Tune of the Day

@slaw, my main attraction to Mary Gauthier is in her honesty, vulnerability, and all-around pathos. I mentioned the turnaround (also called tag ending) she employed in "After You’re Gone" just as evidence of her also having a good understanding of classic Pop song construction and songwriting technique (to create and achieve a desired emotional response in the listener). Brian Wilson she is not (he’s about the most sophisticated in those terms of all the Rock ’n’ Roll songwriters), but then he doesn’t have her abilities either (lyrically, of course, but also as a singer).

I’m a much bigger fan of Lennon & McCartney together than either alone. They really were an excellent team, and the music of each imo greatly benefitted from the influence of the other. That’s one reason I liked them less and less in their final couple of years, after they had stopped writing together (post-Rubber Soul). But I really like the first couple McCartney solo albums, and none of Lennon’s. They also became less and less a good band, as a performing combo. They were a young Rock ’n’ Roll band (my God, George Harrison was 20 years old at the time of Meet The Beatles!) who became a Pop group. By the time of their last few years, I had moved on (I liked other writers more, and other bands---as a group of musicians---as well). I have no use for Magical Mystery Tour (true, not a real album. I have the UK double 7" EP version), Get Back/Hey Jude is just awful, and though going out on Abbey Road was an improvement, for some reason I just don’t like it. Most others seem to like it, so it’s not them (The Beatles), it’s me!

"After You’re Gone" by Mary Gauthier, on her Filth & Fire album. A new classic, imo. It’s an unfortunate myth that being a good musician automatically makes for a good songwriter. Damn those Beatles ;-) .

Dig how Mary goes to the "different" chord only at the end of what you think will be the final line of the last verse (as she sings "gone"); she instead then repeats the chord progression leading up to that chord, but then DOESN’T go to it this time, but to the one in the earlier verses (in songwriting that's known as a "turnaround"). THAT’S masterful songwriting; playing an instrument well has NOTHING to do with songwriting. Keith Emerson was a much better pianist than is Brian Wilson; who wrote "better" songs? If you say Emerson, we’re done ;-) .

I hear a lot of music "written" by musicians who obviously don’t have the knowledge of music itself required to do it well enough for me to find it musically satisfying. It is considered common wisdom that The Beatles revolutionized Pop music. I don’t disagree, but was it all to the good? Prior to them, only the best songwriters were professionals, and only the best musicians were on records. You had all the Brill Building songwriting pros composing songs still considered classics, songs still recorded anew. You had The Swampers (the house band at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals), The Wrecking Crew (Hal Blaine, Carol King, etc., heard on SO much of the music recorded in L.A. in the 60’s), and The Funk Brothers (the Motown house band, whose members included the great James Jamerson on bass), plus Booker T & The MG’s backing Otis Redding, one of the greatest singers.

Yes, The Beatles changed all that. After them, every band and group was expected to write their own songs. NOTHING they had done as teenagers (learning how to play guitar, bass, piano, drums, whatever) prepared them for doing so. That The Beatles were as good a group (as opposed to band) as they were, AND as good of songwriters, was a once-in-a-lifetime fluke!