As a voice teacher, I try to accommodate the musical tastes of my students while also expanding their horizons. At the same time, I expand my horizons, too. In that vein, I started listening to Panic! At the Disco. Not what I would normally listen to, but not bad. 
 
Looking at the Technique… or Not 
We are working on their song called “This Is Gospel.” My usual procedure for a song like this is that I get the sheet music, and, with that in hand, I listen to the song a few times to get a feel for it. Then, I play it at the piano. After that, my student has a couple of options. We can do the song strictly karaoke, using backing tracks available on YouTube, or we can do the song with me playing the piano. Sometimes, we combine these in different ways to make the student feel comfortable.

Are these always songs on which we can really work technique? Sometimes. But not every song has to be about technique. Sometimes, songs are just about fun. (But we can always work on posture and breathing!)
 
Looking at the Interpretation
I watched the Panic! At the Discovideos for this song. There are two: one is the standard version and the other is the piano version. It’s the piano version that I want to talk about. We see lead singer, and only official band member, Brenden Urie, at a white grand piano, outdoors, in some sort of ruined industrial area. He walks up to the piano and starts to play and sing. Not far into the song, confetti and streamers start to fall onto him and the piano. Then pom-poms and bouncy balls join the confetti. Then you realize that Fruit Loops cereal has joined the confetti. Wait: were those cucumbers? And empty bottles of wine? Oops, that one may have been full. Paint balls and eggs join the fray. Milk, fried chicken, and spaghetti with meatballs all land on the piano. As Brenden walks away, he is drenched with blue and then purple paint.
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The song was written about Urie’s friend and then-drummer’s problems with addiction. It voices Urie’s anger and frustration with his own helplessness, wanting to help his friend:

This is gospel for the fallen ones
Locked away in permanent slumber
Assembling their philosophies
From pieces of broken memories

Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart
Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart

The gnashing teeth and criminal tongues conspire against the odds
But they haven’t seen the best of us yet

If you love me let me go
If you love me let me go
‘Cause these words are knives that often leave scars
The fear of falling apart
And truth be told, I never was yours
The fear, the fear of falling apart

Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart
Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart

This is gospel for the vagabonds,
Ne’er-do-wells, insufferable bastards
Confessing their apostasies
Led away by imperfect impostors

Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart
Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart

Don’t try to sleep through the end of the world
Bury me alive
'Cause I won’t give up without a fight

If you love me let me go
If you love me let me go
‘Cause these words are knives that often leave scars
The fear of falling apart
And truth be told, I never was yours
The fear, the fear of falling apart

Oh, the fear of falling apart
Oh, the fear, the fear of falling apart

Oh (This is the beat of my heart)
The fear of falling apart  (Repeat a few more times)

My teen-aged student feels that this song is about suicide. I think it’s about a caustic relationship—love gone very wrong. The writer thinks it’s about wanting to help a friend with addiction issues. Who’s right? All of us. 
I’ve been seeing a lot on YouTube lately dealing with the idea: Death of the Author. It doesn’t mean that the author is literally dead, or that there is nothing left to write. No, it deals with the concept that once the author has put the words on the page, his or her intentno longer matters. What matters is the interpretation of each person who reads those words. This goes for any artform: literature, paintings and music.

When I interpret a song, I try to find what the composer intended. But, ultimately, what matters is what I think the song is about. And then, once I perform the song, what I intended ceases not matter. What matters is what each member of the audience pulls out of the song. This is one of the beauties of art (or, as the Vulcans would call it IDIC: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. Yup. That is a Star Trek reference).
 
Looking at Other Songs
The piano video for “This Is Gospel” reminded me of two other videos. Going backwards in chronological order brings us to Garth Brooks and his song, “The Red Strokes.”
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In this song, we start out with a white room, a white piano, and Garth is all in white, too: 

Moonlight on canvas, midnight and wine
Two shadows starting to softly combine
The picture they're painting
Is one of the heart
And to those who have seen it
It's a true work of art

Oh, the red strokes
Passions uncaged
Thundering moments of tenderness rage
Oh, the red strokes
Tempered and strong (Fearlessly drawn)
Burning the night like the dawn

Steam on the window, salt in a kiss
Two hearts have never pounded like this
Inspired by a vision
That they can't command
Erasing the borders
With each brush of a hand

Oh, the red strokes
Passions uncaged
Thundering moments of tenderness rage
Oh, the red strokes
Tempered and strong (Fearlessly drawn)
Burning the night like the dawn

Oh, the blues will be blue and the jealousies green
But when love picks its shade it demands to be seen

Oh, the red strokes
Passions uncaged
Thundering moments of tenderness rage
Oh, the red strokes
Tempered and strong (Fearlessly drawn)
Burning the night like the dawn

Oh, the red strokes
Passions uncaged
Thundering moments of tenderness rage
Oh, the red strokes
Tempered and strong (Fearlessly drawn)
Burning the night like the dawn

Steam on the window, salt in a kiss
Two hearts have never pounded like this
​

In the course of this video, Garth and the piano are covered with mostly red paint. We do get a little bit of blue and green, but it is predominantly red. 

The author of the poem says that she was at the Louvre and saw a painting that was nothing but brush strokes. This made her wonder about the colors and brush strokes of her life. When Garth sings it, I get anger more than anything else. Maybe he thought he was giving sexy looks. To me, it looks more like he’s constipated. Once again, not what the author intended.

But this brings me to the last video in this string. John Lennon and “Imagine.”It begins with John and Yoko walking to the door of their grand house. Inside, John is sitting in a dark, white room at a white grand piano. Slowly, while he sings and plays the piano, Yoko, in a long white dress, walks around the room and opens the floor-to-ceiling white shutters, letting the sun shine into the room. Except for a small smile toward the end of the song, neither one shows much expression.

John wrote the song to be about world peace, and living as one people, not divided by nations or religions. And that is what I, and I think, most people get out of it. No death of the author here. 

But the video. Well, Yoko was and probably still is, a performance artist. That means her art is not something that I get. Or most people. I mean, really, a movie of bare legs that was supposed to be for world peace?!?!? But, anyway, this one isn’t too thorny. White is traditionally the color of purity. And Yoko is letting the light into the room. Light – enlightenment? Light of peace? There are a few things to pull from it. Mostly, this is now an iconic video with iconic imagery.

All three of these videos involve a white piano. In two of them, various colors and things are thrown at the pianos. Does this show a loss of purity? Evil in the world? Is there a connection between the three videos, and therefore, between the three songs? Is Garth drowning in a sea of blood? Does Brenden have an eating disorder? Am I putting WAY too much into this? Probably.

But, these three videos are haunting me. Help! 

Let me know what you think. Do I need a life? Am I putting way too much thought into this? Do you have any stories about any of these songs? I’ll be posting these and a few other songs in similar veins this week on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so check those out.

Until next time!
 

Yesterday would have been my brother’s birthday. He would have been 67. I still have a lot of issues surrounding his death, with which I won’t burden you. But I thought I would give you one of my favorite stories about my big brother and music. (The picture is from 1982. Hal would have been 30. He went bald very early.)
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Let’s go all the way back to 1970. I was 9 years old, Hal was 18. I was heavily into Bobby Sherman. I mean heavily. He was on a TV show called Here Come the Brides that I never missed. And I had all his albums. I loved Bobby. (Give me a break, I was only 9.) (That’s me at 9.)

Hal was mortified. He had introduced me to Jimi Hendrix and Alice Cooper, for heaven’s sake! And now I was a teeny-bopper?!?!? (In my defense, this was my only bout of teeny-bopper-dom. And I repeat: I was only 9!)
He made it his mission in life to make me see the error of my ways. Every so often I was invited up to his room. His room was completely off limits to me. He even kept it locked. So, this was a big deal.
Hal was a brilliant guitarist. He could play any style you wanted: rock, folk, classical, or flamenco. He had a six-foot concert speaker in his bedroom. Occasionally, it left the house to go along on whatever gig he had. But when he played at home, he cracked the thick plaster walls and set the chandelier in the dining room swaying. 

His preferred instrument was actually bass guitar, which he played left-handed like Paul McCartney. He could also sing anything from 2ndbass, the lowest notes you can imagine, to 1sttenor, the highest male voice, although he preferred bass singing, too.

In later years, he admitted that his room had been off limits to me because of the drugs he had there. I had not idea at the time. Sadly, neither did our parents. Fortunately, he survived those years.

Anyway, he introduced me to many groups in an effort to make me admit that they were better than Bobby Sherman. I was proving to be a problem. I remember “Me and My Arrow” by Harry Nilsson. Nope. “Teach Your Children” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash came very close. But no cigar.

Then, one day, he played Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s second album, Tarkus, for me. At this point, I really wanted to stay on my Bobby preference just to be difficult, but I couldn’t. Tarkusblew me away. I was hooked. Hal was so thrilled that he gave the Tarkus album to me for my birthday. I was the only 10-year-old I knew who was into Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

Since then, I have been told that only music geeks like Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP). On the other hand, the same site that named “We Built this City” as the worst rock song of all time named ELP as the second worst rock band of all time (In between Insane Clown Posse—#1—and Michael Bolton—#3). Some people love their musical excesses and pomposity, others hate it. It’s odd that I really dislike that in most bands but love it in ELP. Maybe some of it has to do with my connection with Hal.

2016 was a rough year for rock. David Bowie started the year off badly, dying in January. (Oddly, just the day after my mother died.) We lost two of the three members of ELP that year as well--Greg Lakefrom cancer and Keith Emerson took his own life.I know that Don McLean wrote “American Pie” about “the day the music died” being the day that we lost Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper in an airplane crash. I think that 2016 felt like the year that the music died.

But, back to ELP. At their height, they wrote, arranged, and performed some of the most amazing music. “Still, You Turn Me On” is one of my favorite love songs ever. Their “Pictures at an Exhibition” from the Mussorgskyi s very close to the original, but with bits that are typical ELP. Then there are the bits of delightful fluff like “Are You Ready, Eddy.”

I’ll be playing some of ELP’s music this week on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so check those out. Let me know what you think. Do you have any stories about the group? Love or hate them? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time!

Frank Sinatra, in concert, referred to the song “Something” as the greatest love song written in 50 years. He then thanked his friends John Lennon and Paul McCartney for writing it. There are one or two things wrong with that statement. “Something” was not written by Lennon and McCartney; it was written by George Harrison. Frank eventually realized his mistake and began to attribute the song to George. (This blog is assuming that you are familiar withThe Beatles. If you’re not, you should be!)

Living in Laramie, Wyoming in the mid-1960s, I was aware of the whole “Paul is dead” scare. I remember thinking that it was ridiculous even at that young age. Supposedly, some radio stations were running Paul look-alike contests in an effort to help replace him with the band. Several of my friends thought that I should have sent in my older brother’s picture as a shoo-in for Paul. I figured that it was the hair that confused them. Hal looked like George, not Paul. (Ok, maybe you had to squint just a bit.)

Maybe that’s why, from an early age, George was my favorite Beatle. At the start, he was not much of a singer. Somewhere along the way, it became the thing that Ringo was allowed to sing lead on one song each per album. George was given two. And each tried their hands at writing. The story goes that Ringo would come in with a great song idea, only to be told that someone else had already written it and he’d just forgotten. Of course, George had his problem with “My Sweet Lord” sounding an awful lot like “He’s So Fine” written by Ronald Mack and recorded by The Chiffons.

You can track the ways in which George’s writing improved over time. He never reached the master tune-smith caliber of Paul, or the caustic edge of John, but he developed his own style and voice. My absolute favorite Beatles’ song was written by George: “While my Guitar Gently Weeps.” (But that’s another blog.)

This is about “Something.” As the lead guitarist for the band, George often let his guitar say as much, if not more than. his lyrics. Think about the bright, crisp acoustic guitar part in “Here Comes the Sun.” (Eric Clapton played the guitar solo for “While my Guitar Gently Weeps,” which is exactly what it did.) The legato line from the electric guitar conveys such longing in “Something.” 

Originally, George had not even intended to sing the song. He was going to give it to another singer that he was producing through Apple. That fell through. Then, he gave the song to Joe Cocker, and produced the recording. He played the song for the band and their producer, George Martin, and they were not impressed. At first. 

George Harrison persisted, and quickly the band and producer fell in love with the song. Paul has said that he took the simple bass line as George’s way of telling him that he thought Paul’s basslines were getting too florid. He also has said that this may have been the best song that George had ever written. George Martin praised the song for its beauty and simplicity. John Lennon said that it was the best song on the Abbey Roadalbum. Ringo Starr has praised the song saying that it ranks with the best of Lennon and McCartney. “Something” is the second most covered Beatles song, after “Yesterday.” (George’s favorite cover was done by James Brown.)

Patti Boyd, who was George’s wife at the time, has said that the song is about her. George denied that, saying that he had written the song about a woman and loving God in her. 

You hear the first few notes of the guitar intro and you know what song this is. The melody starts out so simply. Only two notes in the first part of the first phrase. The chord structure also starts out quite simply. It is how the parts come together (a completely different Beatles’ song) that makes the magic. 

There are so many different moods in this song. I have complained before about unnecessary key changes, but the key change in this song works. It makes sense. We start out singing about how something that our love does attracts us. Then, at the first rhythmic change, we get “I don’t want to leave her now.” Making a break from the first bit. Then comes the key change, asking the question: “Will my love grow?” And answering, “I don’t know,” as if it could not be possible to love her more.

Originally, this song ran for eight minutes. Thank goodness for editing, because they took it down to where it needed to be:

Something in the way she moves,
Attracts me like no other lover.
Something in the way she woos me, 
I don’t want to leave her now,
You know I believe and how.
 
Something in her smile she knows,
That I don’t need no other lover.
Something n her style that shows me. 
I don’t want to leave her now,
You know I believe and how.
 
You’re asking me will my love grow,
I don’t know, I don’t know.
You stick around now, it may show,
I don’t know, I don’t’ know.
 
Something in the way she knows,
And all I have to do is think of her.
Something n the things she shows me. 
I don’t want to leave her now,
You know I believe and how.
 
I’ll be playing this song with a few of the others mentioned in this blog this week on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so check those out. And share any stories that you may have in the comments down below.

Until next time!

February 3, 1959 has been called “The Day the Music Died.” Why? 

The singers Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. Richardson, otherwise known as The Big Bopper, along with Dion and the Belmonts had been on what was called the Winter Dance Party Tour. It was a very poorly planned tour. It started in late January of 1959 and meandered around, zig-zagging over Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Montana. All the performers were sharing one re-furbished school bus that kept breaking down, only to be replaced by one in even worse shape. Things got so bad that the tour’s drummer got frostbite on his toes and had to be hospitalized. Since Buddy Holly’s backing group was playing for everyone on the tour, this left them with no drummer. A member of the Belmonts took over most of the drumming, and either Buddy Holly or Richie Valens filled in on drums during a Dion and the Belmonts number.

On Monday 2 February, they found themselves in the town of Clear Lake, Iowa. There was not a concert scheduled for that night, but the promoters made a few phone calls and set one up. Following the concert, the group was supposed to climb on the bus and drive to Moorhead, Minnesota. (The route took them through two towns that they had already played in within the past week—as I said, this was a very poorly planned tour!) And then, immediately following that, they were scheduled to drive back due south to Sioux City, Iowa.

Buddy Holly wanted the chance to do some laundry and rest. He chartered a small plane with room for himself and two other people. There are conflicting stories around how the other two seats were assigned. Waylon Jennings (later known as a country singer, then a part of Holly’s backing band) may have originally had a seat, but gave it up to the Big Bopper, who had a bad cold. Richie Valens may have won his seat in a coin toss. In this version of the story, when Holly heard that Jennings wasn’t going to fly with him, he quipped, “Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up.” Jennings then replied, “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes.” 

But there are other versions of how this particular group ended up on the plane and others didn’t. Perhaps Holly originally chartered the plane with this group in mind. According to Dion, Holly felt that since they were the “front men” the plane was for himself and two others, the Bopper, Valens, or Dion. However, there was only room for two others in the plane. Dion ended up staying with the bus. 

The pilot of the flight was not given a full weather briefing as he should have been. Conditions were far worse than he had been led to expect. The horizon marking on this plane was quite different from what he was used to; in fact, it was exactly the opposite of what he was used to. It is quite possible that when he thought he was gaining altitude, he was actually heading straight into the ground. The plane went down less than 6 miles from the airport.

All the people on the plane were killed instantly. Three of rock music’s pioneers were gone in an instant.
At the time, there was no concept of waiting until the families had been notified before reporting on deaths like this. Buddy Holly’s pregnant wife heard about his death on the radio. She went into shock and lost the baby. His mother also heard about the crash on the radio. Following this, the idea of notifying families before releasing names of the deceased into the public became the norm.

The tour went on. Waylon Jennings began singing lead instead of Holly. A call went out to the local area, and a 15-year old who “knew all the words to all the songs” filled in. He was Bobby Vee, who ended up with a very successful solo career.

So, this is “The Day the Music Died.” But who were these three? Why were they so important?

Influential Musicians 

Of the three, I think that the Big Bopper was the least influential. His real name was J.P. Richardson. He was, at 28, the oldest of the three. Richardson had started out as a DJ. In May of 1957, he broke the record for longest continual broadcasting by staying on the air for 5 days, 2 hours and 8 minutes, besting the old record by 8 minutes.

He began writing songs and sold a few to other performers that were successful. His own recording of “Chantilly Lace” was what put him on the charts. I’m sure they are out there, but I’ve never heard of anyone who claimed the Big Bopper as their main inspiration. On the other hand, he was only 28. Who knows what he might have done?

Then we have Richie Valens. Richie had only been recording for 8 months when he died at the age of 17. He was the first Latino to make it big in rock music. His biggest hit, “La Bamba,” was the first song sung in Spanish to make the top 40 charts. Ironically, Valens had to learn the lyrics phonetically, as he didn’t know how to speak Spanish. His brief career inspired many Hispanic performers: Los Lobos, Carlos Santana, and Selena, to name a very few. “La Bamba” has even been performed on Sesame Street. (Sort of.)

Now we come to Buddy Holly. He was only 22 when he died, but his influence far surpassed his years. He wrote, recorded, and produced his own songs. What we think of as the standard rock band, two guitars, bass and drums, was the line-up he started and perfected. Though he is probably most often thought of as Buddy Holly and the Crickets, he had broken off with the Crickets by the time of the Winter Dance Party Tour. His career also spanned far longer than the other two, beginning in 1952. His 7-year span influenced the likes of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and, of course, Don McLean:

A long long time ago
I can still remember how
That music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while
But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
Something touched me deep inside
The day the music died
So

Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in rock and roll?
Can music save your mortal soul?
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?
Well, I know that you're in love with him
'Cause I saw you dancin' in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues
I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died

I started singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Now, for ten years we've been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rolling stone
But, that's not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me
Oh and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned
And while Lennon read a book on Marx
The quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died

We were singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
And singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
It landed foul on the grass
The players tried for a forward pass
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast
Now the half-time air was sweet perfume
While sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?

We started singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
And singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
So come on Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
'Cause fire is the devil's only friend
Oh and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan's spell
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died

He was singin'
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died

And they were singing
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die
They were singing
Bye, bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry
Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye
Singin' this'll be the day that I die
 

In 1971, Don McLean hit the airwaves with this song. He was only 26. This was not his only hit. “Vincent,” about Vincent van Gogh, also hit number 1. But nothing else he has ever done has had the lasting success of this 8 ½ minute epic opus that is “American Pie.” It is still the longest song thus far to make it to number 1 on the charts.

Until 2015, when asked what the song meant, McLean tended to answer, “It means that I’ll never have to work again.” But, that year, he offered up his original notes on the song to auction at Christie’s and gained $1.2 million. Nothing record breaking, but a nice bit of cash for his family.

Very briefly: the “king” is Elvis, the “jester on the sidelines” is Bob Dylan. “Helter Skelter” refers to the Beatles song as it was used by Charles Manson. “Jack Flash” is the Rolling Stones. 

Originally there was going to be another verse at the end: 

And there I stood alone and afraid 
I dropped to my knees and there I prayed 
And I promised him everything I could give 
If only he would make the music live 
And he promised it would live once more 
But this time one would equal four 
And in five years four had come to mourn 
and the music was reborn.

A nice ending.

I’ll be playing this song with a few of the others mentioned in this blog this week on my Minnich Music Facebook page, so check those out. And share any stories that you may have on these songs in the comments down below.
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Until next time!