Happy New Year, my Darling!,
Wow, it's almost 1am already, where did the time go?.......the year is just flyin' by. :) I hope you had a nice day and a fun New Year's Eve, whatever you wound up doing. Here at Pearl's, we watched the ball drop in Times Square, hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin. For some reason this year they didn't have the time synced up with West Coast time, so the ball drop was five minutes early. But we kept our eye on the clock for the real thing, and we wouldn't have missed it anyway because Pearl's neighbor blew off enough fireworks to last until 4th of July. Now all is quiet, and I am listening to the tail end of the KUSC New Year's Eve bash, hosted by Jim Svejda. He always plays a lot of classic comedy stuff on New Year's, and he always finishes up with what he (and I) considers to be the greatest comedy record of all time, "The United States Of America" by Stan Freberg, which was a big hit in the early 60s. My Dad had a copy and I listened to it a lot when I was little, and 50 years later I still think it's a riot.
Well......wow, 2016. What a year it was. We lost so many artists, and then on the other hand I must say that it was one of the greatest years ever for live shows. And for you it was certainly a great year I think and I'm sure you will agree. :)
I saw your post this morning and I am glad to see that you like Radiohead! I did not know you were a fan. For me, I think they are one of the best bands of the last 20 years, they can do no wrong really. It is rare for a band - any band - not to have a bad album, but they don't. Every Radiohead album is at least good. Most are very good and several are great. I would put "Moon Shaped Pool" in the latter category. I just listened to it again tonight because of your post, and my goodness SB........it's just one great song after another.
The thing is, here's why Thom Yorke is such a great songwriter. He knows texture and mood. If you listen to "Daydreaming", it is easy to see that he built the whole thing around two simple piano arpeggios, the first one a slow triplet that builds on itself, and the second a Pink Floydian "space chord" arpeggio that acts as the resolution to the melody. It's a fairly simple (though extremely effective) framework for the song. But then he adds so much texture....through the use of all kinds of sounds via different instruments and effects, including vocal effects. He also wrote an incredibly moving vocal line to sing over the main melody, featuring very beautiful lyrics.
That is a key to so many, many great songs : an ingenious vocal melody. You can start a framework to a song with any number of "tried and true" chordal frameworks, adding a twist here and there, but what really makes a song unique is a great vocal melody that runs somewhat counter to, or accentuates, the chordal framework. For instance, today I learned how to play and sing Joni Mitchell's famous song, "Both Sides Now", which was a humongous Top 40 hit for Judy Collins in 1968. It's one of the great pop songs of all time, and it has a very simple chord structure.
But the vocal line is sheer genius. It's made for a female voice, but I love the song so much I just had to try to play it........and I'll keep it to myself, so no worries, lol. :)
But that's what I mean by a simple chord structure with a unique (and sometimes incredible) vocal melody overlaid. Thom Yorke is a master of that, and also of skewing the instrumentation so that the rhythms are sometimes off just a little bit or the textures are unexpected and used to create maximum emotion.
Man, I love Radiohead. Of course "OK Computer" is considered their classic, and it is indeed a great album, but I think I like "Kid A" even more, and "In Rainbows" was just incredible. Same with "Hail To The Thief". "Amnesiac"......"The Bends"......"Pablo Honey"......even "King Of Limbs".
Just a great, great band, and if you haven't heard everything by them I can't recommend them highly enough.
No movie tonight, too much noise in the apartment building, but I have a few lined up to start the year with. It rained all day again today, too, so while there haven't been any hikes in a while, there should be some great scenery when I do get back to the Santa Clarita trails and Santa Su, when the Sun comes back out.
I also saw your post via your friend Clint, the pic of him and his girlfriend, and I am sure you know that I thought it was a beautiful sentiment, what he said in his comments, and I could not agree more from my own perspective! :):)
Well, church in the morning believe it or not. But that's a good way to start the year also. :)
I don't know how many choir people will be there, but I'll be ready to sing as usual.
And I'll be back at the usual time, around 1pm.
Here we go into the New Year, Sweet Baby! It's gonna be a great one, so get ready.......
I Love You! See you in the morn. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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