (Hi, John!) who holds the distinction of being the very first musician to contact me via YouTube.
John sent me a message through the YouTubes (which was a surprise, because I didn't know YouTube users could send messages to each other) letting me know about one of his songs. It's called "Free", and John released it under the moniker of The Yellow Dazies. He thought I might enjoy it. He was right. I enjoyed it.
One of the reasons I enjoyed it is that it reminded me of two power pop songs I like enormously. I'll mention those other two songs after I play you John's song.
1. The start of "Free" uses the same the chord progression as the chorus of Cheap Trick's "Surrender". Because "Free" starts without any vocals (0:00-0:17), you can cheerfully sing the chorus of "Surrender" over the top of it before John starts his singing. It's a heap o' fun:
2. The last part of "Free", from 3:40 onwards, reminds me of Rooney's "I'm A Terrible Person". It's not a huge coincidence, but it was "Free"'s melodic guitar lines that made me think of the Rooney song:
To make up for yesterday's ghastliness (i.e., Eric Carmen being not much of a rocker in the Raspberries' "I'm A Rocker"), here's a lesser-known Raspberries song that I think is magnificent:
This is the easiest Educating Peter post I think I'm ever going to write.
This week young Michael (Hi, Michael!) suggested an obscure Power Pop / New Wave song from 1981 called "I Don't Wanna Cry" by The Keys.
Unbeknownst to Michael, "I Don't Wanna Cry" has already appeared on the blog. Easy.
The song made its first appearance in amongst four other songs in an instalment of another, much older series on this blog called Frank's Faves on Fridays. That series was instigated by my friend Frank (Hi, Frank!) who, every Friday, would send me four or five of his favourite songs. And, like the Educating Peter series, Frank handed the songs over to me, and I would offer my thoughts on them.
When I received "I Don't Wanna Cry" from Michael, the names of both the song and the band didn't look familiar at all. And when I started listening to the song it didn't sound familiar. But then the singing started and BAM!, I remembered it. I also remembered that I had put it on the blog at some point in time.
Although I'm usually mildly allergic to skinny-tie songs, I liked this. And the more I played it the more I liked it. (I've played it five times now – in a row.) And I like the lyrics, too. There are only two things I wasn't keen on:
1) The melody in the verse has an octave jump (e.g., at 0:08: "...our last GOOD night...") that I find a little disconcerting. I sounds a little like a yelp instead of being part of a natural and flowing melody. It's a very minor thing, and doesn't stop me from enjoying the song, but it's just slightly jarring;
2) One of the song's recurring riffs has a passing note that made me screw up my face the first couple of times I heard it. (One example is at 1:21.) I'm used to it now, but I thought it just a tad sour in amongst the rest of the song.
But I like this song a little more every time I play it. (I think I've already said that.)
***
I've just listened to "I Don't Wanna Cry" again, and I'd say that pretty much everything I said earlier still applies.
However, I would add one thing:
I didn't notice it before, but this time I can hear a little musical coincidence:
(*That sounds horribly pretentious. It sounds as if I'm in Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait: "That is what he said. That is what Peter said. He said what he said when he said the thing he said because that is what he said" etc.)
Well, I've finally gone a day without listening to Peelgreems, the band I first heard about two months ago (thanks, Miyuki!) and had been listening to relentlessly ever since.
I don't know what it is about the music of Peelgreems. There's something in it that is catnip to me. I don't know if it's the tunes (I love 'em), or the playing (the musicians all have excellent chops – or as non-musicians would say, "they play well"), or the production (it's busy but clean), or a combination of the three, but I can't stop returning to it. Until now.
Woohoo! Peelgreems has released its grip on me! I spent a day without listening to them. Huzzah!
Mind you, the very next day I was back listening to Peelgreems. And have been since then.
To celebrate my Peelgreems-free day, here's a Peelgreems song:
For today's song, I was torn between the compact and poppy "Simple And Sweet" or the epic "A Great Dictator". ("Compact and poppy" won.)
However, I would love you to hear "A Great Dictator" anyway. It's the last track on Peelgreems' 2010 album, First Step To Merry Test ..., and I think it's a stunning way to end the album.
The less I say about this track the better. Just press "play":
Peelgreems has released two albums, Big Adventure (2012) and First Step To Merry Test ... (2010). (Before those two album there was an EP, From A To L ... [2010], but I wouldn't mention that too loudly. It's enjoyable-ish, but it's what I'd call "nascent".)
I think both those albums are tremendously magnificent, and it leads me to the following question:
Isn't there any power pop blogger who's going to review a Peelgreems album?
I had no intention of playing you today's song, because it's not light 'n' breezy. At all. It's deadly serious. But...
I am playing it to you today because it ended up in my head, and wouldn't leave for most of the day.
Due to an overzealous record company who used to be extremely enthusiastic whenever I posted this band's songs on the blog and named them, it's slightly tricky mentioning this band properly. I'll just say that, despite the legal unpleasantries, this band is my favourite from the 1980s. They were – and still are – by far my favourite live band I ever saw perform.
I feel compelled to play you today's song because it shows you what they were like live, and why I revere this band. The performance is intense.
Whenever I watch it (and I've seen it plenty of times now, courtesy of the magnificent DVD it appears on), my usual way of experiencing it is by sitting in my seat gobsmacked, in a state of utter seriousness unbecoming of a rock music fan.
The song is about a troupe of boxers in Australia in the early 1900s. It was organised by a man called Jimmy Sharman, and his underlings were young men being pummelled for entertainment.
I'd like to change my description of this performance. It not "intense". It's INTENSE:
I wasn't able to find any MP3s of "4th Time Around" to use for this post, so I ended up having to use Ron's video on Vimeo. (Thanks, Ron!) It was the only instance of the song I could find on the Internet.
It looks like Mr. Dylan – or his record company, or his lawyers – have heavy-duty views on people reproducing his music.
To counter the trouble I may get into for airing Ron's Vimeo video here, I can do what Ron did. He added the following text to his video:
"Copyright Disclaimer, Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for 'fair use' for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."
That's very handy. I hadn't thought of that before. Up until I saw that disclaimer, I just put music on the blog and hoped that people understood why I did it. (Hint: It's so you can hear the music I talk about.)
I know today's song has already been posted on at least two other power pop blogs (Powerpopaholic and Power Pop Overdose – hi, chaps!), but I found an excuse to play it here as well. I thought: "Well, those two are American power pop blogs. It hasn't appeared on an Antipodean power pop blog yet."
Now that I've offered my woeful excuse to present to you a song that's already been played elsewhere, I'll present it to you.
It's Michael Carpenter's cover of Cliff Richard's "We Don't Talk Anymore". Michael's version will be appearing on an album full of light-rock covers called Drink A Toast To Innocence: A Tribute To Lite Rock. (Hipsters beware: there's no irony in that title whatsoever. It's exactly what you think it is.)
The album is apparently going to be released early next year, but in the meantime there's a Facebook page for it to keep you up to date.
By the way, last week I played you Swedish powerpopper David Myhr recording the guitar solo for his version of 10cc's "The Things We Do For Love", That'll be on the album too.
And another contributor to the album is Eytan Mirsky. Here's his track:
And...
A chap by the name of Andy Reed, who goes by the alias of An American Underdog, will be appearing on the album as well. Here's a snippet of Andy doing whatever it is he's doing (I don't know what he was doing, because I felt dizzy watching him):
When I posted the previous coincidence in this series (# 337), one involving a band called fun., regular reader fitzall piped up with this comment:
"And when I hear the start of fun.'s previous hit 'We Are Young' I want to burst in to 'Zabadak' by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich."
I hadn't heard "Zabadak" before (I didn't even know it existed), so I went a-looking for it. When I heard the beastie, my first response to fitzy's comment was:
"I'm not surprised."
The similarity is that both songs start with a drum beat, and that drum beat is remarkably similar. If I wrote it down – which is precisely what I'm going to do – and asked you to tap it out, or sing it to yourself, I'd ask you to tap/sing very steadily the following beat. Each uppercase word is louder than the lowercase ones.
Well, a week later (i.e., a week ago) the band sent me another email (that I forgot about, which is why you're reading this now and not one week ago – oops).
The email was very succinct. This is the entire text of that message:
I like free association. It's the reason today's post exists.
This is how today's post came about:
Commenter Jon (Hi, Jon!) asked to hear a particular Split Enz song on the blog. He also mentioned that he had a bit of trouble with some of my older Split Enz posts, which prompted me to repair them.
One of the old Split Enz posts highlighted the bass playing of Nigel Griggs.
Nigel Griggs is one of my favourite bass players. I'd describe him as coming from the Paul McCartney school of melodic, fluid bass playing.
This week Michael has suggested a song from the tail-end of the Eighties, when new musical trends began to appear – such as Britpop.
Cue one Britpop song suggested by Michael...
The Song
The song is "Made Of Stone" by The Stone Roses. It was released in 1989. And very soon I'm going to hear it for the first time.
If you're wondering why, of all songs, Michael chose "Made Of Stone", he says it's because he had the chorus stuck in his head and thought "Ah,I can educate Peter with that."
Interruption
Before I start listening to "Made Of Stone" and then commence yappin' about it, I'd like to mention something:
I'm remarkably ignorant of The Stone Roses' oeuvre (I've only ever seen / heard one song by them, and that was "I Wanna Be Adored" which I saw once on a TV music program). I've been reliably informed (mainly because I looked it up) that "Made Of Stone" is one of the tracks on The Stone Roses' self-titled debut album, which is something I've never heard. (Apparently, "I Wanna Be Adored" is one of the tracks on it.) Almost every review of the album I've seen talks about it being seminal / epochal / revolutionary in terms of British pop music history.
Because Michael suggested "Made Of Stone" this week, I now want to hear the entire seminal / epochal / revolutionary album to hear what all the fuss is/was about. And I'll do that right after I finish this post.
Interruption 2
I'm glad Michael suggested "Made Of Stone" this week, and not only because it's prompted me to investigate that Stone Roses album. Another reason is that the song's title (i.e., "Made Of Stone") reminds me of the amazing "World Of Stone", a very early song by Australian band Hunters & Collectors. It was recorded way back when their music was primal and utterly unique, before they became a regular rock band.
0:00-0:18 – That's some nice E minor jangle for the song's introduction, followed by a little bass riff to bring in the verse. I like it.
Incidentally (and sorry to bring another song into this post, considering this is supposed to be about a song by The Stone Roses), the jangly start of "Made Of Stone" reminds me of the start of "No Reaction" by an Australian band I can't name because Blogger threatens me with deletion whenever I post one of their songs:
"Made Of Stone" sure is reminding me of some Australian songs.
So, to recap the first 18 seconds:
0:00-0:18 (recap) – Nice jangle and cute bass riff. I like it.
0:18-0:29 – What a dreary vocal melody for the verse. I don't like it. However, if you don't mind me moving very quickly away from talking about that vocal melody, I'd prefer to talk about the instrumental backing. It exudes a vibe of moody Sixties psychedelia, with its languid chord progression (Em, D, C, B7) and half-time drums. I'm enjoying it. I just wish the vocal melody had more, uh, melody to it. But I suppose the vocal matches the low-key, psychedelic, drugged-out mood of the music.
0:29-0:33 – That's a great little muted guitar riff to separate the first half of the verse from the second half. Love it.
0:33-0:48 – The second half of the verse uses the same chord sequence (Em, D, C, B7), but it's a bit perkier (thanks to the regular-time drums). But more importantly for me, it has a better vocal melody. That's a relief.
0:48-1:21 – Here's the chorus, and after the mopiness of the verse it's moved into musical sunlight by being centred around G major.
1:21-1:36 – This an instrumental bit that separates the chorus from the next verse. I must say that I thought the transition from the chorus to the verse was a tad awkward. In the last two bars of the chorus leading up to this wordless pre-verse thing (from 1:18-1:21), the band plays a D major chord but as soon as it does the energy level drops noticeably, and then drops a little more when the next verse starts at 1:21.
Update: I've just listened to it again, and the transition from chorus to verse doesn't sound as awkward as it did to me the first time. And listening to the little instrumental bit of the verse before the singing comes back in, I'm now enjoying little things that I hadn't noticed earlier. For example (now I'm going to completely waste your time with this): the acoustic guitar arpeggio; the tom-tom work; the little 12-string guitar riff (1:35-1:36).
1:36-2:04 – Hearing the verse this time around, I've noticed two things:
1. Each verse comprises three lines. In this verse the singer, Ian Brown, tries to sing all three lines but runs out of breath on the second line, necessitating a sharp intake of breath for the third line. This is what Mr. Brown does:
1:36 "I'm standing warm against the cold"
1:40 "Now that the flames have taken hold"
1:43 GASP
1:44 "At least you left your life in style"
2:04-2:37 – This is the second chorus, and if I'm not mistaken (I probably am) the band has bolstered the backing vocals here with more backing vocals (i.e., more voices). I'll check. Hang on...
Nope. It's not more voices. The backing vocals are just a little louder.
Trivia: From 2:18-2:22 everyone sings "Don't these times...", and at 2:19 the backing vocalist sings the opening note of "times" out of tune.
I'm going to try really hard not to be that trivial for the rest of the song.
2:37-2:37 – Now this is odd. It's the guitar solo, but it sounds distinctly unguitary*. Unfortunately, when it started I thought it sounded like a seal. The kind of seal that barks. Like this:
That's Eighties' production values for you.
2:47-2:53 (guitar solo, continued) – When that swirly sound effect came in while the guitar solo was still going, I thought there may have been something wrong with the copy of the MP3 I had. But before I went off to check with a different copy it dawned on me that they were being psychedelic. Pointlessly psychedelic. (Note to the producer: "The guitar solo is still playing, Mr. Producer. Would you mind leaving the spacey sound effects alone until he's finished?")
I checked regardless just to make that sure that was indeed the intended sound in the song. It was.
2:53-3:02 – The swirly sound effects have mercifully gone away, and the guitar solo is still going. This is one long guitar solo.
3:02-3:06 – Oh-oh. The spacey sounds have come back. The guitar solo finally finished at 3:06. (And you can interpret that "3:06" as three hours and six minutes.)
3:06-3:19 – The spacey sounds have settled down a bit, and the drums have gone into galloping mode, so we're now getting our groove on in a major way. (Or whatever psychedelic people say at times like these.)
3:19-3:52 – This is the last chorus, but there's a bit of production awkwardness. The chorus starts on the beat at 3:20 but singer Ian Brown sings "Sometimes..." at 3:19 leading into that first beat. That's not the awkwardness, because he does it every chorus. (The chorus begins with "Sometimes I fantasise...".) However, this is the awkwardness: those swirly spacey sound effects continue right up until the first beat of the chorus then abruptly stop, and Mr. Brown's voice singing "sometimes" is caught up in the sound effect, thereby making him sound like a robot. What made that awkwardness noticeable for me was that the "sometimes" is robotic but the "I" straight after it isn't. It's like the producer flicked a switch at 3:20 to stop Ian sounding like a robot, but forgot that Ian sings "sometimes" just before the chorus begins.
Incidentally, the producer decided to keep the spacey sound effect throughout this chorus (although he did use it a little more subtly than during the guitar solo).
3:52-4:15 – A low-key ending to the song, with the band slowing down. I want to say that this is a splendid piece of slowing down by the band. It's not an easy thing for a band to do, but the drummer is very steady and everyone's following him splendidly.
***
Well, that's it.
Unless I think of anything else to add (Imaginary note from blog reader: "No, Peter – don't think of anything else"), that'll be it for "Made Of Stone".
(*I have a feeling that may be the first time the word "unguitary" has ever been used. Well, deliberately anyway.)
