Special Edition: In The Mix of a classic hit, "Second Avenue"
A companion post to fellow Substack writer Brad Kyle's insights
Today’s “Special Edition” post began as an idea fellow SubStack writer Brad Kyle had as a way to synthesize some of the themes present in Michael Acoustic and in Brad’s SubStack “Front Row & Backstage”. Check out Brad’s fabulous SubStack here:
And Brad’s companion post on the subject:
While Brad was researching the background and inside scoop for his post, I was separately doing some analysis of three songs: First, “Second Avenue”, the original song, written, performed and recorded by Tim Moore; next, a cover of Second Avenue performed and recorded by Art Garfunkel. The Tim Moore original and the Art Garfunkel cover were released somewhat contemporaneously, as both artist’s recordings were released in 1974. The third is a 2009 cover of Second Avenue performed and recorded by Colin Blunstone.
Disclaimer: I’m not an expert or professional at musical analysis or audio engineering/recording/producing, though I have some level of education, training and experience. In an analogy I used with Brad, who often writes on his SubStack about his days covering the Houston Astros, I said “If this were baseball, I could probably find a spot on a pretty good rec league team…”
That said, I’m feeling a little smug about the results (yes, I know, “pride goeth before….”). The reason is Brad and I wrote completely separately on the subject, and neither of us saw the other’s work until the day of publication. Some of the background insight Brad was able to find validated at least partially what I’d come up with, and we’ll get to that in a bit. When you check out Brad’s post, some of this will be redundant due to the different focus each of us brought to the table.
To begin, here’s sort of an overview of the song, emphasizing Tim Moore’s superb writing skills:
This is great song, especially lyrically, even more so in terms of section and rhyme structure and meter, maybe even unique in those terms. The song has a fairly common two verse opening, (there is no intro) then the chorus. There is no vocal bridge, but an instrumental break after the first chorus somewhat differentiates between the 3 versions and the song ends with an unconventional 3rd verse - chorus - 4th verse (actually the 3rd verse repeated) to end, there is no outro/tag. The hook only appears as the ending lyric to each verse. I would classify it more in terms of a fast tempo ballad, or a medium tempo pop song, rather than the “Easy Listening” genre tag Wikipedia hangs on it. Musically it’s rich and complex, it leans heavily on the piano accompaniment to do that - a guitar or different instrumental approach would not do it justice, in fact I would love to hear it with just a piano, or maybe joined only with some very muted bass and drum accompanying the vocals, and I say that with some awe as a guitarist. Either Tim Moore or Art Garfunkel could have done that (and maybe did in live performances) though I suppose it was something of a victim of the times in that respect. The string orchestral backgrounds were probably felt to enhance the moodiness of the lyrics, but IMHO, it could stand on its own with either of those vocalists.
Some general notes: I used source material from a couple of apps, Chordify primarily, and Ultimate Guitar less so - those are a couple of the most valuable for guitarists, but each has their limitations. Neither provide a true musical score, but Chordify produces something that sort of looks like a score, but is really a chord chart without lyrics or chord timing, but does provide Key, Time and Tempo signatures. With that I evaluated each song on those parameters, with a lyrical and rhyme structure analysis. I searched for, but couldn’t find actual sheet music, either a score or lead sheet. None of the companies/apps that sell scores had either available. Chordify uses an AI based algorithm to evaluate songs - it’s pretty accurate for guitarists (UG is user created content), but both are mostly useless for a piano player or vocalist (or other instrumentalists) to learn or evaluate the song’s melody line.
Musical structure:
Both Moore and Garfunkel versions are in the Key of E Major, though I originally considered that they may have been written in the relative minor key of E Major (which is C#minor* [see note at the end of this section]) since the song is sort of sad and conveys a darker mood. After charting, and some evaluation I’m sure both are written in E Major. Both have a “common time”, 4/4 time signature (4 beats to the measure, quarter note gets the beat). Tempo is close, but slightly different, the Moore tempo is 111 Beats Per Minute (BPM) which is pop song range, but also in the fast ballad range. The Garfunkel version is 107 BPM, not enough of a difference to be apparent, and it’s not really - in fact I would have bet the Garfunkel version was slightly faster, but now I think that may be due to the snappier drum line, where the snare is more muted in the Moore version. Both use the same chordal structure which uses a number of “non-diatonic” chords, and I presume without knowing the associated piano arpeggios used follow a non-diatonic melody line in those places. Diatonic means the chords are native to the key, non-diatonic means the chords are not found natively in the key. That’s not unusual in music, in my opinion this kind of songwriting usually makes the song much more interesting, it just requires the composer to have a deep understanding of music theory, using slightly discordant or unexpected non-diatonic chords and notes to increase interest and create intriguing melodies. Wildly discordant non-diatonic structures usually turn the song into hot garbage or at least Goth music (ex.- Bauhaus - “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, which IMHO is hot garbage, but I kinda like it anyway, but I digress..). Each of the earlier recordings have vocal stylings unique to the vocalist - while both are New York natives, Tim Moore sounds to me more generic American, Art Garfunkel sounds like Art Garfunkel and seems (to me at least) to have a bit more of the NY kid in his voice. Broader, more drawn out vowel sounds maybe, dunno. There are differences in emphasis, held or clipped syllables, but each one sings the same lyrics* and pretty much sound the same, and when you listen to both together (play both YouTube videos together with just a couple of seconds difference in start times) it almost sounds like a “call and response” duet, though at one point after the first chorus (IIRC), the Garfunkel version has a somewhat longer instrumental break (probably because they paid an arranger -Ernie Freeman- for the string arrangement and wanted their money’s worth), and sort of diverge for awhile, though they magically come back together for the last chorus/verse.
The Blunstone version is in the Key of F Major (chordally, one semitone higher in root pitch throughout), though the chordal intervals, lyrics*, phrasing, meter and rhythm are the same. Tempo is 111 BPM, the same as the original Moore version. The stylistic vocal differences make it similar to the Moore and Garfunkel versions, but with Blunstone’s unique vocal characteristics. I assume the key change fit his singing voice better, but it may be some other reason, maybe he just wanted to differentiate it from the Moore original key, dunno. When you play the Blunstone Youtube version together with the Garfunkel or Moore version, you can definitely hear the “off key” dissonance. Blunstone seems to make more liberal use of 7th chords than the others, though all use some 7ths (there is also a possibility the Chordify AI algorithm may have decoded some of the chords incorrectly, potentially identifying chords either as 7ths when they weren’t or 7th chords as simple triads when they were actually 7ths). Or it could reflect their personal piano styles, with Blunstone preferring, or by habit simply playing, 7ths more often. Hard to say.
*Lyrics note (Michael Acoustic) : before I get into more detailed lyrical analysis, let me note an oddity I found regarding the lyrics. The lyrics in the last verse (which is actually the 3rd and 4th verses, they’re identical, just repeated, with a chorus section in between) are:
“Since we can no longer see the light
The way we did when we kissed that night,
Then all the things that we felt,
Must eventually melt and fade,
Like the frost on my window pane
Where I wrote, "I Am You,"
On Second Avenue.”
The line “Where I wrote, "I Am You,”” has been interpreted by some as “Where I wrote, “IMU," - apparently “IMU” was (at the time I suppose, I’d never heard of it) an acronym for “I Miss You”. I hear “I am you”, but there are corrections on some lyrics sites that allow reader corrections, in favor of the “IMU” acronym, the well known Genius Lyrics site that I use quite often being one of them, though that correction only appears on the Garfunkel version page. That would be an interesting bit of trivia to hear the backstory to, in part because in an otherwise lyrically brilliant song, I always found the “I am you” lyric a bit obscure, if not baffling.
Commentary from Brad’s post regarding the original songwriting by Tim Moore:
“It’s good to know that so many people find themselves in ‘Second Avenue,’” Tim told Al Rocheleau of the Florida State Poets Association in the summer of 2021. “It’s a poignant song about loss that some folks have returned to all their lives. Is it biography? Partially.”
“I wrote it in the winter. I was living on the third floor of 106 Forrest Avenue in Narberth, PA. There was a landing there. I may have broken up with a passing girlfriend, but I wasn’t sad.”
“My friend, Kit, had visited and written, ‘I am you’ in the frost on my kitchen window pane. I was learning Chopin’s Waltz in C sharp minor, so Chopin’s voicings were in my hands. I moved the scene to the Second Avenue apartment of a woman I’d had a short affair with in New York.
“Her flowers and birds? That’s probably Bob Dylan’s ‘Just Like a Woman’ sneaking in. Elton John’s ‘Your Song’ was in the air then, too. I was reading [Austrian poet/novelist, Rainer Maria Rilke]. Some of my other songs are tied to real events.”
Michael Acoustic: So that should put to rest the “IMU” thing - Genius Lyrics should remove the “correction” from the Garfunkel lyrics page based on the writer’s own words. As Brad and I agreed we would only see each other’s posts on the day of publication, I learned of the erroneous nature of this “oddity” only then. (Ed. Note - I have since added a correction to the correction on the Art Garfunkel version of Second Avenue’s lyric page on Genius Lyrics.)
*Note: I was pleased to see the reference to the Chopin waltz in C#m, it somewhat validated the hour or two I spent charting all three songs and concluding it was written in E Major rather than C#minor. Now I’m gratified to know there is a liberal sprinkling of the relative minor’s voicings in there, too.
More on my impressions of the story behind the lyrics coinciding somewhat with Tim Moore’s in the “Lyrics, rhyme structure” below.
Recording/mastering analysis
Moore version: Piano dominant, a few bass guitar notes in first verse. Dynamics and orchestration: drums and bass guitar come in big on 2nd verse, orchestral strings come in on lead-in to the chorus and through the chorus and instrumental break, fade back on verse, as does drum, bass stays present, but not overwhelming overall. Less heavily orchestrated than Garfunkel version - strings sit above and behind vocals, though bass and drum much more present on studio monitors than phone/pad/computer (YouTube algorithm?*), bass is upfront and left, but “under” vocals, drums are less emphasized, sit well back and left in the mix, vocals sit in the mix a little better than Garfunkel version, more balanced, vocals effects have moderate reverb, just enough to sound expansive without being too artificial. Dynamics are good, not great, maybe too understated - less obvious than the Garfunkel version
Commentary from Brad’s post:
“A simple, piano-based ballad, Tim shows a natural ease for ear-pleasing melodies, matching this lyrical tale of loss with an equally heartbreaking tune, and an appropriately swelling bed of strings (arranged by Moore’s Gulliver bandmate, Tom Sellers). How Barry Manilow missed the stop at “Second Avenue” is anyone’s guess.”
Garfunkel version: Youtube recording may be off of the 45 single rather than an original studio mix - lots of needle noise/crackle - Piano dominant, bass comes in on the first lyric, very light string orchestration over first verse, vocals aren’t heavily processed, seems like they kind of just wanted his vocals to sound like him more, not a lot of reverb or width to his voice, vocal sits a little more “on top’ than “in” the mix - competes with the piano which is a bit more upfront rather than panned or under the vocals in the mix, bass and drums come in big in the break into verse 2, underneath vocals but still pretty big, electric guitar strum into second verse (!), good dynamics with crescendos/diminuendos in the verses and choruses - come in big, diminish toward the end of the sections (verse or chorus), letting the piano come through - piano gets a little lost in the big orchestration, but good dynamics through the sections - guitar shimmer on the outro/fade. Note some of this may be due to the YouTube version being recorded from a commercial vinyl 45, rather than original studio master tapes. I can’t imagine the needle noise/crackle was an artifact of the original studio recording, but I wasn’t there, so, dunno.
Commentary from Brad’s post:
“Art’s familiar “gentle” phrasing brings another layer of pathos to his reading that eclipses even Moore’s version for pure rain-drenched angst, especially when he jumps the octave on “kissed.”
“I am the problem”: Art was responding to a fan’s question wondering why “Second Avenue” wasn’t included on his 1975 Breakaway album, and why he never performed the song live. “Roy Halee brought the song to me. I never loved it, but recorded it at his urging. It’s very well-liked by my fans,” he told fans on his website in 1998.”
Michael Acoustic: Guess that puts to rest any hope a live version of the Garfunkel version might have been heard with less or no backing instrumentation. That’s too bad - would have been a great listen.
Blunstone version: Much more “digital” sounding, (not surprising given the relatively new recording in 2009 - things had changed a lot since 1974) maybe a little too much (highly compressed? Hard to say) - vocals are expansive, breathy and a little sibilant with reverb, upfront and wide - more so than with the Moore and Garfunkel recordings which likely started analog then converted to digital for CDs/YouTube (algorithms for YouTube? - probably). Piano dominant and heavy underneath vocals, no bass guitar that I can hear, bass is intermittent (and kind of choppy in and out - less dynamic and more episodic - kinda distracting) in the sections, probably cello/upright bass (though now I’m wondering if the bass isn’t a MIDI or synth created track due to the somewhat unnatural choppiness - could be just drop-in/punch-in editing during mixing, though), back and left in the mix, strings are present, not overwhelming - above and behind the vocals, Same sort of dynamics, but not as smooth or pronounced (or effective) as Garfunkel or Moore
Commentary from Brad’s post: Still piano-driven, the song was produced by Jon Sweet, with strings arranged by Christopher Gunning. I’m hearing Blunstone use his decades of singing experience to breathe some new life into the song: He’ll echo Garfunkel’s gentle delivery at times, while using his considerable vocal range to go full voice on high parts to accentuate the song’s urgency. No falsetto for Colin, thankyouverymuch.”
Michael Acoustic: This insight may make me rethink the potential for the bassline to be MIDI or synth, still seems like a choppy edit if it’s cello and/or upright bass.
* The “(YouTube algorithm?)” question is actually pretty relevant here. In this week’s regular post on Michael Acoustic I’ll link to a fellow Substack writer’s great insights into how recordings are sort of “normalized” depending on the media. I listened to all three Youtube versions of Second Avenue on a variety of speakers, from fairly high end studio monitors in my home studio, to iPhone, pad and computer speakers and through a home theater system. All of those sounded notably different. I’ll have more details in this week’s regular Friday Michael Acoustic post.
Lyrics, rhyme structure (ed. Note - Keep in mind this was written prior to my awareness of the Tim Moore explanation as detailed above and in Brad’s post - I think I hit it pretty close here)
Really interesting and evocative lyrics, definitely place the audience emotionally “in the song” - the first person aspect is descriptive of a “love struggle/love-loss” event, and while the lyrics seem personal to the imagined narrator/singer, we understand the writer/vocalist is chronicling a fictitious event or period, albeit one that may have had some basis in the artist’s real life. Something along these lines has probably happened in some circumstance in each listener’s life (why else would we listen to heartbreak/love-loss songs so much? - nobody goes broke writing great heartbreak songs, though plenty do by not making the experience “universal” enough). This is storytelling in song at it’s best, where we identify with the mood, descriptions of the surroundings, scenes and emotions we can imagine and identify with, but at the same time don’t feel like the narrator is “just whining, asking for our help, or describing something that can only be felt by him” - it’s not personal to our own experiences and circumstances, but instead universal enough that we can identify and place ourselves in our own similar story within the song - fabulous - we wanted someone to commiserate with us, and we got it!
Lyrics such as “Since we can no longer make it, girl” - we can empathize with, but they’re non-specific enough that we identify with the emotion without needing to hear the “why” of that lyric. “I found a new place to live my life” and its a cold dusty nowhere, a hole in the wall, but I don’t even care (you can almost hear the listener’s teeth gritting with a “just like that bastard/bitch did to me!”), and now I’m on my own, can’t do those little romantic things anymore, I used to grin, something must have happened, dunno what. That’s pure gold misery for anyone who’s had their heart broken (and who hasn’t?) - misery loves company, but wants it to leave before dinner, and 4 minutes of this song is just long enough to do both.
Note: In Brad’s post there is this picture of the apartment building Tim Moore says may have been the “scene” where he may have broken up with someone that inspired the lyrical description:
Gotta say I imagined something completely different: a dark stairwell in a somewhat decrepit New York apartment building on a rainy day as the scene, a testament to how well written the lyrics are.
Rhyme structure is equally brilliant and effective. Not a lot of songwriters can pull off something this unique.
Rhyme structure - Verse 1, 7 lines - ABC(C,D)DEE* - The first and second lines don’t rhyme with each other, or anything else in the verse (and I love this boldness to not have them rhyme), the third line rhymes only with the first part of the fourth line, and next part of the fourth line rhymes only with the fifth line, and the sixth line rhymes only with the seventh line. The seventh line - E* - is the hook, “on Second Avenue”
Verse 2 , 7 lines - AAB(B,C)CDD*
The first and second lines imperfectly rhyme with each other (and I love that he wasn’t afraid to change that in this verse), but nothing else in the verse, the third line rhymes only with the first part of the fourth line, and next part of the fourth line rhymes only with the fifth line, and the sixth line rhymes only with the seventh line. The seventh line - D* - is the hook.
Verse 3 and 4 are identical, 7 lines - AAB(B,C)CDD*
The first and second lines perfectly rhyme with each other, but nothing else in the verse, the third line rhymes only with the first part of the fourth line, and next part of the fourth line rhymes only with the fifth line, and the sixth line rhymes only with the seventh line. The seventh line - D* - is the hook.
Chorus - 6 lines - AABCCB
The first and second lines perfectly rhyme with each other, but nothing else in the chorus, the third line rhymes only with the sixth line, and the fourth and fifth lines rhyme only with each other - the hook does not appear in the chorus
Lyrics to “Second Avenue” written by Tim Moore:
Verse 1
Since we can no longer make it, girl,
I found a new place to live my life.
It's really no place at all,
Just a hole in the wall, you see.
It's cold and dusty but I let it be,
Livin' here without you,
On Second Avenue.
Verse 2
And since our stars took different paths,
I guess I won't be shavin' in your looking glass.
Guess my old friendly grin,
Must have started to dim, somehow,
And I certainly don't need it now,
Still, I keep smiling through,
On Second Avenue.
Chorus
I can still see you standing
There on the third-floor landing.
The day you visited we hardly said a word.
Outside it was rainin',
You said you couldn't be stayin,
And you went back to your flowers and your birds.
Verse 3 (repeated after a 2nd chorus as verse 4)
Since we can no longer see the light
The way we did when we kissed that night,
Then all the things that we felt,
Must eventually melt and fade,
Like the frost on my window pane
Where I wrote, "I Am You,"
On Second Avenue.
*Interesting “mondegreen” (misheard lyrics) here - I had always heard the fourth line of the last verse(s) as “Must eventually melt away”. Meh
Splash screen on the YouTube video of the Garfunkel version (Note: an edited version of this appeared on the 1988 album “Garfunkel”, which never charted, as a 2:45 long single)
Interesting note: https://www.songswithearlierhistories.com/second-avenue/
Excerpt:
From the wiki: “‘Second Avenue’ was written by multi-instrumentalist Tim Moore and first appeared on his 1973 solo album, Tim Moore. As the album’s third single, ‘Second Avenue’, was climbing the Billboard Hot 100, the album distributor, Paramount, abruptly ceased operations. The sudden release from contract spurred a Tim Moore bidding war between Clive Davis and David Geffen. By the time the deal went to Geffen, Art Garfunkel had released his competing version of ‘Second Avenue’. This ‘cover battle’ between the two versions effectively doomed both records’ chances of becoming sizable, individual hits.”
“The following year Moore released Behind The Eyes featuring what remains his best-known song in the U.S., ‘Rock’n’Roll Love Letter‘, a hit for the Bay City Rollers in 1976. Moore’s guitar work on ‘Rock’n’Roll Love Letter’ drew the attention of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. The two became friends, and Moore spent two weeks guesting on guitar with the Stones and Peter Tosh during 1975 tour rehearsals at Bearsville Studios.
“A self-taught musician, Moore grew up in Philadelphia where he went to art school and began to play his self-penned songs at local coffee houses. The Muffins, the first group to perform and record Moore originals, was formed by Moore and a friend, Jeff Scott and enjoyed some had minor US success on RCA records with a Kinks influenced single, ‘Subway Traveler’. The Muffins peaked in the Summer of Love (1969), opening for Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground for a week at Philadelphia’s Trauma psychedelic club. After the Muffins disbanded, Frank Zappa heard Moore’s songs, which he found harmonically advanced for the period, and brought him to New York with the intention of signing him to Bizarre Records. Moore declined the signing when tour scheduling kept Zappa from producing the album himself.”
Hope you enjoyed this “Inside Track” look behind the songs, artists and In The Mix!
Cheers, and keep playing!!
Michael Acoustic