Musical Chatter
penny April 16th, 2006
Been a while I did a useless commentary on things I like. Here’s something about?guitar flicks I’ve been crazy about. I chat here in context with staring at visualizations.?
So rock is all noise you say??Maybe, but what is noise after all?but random waves.?And even randomness is overrated. I had been watching the scope visualization in some rock songs, and found how systematic it is for some of my favorites.?
Take for instance Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”. There is a characteristic tiny wave that propagates. Listen for it. It starts at about the 5th second into the song where the triangle percussion is very distinct. Gotta love it
Little Wing is one of those songs that you can carry around in your pocket. Simple lyrics, fantastic guitar, and over-all just timelessly hip. The Corrs did a cover of this song in their album Talking on Corners. I’m not a Hendrix maniac; “Little Wing”, “Purple Haze”?and “Red House” are the only Hendrix songs I know, hehe. I don’t have a lot of patience to listen to full albums, so I usually replay just those I can remember as musically pleasant.
Little Wing
Well she’s walking
Through the clouds
With a circus smile
That’s runnning wild
Butterflies and zebras
And moonbeams
And fairytales
That’s all she ever thinks about
Riding with the wind
When I’m sad
She comes to me
With a thousand smiles
She gives to me free
It’s alright she says It’s alright
Take anything you want from me
Anything
Fly on little wing
(Fabulous-o guitar solo)
Another interesting scope to watch is Led Zep’s “Stairway to Heaven”. Here the waves are usually very smooth. The soft flute intro starts very smoothly, as the guitar and Jimmy Page’s voice interfere the spikes become evident. Somewhere around 2:15, the guitar strumming sets in and the spikes go crazy. But when all instruments strike the same tone, the amplitudes are in phase!
This is as opposed to the same group’s “Whole Lotta Love”. There are spikes riding on each wave all the time. It’s fun to see the different spike heights starting at about 1:30 until 3:00 as the percussion strikes evenly across every two beats as the crazy guitar tricks are done. At about 3:05 to 3:20 when the electric plays alternating with the drums the scope alternates between short and tall amplitudes.
Yet another to watch for is the Stone’s “Sympathy for the Devil”. WHat’s interesting about this scope is that at exact moments in time, the waves are split into one side which is smooth and the other which is very noisy. What’s funny is that these happen whenever Mick Jagger sings alongside the piano and… are those maracas? This song was used in the film “Fallen” with Denzel Washington. It’s that movie where the devil moves from person to person.
If you want to see how really loud trebly instruments ride on the bass waves, listen to Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tears” and watch its scope. The same happens in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” by the Beatles. The difference between the two is that the bass is more dominant in “No More Tears”, while those in George Harrison’s masterpiece are periodic strumms every other measure. Plus there are reverbs of some creative feedback in WMGGW that multiply the wave frequency drastically in mid-track.
What about lead guitar riding on noisy percussion waves? Joe Satriani’s vocal-less “Satch Boogie” is perfect example. Watch all instruments die down together at the end. “Cocaine” by Cream also show same characteristics, though at shorter intervals, because Clapton’s guitar often overpower the drumwork.
Of course who can discount a systematic scope pattern formed by “Sweet Child of Mine”. These days I can only bear to listen to the first 20 seconds though. 
I have little tolerance for Axl’s shrieks hehe. On that note, worth mentioning is Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
“Alive” by Pearl Jam is one of the few songs with really tall amplitudes that I can tolerate listening up to the end. I lived through high school bands during the 90s after all. Eddie Vedder can grow into you if you lived in the same generation as I. Another high-amplitude song that’s a whole lotta fun is Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Good”, released in the late 50′s. Interesting how an old guitar?flick can have tall waves as this yet sound so… old. Hehe.
Yan ang nagagawa ng insomnia.
P.S. First time I heard “Floods” by Pantera and noticed that the intro is reminiscent of Alapaap by E-heads…?
