Sonic Sorcery: "1000 Times" by Sara Bareilles

Sara Bareilles has a way of writing highly emotional, painfully beautiful lyrics, and the musical wizardry is stunning, deep, and like walking on a constantly shifting surface.

Songs like "She Used to Be Mine" and "Gravity" and "Still Crying " can just break your heart, and her covers (like "Chandelier" and "I Don't Know How to Love Him") are nothing short of epic.

Today, let's look at her song "1000 Times".

It was never released as a single, but is certainly a fan favorite in concert. "1000 Times" is from the album "The Blessed Unrest", which was positively received by critics and fans alike, debuted at #2 on the Billboard album charts (her fourth consecutive top 10 album), saw the lead single, "Brave", receive a Grammy nomination, and was certified Gold.

Let's get into it!

Sonic Sorcery: Exploring Alliteration

Tupac Shakur

"Peter piper picked a peck of picked peppers"

"Sally sells seashells by the sea shore."

"How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

These are all very fun & silly examples of a literary device called "alliteration", the repetition of the opening sound of words. Designed to be both tongue twisters and humorous, they stick in the mind and are a fun game for kids and elementary school English teachers.

But it should be noted that alliteration is a very useful technique, with no requirement for either twisting tongues or humor. Used properly, its a great way to (as Kris Kristofferson once put it) have words "slide off the tongue and into the ear".

Sonic Sorcery: Blondie's "Heart of Glass"

I was recently reminded of this fabulous song, and thought the oddity of the chordal approach coupled with several captivating lyrical phrases made it a decent candidate for this songwriting series.

Then I looked into the background and realized it would be a perfect song for reasons that will become clear in just a few moments.

Debbie Harry and Chris Stein (vocalist & guitarist of Blondie) wrote the song in 1975, and after several iterations, settled on a version for release on their 3rd album "Parallel Lines" (1978). The Song was the third single from the album (released January of 1979) and rocketed up the charts in in 15 countries, topping the charts in seven (including the US). Rolling Stone later named it number 255 on their "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015.

The album propelled them to super stardom - this and the following 2 albums went platinum and spawned a series of hit singles (with "Heart of Glass" being their first number one hit in the US), and they went on to sell over 40 million albums, were nominated for & won multiple music awards (Grammys, Junos, Qs, etc), and inducted into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

The song has seen multiple charting covers (from The Associates in 1988 to Miley Cyrus in 2020) and has been a major influence on many musicians since.

Let's dive in on the song's background, various iterations, chord progression, and lyrics!

Sonic Sorcery: Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows"

As one of the great writers of the 20th century, we could analyse Leonard Cohen songs all day (we peered into his uncanny ability to deeply link music and lyrics in "A Peak at Prosody", which takes a close look at "Hallelujah" as well as other songs that employ the technique).

Today, let's briefly examine Cohen's classic "Everybody Knows" - a song from Leonard's 1988 album "I'm Your Man". 

The song barely charted at its release, but was almost immediately a hit for film makers. Cohen's version was used in the 1994 film, "Exotica", and it was covered for many more films - from 1990's "Pump It Up" (covered by Concrete Blonde) to 2017's "Justice League" (covered by Sigrid).

So, let's break down what's happening with the lyrics first, and then the music.

Sonic Sorcery: "Top Gun Anthem"

In honor of the new "Top Gun: Maverick" movie, I'd like to re-wind the clock to 1986 and the original "Top Gun" movie, featuring a gorgeous theme song, the "Top Gun Anthem", written by Harold Faltermeyer and Steve Stevens.

For a quick backdrop, Harold Faltermeyer is a German composer who was discovered at a young age by producer & composer Giorgio Moroder (with whom he worked on a number of projects). Faltermeyer became hugely famous when he wrote & performed the song "Axle F" for the movie "Beverly Hills Cop" starring Eddie Murphy.

Steve Stevens is best known for his work with Billy Idol and at the time had recorded Billy's first two albums ("Billy Idol" and "Rebel Yell") and was in he studio with Billy recording "Whiplash Smile". Steve went on to record with many others, including Michael Jackson, and appeared on-stage for Live Aid playing guitar with the Thompson Twins alongside Nile Rodgers and Madonna.

Harold and Steve won a Grammy in 1987 for "Top Gun Anthem" for Best Instrumental Pop Performance.

So, to the music!

Sonic Sorcery: Chromatic Descent with Bob Dylan's "Feel My Love"

Bob Dylan is a man of many talents and, musically, of many lives. 

With a career spanning 60-odd years, with classic songs coming from almost every decade, collaborations with other music legends, 125+ million records sold (with 32 of his 80+ album netting gold or platinum status in the US), Academy Award and Golden Globe alongside his 10 Grammy Awards & countless Grammy nominations (as well as both a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel Prize for Literature, & other accolades), and much more, Bob Dylan's name & work is written, as it were, into the very stone of modern western culture.

In 1997 he wrote and recorded a song called "Make You Feel My Love" that has since been covered by over 400 artists, with charting versions from Billy Joel (who performed the first commercial release, peaking at #9), Garth Brooks (peaking at #8), and most recently by Adele in 2008 (charting in 10 countries and peaking at #1).

The song has a beautiful descending chromatic line we'll discuss in a moment, and an unusual but compelling chord progression.

Lets jump right in!

Sonic Sorcery: The Dark Arts of "Every Breath You Take"

From the mind of the man who brought us "Roxanne", "Message in a Bottle", "King of Pain", "We'll Be Together", "All This Time", "Fields of Gold", "Desert Rose", and more (over 60 charting singles in all, with 20 platinum selling albums and over 100 Grammy, MTV, AMA, & other major award nominations with 46 wins and a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame), Sting is among the most prolific & critically acclaimed artists ever, as well as one of the best selling artists of all time.

The song "Every Breath You Take" - which was written in 1982 at Ian Fleming's writing desk at Goldeneye Estate in Jamaica - was released in 1983 and became a Top 10 hit in 19 countries (topping the charts in 6), won 2 Grammys & other major awards, is ranked #84 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list, and more.

Quick note: The song was written in A, but performed with instruments tuned 1/2 step down. However, I'll refer to the song in the key of A for simplicity.

No time to dally! Let's look right at the chart, and then we'll discuss the progression, the chords, the modulations, and the lyrics!

Sonic Sorcery: Modulations featured in "Instant Karma!"

This fabulous song was released in 1970 by John Lennon and is often cited as one of the fastest released songs in pop music history, as the it was written, recorded, and released in a mere 10 days. John Lennon wrote the lyrics & music, and it was produced by Phil Spector, with Beatles bandmate George Harrison on guitar as well as a cast of all star musicians.

The song was an instant hit, peaking at #3 on Billboard in the US, and becoming the first post-Beatles million seller by any of the band members.

Let's dive in with the chart:

"Instant Karma!"

verse
A - - - /F#m - - - /A - - - /F#m - - - /

A - - - /F#m - - - /F - G - /A - - - /

D - - - /Bm - - - /D - - - /Bm - - - /

C - - - /Am - - - /D - - - /E7 - - - /

chorus

G - Bm - /Em - - - /G - Bm - Em - - - /
G - Bm - /Em - - - /D - - - /E7 - - - /

bridge

A - - - /F#m - - - /A - - - /F#m - - - /

A - - - /F#m - - - /F - G - /A - - - /

Sooo...what's happening here? That seems like a lot of random chords, but really its a very simple progression that just moves to different keys.

The opening two lines of the verse is A to F#m, which is a simple major to relative minor switch.

The third line is D to Bm, while the fourth starts with C to Am...both of which are the exact same progression as A to F#m (which is in the key of A, while D to Bm is the key of D, and C to Am is the key of C).

So its really a 2 chord vamp played in 3 different keys. The F to G to A in the second line is just a transition, as is the last section o fboth verse & chorus (the D to E7 change).

The chorus builds on the same idea, but instead of a straight G to Em, it adds a Bm for half the measure to make a G - Bm /Em - - - (the same vamp again, but in the key of G).

So what we see here is Lennon building an entire song on what amounts to a 2 chord idea moved across 4 keys, with a couple of transitions for spice.

Ponder that idea.....and then take a look at anything you've written with, for example, G - Em - C - D. How can you spice things up using this gift John Lennon has handed us?

Sonic Sorcery: The Fearless Modulations of "Good Vibrations"

In the third installment of this series, we took a look under the hood, as it were, at The Beach Boys song "Surfer Girl" which, harmonically speaking, is a gorgeous run through diatonic exploration. While it does possess a key change at the end (shifting up 1/2 step from D to Eb), the pay-dirt is really found in the prosody between the chord progression and melody.

By contrast, "Good Vibrations" (written just 3 years after "Surfer Girl" was released) leaps into the fires of modulation (aka: key change) with no reservations at all. Worthy of note: Brian Wilson was only 23 years old when he wrote this masterpiece that went on to hit #1 on the charts, be nominated for a Grammy, land on Rolling Stones "500 Greatest Songs list" at #6, and be cited as a major influence for songs like "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles and "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen (and, I suspect, much of Sting's work both solo and with The Police, which we'll examine in future installments).

Sonic Sorcery: "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?"

This beautiful song was written by the always stellar Carole King and her then songwriting partner & husband Gerry Goffin (for context, if my history is correct, King wrote the music while Goffin & King shared lyric duties for this song).

It was first recorded & released by The Shirelles in 1960 and went to #1 on the charts (despite being banned from many radio stations for being too sexually suggestive), and was subsequently recorded by Brenda Lee, Ben E, King, Dusty Springfield, Cher, The Four Seasons, & more through the 60s (and many more in later decades, from Roberta Flack to Amy Winehouse), and Carole King included a slower version on her ground-breaking album "Tapestry" in 1971 with backup vocals supplied by none other than James Taylor and Joni Mitchell.

The song has since landed on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" as well as taking the #3 slot on their "100 Greatest Girl Songs" list.

Let's dive into this classic.

Sonic Sorcery: Exploring Sam Cooke's Classic "You Send Me"

Here in our 4th piece in the series, we'll look at Sam Cooke's timeless classic, "You Send Me", which was written by Sam (though credited to Sam's brother) in 1955 and recorded & released it 2 years later as Cooke's debut single. The song met with massive commercial & critical success (it was #1 on both the R&B and Pop charts) and has since been listed on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list as well as the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock-n-Roll" list.

You can also read my tribute to Sam Cooke.

Let's dive in.

Sonic Sorcery: The Shifting Foundation of "Surfer Girl"

In our 3rd installment of the series, let's look at the Beach Boys classic "Surfer Girl" from 1963.

Written by Brian Wilson (who co-founded the band and was originally played bass & keys in addition to lead & backing vocals) in 1961 when he was only 19 years old, he claims it was the first song he ever wrote! This is an amazing fact, as we'll soon see.

So lets look at the the chord progressions and how it interacts with the melody and the lyrics.

Sonic Sorcery: A Peak at Prosody

"Prosody" has many meanings, depending on what context one is examining (linguistics, music, poetry & versification, etc), but in music, its primary meaning is in fusing the music and lyrics.

This can mean several things (like simply making sure the rhythmic meter of the music matches the rhythmic meter of the music, or matching happy lyrics with up-beat, major key music and sad lyrics with slower, minor key music), but our focus today is on tracking music and lyrics together. Put another way, the music matches the lyrical content (or the lyrical content matching the music). This is also sometimes referred to as "word painting".

For example, when a Sly Stone sings "Gonna take you HIGH-ER" and the pitch rolls up on the last word....or when Garth Brooks sings "I've got friends in LOW places" and drops the pitch on the word "low".....or when Bruno Mars sings "Stop - wait a minute" and the entire band stops playing.....or, for a more subtle example of "stop", when Diana Ross songs "Stop - in the name of love" and the melody stops dead after the word.....or when a vocalist sings "Going down - down, down, down, down, down" in the old Don Nix blues standard "Going Down" (covered by Freddie King, Jeff Beck, Beth Hart, Joe Satriani, Gary Clark Jr, and others,) each "down" drops further in pitch, taking the ear lower and lower.

Sonic Sorcery: Exploring the Magic of Song

Part ONE of a series where we will examine ultra-cool songs from specific viewpoints - sometimes chords, sometimes rhythm, sometimes melody, sometimes lyrics, and so on.

Rather than long-winded introduction, let's just jump right in!

I was recently reminded of the classic 80s song "Tempted" by Squeeze, a song not well remembered by most or known by younger generations. But an absolute gem that reminds me of the flare and bravado of folks like Sting and Prince and the Beatles. I'll chart it below with just the primary chords (editing out passing chords and embellishments so that we may get a clear look at the structure).