"There's a time in life for Hoagy Carmichael. There's a time in life for Claude Debussy. There's a time in life for Jerry Lee Lewis. There's a time in life for Destiny's Child. All these things have their moment." ~Elvis Costello
04 Jul 2012 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: carino, chris spheeris
Chris Spheeris: “Carino” (1997)
Greek-American producer and multi-instrumentalist Chris Spheeris can be categorized either as New Flamenco (if you think he’s good) or New Age (if you think he’s lame). While not a huge fan of his stuff in general, I find this song to be one of the most beautiful of its kind that I’ve come across. I think of it as New Flamenco…
04 Jul 2012 1 Comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: ocean colour scene, the day we caught the train
Ocean Colour Scene: “The Day We Caught the Train” (1996)
Britpop band OCS wear their devotion to 70’s music on their sleeves. Like counterparts Pulp (Songs You May Have Missed #101) and Stone Roses (#121) they were part of a wave that never really washed ashore in America. But they carry on, having released an album as recently as 2010. They make highly listenable–if unfashionable–stuff.
“The Day We Caught the Train” is from their most successful album, the 1996 UK triple platinum Moseley Shoals. From the sound of it, I’m thinking they’re fans of Big Star.
Here’s a nice live TV performance of the same song with a little more guitar snarl. They sound more like Jellyfish (another unheralded British band) here:
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/02/08/songs-you-may-have-missed-324/
02 Jul 2012 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: kevin gilbert, suit fugue
Kevin Gilbert: “Suit Fugue (Dance of the A&R Men)” (2000)
Talented songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Gilbert fronted such household name bands as Giraffe and Toy Matinee. He was a member of the songwriting collective known as the Tuesday Night Music Club–the very same referred to in the title of Sheryl Crow’s breakout debut album. Gilbert co-wrote much of that record, including the 1995 Grammy Record of the Year “All I Wanna Do”.
Gilbert died at age 29 and his second solo LP, The Shaming of the True, released posthumously, yielded this mind-blowing arrangement–a perhaps semi-autobiographical skewering of record execs and their treatment of up-and-coming acts.
The dizzying vocal collage can be hard to follow. If you wish to discern all the layers of lyric, here’s a mix that isolates the individual parts
p.s. Gilbert was briefly under consideration by Genesis when they were in search of a front man to replace Phil Collins.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2022/07/03/video-of-the-week-the-story-of-toy-matinee/
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2022/07/16/songs-you-may-have-missed-734/
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2024/11/24/songs-you-may-have-missed-757/
02 Jul 2012 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: hard luck woman, kiss
Kiss: “Hard Luck Woman” (1978)
This is one you may not have missed, actually, considering it was a top twenty hit. But listen again if you will and make sure you don’t miss the sound of a band “out of their element” that I described in song #138 (https://edcyphers.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/songs-you-may-have-missed-138/).
Ragged vocals, un-subtle drumming, a sort of love song that lands just this side of too much sentimentality…power ballad hallmarks all. And a bit of the “power” comes from the fact that it’s sung by a band who’s avowed intent was to rock and roll all nite and party every day. Nothing in their mission statement about “letting feelings show” or “wiping tears from…eyes”.
I deliberately sourced the rarer Double Platinum version of the song because I prefer its slower-building arrangement at the beginning (drums and bass come in only after the first verse).
Another power ballad prototype would be the Rolling Stones’ “Angie”. When it came out I’d heard nothing of the kind from the Stones. Had they put one heart-wrenching ballad on each album, “Angie” would never have carried such weight.
27 Jun 2012 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: thank you, the redwalls
The Redwalls: “Thank You” (2005)
Another song which possesses a degree of that power ballad magic, the Redwalls’ soulful “Thank You”. You can hear the muscles they aren’t flexing here.
I really like this band’s look, and was surprised to see they were from Chicago. Their Stones-inflected licks and snarled, Lennonesque vocals had me assuming they were British.
26 Jun 2012 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: aerosmith, alice cooper, only women bleed, toys in the attic, you see me crying
Aerosmith: “You See Me Crying” (1975)
The phrase “power ballad” means something different to everyone who hears or uses it. For me the term is inescapably accurate for describing a type of music that holds an undeniable fascinating and appeal for me. The next several songs I’ll share have the traits I consider this type of song to possess.
They would include something I can only describe as a latent-sounding power, a feeling of something held in reserve. Perhaps a lead vocal sung in a voice that’s clearly built for screaming rather than cooing to an audience. Or a mix that’s a little heavier on the drums or bass than the producer of a ballad-singing artist would have thought appropriate. And an overall rough-edged sound that gives you the feeling you’re hearing a band in a tender moment, but that it’s clearly a band who doesn’t often have tender moments–giving the song, of course, more “power”. “You See Me Crying”, from Aerosmith’s 1975 Toys in the Attic LP fits my definition at least of the term “power ballad” perfectly.
I must digress for a moment to say that Toys… is far and away Aerosmith’s greatest moment as a band. Not only does the album contain classics “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion” but it’s loaded with great album cuts like “Adam’s Apple”, “No More No More”, title track “Toys in the Attic” and their cover of boogie-woogie blues chestnut “Big Ten Inch Record”, which surely would have been covered by David Lee Roth, with or without Van Halen, had Aerosmith not beat him to it.
“You See Me Crying” is the perfect closer to this classic album, and a nice contrast to everything that precedes it. Joining the melancholy piano figure opening the track are a pair of woodwinds–an oboe, of all things!–and Steven Tyler’s ragged voice is nicely offset by a gradually swelling orchestral arrangement.
Alice Cooper’s “Only Women Bleed”, which was released as a single in the same month of April ’75 and was the shock rocker’s first foray into power ballad territory, uses an almost identical formula. If you haven’t heard it recently, listen again to its breathtaking arrangement, which beautifully incorporates horns and strings alongside traditional rock guitar/bass/drums for maximum emotional impact. It’s a true rock masterpiece–perhaps the greatest “power ballad” of them all.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/06/01/songs-you-may-have-missed-422/
