Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Cool Things I Noticed in a Song

The (always) Lovely Mrs. Davis has posted a fabulously-specific and believable list of kids albums for parents who want to break into listenable kids music (and break out of the primary colored t-shirt thing). I've broken into and out of it all myself, but I'm still going to buy some of the albums she lists.

And she's inspired me. See, I've been listening to kids music in a strangely specific way myself these days. Since a good handful of my earliest songs can all be traced back to single melody that was the theme song for a show starring someone named Uncle Jed, I've been paying really close attention to how other artists add interest to their songs. Really cool lyrics, I get. That to me is the real fun of song writing. But how do you make your guitar and the rest of the stuff sitting around your house turn the song into something even better than just the lyrics could make it. (A real stretch for me as a poet by training.)

So, here's the first in my list of Cool Things I Noticed in A Song.

#1 Best use of non-irritating hand clapping:

"Oh Well": Scribblemonster, CHOCOLATE MILK

album cover

Click for a listen to see what I mean. There just aren't that many hand-clapping songs out there that actually make me want to clap. I always practically wreck my car when this song comes on.

Stay tuned for more scintillating insights on the minutiae of song-making.

2 comments:

Amy said...

Hand claps always make me think of "Jack and Diane."

Love the Scribble Monster song, too!

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Ginger (I'm clapping, can you hear that?). We had fun with the chorus on that song. Not only with the clapping, but also stomping feet. And that "thud - thud" you hear in the chorus? That would be me banging a plastic garbage can on the floor - talk about making use of the stuff sitting around your house. Sometimes it bothers me that it sounds like a plastic garbage can being slammed to the floor (and you were expecting....?) and other times it amuses me.