Avoid thoughtless posting - imagine a post that you would find inspiring from others, then aim for that standard yourself. In this way the board will blossom.
- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 2
Several people seem awe-struck by this one. Kinda surprised me. I love this song, but I already know it. I can't be someone who has never heard it before, but it's interesting (to me) how people react. This one apparently has musical training. She spends 19 minutes on a two minute song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXWn95JzPKwOne cool thing about this song is that it doesn't have any rock instruments at all. No percussion, no guitars. Cellos and violins, for sure. I'm not well enough tuned to detect if there are also violas or other strings.
No. of Recommendations: 1
This one apparently has musical training.
From the description under the video:
"Elizabeth Zharoff is an international opera singer and voice coach, with 3 degrees in voice, opera, and music production. She's performed in 18 languages throughout major venues in Europe, America, and Asia. Currently based somewhere between Los Angeles and Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth spends her days researching voice, singing, teaching, writing music, and recording TONS. She also plays Diablo and Dungeons & Dragons."
There are videos of her signing opera. She's better than me.
No. of Recommendations: 5
I quite like Eleanor Rigby too and I give credit to George Martin for the arrangement. That classic lyric of "wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door", and he paints an unforgettable picture of a lonely person. The Fool on the Hill is another one where he examines separateness, etc. Paul has quite a range of different songs, have to hand it to him.
No. of Recommendations: 1
There are videos of her signing opera. She's better than me.
I have a younger sister who had visions of lead soprano roles (her Dad was a short-lived leading ItalianAmerican tenor).
She got a few chorus jobs, but lacked the pipes -IMNSHO- to become the next Maria Callas.
I urged her to consider switching over -like Benatar and Rondstadt- but she wouldn't listen to my sage advice.
No. of Recommendations: 10
I quite like Eleanor Rigby too and I give credit to George Martin for the arrangement. That classic lyric of "wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door", and he paints an unforgettable picture of a lonely person.
I saw an interview some time back, I believe it was George Martin but can’t be sure, who said Paul wanted sharp, stinging instrumentation, “kind of like the stabbing scene in “Psycho”.” So Martin put together a quartet of violins, a couple violas and a couple cellos, then stacked them two or three times and Paul approved. Martin toned down the “shrieks” but kept it staccato, which Paul loved.
So it was with so many Beatles compositions. John said he wanted a musical calliope for “The Benefit of Mr. Kite” and Martin set up a speaker on a spinning turntable, and organ and some other stuff, then recorded them as usual but played it through the spinning speaker into yet another microphone to achieve the swirling effect that John had asked for.
I’m always interested in this sort of thing. I remember the story from Paul Simon about Roy Halle being entranced by various kinds of echo, and he would search out stairwells, elevator shafts, and other odd places to record. One, and I forget the song, was being recorded in a stairwell and (supposedly) on the best take people suddenly walked through the door foolishly thinking it was a stairwell and not a recording studio. Ha! Bit of a surprise all around, I’d say.
I love this stuff. If I hadn’t done what I did, that could have been a path for me.
OK, one more. “I’m Not in Love” by 10cc uses 12 tape loops, each one a recording of the group singing “Aah” at a different note on the scale, and each stacked 16 times to form a choir, then each spliced into individual loops so each “Aah” would play endlessly, and then 12 tape machines were used each with one of the chromatic notes for background. The engineer would bring up the appropriate note(s) when called for, and silence the others when not. Before digital tricks made this sort of thing easy, this is what producers, engineers, and groups went through to produce “a unique sound.”
No. of Recommendations: 3
Paul has quite a range of different songs, have to hand it to him.
I think he is going to make it as a song writer.
