Copyrightable Introductions – Willie Nelson, The Roots, Oingo Boingo, Beach Boys, Desert Rose Band, The Beatles, Brian Eno & David Byrne
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I hope everyone had a great weekend. In Gloucester we had snow – first the small flakes, then large flakes coupled with winds in excess of 20 mph. And it got windier and snowier as I left the beach and drove into Beverly MA. Very nice.
Today it is 58 F and perfectly sunny but the surf temperature has dropped to 50 F. High tide is calling me, but I’m not ready for walking in the ocean this afternoon. I’ll need a little more time to develop enough foolhardy bravery for that!
I want to go in the opposite direction from the last two posts – from introductions that are not very copyrightable to those that are very copyrightable. These are introductions that feature substantive musical expression, not the kind that is often associated with introductions. Again, these subjects – copyrightable intros and uncopyrightable intros – came up during this blogging process. I’m very glad they did as I now have more fun topics to explore.
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I ended the last blog post with this statement and one not-well-known Beatles recording:
At some point soon, I really want to explore the opposite – COPYRIGHTABLE introductions – highly copyrightable introductions. I’ll tease by offering a highly highly highly copyrightable introduction. It’s by The Beatles, a band that formed in Liverpool in the 1950’s. This was early Beatles – pre-Ed Sullivan Beatles – showing off. One of the things I think they’re saying is:
“We’re darn good. We can play well. Can you play this much this fast?”
Here is their earliest Highly COPYRIGHTABLE intro:
Beatles – Like Dreamers Do
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For today, I add the following songs, all with fantastic introductions and all highly copyrightable. I’d recommend immediately dancing to “Start All Over Again” and “Grey Matter,” just for the fun that will take place when the meter shifts on you. You’ll be duped – I love being duped/deceived by a rhythmic/metric trick at the beginning of a song. (Metric deception is a gigantic category in itself, one that would well fit into Highly Copyrightable intros.)
The Roots – You Got Me
Desert Rose Band – Start All Over Again
Oingo Boingo – Grey Matter
Beach Boys – When I Grow Up To Be A Man
David Byrne & Brian Eno – I Feel My Stuff
And I’d add Willie Nelson’s recording of “December Days” from his “Moonlight Becomes You” album. (I can’t find the exact version on YouTube.) This is probably the strangest and most harmonically complicated introduction to any country song. The opening chords are:
Eb Major D minor B Major A Major F Major Bb Major
(NOTE – there were no typos in those six (6) chords)
Have you ever heard these exact chords in this exact sequence anywhere? I haven’t and won’t begin a search for them now (too many other projects are lined up for my attention).
In my next post I want to explore world music, maybe again from the point of view of introductions to songs.