The Scarriet March Madness Songs Tournament continues.
As Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, the Doors and Spinners choose one corner of the Final Four in the Dorothy Kilgallen bracket, over in the Minor Cooper Keith bracket, it’s “Opel” (damaged Syd Barrett on acoustic guitar) vs. violins hitting sustained notes and the production value of “Me and Mrs. Jones” and also “It’s All In The Game” vs. “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” (Judy Collins, from her 1966 album In My Life, underrated and great), two songs with wonderful arrangements.
What strikes one in listening to Syd Barrett against “Me and Mrs. Jones”—sung soulfully by Billy Paul—is how easily voice and guitar with interesting lyrics is all one really needs to compete with a recording drenched in multi-track effects. The sonic contrast between the two recordings is startling—yet a counter-impression emerges even stronger: an instrument like a guitar or a piano can serve as an entire orchestra, especially when accompanying poetry sung by a human. “Opel” is able to more than stand up against “Me and Mrs. Jones” and in fact, the crazy “Opel” defeats the famous adultery ballad.
“I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” is beautiful in its mood, its lyric, its hooks, and its arrangement. It is one of the most extraordinary pop songs ever made. Judy Collins should be proud of it.
“It’s All In The Game.” The melody” was written in 1911 by the Vice President of the United States, Charles Dawes. His “Melody in A Major” became a big band staple. In 1951 Carl Sigman wrote lyrics to it. Many have recorded it. The famous Tommy Edwards’ 1958 version (no. 1 in both the U.S. and the U.K.) was a slightly more up-beat, R&B cover of his previous release a few years earlier—a more syrupy arrangement.
It’s strength? The simplicity and brevity and also the internal rhyme which we hear right away—“many a tear has to fall, but it’s all…in the game.” Note also how the words convey, at the same time great sentimentality—and its opposite. It speaks of tears, but in the spirit of ‘well, so what, everybody cries.’
In a close match, “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” succumbs, and then “Opel” finds “It’s All In The Game” too much of a smooth classic to handle.
“It’s All In The Game” reaches the Final Four!
Congratulations to Tommy Edwards, Charles Dawes and Carl Sigman.
Returning to the previous bracket (the songs are linked in the previous Scarriet post) where reporters at court-side examined closely the lyrics of “Thank You,” “Comin’ Back To Me,” “Shaman’s Blues,” and “I’ll Be Around.”
All four of these songs recommend themselves as belonging to the highest art of the popular song—Led Zeppelin’s lyrics (good, but close to the banal) are straight-forward: you make me happy. The slow ‘when the sun refused to shine’ is magnificent, as is the work of guitar, bass, organ, and drums—and especially the vocals. Plant is one of the best.
The Jefferson Airplane song expresses love in the sex-and-drugs era. In the context of the vague and dreamy, ‘coming back to me’ is poignant—lovers don’t necessarily come back when there’s too much freedom. (The recorder part in this song is fantastic.)
“I’ll Be Around” tackles this same ‘freedom in love’ issue: “you made a choice” (to be with someone else) but “I’ll be around.” (The hooks and instrumentation of this song are amazing.)
The Doors’ “Shaman’s Blues” also involves courtship and love but from a more scattered and interesting perspective; Morrison makes a strange observation at one point: I’m in the meadow but you’re in the fields. The 6/8 strength of the musical arrangement has interest and it bodes well for the Doors. They win! The Doors are going to the Final Four! “Thank You” defeats “Comin’ Back To Me” in overtime. But the Doors win the Minor Cooper Keith bracket. Led Zeppelin falls!
Next, we will look at the Winfield Scott and John Townsend Trowbridge brackets—the final two pieces of the Final Four.
#marchmadnesssongs