Samboynton's Weblog

For Nancy- Pete Yorn

samboynton — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:35:58 +0000

For this week’s blog I decided to analyze the song For Nancy by Pete Yorn. I put shuffle on my iTunes and came up with this song. Pete Yorn is not someone who I am familiar with, in fact, this is the only song I have of his. However, his guitar and vocal combination is very unique in this song and intriguing to listen to.

The song starts off by some fairly simple barre chords played in succession. D, A, G flat, G.

In the opening verse of the song, there is just pure acoustic guitar playing with a very slow, simple electronic drum beat. The emphasis has to be on the lyrics, as Yorn’s voice floats above the guitar and beat. After he sings the second line of the first verse a more prevelent drum pattern emerges and the song slowly picks up rythym.

And when you said I could not stay with you
That’s not the way you would have wanted to be
Convince yourself that everything is alright
‘Cos it already is

At this part in the song a bass guitar emerges and at this point you can tell there is a slow layering process going on and you can feel like the song could break out at any moment into the crescendo. However, the next verse continues almost the same as the first with the vocals being the primary instrument. You can tell that Yorn’s message here is powerful even though his voice is still floating above the ensemble of instruments.

Don’t sell your heart and break just anyones
I want to run with you through Moorland fields
Convince yourself that everything is alright
‘Cos it already is
‘Cos it already is

At the end of the last verse the song finally breaks with a crashing of cymbals and a small electric guitar riff that lasts for 3 measures or so and then continues into the next verse. Yorn’s voice has taken a different texture, for now he sings with more conviction and emotion in a higher pitch.

So take your lessons hard and stay with him
When your car crash comes, don’t be misled
Convince yourself that everything is alright
‘Cos it already is
‘Cos it already is

The rest of the song continues from this point on with Yorn singing two parts of his song, one in harmony. What is interesting here is that he records himself singing in his “emotional” voice and in his “floating” voice, but mixed together they form an eery mixture of anger and complacency… almost a calm before a storm.

So take your lessons hard and stay with him
And when your car crash comes, don’t be misled
Convince yourself that everything is alright
‘Cos it already is
Yeah it already is

So take him home
So take him home
So take him home

Take him, take him home
Take him, take him home
The simple chord structure and hard hitting lyrics turn this song into a story and let you follow along as you listen. Because the vocals are overriding the other instruments, you know these lyrics are important to Yorn, and because of the change in the textures of his voice throughout the piece, you also know that this is an emotionally straining subject for him. It is so interesting to listen to an emotional piece like this. Even if you do not like the style of music, you can appreciate what he has to say and how passionate he has about it.

Playlist for the week:

Yesterday- Atmosphere

You- Atmosphere

Aquarius- Regina Spektor

Mrs. Potter’s Lullabye- Counting Crows

Sea Change (Album)- Beck

The Truman Show Soundtrack- Burkhard Dallwitz

Paper Planes- M.I.A.

Comments

samboynton — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:29:27 +0000

I commented on Dave’s blog and Matt H’s blog.

Artist Statement II

samboynton — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:21:47 +0000

Now that we’re about halfway thru the semester, I really want to continue with the explorers option. There are so many different ideas that I get from the books, presentations in class, and various other things that just makes me want to go in a lot of different directions.

Starting October 28th, I plan on finishing a project every 2 weeks. If one week the project is something in an area I want to pursue, than I will probably pursue that idea or concept until I am satisfied and continue. Right now, I am looking at creating a piece replicating the broadway show STOMP. If you are unfamiliar, it is basically random sounds coming together to form a really catchy beat.

So I know this sounds a lot like my original artist statement, but I am definitely more confident in my decision to do this, where as before I was unsure about what this assignment and this class called for. Thanks-

Beck

samboynton — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:01:47 +0000

This week I decided to focus on Beck. Beck is arguably one of the most original alternative rockers that the 90′s had to offer. Beck was really big in the underground scene until he came out with the CD “Mellow Gold” which really put him into the public eye. “Mellow Gold” which came out in 1994 cost him 300 dollars to record and after Bong Load Records heard it, they immediately produced his CD along with Odelay in 1995 which recieved 2 grammies.

While Beck is an original, he claims his influences are The Cars, Bob Dylan, Bill Broonzy, Pussy Galore and Sonic Youth. This ecclectic mixture of music compiles to formulate a folk, funk, hip-hop and classic rock CD’s that all are very different from one another.

On Beck’s CD “Mutations” he lived for 15 weeks without electricity because he wanted to create an acoustic ensemble that was straight forward and direct. He recorded the CD with Nigel Goodrich in just 2 weeks.

After watching numerous interviews with Beck about all his CD releases at various points in his career, it really seems like he lets his music come to him and finds inspiration in everything. Everything he does is very free-flow and relaxed. His 2002 CD “Sea Change” was written in a week after a 9 year break up with long time girlfriend Leigh Limon. He says he lets time dictate his song writing and having free time is the key to his musical success.

Befuddling Conundrum

samboynton — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:26:32 +0000

This week I really experimented with many different genres. At first I wanted to create a piece with just the music from that Mazda commercial… (zoom zoom zoom) but unfortunately I found the original song and it sounded really similar to what my piece sounded like so I had to start from scratch.

I was really dissapionted and kind of lost a lot of motivation after that. I felt like I had a solid project and a good idea only to find out it already existed. I messed around with a lot of exotic beats and world music but couldn’t put together anything that I really liked that was longer than 30 seconds. It’s funny how much time you can spend working with Garageband without realizing it.

This week’s playlist:

Radiohead- Creep

Peter Frampton Voice Synths

Capouera- Zoom Zoom

Jack Johnson- Sleep Through the Static

Beatles- While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Love version)