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Suicide_Samurai
= Cult of Ray =
United Kingdom
431 Posts |
 Posted - 06/05/2007 : 01:53:57
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I have to write an assignment about two pieces of music with different styles. I thought for one of them I'd choose True Blue due to the interesting way in which the second half of the song reverses the chords used in the first half, and also the word games in the lyrics, but I was wondering if anyone had anything else to add.
Be as simple as you like, because chances are I've even got some of the basics wrong. Is there only one acoustic guitar and one electric guitar? How would you describe the style of the song and the sound of the instruments? What about structure and harmony? Sound quality? Rhythm? Tempo? Effects?
At the moment I haven't decided what other song by a different artist I will do to contrast it against, but I figure there may be a loophole and I could maybe do one of the rockier Pixies numbers. Any suggestions for Pixies songs that are musically interesting?
I left this so so late; I need your help! Clock's ticking.. |
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Suicide_Samurai
= Cult of Ray =
United Kingdom
431 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2007 : 01:58:40
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Couldn't edit the post for some reason. I forgot to add; could somebody give me a brief rundown of the recording process Frank uses on this album. Is it some kind of live recording? I never quite got that..
And did Frank use the same recording process with Pixies?
Thanks. |
Edited by - Suicide_Samurai on 06/05/2007 02:00:20 |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2007 : 02:17:46
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| Something off Trompe, maybe? There are a lot of of tempo and style shifts in that albums' songs! |
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fbc
-= Modulator =-
United Kingdom
4903 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2007 : 04:49:06
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Suicide, where've you been?!
I'm in a bit of a hurry at the mo but I'll add some thoughts later. Quickly, a Pixies song? Sad Punk (tempo change)
On the song "True Blue," there's this repeated phrase "In a little while." What happens is, in the following line, after "In a little while" the last syllable always is a syllable from that phrase, "in a little while." For example, "in a little while," the following is "I'm gonna do some wanderin." "In a little while" the next one is "so let's pass the narghile" Then the second half it does the same thing, and it may do it in reverse. The music is in reverse too. There's the "A" section, then the "B" section. It goes back to the "A" section, but then the "C" section is really the "B" section played backwards. There's this whole theme in the lyric, what it's all about, and there's a whole frontward and backward kind of thing there. There's one-this is all theoretical-strain of humanity which devolves, if you want to call it that, and returns to the sea, from whence we came. Maybe tens of thousands of years from now, maybe people will hang out more by the seaside and gradually begin this march back to the ocean. The singer of the song is of that strain in the second half, but in the first half the singer is that strain of humanity that moves away not only from where we are on the land, but away from planet Earth. They go up. Up and out as opposed to the other direction. It's all tied in with the frontward backwards of the lyrics. It's just this incredibly overcomplicated neurotic kind of thing. That's just some little ditty on the record, but sometimes that's what you do when you write a ditty. You become consumed by some little game you're playing. It's almost like it's not in your own control. It's happening very quickly- fB |
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fbc
-= Modulator =-
United Kingdom
4903 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2007 : 04:57:30
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background info on recording
“The whole California thing became an obsession. We had been recording in the township of San Fernando, which is populated by Latinos and where people automatically speak to you in Spanish. And Sound City was quite nearby, so we’d go there with our burritos and eat them at the Catholic Mission. It was a very serene place. I’d also become obsessed with another love-gone-wrong song by Del Shannon called Sister Isabel.
So I’ve got these obsessions with the song, with the history of LA, with live-to-two-track, and it all came together on this thing where I decided I needed to do the recording on the run, using a mobile studio! I wanted to record in California proper – in 22 Californian Missions, starting in San Diego, up to San Francisco.
Half of these Missions are in towns you’d be familiar with; but the other half are in rural areas. San Francisco and LA were all built on the Mission system – from the sweat of Indians and the brute force of the Spanish military and Catholic church. I became obsessed with the El Camino Real – the royal road – that goes through these Missions. I wanted to play all of these Mission towns, and to record in them, using non-digital equipment like vintage amplifiers. So I spent six months with an engineer in this disused studio space in Sound City, building my own mobile studio. We’d rent a truck and load it up, get a location and set it all up.??“The location where we recorded Black Letter Days was a loft in a very hip building in Japantown: we’d record and break for Japanese food – it was heavenly. But I could tell because of the noise we were going to get kicked out of the loft, so we moved the gear – it took six hours to break it all down. So it’s 4.30 in the morning and we’ve exited this building, and the rhythm section and guitarist and I go over to this big industrial rehearsal space across town where I and then the Pixies rehearsed and we kept recording.
People say the record is dark-sounding and not very clear: part of that is because of the concrete floors of that space, and part of it is because it sounds like rock music.
“I wanted to release two records simultaneously. I didn’t want to do one and then release another three months later. And it didn’t seem right to put all the songs together on the same record, first because of the different sounds, second because of the different line-up of the band. Also, I didn’t want to sit on the songs for a year. I just don’t have the patience for that – maybe that’s my flaw.
“We spent a lot more time making Black Letter Days, and I’d demoed a lot of the stuff with people from Beck’s band or whoever happened to be passing by. By the time we got round to recording the demos with The Catholics, there was all this forethought – it was a more prepared record than Devil’s Workshop which, by contrast, featured more blasts from the past, scraps of music from years before, nuggets of music or chord progressions that I cherished but never got round to recording.
“The general consensus is that Black Letter Days is the better record and Devil’s Workshop is the dark horse. Both albums have their fans, but I think the variety – even though it has fewer songs – is greater on Devil’s Workshop.”
“There’s a little too much emphasis on production these days, I think. Rock music isn’t about the killer drum sound. Records don’t have to be beautiful sounding. Not everything has to sound like a Steely Dan or Roxy Music record – and I love Steely Dan and Roxy Music! Devil’s Workshop is the least popular of The Catholics’ records, but it’s my favourite.”
Yesterday I was Eastbound on the Oregon Trail and today I'm Westbound on the Trail Of Tears. I like to head East, but I think I like to head West better. The West is the best, baby.
These records happened while planning a trip to go North and South, up and down the Royal Road of California, recording and performing as we go, always near the twenty-one Spanish missions, always near the ghosts that wander along that road. Someday we'll do it. The FB & The C's mobile recording studio takes six hours to break down. It's all on wheels.
I'm so very proud of her.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
BLACK LETTER DAYS was done in downtown Los Angeles, near Japantown, in a space that was declared for Spain somehow, and a Spanish flag was flown especially for the session. "Mr. Thompson, the drums must stop," said the building manager, but by that time we'd finished BLACK LETTER DAYS and we quickly vacated to a North Hollywood rehearsal complex to begin DEVIL'S WORKSHOP.
The stout was still Irish, the vodka was still Russian and the Spanish flag was flown once again. The rehearsal studio is right on the Burbank runway, so drum noise was not an issue. In fact, Tommy Lee's was much louder than we were, and I suppose his rehearsals are deeply embedded somewhere in our tapes. I don't think it's a hindrance to the record.
I've got to find my next location. I like having my own studio. I could make albums all day. But for the moment Albuquerque is calling. I hear Leon Russell singing and the faint sound of machine gun fire.
Love is a Battlefield.
Frank Black
Perry, Oklahoma
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Suicide_Samurai
= Cult of Ray =
United Kingdom
431 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2007 : 12:36:15
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Oh, I'm still around daily, just not been very vocal of late, that's all.
Bless you for that information...
Just two basic questions to wrap up with - is there any bass guitar on this song, and what genre(s) would you say it derives from? |
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fbc
-= Modulator =-
United Kingdom
4903 Posts |
Posted - 06/05/2007 : 14:42:21
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I can definately hear something resembling a bass. I'd like to say it's a double bass, but I'm not even sure it's there.
Recorded in one take, I believe.
And iTunes says, "Alternative & Punk".
There's a strong belief around these parts it's "All Disco".
You yourself are considered a legend in the punk world for your work with the Pixies. Now here you are in a different
realm, playing a completely different genre of music. In a sense, do you feel you started over in a new genre?
Um, not really. I like songs, ya know. Certain producers and certain musicians can change the atmosphere in which that
song appears, in which I appear. But there's not a lot of transition as far as me the songwriter. I just write a bunch of
songs, and songs are just songs. They're not connected with any particular genre, and I don't think of it that way. The
genre emerges during the sessions. It emerges through the players, maybe through the producer - you know, those sorts
of things. To a certain extent it's all disco; it's music driven by drums. That's really where I'm coming from. If people
perceive it under the lines of genre after the fact, that's fine, and I can't really do anything about that. From my point of
view, it's all disco. I'm making music and we got drums and some songs might sound punky. Some songs might sound
twangy.
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Edited by - fbc on 06/05/2007 14:43:09 |
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Music Analysis Assignment - True Blue
