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Jon Quijano

The website of St. Croix Valley photographer and storyteller Jon Quijano

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60. "Custard Pie" by Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin are so good they can make you think the main riff in this song is an odd time signature. But count it: Four. Beats. 

What locked-in funky rock this is. The guitar is just buzzy enough, grinding out compressed chords. The really awesomely phrased guitar solo shows us a rare test of the wah pedal by Jimmy Page. The groovy John Paul Jones bass line calls back to the fun of Led Zeppelin II, four albums prior. I'm thinking especially of the bass line in "Lemon Song," another song about food that just doesn't seem to be about food. 

The drums could've played it straight on the verses and the song would never have made it out of the writing stages, much less to opening track status on the titanic Physical Graffiti album. Instead, the drums simultaneously finesse around the beat and crack with John Bonham's unsuppressable ferocity. The drums doubling the guitar rhythm on the chorus leads to cool hanging notes where there may have been only standard rock-pattern drum thudding had someone less bombastic held the sticks. The cardinal rule: Drum creativity is song creativity.

For vocals, I really think the whole Physical Graffiti album is Robert Plant's masterpiece. There is so much fluidity here, such an organic delivery, almost like he's just making up the melody on the spot. However, the melodies repeat pretty faithfully, demonstrating how crafted they are.

The ending has the best little repeat singing part, not to mention a harmonica solo right when we really needed a harmonica solo in our lives. It's up there with "When the Levee Breaks" for Plant's harmonica work, which is weirdly underrated. He's no Paul Butterfield, but come on, he's a legitimate instrumental contributor. 

Led Zeppelin have this reputation as being this dark band, I think mainly due to Jimmy Page's purported fascination with the occult. But they were really one of the great light bands to ever play, with so many songs like this one, full with fun and celebration.

tags: Led Zeppelin, music, Music writing, 365 day music challenge
categories: Music writing
Wednesday 03.29.17
Posted by Jon Quijano
 

59. "Curmudgeon" by Nirvana

Why are so many of these Nirvana songs I picked not on official albums? I'm not trying to be a snob!

This song is fantastic to me. 

Maybe you're not interested in slurring anti-functional vocals and lyrics. Perhaps a guitar part that sounds like a lawnmower being thrown into a jet engine isn't on your list of things to help you unwind tonight. There is a chance that a radical lack of logical connection between chords would diminish your appreciation of any song. You could even prefer that a song's guitar solo sound something like what you would commonly term music.

You'd be forgiven for having these dainty tastes. 

But there is a chance you are missing out on the caustic yet intelligent catharsis of a song like this. 

A song "like" this? Is there another song like this?

Even more than "Aneurysm," "Curmudgeon" points the way from Nirvana's Nevermind sound to their In Utero endgame. The huge pounding drums of Dave Grohl are finding their voice here, especially in the savage eighth note onslaughts leading out of the choruses.

Nirvana, I must keep reminding you, was a weird band. They were weird people making music that was by and large weird sounding. Only a few songs were slightly more composed, cool, radio-friendly numbers. The band was put on this planet not just to end the conservative '80s reign of Guns N' Roses but to utterly confound the minds of those macho musical meatheads. Axl Rose wasn't just consigned to irrelevance by Kurt Cobain's undeniable gravitas; worse, as Rose trudged into exile, he had to watch Cobain send him off with a limp-wristed wave, an unblinking stare, and frozen, creepy smile. Delicious.

tags: Nirvana, music, Music writing, 365 day music challenge
categories: Music writing
Wednesday 03.29.17
Posted by Jon Quijano
 

58. "Cry Baby Cry" by the Beatles

There are almost no original Beatles recordings available to link online, so I did my own version.

The Beatles version has a quintessential melodic bass line from Paul McCartney, a sharp little drum part from Ringo Starr, and a small host of cool auxiliary instruments. Go check it out in full glory on the White Album.

I love the descending chord progression of the verses. I love the dreamy stomp of the chorus, with a soft vibrato on the vocals. And I geek out about how John Lennon embellishes the vocal over the final repeats of the chorus, adjusting creatively just enough to the two-beat half measures at the end of each repetition.

The lyrics flip some of the ideas of the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpense," first taking the king out of the counting house and putting him in the kitchen, then showing him in the garden, domain of the maid in the nursery rhyme. It wasn't five years later that John Lennon was fulfilling this vision in his own life, embarking on his period as a non-working househusband with Yoko Ono and his son Sean. He stayed out of the public eye for five years to focus on raising his young child. After essentially missing all of his first son Julian's childhood to pursue his career, he didn't want to make the same grave mistake again.

And then of course, to be more prophetic, the last verse is about a family seance to communicate with the dead. The kids of the story break up the session with their own voices, suggesting one of two things: Either the point is that the seance is nonsense, rightfully disrupted by the play of children; or maybe the children are themselves the incarnations of the lost, the voices of the dead left to carry on.

At least, they might be something approaching that if the dead, while they were here, took the time to pour themselves into their children's lives.

tags: The Beatles, music, Music writing, 365 day music challenge
categories: Music writing
Wednesday 03.29.17
Posted by Jon Quijano
 

57. "Cripple Creek" by The Band

In a coincidence with Oscar night, here is a song from one of the best concert films.

And front and center, ready for his closeup is Levon Helm, who simultaneously lays down a big beat and belts the lead vocal. 

He's got help, though, from some other guys who apparently are all working together as part of a Band of some sort. What a time for group harmonies. These guys may have literally been breaking up at the time of this performance, but the euphoric way they sing together at the peak of this song shows what pure talent creates when it gets together.

Man, Levon is fun to watch in this.

tags: The Band, music, Music writing, 365 day music challenge
categories: Music writing
Wednesday 03.29.17
Posted by Jon Quijano
 

56. "Creep" by Radiohead

Highly insecure lyrics by a facially disfigured guy who was not yet famous make this probably the most relatable Radiohead song, and likely always will be. I just want a perfect body and a perfect soul. What harm could that be?

The noise of this song is wonderful, leading to one of the best crescendos out there.

tags: Radiohead, music, Music writing, 365 day music challenge
categories: Music writing
Wednesday 03.29.17
Posted by Jon Quijano
 
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