R.I.P., Phil Everly

Phil Everly (L) and brother
Don Everly (R)

Phil Everly, the tenor half of the famed Everly Brothers singing duo, passed away on January 3. He was 74. Don, Phil's 76-year-old older brother and erstwhile performing partner, remains with us as of this writing.

The Everly Brothers were there at the inception of rock 'n' roll, becoming perhaps the 1950s' most popular musical duo with hits like "Bye Bye Love," "Wake Up Little Susie," and "Cathy's Clown." They were among the first artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 1986. That first Hall of Fame induction included such fellow greats as Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, and Little Richard.

Surprisingly perhaps to today's younger generation, the rock 'n' roll Everlys came out of the country music tradition. You can find out more about their history and legacy by reading "Appreciation: Phil Everly, half of a duo with unearthly sound," an article published in The Washington Post in the wake of Phil's death.

The Beatles, the Byrds, the Hollies, Simon & Garfunkel — all were influenced by the close harmony singing of the Everly Brothers. The Washington Post article says the two brothers "hardly ever sang more than a diatonic third apart." Translation: If Don was singing the note C, Phil would likely be singing an E, just four semitones (a diatonic/major third) up from C. Phil's part was usually parallel to Don's, so if Don hypothetically stopped singing, Phil's voice would be heard spinning out the same exact melody at a slightly higher pitch.

That was a bit unusual, as most close harmony singing is done with varying pitch intervals — albeit with intervals that always stay within a single octave — from one note to the next in the melody.

* * * * *

Charlie Louvin (L) and
Ira Louvin (R)

Country music duos were already famous for using close harmony when the Everly Brothers started scoring big hits. The Louvin Brothers, who recorded such hits as "I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby" in the 1950s and early 1960s, were a prime example. The Louvins were nearly contemporaneous with the Everlys but did not cross over to the mainstream teen scene.

Earl and Bill Bolick, the Blue Sky Boys, were another close-harmony country brother act. They performed such songs as "Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die" between 1937 and 1941.

One of the most famous country music close-harmony duos were Charlie Monroe (baritone) and Bill Monroe (high tenor). The Monroe Brothers hit big with such songs as "New River Train" in the mid- to late 1930s. Bill Monroe, Charlie's younger brother, would go on in the 1940s and '50s to become the "Father of Bluegrass Music."

* * * * *

The Everlys' successors in rock 'n' roll included, of course, the Beatles. Here, on YouTube, they sing their first hit, "Love Me Do." John Lennon and Paul McCartney perform the song in close harmony, with John, on lead, singing the higher part, and Paul singing the lower part. (With the Everlys, Don's lower voice would usually sing the lead, with Phil singing tenor harmony.)

Art Garfunkel (L) and
Paul Simon (R)

Simon & Garfunkel likewise adored the Everly Brothers. They reprised their 1965 hit, "The Sound of Silence," in 2009 at Madison Square Garden, during the 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame celebration. In the YouTube clip, they are using an ethereal two-part harmony more complex than the "unearthly" parallel thirds used by the Everlys.

Here, in another YouTube video, the Byrds use three-part close harmony on "Eight Miles High" in 1966.

More three-part close harmony with shades of the Everlys: The Hollies' 1966 hit "Bus Stop."

* * * * *

Here are two photos of the Everlys taken on the occasion of their January 23, 1969, show at the Bitter End night club in New York's Greenwich Village — just by sheer luck I happened to be there that night — a place that was huge jump from their down home country roots:

Don in front with guitar raised,
Phil in background

Phil (L) with Don (middle) and
unidentified man

In the second photo, notice that Phil is smoking a cigarette. His death was said to be from complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD). He had been a lifelong heavy smoker. (During that Bitter End show, he probably inhaled second-hand smoke from my own cigarettes. I, too, now have COPD.)

Anyway, God rest you now and preserve your angelic voice, Phil Everly!

iTunes Radio

iTunes Radio is a new attraction (as of Sept. 18, 2013) from Apple for music fans. It is accessible on:

• Apple's Mac computers via the iTunes app (version 11.1 or later)
• Windows PCs via the iTunes app (version 11.1 or later)
• Apple's mobile devices (iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches) via the Music app included in Apple's latest operating system release, iOS 7

iTunes Radio is also found on Apple's little set top box, the Apple TV, that streams entertainment into a TV set and possibly a sound system.

What iTunes Radio does is let you set up "radio stations" that play music that fits in with any artist, song, or genre you like. For example, if you set up a station based on "The Rolling Stones," you'll hear music by that group and by related performers, such as the Doors and the Allman Brothers Band.

Here are some iTunes Radio screenshots from my iPad:

Some of my "stations" that I've
set up on iTunes Radio

Playing "The Rolling Stones Radio"
on iTunes Radio

About to edit "The Rolling Stones Radio"

Adding "The Moody Blues & More"
to "The Rolling Stones Radio"

"The Moody Blues" have been
added to "The Rolling Stones Radio"

The iTunes Radio music streams to you across the Internet from a library of some 27 million songs available at Apple's iTunes Store. Apple uses smart algorithms to figure out what music you like, based on your original selection. You can refine the results by telling iTunes Radio to "Play more like this" as a particularly welcome song is playing. If the song is unwelcome you can tell iTunes Radio to "Never play this song," or for less emphatic disapproval you can just skip ahead to the next song. You get up to six song-skips per station per hour.

A neat thing: If you're using an iPhone 4S/5/5S/5C, 3rd or 4th generation iPad, iPad Mini, or 5th generation iPod Touch, you can control iTunes Radio using Siri, Apple's "intelligent personal assistant" that features voice recognition technology. You can hold down the Home button until Siri chimes, showing it's ready to obey your commands, then say things like "Play Rolling Stones Radio." Siri will tell the music app to start playing that iTunes Radio station. You can, via the Home button, summon Siri and say "I like this song," and Siri will add it to your list of favorites for the current station as if you had manually told iTunes Radio to "Play more like this." Telling Siri "Don't play this song again" mimics manually selecting "Never play this song."

Buying the Music

When iTunes Radio plays a song, you hear exactly the same recording that you can buy at the iTunes Store. In fact, iTunes Radio lets you buy any song that is currently playing with just two taps/clicks! With a couple of extra taps/clicks, you can buy the entire album. After you buy some music, it hovers in the "cloud" — specifically, it's stored on Apple's "iCloud" Internet servers. You can (after exiting iTunes Radio) play it any time you want. You can also download it to any of your devices that have onboard storage.

iTunes Radio keeps track of the history of all the songs you've played on all of your stations, and you can tell it to show you that history. No listed song can be played again in full, but you can play a sample of it and buy it if you want to.

iTunes Radio also lets you put any currently playing song, or any song listed in your history, on a wish list to be purchased later.

iTunes Radio and WiFi (and 3G/4G/LTE)

Since Apple's mobile devices and its Apple TV use WiFi, the transmission path to those devices finishes with wireless in-home delivery of the tracks being played to whatever device you're listening to. The tracks are not downloaded but streamed, which means no on-device storage is used or required. That's especially fortunate for the Apple TV, which lacks onboard storage.

iPads, iPhones, and iPods that are equipped with a wireless data capability such as 3G, 4G, or LTE can optionally receive iTunes Radio without a WiFi connection.

Ads (and How To Avoid Them)

iTunes Radio does impose occasional audio ads on you, every few tracks. For $25 a year, you can subscribe to Apple's iTunes Match, a service that lets you store your own music tracks — those that you got from some source other than Apple, that is — in Apple's iCloud, which is a phenomenally capacious online repository for all sorts of digital data. If you subscribe to iTunes Match, the iTunes Radio ads disappear.

Featured Stations

Apple also provides users with an ever-changing panoply of "featured stations." These are said to be "DJ-curated, editorial, or hybrid stations" featuring selection of music by a DJ or other human specialist, rather than by an impersonal algorithm. Among the featured stations right now are "The Beatles Radio" and "Guest DJ — Katy Perry." More "featured stations" are to come ...

A Few Words about iTunes Radio's Competition

iTunes Radio is in competition with Pandora, and also with Spotify, Rdio, and Google Play Music, all of which offer Internet streaming that can mimic "radio" playing "just the music you like," just as iTunes Radio does. Google Play Music, which debuted only recently, makes you spend $10 a month to personalize your "radio" streams, as it's mainly intended for storage and play of your previously purchased music. GPM does not yet offer an app for Apple devices; its apps are for Android devices only.

Pandora, Spotify, and Rdio are more direct iTunes Radio competitors, as they do offer apps designed for Apple devices such as the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. (An exception is the Apple TV, which offers "supported Internet media services," not apps. To use Pandora, Spotify, or Rdio directly on the Apple TV would require Apple to build it into its Apple TV software, which would undercut iTunes Radio. Ain't gonna happen. But if you have an iPad, iPhone, or iPod, you can use AirPlay to send music from the Pandora, Spotify, or Rdio app on that device over to an Apple TV. On the sending device, if it is running under the most recent iOS 7 platform, you do that via the Control Center that appears when you swipe up from the bottom of the screen.)

These competing services can outdo iTunes Radio in certain functional areas, such as sharing playlists on social media.

I like Pandora best of the three iTunes Radio competitors. It, like iTunes Radio, lets you buy its currently playing songs directly from the iTunes Store. Pandora's app is the second most downloaded iPhone free app of all time.

Spotify seems to no longer let you buy music; when it used to let you do so, it was not from the popular iTunes Store. I dislike Rdio because, after a free trial period, you have to pay $5 a month to use it at all on any mobile device. None of the other three services, though, offers iTunes Radio's seamless integration: playing "radio" stations tailored to your musical tastes, buying the "radio" music from the iTunes Store, and listening to the music you personally own ... on any and all of your Apple computers and devices.

Pandora has ads, as does iTunes Radio, but you can pay Pandora $3.99 a month or $36 a year to delete them. Spotify has fully 20 million songs in its library, where Pandora has but one million (and iTunes Radio has 27 million). Spotify will delete its ads for $9.99 a month.

Deezer, Xbox Music, Beats Music, Slacker Radio, MOG, and Grooveshark are yet other potential iTunes Radio competitors, about which I know little.

iTunes Radio's Availability

Unfortunately, iTunes Radio is as yet available only in the U.S. This limitation probably has to do with Apple not yet having licensing agreements with major record companies that permit Apple to stream their music abroad.

New York City Gets a Country Radio Station!

Taylor Swift
in concert

According to this story in The New York Times, New York City is getting a country radio station! It will be the first country station to broadcast in New York since 1996, when WYNY, the only country station in the metropolis at the time, changed to a pop format.

Now New Yorkers will be able to tune in to the chart-topping songs of hot country artists like Taylor Swift (above left).

I love country music. I have been working on a website that I call "Twang!" that presents various songs and artists from the long history of the genre, courtesy of YouTube. It's a slow process, I admit, but eventually it will document a lot of country music history. Or so I hope.

Lady Antebellum performs

I also am given to pondering what it means that country music is so hot today. I'm not young enough to be in close touch with a lot of the teens and young adults of the day, but I am told that a great many of them consider themselves fans of country artists and groups like Ms. Swift and Lady Antebellum (right).

My how things have changed!

Time was when country music was apt to be about "barrooms and bedrooms," so it is said. The bedrooms were often illicit ones ... and then the singer, as the victim of marital betrayal, might seek to drown his sorrows with tears that he sheds in his beer.

These were themes appropriate to America's Southern working class during much of the last century. Other themes included how hard folks had to work; how little money they earned to raise their family on; how devoted they were to their Mama and/or their Daddy — and let's not forget their God; paradoxically, some say, how much they liked to drink and cavort, even when it wasn't being done to allay sorrow; and how they longed to get on an outbound train and just ride the rails to a different destiny.

I wonder how the young folks today react to Loretta Lynn's signature song, "Coal Miner's Daughter," shown above.

And I wonder whether such "hard country" sounds of yesteryear might not best be perceived by today's middle-class youngsters as a kind of folk music ... which, in fact, it always was.

Crying for the Day ...

Clockwise from top left:
John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
RIngo Starr, George Harrison

... the sad day, that is, when the world learned the Beatles had broken up.

Paul McCartney filed suit for the dissolution of the Beatles' contractual partnership on December 31, 1970, and the devastating news was finally out for all to cry over. But the Fab Four had pretty much stopped functioning as a unit sometime much earlier. John Lennon had announced his departure to the rest of the group on September 20, 1969, but had agreed to withhold public announcement for a time. His private heads-up came as the group was recording their last studio album, Abbey Road.

But dissension was obviously rife as early as January 1969, as the Beatles were filming the recording of their Let It Be studio album. That album, recorded before Abbey Road, had to be put on the shelf and wasn't released until May 8, 1970. The film shows the Beatles exhibiting their hurt feelings with one another during the recording of it.

But the film had its transcendent moments, such as when the Beatles performed Paul's marvelous song, The Long and Winding Road:

This video manages to overlay the strings and other instrumentation that were added by record producer Phil Spector to the final version of the track after the fact. In the actual film, they were not heard. You will get arguments that Spector's horns and strings ruined the song — Paul notably hated what Spector did. I'm neutral about that subject, but I think the video reveals what I do care about, which is how beautiful the song is.

***

Warning: the following gets very technical ...

One reason it's beautiful is the way Paul's melody strategically wanders between the official home key of E-flat major (Eb) and the relative minor of that key, c minor (c). These two keys use the same set of notes in their scales:

• (Eb F G Ab Bb C D Eb) for Eb
• (C D Eb F G Ab Bb C) for c

But as a major key, Eb is characteristically upbeat; c, as a minor key, is melancholy.

Here's the first verse, along with its chords:

I've shown in blue when the melody touches the note C, which is the tonic note in the key of c minor, and in green when it touches the note E-flat, which is the tonic note in the key of E-flat major. Clearly, Paul's melody spends a lot of time revolving around and often landing on the note C, which shows up at (or near) the end of every line of the verse ... except the last, when E-flat finally reasserts its dominance. (The "be - fo - o - ore" that ends a previous line also ends on E-flat, and then in the next line the C minor tonality reasserts itself.) So the ear becomes unsure what the key of the piece actually is.

This is a sophisticated melody, and the the chords that undergird it are likewise sophisticated.

If you check out the detailed analysis by Alan W. Pollack — see the Section-by-Section Walkthrough of the Verse section of the song — you will find that he renames some of these chords. For example:

• Ab/Bb becomes Bb7/9/11
• C#/Eb becomes Eb7

(Some chords that have "7" after them in the verse as shown above lose the "7" with Pollack; some that don't have a "7" gain one. Whenever there is a "7" after a chord name, it means a "seventh" chord; the ordinary chord, a three-note "triad," adds an important extra note that adds "color" to the chord.)

Here is a table giving the chords as I've named them above, Pollack's names for them, and the functions Pollack attributes to them:

Keep in mind that the key of the music is Eb major. In fact, the last chord shown in the table is Eb, meaning an Eb major chord. It's the triad of three notes built on the tonic note of the song's true key, Eb, and includes the notes (Eb G Bb). In Roman numerals, it's the I chord. It is typical of chord progressions that they wind up on I.

Simple chord progressions accordingly use chords that "point toward" I. But this isn't a simple chord progression. Paul intentionally sets things up so that the ear becomes quickly unsure of the song's key. Is it Eb major, or is it c minor?

The Eb major scale's notes are (Eb F G Ab Bb C D Eb), and the note C — which is the tonic note for the c minor scale — is its sixth note. Paul sets up two internal chord progressions that "point toward" the minor triad that has that note, C, as its root note. This is the triad called Cm or c. Since its root is the sixth note of the Eb major scale, its Roman numeral is vi. The vi is shown in lowercase because this triad contains the notes (C F Ab), and it is a minor triad, not a major triad. The Roman numerals for major triads are shown in uppercase.

The two internal progressions that point toward vi are shown in the table with a reddish background. They're complicated. To be fully understood, they demand a fair amount of music theory. But notice: in each case, the final vi chord is preceded by two chords whose functions are shown partly in parentheses. For example, the immediately preceding Gm or g chord is shown as having function "iii (v-of-vi)." The "of-vi" part tells which chord this one points toward: vi.

So the immediately earlier Ab chord functions as "IV (VI-of-vi)" and likewise implies that the vi chord is soon to come.

In the second progression leading to vi in the table above, just before Ab as "IV (VI-of-vi)" comes C#/Eb, alias Eb7. Its function is "I (V of IV)." So it points toward IV, and sure enough, the very next chord is IV. That chord's secondary function — the one shown in parentheses — is (VI-of-vi), so it in turn points toward vi.

You can see the pattern: often, you can connect the primary (or only) function of a chord with the "of-___" of the preceding chord's secondary function (if there is one).

Now look at the first internal chord progression in the table above that leads ultimately to vi. It's more complicated. Ignoring the initial Eb chord, which rapidly turns into Eb7, notice that the chord with the function "I (V-of-IV)" doesn't lead immediately to the "IV (VI-of-vi)" chord, as in the other example. It first uses an Ab chord as plain, unadorned IV. Only then — at the beginning of "will never disappear" — does this Ab chord turn magically into "I (V-of-IV)." What Pollack is saying is that the very same chord that was heard simply as IV at the end of the preceding phrase ("that leads to your door") has shape-shifted into a IV chord that now has taken on a secondary function: it now points the ear toward vi.

In both these internal chord progressions, when the vi chord is finally arrived at, Paul is singing (or is just about to sing) a note C in the melody. These internal progressions conspire with the melody itself to cast doubt that the scale of the music is really a major scale, Eb major in particular. Instead, the ear is temporarily fooled into believing it's hearing a melancholy c minor scale.

And how fitting! After all, the words of the verse are suggesting that the singer hasn't yet made it "to your door." Maybe he never will. Maybe he's stuck on the "long and winding road" forever. It isn't until the final phrase of the verse ("lead me to your door") that the singer places his trust in a good outcome once and for all — and both the melody and the chords wind up where they "should" wind up: the tonic note and the I chord of the Eb major scale.

Great song, Paul!

*****

P.S. The analysis I have used from Alan W. Pollack is part of his series covering every Beatles recording. It makes fascinating reading ... but it has to be consumed like fine wine, in small sips. For those who want to dip regularly into Pollack's musical wisdom, Ger Tillekens lists every one of Pollack's analyses, in order of each album's or single's original release date, here.

Emmylou Harris: Collaborations #2

Emmylou with Johnny Cash

during the recording of his

Water from the Wells of Home

album in 1988. She partnered

with Johnny and Roy Acuff

on "As Long As I Live."

Emmylou Harris has, over her long career, performed or recorded with a list of musicians as long as my arm, including ...

• Dolly Parton
• Linda Ronstadt
• Johnny Cash
• Roy Acuff
• Vince Gill
• Kate & Anna McGarrigle
• Willie Nelson
• Roy Orbison
• Bruce Springsteen
• Steve Earle
• Mark Knopfler
• George Jones
• Sheryl Crow
... and many others

In a 1999 tribute concert to Johnny Cash, Emmylou sang harmony to Dave Matthews's lead vocal on one of Johnny's signature songs, "Long Black Veil":

Long Black Veil Ten years ago, on a cold, dark night Someone was killed beneath the town hall light There were few at the scene But they all agreed That the slayer who ran Looked a lot like me She walks these hills in a Long Black Veil She visits my grave when the night winds wail Nobody knows, nobody sees, nobody knows but me The judge said, "Son, what is your alibi? If you were somewhere else, Then you won't have to die." Well, I said not a word Although it meant my life For I had been in the arms Of my best friend's wife Now she walks these hills in a Long Black Veil She visits my grave when the night winds wail Nobody knows, nobody sees, nobody knows but me Oh now, the scaffold was high And eternity was near; She stood in the crowd And shed not a tear But sometimes at night when the cold winds blow in a long black veil she cries over my bones She walks these hills in a Long Black Veil She visits my grave when the night winds wail Nobody knows, nobody sees, nobody knows but me

Now, here's a 2003 clip with Emmylou singing lead on "My Antonia," which Emmylou wrote, with Dave singing both second lead and high harmony:

My Antonia He said, "Oh my love, oh my Antonia You with the dark eyes and palest of skin Tonight, I am going from Santa Maria Wait for me till I'm in your arms once again" She held me, she kissed me, begged me not to leave her To cross on the mountain, my fortune to win But her letter now tells me, she died of a fever And I'll never see her in this world again You are my sorrow, you are my splendor You are my shelter through storm and through strife You are the one I will always remember All of the days of my life I curse the ambition that took me far from her For treasure not ever so fine or so fair As the flash of her smile or the touch of her fingers The fire in her heart and the smell of her hair She left me a note that cried, "Do not weep for me Behold you are with me as sure as the stars That rise in the evening to shine down upon me Behold I am with you wherever you are" I can still hear him, he calls to me only What once was begotten shall come to no end But the road is so long and the nights are so lonely My soul just to hold him in this world again You are my sorrow, you are my splendor You are my shelter through storm and through strife You are the one I will always remember All of the days of my life Oh my love, oh my Antonia You with the dark eyes and palest of skin How could I know that night in Santa Maria I'd never see you in this world again

"My Antonia" appeared on Emmylou's Red Dirt Girl album in 2000, again with Dave as her singing partner.

Emmylou Harris: Collaborations #1

She’s my age, 64, as this is written in early 2012. She may well have appeared on more recordings than any other popular music star ever. Her solo career has yielded 14 Top Ten albums on the Billboard country charts, two of which went to #1. Her singles have reached the country Top Ten 20 times, with five #1’s.

She made a collaboration LP with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt, Trio, that went to country music’s #1 position in 1987, and Trio 2, its 1999 follow-on, was a #4. Trio was also a #6 hit on the Billboard top albums chart, indicating its appeal outside what I call the “twang bubble”: country music’s prime audience. Four songs from Trio were released as singles and went into the country music Top Ten. One, “To Know Him Is To Love Him,” was a country #1 record.

In fact, during her four-decades-plus of professional work, “collaboration” has been her middle name. Her name is Emmylou Harris, and she has performed alongside a vast number of singers, both in and out of the country music field.

For example, take John Denver. Here's a YouTube video commemorating his “Wild Montana Skies,” on which Emmylou sings the harmony vocal:



“Wild Montana Skies,” with words and music by John Denver, was a #14 country (#26 adult contemporary) hit for him and Emmylou in 1983. Emmylou’s part begins with “His mother's brother took him in to family and his home,” at the start of the third full verse. Listen to how well she blends with John’s surging, idiosyncratic singing style. Listen also for when she sings notes different from his. They’re not wrong notes, they’re exactly the right notes. (For instance, listen for the higher-pitched note she sings on “own,” in “On the eve of his 21st birthday he set out on his own.”) That’s why harmony singing is so hard. You’re not just singing along, you’re complementing the lead vocal.

More to come on Emmylou Harris's musical collaborations ...

* * * * *

P.S. Learn more about Emmylou Harris's career at:

• http://www.emmylou.net/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmylou_Harris
• http://www.dhk.janis.or.jp/~angel-35/emmylou_harris/emmylou_top.html
• http://emmylouharris.com/index.html
• http://www.allmusic.com/artist/emmylou-harris-p1642/discography

Country Music at the White House

Here's the recent PBS show "Country Music: In Performance at the White House":

Watch Country Music on PBS. See more from IN PERFORMANCE AT THE WHITE HOUSE.

Great show for us country music fans! Be sure to expand the video to full screen!

The "In Performance at the White House" website is here. This page gives a rundown of the performers in the "Country Music" show. Here's the song list for the show. Go here to catch up with past shows in the excellent "In Performance at the White House" series.