Category Archives: Time
Charged: The Clash, “Clampdown” (1979)
If you want militant anthem urgency, I suggest you will find your Golden Groove in The Clash’s “Clampdown” on London Calling. Compare what drummer Topper Headon does on this recording with live Clash recordings and covers, and marvel at how … Continue reading
Groove Alchemy: Band of Gypsys, “Power Of Soul” (1970)
By Eric Griffin Jimi Hendrix clearly considered “Power Of Soul” to be one of the Band of Gypsys’ signature numbers, and the four Fillmore shows heard on the Machine Gun release (2016) give us four takes to explore. In Take … Continue reading
Dogged Tempo: Los Lobos, “Made To Break Your Heart” (2015)
Here’s another track whose chief attraction is its tempo: “Made To Break Your Heart” by Los Lobos. It doesn’t plod, but it doggedly moves at a pace that is always slightly slower than you expect; and this gives it a nifty kind … Continue reading
Command the -And: Alabama Shakes, “Dunes” (2015)
I wrote earlier about a wonderful event on the -ands (as in 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and) toward the end of Linda Ronstadt’s version of “You’re No Good,” where hand claps create a plucking upward effect. I also noted that different listeners, indeed different … Continue reading
Little Things: Linda Ronstadt, “You’re No Good” (1974)
I had it planned: the last post before my exit (Outro #5, still coming) was to be on Little Feat, returning to the first band featured on this site. But while I was in the neighborhood of 1974 I dawdled … Continue reading
Giving Us a Hard Time: Little Feat, “Fat Man In The Bathtub” (1973)
OK, I mean this in a male sexual way: our hero in “Fat Man In The Bathtub,” Spotcheck Billy, is having a HARD TIME getting sex with Juanita. Thus we don’t experience the song as proceeding “in its own good … Continue reading
In Our Own Good Time: Little Feat, “Rock ‘N’ Roll Doctor” (1974)
Something you could say generally about phrasing is that it expresses an ownership of time: good players and singers proceed in their own good time and aren’t merely hustled along by the programmed “good time” of the song’s beat that everyone … Continue reading
Spanner in the Works: Weaves, “Scream” (2017)
The simplest polyrhythm is three over two. (Two posts ago I noted frequent use of this triplet pattern in the Smithereens’ “Listen To Me Girl.”) The time is primarily defined by a duple pattern of two, and then a threesome … Continue reading
The Ten-Year Hook: The Rolling Stones, “Rocks Off” (1972)
As the poetically inevitable result of my complaint about The Trouble with Horns, Matt Smith made me a mix of great horn parts in rock (posted now in Mixes). When “Rocks Off” by the Rolling Stones came on, I wondered … Continue reading
Hooks 