It May Be Quite Simple, But...

See next week's Bonus Round clues at the end of this post!!

Last week’s Bonus Round: "Stay" is a doo-wop song written by Maurice Williams and first recorded in 1960 by Williams with his group the Zodiacs.[1] Commercially successful versions were later also issued by The Hollies, The Four Seasons and Jackson Browne.” Credit: Wikipedia

I recently began revisiting the joys of vinyl and have been listening to some of my albums from waaay back. I was thinking of the Jackson Browne album version of this song which seamlessly transitions from “The Load-Out” to “Stay”.

"The Load-Out" is a song co-written and performed live by Jackson Browne from his 1977 album Running on Empty. It is a tribute to his roadies and fans. The song was recorded live at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, on August 27, 1977, as part of the tour in support of the album The Pretender.” Credit: Wikipedia

This kind of running two songs on an album together, sometimes more seamlessly on an album itself, like “The Load-Out/Stay”, other times more of an edit for radio play that eliminated the gap between songs on an album, making them seem more seamless than they were on the album, has always been interesting to me. I’m sure there are lots of examples, today’s Bonus Round will focus on two examples like “The Load Out/Stay” and from the same era - the 70s. Why? Because they were always favorites of mine and were usually only heard on the radio back then late at night when the DJs could play around a bit and get away with eating up 9 or 10 minutes of air time without a commercial break. I worked the graveyard shift in those days and it helped break up the usual pop stuff at night. I’ll try to make the clues interesting, though!

Last week we talked about the very basics of recording in a home studio, and some ideas for taking stems (unmastered tracks) to a pro for mastering. Those pros will most likely say no matter what you bring them for mixing or remixing or mastering, 80% of what they’re trying for has already been done. What does that mean? Good/great music is the basis of a good/great master recording - an audio engineer/producer can make a song sound better, but a mediocre song is just going to be a somewhat better sounding mediocre song. If you’re covering someone else’s hit in your own style, you already have some likely good/great music and you’re going to interpret that in your own style. You’re also going to contribute some of the royalties you earn after release to the owners of the composing, publishing and master recording rights to the song you’ve covered. Which works out for both of you, if your cover has an interesting take of the original

(see, for instance: Hendix covers Dylan ),

but maybe not if your cover isn’t different enough in some way to distinguish it from everyone else’s attempt.

What makes good/great music? Some of the many answers to that question are timeless, like relatable lyrics - usually lyrics that are non-specific to the artist even if they have a first-person perspective, allowing the listener to envision themselves as an actor of some sort in the song (“I broke her heart/she broke my heart” type of things) or maybe lyrics that tell a story ("I did something/went on a journey, here’s what I saw/found/learned“), or any of a million other things that the listener can relate to (Baby Sharks? - I guess so…).

An interesting melody/solo line supported by a chord progression harmony with exciting dynamics and tempo changes can even support a song with lyrics that are obscure or indecipherable:

Stairway To Heaven Lyrics Meaning.

Yeah - there are a great number of other web links to this subject, all probably saying something different. I just like the song.

I’ve read lots of lyrics from lyric contests sponsored by various publications, and most of them are quite meaningful to the songwriter, but somehow a lot of those come up just short of putting me as a listener ‘in the song” - not every good/great hit song will do this anyway, but an interesting, even unusual, take on universal themes can draw listeners “into the song”. Maybe we don’t see ourselves as Marilyn Monroe or later as Princess Diana in Elton John’s “Candle In The Wind” - but the lyrics place us as listeners “in the song'“ through our sympathy and the melody/dynamics (and Mr. John’s great vocals, of course).

Whether you write music then lyrics or lyrics then add music to support them, lyrical songs that relate or are underpinned by universal themes that connect us to the human condition, rather than an individual experience only, can go a long way towards drawing your listeners “into the song”. The technology may change, from the first person to beat on a hollow log with a stick to the latest synthesizer beats, and from culture to culture. The “human condition” is related to shared experience and universal themes like love and loss, great deeds or a unique view of an experience of the ordinary that others can relate to. In my humble opinion only, it pays to keep those things to some extent in mind as you set about creating the 80% good/great song that can be mastered into a hit.

Bonus Round: Something different for this week because the two songs (actually 4, because of either album placement and spacing, or a radio edit, they seem to be meant to be heard together) are personal favorites of mine. All are from albums in the 70s.

The “clues” are in the following paragraph I just made up - the titles and artists are all in there, just not in order. Have fun - I did!!

“He’s a dreamboat, Annie! And crazy on you, too! You’re living in a fantasy, child, if you think otherwise!”, Nancy said to Ann as they drove along, passing cars. Ann retorted, “Have a heart! You’re just all mixed up!” as she contemplated moving in stereo, television and furniture at the Wilson neighborhood apartment with Ric, Elliot, Greg, Benjamin and David.

Cheers and keep playing!!

Michael Acoustic