Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers

So many love songs sound schmaltzy. Sometimes they are so bad that even our grandparents find them cheesy. We listen to love songs to relate to feel a part of that magic that brings us close to the ones that we love, but more often than not love songs fail to effect us in a genuine and intimate way.

Among a glut of slow tempo ballads, a couple songs rise above, redefine the genre of the love song and remind us not only how good love songs can be but also what it means to be in love. “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers is one such song.

In an earlier post, I discussed the “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” and the blue eyed soul of the Righteous Brothers. While that song featured baritone, Bill Medley, “Unchained Melody” features the other member of this duet, Bobby Hatfield in a career defining performance.

Alex North and Hy Zaret composed “Unchained Melody” for the 1955 prison film Unchained. The film follows Steve Davitt, debating whether he should finish his sentence and see his family or escape from prison, gaining freedom but losing his family in the process.

As with many popular songs of the time, numerous people recorded the song. Following the original recording by Todd Duncan, others artist released their own version including the Lennon Sisters version. This recording is stylistically representative of the many versions of this song that artists recorded before the Righteous Brothers.



Listening to this performance on the Lawrence Welk Show, it’s hard to imagine how Phil Spector in 1965 decided to push the Righteous Brothers, a soul duo to perform such a traditional and conservative ballad.

Spector moernized "Unchained Melody" by slowing the song down and creating a huge dramatic arc with the instrumentation, starting with a light drum set, bass and guitar, and slowly adding instruments until at the end, a full orchestra and choir swell into a heart wrenching climax. Spector’s production skills and his signature “wall of sound” made the music sound big and bold with an amazing transparency that allowed listeners to hear every instrument that was playing in the rich texture.

While Spector’s instrumentation modernized the song, Hatfield’s transformed this song into a soulful and spiritual declaration of love. A soul singer at heart, Hatfield gently scoops into notes reaching peaks of melodies and slowly quivering down like in the opening line. Hatfield’s voice is a perfect tenor blend never sounding thin or weak.



If there was ever a doubt whether or not this white boy had soul, all you had to do was hear his high note on “are you still mine” in the second verse. He rises up to it effortlessly and collapses down the notes like a person drained from emotional pain.

In the final chorus, Hatfield takes us to church, singing like a preacher. He doesn’t so much sing but confesses. He hesitates on notes and digs in on the word “hunger.” There is something both beautiful and painful in his voice. Only someone who is missing his or her true love could be in the pain that Hatfield expresses at the end of the song when he opens up to his heavenly falsetto pleading, “I need your love.”

There is nothing schmaltzy about The Righteous Brothers version of the song. Even though it was recorded in 1965, it doesn’t sound dated. Yes, the melody is beautifully crafted and the lyrics are perfect. However, it’s the musical landscape created by Spector, and Hatfield’s dramatic performance that brings forth the soul of this song: a longing for the ultimate in human connection and the magic that can only be described as true love.

Leaving Buffy Behind

[the following are my thoughts while away on a weekend trip]

Buffy had no idea that we were leaving her.

The only thing that she was focused on was the fact that I was taking her crate away as she barked and whined frantically. Diana and I took Buffy to the car with us, so she could see where her crate was going, but this really didn’t calm her down all that much.

We were going out of town for the weekend and she was going to stay with my in-laws. Buffy spends a couple days a week at their house when Diana and I are at work. She loves it there. Diana and I are lucky to have the support of her parents with this puppy adventure. They’ve been a huge help and its nice knowing that she always has a place to go when Diana and I need to be away.

The plan was to leave Friday afternoon, so we had to get all of Buffy’s stuff ready to take over my in-laws house in the morning. I was stressed and so was Diana. Buffy sensed this that morning as I tried to get ready for work and help with Buffy’s things all at the same time.

After helping Diana move her crate it was time to head to work, and I didn’t really say goodbye to Buffy as I planned to see her later. The plan was to head to my place after work, do some last minute backing, go over to the in-laws house, say by to Buffy and get Diana.

Things didn’t go exactly as planned.

After work, I rushed home, finished packing and when I was done to my dismay it was almost 4pm. I needed to leave from Diana’s house a little after 4 and I had planned to make it there around 3:30 to see to Buffy, but time had moved quicker than I had anticipated. By the time, I got to Diana’s parent’s house, I had about 10 seconds to say goodbye to my little girl.

Standing in the rain in my in-laws driveway, my mother-in-law handed Buffy to me. Cradling, her I gently rubber her stomach, leaned in close and told her to be a girl. In response, Buffy looked up to me and licked my nose. Then it was time to go.

I’ve seen Buffy every day since we first got her. For the first month and a half I spent literally all day with her since I was on summer break. When I went back to work it was weird being away from Buffy but as the school year progressed and I became more engaged with my students, Buffy moved from being at the center of my thoughts to be becoming another facet of my life.

Now after my first full day away from Buffy, the thing I missed the most was saying goodnight to her and seeing her first thing in the morning. My wife goes to work later than I do, so she usually puts Buffy to bed and I take her out for her first walk in the morning. When I say goodnight to Buffy, she’s usually cuddled in the corner of the coach. I pet the scruff of her neck, lean in so she can say goodnight by touching her nose against mine.

In the morning, I find Buffy curled up in a ball of fluff in her crate.

I reach in and pet her and half awake, she licks my hand. I pick her up, careful to keep her in her "ball form" and put her in my lap as I put her leash on. She yawns, and snuggles up into a tighter ball, often trying to fall back asleep. It’s usually not until we are outside that she remembers that she actually really needs to do her business and becomes excited for the upcoming day. There really isn’t a better way to start the day.

Am I wreck away from Buffy? Not really. While I don’t worry about her 24/7, I can’t help but be a little worried. Most of all, I’m looking forward to seeing my girly.

One of the things I miss from the early dating days with Diana is seeing her when I’d return to college after visiting my family in Seattle. When Diana would see me, she would literally run up to me (ala romantic movie cliché). With the most radiant smile on her face, Diana would hug me like she would never let me go. While I don’t miss spending time away from my wife, I do miss that feeling of relief and joy of being reunited with Diana.

I imagine seeing Buffy when I get home will be similar except there will be more tail wagging and face licking.

Miss you girl, can’t wait to see you.

[This is Buffy saying hello to Diana after work, it was pretty much like this when Diana and I saw her when we got home.]

Redemption Song by Bob Marley

Diagnosed with cancer, in pain and facing his own mortality, Bob Marley wrote “Redemption Song” in 1979. Marley had already changed the way the world viewed Reggae music, Jamaica and the Rastafari movement.

With insightful lyrics and a sound that popular culture had never heard before, Bob Marley penetrated deep into the American consciousness, which is evident in his greatest hits album, Legend selling over ten million copies in the United States.

Unlike earlier songs, which featured his band The Wailers, Marley recorded “Redemption Song,” recorded for his seventh album Uprising with a simple acoustic guitar accompaniment. It’s simple presentations echoes back to American folk singers and early works by Bob Dylan filled with social commentary and powerful imagery. There’s something about redemption song that is unique, not only in the protest music but in Bob Marley. Earlier Marley had called out to the world to “Get Up Stand Up” but in “Redemption Song” there was a softer tone, a more personal statement.

Inspired by a speech by Marcus Garvey, urging people to emancipate themselves from mental slavery, Marley composed a song of freedom, a song of hope. He begins in the first verse singing about pirates taking him into physical slavery but “the hand of the almighty” keeping him strong as hi moves forward in his generation. He invites us to sing in his song of freedom because he states “all I ever have, redemption songs.

In the second verse, Marley urges us to free ourselves from a different kind of slavery to free our minds from “mental slavery.” He redirects our fear of atomic energy as they can’t stop who we are and asks us “how long shall they kill our prophet, while we stand aside and look.”

Marley is asking is how we can stand by and watch the things that mean most to us be killed. Instead of focusing on outward fears of nuclear energy, Marley is telling us to look for our spiritual larders, protect what is most important. At the end of the verse Marley states that other people say that we simply have a role to “fulfill the book.” All we are doing is playing falling into place with what others have planned. In this way we truly are slaves and its up to us to free ourselves for this new kind of slavery.

Marley sings that all he ever has is “redemption songs” but “Redemption Song” isn’t one of them. The redemption that Marley asks us to seek is not found in the words and melody of this song, they are found within ourselves. When we finally get there, we can join Marley but until then what we have is this call to freedom.

As the final song on his last album, “Redemption Song” is a powerful statement of the nature of change. Marley can’t make the world change, he can only invite us to think about our lives and do something different. Many people have answered to call to help him sing with him and maybe that’s all we need to do to change the world not through a grandiose speech but through a simple song of freedom.

Bobby Jean by Bruce Springsteen

One of my first interactions with Susan was during a marching band rehearsal. We were marching in a grid form and she was right in front of me. As we were marching I noticed that Susan was doing something wrong, it was a either a misstep or something wrong with her posture. It’s been too long for me to remember exactly what I said, but the way I said it had enough sarcasm or harshness to make Susan quit marching band that very day.

Now I wasn’t exclusive reasons that Susan quit band that year but I was the straw that broke the camels back. Honestly, I only vaguely recall this happening and it wasn’t until Susan brought this up years later that I remembered this instance at all.

Even with this rocky beginning to our friendship, Susan looked past this and we starting talking Susan in the dorm cafeteria and during social activities at her sorority and my fraternity. We were in the same social group and before long we became close friends.

I loved Susan’s enthusiasm, honesty and most of all her genuine belief in the goodness of the world. Even when she was sad or complaining about something in her life, there was always a spark, a light in her eyes that made me feel better and more hopeful about the world around me.

Then I met Diana, who soon joined the sorority that Susan was a member of. Both of them were active in the leadership of the house however, they disagreed on certain issues which caused tension between them (Diana and Susan have long sense reconciled these differences). Diana confided in me her frustrations with Susan and asked me to talk to Susan about their disagreement.

Instead of talking to Susan on Diana’s behalf, I found myself talking to Susan less and not hanging out with her as much. It was still early in my relationship with Diana and I felt this was a way I could take Diana’s side without betraying my friendship with Susan. Now I don’t know if I acted correctly, I’m not sure if I should have intervened in Diana’s behalf and I don’t know if it was fair to Susan to dissolve our friendship like that. I did the best I knew how to at the time but I never felt like I did enough.

By the end of the school year, there was a space between Susan and I felt like I wanted to say something to her. I wrote her a letter because there were things I wanted to tell her that I didn’t feel like I could say to her face. I also made her a mix CD of music that reminded me of her.

When I found her in her room packing up a couple days before graduation, it felt like months since we last talked. I awkwardly gave her the note and the mix CD and left her room. About halfway down the stairs I realized that Susan deserved more than me just dropping off a letter, she needed to her what I had to say, not from my letter but from me. I turned around knocked on the door and found her about to open the letters.

I sat down and read the letter to her. I remember looking down at the words I had written and never once looking up to Susan afraid of how she would react to everything I had written. Through the letter, I told her how much I enjoyed the moments we shared and how much I wished that things could have been different. I didn't tell her all of these things to change her mind about the situation or to bring her back to being a friend. I just wanted her to know that I missed her and I cared about her.

After I was done reading the letter I looked up and saw Susan crying, which in turn caused me to tear up. I don’t remember any words that we said at that moment but I do remember standing up, Susan and I sharing a hug and Susan gently kissing me on the cheek. In that moment, after months of thinking about Susan with regret and fearing what she thought of me, I knew it was okay.

There were many songs on the mix CD but the one that encapsulated everything I felt, everything I wanted to say was “Bobby Jean.” Springsteen tells a girl how much she meant to him after a break-up not in an attempt to get her back but to let her know how much he will alway cares about her. Back then, whenever I heard this song I thought of all I wanted to say to her, everything that I feared I could never make Susan understand.

Years later when I hear this song I simply think of the light in Susan’s eyes and I find myself smiling at the thought of my friend.

Jeremy by Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam - New Music - More Music Videos

Violence in schools sadly seems like a commonplace occurrence in our society. Not just in America but across the world stories of students acting out in unimaginable ways seems to emerge every couple months. While there are many more people in this world who are killed in horrific battles in war-torn countries, they don’t get to me in the same way. I don’t work in a war-torn environment. I work in a school and every time I hear of a school shooting, I feel physically sick.

“Jeremy” is a nightmare. It’s horrific and scary on a visceral level. Is it beautiful? That depends on your definitions of beauty. However, what is indisputable is that “Jeremy” expresses darkness in the human heart that is uncomfortable but very real.

“Jeremy” is an amalgamation of two true stories: Jeremy Wade Delle, a 15 year old who committed suicide in front of his English class and a shooting at a school that lead singer Eddie Vedder attended. The lyrics tell about a boy at home drawing disturbing images of death with parents who don’t seem to care.

The second verse is the narrator telling about how he used to pick on Jeremy and later realizes “we unleashed a lion." Between the verse the haunting line, “Jeremy spoke in class today." While the lyrics never explicitly say that Jeremy got up in front of the class and committed suicide. Most people know the story from the controversial music video.

After watching the video, you realize that Jeremy “speaking” is not so much a reflection on something he said but on what he did. Even if you’ve never seen the video, there is something unhinged about the way that Eddie Vedder sings the chorus that foreshadows a tragic ending.

The words “Jeremy spoken” rise up and down in a smooth contour but the words “in class today” are awkwardly crammed together. Vedder dips into a full baritone for this line with singing it like a man possessed. You can see a young boys hands shaking in anger in the uncomfortable intensity of Vedder’s voice.

Pearl Jam, thought initially characterized s a grunge/alternative rock group, arranges their music with a clarity and intricacy that transcends the distorted punk chords that characterize most grunge music. The melodic bass line in the beginning, the slick use of vocal overdubs to create a schizophrenic feeling are advanced music devices that add to the feverish energy that permeates this song.

I don’t get any joy from listening to “Jeremy.” I somehow feel hurt, sad and at a loss when this song is over. I don't understand why I feel this way. I don’t understand how someone could feel this alone, this hurt and this angry. I don’t know how someone could contemplate let alone act in such violence.

We fear what we don’t understand, and I am afraid of "Jeremy."

Buffy Graduates!!!

Buffy graduated from Puppy Class !!!

She demonstrated three different commands without using food as a lure and completed the course. It’s official, there’s even a certificate (however we are still waiting for the transcript request to go through).

When Diana first brought up the idea of taking Buffy to a puppy class, it seemed like a great idea. Buffy can learn some tricks, get to know some other dogs and a good time would be had by all.

Once class got started, the story was a little different. First off, Buffy didn’t have a spectacular first class (which I wrote about in this post). As much fun as it was, it was a lot of work, not only for Buffy but for Diana and I. There was homework, assessment by our instructor and an organized and structured class. All of this to help teach our dog how to follow a couple commands, really?

Here’s the thing, teaching your dog commands is so much than a party trick. The main reason to take your puppy to class and learn how to train your dog is to raise a dog that you enjoy living with. No one likes to walk into a friends house and be attacked by his or her dogs. No one enjoys being pulled down the street when walking a dog and no one enjoys having their house be chewed up or worse covered in dog poo. Training can solve all of these things.

Yes, dogs have unique individual personalities and you can’t train the personality out of a dog. However, most dogs, regardless of how timid or crazy they are can be trained to be a dog that’s a pleasure to live with and not a nuisance. While having a dog that doesn’t do things that you don’t want it to do is a nice practical bonus, it’s really not the most meaningful thing you get from learning how to train your dog.

Buffy talks to Diana and I all the time. It’s not just barking, but it’s in her groans, whines, and little squeaks. She’s almost sounds like R2-D2 sometimes when she’s trying to communicate to us. Even though we are getting better at recognizing what she is saying with her sounds at this point, it’s still pretty much guessing. And as much as Diana and I talk to Buffy, she has no idea what we are talking about most of the time. However, when I command Buffy to sit and she sits, we are having a conversation.

It’s an amazing feeling with a simple command to realize that you don’t need a common spoken language to communicate. For a split second, Buffy knows exactly what I’m saying and she’s letting me know that she understands.

More often that not I’m guessing what Buffy needs and she’ trying to figure out what I‘m talking about (which really isn’t all that different than the way most of my friends interact with me). It’s funny but it keeps us at a distance. Nothing in relationships separates people more than a lack of communications. On the other hand, nothing brings people together like being able to understand each other.

Every time I give a command to Buffy and she does what I ask, I feel like I’m getting just a little bit closer to my little girl. Sometimes it’s not the content of a conversation but simply spending the time to talk that shows how much you care. Hopefully Buffy understands how much I care about her, because she continues to tell me with every look, chirp and sit how much she cares about me.

Walking In Memphis by Marc Cohn

Matt, what are you listening to?!?

Last Tuesday, I put my car into the shop for a scheduled maintenance so my father-in-law let me borrow one of his cars for the day. The only drawback to my father-in-laws car is the fact that it doesn’t have an ipod hookup in its stereo system (though it does have an audio cassette player, which I doubt has ever been used). In my car, I have an ipod hook up so I’m usually listening to mixes that I make or podcast on the way to work.

As I’m driving to work with a friend I carpool with, we are listening to what happened to be in the CD player which was Taylor Swift's first album. My brother-in-law Matt used this car all summer to get to work, so I knew it was his CD. He was the one who introduced me to Taylor Swift. I swooned over how great “Love Story” is in a previous post but I’m not as big a fan of the first album (though I find “Picture To Burn” hilarious) and anyways my friend in the car isn’t that into her.



The only other CD we could find in this car was a burned mix that was labeled illegibly, the best I could make out was “Scoone 2 + Mix.” Matt introduced me to Taylor, loved that stuff, so I figured I’d check out this other CD he left in the car. We put it in and we find it’s rave music. I’ve never been to a rave, I don’t know anything about rave culture of rave music except for the fact that sometimes glow stick are involved.

My friend and I are giving each song about 30 seconds and finding one dance song after another, sometimes we can decipher what song is being remixed other times we have no idea. I'm not a big fan of this style of music, don’t hate it, just not that into it, especially during an early morning commute. Then we got to a track that had the piano track to “Let It Be.” We both exhaled and relaxed ready to enjoy one the greatest rock songs of all time, and then instead of hearing Paul McCartney's voice enter, we hear Shaggy.



“It Wasn’t Me” mashed up with “Let It Be.” What in God’s name are you listening to Matt?!? My head can’t even begin to explain what is so wrong about this mix. The juxtapositions of these two songs while inventive is just plain wrong. I need a whole post dedicated to this mix to wrap my brain around it.

We can only stand listening to this mix for about 40 seconds and then we move on. What I hear a couple tracks later is the opening piano line to “Walking In Memphis.” Last week, I downloaded “Walking In Memphis” by Marc Cohn off of itunes. I planned to do an analysis of this song that I've found that many people love and connect with. Even though it’s a little adult contemporary, it paints a beautiful picture with cultural references that echo back to songs like “American Pie” capturing a time and place in a unique and unforgettable way.



Instead of Marc Cohn there's a European guy singing about getting prepared to go raving. Instead of singing “walking in Memphis” he sang, “I’m raving, I’m raving.”



As my friend sat in disbelief, I actually started enjoying this song. It was kind of making fun of raving and utilizing the nostalgia of “Walking In Memphis” to comment on the fun of going to a rave in a mocking almost Saturday Night Live kind of way.

Then after the first chorus, to my utter shock and disbelief, “Scotland The Brave” enters.



Probably the most famous Scottish bagpipe song beside “Amazing Grace,” “Scottish the Brave” in a patriotic song and rousing melody that exemplifies the spirit of Scottish music.

Okay, let me try to wrap my brain around this one. Here’s a song based on “Walking In Memphis” a song about an American city, used to sing about raving, a dance almost trance-like experience paired with a Scottish pipe tune. Maybe, Scooter the German band that did this remix, um, didn’t want to seem too American, so they threw in a little dash of Scottish to balance out the Elvis references.

Arrgh, my brain can’t handle this. Too many cultural implications, crashing together.

Matt, what's going on? How are you listening to this stuff? It's not so much that this is "bad" music, but rather it's baffling. You're my brother-in-law and the longer I know you the more I simply think of you as a brother, but really Matt? "Put on my raving shoes?" Are you kidding?

sigh

Honestly, this Mix CD made me laugh out loud which I really needed heading back to work after a long weekend. Thanks for leaving that CD in the car. It totally made my day.