Try a little tenderness

If you get the chance to see Bill Frisell in any group, you should. His trio played here last night. Frisell plays masterfully and beautifully. The group was one of those "telepathic" units equally playing together and contrasting each other when necessary. A review I read of Frisell said something like he is a rare person nowadays in that he is willing to approach music with tenderness and he unashamedly does. A great night of music.

Highlights:

Frisell playing "Baba Drame" by Malian guitarist Boubacar Traore.

For an encore, they played two Hank, Sr. classics for the Alabama crowd: "Lovesick Blues" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry."

6 or 5: Screamin' Jay Hawkins: "I Put a Spell on You"

Pretty soon I won't have to write anything ever. I'll just simply post a YouTube video that gets my point across. Ugh.

Anyway...

I'm breaking all kinds of my initial rules here, but it makes sense to me. And Screamin' Jay Hawkins strolls at chirp factor five (see previous posts about the "chirp"). "I Put a Spell on You" came out in 1956 and Screamin' Jay Hawkins already had a stage show in which he came to the stage by way of flaming coffin. Brilliant. In terms of genre, you could put this in blues or rock as well--it certainly influenced a lot of musicians and music. Two of my favorite versions are done by Nina Simone and Diamanda Galas. For me, I connect this to the showmanship, strangeness, and subversiveness of some pop music.

Some of the connections I'm making here, may be slight at best, but if you watch Hawkins's performance and then the Spears performance of "I'm a Slave 4 U," it may be a little clearer.


Shock Rock:
Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper (who used with West Side Story and has elements of it on many early albums), (The "Thriller" video?), GWAR, Marilyn Manson, Scandinavian death metal bands with corpse paint, etc.

"Strange" Rock/Pop: "I Am the Walrus"~Beatles, "Turning Japanese"~The Vapours, "Fish Heads"~Barnes and Barnes, "Mexican Radio"~Wall of Voodoo, "She Don't Use Jelly"~Flaming Lips, "Detachable Penis"~King Missile, etc. (Many of these were never Top 40, neither was "I Put a Spell on You").

Growing Pains: Madonna, Britney (particularly "I'm a Slave 4 U," Xtina (The "Dirty" side of Christina Aguilera), etc.

7 or 4: BACHARACH

Burt Bacharach not only wrote some of the greatest pop songs ever, he also put on one of the best live shows I have ever heard. It wasn't flashy, except for his tux and bow tie, and there was no dancing. He played piano and sang while conducting a solid eight or ten piece band through many of his classics. Beautiful music played beautifully. A lady older than my grandmother bought my friends and I cokes and popcorn.

There's no way to choose just one of his songs, although the "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?," the unchipper "Trains and Boats and Planes," and the Cissy Houston vocal version of "Mexican Divorce" all immediately come to mind as possibilities.

With "What's New, Pussycat?" I can also usher in Welsh singer Tom Jones (Sir Thomas Jones Woodward). Since he's Welsh and I wanted to stick with American tunes, I can sneak him in through the Bacharach door.

(That's awful and I know. Sorry. Can't control it sometimes.)

I had a set of computer speakers burst into flames while listening to a Tom Jones album. Seriously.

8 or 3: Motown

Like the previous posts on the perfect pop tune, I'm going more with an overall sound for the moment rather than particular tunes. So much great music came out of Motown that it would be impossible to choose a single song, so I give you some of my favorites. I've posted this Jackson 5 performance of "I Want You Back" elsewhere, and as far as the "perfect pop tune" goes, "ABC" would probably be a better choice. But, "I Want You Back" has one of my favorite bass tracks ever.

Bass Geek Talk: From the latest info that I've read, no one is sure who played the bass line on "I Want You Back." Carol Kaye and Bob Babbitt both take credit for it, while others swear it is James Jamerson, the Motown bass player. One problem with identifying it is that everyone was trying to play like Jamerson at the time. He lived in California where the tracks were made for this one. However, it evidently wasn't uncommon at the time to have different studio musicians come in, play some possible tracks, and then later pick the one that was "best." It's possible all three of these folks made passes at the tune.

Motown is where pop really got a groove that infected most music throughout the 60s and 70s. The 80s, in many ways, squelched the groove, but developed some interesting ideas for the time.

Since I posted the Jacksons before, I figured I'd post something else, as well. Tough decision considering Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, etc. are all responsible for some great music. But I'll go with a somewhat flawed video of Stevie Wonder. Supposedly, Mr. Wonder has perfect pitch and no sense of smell. Although I've also read that he's regained some of his sense of smell since losing it in 1973.

Enjoy.

Slight delay, but in a good way.

I know the suspense is killing folks out there. What will be Clurg's next perfect pop tune choice?

I'll get back to that soon.

We had some emergency out-of-town practices with the Necronomikids because an unexpected gig came up. Should be fun. Should be recorded.

I found out yesterday that I got the new job teaching dual enrollment English 101, 102, plus Honors 10th Grade English. Our new school, when finished, will be the most expensive in the state, plus I will be involved in developing a fine arts and communications academy. Awesome! I've got a lot of work to do this summer...

Also. I'll be seeing one of America's great guitarists, Bill Frisell, this Sunday.

(R.I.P. Stan Winston and George Carlin)

To keep with the pop music theme (not to mention the YouTube theme, yikes!), here's an example of what I consider brilliant early pop music (could be called jazz--whatever) and an example of contemporary pop music that I like (could be called hip hop--whatever). The first is the Raymond Scott Quintett. If you've ever watched cartoons you'll recognize this from the Carl Stalling arrangement for Looney Tunes (@ 1:25). Scott is amazing. Supposedly that's Johnny Williams playing drums, the father of Star Wars, etc. composer John Williams. Scott did some commercials with a very young Jim Henson.



So, that's the past for me. I see M.I.A as part of the future of pop music, for better or worse. This song "Bird Flu" is from her first album, which I find much better than the last one, even though it was produced by Timbaland (whose done some great work with Missy Elliot). This is a line of pop music I see as starting with the blues (and various African forms: drums and fife, etc.), moving through jazz, soul, (especially James Brown), rock/funk (Funkadelic, Parliament, etc.) and then rap groups like Public Enemy who sampled these earlier artists, to contemporary hip hop/rap groups (who are pop in my book).

Actually, I didn't intend to write so much on something I have only tenuous knowledge of--just enjoy the songs--or not.

9 or 2: Brian Wilson / Beach Boys / "Heroes and Villains"

Admittedly, songs like "Wouldn't It Be Nice" or "Good Vibrations" make more sense here, but it's my list and "Heroes and Villains" is the pop song to me. Infectious, chirpy, and brilliant. It does, in Kelly's words, "wander off the farm" so he may disqualify it. It definitely doesn't fit the three minute mark. However, I would say that has more chirp than Paul Simon's "American Tune." (Another great song, but there's no chirp there).

Anyway...

There's not much I can add to the massive output on Wilson and the Beach Boys. I would say listen to Pet Sounds and watch some documentaries (lawsuits, beatings, and that Manson family are just a small part of the history here) if you think you might be interested. Be careful, though, the music of Brian Wilson has an incredible power and may cause a years-long obsession.

I should also add that unlike many pop purveyors Brian Wilson has always been more than just a singer or just a producer. He's a composer and arranger and this is what makes him a stand out in pop music. He supposedly naturally hears six-part vocal harmonies (and is deaf in one ear from a beating his father gave him when Wilson was a youngster).

Spector has stated that he made "little symphonies for the kids." He never came close to what Brian Wilson does, particularly on "Heroes and Villains." Not much does, in my opinion.

10 or 1: Phil Spector / Ronettes / "Be My Baby"

You may want to start here and then go here.



Enough has been written about how absolutely brilliant (i.e. production techniques or the "Wall of Sound") and how utterly bonkers (i.e. assault, murder charges, wigs, etc.) Phil Spector is, so I don't need to say too much. But, for me, Spector is iconic, if not archetypal, in terms of pop music (Think of how important producers are in pop music today, like Timbaland, for example).

"Be My Baby" has that great drum beat in the intro also heard in the guitar intro here (bass-bassdrum--snare). I haven't quite figured out how or why this rhythm screams pop music to me. Is it that it's unquestionably danceable? That it's more primal, especially when it's generally played with all drums and no cymbals? Does it put focus on the "body" (three low bass beats) and less on the "mind" (one high, sharp snare crack) like pop music, in general, does? Pop music's catchiness and tendency to induce butt-shaking cause some people to revolt against it as a "lower" form of music, but it doesn't have to be and often isn't. I may just be digging a bigger hole for myself here...

The Ronettes are a great example of that pop music staple--a band created by producers: the girl group, aka the boy band, aka the Monkees, New Kids, Spice Girls, etc.

Check out how Brian Wilson, known to obsess about Phil Spector, takes "Be My Baby" and makes it "Don't Worry Baby." You get that same rhythm I mentioned earlier. The Boys look stiff and uncomfortable, but what an amazing song. Wilson used many of Spector's session musicians, as well. I'm pretty sure Glen Campbell plays guitar here (that staccato/ rhythm part?) and there's a possibility that Hal Blaine (drums) and Carol Kaye (bass and/or guitar) played on both of these songs, too.

I never have been and will never be a singer, but I remember attempting to learn each voice part of this song and listening to it over and over and over again.




Bass geek talk:

From what I've read, part of Spector's Wall of Sound came from how he recorded bass parts. He used three bass players! One played upright, one played the Fender bass (electric bass), and one musician picked on a "six-string bass guitar." I'm thinking this last one was something like a baritone guitar. Supposedly, Carol Kaye had been playing guitar, but then moved to bass and played it with a pick. By doing this, she kind of eliminated the need for that third player. Brian Wilson mostly used Kaye and an upright player, from what I know.

I listened to some bass parts on some Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon records and was just blown away by the sound of them. Willie Dixon wrote and played bass on many of these songs, but I couldn't figure out how he got certain sounds. What I remember finding out was that he would often play a line on upright and overdub an electric line on top of that. Anyway, it's a cool sound and even though the idea is the same as the Spector/Wilson approach, Dixon makes it his own. I've been meaning to experiment with this technique at home, but haven't yet.