The Zombies- She's Not There

My rock ensemble played our first gig on monday night at a bar in downtown Santa Fe called El Paseo. The theme that College Of Santa Fe Contemporary Music Program Rock Ensemble (long band name, eh?) is tackling this semester is the British Invasion. We played a set of 5 songs (2 of the arrangements are my own, ska punk version of Rolling Stones- Get Off Of My Cloud and a stadium rock version of Dusty Springfield's- I Only Want To Be With You) to open up for an 80s cover band. We will be hitting the studio after spring break. I am not sure how many of these we will get done. Besides Get Off Of My Cloud, our noisy, drone-y, ambient-y version of The Zombies- She's Not There ,which was definitely a group arrangement starting with some ideas from our male singer Sam, is a favorite of mine.

I look forward to showing you our version, but first let's analyze this awesome, amazing, articulate, A minor jam. The song is sort of a mix between A Natural Minor and A Melodic Minor due to one of my favorite chord changes in music (and the use of an E dominant 7 chord at the end of the pre-chorus) and the main riff. The tonic (or I in a major key or i in a minor key) chord of a key is its root and strength. Other chords are setting it up or setting up chords that are setting it up in a greater sense. The tonic chord and the dominant chord are the most important chords in a key. Changing them from major to minor and vice versa undermines the keys strength. This all might have been confusing, but I am getting to my point. What gives this song its unique sound is the use of both the standard D minor chord used in this key and D major. The main riff utilizes A minor (tonic), D major (out of key), and F major. I love to hear a chord go from its major version to its minor version and vice versa (especially using the tonic or dominant chord due to their importance in the key). The song is tense, hard, and complex due to the frequent D major (and the awkward rhythm of the chord changes). The chord change I love is at the beginning of the pre-chorus (the most complex part of the song). Both sections of the pre-chorus start with a D major to D minor change ("It's too late" and "Please don't bother"). Another great part of this song is the ripping organ solo. I hope you try to keep these things in mind when you listen to the song.

She's Not There

Patrick Wolf- The Magic Position

Anyone who talks music with me knows that Patrick Wolf's "The Magic Position" was one of my top 5 favorite songs of 2007. Let's analyze this banging, beautiful, B major tune. I love when songwriters do simple things really well or make simple things seem complex or unique. The intro to this song (and other parts like after the choruses) is one of my favorite examples of this. Wolf simply plays an ascending B major scale over and over and it sounds great while setting up anticipation. When he lands on the B the starts the songs main theme ( the simple 3 note melody dominated mostly by the tonic note- B) it's powerful. The vocal melody uses a pretty standard pop theme. The melody in the verse slower and mostly lower, prechorus low or even lower, the melody in the chorus the highest, but when Wolf lands on "It's You..." at the beginning of the chorus, it is especially powerful. Of course the greatest part about this song is that it is insanely catchy (oh and it has baritone sax carrying the bass line, that's cool).

The Magic Position

Allow myself to introduce... myself.

Welcome to 102.0 TFM. The title is clever is many ways. I'm going to be posting reviews of individual songs, new and old. Soon there will be many song reviews up to get this up and running. A hand written radio station.