Media

[VIDEO] I fell down a well of guitar videos yesterday. More specifically, a well of multiple people playing a single guitar. Who knew this was a thing, and that there were so many of them.

I picked three, all embedded in the main Loop post. Please do add your own favorites to the comments.

[VIDEO] Nicholas Dawidoff:

“A Day in the Life” isn’t a song to sing, as are “Eleanor Rigby” (ideal for both car and karaoke), “Hey Jude” (written to soothe John Lennon’s young son, no lullaby works better at children’s bedtime), or “In My Life” (a perennial at weddings and funerals and, I can’t help mentioning, rock’s analog to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116). Nor is “A Day in the Life” guided by melody like so many Beatles creations. It’s an elaborate production, filled with sophisticated George Martin and Geoff Emerick musical trickery (distortion, echo, dubbing, reverb). An orchestra plays, and then one singer’s voice gives way to another’s—John’s worldly reflections transitioning to Paul’s sketch of domestic memoir, and then back again—before orchestral cataclysm and a final resting place.

And:

And then, after all the chaos and destruction, what next? George Harrison had suggested a fade to humming. But it didn’t work. Paul thought that the song needed firmer resolution. Three Steinway pianos and a harmonium were rolled into action, and at every keyboard the players were instructed to hit the single chord of E major simultaneously and hard, with the sustain foot pedal down, letting it carry as long as possible. There were nine takes. The tone is so big, so capacious and resonant because Martin and Emerick thought to put the recorder on half speed.

Some terrific writing in this piece. If you are a fan of (or have never heard) A Day in the Life, take a listen to the video embedded in the main Loop post.

[VIDEO] Not quite sure how to describe these three videos (all embedded in the main Loop post), other than to say they are all old, all have a groove and they all make me smile. Thanks to the Twitterverse for sharing these.

[VIDEO] Pretty good technique all the way around. Video embedded in main Loop post.

[VIDEO] Click over to the main Loop post for the embedded video, but to whet your appetite:

When you hear “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, think “Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans”. Oh, it’s good.

[VIDEO] Lori Dorn, Laughing Squid:

Mario Wienerroither has taken the famous half-animated video for the A-HA song “Take On Me“, strategically stripped the music out and dubbed in appropriate reactive sounds. Without the music, the lighthearted romance of the original video was gone and a more sinister theme took its place.

Video embedded in the linked Loop post.

It’s not exactly a traditional story, but it certainly is interesting. This was the first example of rotoscoping I ever saw. I think it still holds up after all these years.

[VIDEO] Guitarist Ben Higgins does a masterful job moving from one metal sub-genre to another. If you’ve ever wondered about the difference between say, speed metal and grindcore, this video (embedded in the main Loop post) is for you.

[VIDEO] I’ve heard this song here and there, but stumbled across the video today. Just me, or does the lead singer here, Nathaniel Rateliff, remind you of Jim? And he says this to me a lot. Video embedded in main Loop post.

Into the craft that is songwriting? Check out Song Exploder, a podcast that invites artists to explain their process.

My 2 cents, the best place to start is with the latest episode, where Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo talks through his approach to writing the song Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori.

The whole thing was fascinating, from the backstory of the song’s inspiration, to the mechanics Rivers uses to bring together chord structures. Lots to learn here.

Wannabe songwriter? Give it a listen.