With Joy Division, Del Shannon, The Band...
Taking up residency as Clash’s in house music boffin is Alex Hills, a composer and lecturer in the Department of Academic Studies at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Unaware of each song’s authors, Alex blindly merits the compositional qualities of the songs given to him by Clash, judging the best of the bunch by its perfunctory arrangement…
This month, five artists who, like Kurt Cobain, took their own lives.
- - -
Song 1 (Joy Division - ‘Atmosphere’)
[Ian Curtis hung himself in 1980]
The beginning is just incredibly melodramatic, with the open fifth drone and the over the top drum fills. I’m expecting this to turn into a massively overstated anthemic sort of song. It turns out to be incredibly static and surprisingly restrained, though, with a very short bass riff and a minimal level of harmonic change. It also avoids any really big build-ups or climaxes, which I find works very well with the rather laconic, circular, emotional stance of the song. What variety there is comes from the two instrumental sections, one in the middle and one at the end, which again fit well because they are just explorations of the same very simple material as the sung verses, not an opportunity for showing off or adding unnecessary complexity. Quite a subtle and well done song.
- - -
Song 2 (Nick Drake - ‘Hazey Jane I’)
[Overdosed in 1974]
I find the sound of this all rather glossed-up and commercial. The guitar playing and singing style seem to be going for folky/authentic, and then they dump loads of reverb, splashy cymbals and a very expensive sounding string arrangement on top of it, leaving the song rather at odds with itself. The lack of structural change here doesn’t work for the song like it did with the first one, instead I get bored very quickly and it seems far, far too long. This is really meandering and dull. It is interesting that this and the first song are nearly the same length, and neither actually change much, but this one loses me almost immediately. I think it is partly a product of the very misjudged production values, but also that here the repetition doesn’t build intensity, and instead actually destroys it.
- - -
Song 3 (The Band - ‘Tears Of Rage’)
[Singer and pianist Richard Manuel hung himself in 1986]
Hmmm, we seem to be having lots of very sentimental songs today. I like the sound of this one much more than the one before. Again, though, this is quite flat structurally, and rather long. The vocals are always very literal and one dimensional, delivering lines of text always with one syllable for each note and in a narrow, uniform register. To me this needs something to break it up into parts more, some kind of variation of melodic character or unexpected chords. The ending is nice, though, where the pacing does change a bit and we spend longer doing less - just getting stuck on the title line. Ultimately this is another long song that doesn’t really earn its length.
- - -
Song 4 (Del Shannon - ‘Runaway’)
[Shot himself in 1990]
It’s fun to hear the very beginnings of a genre and how different influences are being brought together into something which was in itself revolutionary - rock ‘n’ roll. You can really see the soda fountains, whitewall tyres and high school letter jackets. I think country and western is a big part of this, more than blues. The best things here for me are the way the horn section stabs at the end of each line grow over the first minute, when they really take over completely, and the very memorable, if quite silly, keyboard solo. The way this melody is integrated back into the song with the voice at the end is also very nice and ties everything up. It is also knows when to stop, and leaves me wanting more. Super.
- - -
Song 5 (The Germs - ‘Lexicon Devil’)
[Singer Darby Crash overdosed in 1980]
Well, this at least manages to be short again - I don’t think it is awful, but I certainly wouldn’t have wanted this to go on for any longer than it did! The extreme simplicity here is both the song’s strength and downfall I think - the chugga chugga rhythm is fine, but they really don’t try and do anything at all with it. In particular, the way the guitar and voice are constantly completely in unison is something they need to vary or make something of. All the ‘gimme gimmes’ are quite ear-catching at first, but in order to make more of them they could make the rhythm a little less stable, syncopating the guitars against the voice or something - this is done so well with the horns in the previous song. This just doesn’t have the drive or focus it needs to get away with having so little content.
- - -
THE VERDICT
I find myself thinking, yet again, about how these songs balance change and variety with simple structures. The first song doesn’t do much, but what it does it does very well, and at the right times, which makes it work very well. There is a lot more variety in the fourth song, although it is much shorter, and again the variety happens at the right time and is linked into the structure as a whole. These are really far more compelling than the other three, which don’t deal with this balance in an interesting way at all. This matters a little less in the fifth song, because it is so short, but I find both the second and third outstay their welcome by a good minute or two. The perfect storm of tediousness and dubious production values in the second song definitely makes this the loser for me. Of the two good songs, I’d take the fourth, which both encapsulates the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, and also is incredibly good fun to listen to.
THE WINNER? Del Shannon - ‘Runaway’
This month, five artists who, like Kurt Cobain, took their own lives.
- - -
Song 1 (Joy Division - ‘Atmosphere’)
[Ian Curtis hung himself in 1980]
The beginning is just incredibly melodramatic, with the open fifth drone and the over the top drum fills. I’m expecting this to turn into a massively overstated anthemic sort of song. It turns out to be incredibly static and surprisingly restrained, though, with a very short bass riff and a minimal level of harmonic change. It also avoids any really big build-ups or climaxes, which I find works very well with the rather laconic, circular, emotional stance of the song. What variety there is comes from the two instrumental sections, one in the middle and one at the end, which again fit well because they are just explorations of the same very simple material as the sung verses, not an opportunity for showing off or adding unnecessary complexity. Quite a subtle and well done song.
- - -
Song 2 (Nick Drake - ‘Hazey Jane I’)
[Overdosed in 1974]
I find the sound of this all rather glossed-up and commercial. The guitar playing and singing style seem to be going for folky/authentic, and then they dump loads of reverb, splashy cymbals and a very expensive sounding string arrangement on top of it, leaving the song rather at odds with itself. The lack of structural change here doesn’t work for the song like it did with the first one, instead I get bored very quickly and it seems far, far too long. This is really meandering and dull. It is interesting that this and the first song are nearly the same length, and neither actually change much, but this one loses me almost immediately. I think it is partly a product of the very misjudged production values, but also that here the repetition doesn’t build intensity, and instead actually destroys it.
- - -
Song 3 (The Band - ‘Tears Of Rage’)
[Singer and pianist Richard Manuel hung himself in 1986]
Hmmm, we seem to be having lots of very sentimental songs today. I like the sound of this one much more than the one before. Again, though, this is quite flat structurally, and rather long. The vocals are always very literal and one dimensional, delivering lines of text always with one syllable for each note and in a narrow, uniform register. To me this needs something to break it up into parts more, some kind of variation of melodic character or unexpected chords. The ending is nice, though, where the pacing does change a bit and we spend longer doing less - just getting stuck on the title line. Ultimately this is another long song that doesn’t really earn its length.
- - -
Song 4 (Del Shannon - ‘Runaway’)
[Shot himself in 1990]
It’s fun to hear the very beginnings of a genre and how different influences are being brought together into something which was in itself revolutionary - rock ‘n’ roll. You can really see the soda fountains, whitewall tyres and high school letter jackets. I think country and western is a big part of this, more than blues. The best things here for me are the way the horn section stabs at the end of each line grow over the first minute, when they really take over completely, and the very memorable, if quite silly, keyboard solo. The way this melody is integrated back into the song with the voice at the end is also very nice and ties everything up. It is also knows when to stop, and leaves me wanting more. Super.
- - -
Song 5 (The Germs - ‘Lexicon Devil’)
[Singer Darby Crash overdosed in 1980]
Well, this at least manages to be short again - I don’t think it is awful, but I certainly wouldn’t have wanted this to go on for any longer than it did! The extreme simplicity here is both the song’s strength and downfall I think - the chugga chugga rhythm is fine, but they really don’t try and do anything at all with it. In particular, the way the guitar and voice are constantly completely in unison is something they need to vary or make something of. All the ‘gimme gimmes’ are quite ear-catching at first, but in order to make more of them they could make the rhythm a little less stable, syncopating the guitars against the voice or something - this is done so well with the horns in the previous song. This just doesn’t have the drive or focus it needs to get away with having so little content.
- - -
THE VERDICT
I find myself thinking, yet again, about how these songs balance change and variety with simple structures. The first song doesn’t do much, but what it does it does very well, and at the right times, which makes it work very well. There is a lot more variety in the fourth song, although it is much shorter, and again the variety happens at the right time and is linked into the structure as a whole. These are really far more compelling than the other three, which don’t deal with this balance in an interesting way at all. This matters a little less in the fifth song, because it is so short, but I find both the second and third outstay their welcome by a good minute or two. The perfect storm of tediousness and dubious production values in the second song definitely makes this the loser for me. Of the two good songs, I’d take the fourth, which both encapsulates the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, and also is incredibly good fun to listen to.
THE WINNER? Del Shannon - ‘Runaway’
Joy Division
The Band
