0:04

Hello everyone, Kirk here, still working away

0:07

on Strong Song Season 6, and as

0:09

I announced last week, the Season 6

0:11

premiere has actually just gone live right

0:13

now for Patrons. It's an

0:15

episode about the Peter Gabriel song In

0:18

Your Eyes, which I've been waiting to

0:20

make forever. It was super

0:22

fun to make that episode and I'm really happy

0:24

with it. It'll hit the main feed in two

0:26

weeks on February 23rd, but if you want to

0:28

hear it early, if you want to hear it

0:30

right now, you can go over to Patreon, patreon.com/strong

0:33

songs. You can sign up at the quarter note tier or

0:35

higher and you can hear that episode and then

0:37

you'll hear every episode of the season two weeks

0:39

early and also you'll be supporting the creation of

0:41

Strong Songs, which, you know, that's the only way

0:43

that I make money off of Strong Songs. Just

0:46

your support, listener support, and it really is the thing that

0:48

allows me to keep making this show. So you can find

0:50

out more about that and you can go listen to that

0:52

episode right now at patreon.com/strong songs.

0:55

For now though, to tide

0:57

you over for another two

0:59

weeks, one more bonus episode.

1:01

As you know, I've been dropping bonus episodes into

1:03

the main feed that had previously been Patreon

1:06

exclusive. That's what this is. And

1:08

while I've changed the intro a bit, you might hear

1:10

some stuff in the episode that makes it sound like

1:12

it's from a bonus feed that would maybe make more

1:14

sense if it were a Patreon bonus episode. So bear

1:16

that in mind. Anyways, this bonus episode was a follow

1:18

on to an episode I made in 2022, Strong Covers

1:23

Volume 2, in which I focused on a

1:25

handful of covers of famous Beatles songs. Those

1:27

were the Earth, Wind & Fire cover of

1:30

Paul McCartney's Gotta Get You Into My Life,

1:32

the Ray Charles cover of Eleanor

1:35

Rigby, also mostly by McCartney, and

1:37

the Bobby McFerrin solo vocal cover

1:40

of Blackbird. So that was a really fun

1:42

episode. I was very proud of it. It

1:44

really kind of came together. These cover episodes

1:46

are really fun for a reason that I've

1:48

articulated many times, but talking about a cover

1:50

really does give a kind of a

1:52

cool angle in on the original. So

1:54

the thing is, when you're making a

1:56

cover episode, there are so many covers,

1:58

especially of Beatles songs. I had this

2:00

huge lists. I mean I was planning to

2:02

even talk about some alternate covers as I

2:04

was making the episode. No one of the

2:06

seventy cut them because it just wasn't feeling

2:08

focused and I only had so much time.

2:10

But of course they're a million interesting Beatles

2:12

covers out there. And then I realize I

2:14

have as bonus feed and that's kind of

2:16

custom made. Its or tailor made for this

2:18

kind of thing for sharing little extra stuff

2:20

that didn't quite make it into the episode

2:22

but I still think is interesting. So on

2:25

this bonus I said I'm just gonna go

2:27

through a few cover his of each of

2:29

the three songs that. I talked about gotta

2:31

get too into my life, Eleanor Rigby and

2:33

Blackbird and just play a few of the

2:35

other covers. Some of which I considered for

2:37

the episode in a couple of was actually

2:39

were linked. I'm a strong sons discord by

2:41

discord users and are and are really cool

2:43

and I just kind of wanted to share

2:45

and maybe plan a couple things about each

2:47

one and since they're all interesting and different

2:49

in their own when. I

2:51

was alone. I did the right. I didn't

2:53

know an island. Or

3:00

not in a cover Wanted to talk about

3:02

his of gotta Get into My Life It

3:04

actually came out in Nineteen Sixty Six in

3:06

the Uk. It was performed by Cliffs Bennett

3:09

in The Rabble Rousers and did pretty well.

3:11

It started in the Uk and this record

3:13

was actually produced by Paul Mccartney, so kind

3:15

of has the stamp of approval in it's

3:18

very similar to the Beatles versus. A

3:20

lot of. Our.

3:25

Seventy a lot smoother close. Senate has a

3:27

kind of more crooner he cannot some zone

3:30

five Simple Mccartney does have really come through

3:32

in the pre chorus. What's

3:45

interesting about this arrangement to me is that

3:47

because Mccartney produce this, it's basically the same

3:49

arrangement. I'm not going to going to the

3:51

particulars because I'm assuming that as we listen

3:53

to this listened to the mean episode about

3:56

these about the science but me Original: Did

3:58

you know the horns or kind of. The

4:00

trumpets hold the node and the saxophones

4:02

do that descending chromatic thing during the

4:04

pre chorus, the exact same thing on

4:06

the Cliff Senate version. When they hit

4:08

the chorus, they do. It's just the

4:10

same as Mccartney doesn't. He

4:25

knows. same performance, same horn part up up

4:27

up up up bars, same a horn or

4:29

use mean exactly so in the any winds

4:31

up being this kind of interesting. Alternate.

4:34

Reality version of the original where the singer

4:36

is just kind of a slicker, more flamboyant

4:38

vocalist and there's a cut you know there's

4:40

more going on the drummer as mixing it

4:42

up more. The piano player is Plane is

4:44

blues. He fills so has a little bit

4:46

more of a mainstream vibe. It may be

4:48

like sort of the character of the Beatles

4:50

version, but it's still a great performance and

4:52

a good arrangement because it's basically the original

4:55

arrangements. I think that's a kind of an

4:57

interesting oddity that the same year as the

4:59

original came out, this other version was also

5:01

released and did quite well for it. So.

5:05

When I'm with you on us. Actually

5:10

really like Cliff Bennett singing. I never really listened

5:12

to him before, but I love that tennis saucier

5:14

style of of singing and kind of works for

5:17

the song. and as a bit of a bit

5:19

of pomp and circumstance of a whole thing, it's

5:21

a lot of fun. worth checking out. So there's

5:23

another cover of Gotta Get Into My Life by

5:25

one of the other notable horn bands of the

5:28

Nineteen seventies. This on with also shared in the

5:30

Strong Sons discord by Gospel of Hammond a gospel

5:32

of Him and Anna. It's a really cool arrangement

5:34

that does some very interesting for. Me

5:45

of course about blood, sweat and tears. Their

5:47

Nineteen Seventy Five version of the song lead

5:49

lead singer David Clayton Thomas put isn't step

5:52

on it for sure. You're

6:07

not a really dramatic reinterpretation. It's different than

6:09

Earth Wind Fire's but it's got a ton

6:11

of new ideas, the mix, and really major

6:13

changes. The whole thing is built around this

6:15

guitar riff that honestly reminds me of Elliott

6:17

Rambles guitar riff from Real and in the

6:20

years which Steely Dan recorded a couple of

6:22

years earlier so could have you Can Dance

6:24

and influence on the Second Harper. Really kind

6:26

of puts that in my mind and has

6:28

that kind of a twelve a prude, but

6:30

it's very different. Kind of Twelve Acres. Of

6:47

I was kind of a cool parallel so generally

6:49

just a more kind of rock and arrangement with

6:51

a much more guitar forward sort of a thing.

6:53

The horns are still doing a lot of cool

6:55

stuff and then there's this huge change on the

6:57

pre chorus. Funny

7:12

when I was thinking about the Earth, Wind

7:14

and Fire version, I mention that they kept

7:16

the Court Ferguson pretty much the same. They

7:18

do that minor to minor major seventh and

7:20

minor seventh a six thing with the chromatic

7:22

reading tone, that palm of her knee and

7:24

so fond of blood, sweat and tears totally

7:26

changes this of their in the key of

7:28

ass and they do this thing it's like

7:30

to their plan and F major and then

7:32

for the prefer as they basically go up

7:34

to see major over D that is the

7:36

pedal and the base a C Major ever

7:39

deeds and be flat over D C Major

7:41

of or Dm in D. Minor. Just

7:43

super different. many

7:54

chains of this part going into the course as

7:56

well they do this climb up like a scalar

7:58

climb up into the chorus where the original

8:00

actually walks down, listen to what the bass does

8:02

at the very end of the phrase leading into

8:05

the chorus on the original. Right

8:07

here. So

8:13

just this nice, tidy walk down from C. Really

8:20

straightforward, but it walks down. Now listen to

8:22

what Blood, Sweat, and Tears does. They

8:32

go in the opposite direction, so we're in F now.

8:34

They start on 2, and they do this nice, kind

8:36

of gospel style 2 walk up from 2 to 3

8:38

to 4 to 5 to 1, which is just a

8:40

totally different energy. I

8:43

mean, they take it in literally the opposite direction,

8:45

but it still totally works. They

8:53

do their own thing on the chorus, too. This

9:05

is a great arrangement. Honestly, there's a lot to

9:07

be learned from this arrangement. I could have done

9:09

a sort of battling arrangement comparison between

9:11

this cover and the Earth, Wind, and Fire

9:13

cover, because they're both really great full band

9:16

arrangements, really cool reinterpretations of the song. In

9:19

the end, I went with Earth, Wind, and Fire, partly because, as

9:21

I mentioned on that episode, for a while I actually thought it

9:23

was an Earth, Wind, and Fire song, and I'll always associate it

9:25

with them. But I really like

9:27

what Blood, Sweat, and Tears does as well, and

9:29

I just like, they're these sort of dueling horn

9:31

bands of the 70s. They have similar names, Earth,

9:33

Wind, and Fire, Blood, Sweat, and Tears. Three

9:36

things. We talked about the Rule of Threes

9:38

on a recent Q&A. That applies to band

9:40

names as well. Anyway, it's a great arrangement.

9:42

I don't know if it's Ron McClure, this

9:44

is the bass player for Blood, Sweat, and

9:46

Tears, Ron McClure, a great, great bass player.

9:48

If he's the one who came up with

9:50

these different bass lines, but the bass really

9:52

changes things, they also do this kind of

9:54

walking gospel style bass line on the way

9:56

out that really changes the energy, it turns

9:58

into this kind of... like everybody in the

10:00

church is on their feet while the Reverend

10:02

testifies kind of thing. It's

10:16

a great cover, very inventive and high energy performance.

10:18

And don't worry Blood, Sweat and Tears will get

10:20

their day on strong songs at some point here.

10:22

There's a bunch of songs of theirs that I

10:24

could talk about and they are one of my

10:26

favorite bands of all time. So definitely check that

10:29

one out. So next up is Eleanor

10:31

Rigby. Eleanor Rigby, a beautiful song that really lends

10:33

itself to being covered. There are a bunch of

10:35

great covers of this song. There are a few

10:37

in particular that I wanted to shout

10:39

out. The first one is kind of interesting.

10:41

It's by the great Queen of Soul herself,

10:43

Aretha Franklin, and it's probably the most stripped

10:45

down cover of any of these songs that

10:48

I heard. So

11:04

here's the thing about Aretha's cover of Eleanor

11:06

Rigby. It keeps the lyrics and that's pretty

11:08

much it. She does the whole thing as

11:10

a blues jam. So if you remember the

11:12

original goes back and forth between E minor

11:14

and C major. It's basically in E minor

11:16

and then it drops to the flat six

11:18

major every so often and it's kind of

11:20

just a two chord song. Aretha

11:23

also does it as a two chord song but she

11:25

changes it. She's doing it in the key of D

11:27

and she basically just does it almost like a D

11:29

blues. It's just like a D7 chord and then she

11:31

goes to the four chord instead of the flat six

11:34

which Just totally changes the sound of the

11:36

song and strips away a lot of the

11:38

harmonic identity that it had to begin with,

11:40

and yet it still kind of works. I

11:42

Mean it's almost not Eleanor Rigby anymore. I

11:45

don't know where that line is or how

11:47

that exists. I mean it's the same form.

11:49

She's singing the same lyrics. I Actually really

11:51

like that she sings I'm Eleanor Rigby just

11:54

because it's a sort of interesting interpretation to

11:56

sing as Eleanor Rigby rather than as someone

11:58

who's. Than that,

12:00

it's such a laid back Sam. They've changed

12:02

the harmony so much that I think it

12:05

actually is an interesting example of how far

12:07

you can go from the original while keeping

12:09

the lyrics from the form you know, making

12:11

of identifiable. as he knew Eleanor Rigby and

12:13

you heard this, he was still identify it

12:16

as Eleanor Rigby. It's just very very different

12:18

about a stripped down and different as a

12:20

cover can be. The

12:32

next cover of Eleanor Rigby as a pretty

12:34

recent one from since last fall, and it's

12:36

also a Grammy nominated arrangement. It's really, really

12:38

cool by the musician Cody Fry. Now I

12:41

know Thirty Fry because he's a featured artists

12:43

on a couple of Corey Wong records the

12:45

Funk guitarist so we thought of them as

12:47

this keyboard playing singer, but he's a great

12:50

musician, a great writer, and a great orchestrator

12:52

as he sort of showed off in the

12:54

series he did of Eleanor Rigby last fall.

13:06

Whole thing was recorded kind of separately. This

13:08

is a pandemic your recording with a full

13:10

orchestra with he wrote for the sound really

13:13

gun. As

13:16

well as four hundred vocalist. Among

13:26

other things, the series we've

13:28

really modulates between huge sounds

13:30

and very small intimate one

13:32

on the. Rise

13:34

in the to to do. Is.

13:45

Say. about

13:47

it does a great cover it's very impressive

13:49

in that way the things tend to be

13:51

impressive money a four hundred vocalist recording separately

13:53

and get a full orchestra plagues but it's

13:55

also very intimate in it it's a very

13:57

thoughtful i think and a lot of ways

14:00

And also on the second verse, he

14:02

uses a typewriter to illustrate Father Mackenzie writing

14:04

the words to the sermon that no one

14:06

will hear. Very much an area

14:08

of interest for me. I recently talked about typewriters

14:10

in music, of course, on a recent Q&A. Listers

14:13

in the Discord have actually been sharing

14:15

lots of recordings of other typewriter songs.

14:18

I've been sort of amassing a list of them. I

14:20

might talk about them all in the future. Bonus episode.

14:22

It's a lovely sound I really like the way they

14:24

do that second verse. Anyway

14:44

just a lush, beautiful, very inventive cover of this

14:46

song. I really do recommend checking it out. And

14:49

there's actually a video that I'm going to link

14:51

in the show notes. He does a sort of

14:53

score walkthrough of the song. He pages along in

14:55

the musical score along with the arrangement and sort

14:57

of highlights different things as they happen, which is

14:59

a really nice way to listen to it as

15:01

well since he can give you some insight into

15:04

his thoughts as he was writing this arrangement. It

15:06

goes all sorts of places. It's a really beautiful

15:08

cover by Cody Fry. So yeah, check that one

15:10

out for sure. The

15:30

next cover I wanted to talk

15:32

about really quick was shared by

15:34

Discord users Vazda. And it's really beautiful.

15:36

It's by Joshua Bell, the great violinist

15:38

Joshua Bell and pianist vocalist Frankie

15:40

Moreno, who is not someone

15:43

I was familiar with. But this is

15:45

a really cool arrangement. It's very loose.

15:47

It starts out especially really loose. It's

15:49

kind of rubato, almost improvised instrumental section.

16:13

It's really nice in one of the things that

16:15

gets more rewarding the more familiar you are with

16:17

the song. you can kind of hear what they're

16:19

doing with that, but halfway through Marina sings through

16:21

which is nice as one really let's just to

16:24

a bell, just do his thing as an accompanist.

16:27

Would do they are come.

16:31

O the along. With

16:35

do ah below. Reading

16:40

words are the sermon that no

16:42

one was. No.

16:44

One comes near look at him word god

16:47

just well as so good I can't even

16:49

imagine playing. knows that Hi Sat in tune

16:51

that's that's really a skill sets just of

16:53

really fun listen mostly just for what Joshua

16:56

Bell is capable of and the way that

16:58

they play together. the really both musicians are

17:00

bringing a lot to the performance of and

17:02

then of course Spell gets to take it

17:05

out with a little. couldn't hurt the and

17:07

really. Boost

17:28

Their. It's just. there's nothing quite like

17:30

a violin playing perfectly in tune. So

17:32

absolutely hi. It's one of the highest

17:34

pitches that show here. maybe the highest

17:36

pets The So here on an instrument.

17:38

it's almost ultrasonic. And what a beautiful

17:40

sound. Good God South of our men

17:42

and Indiana University grads people. I talk

17:44

about him in Bloomington, Indiana where I

17:46

grew up. Other people's music school would

17:48

speak of whom with quite a bit

17:50

of pride. Justifiable pride Because man, he's

17:52

pretty good a violin. So the last

17:54

cover of Eleanor Rigby that I want

17:56

to point out is. pretty much the

17:58

polar opposite and it's one I did think about

18:00

talking about it. It's one that I was aware of

18:03

and a few people wrote in about it as well.

18:05

And then of course is the 1970 cover by the

18:07

Australian rock band Zoot. So

18:25

this is definitely another example of taking this song

18:27

in a new direction. So

18:39

this is a total harmonic reimagining of this song.

18:42

They're kind of in between keys here. I feel

18:44

like this recording is probably sped up or slowed

18:46

down. I'll just kind of play it in E

18:48

flat since it's kind of E flat minor is

18:51

where it sort of sits on the piano but

18:53

they're probably in either D or E and then

18:55

the tape got retuned for the master. But I'm

18:57

playing this in E flat just because that'll kind

19:00

of match it. They're doing this thing where it's

19:02

like starts on one and kind of one minor

19:04

then they do this riff that's like flat three

19:06

to four to flat three then they actually do

19:09

go to the flat six and they walk

19:11

up the flat six major scale which I

19:13

really dig and then they land back on

19:15

one. So it's a way more involved way

19:17

more riffy way to sort of undergird the

19:19

vocal chorus. It works. It's super different, but

19:21

it's pretty hip. I'll

19:33

never hear an overdriven guitar playing a major scale

19:35

just straight up in a guitar riff like that.

19:39

Without thinking of Queen. It was kind of

19:42

a lot later. It was eight years later

19:44

on Bicycle Race, one of my favorite Queen

19:46

songs. Brian May does a very similar kind

19:48

of a riff. I don't know if he

19:51

was inspired by this, but it's certainly some

19:53

very strategic Brian May deployment. Anyway,

20:05

just like to shout out these little similarities, these

20:07

little echoes whenever I hear them. I do like

20:09

this zoot arrangement, it's a lot of fun. And

20:11

if you haven't heard of zoot, they're a really

20:14

cool band. Actually Rick Springfield, who became famous over

20:16

here in the States under his

20:18

own name, was originally in zoot. They broke

20:20

up very shortly after recording this. But yeah,

20:22

it's a nice arrangement, it's a cool cover.

20:25

And a zoot, man. Good band. Check

20:27

them out. Now lastly we have two

20:29

covers of Blackbird. I'm

20:46

not going to get as in-depth on these, but they're

20:48

both nice covers. Blackbird is such

20:50

a funny one because the original is very

20:52

simple but also so distinct.

20:54

I think the way it's recorded with Paul

20:56

McCartney's little foot taps over on the side

20:59

there, at least in the stereo mix, the

21:01

way the guitar sounds, even the way that

21:03

his voice is miked, the specific

21:05

sound of whatever microphone it was they were

21:07

using. Everything about it is super

21:10

distinct despite the fact that it's just a foot

21:12

tapping and a guitar and a couple

21:14

of overdubbed vocal tracks. It's very distinct. But

21:17

then covers of it tend to just be

21:19

someone playing guitar and singing it, or playing

21:21

piano and singing it, which can be beautiful.

21:23

I mean, it's a beautiful song and it

21:25

can sound good, but it's rare that people

21:27

do all that much with it. I do,

21:29

however, like these two covers that I want

21:31

to highlight. The first one is Crosby, Stills,

21:34

and Nash. They liked to perform this song

21:36

live. There's a 1982 live recording of them

21:38

doing it. And it's just nice to listen

21:40

to them because they're one of the greatest

21:42

vocal harmony groups to ever record, and they

21:44

do a very nice vocal arrangement

21:46

on this song. You

21:51

Were only waiting for this

21:53

moment to be free. Have

22:12

a dog like. They

22:16

also do cool stuff like this. So

22:32

beautiful cover. It's very different from the original in

22:34

that they use a lot of Mccartney's voice leading

22:36

but of course they're expanding and out into the

22:38

three per focal her me as think it's beautiful

22:41

and of live recording is nice too because it

22:43

sounds live it sounds like they're listening to one

22:45

another as kind of lose the guitar part of

22:47

can a loose you can tell they just sort

22:50

of learned the song that they love and then

22:52

know just performing it for people and I like

22:54

the intimacy of that. The other cover is one

22:56

that I'm very familiar with and really wanted to

22:59

highlight on the show because I don't think that

23:01

that many people. Have heard it! I think I

23:03

may have actually talked about it on the show

23:05

in the past, but that's Brad Mehldau as cover

23:07

the great jazz pianist Brad. Mehldau

23:28

recorded a series of records in the late

23:30

nineties inspired by the great jazz pianist Sunny

23:32

Clark, and they were called the Art of

23:34

the Trio. his

23:45

piano trio with jorge rossi the

23:48

drummer and leary grinning ear to

23:50

bass player to incredibly good and

23:52

very sympathetic decisions they made this

23:55

trio together that's just one of

23:57

the most beautiful sort of improvisational

23:59

organism to ever exist in music.

24:01

You know, they're right up there with

24:03

Bill Evans' trio, with Keith Jarrett's trio,

24:06

the great piano trios of jazz. This

24:08

recording is from their first album and

24:10

it's a pretty straightforward performance but it's

24:12

so beautiful. Like

24:17

Larry Grenadier is just pedaling a G on the

24:19

upright bass but listen to how much he's able

24:22

to do with Jorge Rossi's

24:24

brushed drums. It's

24:40

a beautiful recording that's really just grown on

24:42

me over time. The more familiar I became

24:44

with the original, the more fun it is

24:46

to listen to them play and their improvisations,

24:48

the kind of the point where I just

24:51

stopped playing it, you know, they stretch out

24:53

and meldau really improvises. He moves all around

24:55

through that chord progression, writing his own lines

24:57

and there's a lot of fluidity. They're a

24:59

very fluid group but they never stray too

25:01

far from the core of the song and

25:03

they don't lose the form. So once you

25:05

know the song, it's really cool to listen

25:07

to how they move through those chords. It's

25:35

just this beautiful conversation. It's like everything with this

25:37

group. It's kind of a great way in if

25:39

you haven't listened to a lot of jazz piano

25:41

trio stuff and you want to listen to them.

25:43

This song is one that maybe more people are

25:45

familiar with and they still do their whole thing

25:47

on it. It's a really killer improvisational

25:49

performance but it's a more familiar song and

25:51

they do some other covers as well. Meldau

25:54

likes a good cover. He has a couple

25:56

of great radio head covers in his discography

25:58

as well. Anyways, this is a great... great

26:00

performance and I did want to mention it on

26:02

the show because I didn't have space for it

26:04

in the original episode, but really just lovely stuff.

26:06

It's really informed the way that I interpret this

26:08

melody and the way that I play it on

26:10

piano. And also at the very end, Mel Dao

26:12

goes solo and he really kind of digs in

26:15

and I love the way that he ends it.

26:17

So let's let Brad Mel Dao take us home.

27:02

And that'll do it for this bonus episode with

27:04

just a few more covers of the Beatles songs

27:06

that I talked about back in 2022. As always,

27:08

thanks so much for listening. I hope that you're

27:10

as excited about season six as I am. And

27:12

to mention it one more time, if you want

27:15

to go listen to that premiere about a really

27:17

amazing song, Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes, you can

27:19

go listen to it right now at patreon.com/strong

27:21

songs. And of course, if you can't

27:24

become a patron, that's totally fine. You

27:26

can listen to the episode in two

27:28

weeks. No big deal. I'm very excited

27:30

for Strong Song season six. And I

27:32

hope that you're as excited as I am.

27:34

Until then, take care, keep listening and I'll

27:36

see you in two weeks with season six

27:39

of Strong Song.