folk rock Archives

The Band’s ‘The Band”

This week, I’ve been listening to The Band’s self-titled second album, which was released in 1969. The Band started as rockabilly artist Ronnie Hawkin’s backing band, The Hawks, in the late 50s. They earned recognition as Bob Dylan’s backing band in the mid 60s, taking on the name The Band. They then broke off and did their own thing, to considerable acclaim. I’ve only heard a couple of their songs previous to this week. I really liked this album, though I didn’t quite come around to loving it. It took several listens to shake the feeling I was listening to Dylan’s backing band without Dylan. There’s some excellent musicianship here and some pretty good songwriting. The overall human looseness of the performance impresses me. This as well as the production produces a very live and raw feeling to the record.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

The third track on the album “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” tells of the fall of the American Confederacy. The narrative comes from the perspective of a poor white Southerner looking back on the final days of the American Civil War. Strange for a Canadian songwriter in the 1960s with progressive views. Nothing about the song, despite the mournful voice of the narrator, seems to be an endorsement for the Confederacy. To the contrary, I hear this less as a song about the Civil War specifically and more an empathetic tale of those left paying for a war on the losing side.

A kick drum and weakly played piano chord kicks off the song in a major key. Though the song is in a major key, it’s often played as if in the relative minor. The drums and piano are joined by lead vocals, bass guitar, acoustic and electric guitars. A melodica provides pads the background creating a distant train-whistle effect. The rhythm of the song is loose, almost stumbling. There’s the feeling of mutual mourning after a night of drinking among the group.

The verses follow a vi-I-IV-I-ii played twice, then vi-IV-I-ii played twice, with a major II leading into the chorus. In the relative minor, those chord progressions would be i-III-VI-III-iv and i-VI-III-iv. Neither are strong progressions, but from the perspective of the relative minor they look more conventional. The chorus however, feels more triumphant with a stronger I-IV7-I-IV7 chord progression repeated twice followed by an forlorn anthemic post-chorus of I-vi-V^sus4-IV-I.

The lyrics of the three verses are built on ABABCCDD rhyhme scheme. However, this is not consistent. For the first verse, A and B are themselves are slant rhymes and the in second verse A and B rhyme; So the rhyme scheme for the first two verses could be written as AAAACCDD. I don’t know if that follows convention, but I use it here because of the ABAB of the final verse. The choruses then follow a ABAB rhyme scheme closed with a ‘na na na’ post-chorus.

Virgil Caine is the name
And I served on the Danville train
‘Til Stoneman’s cavalry came
And tore up the tracks again
In the winter of ’65,
We were hungry, just barely alive
By May the tenth, Richmond had fell
It’s a time I remember oh so well

Up On Cripple Creek

“Up On Cripple Creek” brings a funky sort of country rock towards the end of side A. I knew this song before this week, probably the only on the album I’d really heard before. The first thing I remember loving about it is the sound of the clavinet played through a wah pedal at the end of each verse. Growing up, I thought it was a Jew’s harp. It creates a great sound, which through the verses gives an almost funk feel. At the same time, Garth Hudson simultaneously plays the organ and provides backing vocals.

Here, the band follows more convention strong chord progressions of I-IV-I-IV-V repeated twice in the verses. Then they follow a I-IV-V-vi-VII in the chorus. That unusual rise up to a major VII increases the far-out effect of the clavinet riff that closes each chorus. The other instruments back down to let it happen as a sort-of aside.

They’ve written the words of the chorus as an almost call-and-response, though the lead vocalist delivers both lines. There’s a short “if this…” followed by a short “then this” for what the beloved Bessie of the song will do. The first three lines, seen as three lines follow an AAA rhyme scheme, however if we break them up into six lines, we end up with an ABABAB rhyme. The final line of the chorus does not necessarily rhyme, though there could be an argument for “dream” and “see one.” There is consonance with drunkard/dream/did.

Up on Cripple Creek: she sends me
If I spring a leak: she mends me
I don’t have to speak: she defends me
A drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one…

King Harvest (Has Surely Come)

With “King Harvest,” the Band continues to sing about the rural poor of the American South. In this case, a farmer faces hardship and joins the a union in hopes of turning his life around. He prays for rain and maintains hope that “King Harvest will surely come.”

The drums here are particularly dry, with the tight snare drum punching a hole right through the mix. Organ and electric guitar build a funky rhythm around what is essential an up-tempo country-rock song. Contrary to convention, they perform the verses more energetic, leading into a growing up-beat prechorus, with a low-energy down-beat chorus. The chorus even sort of peters out towards the end, the hope for King Harvest doesn’t sound quite so hopeful.

Neil Young’s “Harvest”

I’ve been listening to Neil Young‘s fourth album “Harvest” from 1972, this week. Last year. I spent a week with his third album “After the Gold Rush” from 1970. The two albums differ little in sound and composition style making them almost feel like two parts of a double-LP. Those songs where he does venture beyond the folk country-rock prove to be the weakest tracks; The unnecessarily cinematic “A Man Needs a Maid” and the dramatically orchestral “There’s a World” impress with their aspirations, but fail to actually be enjoyable songs. “A Man Needs a Maid” features some of Young’s best singing and a great melody. A stripped down version proves to be much better.

Old Man

I had difficulty choosing between “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold.” Ultimately, I decided to focus on “Old Man.” “Heart of Gold” provides a great example of Young’s country-rock style. “Old Man” intrigues me far more from a songwriting perspective.

The chord progressions is.. well, strange. From what I can gather, Young and band perform the song in the key of D major, with frequent dips into D minor and maybe G major. I do not believe rock musicians discuss theory to this extent; while they understand theory, they probably played what sounded right for the song.

For the verses, the chords are mostly D-F-C-G. In the key of D, that’s I-II#-VI#-IV. In the key of D minor, that’s I-III-VI-IV. In the key of G, that’s V-VI#-IV-I. With all of this potentially borrowing of chords, I try to follow the feel of the melody and other instruments to determine what feels like the tonic. The proves elusive too. Therefore, I assume we have frequent key changes. The verses open in D major, shift to D minor, and return to D major. That makes it I-III-VII-IV, with middle to chords in the relative minor key. The chorus in that case, following III7-I, started in D minor but focuses on D major.

All this modulating combined with Young’s unique singing voices gives the song a pensive and unresolved eerie feeling. That works well for the contemplative lyrics. The speaker talks to an old man, inspired by a conversation Young had with the caretaker of a house he’d recently bought. He shares that while they may have had different lives, they really aren’t that different from each other. At their hearts, what they need is love. There’s not a consistent rhyme scheme from one verse to the next, but the lines do rhyme. Most frequently, there’s internal rhymes with single lines.

Old man, look at my life
Twenty-four, and there’s so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of two
Love lost, such a cost
Give me things that don’t get lost
Like a coin that won’t get tossed
Rolling home to you

The Needle and the Damage Done

Young again defies the constraints of key in “The Needle and the Damage Done.” They used a live recording featuring only vocals and guitar for the album track. The audience remains attentively quiet through the performance. This delicately pensive pained song bemoans the heroin addiction and its consequences. He picks dancing arpeggios throughout the song, like trills over the chord’s root note.

The song is mostly in the key of D, but borrows chords frequently. There is no chorus here, but rather a series of short two-line verses followed by a one-line refrain.; though its not a strict refrain, as the lyrics vary considerably. The first and second lines rhyme

Also, where most songs return to the tonic at the end of the refrain, Young ends on a major supertonic. This complete lack of resoluton makes that major chord feel lost and longing. This provides subtle emotional impact, supporting the lyrics. The chord progression for verses is an unusual I-VI#-VIX9-IV-iv-V#-VI#-IIIb-IIsus-II. With all these borrowed chords, I can’t for certain pin down the key; However, listening to the melody, I believe I have identified it correctly.

I hit the city and I lost my band
I watched the needle take another man
Gone, gone, the damage done

Words (Between the Lines of Age)

The song “Words (Between the Lines of Age” closes the album. Former Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young band members Stephen Stills and Graham Nash provide backing vocals. The band repeat the same i-V-VI-i chord progression throughout, at slow churning tempo around 45 BPM. We hear Young’s characteristic overdriven guitar playing rhythm in the left channel and leads in the right. There is a great sense of the room in the recording, which helps the overdubs to sound like they were live.

The verses consist of three sets of couplets, with some internal slant rhymes. The chorus completes the verses, making it more of a traditional refrain. This refrain is basically the same line twice. These lines seems like a prophetic dream, with the speaker being visited first by gift-givers and then imagining another life. What’s he talking about, I don’t know. But it sounds good.

If I was a junkman selling you cars
Washing your windows and shining your stars
Thinking your mind was my own in a dream
What would you wonder? And how would it seem?
Living in castles a bit at a time
The King started laughing and talking in rhyme
Singing words, words between the lines of age
Words, words between the lines of age

Bob Dylan’s “Bringing It All Back Home”

Album cover for Bringing It All Back Home

For this week, I’ve been listening to Bob Dylan’s fifth album “Bringing It All Back Home” from 1965. He had been listening to rock music and visiting with The Beatles. The first side of this record, an electric band backs Dylan; while the second side remains acoustic and without drums. “Bringing It All Back Home” came out in March with “Highway 61 Revisited” following just five months later.

Between these two album, Dylan infamously performed at the Newport Folk Music Festival with electric instruments. The folk music crowd expressed disgust immediately; they wanted the old Dylan back, not this traitor to folk music. Considering “Highway 61 Revisited” introduced me to Dylan in the early 1990s, the shift from acoustic folk to folk with electric seems rather quaint to me. Granted, he did perform this (what we could call) stunt at a festival for folk music. I also feel that while electric guitars are being used, there’s still plenty of acoustic guitar, and the songwriting is still deeply rooted in folk.

Subterranean Homesick Blues

The album opens with acoustic guitar strumming, then an electric guitar plays an upward glissando to get the motor started. These guitars are joined by two basses, a second electric guitar and drums. The songs rolls at a determined pace. The bass pounds on down-beat, the guitars jangling and improvising driving of the accompaniment along like a full-steam jugband. The chord progression follows a vaguely blues pattern: I7-I7-I7-I7-IV7-I7-I7-V7-I7-I7-I7, which is an unusual 11 bars.

Almost immediately, Dylan’s vocals launch into a continuous stream of lyrics with a paranoid cutup of the sociopolitical climate. Lyrics like these undoubtedly had influence on many later musicians like Beck, whose “Loser” immediately earned him Dylan comparisons in the 1990s. The promotional film with lyrics on cards has been imitated countless times.

He takes brief breaks between verses to play the harmonica. One wonders his lung capacity, especially since he was a considerable smoker at the time. Each verse has 17 short lines run together in an almost monotonous rhythm. The famous opening line tells us where the song is headed immediately:

Johnny’s in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I’m on the pavement
Thinking about the government

And of course the song ends with one of the most memorable lines, by anybody: “The pump don’t work, ‘cuz the vandals took the handles.” This rhymes with the earlier lines “Don’t wear sandals, Try to avoid the scandals.” This nonsense set of admonitions about keeping in line remind me also of Radiohead’s “Fitter Happier.” Seems like the vandals might be having more fun, even if they’ve ruined our chances of using the pump, which I assume to be a water pump, but maybe it’s gasoline?

Love Minus Zero/No Limit

This week introduced me to the song “Love Minus Zero,” which I don’t believe I’ve heard before. I hear roots of some of the songs on the Velvet Underground’s debut album here. The song features acoustic guitars, a clean electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums. The performance and chord progression give the song a ballad feel. Like a repeating cycle telling a tale, or in this case, perhaps, more a vignette. He sings about his love, but in praising her qualities he also implies criticism of society in general.

In the dime stores and bus stations
People talk of situations
Read books, repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall
Some speak of the future
My love she speaks softly
She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all

Mr. Tambourine Man

At this point, I’m more familiar with the Dylan version, but I knew the Byrd’s recording of “Mr. Tambourine” first. It definitely has more of the rectangle eye-glasses psychedelic feel than the original. I’ve also enjoyed William Shatner’s unique kitschy take, which sounds like it was recorded in front of Laugh-In’s joke wall. “

Many have covered “Mr. Tambourine Man.”: The song even became subject of literary interpretation in the movie “Dangerous Minds” from 1995. I admit I’ve never seen the full movie, but I have seen that clip. In the scene, the teacher suggests that the titular Mr. Tambourine Man is a drug dealer. This is a common, and commonly disputed, interpretation. It’s not difficult to see the possibility, and it’s certainly difficult to unsee it. We cannot trust Dylan to talk about his songs either.

Dylan plays the song in the key of D, which I think tends to sound ballady or jangly. I like that the song break into a chorus which start with the dominant (V) chord of G, rather than the typical tonic(D). Dylan’s voice jump directly into the opening “Hey!”; He sounds caught in the middle of a melody and he’s grabbing the listener into it.

The chord progression for the chorus is V-IV-I-V-I-V-IV-IV for the first two lines, which is unresolved. That resolution to the tonic comes at the end of the last two lines of the chorus. Those last two lines follow the same progression, except finish with the tonic D chord instead of extending the subdominant A.

The verses repeat a similar pattern, though Dylan sings the verses a little lower and more restrained than the chorus. Here the verses repeat the V-IV-I-V-I-V which open the chorus, then deviate with I-V-IV. He plays this twice before returning to the chorus.

Hey Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to
Hey Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you