The Famous Thursday Post!

The great "in between" season

Sep 21, 2023

Welcome to The Famous Thursday Post!

Our focus on Thursdays is on songwriting, recording, production and commercial release.

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It’s the “Getting Ready For Fall” middle eight of a pretty nice September so far. The weather cycle we’ve apparently switched to/from (Niña or Niño - can never remember), that seems to result in longer, milder fall before winter weather is quite welcome. Last year seemed like the shortest Tag/Outro ever around these parts:
    V                        IV                           I  (ringout on I)
 “Short Summer, Short Fall, that’s All, Now it's Just Winter! 

(Ed. Oddly, or maybe not, I hear that in the rhythm/beat of the Blue Öyster Cult classic hook from "Godzilla" - "Oh no, there goes Tokyo, Go Go Godzilla!"... now it's not just in my head....just sayin')

So, I’m hoping we’re actually in the Summer/Fall pre-chorus right now and we can slide right into a lengthy Autumn chorus, maybe repeat it once, to a short winter Tag/Outro, and then an early and beautiful intro to the next song, Spring!…

And here we see that the famous old saying (with apologies to either Mark Twain, Charles Dudley Warner, or someone else - the “authorities” differ on the provenance) “Everyone wants to talk about song structure as it relates to melody, harmony, rhyme scheme, syllable count, and the resulting rhythm, beat and meter implications, but nobody wants to do anything about them” seems to be holding true. Again….

Well, today, let’s do more than just talk about them. Let’s “cross over….”

Nah, nobody’s shuffling off the mortal coil here, we’re just sort of in the ambiguous “Borderland Land” between the Famous Thursday Posts (the place you’re mostly in now) but with one foot in the Regular Friday Post - the place you’ll be in tomorrow. What’s the reason for this trickery, you ask? It’s pretty much where theory and the practical meet “in the middle with you”, and you’re stuck here for a bit…

Some of this is gonna be so basic that you’ll be all like “WTF, Michael?” and I totally get that. “Four beats to the measure, quarter note gets the beat” seems pretty common. So common that we call it “common time”. It’s really 4/4 time, and so much of music is in that common time, at least it kinda makes sense to call it that. But what happens when you’re trying to tap your foot, or nod your head to Dave Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo A La Turk”? I know some, maybe most of you are all like, “wut?”. I have some Dave Brubeck albums, I’m partial to “Take 5”, and “Blue Rondo” is the B side to “Take 5”. So? It’s in 9/8, a decidedly uncommon time… and more than a little difficult to toe tap or head bang to…. (the mental visual of someone headbanging to Dave Brubeck makes me chuckle…)

So, the big deal for today is in this link below. Yeah, it’s kinda annoying in one way. It’s some of the most insightful, clearly written, and informative writing wrapped around and between a bunch of short commercials for the LANDR studio and their products and services….ever….

….while at the same time being extraordinarily great at laying out in an easy to follow form the basics of some of the mysteries of songwriting and the really important theory behind the craft.

So while I’m doing the rest of the usual Thursday stuff, imma leave you with just this one link today. It’s your choice, Neo, there is a bit of a songwriting/music/theory/practical application/ convergence vortex rabbit hole here. You can choose to live safely and quietly in the practical non-musical suburbs, or take a chance on the hidden world of musical mystery that exists all around you….

All right, nothing even remotely as dramatic as all that will actually happen if you click on and read the article at the link.

Or will it?

Only one way to find out: Link> What is rhythm, time, beat, meter? Click if you dare…

I’ll catch up with all the other links tomorrow.

The Space Saving Disclaimer!: This Substack, (not just the first one!) is free, always will be, none of the people or companies or products I link to or write about pay me a damn thing. Neither do you unless you buy my song(s) (See what I did there?). Some stuff may be copyrighted by somebody else…whatever. “Fair Use” doctrine for “educational purposes” (Link: Fair Use) applies, suckers! No stinkin’ AI here unless it’s in something I link to. So.

Michael Acoustic

Today’s musician’s quote:

“If it’s what you do and you can do it, then you do it.”

- Van Morrison

Other Voices:

Writing about my Dave Brubeck albums (yep, some vinyl!) reminded me of this great Substack you should spend some time with. Andres writes great stuff! Check this out:

The Vinyl Room

Vinyl, please: as usual

How do you feel about surprises? Personally, I don’t hate them, but I’d rather know about them well in advance. I’m not embarrassed to admit I love certain routines. Every Friday, my husband and I go to the same restaurant, sit at the same table, and order the same dishes. And we absolutely love it, every single time…

2 years ago · 20 likes · 14 comments · Andres

Other Voices Too

Lots of truth here. Many musicians I’ve had conversations with in my corner of the country say the gigs just aren’t there, the biz never came back after the lockdowns ended.

The Honest Broker

An Open Letter to Taylor Swift

Dear Taylor Swift, Please forgive this letter from a total stranger. So many people must be calling you up for favors and asking for your time, as Joni Mitchell once sang about so persuasively. I’m one of those people. I am going to ask a favor. But not for me. I’m asking you to do a favor for the music…

2 years ago · 983 likes · 248 comments · Ted Gioia

Shameless Self Promotion Section: I moved this back down here this week, but you know, MLC statements are coming out soon, just saying…

My song is out! Link: “Long Road Back” (click on link for streaming options)

Got Questions? I’ve got answers!

Questions on why and how the song came about, both lyrically and musically?

Questions about what it “means”? - I can answer that one right now - it’s about a road…

Questions about recording, overdubbing with other artists, studio work, mixing and mastering?

About releasing the song? - I can answer that one right now too - all indie, no label, professionally mastered locally, distributor and publishing admin, signed up with PRO, MLC, and SoundExchange.

Questions about the cover art?

Ask me in the comments section below to expand on any of these questions or others, I’ll answer!!!

Some memes and stuff:

Odds and Ends:

“"Everybody's Talkin' (Echoes)" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Fred Neil in 1966 and released two years later. A version of the song performed by American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson became a hit in 1969, reaching No. 6 on the BillboardHot 100 chart and winning a Grammy Award after it was featured in the film Midnight Cowboy. The song, which describes the singer's desire to retreat from the harshness of the city to a more peaceful place and an easier life, is among the most famous works of both artists, and has been covered by many other notable performers.“

Credit: Wikipedia Link: "Everybody's Talkin'"

This is interesting. The Harry Nilsson version is in EMajor, 4/4 time, at a slightly faster 125 BPM than the original Fred Neil version. Note some differences, though both are 3 chord songs and both use the I, ii-, and V intervals, some as 7 chords, some not (Careful here though, sometimes Chordify’s algorithm “hears” stuff that isn’t there and sometimes doesn’t “hear” what is. There is enough that is similar, but different, in the charts below that I think Chordify got it right on both.)

I think it’s interesting that they are quite different songs. Some of that is the key change from the DMajor key in the Fred Neil original to the EMajor in the Nilsson version (that is most likely each artist’s vocal range preference), but the Nilsson version appears to make more liberal use of the 7 chord.

The original by Fred Neil:

Really interesting guitar work in the Fred Neil version. The Wikipedia article briefly describes him as a songwriter, but also as vocalist/guitarist, notable on 12 string guitar, but is short on details. I’ll assume at least some of the guitar work on the original release is him on the 12 string.

Cheers, and keep playing!

Michael Acoustic

“It’s never really final - you just run out of things you can bear to change…”