Friday, June 14, 2013

What If The Beatles Never Broke Up? - My Beatles Solo Mixtapes




Apparently there was a book called “Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of The Beatles' Solo Careers” that went and presented a parallel universe where The Beatles didn’t break up and used their solo material to construct post-Abbey Road Beatles album.

Well I decided to join in the fun and create my own fan fiction of the alternate history where they decided to release The Beatles album out of my favourite songs from their solo career. Of course someone may argue this is a pointless task as lot of these songs were written under the context of being independent from The Beatles and would have never been written if The Beatles didn’t break up but that would just be taking this too seriously. This is simply elaborately creating a mixtapes of my favourite solo songs.

So in this history, The Beatles did temporary break up (this will have some relevance in some of the songs being released) but they manage to resolve some of their differences and reform. They operating under the same principle as The White Album where they just record songs separately but collate the song together and release it as a Beatles album. Also I have a rule where there must be equal Lennon and McCartney songs in all of these hypothetical albums. I also kept in mind that this is the vinyl era and I had to organized tracklisting so there is a maximum of 25 minutes per side.

1970 – All Things Must Pass
So The Beatles reformed and release All Things Must Pass in 1970. This is the first Beatles album where George Harrison has an equal share in songwriting with Lennon and McCartney. The singles to promote this album were My Sweet Lord/God, Instant Karma/Apple Scruff, Maybe I’m Amazed/Cold Turkey and Give Peace A Chance/Man We Was Lonely.

There are four songs from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison and 1 Ringo song.

This would be The Beatles most introspective album mostly in the singer-songwriter genre of music. This album seems to have the general theme of loss and grief and learning to accept it. Hell I could even construct a concept around it although I admit it does bring up some Oedipus/incestual tones as I’m reinterpreting conventional love songs to be about motherly love.

Side A: 23:46
The concept starts with the protagonist feeling remorse and grief due to the death of his mother.
Continues on that theme - "what is life without your love, by my side",

This requires a bit of re-interpreation of the song. Instead of a love song, it's now the protagonist fantasising about his relationship with his mother (bit of Oedipus complex here) being amazed by the way his mother loves him like he wish she would if she was still alive. "Maybe Im amazed at the way I really need you" that finish the song could mean that he is surprised by how much he needs her presence.

4. Every Night by Paul McCartney
"Every Night' is about wanting to lay in bed in depression and it even reference mother again "Believe Me Mama ooh".
The reason why he is lying in bed in depression is because the protagonist regretting the arguments and fighting he has with her mother in the past. 

Side B: 23:18
1. Isolation by John Lennon
The song in the context of the album is about the feeling of loneliness and isolation due to the grief of losing a love one.

2. That Would Be Something by Paul McCartney
"That Would Be Something To meet you in the falling rain, momma" The isolation and loneliest in the previous song led the protagonist imagining seeing her mother  alive even though he know she is dead.
The protagonist is trying to hold on to his sanity (reflecting on him hallucinating his mother) and not slip too far in despair.
I re-interpret the song about going through the stuff (junk) that his mother own and reflecting on her life.

The protagonist is singing about love in the most simple term reflecting on the bond between mother and son.
This is about the protagonist reflecting about how life isn’t easy. However the lyrics also reflects recovery and hope for the future that things will get better. 
"Forget about the past and all your sorrows,
The future won't last,
It will soon be over tomorrow."

George Harrison discussing "The Art Of Dying" and speculate that she is reincarnated.

8. All Things Must Pass by George Harrison
Recognizing the impermanence of life and that everything must eventually pass away and finally accepting her death

I think you will have a pretty great album there and it would be pretty distinctive to any Beatles album as it is the most solemn and most introspective album of their career. This will continue the trend of moving to different directions that The Beatles were famous for.

1972 – Gimme The Truth
The Beatles 2nd post Abbey Road album containing songs from 1970-1972 is called Gimme The Truth.


During this time The Beatles made a live comeback for fundraising for cyclones victim in Bangladesh.

The first half is more of a collection of songs but the Side B is the miniconcept album about how the band members are sick of each other and hate each other and was an off shoot of how the band temporary broke up.

In my reimagining, Ringo is telling the band members to Back Off (legends was that song was about telling Paul McCartney for suing the rest of The Beatles although Ringo denied it), George Harrison’s Wah-Wah complains about McCartney whinging, McCartney singing about how Lennon destroyed something good in Too Many People and Lennon is asking McCartney “How Do You Sleep?”

Afterwards ‘Ram On’ symbolising the idea that the members of the band are ramming on each other and we should ‘give your heart to somebody soon right away” as the band realise the destructiveness of the feud and kiss and make up.

Then Lennon finishes off the album with an ironic “Imagine” about imagining the world in peace without conflict

Side A 24:27
Side B 24:30

1973 – Living In A Material World
The 3rd post Abbey Road Beatles album containing songs from 1973 is called Living In A Material World.

This album I choose to divide equally between every member of The Beatles. Every member sings 3 songs sung this album.

The single of this album would be one of the more bizarre moments in music history in the Irish themed Give Ireland Back to the Irish/Sunday Bloody Sunday, Mind Games/You’re Sixteen, Give Me Love/Get On The Right Thing, Live And Let Die/Intuition

I have to say this would probably by the weakest collective point of The Beatles career so far and the fact that the 3 Ringo song probably improved the album says something. I think Red Rose Speedway is a very good album and Living In A Material World is a decent album. Mind Games is mediocre and Ringo is surprisingly fun to listen to but none of those are great albums. However combining the best of the three albums make it a pretty excellent album to listen to but it’s still isn’t up there to their regular high standard and it’s their weakest album of their career since Please Please Me.

Side A: 24:39
Side B :24:18

1975 – Band On The Run
The 4th post Abbey Road Beatles album was their last album before the parental break by Lennon.

So this album will be call “Band On The Run” and it’s a double album containing solo material from 1973-1975.

This album will be a pseudo concept album where there is a band within a band theme (similar to Sgt. Peppers). There is a very loose themes of the band on tour (Band On The Run) the weariness of the busy tour (Whatever Gets You Through The Night), the stress of fame on relationship (Bye Bye Love),  the downside of fame (Nobody Loves You When You Are Down And Out) and the solace and strength you receive from your love ones to cope with the situation (Stand By Me). Although not every song follows the concept.

 I tried to make the covers that Lennon did on “Rock And Roll” suited the album because the “Band on the Run” are playing “Rock Shows” so of course they would be playing some classic rock and rolls song (that’s the reason why Be Bop A Lula is following Rock Show in the tracklisting)

This is back to the return to dominance of Lennon/McCartney partnership as Harrison only gets a few songs in the album. The in story reason is because George Harrison had laryngitis  which limited his input in the album but the out of universe reason is that I’m just not a fan of this era Harrison’s work (I think Extra Texture is a decent album but I’m not fond of Dark Horses). I have 4 Harrison songs and 2 Ringo songs which is the same amount of songs they had in their previous double album “The White Album” and the rest with equal Lennon and McCartney songs.

I ended the album with Goodnight Vienna (reprise) because I think it would jell on with the Band On The Run theme with The Beatles saying Goodnight to Vienna with the audience is applauding suggesting that the Beatles will leave and be a Band on the Run to their next destination and you can hear Ringo say “Don’t forget the band will be back on in 15 minute ready to do it to you one more time”. This brings out the idea that the band will come back for the hinted encore.

After this album Lennon goes on a parental break and The Beatles enters a five year hiatus before the tragic comeback.


Vinyl 1
Side A: 23:58
1. Band On The Run by Paul McCartney 

1982 – Real Love
The last of the post Abbey Road album from the Double Fantasy era and this will continue my obsession of turning unrelated Beatles solo songs into a concept album and this album is called “Real Love”. In fact this album is two concept in one album (with one concept for Side A and one concept for Side B and hence contains two short story).

So after John Lennon went on a parental break (although this wasn’t an amicable break with McCartney being against it causing friction), The Beatles went on a hiatus for 5 years with the other members releasing solo albums but saving the best songs (just so happen songs I think are the best) for The Beatles album when they will eventually reunited. So hence the song I chose songs from the selection of McCartney/Ringo/Harrison songs from 1976 to 1982 plus Double Fantasy/Milk And Honey by John Lennon. However during the recording of the album, tragedy stuck as John Lennon was shot dead and not all the songs were finished recording. Paul McCartney then wrote Here Today and that was released in the Hear Today/All Those Years Ago single. That’s the reason why I chosen 1982 as the cutoff point as that was the first album after Lennon death and therefore I wanted songs from that album to be included. They also finished recording Real Love (although in this universe Lennon intended those two songs to be Beatles songs and therefore McCartney and Harrison and Ringo were just finishing the job they intended to do) was released in the Real Love/Free As A Bird single.

This album had Lennon coming back from his break with “silly love songs” about marital bliss and McCartney decided he had to compensate by writing a) hard rock songs (Old Siam Sir), b) serious songs about conflict (Tug Of War) and c) Writing Jealous songs where McCartney does a bit of screaming reminiscent to Lennon earlier work (Beware My Love). Essentially most of the album is a reversal of the “serious” Lennon and “sappy’ McCartney reputation.

The concept of Side A is basically similar to the “A Quick One” rock opera. A guy love this girl and then find out there was an affair but eventually forgives her although this is from the guy perspective. Side B is about the relationship between Lennon and McCartney.

The singles promoting this album is Coming Up/Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy), Not Guilty/Nobody Told Me, Real Love/Free As A Bird, Here Today/All Those Years Ago, Woman/Silly Love Songs, Watching The Wheels/Wanderlust

Side A: 23:57
1. Old Siam Sir by Paul McCartney – This song sets up the scene of a lady from the village in Old Siam who found herself in the UK in an effort to find her man.

2. Cafe On The Left Bank by Paul McCartney - It’s about the protagonist in the cafe on the left bank “touching all the girls with your eyes” where he dance their after midnight and there’s an implication that he met the girl from Old Siam there.

3. Woman by John Lennon – Lennon sings about the protagonist in love with the couple

4. Beware My Love by Paul McCartney – McCartney cynical songwriting decided to disrupt the bliss of ‘Woman’ where the protagonist found out that the girl from Old Siam is cheating on him and put on the facade that he is accepting it (although McCartney anger throughout the song shows that he isn’t accepting it) and just leaves her a warning that he’s not the one.

5. Not Guilty by George Harrison – Harrison plays the character of the person she is cheating and claiming that he’s not guilty and that he’s not trying to steal your vest. That he only wanted what he can get. There is an implication that he didn’t know that she had another boyfriend. In the end he just say “I won’t upset the apple cart’ to imply that he is not going ot pursue the relationship any further (proving McCartney right that he’s not the one as he isn’t willing to fight for her).

6. I’ll Still Love You by Ringo Starr – So Ringo sings about how the protagonist still loves her despite of it all.

Side B: 23:11
1. (Just Like) Starting Over by John Lennon – So this song serves a dual purpose, it concludes the first concept of the album whilst simultaneously introduce the second concept. The first concept is concluded that the relationship has stabilised and that they feel like they are just starting over. The second concept is introduced with the implication of Lennon returning to The Beatles and with the confidence that it’ll just like starting over without all the bitterness that their previous problems and conflicts.

2. Tug Of War by Paul McCartney – However McCartney isn’t convince (yep McCartney is playing the cynic for this album) because he believes that those two are naturally competitive. That perhaps in another world “we could stand on top of the mountain with our flags unfurled” but in a time to come “we will be dancing to the beat played on a different drum” with the implication that those Lennon and McCartney are two very different people.

3. Watching The Wheels by John Lennon – Lennon insist that he is ‘just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round” and not competitive and realised that “I just had to let it go”

4. Borrowed Time by John Lennon – Lennon is then elaborating that he feels that life is short “living on borrowed time” and that he no longer has the illusion of freedom and power and that he is willing to live for the moment “without a thought for tomorrow”. This songs signify Lennon and McCartney happily working together.

5. Here Today by Paul McCartney – Of course this peaceful Lennon really was living in borrowed time and didn’t last as he was shot and killed. Here McCartney grieves about his death and also with a bit of regret that perhaps they didn’t work together longer and the previous Tug Of War relationship.

6. Real Love by John Lennon – Of course that would be a terrible sad way to end The Beatles career so the album had to end in an upbeat note. This is one of my favourite Lennon songs and I get a teary eye whenever I hear this song as I always imagine this song to be Lennon as a ghostly figure (the demo sounding voice in contrast to the clear instruments by the rest of the band adds to this illusion) telling people who were left behind that he is ok as he experienced “Real Love” either for his wife, for the rest of the surviving Beatles and for humanity. In the concept of this album it sounds like Lennon is telling the grieving McCartney from Here Today “no need to be afraid” as “it’s real love”. Also this song contributes to the overall love and peace message from The Beatles as the idea that people will feel just feel as peaceful and content about life if they embrace “Real Love” as well. That’s why I named this parallel album “Real Love” as it summarised this album and the career of The Beatles

So that’s the conclusion of The Beatles career. What would you choose for the hypothetical Beatles
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Monday, June 10, 2013

Rubber Soul: The Concept Album



If you re-arrange The Beatles brilliant Rubber Soul album you can actually create a narrative and turn this album into one of the first concept albums ever written. This album is a dark comedy that explores the relationship between Michelle and Maxwell that eventually degenerate into domestic violence and murder.

This is my prefer tracklist
1. Drive My Car – Michelle meets Maxwell and starts a flirtatious relationship and there is implied sexual relationship

2. If I Needed Someone -  Although Maxwell is happy with the flirty sexual relationship in the first song is having doubts about commitment to the relationship and falling in love because of previous relationship failure “But you see now I'm too much in love” (Ideally If I Fell from Hard Day’s Night would have been a better fit instead of this song)

3. Michelle - Maxwell changes his mind and actually falls in love with Michelle and commits to the relationship. The song establish that the female character is called Michelle.

4. The Word - The couple fall in love and the relationship is all "sunshine" and the character feels liberated by love

5. In My Life – This song shows that Maxwell is putting the love in such a high pedestal that he is willing to elevate Michelle to be more important than anyone else in the world that she is even more important than his friends and family.

6. You Won't See Me - First cracks in the relationship as Michelle stop spending time with Maxwell.

7. Girl - The deterioration of the relationship where Michelle makes Maxwell feels like a fool and puts him down in front of his friends. The whole breathing in “sigh” in the chorus represent that this relationship is bearing him down.

8. What Goes On – Maxwell feels like he doesn’t know Michelle anymore.

9. I'm Looking Through You - This song actually rejects the message of “In My Life”. In the past, Maxwell elevates Michelle above everyone else in his life but now he knows the person more closely and the illusion of her superior status is gone "you were above me, but not today".

Being serious for a moment, I do sincerely wish they swap the order of In My Life and I'm Looking Through You in the track listing because that song is a good counterpoint for “In My Life”.

10. Wait – This is a last ditch attempt by Maxwell to salvage the relationship with Michelle.'

11. Think For Yourself - The breakup in the relationship with Michelle starts in this song and he tells her to "think for yourself cause I won't be there with you"

12. Nowhere Man - Remember the liberating sensation of love as depicted in "The Word" and also how disillusion he was with love back in “If I Needed Someone” before giving love a final chance. Well now the person has become an aimless person with no goal or points of view as a result of his complete disillusionment of love.

13. Norwegian Wood – Maxwell burns down the house of Michelle under the guise of meeting up with her to repair the relationship.

14. Run For Your Life - Yep the album concludes with the protagonist attempting to murder Michelle out of jealous rage concluding this album.

Coda – Maxwell Silver Hammer – The Beatles resolve this story in Abbey Road with Maxwell broken heart caused by Michelle turned him into a serial killer.

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An Ethical Analysis of Star Trek TOS “Where No Man Has Gone Before”

I am not going to do a scene by scene review of this episode as someone eminently more qualified has already done this.

What this review will discuss is the morality of Kirk and Spock actions in this episode and whether this episode really succeeded in portraying a story about how power can corrupt a good man and about the need for compassion.

The main message of this episode is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That you shouldn't give people too much power because if they abuse it, the consequences will be unimaginably bad and this was portrayed by having Gary Mitchell developing god-like powers which eventually led to him being insane with power which led to Captain Kirk killing him.

However I believed that this episode ultimately failed with that message. This is because Kirk and Spock jumped the gun. From the moment that it was established that Gary Mitchell had superpowers, Kirk and Spock were having discussions about stranding him on a nearby planet and run away as well as killing him. This was long before Mitchell did anything bad at all.

Spock prejudged Mitchell saying that Mitchell will eventually treat human beings as ants and therefore we should kill him before he has the chance to kill us.

Spock was right that it was certainly possible that Mitchell could become evil and had every right to be cautious. However you can not preclude the possibility that Mitchell may end up using the powers for good, or he could also become someone like Dr. Manhatten who was neither really good nor evil. The fact is Spock can not 100% say that Mitchell will definitely become evil just based on the fact that he has powers. At that point of time, Mitchell broke no law (there is no law against being arrogant) and the crew of the Enterprise decides to strand him on a planet without any due process.

Now just because it's a bad idea to give people god like powers in case they will abuse it, doesn't mean if someone develop powers they will definitely abuse it and that we should kill the person beforehand just in case the person will turn evil. Imagine if X-men portrayed humans who wanted to kill mutants just in case they abuse their powers as a good and necessary thing. There’s no way people would call that moral and yet this was exactly the message this episode was portraying.

Instead of displaying that power corrupts absolutely, what we ended up seeing was a witch hunt leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Now let look at what makes a witch hunt. We had a member of the crew who was different. Garry Mitchell suddenly become more intelligent, obtain photographic memory and can move objects at will. However like all witch hunts, instead of trying to learn more about the difference and what causes the change. The crew reacted with fear, the fear that the person who was different to them will hurt them. Despite the person helping the crew (by pointing out the problem with the shock absorber), their fear led them to persecute Mitchell. They sedated him; left him stranded on the planet and then rigged the facility where he was held captive with explosive just in case Mitchell wanted to escape.

Really Mitchell’s action throughout this episode was purely self defence even when he was killing Kelso (because he was rigging the facility with explosive) until the final battle with Kirk (who also intended to kill him as well).

Although Mitchell may well be showing signs of corruption and megalomania, the action of our heroes pushed him in that direction. The actions of Kirk and Spock made it hell of a lot easier for Mitchell to make the evil transformation. When Kirk screamed to Mitchell “Above all, a god needs compassion.” Did the crew show him any compassion? Did the crew give Mitchell any reason to not treat them with contempt?

This episode just ends up showing a self-fulfilling prophecy. Mitchell was developing powers. Spock said that he will end up abusing it and will treat us as ants if we don’t do something and because the crew assuming that Mitchell abusing his powers and acted accordingly, Mitchell started to abuse his powers.

This episode didn’t show that power corrupt, it shows that if you treat someone like crap, they will respond in kind. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Mitchell only started to see them as ants to be extinguished after the Kirk and the crew tried to strand him on the planet.

Unless you are a utilitarian, what Kirk and Spock done in this episode was morally wrong. Stranding a crew member on a planet and then rigging the area with explosive for simply developing powers without hurting anyone is simply wrong.

Now the only way out of this, is to take the “ends justify the means argument” and say that Kirk has to take the immoral action to preserve the safety of his ship and to serve the greater good. There may be some justification that Kirk took the pragmatic options.

However the problem was that this episode didn't take the "In The Pale Moonlight" or “City On The Edge Of Forever” type angle where Kirk was force into an unethical but necessary action to protect his crew. If the episode portrayed Kirk action was immoral and Kirk admit he done an immoral act at the end, maybe I would have been more lenient and possibly liked this episode even more even if I still disagreed with the action.

However the episode wasn’t about that. It was about how “God needs compassion”

This episode was preaching about being compassionate and how the more powerful you are, the more important it is for the person to have that virtue.

Having an episode preaching about compassion while also having an ends justifying the means message is incompatible.

You can’t on one hand have Kirk lecturing Mitchell about the necessity of compassion and have him showing no compassion by stranding Mitchell on that planet just “in case” the person may abuse their powers in the future because that’s just pure hypocrisy. If you going to have that message about compassion and how power corrupts, you have to expect the heroes to act compassionately and use power appropriately. Kirk should have only stranded Mitchell on the planet after Mitchell done something wrong not beforehand.

Some people may point out that Kirk did show compassion at the end when he paused during the fist fight with Mitchell. However that was when the horse was already bolted when that type of compassion is just foolish.

This is the way I would have done the episode.
When Mitchell got his powers, I would have had Kirk getting along with Mitchell and still be friends with him. However, Kirk recognises that Mitchell shouldn't have these gods like powers because no human should ever have these powers as we aren’t ready for it. Therefore he orders the doctor and the psychiatrist to work together to learn more about Mitchell’s condition and try to find a way to stop his growth in power and perhaps a cure to reverse his development. Initially Mitchell actually supports Kirk’s plan, after all he is a student of Kirk.

Spock, instead of him telling Kirk to go kill Mitchell or strand him. Have Spock just warn him that history has shows that when you give people power that more likely than they will abuse it gives people the freedom to reveal all aspect of their personality. That Kirk has to be prepared that he may not like what he will soon discovers about Mitchell and we have to keep an eye on him. Kirk uncomfortably agrees and make sure he has arm guards around sick back at all times.

However, Mitchell starts to use these powers. Firstly he used some of the power for good and perhaps has a situation where Mitchell ends up saving the ship. However those experiences changed him and he starts to believe that he deserves to have this and he is entitled to this power. That this power given to him was for a reason, that he was meant to have these powers to lead the human race to a new era and that he doesn’t want a cure. Kirk refuses to let him keep the power and refuses to let him “lead” the human race. This ended up leads to Mitchell attacking Kirk and the guards (perhaps killing one of the red shirts) but Kirk and the security guards manage to sedate him. Only then do they decide to strand Mitchell on the planet. The episode then continues as normally leading to Kirk sadly killing his best friend. The message could end up with Kirk telling Spock “Do you think so little of human nature, that it is impossible for us not to abuse power when we have it?” Perhaps Spock gives a response that humans may have advanced socially and technologically over the last hundreds years but human beings will always be flawed beings and power always reveals those flaws.

If this episode was done that way, the final Kirk speech would have far more meaning when he was telling Mitchell about "where's your compassion, a god must have compassion". The episode would have shown the process of power corrupting an essentially good human being and give a message why humans should never be given too much power and the importance of compassion.
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Music (Over)Analysis - Highway Star by Deep Purple


The shear genius of Highway Star

This is my essay on why Highway Star is the greatest car song of all time and one of all time favourite song.

What makes me gush over this song is how the music of the song work to create this speeding in a highway atmosphere Whenever I listen to this song I get vivid imagery of street racing . Hell this is someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy driving and hate road hoons (I’m probably more in line with Thom Yorke’s feeling about cars). Yet this song manage to deceive me and make me think for a moment that driving car fast is fun. Oh yeah, also because this song kick arse.

So this is my fan fiction in creating a narrative (purely by the music) on what is going on in the song

So the song starts off with some chord strumming (mostly one strum per bar instead of the regular power chord that soon follow) by the guitar with a regular bass playing. This intro creates imagery in my head of the car being turn on and speeding off.

When the guitar starts playing some regular bar chords it sounds like the car is chuggling along at cruising (especially when the audible pick scratching noise give it a more mechanical sound to it) and then you hear Gillan screaming that signifies the car is speeding up and the adrenaline it feels.

Later in the song when you hear “it’s a killer machine, it’s got everything”, you hear a descending chromatic 4 notes. (F, E, D#, D), everytime I hear that four note sequence throughout the song I get imagery of the driver is changing gear (of course he is driving manual).

The chorus has Jon Lord playing chords in between Gillan singing. To me those chords symbolizes cars on the street beeping at the driver for driving like a maniac (as this is street racing he may even be driving in the wrong side of the road).

The chorus I hear this
(Beep) I love it (Beep) I need it (Beep) I bleed it (Beep) (Beep) (Beep) Yeah it’s a wild (Beep) machine, alright hold tight I’m a highway star.

Before the keyboard solo, you hear a buzzing noise (I think it’s a distortion from a guitar) that pan from the right of the speaker to the left. To me it sounds like another car that you are racing against is accelerating and catching up to you

Then Jon Lord plays a killer solo. To me this section signifies two cars are dualing with each other during the race. To me what added to this sensation that the two car are dualing is that Jon Lord plays this rapid keyboard section but with both of his hands and they are playing different notes harmonizing each other (but with the same rhythm). So with the left hand harmonizing the right hand it sounds like two cars are neck to neck battling it out with each other.

At the end of the solo you hear Lord’s solo go to a stop with a single chord finishing off the solo with a distorted sound whilst at the same time the rest of the song goes back to normal. So to me this signifies the protagonist cars spins out and goes to a stop whilst the opposing car drives on unharm (because you can hear the regular strumming pattern). The little interlude at the 2:50 minute mark signifies the protagonist getting the car back on and back to the race

So the song continues on and the protagonist catch up with the opponent and during the Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar solo. This signified the second car racing dual between the protagonist and his opponent and because I can hear some double tracking and hearing two lead guitars during that solo) again it does sounds like it’s two cars dueling each other.

At the end of the solo you hear Blackmore pulling the tremolo bar and that strange wobbling noise signifies the opposing racer spun out and is left behind as the protagonist drives on.

At the end, Gillan repeats “I’m A Highway Star” numerous time as this is him saying to himself that he is the star as he is reaching the finishing line. You hear Blackmore playing a ascending one string guitar line during that section and each time the guitar line ascend it signifies it’s getting closer and closer to the finishing line for winning the race. The final “Highway Star” with the drum doing a final fill, and Blackmore doing a final riff signifies the car crossing the finishing line and winning the street race.

So yes that’s the imagery I get from listening to this song. Man this song is just pure genius.
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Music (Over)Analysis - Climbing Up The Walls by Radiohead



This is one of my favourite songs of all time and why I get disappointed when people say this song is too ‘difficult” or succeeds too much in its own goal or too uncomfortable to listen to.

I guess the reason why I like this goes back to one of the conflicts of ideology between Listenability and Emotional Resonance.

I’ll just define those two terms by the way I interpret it. The subjective component of listenability subjectively is whether you feel the song is catchy and the song is cohesive. The objective component of listenability it is whether the song follows traditional conventions of songwriting. Emotional resonance subjectively is whether you feel emotionally moved by the song but the objective component is the sincerity of the songwriter (or how good at acting is the performer) and whether the song attempts to capture a deep emotional state.

Usually those two category have a synergistic relationship because it’s based on happy = major scales, sad = minor scales and if you follow the western convention of song you could still create emotionally resonant music within the context of those emotions.

However what happens when a person tries to create an eerie, disturbing or violent or mentally unstable atmosphere. The idea of writing music following the traditional western conventions of songwriting where it sounds natural and everything fits together in a cohesive manner is in direct conflict to listenability So how do we resolve this conflict?

Well artist like Nick Cave, Kate Bush, PJ Harvey, Bjork, Can (by the way I love all of those artist) etc they try to deliberately sound ugly and break songwriting conventions. Some will add dissonance to the song, some will start screaming or start emulating a donkey, go on an angry vengeful rant, some will completely abandon cohesive structure in the song (I’m thinking of Peking O and Aumgm) etc. Of course they don’t completely go to the extreme and they mix those moments with conventional hooks and melodies but in the end it’s a compromise between listenability and emotional resonance. Those artist walk a tight line sacrificing elements of music that is pleasant to listen to with elements that accurately reflects the emotions of the song.

So the reason why I single out Climbing Up The Wall is because in my opinion judging the core elements of the song. There is no compromise.

IF you look at the song from an objective standpoint, this is a conventional minor key ballad. The chords of the song follow the conventional chords “allowed” in pop songwriting (the chords I, IV, V and the relative minor/major of those three chords are the 6 chords that summarise 95% of pop music), The chord progression of the song (Bm (I), G (IV of relative major), Em (IV), G. The chorus is just Em and G. So the chord proression is perfectly natural. Also the melodies, there is no dissonance. Thom Yorke perfectly sings within the key of the song and majority of the lead instruments and the tuned effects there is no dissonance either. There’s only one note in the entire song which was during the synth line in the instrumental break where they played an F over a Bm chord which is a tritone (the devil interval) and even then that tritone resolves the next note as the F becomes an F# (perfect 5th). However apart from that one note during that progression (and really it’s an effective used of dissonance but it’s hardly essential to the song and hardly anyone I heard criticising that song points out to the synth solo as a problem). This is a perfectly normal, conventional minor key ballad (although I haven’t looked at the score using this judgement but I’m listening to it by ear and I detect no dissonance but if missed out any, someone can point it out). Apart from that one note, this song is objectively listenable (whether someone finds it enjoyable to listen to is subjective as I admit listenablity as it subjective component as well) How they achieved the eerie atmosphere is by the production, the effects and the sound of the instruments and the sound of Thom Yorke’s voice.

To show how conventional the melodies is, have a listen to Powderfinger's My Happiness which in my opinion rips off the melody from Radiohead and yet this is essentially a pop song. The idea that this melody can be transform to have an eerie effect is genius in my opinion.

I guess I appreciate this song in the same way George Starostin appreciated Eight Miles High where he commented that Eight Miles High was “just about any other harmony-ruled, jangle-powered pop anthem on the 1965 albums. You could take away the atmosphere, change the lyrics to something more socially conscious and give it to Pete Seeger”. Well with Climbing Up The walls. without the atmosphere and the creepy lyrics, it’s just another minor key ballad that anyone can sing along to. Stripping this song to its core element and it’s just a well written pop song (a broad definition of pop perhaps) and you can do a acoustic cover of this song and it’ll still work. This song demonstrated that Radiohead understood that atmosphere, emotional resonance is not contradictory to solid melodies and making the song listenable.

That’s why I kind of get disappointed when people say this is a weak song and its too difficult to listen to. I can understand if someone says this song is too poppy and doesn’t go far enough but I don’t get the opposite perspective that this song is too unpleasant. To me it achieves the perfect balance. The core song is listenable whilst the atmosphere is given free reign to suit the emotions of the song

Of course someone can point out other songs that does the same thing (I can’t think of any in the top of my head) and please show me some examples of other songs that achieved the creepy atmosphere without compromising listenability however even if other songs achieved it before Radiohead, I will say that from a personal perspective this song was the first song that I heard that taught me that lesson.
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