In search of the samiest act in the world
Posted by David Hepworth on 27 February 2008 - 9:04pm.
The Ink Spots, who were the Four Tops of the 40s, made music that was as creamy and comforting as a bedtime drink - and once they had found out what worked they didn't mess with it one bit. So much so that if you play the first few seconds of all fifteen of the tunes on their Greatest Hits you'll find they're damn near identical.
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Who else arrived at a formula and then stuck with it this rigidly?
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Comforting, indeed
I was never able to tell the difference between the two Chuck Berry songs Little Queenie and Run Rudolph Run based on their intros alone. And I like him for it.
My grand-dad's two favourite bands
are The Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers, whose records all sound the same as well. I've been buying him their work on CD and sneaking a listen myself - they are both brilliant bands, full of character and alien wonder, and they keep reminding me of The Singing Detective.
There's nothing like the iPod going from Simian Mobile Disco to The Ink Spots' Do I Worry? to enliven the working day and remind you that in some respects, we live in the best times of all.
Who else is always the same yet always different? The Mighty Fall, of course.
Oasis?
Or is that too obvious? I also find it hard to discriminate between many a Kraftwerk songs for the first thirty seconds or so. Still love them, though (Kraftwerk, not Oasis).
DC
May I direct you to the mighty AC/DC?
If it ain't broke...
DC
May I direct you to the mighty AC/DC?
If it ain't broke...
see?
They're so good I had to post it twice
Status Quo
With that name, we can't say they didn't warn us.
I was going to say the Ramones
but one could argue they went progressive* towards the end. I blame the change of drummer.
*well, by their standards.
The Wedding Present
proudly used a quote from an NME (I think) review to title their 1990 10 inch EP "All The Songs Sound The Same"... They probably sold more ATSSTS t-shirts than they did for the vinyl though!
The Wedding Present
proudly used a quote from an NME (I think) review to title their 1990 10 inch EP "All The Songs Sound The Same"... They probably sold more ATSSTS t-shirts than they did for the vinyl though!
Beautuful song
And all the blogs, too...
Scaredy, dear boy?
Lots of duplicates coming in these days. Feel like i'm in New York (New York)
(What was Lucas' deleted post or have I just missed a post modern humourous aside?)
I deleted
my point that no one had included Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, having realised that it was the first point made. Great minds, etc.
Beach boys
Surely the Beach Boys - every track with that dreadful oooh waaaaah business going on in the backgroound. Didn't one of them say "don't fuck with the formula" once when someone suggested going wwwwwah ooooooh?
You're So Right
409 and Surf's Up are practically indistinguishable.
You're so wrong.
Maybe between 63 and 67 you have a point. Maybe for the post 80's travesties of Kokomo and the non Wilson, any of them, "greatest hits" tours and abominations. But between 67 and 80 they mined myriad variations around the vocal harmony template that was, true, their signature sound. Pet Sounds, Smile, Surfs Up, even Carl and the Passions and Holland. The live double of that period is wellworth a punt to confirm my words, if you ignore the ghastliness of Sloop John B thereupon, which to paraphrase an earlier correspondent, in that version alone, is more junk than sloop.
Almost Famous
There is a decent enough track on the "Almost Famous" soundtack actually, though I don't know from which album. Pet Sounds I've never been able to get and believe me I've tried - and there is oooh Waaaah ing in abundance. Can you suggest 5 tip top tracks ilustrating what makes them great? No ooooh waaaah ing please!
Feel Flows
It's a Carl Wilson song called Feel Flows from the Surf's Up album.
Here‘s Carl and the boys taking Knebworth by storm in 1980. And if there's a more enjoyable act at any festival this summer I'll eat both Al Jardine's hat and Mike Love's horrible baseball cap.
What you call "ooooh waaahing" is otherwise known as vocal harmony; quite central to a lot of pop music.
Hmmm
I think there is a bit more to harmony that singing the same two notes over and over again. But if it works for you, why not! Each to their own. Have a listen to some Gram Parsons / Emmylou Harris for an alternative view of what harmony is about, just as a suggestion.
I'm well aware of Gram
I'm well aware of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris thank you. And very much enjoy their particular take on the old Everly Brothers routine.
As far as The Beach Boys go I think you'd be hard pushed to find any musician worth their salt, particular in the field of vocal harmony, who doesn't have enormous respect for them.
Can I just say
It's an obvious point, but many of those very early Beach Boys records that sound a bit "samey" sound the way they do because they are lifting a huge number of Chuck Berry riffs.
And I love them, by the way.
Holland Dozier Holland
Holland Dozier Holland had a bit of a formula going on. Although their music developed and evolved over the years they never strayed too far from the basic template. You knew what you were getting. And you knew it would be good.
For saminess in popular entertainment though there is nothing to match Scooby Doo. The plot of every episode is exactly the same.
John Lee Hooker
Stomp, Stomp, moan, groan
Stomp, Stomp, moan, groan
Stomp, Stomp, moan, groan
*goes on like this for several albums*
Ziggy Ziggy Sputnik
The album was several reworks of the single.
And yes I did buy it, in the Transformer box too, but it was 'lofted' a long time ago.
"Lofted". What a great
"Lofted". What a great term. It's a peculiar status: sort of purgatory. Discarded, but not yet carted to the tip.
At least some good
came out of buying that Sputnik album.
Only play the hits
I once heard a story that Norman Greenbaum, on realising there was only one song anyone wanted to hear, played a set made up of a 45 minute version of Spirit In The Sky and a 12 minute version for an encore. If this isn't true, I don't want to know.
The Sonics
Here's the template
riff, drumroll, pause, scream, verse, chorus and repeat. (or any variation on this)
The slogan on their myspace site (http://www.myspace.com/sonicsthe )is...
"Whhaaaaaa!!!"
They're reforming, wonder if they've changed - I hope not.
"Whhaaaaaa!!!"
Top man, Dave.
Thank God someone's mentioned The Sonics on here.
They rock the crap out of most of the usual suspects, even though you're correct about the template. How would you have liked to have seen this lot back in the day?
(Whhhaaaaaaa! comes in at 0.54)
The Boys
5 only, thats a tricky one but here goes, not in order:
God only knows- OK, probably, with Good vibes the most well known (and overplayed), but it certainl can't be accused of over oo-aahing. Beautiful vocals.("Pet Sounds")
Leaving this town: The fresh influx of songwriting talent from south africans Chaplin and Fataar (latter a Rutle to be, no less)produced a bevy of good'uns, thsi being my favourite, a wistful song of regret, with a slightly different live arrangement. (Original from "Holland")
Surf's up: so what if the lyric is meaningless,as are all by Van Dyke Parks, this is another minor chord masterpiece. Possibly Brian Wilsons finest song.
Heroes and Villains: well, I had to include one "typical", as branded,BB song, but more layers than an onion. Choral excellence.
California saga: Beaks of Eagles: bit off the wall, possibly coming in as pretentious claptrap, with spoken word and harmont vocal chruses. But, hey, I like it!("Holland")
There you go, Twangers, 5 as varied as can be to explode the assumption. Go enjoy.
Will do!
I shall give them a good lis.
Cheers!
The Quo
Of Course the Quo. Except "Living On an Island" and Rock 'n 'Roll " which are identically Crap.
There was a guy on Danny Baker last year who said loads of Stones' singles were basically the same song. Think one was "Satisfaction and the other was "Jumping Jack Flash",something about the same Riff.
Anything played on Radio One on Friday and Saturday Night.
Any Jim Steinman song.
Anything by Slayer,but that's how we like it. Henry Rollins agrees,so there
Happy days...
My dad and I used to play "Beat the Intro" with the Ink Spot's greatest hits. I've been listening to them all my life and I *still* can't tell their intros apart...
Didn't I go to school....
with your brother, Halfmanhalf?
Surely
That's his half brother
The Seeds
They spun out that two-chord formula over five (great) albums, with identikit keyboard solos on many of the tracks and Sky Saxon getting the phrase 'all night and day' into every song.
I'd also put Van Morrison in this category, but he's nothing like as much fun to listen to.
As he slots in to the open net......
Surely there's a vote in here for Suede....
Had a lyric generator containing the words...."Motorway, Chemical, Animal, Nowhere, Nothing, Skyscraper, Together, Forever" - much in the mould of Word's fantastic Channel 4 Commissioning Fridge Magnets..
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
do what they do wonderfully. They arrived fully formed in the late 70s and only the production values have changed since then (Dave Stewart bits aside obviously).
The Lighthouse Family
Absolute shite and always seemed to hanging round the Top 40 with the same song
You're right
Quite a pleasant song in one of it's versions and the boy can sing so I am sure his accountant didn't mind.
Brian Mays
guitar solos all sounded the bleeding same - what an awful guitar player and what an awful group.
Motorhead
Lemmy and his offsiders have being doing the same thing for decades.
'Nuff Said.
Formula
Don't most bands/solo artists have a formula? They generally go wrong when they stray too far from it. That's the mistake they make. And the ones who have more than one formula, they're pretty rare and special are they not, especially if they actually invent a new one?
Possibly, but the reverse
Possibly, but the reverse was the case for T Rex. Stayed rigidly to the "formula" despite being advised to move on by Tony Visconti and suffered badly for it.
Exception that proves the rule?
No probably not. Maybe it depends on how on the limitations of the formula, ie how many variations of it are possible? Maybe it's my theory that's got limitations? I think there is something in it though.
Pop is pop: ephimeral
T.Rex's "failure because they didn't evolve" is a bit of a dodgy hypothesis, I think. Yes, it was all over for them very quickly - just three years at the very top - but they had nine Top 3 singles in that time! Slade and the Sweet - two other glam-era acts that could reasonably be accused of being very samey-sounding - also had a whole clutch of big hits over a similar period. That's the nature of pop, especially pure pop that's pitched at the teen market - your success will last about as long as your target market's adolescence. Then new teens come along, accompanied by new acts to cater for them. Hey, even the Fabs only lasted the same three-to-four years - '63 to '65/'66-ish - as the group of choice for the knicker-chucking brigade before they and their audience grew up.
So did T.Rex fail to emulate the Beatles' successful transition to connecting with a more mature audience? Yes, but how many acts ever manage it? I can't think of any, really.
The Lighthouse Family
Very painful memory of being forced to listen to this (repeatedly) on a long Saturday's overtime file spring cleaning in 2000. I couldn't tell where one track left off and the next began. Not much can dampen the spirits further in such circumstances but the Lighthouse Family managed it.
Lifted? I wasn't!
Red Hot
I fell the need to suggest The Red Hot Chili Peppers and I'm surprised that nobody has suggested that all tracks by Coldplay, Keane and Snow Patrol are virtually indistinguishable from each other.