Hi,friends !
Having almost made myself guilty of
putting lyrics to a tune that somehow
does not fit the mood I wondered if
anyone out there had come across any song
with lyrics that seem particularly unsuitable for
the mood of the tune. I mean if you write about
happy things you would probably not use too
much minor keys ??
Cheers
Dani
"I Think I'm Going to Kill Myself" by Elton John - of course it's intentional.
The theme song from M*A*S*H has a distinctive mismatch between words and music.
I've always had a problem understanding Guy Mitchell's "singin' the blues" set to a bouncy, upbeat song???
MacArthur's park!
Weird lyrics!
It wasn't just Guy Mitchell that was "Singing The Blues" like he didn't have a care in the world. Marty Robbin's version had a different instrument arrangement but was also just as jolly (and almost a note by note copy).
It seems that back in the fifties and early sixties it was not uncommon for different artists to share popular songs and arrangements. Guy had his audience while Marty had his so both versions could be popular and receive radio airplay without worrying about one version pushing the other out of the way.
I never heard the Patti Page version of "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window" until many years after it was released because the radio station my parents listened to only played the version by Homer & Jethro.
Never read of a songwriter complain about multiple performaces of a song.
American Pie is another really bouncy chorus for a downer song talking about the day the music died.
"bye bye American Pie drove my chevy to the levy but the levy was dry...Good ol' boys drinking whiskey and rye singing this'll be the day that I die...this'll be the day that I die"
Oh and I edited to add that one my fav happy love songs of all time, has some minor chords in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IUG-9jZD-gJosie
Hi, all you guys and guyesses !
I must say you came up with some
really interesting suggestions !:))
Josie ! :)) You are right, a happy tune
can take some minor keys but it cannot
be written in a minor key !
I did
formulate myself badly !:))
....eh...besides, I confess I love that
tune also !:))
Cheers
Dani
Hi, Noel ! :))
What a mismatch really !:))
huh.....otherwise the tune
is very nice in itself ?
Cheers
Dani
Hi, Mario !
Yee, I do agree !!!
Have never understood the words
to Mc Arthur´s Park either !!
Cheers
Dani
Hi, Jim & Jazzsax! :))
You are right, those words
does not fit the tune !!!:))
...but it is a great tune .....
Cheers
Dani
Hi, Notes !!
With those words the song is almost dangerous.......?
But the tune is great ??
Cheers
Dani
While the major/minor sad/happy comparisons are often the case, there are plenty of exceptions.
Take Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise" written in C#m. There are no words, it's beautiful, it's even hopeful, it's definitely not sad, and it's in a minor key.
As far as MacArthur park is concerned, I love the Richard Harris version and don't care for the Donna Summer disco version (Donna is great but that one didn't make it for me).
It's a Jimmy Webb composition and it seems to be about the end of a love affair, and for that the stress and angst of the Richard Harris version fits the song.
So I googled this and it seems that Jimmy was broken up about a girl he was in love with (Linda Ronstadt's cousin) who dumped him.
From Songfacts:
Are you convinced there's more to this song than Jimmy Webb is letting on? You might be right. The staff music composer Colin McCourt used to work for the publisher of this song, Edwin. H. Morris. The head of the company was a friend of Jimmy Webb, who once explained to him the song's meaning - cake in the rain and all. McCourt told The Daily Mail April 2, 2011: "Jim was in love with a girl who left him. Months later, he heard she was getting married - in the park. Broken-hearted, he went to the wedding and, not wanting to be seen, hid in a gardener's shed.
As the open-air ceremony was taking place it started to pour with rain and the rain running down the shed window made the cake look as if it was melting.
Interestingly, the man who married the girl was a phone engineer from Wichita - inspiration for another of Jim's hits?
Of course, songfacts has been wrong before so take that with a dose of salt.
Also from Songfacts:
Jimmy Webb, who wrote the song, explained in Q magazine: "It's clearly about a love affair ending, and the person singing it is using the cake and the rain as a metaphor for that. OK, it may be far out there, and a bit incomprehensible, but I wrote the song at a time in the late 1960s when surrealistic lyrics were the order of the day."
The love affair Webb speaks of was with Susan Ronstadt, Linda Ronstadt's cousin. Said Webb (in the Los Angeles Times), "MacArthur Park was where we met for lunch and paddleboat rides and feeding the ducks. She worked across the street at a life insurance company. Those lyrics were all very real to me; there was nothing psychedelic about it to me. The cake, it was an available object. It was what I saw in the park at the
So as not to hijack this thread, in the Donna Summer version the words don't fit the mood of the song.
Neil Sedaka's original fast version of "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" is another that doesn't fit, but when he re-recorded a slow, moody version it works with the words.
Insights and incites by Notes
Thanx Notes!
Now I get it and I will have to give it another listen. I do have it in vinyl.
Yes, thanks Notes !
Now I also have to listen to
the tune once again !:))
Cheers
Dani