Willi Stanke und Sein Orchester's "Der Schwarzen Panther"

This morning I listened to the first disc of the compilation Swing Tanzen Verboten!, which is subtitled German Swing, Dance, and Jazz Bands 1937-1944.  The opening of "Der Schwarzen Panther" ("The Black Panther") by Willi Stanke und Sein Orchester sounds a lot like part of "Tiger Rag," specifically the part that corresponds to the lyrics "Hold that tiger," provided it's a version of "Tiger Rag" that has lyrics.  The rhythm of the phrase is the same, and in Willi Stanke's version, it's accompanied by a rapid descending phrase, which is also featured in the Mills Brothers' version of "Tiger Rag" (although theirs isn't as rapid).  This descending phrase is also in Canadian Brass' "Tuba Tiger Rag," which they included in their Tiny Desk Concert for NPR.

The problems with determining whether "Der Schwarzen Panther" is a copy of "Tiger Rag" are that there are so many versions of "Tiger Rag" and that they differ so much.  I have versions by Django Reinhardt, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Les Paul, and - as mentioned - the Mills Brothers, but parts of one version sound totally unrelated to parts of an-other version.

The publication data say that it's a different song.  "Der Schwarzen Panther" is credited to Consiglio and Casirolli, where "Tiger Rag" is credited to LaRocca, Shields, Edwards, Ragas, and Sbarbaro (with lyrics by DaCosta).  However, the musical phrase in "Der Schwarzen Panther" is so similar to that in "Tiger Rag" that I can't believe Consiglio and Casirolli didn't have "Tiger Rag" in mind while writing "Der Schwarzen Panther."  Their title mentions a large feline, too.

It makes me wonder just how different a song has to be to be garnered with a different writing credit.  "Tuba Tiger Rag" is credited to Luther Henderson, yet it's not that different from "Tiger Rag."  By hearing the two, you could tell it's the same song.  Assuming that "Der Schwarzen Panther" is a copy of "Tiger Rag," why are Consiglio and Casirolli given their own credit, where the versions by all of these other artists are credited to the original ensemble?  How different does an arrangement have to be to be considered a separate song?

The Byrds' "I Am a Pilgrim"

Earlier I listened to the Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and I noticed that “I Am a Pilgrim” is pretty similar to “Wayfaring Stranger.”  I’ve heard a few versions of “Wayfaring Stranger,” but the lyrics I’m most familiar with are actually the ones that Roger McGuinn’s posted on his Folk Den (so this might not be a very impartial assessment).  He also has an entry for "I Am a Pilgrim," which is only slightly different from the version on Sweetheart of the Rodeo.  The lyrics are roughly the same too (typos notwithstanding).

The first verse of “I Am a Pilgrim” matches up to the first verse of “Wayfaring Stranger” pretty closely.  There’s the description of a “stranger” (both songs) “travelling through” (“I Am a Pilgrim”) or “wandering through” (“Wayfaring Stranger”) a land that’s “wearisome” (“I Am a Pilgrim”) or full of “woe” (“Wayfaring Stranger”).  These first two lines are followed by a contrast, specifically the “bright land” (“Wayfaring Stranger”) or “yonder city” (“I Am a Pilgrim”) that the pilgrim is trying to reach.

The next section in each (a verse in “I Am a Pilgrim” but a chorus in “Wayfaring Stranger”) talks about relatives who have already reached the pilgrim’s destination:  “I’ve got a mother, sister, and a brother / Who have gone this way before” in “I Am a Pilgrim,” and “I’m going there to see my father” in “Wayfaring Stranger.”  The second chorus of “Wayfaring Stranger” starts with “I’m going there to see my mother.”

Both also mention the Jordan River (“I’m going down to the river of Jordan / Just to bathe my wearisome soul” in “I Am a Pilgrim” and “I’m just a-going over Jordan” in “Wayfaring Stranger”), but I don’t think the river has the same rôle in both songs.

I also have a book that contains the music and lyrics for “I Am a Pilgrim.”  It’s from 1964, so it predates the Byrds’ version of the song, but it still includes these similarities to “Wayfaring Stranger.”  The lines are slightly different though.  Instead of “I’ve got a mother, sister, and a brother / Who have gone this way before,” the book has “I got a mother, sister, and a brother / Who have gone to that sweet land.”  And where the Byrds’ version has:

I’m going down to the river of Jordan
Just to bathe my wearisome soul
If I can just touch the hem of His garment, good Lord
Then I’d know He’d take me home

the book has:

As I go down to the river of Jordan,
Just to bathe my weary soul,
If I could touch but the hem of His garment, good Lord,
Well, I believe it would make me whole

It’s the same idea, but slightly different grammatically.  The book’s lyrics also rhyme (“soul”/“whole”) where the Byrds’ version doesn’t (“soul”/“home”).

A lot of folk songs exist in slightly different versions (like the version of "I Am a Pilgrim" in this book I have and the Byrds' version), so I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere back in history, "I Am a Pilgrim" and "Wayfaring Stranger" were the same song.

[Last April, I recorded a version of "Wayfaring Stranger," for which I wrote some additional vocal parts.]

The Mountain Goats' "Dance Music"

This morning I listened to the Mountain Goats' The Sunset Tree.  I'd noticed before how the harmonies in "This Year" come in during the line "twin high-maintenance machines," in order to musically portray what's in the lyrics, but this morning I discovered that this feature is also present in "Dance Music."  Aside from the choruses, the only part with a harmony vocal is the line "I don't wanna die alone."  Like "twin high-maintenance machines" in "This Year," it's an-other instance where the musical qualities add to the lyrics.

In both songs, there are harmony parts in the more anthemic sections ("I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me" and "dance music," for example - the choruses of both songs), but in some verses (moreso in "This Year" than in "Dance Music"), the harmony parts serve to emphasize particular lines, sort of like musical underlining or highlighting.

Waylon Jennings' "Lucille (You Won't Do Your Daddy's Will)"

This morning I listened to a compilation album of Waylon Jennings.  I was surprised to find that "Lucille (You Won't Do Your Daddy's Will)" turned out to be the same song as Little Richard's "Lucille."

I compared Jennings' version with Little Richard's, just to make sure, and I noticed that some of the lyrics are different.  Jennings' version has lines like, "Lucille, you won't do your daddy's will" and "There ain't nothing to you, but I love you still," where Little Richard's has "Lucille, you won't do your sister's will" and "You ran off and married, but I love you still."  Jennings' alliteration ("Lucille, you won't do your daddy's will") is more concentrated and easier to find than Little Richard's ("Lucille, you won't do your sister's will").

In the "I woke up this morning" sections, Jennings' version changes the lyrics in the repetition.  So the first time, the line is "I asked my friends about her, but all their lips were tied," and the second time, it's "I asked her friends about her" (emphasis added).  Jenning's speaker/singer is concerned to the point that he not only asks his own friends, but he asks Lucille's too.  In Little Richard's version, the line is the same both times.

I think Jennings' version has more lyrical complexity, but Little Richard's has a great rock 'n' roll energy (and he also co-wrote the song with Al Collins, which certainly counts for something), so I don't think one is better than the other.

Cat Power's "Real Life"

Yester-day I listened to Cat Power's Sun.  I noticed a clever bit of wordplay in "Real Life," specifically:

I met a preacher, he want to be sinister

Sinister is only a letter different from minister, which is an-other word for preacher.
I think there's also something to be said about that similarity between sinister and minister (differing only by one letter) and how a preacher's wanting to be sinister sort of makes him ineligible of being a minister (or at least a good one).  It's as if that one quality is the thing that invalidates him and changes the M to an S.  I'm not quite sure if that's a valid point in the context of the rest of the song though.

The Cyrkle's "Red Rubber Ball"

I'm currently listening to some compilation albums, one of which includes the Cyrkle's "Red Rubber Ball."  I'd never noticed the appropriateness of the key change.  It comes right before:

The story's in the past with nothing to recall
I've got my life to live, and I don't need you at all
The roller coaster ride we took is nearly at an end
I bought my ticket with my tears, that's all I'm gonna spend

The first part of the song describes the nature of the (apparently failed) relationship, but the verse after the key change has a decidedly different outlook.  It's moving past the sentiment in those earlier verses, which is reflected in the new key.

Arcade Fire's "Rococo"

I just listened to Arcade Fire's The Suburbs.  I'd never noticed that there's harpsichord in "Rococo" (or at least I hadn't paid much attention to it), but it's fitting.  I don't know much about it, but Rococo was an artistic period in the 18th century, sort of a smaller branch of the Baroque, if I understand correctly from my skimming of the Wikipedia article.  And the harpsichord was "widely used" in Baroque music.

Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo Choo"

Yester-day, I listened to a five-CD set of Glenn Miller titled Still in the Mood.  It includes "Chattanooga Choo Choo," but listening to it this time, I noticed something weird.

It's in these lines:

Dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer
Than to have your ham and eggs in Carolina

They're talking about the food available on the train, but it seems to imply that the passengers eat ham and eggs (which I'm fairly certain are breakfast foods) for dinner.

It might just be two separate meal times that are squished together because of the phrasing, but - in that case - I think a word or two could have been changed or added to prevent any misunderstanding.

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's "Find the Cost of Freedom"

Yester-day, I listened to Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's So Far.  I noticed two things about songs on it, although neither of them is a very large point.

First I noticed that the melody in "Find the Cost of Freedom" goes along with the lyrics:

Find the cost of freedom
Buried in the ground
Mother Earth will swallow you
Lay your body down

The melodies corresponding to "buried in the ground" and "lay your body down" go down.

An even smaller point: I'd never noticed that there's tambourine in "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes."

Loudon Wainwright III's "New Street People"

I'm currently listening to Loudon Wainwright III's Social Studies.  I found a reference to Shakespeare's Hamlet in "New Street People."  Wainwright's line is "a thousand toxic, natural shocks," which adds only one word (toxic) to a sentence from Hamlet's famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy:  "To die--to sleep-- / No more; and by a sleep to say we end / The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks / That flesh is heir to" (III.i.68-71).

However, I'm not exactly sure what Wainwright is trying to say with that Hamlet quote.

Bing Crosby's "Love Is Just around the Corner"

I'm listening to a compilation album of songs from the 1930s.  One of them is Bing Crosby's "Love Is Just around the Corner," written by Lewis E. Gensler and Leo Robin.  It includes the lines:

Venus de Milo was noted for her charms
Strictly between us, you are cuter than Venus
And what's more you've got arms.

Back in July, I found a reference to Venus de Milo in Ray Charles' "Ain't That Fine" (which, as far as I can tell, was written by Betty Hall, Dorsey Burnette, and H. Robert), and I said that "Grecian art doesn’t seem to be a very common topic in popular music."  Having found this, it looks as if I was wrong.  So now I'm not so sure that, as I posited in that post from July, Ray Charles' "Ain't That Fine" is connected to Chuck Berry's "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man," which also mentions Venus de Milo.

The Tremeloes' "Shake Hands (and Come out Crying)"

Yester-day and the day before, I listened to the two discs of an anthology of the Tremeloes titled Silence Is Golden: Anthology.  I noticed that the riff in "Shake Hands (and Come out Crying)" is really similar to that in the Byrds' "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better."  And then I remembered that the riff in that Byrds' song came out of the Searchers' "Needles and Pins."  Between the three, I think there's a difference of only one or two notes.  They're all in the same key too - A major.

Not much is said about "Shake Hands (and Come out Crying)" in the liner notes to this anthology.  Really, the only relevant detail I can find is that it's from 1967 - a few years after "Needles and Pins" and "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better."  So while it's possible that the riff in "Shake Hands (and Come out Crying)" was taken from either "Needles and Pins" or "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better," I'm not sure if it was.  It's also possible that it's just a coincidence, but it's too similar for me to think that it's likely.

If it was taken from "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better," it'd be an interesting instance of inspiration hopping across the Atlantic - first the Byrds' taking that riff from the Searchers' "Needles and Pins" (an American band taking inspiration from a British band), and then the Tremeloes taking it from the Byrds (a British band re-claiming that inspiration from an American band).  But - again - I don't know where the Tremeloes got the riff.

The Beatles' "When I'm Sixty-Four"

Yester-day, I listened to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  For the first time, I realized how much the instrumentation does for "When I'm Sixty-Four."  I had to look up exactly what instruments I was hearing though.  According to Mark Lewisohn's The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970, there are two clarinets and a bass clarinet.  I feel that those in particular help give the song it's old time-y feel.

In the time between that realization and looking up the specific instrumentation, I also realized that "When I'm Sixty-Four" has a connection to "P.S. I Love You" in that they both feature epistolary writing.  "P.S. I Love You" starts out with "As I write this letter" and continues that theme through the lines "I'll be coming home again to you, love" (indicating the separation) and - of course - "P.S. I love you."  "When I'm Sixty-Four" also uses that letter-writing language with the line "Yours sincerely, wasting away."

What I'm unsure of is whether that letter section of "When I'm Sixty-Four" pre-dates or post-dates "P.S. I Love You."  Obviously "When I'm Sixty-Four" was released after "P.S. I Love You," but as Lewisohn's book notes, "["When I'm Sixty-Four"] was not a new song, the Beatles having performed a variation of it back in their pre-fame Cavern Club days whenever the amplifiers broke down."  As Lewisohn mentions, that "pre-fame" version of "When I'm Sixty-Four" was probably different from the version that's on Sgt. Pepper, especially considering the Beatles' rapid evolution.  So I don't know whether the letter section of "When I'm Sixty-Four" was written for the Sgt. Pepper version and was a throw back to that in "P.S. I Love You" (similar to how "All You Need Is Love" would reference "She Loves You" later in the year) or whether "When I'm Sixty-Four" was always that way and the letter elements in "P.S. I Love You" were something like a later try and an expanded version.  And, of course, it could just be a coincidence that the two songs - both written mostly by Paul McCartney - use the same lyrical device.

In any case, I still think it's an interesting connection that ties the Beatles' more experimental period of recording to their earlier days.

Jerry Keller's "Here Comes Summer"

After discovering the reference to Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home" in Jerry Keller's "Here Comes Summer" (I have versions of it by Cliff Richard and by the Dave Clark Five), I got thinking about an-other part of the song - the line "I'll meet the gang at Joe's café."  (This line doesn't appear in the DC5's version, however.)  I'd previously wondered whether this was a reference to Leiber and Stoller's "Smokey Joe's Café" (I have versions of it by the Coasters [although it's credited to the Robins], by Buddy Holly, and by Loudon Wainwright III), but because of how common a name Joe is, I wasn't sure if this was an actual reference or whether it was just a coincidence.

But now, knowing that Jerry Keller included some words and part of the melody of Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home," it seems more likely that he would also include a nod to a more contemporary song.

Three Dog Night's "My Old Kentucky Home (Turpentine and Dandelion Wine)"

I just listened to Three Dog Night's Seven Separate Fools.  I knew that part of "My Old Kentucky Home (Turpentine and Dandelion Wine)" sounded familiar (the line "oh, the sun shines bright on our old Kentucky home"), but I couldn't place it.  I looked it up on the internet and discovered that "My Old Kentucky Home" (which contains a similar line - "the sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home") is a song by Stephen Foster.  I found this interesting, but that's not how I knew that line.

Eventually though, I realized that it's also in the song "Here Comes Summer," which I have by both Cliff Richard and the Dave Clark Five.  It's slightly altered though, so there's no mention of Kentucky; it's just "oh, let the sun shine bright on my happy summer home."

Listening to the two lines of both songs back-to-back, they sounded similar, not only in the words, but also in the melodies.  I found the notation for Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home," and I'm fairly confident that both "My Old Kentucky Home (Turpentine and Dandelion Wine)," written by Randy Newman, and "Here Comes Summer," written by Jerry Keller, took Foster's melody (modifying it slightly) and at least some of his words.

Rachmaninov's Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3

I've discovered that Rachmaninov must have really liked "Dies Irae."  I've found it in three of his works now.  Back in May, I found it in his Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, although I never looked it up in the notation.  Last night, I found it in his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43.  And then I found it in his Morceaux de Fantaisie, Op. 3 (it took me awhile to find it in the notation though).  In the second movement (Prélude in C sharp), it's in the 7th to 9th measures:

(notation found here)

He plays around with it more here than in the other two instances I've found, but it's still recognizable.

I'm sort of painfully out of my depth here, but it seems like he's taken "Dies Irae" and sort of inverted the notes and - after shortening the note values from the original - expanded his new note values in order to come up with the rhythmic motif that (with the exception of the Agitato section) he uses almost throughout the movement.

Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43

I listened to a lot of Rachmaninov to-day, including his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43.  I noticed that he includes "Dies Irae" in Variation X and Variation XXIV.

(notation found here)

If my counting is correct, this is measure 26 of Variation X.  This phrase also appears an octave higher two measures earlier, but this one was easier to take a screen clipping of.

In Variation XXIV, it appears at measure 39, again, if my counting is correct.  (I had to take two screen clippings to show the whole phrase.)  Here, he also slows it down in note values and changes the E to an Eb.

Buffalo Springfield's "Special Care"

I just listened to Buffalo Springfield's Last Time Around for the first time.  At the very end of "Special Care," there are some spoken parts.  I can't make out all of them, but at the end there's "only some, they [are] more equal than others."

I'm not sure if it's intentional on Stephen Stills' part (although the similarities in phrasing suggest that it was a conscious quotation), but this is the same sentiment expressed in George Orwell's Animal Farm:  "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

Johnny Rivers' "Memphis" and "Help Me, Rhonda"

Between yester-day and to-day, I listened to the two discs of a Johnny Rivers compilation titled Secret Agent Man: The Ultimate Johnny Rivers Anthology.  I found some interesting things about two of his covers.

The liner notes mention Rivers' "flair for interpreting and rearranging other people's material" and explain that he took the riff for his version of Chuck Berry's "Memphis" from "Tommy Tucker's recent R&B hit 'Hi Heel Sneakers.'"  Aside from Berry's original and Rivers' cover, the only other version of "Memphis" I'm really familiar with is a live version by the Searchers (slightly re-titled to "Memphis, Tennessee") that appears on the 40th Anniversary Collection.  (I have two versions by the Beatles, but I haven't listened to them that much.  They're both closer to Berry's original, so are irrelevant to my point here anyway.)  Until reading the liner notes for the Rivers anthology, I hadn't fully realized that his version and the Searchers' version have the same riff.  The liner notes for the Searchers album don't give an exact date for their version; they mention only that it's from a live appearance on Swedish radio from 1964, although based on the track listing - which is more or less chronological - it seems that it's from December 1964.  So Rivers' version, released in May 1964, is older, and the Searchers probably modeled their version after his.  (It seems unlikely that they would use the same riff - and in the same way - that Rivers did.)

It's hard for me to wrap my head around that because not only am I more familiar with the Searchers' version, but I've always thought that the Searchers were older than Johnny Rivers.  I knew that both had long careers, but I'd always placed the Searchers' pinnacle of success in the early '60s and Johnny Rivers' in the mid- to late-'60s.  The Searchers' taking inspiration from Johnny Rivers certainly illustrates that I was wrong and that they overlap more than I'd thought.

Secondly, I think Rivers' cover of the Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda" is particularly interesting because it adheres more closely to the album version ("Help Me, Ronda," from Today!) rather than the single version (which was also released on the Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) album).

Rivers' cover re-instates the harmonica that appears on the Today! version (it doesn't appear on the Beach Boys' single version), and he replaces shattered with ruined in the line "but she let another guy come between us and it shattered our plan," which - again - is what the Today! version has.  The Beach Boys changed it to "shattered our plan" for the single version.

According to the liner notes, Rivers' version of "Help Me, Rhonda" was released in 1975, which is well after the Beach Boys' versions and well after their single version became a hit.  The liner notes also mention that Brian Wilson contributed backing vocals to Rivers' version.  Rivers' basing his version on the older, album version and Wilson's appearance on the track both seem to suggest that Rivers recorded the song because he genuinely liked it and not because he was just trying to get a hit song (although it apparently did well in the charts anyway).