Originally Posted By: Noel96
Hi floyd,

Ok. I've picked myself up off the floor now. I was not at all prepared for how different this was going to be from your usual songs.

In addition, Janice just continues to surprise me more and more and more.

At first I was speechless. Then I had a shot of vodka smile

This song is amazing, awesome, outstanding!!! I reckon if Pat Marr has his WOW-o-meter in action when he listens, it will shoot off the scale.

I don't know too much about jazz from the latter end of the 1950s and into the early 60s but "In The City" reminds me of that period of music. The walking bass and the solo sax certainly have overtones of Henry Mancini.

Firstly, a huge, HUGE round of applause to Janice and you for singing so brilliantly against such a minimalistic backing. With my limited singing skills, I can only sit back and admire such an amazing ability. In addition, I really loved the harmony between the two of you, and the power in your voice is not something that I've heard quite so 'out there' before. The scat singing interplay between Janice and you at the end was a perfect fit and very skilfully done.

I've never been able to write an AAA form song. I've listened and read about songs such as "By The Time I Get To Phoenix", "Scarborough Fair", etc., but it doesn't help. AAA is just not a form that sits comfortably with my head. Now that you've set the bar for me, I'm determined do it at least once in my life!

For me, the the most outstanding aspect of these lyrics is how you throw caution to the wind and leave the last few lines (i.e the refrain) dangling without rhymes. How inspired is that! If you were a painter, that type of brushstroke is definitely more like Picasso than Rembrandt.

Your lyric movement through its rhyme scheme is well worth noting. The first two A-sections are xaxaxbbbxxx while the third A-section is slightly different with xaxabbxxxxx. The lack of resolution that accompanies the non-rhyming lines that end each verse really made me stop and think about what you were saying. To my mind, that's perfect prosody for the lyric content. That the third A-section closed with 5 non-rhyming phrases was, to my way of thinking, an outstanding method of verse development through lyric movement (in addition to lyric content). I've never tried this. You've really piqued my interest!

Overall ... just wow! (as I've heard someone else say on this forum)

Ok ... one more play and a third shot of vodka - it's that kind of music.

I'm so glad that Janice and you assembled this song. You've given me a tonne (we're metric in Australia) of ideas.

All the best,
Noel


Noel - SO glad that you got to this one... and glad to knock you out of your chair and leave you speechless - always love your descriptions...and, hey... you had a few shots... a good weekend...

A lot of the vocal "just happened". The style is actually based on stuff that Tom Waits does... but, I did not want to do a "Waits impression"... however, there were a couple of times that my throat got dry and I almost gargled - and it came out like that anyway - so I left it... The scatting at the end sort of "just happened" and I thought "it would be great to have Janice do a counter to this"...

The AAA form just seemed a natural fit for the subject and the idea I had for the song from the start - you can think of it as 3 verses and 3 choruses with a very short chorus - it just kind of bolts on to the back end of the verse. Love that you referenced "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" - I'm sure you recall, I "grew up" on Glen - and, therefore, Jimmy Webb...

Thanks so much for a review as entertaining as any song...

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