Week 7 Listening Blog

This week I had the wonderful opportunity to listen to "Eleanor Rigby" performed by The Beatles and was composed by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. I absolutely love this song because I used to play this song for Orchestra and to perform several Beatles songs including Eleanor Rigby. The making of this sing actually has quite an interesting story behind it. When Paul McCartney was helping with writing the song, he actually lived in a housing unit with all these old ladies who would share their life stories with him because they were old lonely woman who would die alone and no one would know about it. This gave him the idea to write a song about loneliness, particularly a story about two old lonely people being Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie who worked in or attended church.
This song starts off with the chorus as the introduction which helps to build up to the first verse. The string instruments play in a Staccato bowing style which means to detach from the string and separate the notes .This make them sound shorter and stronger while playing the beats. I love how upbeat the song sounds which contrasts with the lyrics which are about loneliness and dying alone. I like how they tell the story of these two individuals; Eleanor Rigby who cleans up the church and Father McKenzie who gives sermons no one comes to hear (as explained in the song). Eleanor dies and no one knows about her death and no one comes to her funeral except for Father McKenzie who buries her. It reminds me of a saying I used to hear growing up which was we are all born alone and we also die alone. Although, I would like to think that at least she had one person who was there to perform her funeral which was Father McKenzie. One Lyric stuck out to me which was "no one was saved"  after the burial of Eleanor Rigby. I believe this hints to Eleanor Rigby, even though she was a humble church goer, her soul was still not saved through Jesus. I believe it was because John Lennon did not believe in god and was making a Jab at Salvation through Jesus. I really like this song and love how short the song is and the storytelling element in this song.

Week 6 listening blog

For this week, I listened to, "Mystery Train" performed by Elvis Presley and originally by Junior Parker. Junior Parker wrote the song originally in 1953 as a blues song with more mellow instrumental. Whereas Elvis Presley's version was more upbeat with guitar and just had a overall happier tone to it. Elvis Presley was known as having a unique voice that sounded like the popular negro voice as they describe it and was perfect for this rendition of this song. This song was what made Elvis Presley famous nationally as a country music star and this song was recorded and produced twice by the same recording studio named Sun Studio (first time for Junior Parker and second time was Elvis Presley). This song grew in popularity thanks to Elvis Presley and was number 11 on the National Billboard Country Chart in 1955.

The song itself is very upbeat compared to the Junior Parker version and has several repetitions throughout the song of the first verse such as, "Train Train coming round the bend" and "Train Arrive sixteen coaches long". The lyrics in the song tell a story about the train taking his lady (possibly a lover or someone close to the singer) far away but the train coming back later with her on it and she doesn't have to leave him ever again. I think it is a good short song and can see why it became so popular among other country songs because of its light and upbeat lyrics/tone in the song.

Week 5 listening blog

This week, I listened to "Nancy (with a laughing face)" performed by Frank Sinatra and composed  by Jimmy Van Heusen and Phil Silvers. This song was recorded in August 22, 1945 in Hollywood. It was originally called Bessie with a laughing face by Heisen and silvers for A friends wife birthday who was named Bessie but they played it at Nancy Sinatra's (Frank Sinatra's daughter) 4th birthday party using Nancy's name instead of Bessie. When Frank heard it he cried because he thought it was written just for Nancy and eventually the lyrics were changed to Nancy with the laughing face.

This song was a romantic style as the instruments were very soft and the style of the string instruments was constant legato with tons of slurs thrown in (no separation of the notes in a smooth and connected manner). I love how quietly Frank is singing and his vibrato of his voice is lovely at the end of the note that is played at the end of a verse. You can tell he is singing with love and I adore how the lyrics can be taken as either for a significant other or a loved one such as a child. For example, the lyrics, "It's heaven when I embrace" could be taken as a lover or in Frank Sinatra's version, he speaks about his child and how he loves to hold her. The subtle pauses throughout the song give it more meaning and emphasis on what he is singing. Especially, when he sings the part, "When she speaks you would think it was singing, just hear her say hello". He sounds as if he is thinking of her and how much she moves him emotionally. I love this song and especially with Valentine's day around the corner this song makes me think of those I love and miss. The traits described in this song remind me of several people and I can't help but smile when listening to this song.

Week 4

For this week, I decided to listen to "Taking a Chance on Love" arranged by Fletcher Henderson and performed by Benny Goodman and his orchestra. This song hit #1 on hit parade chart on the billboard and it even was performed by multiple singers such as Helen Foster in the original track, Bill Bailey on the Broadway show " Cabin in The Sky", and even Frank Sinatra did his own rendition of this song. It is hard not to see why it became so popular with its wonderful up-beat instrumentals and romantic lyrics. In the original soundtrack, the song had a long introduction that gave the melody the clarinet and trumpets which they start off strong but subtly the trumpets and clarinets decrescendo. The instruments have a call back and forth as if they are having a conversation between the sections where one section plays the melody and the other plays when the melody is not playing. 

I love when Helen Foster comes in because she is very quiet and the orchestra gets quiet so that her singing can be heard it is quite a wonderful. The lyrics are obviously about someone who is positive and elated to try again at love as if they already have someone they have become infatuated with. I especially noticed how the word "again" was repeated at least once in all the lines sang. They emphasis on that word means that they have felt these emotions all before and the way that Helen sings it, she puts more meaning into the word as if delighted she can once again feel those happy feelings. I really enjoyed listening to this song as my grandmother and grandfather would sing this song several times when I was child visiting them at their house. My grandma used to say that it was one of her mom's favorite songs and it brought back all those memories of being at their house listening to this song again.