More Than a Feeling.
I'm off to a Movie shoot so I won't have time for long explanations etc. For a long time I wondered how to explain all the things I heard on Boston's More Than a Feeling off their 1976 debut album and I didn't have the gear to pick it apart. Then a week or so ago, I ran into a video by Rick Beato who heard the same things I did. Back in the day this recording was an incredible piece of engineering by Tom Scholtz. But I digress and have little time. Rick Beato did a whole series of videos like this, so if you are an aspiring musician, go over to his channel and see if he has your favorite Rock song all picked apart and all it's secrets laid bare.
Enjoy!
I still love this tune after all these years.
Ricks YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJquYOG5EL82sKTfH9aMA9Q
It can be remarkable to learn how much (or how little) has gone into the making of a song - either from a more theoretical post-production perspective or tracing a more organic process as I recently discovered watching an analysis of (a slightly different kettle of fish) "I'm not in love"(10cc). Can't remember why I researched it a few months back, but the analysis of the "bleeding together" was interesting to me; for a non-musician to hear how something "happens" (to thank the gods for) for the musicians that tells them when it's right (or Great).
I grew up on the 10cc song but paid it little attention as it wafted past in the background on the radio, and it must have been a curious prompt (in a film perhaps?) for me to have picked it up and given it a closer listen when I did. Something new must have struck me.
It is often something harmonic hidden in the midrange, I concluded, and Rick has some interesting things to corroborate that.
There is a lot more to hear in the Boston song, which I have (of course) also heard before, but I wouldn't have guessed without this theoretical analysis. Love such picking aparts, which leave you with a more complete song once you put it back together again.
Great source of music theory on Ricks channel! He digs music.
I was flabbergasted to find someone who heard the same things I did, most other musicians I've known were not interested to give it a second listen, ..end of conversation. Tom Scholtz had a lot of tricks up his sleeve, but being a good electrical engineer really gave him an edge. Like Rick, I've owned a number of Scholtz's creations that I used on my own record.
The 10 cc song did the same for me back in the day, it wafted past on the radio. I greatly admired the sonic experience, but it didn't leave a lasting impression on me to revisit it time and again, I just didn't like the lyrics and I still don't. I guess they didn't mean that much to me.
The late 60's and the 70's were interesting times for blending new technology and creatively deceptive musicians. A good example is Pink Floyd's Money, yep what else, we're on Steem! They used a tape loop that went around the room on Dark Side of the Moon for all the clocks, bells and cash register sounds, but the deceptive part about Money is that it has 7 measures instead of the usual 8. I could play that song all day with my eyes closed, but I can't find a drummer who can do the same, they always trip up because they're so stuck in familiar patterns.
Of course all that new technology became a hindrance when bands couldn't perform their songs live and have it sound somewhat the same, but by the 80's that started to change.
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Wow nice to hear everything stripped apart! Wow!
Yeah, it really revealed how it was put together, but how do you explain this to someone who can't hear that what they think of as one sound, is actually 2 or 3 separate components? Of course, had I listened to it on a AM Radio, I would have remained in the dark myself.