Tagged: Call and response

Men Without Hats – Jenny Wore Black (Pop Goes the World, 1987)

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Another amazing gem from Men Without Hats. This song comes to us from their amazing, possibly rock opera, if not then at least, concept album Pop Goes the World. Which details the lives of fictitious rock superstars, Jenny and Johnny, who are in the band The Human Race.
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We start off with some solid Harpsichord, bass guitar, drum, and synth horns. Also, take care to listen to the cool call and response parts.
Jenny wore black
jenny wore white - WHITE!
and jenny was real
but almost not quite
and jenny was here
she was almost inside
and jenny was real
but jenny was frightened by the way
we looked at her
and jenny could see
she was only a child
The choruse contains some tasteful female backing vocals, and more cool harpsichord.
jenny concealed all but her smile
and when she smiled we said hey HEY!
you'll never see clear with tears in your face hey!
you'll never see clearly anyway
I said I loved you blindly, and I do
we're only two strangers in ways

The next verse is the same as the last. Take note of the cool voice agumentation on the “la la la”s
jenny wore black
jenny wore white, WHITE!
and jenny was real but almost not quite (la la la la la la)
and jenny was here she was almost on time
and jenny was real
but jenny was frightened by the way
we looked at her
and jenny could see within us for a while
jenny revealed all but her smile
and when she smiled we said hey HEY!
you'll never see clear with tears in your face hey!
you'll never see clearly anyway
I said I loved you blindly, and I do
we're only two strangers in ways
we should say
Finally we come to possibly my favorite part of this whole song. The bridge.
you always caught my eyes where
the dreams peter in
and I can't remember
wherever I've been
there's still holes for my eyes
where the dreams peter through
all I can remember
is when I was with you
Does this remind you of anything? Because to me it sounds like an allusion to the Beatles “Fixing a hole” And making musical allusions to the Beatles, is a really amazing feat, in my book. The rest of the song pretty much continues like before. Another chorus then the end. Pretty much an amazing song.

Orchestral Movments in the Dark – Bloc Bloc Bloc (Crush, 1985)

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I really like this song. And one of th things that I like a lot about it, is I have nearly no idea what it’s about. Okay, that not totally true. I mean, as far as I can tell, it’s mostly just a bunch of verses about what this guy wants to do. Shall we get into it then?

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It starts off with a solid bass line, a little bit of reverb-y guitar, and hand claps. Also a little bit of synth on the top, and some shaker. Then, the first verse. Now before I get into the lyrics of the first verse, one of the things that I really like about this song is that there ISNT a chorus, it’s really just the verse part repeated over, separated by a little bridge part.

I want to go up to Detroit
I want to lie in the shade
I want to visit the president
And then I want to get laid

Then, right on cue and perfectly timed, enter the drums!

I want to go down to Memphis
I want to talk to the king
I want to tell him we’re sorry
And it won’t happen again

What does that mean? Is he going to tell Elvis that… he’s sorry that he died maybe? I have no idea, but it’s a really cool line regardless. A little bit of lead synth, and then back to the verses. Notice, we’ve also added an acoustic guitar strum to the beginning of each phrase. And, possibly my favorite part, the amazing call and response singing.

I’ve got a photo of James Joyce
It’s a photo by Man Roy
It’s not very very much like him
But it’s not for me to say

Who’s Man Roy? That’s what I want to know. I used to think he was saying “memory” A quick jump on on wikipedia reveals… Nothing! Who is this mysterious Man Roy? Why did he take a photo of Jame Joyce? We may never know! But on to the next verse.

She sacrifices her body
Almost every night
Just like a lamb to the slaughter
And she thinks it makes him feel right

Bridge, then lead synth, with the addition of some little saxophone hits.

You gave me so many problems
You made me crash in my car
I’ll have a martini cocktail
And then we’ll see where we are

So just be nice to your brother
I’ll take your sister to bed
And I can bloc bloc bloc till the weekend
But you’d better come back soon

“I take your sister to bed!” Ahhhhh. So great! What exactly does bloc bloc bloc, mean? Once again, I have no idea. I really think it’s a song in the Bob Dylan style. Verses that are really just cryptic descriptions of things, instead of being a coherent story line. But instead of being kitschy, it’s well implemented. And kinda silly. But good. I would strongly suggest checking out the rest of this album, as it is similarly good.

-James Out