Interesting videos about sounds and music

Kenny Vaughan speaking with Otis Gibbs again, this time about Frank Zappa:

https://youtu.be/XWKl3qdFDqs?si=d7Y5yS1lB2pvFUny

Here’s a great little video that posted today, in which Kenny Vaughan speaks to Otis Gibbs about Levon Helm. Kenny is the guitarist in my current favorite band---The Fabulous Superlatives, Marty Stuart's band, and Levon was of course the drummer/singer in my all-time favorite band, The Band.

https://youtu.be/Z7zO3gGjCBU?si=4cBID0NyIElFwJ9M

Geez, it’s been only one day, and I have to recommend this video about Jim Gordon in place of the one above. Please do yourself a HUGE favour and watch it, it is truly incredible. It is an interview with Joel Selvin, longtime music writer for The San Francisco Chronicle, and author of several books. including an upcoming one on Gordon, due out next year.

In this one hour seven minute interview (you can skip past the opening bs), you will learn about not just one of the greatest drummers of all time (Derek & The Dominos’ organist/songwriter/singer Bobby Whitlock considers him THE greatest), but about the inside story on the L.A. music scene in the 1960’s, including in the studio details you’ve never heard before (Gordon became a full-time professional studio musician at the age of 17!).

The list of songs he was the drummer on is absolutely staggering, and you will hear about them---and much more---in this video. I became aware of Jim Gordon upon hearing Dave Mason’s "Only You Know And I know", which contains one of the best drum parts I’ve ever heard. But believe me, this video is NOT just for drummers!

https://youtu.be/-CoiJ8ulnPc?si=zERF7Qu1J7ZrUYoA&t=2356

This is a good overview of the great drummer Jim Gordon, one of my half-dozen or so favorites.

https://youtu.be/HToM-FY_xCc?si=A9pD_eS6aVkSJUzB

@8th-note: Agreed, I have the Tom Dowd video on DVD. While his recorded sound quality isn’t in the top tier, he worked with producer Jerry Wexler on some of my favorite albums. They include all the recordings the two made in Muscle Shoals for Atlantic Records (Wexler was the in-house producer for the label)---Aretha, Wilson Pickett, Dusty Springfield, Otis Redding, as well as the Derek & The Dominos album. Dowd had earlier been the recording engineer on a great many early R & B hits of the 50’s and 60’s, artists like Ray Charles and a lot of the vocal R & B groups. And as if that isn’t enough, he recorded some of the Jazz greats like Coltrane, Monk, and Charlie Parker.

@mahgister (and all others interested), what makes the above video by Ben Shelton so interesting and valuable is this:

When discussing Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, it is always their vocal harmonies that is focused on. That is understandable, but it is imo a mistake. Vocal harmonies can make a mediocre chord progression sound more interesting, but as this video will make obvious, the chord structure of "God Only Knows" is anything but mediocre. That structure and composition (along with the vocal harmonies) are why Paul McCartney cites "GOK" as his favorite song ever written. Mine too).

The dense orchestration and vocal harmonies---along with the somewhat poor recorded sound quality---of The Beach Boy’s recording of the song prevent one from fully hearing and appreciating the very sophisticated composition of the song (which is contained in the piano chords). This video will make that composition more apparent. It is to the songs on The Beatles Rubber Soul album (which Brian took as a challenge to top) what chess is to checkers. The construction of the song---with the choice of very sophisticated chord progressions, modulations, and inversions---reveals Brian’s knowledge and understanding of music theory, which John, Paul, and George lacked. Still, they did pretty well without it. 😉

For another example of a Pop song with this level of songwriting quality, give a listen to "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted", a glorious song written by the Motown team of William Weatherspoon, Paul Riser, and James Dean. The original recording was sung by Jimmy Ruffin, but Joan Osborne also does a killer version. The bass playing on the original is by the great James Jamerson, whom McCartney credits with opening his eyes to the employment of inversion in the playing of electric bass (which Jamerson does in this song). Ever wonder why McCartney suddenly got a LOT better as a bassist? It was the result of hearing Jamerson.

I suspect there are members now thinking "That’s nothing, listen to Steely Dan." Yep, the SD songwriters knew their music theory and wrote sophisticated compositions. But to my ears they use that knowledge not to move the listener emotionally, but rather intellectually. Brian’s songs aim at the heart, not the head.

Here’s a video wherein a musician sits at a piano, explaining and demonstrating the construction of Brian Wilson’s masterpiece of a song, "God Only Knows":

https://youtu.be/PjPN9zRUrgI?si=iUrEC88LWrxKw9EO&t=11