Goo Goo Dolls - "Iris" (1998)
The alternative/punk rock band that became a soft rock/adult contemporary staple.
This is not the song that first took them from relative obscurity to WASH FM success, that would be "Name" from the previous LP A Boy Named Goo, but Dizzy Up The Girl was full of orchestrated power ballads and this was the first single off that album. It was actually written for, and included on the soundtrack album for the film City of Angels a remake of the German film Der Himmel über Berlin or Wings of Desire in English. The movie is about a guardian angel that falls in love with a human, and the lyrics fit that far away searching and desire.
Musically the song is deep and rich, with multiple layers of strings, guitars, mandolins, and percussion. The band is credited as producers on every song on the album, as is the now current chairman of Warner Brothers Records, Rob Cavallo; who cut his teeth producing Green Day, and produced for a number of different 90s and 00s bands, including every Goo Goo Dolls studio album since this one.
Showing posts with label Adult Contemporary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adult Contemporary. Show all posts
Monday, June 11, 2012
Sunday, April 29, 2012
"Headlights on the Parade"
The Blue Nile - "Headlights on the Parade" (1989)
I think I like the B-side better. It's more piano and less synth.
I don't know why I haven't heard this song before, it sounds like it would fit right in on one of those adult-contemporary radio stations that dominate doctor's office waiting rooms and small corporate offices. In other words, it's not exactly music I like. I do like part of their origin story. After getting together in 1981, the band couldn't garner a recording contract. Local Glasgow based hi-fi audio company Linn Products asked them to record a few tracks that would show off the quality of their equipment. In a big surprise to the members of the band, and the audio company, sales really picked up, and they had a real hit on their hands. Linn and The Blue Nile stayed partnered for their second album Hats which is the album this song is on. When it was released in America, the U.S. distributor took out a full page ad in Billboard magazine offering the album on CD to anyone who called a toll free number.
The liner notes lists three musicians, all of whom play synthesizer. One is vocals and guitar, one is keyboards, and one is bass, but all are synthesizers. Notice how none of them were on drums? So pre-programed drum machines, and three guys on synthesizers. You knew this wasn't going to be my kind of song, but then the fact that it's a depressed love song makes it official. It's not the worst song I've heard, the lead singer's voice is sweet, and the performers are technically proficient, it's just elevator music as far as I'm concerned. The mix heavily favors the instruments over the singer, and while three synthesizers to produce a lush sound it's just not a soundscape I want to dive into. More like walk away from and look for a little pub where they might be playing the song live on piano, bass and guitar.
I think I like the B-side better. It's more piano and less synth.
I don't know why I haven't heard this song before, it sounds like it would fit right in on one of those adult-contemporary radio stations that dominate doctor's office waiting rooms and small corporate offices. In other words, it's not exactly music I like. I do like part of their origin story. After getting together in 1981, the band couldn't garner a recording contract. Local Glasgow based hi-fi audio company Linn Products asked them to record a few tracks that would show off the quality of their equipment. In a big surprise to the members of the band, and the audio company, sales really picked up, and they had a real hit on their hands. Linn and The Blue Nile stayed partnered for their second album Hats which is the album this song is on. When it was released in America, the U.S. distributor took out a full page ad in Billboard magazine offering the album on CD to anyone who called a toll free number.
The liner notes lists three musicians, all of whom play synthesizer. One is vocals and guitar, one is keyboards, and one is bass, but all are synthesizers. Notice how none of them were on drums? So pre-programed drum machines, and three guys on synthesizers. You knew this wasn't going to be my kind of song, but then the fact that it's a depressed love song makes it official. It's not the worst song I've heard, the lead singer's voice is sweet, and the performers are technically proficient, it's just elevator music as far as I'm concerned. The mix heavily favors the instruments over the singer, and while three synthesizers to produce a lush sound it's just not a soundscape I want to dive into. More like walk away from and look for a little pub where they might be playing the song live on piano, bass and guitar.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
"True Colors"
Cyndi Lauper - "True Colors" (1986)
The name of Lauper's advocacy group to fight homelessness and promote acceptance and tolerance and promote gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered issues is the True Colors Fund.
Lauper's final huge pop hit has been covered by dozens of artists, used in an iconic series of commercials and has become associated with tolerance around the world, particularly as it applies to the Gay Community. The song is built around the lyrics and Lauper's delivery. Her voice is pleasant and appealing, but has occasional slips into a strained tone which gives her a sense of being a real person singing her real opinion without sounding like an amateur.
If the song was faster it would probably be New Wave. Most of the instrumentation is keyboard and predominantly synthesizers at that. The percussion is open frame drums and hand drums with bells or perhaps even a tambourine. The whole instrumentation is kind of background music style, almost meant to be forgotten as soon as it is heard. Cyndi Lauper planed it that way. Original song writers Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg brought the song to her with the idea of it being a big production song, with the whole thing rising to a gospel choir style ending. Lauper stripped it all down to bare bones and had herself a big hit with this emotional ballad.
Kelly and Steinberg were recently inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Most of their big hits came in the 80s, and almost all of them were for female performers. The wrote for Madonna, The Bangles, The Pretenders, The Divinyls and Whitney Houston. They met and started working together when each of them contributed a song to a Pat Benatar album
The name of Lauper's advocacy group to fight homelessness and promote acceptance and tolerance and promote gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered issues is the True Colors Fund.
Lauper's final huge pop hit has been covered by dozens of artists, used in an iconic series of commercials and has become associated with tolerance around the world, particularly as it applies to the Gay Community. The song is built around the lyrics and Lauper's delivery. Her voice is pleasant and appealing, but has occasional slips into a strained tone which gives her a sense of being a real person singing her real opinion without sounding like an amateur.
If the song was faster it would probably be New Wave. Most of the instrumentation is keyboard and predominantly synthesizers at that. The percussion is open frame drums and hand drums with bells or perhaps even a tambourine. The whole instrumentation is kind of background music style, almost meant to be forgotten as soon as it is heard. Cyndi Lauper planed it that way. Original song writers Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg brought the song to her with the idea of it being a big production song, with the whole thing rising to a gospel choir style ending. Lauper stripped it all down to bare bones and had herself a big hit with this emotional ballad.
Kelly and Steinberg were recently inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Most of their big hits came in the 80s, and almost all of them were for female performers. The wrote for Madonna, The Bangles, The Pretenders, The Divinyls and Whitney Houston. They met and started working together when each of them contributed a song to a Pat Benatar album
Monday, March 26, 2012
"Fast Car"
Tracy Chapman - "Fast Car" (1988)
This song is about ten times more depressing than I remember.
I remember this song, because it was a song that was nominated (and possibly won) the 'class song' for my high school graduating class. I had never heard it, so listened to it and sort of thought of it as a Springsteen style come get in my car and lets go; like "Born to Run" or "Thunder Road", but told from the point of view of the women, who meets a man with a car that is fast enough to get her away from the small town life. But it's more than that. It's a tale of cyclical poverty, a women whose mother leaves, so she must take care of her alcoholic father. As the song continues, the undescribed partner with the fast car eventually turns to alcohol themself and Chapman asks them to leave.
Tracy Chapman graduated from Tufts in 1987 and worked on recording her debut album immediately. The album and single were released in April of 1988. In June of that year the 70th birthday concert for Nelson Mandela happened in London and was broadcast around the world. Chapman had performed to great reception early in the day, but later when Stevie Wonder was having technical problems she was asked to fill in for a few songs. She performed this song on stage by herself with just an acoustic guitar. The album Tracy Chapman hit number one in the U.K. three weeks later and a month after that topped the US charts.
It's a simple song, with a ringing acoustic guitar loop playing through the verses. The bass is very understated and the percussion is also very light, consisting of just a simple drum set and maybe a maraca. The chorus, where Chapman expresses the elation and exhilaration of sitting in the fast car gets a little louder, adds steel guitar, much louder percussion and maybe even some organ or other keyboard instrument filling in the bottom with the bass. It's a powerful song lyrically, and like I said, much harsher than I remember half a lifetime ago.
This song is about ten times more depressing than I remember.
I remember this song, because it was a song that was nominated (and possibly won) the 'class song' for my high school graduating class. I had never heard it, so listened to it and sort of thought of it as a Springsteen style come get in my car and lets go; like "Born to Run" or "Thunder Road", but told from the point of view of the women, who meets a man with a car that is fast enough to get her away from the small town life. But it's more than that. It's a tale of cyclical poverty, a women whose mother leaves, so she must take care of her alcoholic father. As the song continues, the undescribed partner with the fast car eventually turns to alcohol themself and Chapman asks them to leave.
Tracy Chapman graduated from Tufts in 1987 and worked on recording her debut album immediately. The album and single were released in April of 1988. In June of that year the 70th birthday concert for Nelson Mandela happened in London and was broadcast around the world. Chapman had performed to great reception early in the day, but later when Stevie Wonder was having technical problems she was asked to fill in for a few songs. She performed this song on stage by herself with just an acoustic guitar. The album Tracy Chapman hit number one in the U.K. three weeks later and a month after that topped the US charts.
It's a simple song, with a ringing acoustic guitar loop playing through the verses. The bass is very understated and the percussion is also very light, consisting of just a simple drum set and maybe a maraca. The chorus, where Chapman expresses the elation and exhilaration of sitting in the fast car gets a little louder, adds steel guitar, much louder percussion and maybe even some organ or other keyboard instrument filling in the bottom with the bass. It's a powerful song lyrically, and like I said, much harsher than I remember half a lifetime ago.
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