Great monotonous songs
I am drawn to melody in songs. That’s one of the many reasons I don’t like rap music. Rhythm is important too, of course, but for me melody (and lyrics) is key.
But there’s a class of rock songs that are great despite the fact that their melodies are somewhat monotonous. I’m not sure why that would be, but I know they exist. I thought about that the other day when I heard this oldie by Annie Lenox; it’s one of the greatest of the great monotonous songs:
Come to think of it, Annie Lenox was basically the queen of the monotonous singers. Case in point:
But Lenox wasn’t the only one:
Lest you think that singing monotonous songs is easy—hey, I can do that!—I think it’s actually very difficult to do it well. You won’t see many of these songs being covered on “American Idol,” for example. There’s no way to show your virtuoso ability. What’s the secret? An idiosyncratic, arresting voice and presence certainly helps.
A song that’s somewhat of a hybrid between monotonous songs and another category I plan to write about some day, crescendo songs, is Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne.” Cohen is somewhat unique among singers in having a naturally monotonous voice and yet a great one, although not great in the conventional sense of technique or tone or range. I’ve written about Cohen many times, and my contention is that his musical gift lies in the depth of emotional expression his voice manages to convey without having hardly any range at all, and of course his beautifully poetic lyrics, and excellent backup singers and musicians and arrangements. His melodies are not all monotonous, either, but quite a few are.
Here’s the monotonous/crescendo of “Suzanne,” and the youngish Cohen singing it:
Similarly:
[NOTE: Next installment at some future point: crescendo songs.]
ICONIC:
The Top 10 Super Bowl Commercials of All Time
http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2015/01/top-10-super-bowl-commercials-of-all.html
Two of my favorite works of classical music might be considered monotonous: Bolero and Adagio For Strings.
Of course, you mention “crescendo songs” for future discussion so maybe these might fit better there since they reach very nice crescendos, eventually.
GREATES OF THE CLASSICAL, “Monotonous Songs” and perhaps the greatest of all time:
Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major
Yes, the greatest of all time indeed…
“Sweet dreams are made of cheese.
Who am I to dis a brie?….”
“I cheddar the world and the feta cheese
Everybody’s looking for Stilton…”
“The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”.
Funny I was sitting here listening to Jennifer Warnes’ “Famous Blue Raincoat” while reading this. Both Monotonous and Leonard Cohen. Kind of morose too. Sort of fits the gloomy day here and as is usual there has been plenty of death from above so far today. A Merlin hit the Juncos earlier and a Bald Eagle picked off a Bufflehead. I just need to see a Northern Harrier kill something in my yard to make my day complete. Oh and a Robin died with a crash against a window probably fleeing some attacker.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik51QQE5tMk
Lurker:
I love “Famous Blue Raincoat.” But I think that it’s only the monotony of Cohen’s voice that might make it seem monotonous. I think it actually has a beautiful melody.
Al W and Clarityseeker:
I think the songs you mention could be more accurately described as crescendo songs.
Crescendo songs are indeed somewhat monotonous. But still, they’ve got that crescendo thing going, which makes them much less monotonous.
I just know what I like and while melody is indeed important to me too, I love Bolero’s sensual sexuality, the inherent sadness of Barber’s “Adagio For Strings”, August Wilhelmj’s exquisite arrangement of the second movement in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major “Air on the G String” and Pachelbel’s sublime Canon in D Major.
At its best, Rock’s monotonous repetition absolutely works too.
vanderleun,
“Sweet dreams are made of cheese. Who am I to dis a brie?….”
How do you do that? I wish I could… too linear in my thought patterns I guess.
LTEC,
I’m a big fan of Gordon Lightfoot but I can’t entirely agree that his “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is an example of a monotonous song. Perhaps the music but the lyrics tell a tragic story.
neoneocon,
Thanks for clarifying. I love the subject. Love music. And the creative expressions of individual humans. And your willingness to explore them. It goes to my adherence to the notion of having no faith in humanity, but in individual humans.
In fact we do have some redemptive qualities, and creative expression is one.
Please pardon me asking this. Are there any existing videos of neoneocon, back in the day, when you were dancing ballet? Any you would be willing to share? I am quite ignorant on the subject of ballet. However, the discipline and expressions are much appreciated.
Now that would be the makings of a fine thread.
vanderleun:
Sweet dreams are made of cheese, but nobody’s looking for Stilton.
Well, almost nobody.
Clarityseeker:
When I was dancing it was back in the days before home videos. There aren’t even many still photos. I once posted one, though. You can find it here.
Interesting coincidence, I just finished a novel “Joy In The Morning” that has a character named: G. D’Arcy “Stilton” Cheesewright. Not being familiar with all the families of cheese I didn’t get the joke. Ha! That Wodehouse always has an angle.
By the way, is any song more monotonous than “Strawberry Fields Forever”?
Al W:
There are probably songs more monotonous than “Strawberry Fields Forever.” But there aren’t too many songs more monotonous and more bad than that one.
Monotonous good songs are much more rare.
The most monotonous song I can recall (and certainly not a good one IMO) is “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega.
‘Silent Running’, Mike and The Mechanics
It is a bit monotonous. Like the band though.
‘Strawberry Fields Forever’?
Still a good song. I guess you had to be there…
Try thinking further back, back to junior high or earlier:
“By the Time I get to Phoenix” or “Wichita Lineman”?
Possibly, “From the Beginning” by Emerson, Lake & Palmer?
It occurs to me that a fair number of late 60’s and early 70’s pop/rock songs employed a great deal of thematic repetition, and not what you would call a hum-able melody. But any effect of deliberate monotony was avoided (maybe) through the use of effects and a powerful vocal and instrumental delivery. Would anyone classify Deep Purple’s, Hush! [or even the Joe South version] or “I’m so Glad” as true monotony songs?
Maybe Neo could come up with a list of specific compositional traits: the canonical, ‘monotony song’ text.
I think though after this, I may go into a storage closet and see if I can dig out some old vinyl … I may have a copy of Quicksilver Messenger Services “Fresh Air” around.
Or maybe just YouTube.
I found the words of these two songs completely not mono, but they served the same fate; so, mono es no-mono?
Sound of Solitaire: (ahem)
Beneath the horses hooves and curses of the men above them
The ground toils and frowns and makes redemption
For the great ladies gathered in their gowns
For the poor, the empty, and specially placed towns.
So I rose up and called solitaire
No longer the morning call, no voice there
So I rose up and called solitaire
When the mail stops, that’s when I’ll declare
Beat up mechanics rusting under an old dirt tree
Gots’ more motor oil and crap than sap under his skin
Under the hawk’s gold and greedy eye
The restless and the shiftless blame and die
So I rose up and called solitaire
No longer the morning call, no voice there
So I rose up and called solitaire
When the mail stops, that’s when I’ll declare
Who knows, Hobbs knows, the monkey went into space
Part of telly, part of a great big guess.
The space race saved no-one, only the human race
At the end of which a party so no-one be late
To rise up and call solitaire
No longer the mourning but joy is there
So I rose up, rose up, and rose up there
When the mail stops, that’s when I’ll declare
Demigod
I’m on 40 million grains of sand just beneath my feet
Surely I am a demigod of consequence
I make the place where power and futility meet
Surely I must be a demigod around this place
I say and it’s so, so the I say said I go
I don’t know where the go is, but the go went go
Two grand for the auto and four hundred for the house
I’ll agree as long as Mom is cared for,
cause we all should try and get along and be better
than the animals and the goblins in the roundabout
I say and its so, so the I say said I go
I don’t where the go is, but the go went go
Forty watts of license and the house lights up.
It’s not much for us but it’s enough, and I
am grateful for the essentials, knowing that I
have a future that is only heading up.
I say and I hope so but I don’t know how it goes
I say but I don’t know how it goes.
A trip to YouTube persuades me that “Gentle On My Mind” must have been the song I should have mentioned.
I don’t claim it was “great”, just big.
Have a good weekend …
The king of monotonous music, of course, is Philip Glass. For queen I would nominate early Cat Power–“Cross Bones Style”, for instance. Some of her early stuff crescendos, though, such as “Rockets”. I like “Tom’s Diner”, by the way, but more for the little story it tells than the music.
Funny you should write about monotonous/repetitive songs now. In the Jan 12 edition of Pacific Standard, Tom Jacobs wrote,
“Well, new research has identified one obvious but often overlooked element that influences a pop song’s popularity: The repetitiveness of its lyrics.
“After analyzing 55 years of pop hits, a study finds that repetition of both the chorus and individual words leads songs to be “adopted more broadly and quickly in the marketplace.” ”
Seems we never outgrow the childhood need to hear the same story over and over again.
http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/yeah-yeah-yeah-repetitive-lyrics-boost-songs-popularity-97863
I love monotony; I need monotony. Monotony is all in our minds. If one can conceive of a God big enough, he created an earth, moon, sun, solar system, galaxy, and universe only to create monotony (wow, cudo’s to God), which is pretty much what you and I suffer, at the will of the big and unknown.
Well, I can think of one song worse than “Strawberry Fields”, and it’s “The Final Countdown” (Bing it if you dare…).
Never really considered how all Eurythmics songs are monotonous, but Annie Lenox makes it work. I immediately thought of their “Who’s That Girl.” I also love the Dandy Warhols’ “Godless” (the music, not lyrics are repetitive), which pops up in the background of things (tv shows, NPR) because of this.
Horse With No Name makes me want to blow my brains out—instant depression. Suzanne is a great great song. I don’t think it’s monotonous; it’s more like small alternating progressions, which mimic the gentle waves of Suzanne’s harbor.
I first heard “Hey,That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” from Judy Collins. An improvement over either Leonard or Judy singing it solo is when they sing it together w some harmony: Judy Collins with Leonard Cohen.
And for marvelous monotony, we have a song which repeats even within its title:Da Doo Ron Ron. Is that “Ron Ron” for Ronnie Spector? Probably not, because she and Phil hadn’t married when this song was a hit, IIRC. But this is a Phil Spector song.
Come to think of it, most rock and roll is repeating, repeating, repeating. But I repeat myself.
It helps that Annie Lenox has a great voice!
Charles
It helps that Annie Lenox has a great voice!
Indeed she does have a great voice. I don’t recall hearing her before, as I had stopped listening to pop radio at the time of the Eurhyhtmics’hit songs.
Maybe this is too obvious to note? I think good monotonous rock music taps into the same psychology as religious devotional chants. A feeling or mood is set, tuned, and heightened by harmonizing it with breath and heartbeat. Of course, it’s not just rock music. “Music Bully” already pointed to Phillip Glass. He, Terry Riley, and a few others started a whole genre of monotony. And then just a half-step away is trance.
I, relatively, recently ran into a sort of music that explains what you discuss. I wondered about what you are wondering myself, if I had never formally formulated the question. A nagging scratch in my psychic ear. Trance. In reading about, then hearing, of this music, I hit upon some considerations regarding my unpronounced questions.
That is why. Trance, that is. The repetitive portion allows one part of my mind to… free-wheel. While the lyrics and perhaps beat or other aspects consciously engage the mind. Push pull, though different from formal trance, perhaps a subset, but the key was understanding the notions behind the trance portion. At times, if listened to often enough, just as with the eyes being able to see an optical illusion through focus, the mind puts the two parts together and allows a sort of… hrm… meditative contemplation, a mixing of the two aspects. Well, that’s my answer.
Now, what makes this one successful, and that one not, is beyond my ken. However, I do note, that more people are drawn to specific sets of such, thus popularity. I would guess acquired taste, maturity, and some other factors separate out various levels of interest, so that some music is more generally popular and other sets are more refined so that fewer have an interest. Oh, but I suppose advertising and such plays a part as well, of course.
“Born in the USA” was dreadfully monotonous.
But “Wichita Lineman”? No way. It has a great melody not to mention great lyrics. It’s actually one of the all-time great pop songs.
I love the Eurhythmics, because of Annie Lenox’ voice as someone else said. But I can’t stand America (the band, love my country of course!). I played in a comedy-rock band that did a lot of parodies and one of their lyrics was
“I”ve been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be so inane”
PS to Conrad – totally concur on Wichita Lineman. One of my all time faves even though I’m not a big Jimmy Webb fan otherwise.
My husband turned the radio on last night as we were driving about 3 hours home from a family visit and were all talked out. I was amazed at the monotony of the popular stuff they were playing. The rhythm was louder than the melody or voices and it was mostly drums. You would think that within 3 hours, they might have found one real song with melody, lyrics, a decent voice, and some emotion, but no. They even had a few new versions of older songs, and the music was washed away. What is happening to the minds of young people who listen to this garbage all the time? I’ll take elevator music (or Strawberry Fields) anyday.
“That’s one of the many reasons I don’t like rap music”
_______________________________________
Agreed
Reason #7
Most of them have either been accused of, or, convicted of murder. Not to mention the ones who have been involved in.
List of “accused” or served/serving time for murder:
C-Murder
Rondo NumbaNine
Cdai
Gucci Mane
Young Jeezy
Big Lurch–cannibalized his girlfriend
J-Dee
Chi-Ali
Ra Diggs (Loretta Lynch found him guilty)
Max B
Steady B (friend of actor Will Smith)
Cool C (friend of actor Will Smith)
Snoop Dogg
Rosco P. Goldchain
G Dep
Mac Minister
X-Raided
Cassidy
Crap Music
“Wichita Lineman” is actually a really interesting song, with unexpected chord changes and a beautiful melody. It’s also short, and lyrically ambiguous, which keep it from getting monotonous.
Annie Lennox, physically and vocally, is gorgeous. Her material can seem repetitious sometimes, as can her videos and wardrobe, but they really play up her sexiness. Listen to that first song again and focus on the vocal track. Wow.
Whilst on a more serious note…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPnETiP8V9I&feature=youtube_gdata_player
My son and I just found this one lying around on the radio in the LA area a few weeks ago. It is astonishing, with an A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A structure — not even a chorus. And the singer can apparently only sing 3-4 notes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aeziDgbjbI