Whitney Houston's I will always love you is often touted as one of the best/worst examples of the truck-driver's gear-change genre.
I think it's a tad unfair to single out that one without mentioning "I have nothing" (also from the soundtrack of 'The Bodyguard'). For the more tone-deaf among you, she sings the phrase "Don't make me close one more door" in the normal key starting at 1 min 20 seconds; by the time she gets round to it again at 3 mins 40 seconds, the song has gotten so tedious and dull that somebody somewhere thought that inserting a 'dramatic' pause half-way through the phrase; bunging in a semi-tone gear change; reverting to the normal tempo; and finishing off the song a semi-tone higher would liven things up a bit. If you listen carefully, this particular crime happens just before she sings the word 'close' at 3 mins 44 seconds.
If this doesn't set your teeth on edge*, then nothing will:
* If you're watching this during your lunchbreak, then my apologies.
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
"I have nothing"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Why today of all days to invoke the Whitney clause?
I recently saw Dave Spikey live and he does a class bit at the end dissecting lyrics, one being this from Roy Orbison:
I drove all night, crept in your room
Woke you from your sleep to make love to you
Is that all right?
To which he (Spikey) quipped:
" Well no Roy it's not, you're supposed to ask permission first. Your way you'll end up chewing a pillow on G wing for ten years".
Nope. Sorry, Still don't can't hear it.
Mind you I can identify many piston engines by their unique sound.
So is my tonedeafness selective I wonder?
Recognition at last that some gear changes are an attempt to ward off monotony (in literal sense).
I seem to remember the group I was in (on semi-detached basis as drummer) would at half way "double the time" ,or introduce new instruments ,or in some cases cut into a completely different number before coming out the other end to finish with the original.Mitch Ryder did this with "Jenny takes a ride" where the slow "CC Rider" cuts without warning into Little Richard's frantic "Jenny jenny". I always thought this was well cool,especially as Little Richard was unfashionable at the time.Unfortunately hippies appropriated the title to produce the shop named "Granny takes a trip " which was unworthy IMHO.
Post a Comment