Track Three: Spirit

           

                For this post, I again called my parents to get suggestions for albums. My last album, Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, was released in 1973, so I knew I wanted to do an album a few years after that. My dad instantly suggested Spirit, his favorite Earth, Wind & Fire album. Spirit was released in 1976 and reached number two on the Billboard Pop and R&B Albums Chart. My dad remembers playing this album when taking my mom on their first couple of dates in high school. He loved to sing along to it, and even started singing some of the songs when I called him to get his opinion on the album, which just goes to show how catchy all of the songs on this album are.       
               Funk music is one of those genres that just puts you in a good mood. Between the upbeat melodies and lyrics that make you think of better times, funk music almost always makes me want to get up and dance. Funk music started in the late 1960s, mainly in the African American communities from genres as soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues. Furthermore, it was artists such as James Brown and Parliament that really started to create the funk genre. Instruments such as the electric bass, electric guitar, synthesizer, drums, and various horns are most often included in funk music. Over the years, funk music has continued to influence the music industry, and has made way for new genres such as disco, boogie, and funk rockfunk music.

            Overall, this album is a funk album through and through. Even without the lyrics, the instrumentation of this album clearly indicates a funk genre. Earth, Wind & Fire is known for their use of horns in their songs, something that is also very common in funk music. In “Getaway,” the first song on the album, the trumpets are apparent throughout the whole song, which is one of the reasons that I find it to be so catchy. However, pretty much all of the songs include various trumpets. And they aren’t simply in the background of the song, their sound makes a strong presence in the songs, something I find to be quite refreshing compared to the studio created beats you find in most music today. However, some current songs like “Uptown Funk,” also use trumpets to create a funk sound in their otherwise pop song. Because of funk music's popularity in the 60s and 70s, it is understandable that current artists would want to play on the success of past artists' sounds. 

            Earth, Wind & Fire also heavily rely on the sound of bass guitar and drums in their music. Funk music focuses on emphasizing the downbeat of the measure, which can be heard in the drums and bass. In “Saturday Nite,” EW&F uses the drums to maintain the upbeat tempo and the bass to emphasize beats one and three. The trumpets are also loud in this song, but if you make an effort to hear the drums then you will see how they deepen the instrumental sound of the song by creating a sort of base layer of sound. Throughout this album as a whole, EW&F uses their various instruments, but especially the trumpets, to stay in the funk genre.

            On top of the sound, Earth, Wind & Fire create lyrics that maintain the funky, relaxed sound that they are famous for. One way I noticed they did this was through rhyming, which makes their lyrics unique in the funk genre. Many of their consecutive lines of lyrics will end with rhyming words. For example, in “On Your Face,” two lines go,

“Now a frown will bring your spirits down to the ground

And never let you see, the good things all around.”

And it’s not a consistent ABAB pattern by any means, but just the fact that they make the effort to throw in the occasional rhyme is significant to how the listener hears their songs. For me, rhymes remind me of childhood, and just simpler times in general. And for a funk song, I think that tone of simple makes a lot of sense. Funk music is supposed to help you relax and create an atmosphere of good times only. Furthermore, I think rhymes keep you interested in a song. As soon as you begin to lose interest, a simple rhyme can pull you right back in to dancing to the beat and having a good time. In addition to the rhymes, the themes of the songs keep an easy-going mood. Both “Getaway” and “On Your Face” discuss being positive and escaping reality to be happier, while “Spirit” talks about the beauty of friendship. Earth, Wind & Fire achieved creating lyrics on Spirit that are timeless. Almost forty years later, I can listen to their songs off this album and be able to sing along and relate to what they are singing about. I think music, and specifically funk music, can be a great escape from reality, and Spirit does not disappoint.

            On top of the sound and lyrics is the way that the lyrics are delivered by the artist. In most of the funk music I’ve heard, the singers have a way of drawing out specific syllables in words to create a funky sound. And I’m not technical enough to call it by its real name, but the way that funk artists sing is definitely unique. Not only are the lyrics and sounds supposed to make you relax, but then the way they are sung also makes you want to stop worrying about everything. The drawn out sound makes the song seem to slow down, even if the temp is very upbeat. It’s like being in the South, where everyone and everything moves at a much slower pace. The drawl sound can be heard well in "In Your Face" in the first couple lines of the song when EW&F sings "feel" and ''hide."

            The more I listened to this album, the more I grew to love it. The melodies continually got stuck in my head, but I honestly didn’t mind. Spirit is a timeless album that I definitely wouldn’t mind listening to in my free time. Personally, I can’t wait to listen to this album with my parents and see my dad try to pull out some of his cheesy dance moves that he used to win my mom over back in the 70s. Overall, I highly recommend Spirit for just about any occasion. I didn’t hear any profanity, and there were no times that I was listening to a song and thought to myself, don’t play that with the parents. So, I would have to give it five out of five stars in terms of appropriateness and ability to be listened to with family.

Track 2: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Revised)

When picking an album for this first review, I didn’t really know where to begin. I called my parents to get their favorite 8-tracks from the early 70s, and started doing some of my own research. When my dad suggested Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, I was a little skeptical at first. But I figured such a popular album wouldn’t be so bad to listen to and review. My dad remembers when this album came out, and how much of a big deal it was. He said it played on the radio all the time, and had around seven hits that everyone knew the words to. My dad’s sister was the one that introduced him to Elton John because she drove him to and from school, so they would always listen to the radio together. 

Elton John was one of the United Kingdom’s biggest pop stars of the 1970s. However, one of the reasons that I enjoyed listening to this album was because of the combination of soft rock and pop. This was evident in “Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding in my Hand,” which opens with a six minute instrumental featuring an almost techno sound, but also with an electric guitar added in. I noticed that this wasn’t the only song with an instrumental. And not just a thirty second one, but ones that went on for a couple of minutes. Both “The Ballad of Danny Bailey” and “Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” end with over a minute of just music. No words, just Elton John playing his piano accompanied by other various instruments. The first time I heard those songs, I was confused about the lack of words and why there was such a large space between the lyrics ending and the end of the song. But the more times I listened to them, I began to appreciate it for what it was: good music. And I wish I could see Elton play these songs live, because I feel like being able to watch him rock out on the piano would add to an even deeper appreciation.

In two of the songs, “Jamaica Jerk-Off,” and “Social Disease,” Elton switched into a different sound. In “Jamaica Jerk-Off,” Elton used a Jamaican sound, complete with a Jamaican accent. Personally, I found it to be weird. Elton John has such great vocals with his piano, and I didn’t think it was necessary to try and bring a new sound on the album. Even though he had the resources to switch his sound, it doesn’t mean he should have. The same thing applies to “Social Disease.” The song had a country, almost red-neck feel to it, and I didn’t think that it was fitting at all. At the end of the song, some bird and ocean sounds were added, which were not my favorite either. Granted, the song does have a beachy feel, but I could have imagined myself at the beach without hearing seagulls in the song.

My two favorite tracks on the album are “Bennie and the Jets,” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.” I partially think I love “Bennie and the Jets,” so much because of the scene in 27 Dresses where the two love interests drunkenly sing this song at a bar. However, I would have to say Elton John's voice sounds much better than their drunken yells. Elton hits some high notes in this song that show off his large vocal range. They're even high enough that I have trouble hitting them with my alto voice. My other favorite was “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” because I felt it had the best combination of lyrics, vocals, and music. It’s one of those songs that I would belt out to in my car with my friends and would never get tired of listening to. It starts off quiet but continues to build and then releases with the line "beyond the yellow brick road." It's infectious melody with the "oohhs" and "aahhs just makes me think of happy memories and puts me in a good mood.

Goodbye Yellow Brick road is an album filled with nostalgia. In "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," Elton John yearns for the less chaotic time before becoming famous. In "Love Lies Bleeding," it's for a lover that has left. And in "Candles in the Wind," it's for Marilyn Monroe. This makes Elton John sound like he's living in the past. This is a common theme in music though, lots of artists write about things that have happened to them.

            Overall, in terms of enjoyability, I would give Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 4 out of 5 stars, and 4.5 out of 5 stars in terms of appropriatness. With minimal mentions of drug, sex, and alcohol, I think this album does have the potential to turn minutes into hours on a long car ride. I would actually enjoy listening to this with my parents, and think we would both be happy with this selection. I normally listen to pop music anyway, but now my parents and I can listen to pop that we both know. With its consistent upbeat feel, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road is a great album for any occasion.