This is a first in a series examining a song from four different dimensions: songwriting, arrangement, performance, and production. “Nowhere Man” from Rubber Soul is a brilliant little pop gem with biting commentary on humanity’s tendency to to stick to her/his comfort zones. The impactfulness of the song is perfectly orchestrated by …
So we went through the albums that shaped my teenage and early adulthood years — now here come the stuff that shaped me as a grown-up. Note that these span longer years than the earlier eras, because as an adult my palate has already been formed and it became harder to …
So between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, it is commonly thought that John is the more experimental, “out there” one while Paul wrote more traditional pop tunes. While there’s some truth to that, Paul was no stranger to adventurous songwriting, and beneath the sweet façade there are some sophisticated moves going …
Even before we get to the innovative and ground-breaking arrangement, the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” is a gem of a song. We’ll break down the song’s melody to study these songwriting techniques: Repetitive figure in the melody to reinforce a certain idea Big intervals in key spots to draw listeners’ attention …