Friday, October 20, 2017

You Are the Woman (1976)

Performer: Firefall                                              Writer: Rick Roberts
Highest US Chart Position: #9                           Label: Atlantic Records
Musicians: Rick Roberts, Larry Burnett, Jock Bartley, David Muse and Michael Clarke

Initially this seems like something that would have been written by John and Johanna Hall for Orleans. Most Firefall songs were not kind to women. But the group no doubt learned what every performer in the seventies did: sentiment sells. In the words of lead guitarist Jock Bartley, “Every female between the ages of 18 and 24 wanted to be the woman portrayed in the song, and that caused their boyfriends and spouses to call radio stations and subsequently flood the airwaves with dedications.” Rick Roberts’ “You Are the Woman” was the second single released off the group’s self-titled debut album and would be their only top ten hit, going to number nine in mid-December of 1976. The song will always be important to me because of the strong associations it has with my first girlfriend in high school. The moment I learned about her was in October of my freshman year, sitting in the lunchroom with a couple of my friends. A guy from our class came up to us and, looking right at me said, “I know who likes you, and she’s a babe.” Obviously I was thrilled, but also completely mystified. I lived in a tiny town and in the course of grade school and junior high had become well acquainted with all of the babes in school. I couldn’t imagine any of them suddenly changing their minds about me. My confusion was soon dispelled when he gave me the only possible answer for who this person could be: a new girl. What a great way to start high school.

The song begins with Michael Clarke’s toms on the and of three, a single-string slide up the frets of his electric guitar by Jock Bartley on four, and acoustic guitars hitting on the downbeat. The distinctive flute line of David Muse comes in on the and of one and at the end of the intro the band hits three eight notes together and stops, before Bartley does the guitar slide into the chorus. Rick Roberts’ lyrics are simple and straightforward. “You are the woman that I’ve always dreamed of. I knew it from the start. I saw your face and that’s the last I’ve seen of my heart.” The structure of the song is interesting because it reverses the usual arrangement of the verses and choruses, even going so far as harmonizing Roberts’ vocal on the verses while leaving him to sing solo on the chorus. The first verse is accompanied by acoustic guitars, with occasional fills by Muse on flute. Also prominent on the mix are congas played by Joe Lala. The verses have a nice contrasting chord progression, supported by Bartley’s electric guitar. After another chorus the second verse adds some electric piano by Muse and dense backing vocals that fade into the next chorus, which precedes Bartley’s distinctive guitar solo. The bridge is vintage Firefall: “It’s hard to tell you all the love I’m feeling, that’s just not my style.” It’s the one part of the song that didn’t reflect my sentiments, as that was very much my style. The bridge concludes with the three eight notes that ended the intro and another slide into the final chorus. The last line repeats a couple of times with Roberts ad-libbing and the song ends with the band retarding on two sets of the three eight-note stops and a final trill by Muse.

The song had an impressive twenty-two week chart run, entering the Hot 100 at number 82 at the end of August, just before school started. It reached the top forty a month later and stayed on the charts for the rest of the year, peaking at number nine on December 11 and staying there for another week before taking another month to drop of the charts at the end of January. On the B-side is “Sad Ol’ Love Song” by the group’s other writer and lead vocalist, Larry Burnett. It’s a medium slow country rock number with some tasty slide guitar by Bartley, but the chord progression is just a bit too convoluted to be catchy. I definitely bought the single along with a bunch of other songs that were popular, because it reminded me of my girlfriend, but it was ubiquitous on the radio that fall and so I heard it all the time. It also reminds me now me of my Washington State history class because sometimes the teacher would play the radio low while we were reading, and she sat right in front of me. “You Are the Woman” is easily one of my favorite songs from late 1976 because I had found the girl I had always dreamed of. I can’t remember now if the song was one of her favorites, but it certainly was one of mine, and seemed to express--for the most part--exactly how I felt about going out with the best looking girl in the school.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

The Rockford Files (1975)

Performer: Mike Post                                         Writers: Mike Post & Pete Carpenter
Highest US Chart Position: #10                           Label: MGM Records
Musicians: Tommy Morgan (harp), Dan Ferguson (dobro), Mike Baird (drums)

Though the show ran from the time I started junior high until I graduated high school, I can’t remember ever sitting down to watch any episodes of The Rockford Files. In thinking back on it, I never really watched any crime dramas. Manix, Cannon, Ironside, Kojak, Hawaii Five-0, The Streets of San Francisco all passed unnoticed by me throughout the decade. The theme song to "The Rockford Files" by Mike Post, however, was an entirely different story. I’m pretty sure it was my sister who bought the 45, but it spent a lot of time in my room. Another of the great things about pop music in the seventies is how many instrumental TV themes made it into the charts. This is one of the good ones. Because James Garner himself was from Oklahoma, Post decided to go slightly Southern blues with the song, using harmonica and dobro, and it definitely set it apart from other themes at the time. The backing orchestra is something Post called “a chamber group on steroids,” two flutes, two French horns, and two trombones. Post and co-writer Pete Carpenter actually set out to make a hit record with the song--as they did with most of their themes. But Post was smart. He waited until the show had a season under its belt and had become a hit on television before releasing the song as a single.

The song begins with a three eighth-note pick-up by the rhythm section. But then it is only the brass who hit on the downbeat, with the melody waiting until the upbeat of one to finish the phrase with two quarter notes, Tommy Morgan’s harmonica playing over the first time and Dan Ferguson’s dobro playing over the second. After two times around the intro the distinctive melody comes in on the Moog synthesizer and plays twice through. Though Mike Baird plays a backbeat on the snare, the way the melody comes down on all four beats evenly seems to give the whole song a call-and-response feel underneath. Morgan plays the harmonica on the bridge with the horns playing countermelody, but the emphasis on the four-beat nature of the song gives it the feel of a march at that point. At the end of the bridge the drums and horns play a series of accents together, then the everyone drops out but the bass playing beneath Morgan’s single-note vibrato. Then the whole thing begins again. On the third time through, however, Dan Ferguson plays a terrific solo over a section with just drums and percussion punctuated by the horns that Post added later for the single. This time on the bridge it’s just the horns playing the melody without Morgan and ends with some terrific slide work by Dan Ferguson on guitar. From there the song repeats the melody with Ferguson soloing as the song fades out.

Everything about the song is unique, and is undoubtedly the reason for its chart success. The harmonica and dobro are incredibly distinctive, but then so is the synthesizer. What really cements everything together, though, is the low brass. With no trumpets to compete with the solo instruments it’s the perfect accompaniment. The song entered the Hot 100 on May 17th, debuting at number 93, then proceeded to march up the charts ten spots a week until it slowed down in the middle of July and made its way from 26 up to number 10 a month later. It stayed there for two weeks before plummeting off the charts two weeks later in September. The B-side of the single, the song “Dixie Lullabye,” begins as a piano ballad, then brings in the distinctive synthesizer from the A-side playing the melody, before the horns come in to support and give the whole thing an equally theme-song like feel. I may not have watched the show, but the song is a vivid reminder of that crucial summer of 1975 when I came alive to music and my father was in the hospital. I’ve always loved instrumental music, and the seventies was the last time they appeared on pop radio with any frequency. Forty years later, Mike Post’s theme to "The Rockford Files" is still just as impressive.