I know that the guitar style of Johnny Marr is much admired
I know that the band were very successful in their time but I have never understood their music content ( not to be confused with questioning their appeal /success......I have no view on that one way or t'other )
Well , You know how "show-tunes "often don't sound" right " ;
.....like the words don't fit properly or there is no determinable meter .....in fact, like the lyricist and the Tunesmith never actually met or heard what each other did until somebody sang it in the show !
I happened to listen to "How soon is now " on the radio and realise that the music in the background and the sung tune don't really have any common theme.........a bit like poetry being spoken over music .
I get that was probably the left field appeal of Mssrs Smith
but , am I right or is it too clever for me ?
I can't help but wonder that when he sings it does he ever sing it the same twice and is there a relationship /motif in the relationship between the music and the vocal or is it kind of ad-lib
Could somebody else carry the tune if they were called upon as a vocal stand in ?
Comments
when I used to listen to the in the 80s I know what you mean, but now that I sit with an acoustic guitar and play and sing I don’t find it difficult at all.
It’s very clever vocal rhythm and tempo and stuff. And it all comes together. God knows how
but I’m so glad they did.
JM clearly very talented, very creative, great producer, versatile,
but to me Moz made those songs what they are, which is original and not copied by anyone
im sorry I never got to see them live
pulp / Jarvis does a lot of talking in his songs, and I think they serve to build the songs too
I was listening to Bar Italia last night
@sev112 I saw them live a few times, and to my surprise, they were some of the most violent (audience) gigs I ever attended.
Nonetheless, completely unique band, stunning (and at times, incredibly funny) lyrics.
I guess from a ‘youth culture’ perspective, you either get em or you don’t...
”Hang The DJ” captured a whole collective of feelings from those who were tired of the vacuous music of the day.
The first album is still one of the best first band albums ever.
The guitar can throw you off a bit.
Morrissey & Marr > Lennon & McCartney
With a sponge, and a rusty spanner;
the Queen said,
"I know you, and you cannot sing",
I said, "that's nothing, you should hear me play piano..."
Brilliant.
What I was getting at is that, to me ,it seems hard to find a way in which the tune of the singing follows the music
ie ; if you gave an experienced orchestra the sheet music and a skilled singer the Lyrics neither of whom had heard the original song or how it was performed then I'm sure you would get an incredibly different performance however if you gave the same performers the music and Lyrics for Waltzing Matilda it would sound like the song we know even if they had never heard it before .
I've been strumming along to some Walkmen tunes lately, and the vocals can take a bit of time to sink in because of the melody chosen - perfectly in key but sometime a harmony part and not an obvious main melody part.
My feedback thread is here.
Bit of Alchemy involved I guess in the partnership and a hell of a lot of hard work too.
Does anyone remember that South Bank special on them back in '87? From memory, Bragg introduced the program by saying that ten years from then, they would be viewed as massively as the Rolling Stones..