vintage 1998

From: geoff
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998
Subject: Re: Guitar answer and another ?

On Fri, 4 Dec 1998, ANTHONY wrote:

way he does? I mean, alot of the songs are simple chord progressions, but he makes them sound SO COOL! Anybody have a better read on this than me, 'cause I'm just blown away. - Tony

I'm afraid the trick is really just Imagination. Most of what he does abides by the most basic rules of pop songs - seven note scales with carefully chosen blue notes, plus some of the chromatics that surf/flamenco music allows.

The other trick, I suppose, is that Jonathan has chosen to stick within basic song structure and master it, which is not an obvious choice for a musician. Many people bang their heads against the wall trying to come up with their own challenges to tonality, structure, rhythm etc, thinking they've got to break some kind of new ground before they come up with something good. It *is* hard to make something out of the 1-4-5 progression with the ghosts of Wild Thing and Louie Louie and Hang On Sloopy and Little Doll and Leavin On A Jet Plane and Hey Good Lookin all looking over your shoulder, and I thank Jonathan for proving to me that there is still a lot to be mined from the primordial rock veins... as long as you've got the style and class to refine the ore.

-- Geoff

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Note: This is a vintage post from the old base.com list.