The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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I wanna take you higher – the falsetto thread

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I gave Beck’s Midnite Vultures a spin recently. Much maligned, it’s at least half an album’s worth of killer, concluding with the pretty amazing Debra sung by Beck in a rather magnificent falsetto. No studio available on youtube, so here’s him doing it on Later live. There’s an excellent wikipedia page that left me utterly baffled as to its physiological characteristics – phonation? Ligamentous edges? On this subject. I think we all know a falsetto when we hear one, though again I am unsure as to what a female falsetto is, so examples would be very welcome.

Let’s take it higher ladies and gentlemen, your trouser-tightening falsetto entries please.

Slacker Anthems

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I’ve always been somewhat mistrustful of those over-eager, over-ambitious, dynamic types with their shiny shoes and micro-management techniques. Most CEO’s I’ve worked for have been in this league – high on achievement and low on humour and feel. That’s not to say I can’t appreciate nerdy diligence in the recording studio. I’m a big Steely Dan fan after all.

So let’s raise a glass to the slackers out there – those who saunter in to job interviews without the tie and tell it how it really is.

Erroneous sonic cliches

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I’m sitting here (not) studying for an exam later this week. Blagged a day off work and all. On my iPhone at the moment are tracks by John Lennon, George Harrison, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles (very Classic Rock, I know).

In a desperate effort not to actually learn anything pertinent, my brain has expanded upon a Hepworthian theory that it has previously toyed with: The classic/cliched sound of many artists is not the sound associated wih their most successful or lauded period. Some examples for consideration:

> The ‘classic’ Hendrix guitar sound, the one that has people instantly thinking ‘Jimi’ is a mildly overdriven strat sound, with or without fuzz, fed through a univibe pedal to give that swirling, underwater vibe. Think ‘Band of Gypsies’ In fact, think of nothing but Band of Gypsies, as that was the only place he used this sound, barring posthumous releases, and it’s hardly considered his defining work. It’s the sound that Robin Trower built a career on and numerous guitar effects pedals try to recreate, and Hendrix only used it for a few messy months before he died.

>The classic George Harrison guitar sound is the sound from » Continue Reading.