What Goes Online Mar 2018

What have I been up to this year? Well you can always check in on my 'now' page but here's the savedyouaclick version ...

RE:BEATLED

I've been composing/arranging the mother of all Beatles mashups for Inspire Youth Arts for the ReBeatled Project with a mixed ensemble of young singer/songwriters, multi-instrumentalists and members of the Able Orchestra. You can hear and see the results here

And here

And the massed jam on Come Together

NEW ALBUM

I've also been prepping my new album with producer Dan Wright (The Most Ugly Child) which I hope to start soon.

If you can't wait I also have Home Truths a free album of demos ranging from instrumentals, political songs, love songs, style parodies to a song about York, a love song for my wife, a song called Biscuit that’s not about biscuits and lots more. Silly & serious, light-hearted and heartfelt, There’s also chord sheet pdfs for most songs and even a few pages of guitar TAB. Download it here or here.

LINKS

Landr were kind enough to link to a BSA post in 10 Ridiculous Songwriting Tips That Actually Work.

Temporary Bad Boys Podcast featured a song I co-wrote with the late great Hoopshank here. (Head Temporary Bad Boy Balance Lost produced and co-wrote my rap single My Ride).

BEATLES LINKS

Sick of the sound of me and just want to get back to the Beatles? Check out these stellar episodes of the Something About The Beatles Podcast -

Something About Middle 8's
Something About Ringo
Something About Skiffle (with Billy Bragg)

Join the mailing list to get the free, exclusive, Beatles Songwriting Academy podcast!

70+ Songwriting Tips From The Beatles
The Be-Atletudes
About Beatles Songwriting Academy
Music by Matt Blick

RIP Robin Williams

Robin dueted with Bobby McFerrin for George Martin's album In My Life

 

Remembering Michael Hedges

Today is the anniversary of the death of Michael Hedges, a ground breaking guitarist and incredible composer, all round musician and a Beatles fan. I was going to try to post a few videos, but just about everyone has "embedding disabled by request".

Here's Michael performing

You've Got To Hide Your Love Away with a little help (hinderance?) from the audience
While My Guitar Gently Weeps in a weird hat, just before he died
Come Together from '87 with pigtails, singing McCartney's bassline
Mother's Nature Son with mandolin and violin
Come Together with and without shoes and Pierre Bensusan adding jazzy soloing
a medley of Michael's own tune Gospel and Tomorrow Never Knows from 1985
A Tomorrow Never Knows jam session with Montreux members Darol Anger, Mike Marshall and Todd Philips - Bass
and rocking out on his own composition
Ragamuffin

New Year Jam

What do Steven Tyler, Alice Cooper & Weird Al Yankovic have in common? The Beatles of course!

12:18 Come Together (pt 4) Missing Notes & Altered Chords

You know a song is a classic when you can write four posts on a song and still have more to say. But (for now) here's the last post on Come Together.

So far we've focused on the lyrics, and melody.

The verse is a masterclass in minimalism. The guitar plays only the R 5 6 of the scale and the lead vocals use only the b7 R b3. hearing that 6 in the guitar part makes you assume the backing is major and Lennon is bluesifying his melody, (Ticket 22) but he's omitting the third completely (Let's make missing out notes Ticket 40!).

To Blues or not to blues (slight return)

You could look at the structure two ways. Either the verse is an altered 12 bar blues (Ticket 19) being reduced to eight bars long or, if you include the chorus, it's a 12 bar with an altered chord progression  (Ticket 33). Whichever way you take it, it's a nearly blues.

12 bar blues


D D D D             I I I I
G G D D             IV IV I I
A G D A             V IV I V

Come Together verse

D D D D            I I I I
A A G G            V V IV IV

Come Together (verse & chorus)

D D D D           I I I I
A A G G           V V IV IV
Bm G, A D D    vi IV, V I I


(on some verses this is extended to 14 bars by adding two more bars of D)

Slapback claptracks and other space oddities

The song is filled with great instrumental hooks (Ticket 3) - the unorthodox drumming during the intro, the sparse bass and guitar riff, Lennon's slapback-echoed clapping (recorded with the lead vocals) & the bass drum 'solo' (at the end of each verse).

Almost everything is cool and creative, from the way Ringo avoids the cymbals and snare in the verse to the band dropping out to accent the last line of the vocals (Ticket 30). In fact the only minor weak spot is the slightly lame harmony guitar solo (played by Lennon & Harrison) in fourths and very similar to Sun King inspiration Albatross (check out Albatross from 2:07 to 2:20).

(You can learn more about the arrangement of Come Together in this BBC documentary excerpt).

Next we're back to the mixed bag that is The Long One but now it's your turn -

What's your favourite moment/part of Come Together? Any great songwriting ideas I've missed? (I'm sure there are...)

12:17 Come Together (pt 3) - The Melody

Come Together boasts some brilliant nonsense lyrics and a simple but effective vocal melody - pretty much the whole verse uses just 3 notes C, D & F (the b7, Root & b3).

Not only is the song carried by the unique lyrics (just like many Dylan songs) but the unusual phrasing also prevents it getting tiresome. Almost every line in the song stays off the first beat (we'll call that Ticket 39). And that's not all. Each line really starts on the 4th beat, immediately after the preceding line. We get two syllables, then a rest before the remainder of the line

So the lines that read

Here come old flat top
He come grooving up slowly
He got joojoo eyeball
He one holy roller...

sound like

Here come old flat top, he come
Grooving up slowly, he got
Joojoo eyeball, he one
Holy roller...

As well as being interesting just because it's odd, it makes you anticipate what the next line may be.

Smart.

The Blues or not the blues, that is the question...

The use of the b7 (C natural) and especially the b3 (F natural) gives the impression that they're using Ticket 22 (bluesify your melody) but the guitar part never plays the maj 3rd (F#). So like Rain & Love You To they are conning you into hearing notes that aren't there.

We do get an F# in the chorus on togethER RIGHT now over a Bm chord, which gives us a fantastic contrast between the two sections (Ticket 5). Ringo also helps out by avoiding the snare drum in the verse but using it in the chorus.

Come together, right now is also the highest point of the song pitchwise. Another example of putting your key lyric on the highest point of the melody (Ticket 27).

And McCartney (for once) is pitching his harmony vocals below Lennon.

Next time - more on the arrangement & structure.

12:16 Come Together (& Take It Apart Again) (pt 2)

As promised last time – here's the lyrical nuts and bolts.

The song boasts a truck load of parallel lyrics (Ticket 24)

Here come/he come
he got/got to be
He shoot/shoot me (latter is barely audible in the intro)
he one (several times)/one and one and one is three
hair/feet down to/below his knee
I know you/you know me
Got to be good looking/a joker
holy roller/roller-coaster

as well as the overarching he come/he got/he shoot/he say/he one phrasing

The lyrics have a particular voice and freshness because of Lennon's slangy pigeon english style

he come instead of he comes,
he got not he has,
he one rather than he's one.

The rhyme scheme is odd too, whichever way you slice the lines (see above). It's ABCCC with the last C being the chorus (hey! let's make that Ticket 38). This might make the song seem a little unstructured but Lennon keeps it together by making all the C's rhyme across every single verse - knee/please/me/free/disease/see.

The whole song is a goldmine of alliteration and assonance. Two examples -

Hold you in his armchair, you can feel his disease

H – Hold, His, His
EE - FEEL his disEASE
I – IN HIS, HIS DISease

Got to be good-looking cause he's so hard to see 
-

G – Got, Good,
EE – BE, HE's, SEE,
S – he'S, So, See,
U – gOOd, lOOking

Next time – we look at the melody.

12:15 Come Together (pt 1) Nonsense Songs

After several poor songs in a row, it's a real pleasure to blogging about Come Together. A fantastic song, brilliant lyrics and one of the best performance on Abbey Road from the whole band. Every Beatle shines and the result is electrifying. A song like this is too good to contain in one post!

Nonsense can be good

After rubbishing Bathroom Window I might seem like a slave to song logic but that's not the case. Nonsense is great as a genre if it's done right. In Come Together Lennon gives us a master class.
Though we may not understand every phrase what's important is that he is painting a very clear, almost hypnotic portrait of an individual. Someone who has a joojoo eyeball and a monkey finger, a diseased individual. He's good looking but somehow hard to see. He want's you to be comfortable even as he holds you prisoner. Would you let your daughter marry this guy? No way.

The picture isn't ambiguous after all.

He reminds me a little of Randall Flagg from Stephen King's The Stand. A dangerous joke, a charming and charismatic psychopath. The chorus becomes almost messianic, fuelled by the lift from the F# in the melody over the unexpected Bm chord

Come together. Right now. Over me.

The disconnect between chorus lyrics and the vibe of the verse is almost chilling. This is a rousing call for unity from a very dangerous man.

This is the point where I'm supposed to ask, “Who is this man? Who did Lennon have in mind? Is he Lennon himself?”

Who cares? We all know this man. We've seen him a hundred times before in a million different disguises. I'm more interested in the artistry of the words than playing Da Vinci Code: Beatles Edition.

More on the nuts and bolts next time. Meanwhile here's the lyrics in full. Enjoy.


(Shoot me)


Here come old flattop, he come grooving up slowly 

He got joo-joo eyeball, he one holy roller 

He got hair down to his knee 

Got to be a joker he just do what he please 




He wear no shoeshine, he got toe-jam football 

He got monkey finger, he shoot coca-cola 

He say "I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free. 

Come together right now over me”



He bag production, he got walrus gumboot 

He got Ono sideboard, he one spinal cracker 

He got feet down below his knee 

Hold you in his armchair, you can feel his disease 

Come together right now over me 



He roller-coaster, he got early warning 

He got muddy water, he one mojo filter 

He say "One and one and one is three" 

Got to be good-looking cause he's so hard to see 

Come together right now over me

Dissecting The Beatles

There was a great documentary on Radio 2 (UK) a long time back about George Martin. Waxy.org has 3 clips where you can hear the multitrack masters of

Come Together
She's Leaving Home and
A Day In The Life

pulled apart. It's facinating stuff.