Listening Blog #13 – “Woodstock” – Joni Mitchell (1969)

Instrumentation: Voice (Mitchell and background), and some sort of synth/electric piano

Texture: The texture is that of melody (Mitchell) and accompaniment (the electric piano). The song begins with an electric piano solo, which immediately gives the song an unusual and hauntingly mysterious tone. When Mitchell joins the song, her voice has a similarly haunting, eerie quality to it. Together, the two instruments create a very bare but captivating sound.

Range: The electric piano remains in a stable “home” range, but throughout the song Mitchell sings very high. She also demonstrates a wide musical range, as she frequently jumps from a low register to a much higher register.

Tempo: While the beginning solo shows some artistic phrasing which makes it hard to initially determine the tempo, the piano sets the song’s tempo a couple of bars before Mitchell begins singing. One Mitchell begins singing, there is not very much variation in the tempo – the focus is mostly on her lyrics and melodic interpretation.

Meter: The song demonstrates duple beat, which is enforced by subdivision of the beat by the left hand of the electric piano accompaniment.

Volume: While at some points Mitchell sings more delicately at some points, and more recklessly at others, she does not actually vary that much in volume: she has good control over both her low and high registers, and as her voice has a sort of strident quality to it, it doesn’t need too much volume.

Form: The song clearly demonstrates strophic form, as evidenced by Mitchell’s verses and return to the chorus of “We are stardust / We are golden / And we’ve got to get ourselves / Back to the garden.”

Lyrics: Mitchell apparently wrote the lyrics to the song as she was sitting in a hotel watching broadcasts of the Woodstock Music Festival, as she had been advised to perform on TV instead of attending the festival. In her lyrics, Mitchell seems to blend religion and anti-war protest as she paints Woodstock as a gathering of those looking to “lose the smog” and gain redemption (she starts the song with “I came upon a child of God”, and returns to the ending chorus phrase “We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden”, referencing Eden). In the last verse she says that she “dreamed [she] saw the bombers / Riding shotgun in the sky / And they were turning into butterflies”, showing her dream for peace and the end of military aggression. To Mitchell, Woodstock was much more than just a festival.

Personal Response: I noticed that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young had recorded another version of the song. I felt that it was a huge departure from Mitchell’s version stylistically, but also lost a lot of the significance that Mitchell put into her song. Their version was much more upbeat, and so lost the serious tone and message that Mitchell conveyed in her song. In addition, I also wanted to address Mitchell’s vocal improv section after the last chorus: I found it extremely interesting to hear how she intentionally made her voice break in order to make it sound like a completely different instrument.

Listening Blog #12 - "We Shall Overcome" - Joan Baez (1963)

Instrumentation: Baez singing and playing guitar – typical of the ‘60s folk singer/songwriter.

Texture: The song involves a main melody with guitar accompaniment of main chords. While Baez’s voice is not very full, she sings out very strongly and with conviction, which creates a somewhat strident yet noticeable sound.

Melody: Since the melody is a spiritual, the melody is once again fairly simple. Baez adds her own ornamentations and improvisations after establishing the core melody, which helps to add interest.

Form: Once again, the verses and chorus to make one core melody with slightly changing verses. Therefore, I feel like it is a modified version of strophic form.

Origins: Like Odetta’s ‘Glory Glory’, this song is a ‘60s version of an old African-American spiritual. This contributes to the song’s simple melody, repetitive nature, and hopeful lyrics.

Lyrics: The main lyrics of the song are “We shall overcome / We shall overcome some day / Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe / We shall overcome some day.” In these lyrics, the indomitable hope of the African slaves is obvious: however, Baez used this song as a message of hope against oppression of quite a different nature: the Vietnam War. During the ‘60s, Baez, along with many other folk artists, used African-American spirituals to express anti-war sentiments.

Range: While the song’s core melody varies very little in range, during the verses Baez harmonizes quite high, often holding out the ‘day’ in ‘today’ on a high note for an extended time. In doing so, Baez adds interest to the song’s melody, as her high voice holds a somewhat haunting quality to it. In addition, I found it interesting to compare her speaking voice, which is low and somewhat monotone, with her singing voice, which is very melodic and somewhat ethereal.

Personal Response: I learned this as a sing-along during my elementary years, and studied it in the context of slavery in middle school – so while I was well-acquainted with the song’s context in slavery, I was surprised to realize that folk-singers evoked it in their anti-war movement in the ‘60s. I was drawn to Baez’s words in the beginning, when she said, “It’s an old song and it’s a trite song, but in a new context it’s a beautiful song.” However, I’m not totally sure I agree with her, both in her assessment of the song, and her (and other folk singers’) decision to utilize spirituals for their war protesting. In my opinion, ‘overcoming’ the extreme prejudice of slavery was a much bigger obstacle. While pioneering free speech is a noble cause, I have to wonder at the integrity of their actions.

Listening Blog # 11 – “Glory Glory" - Odetta (1956)

Instrumentation: Solo voice – while this creates a very bare sound, at the same time it puts sole emphasis on the simple yet powerful lyrics, and Odetta’s interpretation of these lyrics.

Texture: Since there’s only one instrument, the musical texture is very bare: however, the texture of Odetta’s voice as an instrument extremely rich and incredibly soulful.

Form: I’m not totally sure what the structure of the song is: it seems here that the verses and the chorus have merged, so that Odetta sings slightly modified verses repeatedly.

Origin: This song is traditionally an American spiritual song – its relation to and historical context within can easily be seen in all aspects of the song: from melody to lyrics and meter.

Melody: The melody is fairly simple, which makes sense, considering it was meant to be easily learned and sung. Spirituals were an essential form of communication (as well as commiseration) between slaves.

Meter: Although Odetta fully utilizes pauses and silences to add dramatic tension to her song, the song still keeps an underlying duple beat. Although its importance is not immediately apparent, the constant meter is an essential driving force behind the song. The song’s meter may have origins in historical context, as slaves would often sing spirituals as a form of solace when forced to work in the fields. Perhaps the “march” beat mirrors the rhythm of their drudge work in the fields.

Lyrics: The lyrics to the spiritual are essentially: “Glory glory, Hallelujah / When I lay my burden down”. Historically, this would have referred to the end of slavery, and when slaves could break free from their chains, both physically and socially. However, even though Odetta recorded this in 1956, it was still just as applicable: at the time, Jim Crow laws still prevented African-Americans many of the privileges that white Americans possessed. The ‘burden’ may have changed to segregation and discrimination, but it was still in existence.

Personal Response: Overall, I find this song to be pretty powerful. I enjoy the little ornamentations that Odetta employs on the melody. Her vocal tone does get a little swallowed as she gets higher, which bothers me from a classically trained point of view – but it’s also important to remember that vocal accuracy is not the point of the song. Odetta does repeat the verse/chorus four times in the song, which I find to be a bit overly repetitive: but again, that’s the point: the repetition allowed others to join in.

Listening Blog #10 – “Please Mr. Postman” – The Marvelettes

Instrumentation: Vocals (lead singer and backup vocals), Piano, Drums, Bass

Texture: The song has a relatively thick texture: each instrument sounds very full and builds layer upon layer to create a thickly textured song. This may be due to “wall of sound” producing, which was a type of producing commonly used on girl group songs that created a dense, echo-y sound through constructing and reconstructing the song. The lead singer also has a very thick, raspy quality to her voice, which also contributes to the song’s thick texture. Overall, I would say that the texture provides the song’s main interest.

Range: The song’s range stays in a fairly confined area: while the vocalist’s vocal soloing pushes both the high and low limits of the song’s range, and the backup singers sing fairly high, overall range is not the primary focus of the song.

Tempo: The song stays at the same tempo throughout the entirety of the song: overall, it has a driven yet laid-back tempo.

Meter: The meter is duple, which is established by the underlying bass line keeping rhythm with simple plucked notes, paired with the drum’s subdivisions played complementary to the bass notes.

Volume: The volume of the song remains at the same level throughout the song: this is definitely evidence of the song’s manipulation during production. While it provides a certain appealing stylistic attitude, it also takes away some of the excitement of dynamics in the song.

Form: Strophic

Lyrics: The lyrics revolve around the female protagonist begging the postman to give her some news of her boyfriend. This is typical of the girl-group lyrics, which often revolved around girl-boy relationships. These types of songs were crucial in opening up discussion amongst teenage girls of the 60s about important issues such as female freedom.

Listening Blog #9 – “Deep River” – Marian Anderson

Instrumentation: Voice (Anderson) and piano accompaniment

Texture: The song’s texture is fairly sparse as there are only two instruments, and the piano is usually playing softly in the background so as not to interfere with Anderson’s singing. The texture of Anderson’s voice is very full and rich.

Range: Anderson mainly stays in a low vocal range (in fact, impressively low). However, her voice jumps an octave on the words ‘over Jordan’: this puts musical emphasis on the most important word of text in the line. She also maintains a higher vocal melody during the song’s bridge, with one sustained high note. However, the song’s ‘home’ is in the low vocal range.

Tempo: The song’s tempo is very slow and dragging. This adds an element of drama and soulfulness. As the piece progresses, some subdivision occurs in the piano part and vocal part to add interest – but in the song’s final verse, it reverts to the original tempo.

Meter: Overall, the song is set in duple meter: however, there is some delaying of the beat in some places.

Volume: An unusual aspect of this song is Anderson’s ability to maintain fairly loud volume even in her lower range: in fact, her ability to project and resonate at low pitch is one of her assets as a singer. While Anderson gets louder as she gets higher, the recording shows her talent in both ranges.

Form: Strophic

Lyrics: ‘Deep River’ is an African-American spiritual: in it, the narrator speaks of the deep river, which separates them from their home, Jordan. However, the narrator has faith that their Lord will soon deliver them. Within the lyrics lies the hope of African slaves that they would soon be delivered from the evil and oppression of slavery. Anderson’s singing of this song is particularly poignant. The listener can sense the emotion and soulfulness that she brings to the piece. Through this piece, Anderson reminded her audience that the vestiges of slavery were still not erased (through the Jim Crow laws and other acts of discrimination), and encouraged them to continue the fight for equality.

Research Proposal

The topic that I intend to explore and discuss in my research paper is the girl-group music movement of the 1960s: more specifically, the relationships between female girl groups and their (often) male producers, as well as the relationships between the girl group performers and their audiences. I plan to proceed by gathering a variety of resources: first and foremost, I expect most of my sources to be critical books, articles, or essays on the subject. Secondly, I hope to obtain a video (or more, if more can be found) containing live footage of girl groups performing, which I believe will be of great importance in writing authentically and passionately about the subject. Finally, I hope to gain information through interviews, either from filmed footage or possibly conducting an interview with Jacqueline Warwick, one of the most prominent scholars of the girl group movement.

My tentative thesis is that members of girl groups rarely had free reign to exercise agency, and were often manipulated, if not completely controlled by the producer, to do his willing. My working definition of agency is a human’s capacity to act willingly in making choices and expressing them in the world as a rational, thought-out process. However, as detrimental as this was to the individual female performers, the music, lyrics, and marketization of the girl groups nevertheless transformed the perspectives of their female teenage audience, helping foster new discussion of gender, sexuality, and freedom that helped the teenage girls improve their senses of agency. In furthering the argument made in my thesis, I plan to discuss the treatment of and attitude towards “girl” groups, the power of the producers (in particular, Phil Spector and Berry Gordy Jr., two of the most famous producers of their time) and their manipulations of the groups, meanings within “trite” girl group lyrics, techniques used to market the groups (appearance and public image), and finally, the atmosphere of female teenagers before, during, and after the girl-group era.

Listening Blog #8 - "C'est si bon" - Eartha Kitt

Instrumentation: Voice (Kitt and background male vocals), Drums, Bass, Horn Section (Trumpet), Saxophones, Clarinet

Texture: The song has a fairly varied texture, given the variety of musical lines going on at one time. In general, the song consists of Kitt’s solo line and backup accompaniment. Kitt’s voice has an unusual texture: it’s slightly raspy, but memorable in its delivery: and at the higher vocal range, her voice shows a completely different texture, approaching a belted, Broadway-style sound.

Range: The instruments generally stay in safe middle ranges, since they are background. The horns sometimes play higher at the end of verse phrases, and they have a short feature at the song’s introduction. Kitt herself sings mostly in a low range, in order sound coquettish and alluring, except for near the end, when she belts at the high vocal range to signify the song’s finale.

Tempo: The tempo is constant throughout the song, with the bass playing a steady plucked rhythm underneath the song to keep the tempo.

Meter: The song is in duple meter: again, the bass’ presence enforces this metric structure.

Volume: Throughout most of the song, Kitt sing-speaks pretty softly, sometimes in almost a purr or whisper: this creates an intimate and flirtacious aspect to the song. However, at the song’s finale she belts out the higher notes loudly: while part of this is related is simply because singers naturally sing louder as they get higher, Kitt creates additional volume to make the finale more dramatic.

Form: The song starts off strophic, with typical verses and chorus, and then transforms to Kitt speaking over the repeating background of “c’est bon, c’est bon”, then ends with a dramatic return to the strophic form with a sung final “c’est tellment bon”.

Lyrics: The lyrics are largely French, with a few American phrases thrown in (“Cadillac car, “yacht”, and “mink coats”). Translated to English, the song details a girl talking about how life is good and carefree walking with her lover. She then talks about how she’s looking for a millionaire who can give her all these riches, but at the song’s end she seems to dismiss these dreams, saying it doesn’t matter when this occurs: it seems that she is willing to simply enjoy the present.

Mood: The song has elements of jazz in it, but the focus is on Kitt’s sultry delivery of the words. Like Billie Holiday, the emphasis is not so much on what she says or the quality of her singing, but in the power of her delivery. Kitt’s voice seems pretty sexually suggestive, which is a big departure from what we’ve heard previously.

Listening Blog #7 - "God Bless The Child" - Billie Holiday

Instrumentation: Vocals (Holiday), piano, clarinet, saxophones (intro), trumpet (typical Jazz ensemble instrumentation)

Texture: The word I would use is ‘restrained’. Although there are a lot of instruments, they are used sparingly, and played with a refined, professional sense. Holiday’s voice I personally find a little thin and grating at times.

Range: The vocal melody goes pretty deep at the repetition of “that’s got his own”, while there are bits of higher held-out notes at the bridge (“Money, you’ve got lots of friends), as well as the end. In general, though, the piece sits in a fairly casual voice register. The background instruments too have little range, so as to not draw too much attention away from Holiday’s vocals.

Tempo: Slow, laid-back: like a ballad.

Meter: Duple (slow shuffle)

Volume: Soft and subdued.

Form: Strophic (chorus starts with “Mama may have …”), with verses and bridge

(12-bar blues???)

Lyrics: The lyrics are very religious, saying that those with religion “have” more than those who don’t. Riches fade, but religion endures. I find this a surprising song for Holiday to sing, as I never really thought of her as particularly religious, especially given her life circumstances (worked as a prostitute at some point). It’s also a significant departure from the majority of her works, which are about love or other non-religious subjects.

Other: I own a different version of this song, so it was really interesting to hear another recording: even though it was still Billie Holiday, the songs have really different attitudes to them – instrumentation, key, phrasing, etc. Even though I personally don’t like Billie Holiday (the quality of her voice just doesn’t sit well with me), I’ve always liked this song, and found it to be incredibly soulful (in addition to the spiritual lyrics).

Listening Blog #6 - "Prove It On Me" - Ma Rainey`

Instrumentation: Vocals (Rainey), piano… at times, what sound like a kazoo, clarinet and a man on vocal percussion make appearances

Timbre: Very thick, mostly due to Ma Rainey’s rich voice. I’m not quite sure if this piece is homophonic or polyphonic: it sounds like the kazoo provides (some) counterpoint underneath her vocals, but it may just be accompaniment. The piano definitely provides accompahiment. Overall, there is a wealth of sound textures layered in this piece which creates a thick texture. In addition, the lower quality of the sound recording (due to the recording devices of the time), there seems to be a layer of fuzz that further thickens the texture, to the point of being almost muddy-sounding.

Range: Fairly low: Rainey has a lower, huskier-sounding voice. The background instruments stay in fairly medium ranges as well, with not too much variation.

Tempo: Laid-back, perhaps as a representation of the blues genre coming from the South.

Meter: Duple meter (slow march quality to the music)

Volume: Loud throughout the entire piece, with little variation. Rainey belts out the vocals at a consistently loud tempo,

Form: Strophic – Rainey returns to the “prove it on me” strain several times.

(12-bar blues???)

Lyrics: The lyrics of the song revolve around a woman singing about her rowdy tendencies, and how she prefers women to men. The ambiguity of her words leave plenty of room to suspect lesbianism in the lyrics. Rainey talks about how she wears collar and tie, wants to follow one girl (her crush?) everywhere she goes, dislikes men, and how folks says she’s crooked: yet she taunts them to “prove it on me”. The claim that the song represents Rainey herself was surprising to me: O’Brien mentions that she was married to ‘Pa’ Rainey, and makes no mention of potential bisexuality or homosexuality. Yet some people believe that Rainey was, at the very least, bisexual (http://outhistory.org/wiki/Ma_Rainey's_%22Prove_It_On_Me_Blues,%22_1928). While this article’s “evidence” seems a little insubstantial to prove anything, it certainly adds a new aspect of viewing Rainey – as an individual, and as an artist.