Heart Like A Wheel

Sometimes you just like you a band or artist because they fit in with your preferences.  Sometimes because they remind you of someone else you dig.  Or maybe for reasons that aren’t even related to music.  Sometimes – especially if they don’t necessarily fit your mould – you can’t quite put your finger on it.

Linda Ronstadt was always one of those last cases for me.  I mean, very talented, but not terribly original, and maybe a tad on the commercial side.  I mean, she was certainly not Led Zeppelin.  So I couldn’t figure out what it was I liked so much.

But I think I finally have:  she was so great because she was the whole American thing: country, rock and roll, rockabilly, blues - oh, and a little gospel.  Punk too.  She could deliver in each style with unassailable conviction – sometimes mixing in more than one of ‘em in the same song.

And then for good measure she went and got Peter Asher, friend and protégé of The Beatles, to be her producer.  Pretty hard to miss with all that jammed into a record.

Come Gather ‘Round People

I recently picked up the Bob Dylan 30^th Anniversary Tribute concert DVD.  Dunno why they kept us waiting 22 years, but it was worth the wait.

Great performances by an all-start cast.  And some of the best songs ever written.

I watched the DVD with someone who’s a little younger than me, who asked, “What’s the big deal about Dylan anyway?”  The question was influenced by this person’s limited exposure to Dylan, which is mostly latter day Dylan, the cat with the cartoonish voice, dark sound and suicidal lyrics.

But that’s not the Dylan I know.  Well, I do, and I think he’s kinda cool too (in his own way).

Anyway, I responded, “Just listen!  Look who’s on the stage!”  A substantial number of my favourite artists, some of the most successful of all time, were influenced by Bob Dylan.  They said as much, and they proved their assertion in their renditions of his songs.

More than any other artist, Dylan is the link that connects our modern music – and culture – with the past.  Sure, Clapton and Page dug out some blues gems. Yes, The Beatles and The Stones played Nashville, Motown and Memphis with conviction. 

But Dylan is the conduit.  Delta Blues, Hillbilly folk, sea shanties, gospel, ballads, poems, stories … It was as if he had absorbed a dozen working-man’s cultures, and poured it out into the modern world.  Folk, rock and roll, soul, blues rock, R&B, folk rock … he’s touched it all, and shown us where it all came from.

And he spoke the truth, fearlessly.  It’s too bad we stopped listening.  We better start swimming.

The Road I’m On

Music Harmony 101:  harmonize your melody by using the chords based on the 1^st, 4^th and 5^th notes of the scale, commonly notated using the Roman Numerals I, IV and V.  If you want a bit of spice, add the chord based on the 6^th note (VI).

That’s enough for most western music: rock, pop, country, punk, hymns, national anthems, you name it.

You can just repeat a sequence endlessly, like I-VI-IV-V, as used in Stand By Me and a million other songs.

You can follow a rigid formula, like I-IV-I-V-IV-I, the 12 bar blues pattern used for a healthy majority of blues songs, also sped up with a backbeat for early rock ’n’ roll.

Or you can mix ‘em up endlessly like Jackson Browne does in Running On Empty.

The basis of the song is a jumped up groove on the church cadence (“amen”): IV-I.  Once you’ve got that approaching the hypnotic, let’s take it somewhere by adding the 6th: IV-I-VI.

Now let’s go crazy for the bridge.  VI-IV-V-I, then switched up to VI-V-IV-I. Back to VI-IV-V-I, then IV-V-I (this last sequence being something used by everyone from Bach to The Ramones).

Just four chords, mixed up and stirred around in a way that makes it both familiar and fresh at the same time.

Just what you’re hoping to find.