7/8 and metric modulation in Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean"

Here's the main riff to Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean."

The standard notation for this is a measure of 4/4 followed by a measure of 7/8. I have a problem with compound meters. Not that they're hard, but that they always require some sort of explanation and/or additional notation (triangles and lines, etc). This riff does NOT change from "in 4" to "in 7." The whole thing is in 4; as is often the case the 7/8 is split up a certain way, distributing eighths and sixteenths into unequal beat lengths. It's fairly common to split 7/8 up into two "long" beats and two "short" beats, and that's what happens in "The Ocean." Sure, it's 4 eighths+3 eighths. But those last three eighths sure sound like 2 beats to me.

And here I am conducting in 4 badly.

 

It would be great if we could adopt something like the following Carl Orff inspired signature. While a bit clunky (and sloppy looking, but I need to stop trying to make it pretty), it's far more descriptive:

I admit it's not immediately obvious, but if you go back to the first way you learned time signatures (top=how many, bottom =what "gets the beat") it's very simple. 4 total beats, 2 quarters and 2 dotted eighths. And if you're still unsure about the way I've distributed the beats, the metric modulation should convince you. Start at 3:14 and you'll hear the following:

The sixteenth note becomes the eighth note, though I find it much simpler to hear the dotted eighth notes in the 7/8 bar as the new beat, or dotted quarter. Unlike "Say You, Say Me," which becomes "1/3rd faster," "The Ocean" speeds up by 25%--the dotted eighth, which is 75% of a full beat, becomes the beat, thus increasing the tempo by 25%.

It would be great if we wrote this instead of 12/8:

But oh well. Conventions will stand, I figure.

Now. About the "key change" during the verse and Robert Plant's strange D minor pentatonic stylings...a post for another day.

music talk

Perhaps I'm too sensitive. Ok, yes, I'm way too sensitive. But it seems to me that more than with any other discipline (yes--discipline), everybody thinks they have something to say about music. Almost as embarrassing as someone pretending they know about cars or wine (me on a semi-regular basis).

I just copied this from a comment somewhere in the vast internet areas and regions. Let's just say that AC/DC was involved:

"It's interesting to see this stuff and from where music progressed. I'm always interested in the guitar playing from that era--the approach they'd take to song writing by alternating chords like major, minors, and sevenths just makes an interesting tone."

It just makes an interesting tone! Minors! Let me try this!

Rob Gerry on architecture:

"It's nice to see this stuff and whatnot, and to see where this architecture has progressed. I've always been interested in that. Straight lines, Chrysler builder and stuff. Rectilinear. King Kong. Oh wait, wrong building. Anyway, all those angles just make an interesting look."


If you're a musician, the bit I quoted sounds just as dumb as my fumbling. Maybe dumber (because I'm wicked smart and used the word "rectilinear"). But hey, at least they tried using words like "major" and "minor." In contrast, I copied the following from nprmusic (do I need a proper citation for this junk?):

"Though [artist] remains a gregarious and approachable live performer, [new album] as a whole is a more darkly solemn and deliberately paced record than [previous album]. But even at its slowest, in the tentative search for salvation in its first half, [new album] doesn't drag to a slog so much as radiate reverence, while summoning a slow burn well-suited to [artist's] rich, dusky voice. Then, as the album blooms into something more celebratory — as [artist] begins to find salvation and comfort — the joy in [new album] peeks through like slivers of sunshine."

First of all--tentative search for salvation? It radiates reverence? And what the hell does a "dusky" voice sound like, really? But anyway. Here's my translation, using real music words.

"The first half of Album X is slower and quieter than the second half."

I can't tolerate this. Here's a restaurant review I wrote!

Rob Gerry on food:

"I ordered a meal at Restaurant X. The appetizer didn't drag to a slog so much as it radiated reverence, and the first course summoned a slow burn well-suited to the main course. Then as the main course bloomed into something more celebratory I drank another darkly solemn cocktail, and I soon found salvation and comfort in the dessert. As always at Restaurant X, the service was gregarious and approachable."

Doesn't that sound delicious?? Why is it that music reviews get away with this shit? This is the sort of nonsense we haven't been allowed to write since high school writing class. I'm serious. It needn't be technical. But bullshit like this tells me NOTHING about what the music SOUNDS like. I don't need this guy's meaningless, and totally subjective, piece of shit personal response freshman comp vignette. What does the music sound like? Tell me anything! Instruments? Tempos? Loud? Soft? Major? Minor? Lyrics? ANYTHING.

Oh well. Maybe I should just go to Bar X and get a nice, dusky drink. What kind of drink? I'm not telling. But in it I will be sure to find salvation and comfort.

mystery tune

Here's a little quiz. Recognize this?

mystery tune, pretty good transcription

Here's a "field recording" I found. The tune occurs at 0:39.

mystery tune field recording

I haven't actually heard this in a while. These machines must be mostly outdated by now.

Bring On the Edge of the Night, or "Having only one wing makes it exeedingly [sic] difficult to fly"

This has to be obvious to anyone that knows both of these songs, and I can't believe I didn't notice it until this week: "Edge of Seventeen" by Stevie Nicks uses elements of "Bring On the Night" by The Police in a very literal way:

  



The Wikipedia entry for "Edge of Seventeen" seems to suggest that it was session guitarist Waddy Wachtel's idea, while Wachtel claims ignorance in the interview that is cited on Wikipedia:

"I had never heard "Bring On the Night," and at that session they told me they were going to do this song based on this feel. I had heard something about the Police, but I didn't know what they were talking about. Then about two years ago, I had the radio on, and on comes what sounds like "Edge of Seventeen"-and all of a sudden, there's Sting's voice! I thought, "We ripped them off completely!" I called Stevie that night and said, "Listen to me, don't ever do that again!" "

I think the truth is in the middle somewhere. And I also think this may be an instance of the producers mishearing the Police track. Here's what I mean. First, the intro to "Bring On the Night" can be reduced as follows:

Lots of Police hallmarks here: a syncopated single-note guitar riff (which is picked up later by the bass, more or less) with wide, slow flanger (so clear with that constant, "lift the fretting hand ghost note" technique), bass drum on 2 and 4 (also seems to be running through a flanger and lots of reverb--synched with the guitar?), and hi-hat accents on the "ands." All of this adds up to a typical "Where the hell is 1?" Police intro. It's quite possible to mistakenly hear the accents on the hi-hat as downbeats, which in turn puts the bass drum on the "ands." Which brings me to the verse of "Edge of Seventeen":

It's "Bring On the Night" with a more consistent guitar part (borrowed later for this?) and a drum part that has been shifted by an eighth note (the same can be said for the bass line to the first verse). That brings me back to the producers. Was this a deliberate change or did they mishear/misremember the groove from the Police track?

Either way, it's nearly identical stuff. And for the record, I always thought the first line to this song was "Just like the one we knew," or something like that. I guess "white-winged cockatoo" has too many syllables. "One-winged dove" is good, too.

ZZ Plant

Today I made a discovery: the ZZ Plant.

I had never heard of such a thing. It also made me think: "ZZ Plant...that would be a frickin' AWESOME supergroup!"

It would sound something like this:

Or maybe like this:

Frickin' awesome.

Elliott Carter's impact on the music of Lionel Richie

Just kidding about the Elliott Carter bit.

But I did realize something great today: there's an out-of-nowhere metric modulation in the Lionel Richie song "Say You, Say Me" (here's another totally rad movie montage video for an Oscar-nominated song from a Taylor Hackford directed flick from the 80's--see this). Isabella is SO PRETTY.

                           

I digress. I never thought much about the tempo change. Figured the bridge was just...faster. Not metrically related to the original tempo in any way. But I heard the song today and had one of those "Wait a minute..." things that keeps me from doing anything at all productive until I find the answer. Sure enough, I was right.

Here's what happens at the transition into the bridge:
To clarify--the single eighth note triplet "becomes" the eighth note, increasing the tempo by 1/3. I found sheet music online that uses this notation:

Allow me to bitch about this editorial choice for just a moment. How useless is THAT?! If something like this is happening, I want to know what the NEW tempo is. This is not a transition to compound meter--it's 4/4 moving to a faster 4/4. I need information that will help me count the NEW tempo. If I didn't know the song and was trying to figure out this tempo shift, the dotted quarter is just confusing. True, telling me what the "new quarter" is in relation to the old tempo is tricky, but the triplet eighth/new duplet eighth relationship is a piece of cake.

The bridge is short and transitions back to the old tempo suddenly and rather awkwardly. It is, in fact, not a very good bridge. The song as a whole is pretty pedestrian. But Lionel Richie is cool as hell. And I give him (or producer X) credit for this very unusual metric modulation trick in an otherwise pretty half-assed ballad (He had a dream! He had an awesome dream! You are a shining star!).

I still love you, Lionel. "Dancing On the Ceiling" makes up for this and then some. And don't get me started on "Easy." AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW shit.

The vocal ad-lib so awesome he ad-libbed it twice

For Kelly Muse and Andy Robbins, Toto enthusiasts and discerning listeners. I owe this post completely to them. A dubious honor, no doubt.

Ok, so...this tune basically kicks ass, right? I mean come on. However. Check out the ugly vocal moment at 1:10, then AGAIN at 2:37. I decided that "Ooo" deserves its own sentence.

Hold the Line

"Ooooooo"? More like "EWWWWWWWW"! The ad-lib at 3:23 is pretty rough, too. "Love isn't always...love isn't always on tiii-iiime!"

But who am I to talk? HE'S SINGING HIGH C SHARPS IN HIS DAMNED CHEST VOICE!

And this video is fantastic. True, Steve Lukather is trying hard to look like Brian May, but his solo is great, especially the overdubbed harmony stuff at the end. Why is the bass player (David Hungate?) playing a double-necked bass/guitar thing in this video? I don't know. We do what we can to get attention. He was probably trying to justify the purchase. And I do love those old Yamaha electric pianos.

And vests. I love vests.

And the more I hear it...the more I like this little lick. Forget everything bad I just sad.