Unexpected Piano Music Part Five: Fake Empire

This is by a group called The National. These guys were apparently regular cubicle schmoes who just happened to play music together periodically. At some point, they decided to give up the glamorous Dilbert life, and try to make it big as rock stars. I think they're still at it, so it must be working for them.

You don’t have to listen to the entire song this time. In fact, it gets a little cacophonous (thank you spell checker) at the end. You wonder if they were seeing how many people they could fit in the studio. But I am really impressed with the piano part in the first minute or so, especially how the LH and RH parts seem to be playing on entirely unrelated time signatures. But it works.

U2 fans may want to hang in there until at least the 1:45 mark, when it sure sounds like they signed up Larry Mullen Jr. to sit in on the session.

Fake Empire - The National

Unexpected Piano Music Part Four: Porcelain

Continuing in our intermittent series on popular songs that surprise me with their paino... this one is a little melancholy. (It's Moby, go figure.) But I really, really like the way the piano creates sort of a falling sensation. For some reason, this makes me want to take up jazz piano.

Alfred's Book One taught me that this sort of thing is called Call and Response. So there.

Porcelain - Moby

Unexpected Piano Music Part Three: The Denial Twist

This is a really interesting track. First of all, the lyrics are very well put together. Jack’s got a gift for this. (Trust me on this, I know it’s a little hard to make out what he says.) Second, although I am by no means an expert on this sort of thing, I would say, to my ears, that there is NO instrument carrying the melody here. The voice is the only melody. All other instruments, including the piano, are there to help drive rhythm. I’ve heard it argued that the piano is really a percussion instrument. In some ways, this is a really silly thing to say, but listening to this song, it’s easy to remember that the piano sounds are generated by hammers striking strings.

The slow decay and resonance of the piano sounds makes me as certain as I can be that they’re using an acoustic piano here. Of course, The White Stripes are not above manipulating the sounds of their instruments to create the sound they’re looking for (did you know that Seven Nation Army does not, after all, make use of a bass guitar?). But listen to the 1:20 or mark… that sounds like the real thing to me.

The Denial Twist (Album Version) - Jack White

Unexpected Piano Music Part Two: Southbound

This is the song that opened my eyes to this topic. I feel ashamed to admit it, but in my 30 years or so of listening to this song, I had never, not once, noticed there was a piano back there. Of course, now that I notice it, I wonder how I could possibly have ever missed it. (There is even a piano solo beginning at the 3:00 mark or so. Hello, McFly!?) The next step in the progression was to realize how much the Allman Brothers Band uses a piano (or at least a piano-like instrument). Two of their most popular songs (Jessica and Ramblin’ Man) use it, as do a handful of more obscure (but every bit as interesting) songs.

I don’t have much more to say on this one. The piano part sounds really, really simple, almost (but not quite) like I could play it right now. (Very different from the piano part Telegraph Road in that respect.) And it sounds like a lot of fun.

Southbound - The Allman Brothers Band

Unexpected Piano Music Part One: Telegraph Road

About a month ago, I was coming home from work listening to the iPod, and it occurred to me that the song I was listening to had a piano in it. What was surprising was that I had heard this particular song probably 400 times in my life (give or take, oh, about 200) and it had never occurred to me to listen to what the piano was doing. Then the next song came on, and it had a piano in it… in the case of this song, I was always aware there was a piano involved, but I never knew how significant the piano’s role was in that song.

Then Telegraph Road, by Dire Straits queued up. It's a long song, so fire it up now, then read the rest of what I have to say about it.

Telegraph Road - Dire Straits

I first heard it as an undergrad at Vanderbilt. A guy a couple doors down was blaring it, door ajar, for the entire hall (and perhaps those upstairs) to hear. I went to his room, and asked him to turn it down. “What? This is a great song! Tell you what, you got a minute? Listen to this song, and if you don’t like it, I’ll close my door. It's about driving home from work on a snowy day.” Well, who could pass up an intro like that?

Problem is, Telegraph Road is a 14 minute song. But this gentleman had previously shown reasonable judgment when it came to music, so I sat down and listened. And talked basketball. And listened. While I did, he explained it’s a song about the founding of Detroit, how it grew into a prosperous manufacturing town, but eventually caved under the myopia of those who were not focused on the world at large, and the changes that were happening. (Sort of ironic… this is as true today as it was when the song was written 25 years ago.)

I listened. My verdict: “What a long, boring song! Close your door!” Dutifully, he did. After all, we had a deal.

The timeline of my appreciation for this song looks like this:

1988 – 2001: “What a long, boring song.”
2001 – 2002: “Hmm, there is something compelling here, can’t quite figure out what it is…”
2002 – 2008: “Wow, those last five minutes… that’s about as good as it gets for guitar virtuosity. Mark Knopfler is a god.”
2008 – “Wha? There’s a piano in there? Why hadn’t I noticed this before?”

What I didn’t realize is that, not only is there a piano in this song, it’s a featured instrument, every bit as necessary to the music as Knopfler’s guitar. And perhaps as difficult to play, in its own way. Even when things get a little out of hand at the 12:20 mark, if you make it that far and listen closely, there is a piano keeping up with things. As you listen to this song, focus your attention on the piano, as it comes and goes. Afterwards, ask yourself whether the song belongs to the guitar or the piano. (Answer of course, is both, but you’ll see what I mean.)

And since this is a really long song, I may as well take a second to bring this thought back full circle for you. On my way home this particular day, this being the third in a series of piano-laden songs, I paid very close attention to other songs on my iPod. I was amazed at how many of them made use of the piano, sometimes obviously, sometimes subtly. And here and there over the next few weeks, I am going to share those observations with you.

- Aw2pp, who wonders what ever happened to James Giblin, and Engineering Major from Lackawanna, New York