Tune Tag #40 with Nick S (WA), Pt. 3: Dionne Warwick, Carole King, Nikki Jean, Gretchen Peters, John Williams, Neko Case
Electric, eclectic, sublime and subtle: Tune Tag ventures into the un- and little-known, and there are smiles all around! Today, we trade in Top 40 for a taste of, maybe, some new-new! Enjoy!
Hey, Nick! Tag, You’re It!
He describes himself as “a middle-aged geek; I have interests in politics, and am enjoying reviving my interest in music. I have been interested in science fiction and role-playing games, but at this point I feel mostly nostalgia for them.”
Welcome, Nick! Let’s Tag Tunes…again!
“Thanks again to Brad for hosting this! I am honored to be back for a third round, and my approach has been slightly different each time: My first run-through (linked first, below), I wanted to make a good impression, and was trying to select songs that I thought were charming and easy to like (not entirely successful; Brad found my second selection confounding).
Final note: I mention, in a couple of places, alternative choices that I considered. In every case I’m glad I went the direction that I did, but I think it’s interesting to see some of the thought process, and consider other connections that can be made.
“Round 2 ended up almost entirely of songs released before I was born. I had a blast, and got to share several favorites, but was mostly focused on responding to Brad. This time I wanted to allow myself the option to be a little weirder. You can decide whether I succeeded.”👇
Last week, we had the pleasure of tagging tunes with former Melody Maker/UK rock writer,
:
Next week, we welcome
of Remember the Lightning for his Round 2!
Nick’s Song #1 sent to Brad: John Williams & Vienna Philharmonic, “Imperial March,” 2020
Nick’s rationale: I aim to provide only the best for the readers and listeners of Tune Tag! I had a couple of options I was considering for a lead-off song, and then I remembered this video, and I had my selection.
“The Imperial March” from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is one of the most recognizable compositions of the 20th century. The Vienna Philharmonic performs it with charm and brio. I appreciate the editing on the video which highlights the different parts that each section plays, but the real reason I’m sharing this is John Williams’ smiles at the 0:12 mark and at the conclusion of the piece.
Everyone in the hall, the audience, the orchestra, and John Williams himself (87 at the time), knows that it’s a rare pleasure to hear him conduct a live performance of this iconic piece. According to comments on the video, “John Williams did not want to add this piece to the concert because he did not want to strain the brass section, but they approached him in rehearsal and asked him to add it,” and “They didn’t just ask; the 1st chair of both the trumpets and French horn sections begged Williams to let them play it.
“When literally one of the finest orchestras in the entire world has members begging a conductor to play a piece, you know you did good as a composer.” I’m sure that orchestras have a lot of experience playing famous pieces of music but this still feels special. Hoping everyone had a good May 4th!
Brad’s Song #1 sent to Nick: Bill Murray, “Star Wars Theme,” SNL, 1978
Nick’s response: Brad has picked another piece drawn from the Star Wars soundtrack. I was delayed in getting these notes to Brad, and as part of that, I re-listened to the songs a couple of times, and this performance grew on me with re-watching. I like Bill Murray, but at first it felt like the joke was just that he was a mediocre lounge singer.
But Bill Murray’s humor is so often based on his presence, and strangeness rather than specific punchlines. Like Willie Nelson, you have to enjoy the way in which he plays with timing and emphasis to pull your attention, and re-watching helped that.
I almost selected the Saturday Night Live performance of Steve Martin’s “King Tut” as a response but, while it’s great, I didn’t want to end up focusing on novelty songs, so I decided to move to another iconic Hollywood blockbuster: Going from Star Wars to a song indelibly connected to Top Gun.
Brad’s rationale: While listening to Nick’s John Williams first selection, I couldn’t help but remember this stereotypically smarmy lounge singer/Murray character (Nick Winters at a ski lodge; at beachy locales, he’s Nick Summers, etc)! This is from 1978, the NBC late night show’s third season.
Playing piano is Paul Shaffer, who’s about 4 years away from starting a 33-year-run as David Letterman’s Late Night and Late Show band director.
Nick’s Song #2: Calexico, “Danger Zone” (A.V. Undercover), 2017
Brad’s response: The connection appears to be music and songs from the movies.
Nick’s rationale: I enjoy this performance so much. First the whole idea of the A.V. Undercover series (2010-2017) is just, “let’s do fun things and put them online” (though, at this point, the videos on YouTube are copies of the originals which were taken down). I appreciate that Calexico singer/guitarist, Joey Burns, admits up front that he selected “Danger Zone” because it was so iconic and then realized it needed some work. The entire performance has the energy of, “we need to be really focused and committed or we could look really silly.”
The show presents an interesting example of musical problem-solving as they transform “Danger Zone” (written by the “Father of Disco,” composer/conductor, Giorgio Moroder, and lyricist, Tom Whitlock) into a song of yearning, while still retaining enough of the charm of the iconic chorus.
As an aside, re-listening to the Kenny Loggins original, I have to appreciate his problem-solving as well. According to Wikipedia, at least four other people turned down the song before Loggins, and he makes it work and embraces the fact that the song is all mood.
Brad’s reply: Session singer Joe Pizzulo recorded the demo; never officially released, a portion of that Pizzulo demo can be heard in this scene from 1987’s Cracked Up:
With the approval of the Top Gun producers (Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films), soundtrack distributor, Columbia Records, requested Moroder to have “Danger Zone” performed by an artist signed to the label. All of these artists heard the above Pizzulo demo: Columbia artists Toto, REO Speedwagon (Epic/CBS), RCA artists, Jefferson Starship, EMI America recording artist, Corey Hart (and all turned it down for various reasons), and finally, Columbia artist, Loggins, who agreed to record the song as “a very snap judgement.” Read more about it all by clicking here.
Brad’s Song #2: Calexico (ft. Neko Case), “Tapping on the Line,” 2015
Nick’s response: As soon as I saw “Calexico (feat. Neko Case),” I was excited. I had not listened to this album before, and I appreciate Brad choosing it.
It’s an interesting companion to “Danger Zone” because it underlines Joey Burns’ approach, and you can see similarities between the two performances (as John Hartford once sang, “I tried real hard to not make this song sound like / Some other song that I might have written before / If I did it’s because it’s my style and style is based on limitations”).
In both cases you can see that he likes to create space. Neither song is particularly wordy, and the music gives a feeling of isolation. The songs evoke people who are part of the national security apparatus (broadly speaking) but both sound like they are alone. With this in mind, going back to “Danger Zone,” the mood reminded me of a passage by Richard Bach, about flying a fighter jet at night:
If Lead’s engine failed now, what could I do to help him? Simple answer. Nothing. He flies now twenty feet away, but if he needed my help, I'd be as far away as Sirius, above. I can't even take him in my cockpit or hold his airplane in the air, or even guide him to a lighted field. I could call his position to rescue parties, and I could say ‘Good luck’ before he fired his ejection seat into the black.
We fly together, but are as alone as four stars in the sky. You remember talking to a friend who had done just that, left his plane at night. His engine had been on fire, and the rest of the formation was completely powerless to help. As his plane slowed and started down, one of them had called, “Don’t wait too long to get out.” Those helpless words were the last he heard before he fired into the night. Here was a man he had known and flown with, who had eaten dinner with him, who laughed at the same jokes with him, saying, “Don’t wait too long . . .”
Thinking about a reply, I wanted to find something else that connected to the themes of technology and politics. But I kept thinking of cold war songs (for example, “99 Luftbalons” is also about the mechanisms of surveillance in the name of security) and I didn’t want to go in that direction. Thinking about Calexico as a Southwest band reminded me of a different connection.
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