Janice vividly described a scenario with Frank wearing a tilted fedora strolling through different scenes on the set.
She further said the scenes are of different people in a diner, all chrome in B&W, and she could smell the cooking and coffee and see the cigarette smoke.
Then we were melding Frank with Waits and a beatnik scene
The allusions to the poem were very effective as was your vocal performance and the terrific jazz group.
This is a wonderful addition to your catalog sitting along with Ybor City, Clare And The Wonderland Waltz and In The City.
Simply superb story telling!
J&B
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos are here on our website.
With my bronchitis I'm not supposed to be around smoke; but this club was worth it!
I'm not kidding when I say I NEVER know what your songs are going to sound like. Seriously. Over the course of a few months think of the styles you've covered.Saying it's a Floyd Jane song only gives you that it will be a well written, well produced, well delivered song. Beyond that...you'll just have to listen.
You know I love the "mood" a song creates. This is ALL mood with a great story. What an ambitious lyric write that is pulled off (seemingly) effortlessly.
Quote:
to reveal what the gallant night knows
This line specifically gave me goose bumps/pimples/? with how you sang it. Your timbre was PERFECTION for it. The whole song was sung really well.
I found the bongo solo in the middle out of place though (just seeing if you are paying attention). The sax was beautiful as was the treatment of the bass and drums.
That's all I've got without going on too long. Great song man! Great song!
Excellently thought out, written, sung, & produced... I also liked the play on Poe's words, like your use of "to reveal what the gallant night knows"... It makes me wonder... If Poe were alive today would he only be a poet, or would he also be a songwriter presenting songs on this forum?
Thanks, Jim.
I think if Poe were alive today, he'd be a drugged-out Rock'n'Roll star (much like he was in his own time). Tabloid fodder...
Originally Posted By: bluage
Floyd Jane !!!
God gawd a'mighty! Where you been hidin' that jazz bone you done dug up for this here song, "El Dorado" ??? Will wonders never cease...
Better watch out! Tom Waits might resort to all kinds of trickery to steal this one away from you. It's got the spirit of the night and many bottles to be emptied. Yep, ol' Tom would love this.
"a spatula for his septor a crew cut for his crown his kingdom, this all-night cafe..."
Now, listen here, "fj", you gotta...you just gotta know that's as cool and clever a lyric as you ever wrote. You mean to tell me you got all this inspiration from an archaic poem and a news story??? Holy guacamole, Batman! You're a man with many musical souls, yessiree, a reg'lar jack-of-all-jukeboxes.
Please excuse me while give 'er another listen...
Shaking my head in playful disbelief,
LOREN
Loren - Thanks for having a listen and for the fun comments.
Now and again, we should all spread our wings a bit, dontcha think?
Another stunner Floyd. The whole piece conjures up for me a vivid picture and mood which is a masterful thing to have done with a song. The music is a perfect foil to the louche lyrics. And you always write great choruses! A simply perfect closer to side 2 of the album!
Regards John
John - Thanks for that really nice comment. (Maybe it is time I put out another album )
Originally Posted By: Crossroads
Floyd,
that is far more than just impressive - a masterpiece. Congrats on this one!
Stefan
Stefan - I cannot ask for a better comment than that!!! Thanks!
Wow Floyd what a cool song. So different from your last pieces. Jazzy. Such a great story and so easy to follow. Mix is so clear and precise. Well done Floyd
MAGNUS OPUS! That term sums up this track. Absolutely superb vocal performance. You're right: An acoustic guitar accompaniment would not convey this song well enough. Excellent style choice. I cannot imagine any other accompaniment working as well as this one.
Thanks, Scott! That is a term I have not seen used before ... I truly appreciate it...
Originally Posted By: Torrey Bliss
FJ the master storyteller!! This is certainly a different backing than we usually hear for your vocal/lyrics but man does it work! This is a very good production by any measure! Thanks, Torrey
hey Floyd totally engaging great write well arrange vocal was super eric
Thanks for having a listen, eric...
Originally Posted By: Charlie Fogle
Excellent storytelling. All the elements, arrangement, production and performance come together nicely with the storyline. I enjoyed my listen.
Always pleased to hear your impressions of a song and it's production, Charlie. Thanks...
Originally Posted By: Janice & Bud
Janice vividly described a scenario with Frank wearing a tilted fedora strolling through different scenes on the set.
She further said the scenes are of different people in a diner, all chrome in B&W, and she could smell the cooking and coffee and see the cigarette smoke.
Then we were melding Frank with Waits and a beatnik scene
The allusions to the poem were very effective as was your vocal performance and the terrific jazz group.
This is a wonderful addition to your catalog sitting along with Ybor City, Clare And The Wonderland Waltz and In The City.
Simply superb story telling!
J&B
Thanks for that fine review! And I love the fact that you would recognize the connection between the four songs you mentioned - they all "come from the same place" in more ways than one...
I thought I'd commented on this when I listened to it a few days ago. So much for what I think! Between trips to and from the hospital and taking Di around to various appointments, I guess I just let it get away.
Some folks assemble words into some sort of format. There are folks who write a pretty dang good lyric. There are folks who write and compose a full piece of fabulous music. And then there are those very few who belong to the Floyd Jane Club. And those are the rarely gifted ones who know how to massage the human emotion into blissful submission and take them on journeys no one else can. It's a treat and a privilege to have been massaged by the president of the club.
I agree with my good friend, Stefan. This passes impressive by a huge margin and takes residence with the masterpieces of my era.
What a great song, and a super great story as well Floyd. LOVED THIS to bits
Graham - that is very nice of you to say...
Originally Posted By: Al-David
Hello Floyd,
I thought I'd commented on this when I listened to it a few days ago. So much for what I think! Between trips to and from the hospital and taking Di around to various appointments, I guess I just let it get away.
Some folks assemble words into some sort of format. There are folks who write a pretty dang good lyric. There are folks who write and compose a full piece of fabulous music. And then there are those very few who belong to the Floyd Jane Club. And those are the rarely gifted ones who know how to massage the human emotion into blissful submission and take them on journeys no one else can. It's a treat and a privilege to have been massaged by the president of the club.
I agree with my good friend, Stefan. This passes impressive by a huge margin and takes residence with the masterpieces of my era.
Alan
Alan - Thank you - you are always very generous in your comments... Hope all is going well for you guys...
I don’t recall ever hearing you sing anything before that is so comfortably tailored in the jazz idiom that it could be called ‘bespoke’ jazz. This is a perfect fit for you in every possible way. Your vocals carry the story magnificently in the same way as Bobby Darin’s vocals in “Mack The Knife” (see Youtube clip below); the arrangement is superb (I love that jazz bass – that’s one I haven’t yet discovered); the mix has the kind of clarity that I strive for but rarely manage to obtain. In short, you have excelled (once again)!
Before talking about your lyrics, I’d like to look at the Edgar Allan Poe’s poem that you’ve also included in the thread. Thanks for that What I particularly like about Poe’s work are: (a) its AABCCB rhyme scheme and (b) its development of content.
To my mind, this poem serves as a very useful template for any lyricist or songwriter who is looking for ways with which to develop song lyrics. While the stanzas of this poem journey through time, their strongest development is created by the effect that time has on the protagonist.
In the first stanza,
Quote:
Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a song, In search of El Dorado.
Poe sets the scene. This is largely ‘external’ imagery.
Poe gives the reader enough purposeful words to build a clear and vivid picture of a “gallant knight” who has been on the road for some time and whose morale is high. For the most part, these words are ‘external’ in that they show the reader a scene that’s on the ‘outside’ of the leading character in the same way that one would obtain the information by looking at this knight on the stage against a set and watching him journey from stage left to stage right.
In the second stanza,
Quote:
But he grew old— This knight so bold— And o’er his heart a shadow— Fell as he found No spot of ground That looked like Eldorado.
Poe expands on the protagonist's feelings using both external and internal imagery.
First we see that he has aged since stanza 1. This visual information is ‘external’; it is something that is on the outside of the character. Then, however, Poe moves us into ‘internal’ imagery with information that we cannot see and that comes from within the mind and body of the protagonist. Poe, as narrator, talks about how the leading character is feeling and how the knight’s morale is waning as the years of searching for El Dorada have taken their toll.
In the third stanza,
Quote:
And, as his strength Failed him at length, He met a pilgrim shadow— ‘Shadow,’ said he, ‘Where can it be— This land of Eldorado?’
Poe expands even more on the internal workings of the protagonist and also adds abstract and philosophy-like imagery.
While failing strength is ‘external’ in that it can easily be seen by those watching the character, it is also ‘internal’ in ways that an audience cannot see unless a narrator provides the information. The information that Poe gives us in the ‘internal’ realm seems to suggest that the protagonist is possibly flirting with either potential madness and/or knows that he is dying.
And in the fourth and last stanza,
Quote:
‘Over the Mountains Of the Moon, Down the Valley of the Shadow, Ride, boldly ride,’ The shade replied,— ‘If you seek for Eldorado!’
Poe uses imagery that is abstract and in the domain of philosophy to bring the story to a close.
Here the narrator seems to indicate that El Dorado is a death quest (or maybe a fools errand) that never ends. As I hear these lyrics, they are ‘big picture’ images. Poe also figuatively “pulls the lyric’s ‘camera’ back into a long-shot by letting us see mountains, the moon and metaphorical valleys.
Summarising the poem’s development, it can be seen that…
1. The setting moves through time.
2. The language starts with external-based, scene-setting imagery.
3. Language then moves from external-based imagery to a glimpse of the internal workings of the protagonist (i,e, thoughts and feelings).
4. The words that Poe uses to ‘bring the story home’ become images that are increasingly based on abstract and philosophical language; metaphor assists this purpose. (From an Internal/External perspective, abstract language is also regarded as ‘internal’ and metaphors have both 'internal' and 'external' components.)
5. In the final stanza, the language becomes philosophical and abstract and pulls the figurative camera back into a long-shot so that big-picture (metaphorical) images are visible.
=====
On to your lyrics now
I love the way that you have used double verses followed by a chorus to create four single song sections (just like Poe’s 4 stanzas but lyrically heftier!). I also admired how you used XABBA combined with XAXXA rhyme schemes to build your double verses. Having only two end-of-line rhymes in the second of the two verses helped drive the lyrics into the chorus for me. It’s also worth noting that the first two verses (i.e. first double verse) set the scene and the chorus that follows them is like a philosophical summary of the past, present and future all rolled into one (at least, that’s how my ears heard this section).
Your first double-verse, just like’s Poe’s first stanza, is mostly external information that sets the scene for location and types of character(s). I particularly liked how you used “space”, “spaceman” and “...they all know his face, old man quit putting us on” to establish that this guy is not young and is also seemingly delusional.
In your second double-verse, again similar to Poe’s second stanza, you start with external images and then move into narrative that provides ‘internal’ information in that if the narrator had not passed this information on, the listener would not have been able to work it out because it’s ‘not on the outside’.
Double-verse three now moves into the realm of the abstract with images created by the other characters present. There’s occasional metaphor such as “prophet of doom” and “pawn shop hero” that serves to help emphasise the abstract content of these verses.
In the fourth set of double-verses, metaphor has a field day! This amplifies abstract content really well and develops the lyrics superbly. The listener hears about “ghetto gourmets” and kings with their own versions of septres, crowns and kingdoms. In the very last verse, like Poe, you pull the camera right back into a long-shot so that we can see how everything is happening all at once at El Dorado.
I really like the overall development technique that you’ve used! At no time in the nearly five minutes of listening did my concentration wander. You held me spellbound.
In addition to many terrific and fresh rhymes throughout, I also have to congratulate you on the rhyme “hero” with “beer-oh”. How clever is that! That use of enjambment to create rhyme is one that has pretty much disappeared from today’s lyric writing. The song that I admire most that uses this technique is “Mountain Greenery”. It’s incredibly clever.
Below is a link to an article I wrote for the Songwriting Forum a little while back on “Mountain Greenery” and Lorenz Hart’s rhyming. (I still haven’t managed to achieve this technique! Maybe one day.)
I thoroughly enjoyed "El Dorado" song. You should definitely do more in this style!
All the best, Noel
P.S. My apologies for typing so much! It was a very hot day here yesterday (40 C / 110 F) and I had to find ways to occupy myself while cooped up inside. Talking about "El Dorado" filled in the time nicely.
I think rayc's earlier comments sum up this song up best: "A bit of Tom Waits with a gallery of characters ankle deep in life archived by an excellent melody and a fine, fine, fine voice." I loved the concept of the song as well as the performance. Mike
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