The Alan Parsons Project's "The Voice"

I stayed up late listening to the Alan Parsons Project’s I Robot.  (I’m going roughly alphabetically through my albums, but since I have both the “regular” version of I Robot and the recent Legacy Edition, I didn’t want to have to listen to both back-to-back, so I spread them out by listening to one now.)

Lately, I’ve been a bit over-aware of when singers emphasis “you” in such a way that it sounds more like “choo.”  This is the case in “The Voice” on I Robot.  But I think that, in some ways, that over-emphasis to the degree of mutilation actually works because it makes the listener aware of it and thereby makes the listener aware of the titular voice.

Chicago's "P.M. Mourning"

I listened to Chicago’s Chicago II this morning.  In both “P.M. Mourning” and “Memories of Love” - although it’s more clear in “P.M. Mourning” - there’s this flute part.  It’s three ascending phrases, ending in some shriller tones.

It sounds almost the same as the whistle that Willy Wonka plays to get the attention of the Oompa Loompas in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  The movie is from 1971, and this album is from 1970, so it is possible that the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory people took that phrase from this album.  I’m not sure how likely it is, but they do sound pretty similar.  (Though I feel I must admit that it’s been a few years since I’ve last seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.)

Elton John's Cotton Fields - 16 Legendary Covers from 1969/70

I’m currently listening to Cotton Fields - 16 Legendary Covers from 1969/70 by Elton John.  Apparently, it was once a big thing for sort of unknown artists to record cover versions of hit songs.  I don’t know all that much about Elton John, but I think this album (or at least the songs on this album - I think they were all released as singles and put together as an album only recently) comes between his doing session work and becoming famous in his own right.

In any case, what I found interesting is how well-represented Creedence Clearwater Revival is.  This album includes versions of “Travellin’ Band” and “Up around the Bend” along with a version of Leadbelly’s “Cotton Fields,” which was also recorded by CCR.  These versions are actually pretty good covers, but their inclusion is still sort of weird.  I don’t know if Elton John got to choose which songs he did covers of (there might just be a lot of CCR covers because CCR were popular then), but the sort of songs that Elton John later did doesn’t really bear any resemblance to the sort of songs that CCR did.

Camille Saint-Saën's Christmas Oratorio

Yester-day, I listened to almost all of the music I have by Camille Saint-Saëns, including his Christmas Oratorio.  I’ve listened to this only a few times, no more than five, but listening to it yester-day, I found something interesting.

In the second movement - Recit et chœur - I recognized the melody from the chant “The Glory of the Father.”  Roughly, measures 3 to 8 in this part (found here):

Originally, I had assumed that Saint-Saëns was quoting an older chant [It’s not uncharacteristic for Saint-Saëns to quote other melodies in his works.  He includes “Dies Irae” in “Danse Macabre” (I found it once, but I confess I can’t seem to find it again), and he later quotes from his own “Danse Macabre” in the “Fossils” section of Carnival of the Animals.], but I looked up some things and now I think it’s the opposite way around - that the chant is quoting Saint-Saëns.

"The Glory of the Father" was written by Egil Hovland, who was born in 1924.  Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio was written in 1858.  It would truly be a feat to quote from a chant that would not be written for at least sixty years.

But the melodies are so similar that I find it hard to believe that this is just a coincidence.  The corresponding texts to each of these melodies are “Et in terra pax” (and on earth peace) in Saint-Saëns’ oratorio and “In Him was life” in Hovland’s chant.  I don’t know if Hovland intended connections to be drawn between these two texts by using a very similar, if not the same, melody.  But then again, I don’t even know if he intentionally used Saint-Saëns’ melody.

The Byrds' The Byrds Play Dylan

I’m currently listening to the Byrds’ The Byrds Play Dylan, and I don’t understand why it isn’t sequenced chronologically.  Either chronology - the Byrds’ recording these songs or Dylan’s writing them - would suffice.  But there are songs from 1969 stuck in between songs from 1965, and I just don’t understand how that was a conscious decision anyone made.

I read a book about Dylan earlier this year (Andy Gill’s Bob Dylan:  The Stories behind the Songs 1962-1969), and one of the points it made was that Dylan was a constantly-evolving artist.  There was the early folk stuff, then the protest songs, then he went electric, and then back to roots music.  Not all of those distinctions would necessarily come across in the Byrds’ versions of these songs, but I still think it would be better to sequence the album chronologically.

Even from a more Byrds-favoring perspective, the sequencing is weird.  Songs that were originally on the same album are separated in the track listing by four or five places, and the positions of those songs on the original albums are disregarded.  Both “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” and “Nothing Was Delivered” were on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, with “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” starting off the album, but here, it comes five tracks after “Nothing Was Delivered.”  Amazingly, ”Mr. Tambourine Man” the Byrds’ debut single (and therefore first Dylan cover) is track six.  The sequencing is just all over the place.

The Everly Brothers' "Roving Gambler"

I’m listening to a compilation album of the Everly Brothers titled Bye Bye Love.  (I actually have two compilation albums of the Everly Brothers titled Bye Bye Love.)  In any case, this album includes their version of “Roving Gambler.”  The other musical group I associate with “Roving Gambler” is Simon & Garfunkel.  It’s a bonus track on their Sounds of Silence album.

I’d always attributed Paul Simon’s interest in English folk music to his having been in England.  But I think the Everly Brothers may have had something to do with it too.  Simon & Garfunkel were greatly influenced by them (they even included “Bye Bye Love” on Bridge over Troubled Water), and since the Everly Brothers’ repertoire includes some other folk songs, it’s possible that that is what affected Paul Simon (or was at least a partial cause for his interest).  For instance, both also recorded versions of “Barbara Allen,” although the Simon & Garfunkel version (also found in the bonus tracks on Sounds of Silence) is titled “Barbriallen.”

Buffalo Springfield's Buffalo Springfield Again

I just listened to Buffalo Springfield’s Buffalo Springfield Again.  What I found interesting was that on some of the tracks, the lead vocalist also sings the harmony parts.  Like on “Expecting to Fly,” Neil Young sings the lead vocal, and he also sings the harmony part.  See also “Broken Arrow” and Stephen Stills’ “Bluebird.”

Having both parts sung by the same person would give the song more coherence, but I’m not sure if that’s why they did it that way.  Judging by the Wikipedia page, it was more likely due to acrimony in the group or Neil Young’s frequent absences, but I’m hesitant to accept Wikipedia so readily and I’m not sure if those would explain all of the cases.  Incidentally, I have a book about Buffalo Springfield that I’d planned on starting soon.  Maybe I’ll find an answer in there.

Buddy Holly's "I'm Gonna Love You Too"

I’m listening to Buddy Holly’s Buddy Holly.  Earlier in the Collection Audit project, I listened to a few Buddy Holly compilation albums, and I started paying attention to the backing vocals.  They’re great in that they don’t draw a lot of attention to themselves, and yet they’re not overly simple.

This album starts off with “I’m Gonna Love You Too.”  There’s an introductory bit (a long melisma on “I”) that’s repeated later in the song, and at first I thought the backing vocal was just doubling Holly’s own.  But when I started to pay attention to it, I noticed that this wasn’t the case.  It’s a distinct part.  And now I really want to figure out those two parts so that I can look at them more closely see how they relate to one an-other.

Andrew Bird's "Lazy Projector"

I listened to Andrew Bird’s Break It Yourself this morning, and in “Lazy Projector,” I noticed a reference to his earlier work.

In “Lazy Projector,” he says, “history repeats itself / and time is a crooked bow.”  ”Time is a crooked bow” is also a line that appears in “Armchairs” from Armchair Apocrypha.  Judging by “history repeats itself,” this was a conscious self-reference.

Some of the melody of the later part of “Lazy Projector” sounds like it’s echoing his earlier work too, but I can’t quite place it, so I don’t know if it actually is similar to an earlier melody or whether it’s just so quintessentially Andrew Bird-sounding.

The Blues Brothers' "Gimme Some Lovin'"

I’m listening to the soundtrack to The Blues Brothers.  Their version of the Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin’” is pretty good, but there was always something about it that bugged me that I couldn’t really put my finger on.  I finally realized what it is:  they change the melody.  They don’t always go up to the higher notes at the end of phrases (like “you better take it easy ‘cause the place is on fire”), and they’ve sort of ironed out the syncopation.  Those were two of the things that made the Spencer Davis Group’s version so great.

While I do like the Blue Brothers’ addition of horns, I feel that they’ve done it almost at the expense of the organ riff.  The organ part is still there, but it’s not emphasized like it is in the Spencer Davis Group’s version.  If they emphasized that organ part along with the horns, it could sound great.  Although my thinking that is probably just because I love the sound of Hammond organs so much.