The Greatest Bit Ever - Part Two
Some time ago The Word's very own Rob Fitzpatrick started a thread claiming that Ravi Shankars's Rag Behag contained a passage he considered perhaps the greatest bit of music ever recorded.
I've just found another. On the stroll home this evening, iPod on shuffle, Starship Trooper by Yes popped up amongst the Tuvan throat singing and underground hip-hop.
There's a fantastic bit, starting at about 5'39", where everything breaks down to a simple, repetitive guitar riff. For the next couple of minutes or so other instruments slowly join, the tension builds and builds and builds, crescendo hinted at but never quite reached until, at 8'30", Steve Howe's guitar solo finally leaps into view with a great whoosh and climax is attained.
It reminds me of the way a lot of dance records, from Josh Wink to current Word office faves The Japanese Popstars, are constructed: tension, more tension, even more tension, creschendo, release.
Either way, it's brilliant.
Got any more great bits you'd like to share?
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Yes,
yes, yes, Yes. That song on that album is a spectacular high point. I dare not listen to it on any form of public transport for fear of being sectioned. I'm too excited just thinking about it to remember any other like it for the moment. Er, I'll get back to you when I've calmed down a bit.
Yes! Yes! Yes!!
Another great rock example of the Orgasmatron build-build-hold-release feature is that short bit in "Let's Spend the Night Together", just after "You know I'm smiling baby", at about two minutes in. Thrilling.
I can't think of the technical term for this. Something to do with resolution?
Good question
I'll ask the good people at Mixmag.
Yes indeed...
...isn't that bit in 'Starship Trooper' great? I think it originated from a song in the band Steve Howe was in prior to Yes called Bodast- mentioned recently on one of the podcasts. Also, celebrated blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa has covered that bit of the song in concert.
Yes have done so many of these great slow-burn climaxes; my favourite is 'Awaken'- the last few minutes of that are just breathtakingly beautiful. I get chills just thinking about it! The climax of 'Soon' in 'The Gates Of Delirium' gets me in the same way.
The instrumental coda of The
The instrumental coda of The Stranglers' "Down In The Sewer" is my favourite piece of instrumental music ever. JJ's dirty bass, Dave's keyboard wizardry, and Jet's drumming all coesesce into pure aural perfection. Shiver-up-the-spine stuff
Jeepers, John
Ain't you right! Seconded. I'm dum dumming the bass line as we speak.
Another choice would be when L'Angelo Mysterioso kicks in the guitar motif in Badge. One where his guitar wept first and more effectively than Mr Claptons, me thinks.
It works with intros, too
These slow-burns, ending in a climactic release, seem to have been favoured in the 70s prog-rock era. Even the Stranglers example (brilliant!) arises from Dave Greenfield's proggist tendencies.
But we can add a few slow-burn intros to the list. From the same era, of course - does anyone have any more recent examples?
Gong - "Master Builder" from "You". Swirly space noises and distant echoplexed voices going "Auuuummmmmm" give way to more voices chanting something like "Ee oh may-mo tay-toe zo", over and over as synth bleeps and a pulsing bass riff join in. Pounding drums keep things building, until a final drum roll bursts the bubble as a mighty riff and the saxes kick in. Fabulous.
Steve Hillage - "Salmon Song" from "Fish Rising". Track starts brightly, then immediately breaks down. Things swirl around for a bit before a staccato "dup-dup-dup-dup" riff and drums build up and up until Hillage's looped Salmon riff kicks in.
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - "Faith Healer" from "Next". The voodoo synth riff just keeps repeating, over and over, almost to the point of monomania. Just when you're ready to tear your hair out, "Bom" goes the tom-tom, and Alex weighs in with "If your body's feelin' baaaaad, and it's the only one you have...". Wild cheers, etc.
Forgot about...
...Sensational Alex Harvey Band, what a fantastic group and vastly underrated.
Let me put my hands on you...
God, yes, that's a classic.
The Wedding Present and Genesis
The Wedding Present. The long guitar outro on Take Me! from Bizarro.
Genesis. The second keyboard solo on Cinema Show, especially off Seconds Out.
Actually...
...Genesis' 'Apocalypse In 9/8' works in a similar slow-burn way to 'Starship Trooper', and that's another one that always gives me chills.
Wedding Present
seem to specialise in long layered guitar outro's - my favourite one is Kennedy. Just splendid.
Rest of the stuff above is slightly prog for me - but I will now go in search of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band - I don't think I have ever heard any before. And were the band sensational or was it Alex?
It was Alex.
Without a doubt.
Giddy up a ding dong and some!
Both
If you're an albums kind of guy, the "Next" album is the best starting point. And both Alex and band were sensational. He once lovingly addressed a festival crowd thus: "Ah'm awd enough to be yer father. In some cases ah probably am.". The last of the teenage idols, indeedy.
The Wedding Present
I was going to put both Kennedy and Take Me! cos both outros are magnificent but I thought it would weaken the argument to include two off same album.
I'd avoid Alex Harvey if I were you - irritating theatrical bollox. The only sensational thing about them is that they are mentioned EVER.
If you have never heard Next
that remark might be excusable. If you have heard it, either you played it on an old tin box or you must have cloth ears. It's a stone cold classic. As for live performances, Alex Harvey forgot more stagecraft than most indie bands ever learned, and he had more charisma than a box full of misiberalists could muster in a month of Sundays.
So there.
Iron Butterfly
The bit after about 16 mins when Ron Bushey shouts 1-2-3-4 on Inna Gada Da Vida and the band all kick in on the original riff to finish the song. Seeing it at the end of Manhunter the other day reminded me what a top tune it is.
Good man
I thought I was alone in loving the Butterfly.
Innagaddavida
Funny, it was seeing/hearing it on the Simpsons that sent me back to re-listen.
For sheer full on full pelt animalistic building of tension, little can beat Eddie and the Hotrods "Do anything you wanna do". It just keeps going. And going. And going.
In a different style, there is magnificent mood building at the end of Ring on the Sill/Cowboy Junkies, after the vocals end, with organ and piano coming in and interconnecting beyond compare. They are good at that sort of thing, as witness the bass line motif toward the end of Murder in the Trailer Park.
I. Ron Butterfly
Here's the Simpsons doing Iron Butterfly. Unfortunately it's only still shots...
It is, actually, better....
...played by a cartoon old lady. Who'd a'thought it!
Build, Crescendo, Release - only one contender.
The Build - as the song quietens into a long, single synth motif meandering around the melody for a couple of minutes.
The Crescendo - the synth motif is interspersed with a series of short drum rolls that culminate in a single extended drum roll that explodes into....
The Release - YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Dang der dang! Meet the new boss! Same as the old boss!
Never equalled or bettered.
Greatest visual bit ever?
The lasers freeze, the lights come up, Daltrey screams, and Townshend launches a mighty power chord while skidding on his knees across the stage towards the camera. No further need to explain rock 'n' roll to anyone.
It's 7 minutes and 50 seconds in, though of course you really need the build-up.
Not only a prog prerogative
Four minute crescendos are all well and good, but this one managed to do the whole process in just 32 seconds:
I had that Ravel and the Boleros in the back of the cab once.
This is what you're doing
30 seconds in - this is what blokes do, especially when a bit pissed.
It certainly is
The Boosh, as ever, nail it first time.
I'm Movin' On by The Box Tops
At not quite a minute - 0.58 - into this much covered Hank Snow tune, the song abruptly stops being the gentle, fairly unambitious country cover that it has sounded like thus far; the American Studio band kick in with thundering bass and enormous sounding horn section, and there is no doubt: we are definitely, and defiantly, speaking the language of pure Memphis SOUL. Even Elvis Presley, when he came to record the song a short while later with the same musicians, couldn't muster the sheer power of this moment - even though his version is obviously lifted straight from The Box Tops' arrangement.
All I can find online is this sample from iTunes, which fades out just as things are heating up, but it just about captures that thunderous, perfect moment in the last couple of seconds. Best buy it, though, and play it as loud as you would as if you were trying to break your speakers.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=19069653&i...
Thunderclap Newman
The middle eight of "Something In The Air" starts off in a rather clunky plodding fashion then out of nowhere absolutely soars! Brilliant.