As my older kid’s Bowie obsession continues, he is digging deeper into the corners of the catalog and finding songs that I hadn’t even heard of. This week we’re learning “Absolute Beginners”, which Bowie wrote for the movie of the same name. The song is as richly weird as all Bowie songs are. The instrumentation …
Category Archives: Music
Ashes to Ashes
My older kid continues to be deep into Bowie, and has been learning “Ashes to Ashes” on piano. This tune has not been a favorite of mine historically; as a young person, I found it hard to connect to its carsick decadence. However, the kid adores it, so I’m giving it more of a chance. …
Moonage Daydream
Over the weekend I went with the family to see the newly remastered 1973 David Bowie concert film, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. I can’t recommend it highly enough. The picture and sound quality are uneven at best, but Bowie is such a spellbinding performer that it doesn’t matter. One of the high …
Little Simz and Ramsey Lewis
In 1973, the Ramsey Lewis Trio performed their arrangement of “Summer Breeze” by Seals and Crofts on German television. This performance has been viewed an astonishing 1.6 million times on YouTube. I learned that fact from Paul Thompson‘s analysis of the performance, which includes transcriptions of several of Cleveland Eaton’s basslines. Paul’s YouTube channel is one …
Melanie’s chords are usually sad
The Black Mirror episode “Loch Henry” features a song by Melanie called “People in the Front Row.” In the last verse, she sings: These chords that I’m using are usually sadI had to use them, they’re the best chords that I haveOh yeah, this progression is usually sadBut it felt my sorrow and I wanted …
Baby, I Love You
I continue to be severely stressed out about the state of America and the world, and I continue to reach to Aretha Franklin for emotional support. This week I soothed myself by studying “Baby, I Love You” from her 1967 album Aretha Arrives. The song is by Ronnie Shannon, who also wrote “I Never Loved …
The saddest chord progression ever (revisited)
First, let’s get this out of the way: the title of this post is a joke. No chord progression has any inherent emotional quality. Musical sadness is a matter of cultural convention, and even within a culture or subculture, sadness is the result of harmony interacting with melody, rhythm, tempo, timbre, phrasing, articulation and other …
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Rock Steady
I need a lot of reassurance that things are going to be okay. This Aretha Franklin groove reliably does the job for me. I say “groove” and not “song”, because while “Rock Steady” does have a minimal song structure, it’s all in support of helping you dance. The musicians on this track represent the gold …
Over The Modal Rainbow
Music theory prankster Robert Komaniecki tried to ruin “Over The Rainbow” by singing it in C Phrygian mode: @robertkomaniecki Where are my Gregorian chant-heads at #musicmajor #musictheory #choir ♬ original sound – Robert Komaniecki My son’s reaction to this: “Waaaaggghhh.”
Ahmad Jamal and hip-hop
One of my favorite rap songs is “The World Is Yours” by Nas from his classic Illmatic, produced by the great Pete Rock. Here’s Tracklib’s sample breakdown: