Tag Archives: morning

#860: Radiohead – Morning Bell

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While those strange noises at the end of ‘Idioteque’ are still ringing and begin to fade out on Radiohead’s Kid A, a drum pattern bursts into the soundscape from out of nowhere. This drum pattern signifies the start of following track ‘Morning Bell’, a song that’s a bit about divorce and a bit about mostly nothing at all. I believe it’s one of the tracks on the album where Thom Yorke put words into a hat and sorted them randomly to make a lyric. But please correct me if I’m wrong. The likelihood of that being the case is quite large.

When I heard Kid A for the first time, I don’t think I rated ‘Morning Bell’ that highly. There were three tracks on there that I was immediately hooked on to. The rest took some time. All I remember is that one day I was either on a bus or a train going somewhere, and the part where Thom Yorke sings “Release me” along with that nice bassline by Colin Greenwood just kept repeating in my head. That small part sometimes makes the whole song for me. Its first half comprises of Yorke on the keys, Greenwood and Phil Selway on drums, all playing together in 5/4 time and really locked in, and there’s a real warmth produced by the music, it feels so cozy. It subtly builds and builds. Guitars join the frame, and there’s a sudden freakout in the middle where everyone plays that ends just as quick as it starts. Then the whole song’s mood changes for its second half. Like it changes key or just changes it melodic movement. Happens so quick you don’t realise it that much. It definitely ends in a way that you wouldn’t think you were listening to the same song. Radiohead are usually really good at that sort of thing.

I hope that we see a reissue akin to the OKNOTOK release for a 20th anniversary of Kid A and Amnesiac. Honestly, I think it would have been set to go last year if everything that happened then didn’t happen. Though I believe it still could. No harm in wishing.

#823: Bob Dylan – Meet Me in the Morning

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Bob Dylan does the blues on ‘Meet Me in the Morning’. The sixth number on Blood on the Tracks, the break-up album of all break-up albums (I think I read that somewhere), is in a standard AABA form that you’ll hear almost every other blues song. But it gets my head nodding every time that rhythm section kicks in. On the track, Dylan howls for his love to come back to him. He wishes to meet her at the intersection of 56th and Wabasha, gives all these poetic and wild examples of the things he’s done to prove that he’s earned her love. By the end, it seems he’s been waiting all day for her to arrive. Safe to say she doesn’t show. Guess he’s left in some pain; the way he sings the track symbolises that, I think.

It’s just that groove, man. There’s a lot of oomph behind that kick drum and the overall rhythm, but there’s also a stiffness to the delivery. It’s all hi-hat, open hi-hat and snare. Never a slam on the ride or crash cymbals. I guess this allows the different guitars and Dylan’s vocal to take over the soundscape. It’s been said that Dylan doesn’t have the greatest singing voice, but I can’t think of another track of his where he tries his hardest than on here. He reaches notes that could really surprise some people who listen to this for the first time. Reaches those higher notes with his chest and giving it a lot of gusto.

It took me a while to properly get into this track. It’s the most recent from that album that I added to my list. That was a couple years back or so. When I really sat down and listened to the record all the way through one day, ‘Morning’ suddenly stood out to me. It carries on a run of 10/10 tracks beginning with the album’s opener. None of which were written in the happiest of times for the man. Definitely my favourite album of his though.

My iPod #459: The Beatles – Good Morning Good Morning

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“Good Morning Good Morning” tends to be the song from Sgt. Pepper that not even Beatles fans really appreciate a lot. Upon listening to the album for the first time in 2009 or so, I found the track to be one of the most likeable ones on there. I don’t want to say that it was simplicity that attracted me to it because the song has quite a complex structure to it, though it’s really the only track on there (apart from the title track’s reprise) which focuses on the four members and their guitars (sort of), bass and drums.

Inspired by a Kellogg’s Corn Flakes advert he saw on the television, John Lennon went on to write the song which can only be described as one of the observational kind in which he describes what he sees going on around him while he’s at work, in the town for a while after finishing the shift, at home for tea and when he’s at a show where he’s able to glance at the girls around him. So the subject matter is not as ‘deep’ on this song as for the majority of the others on Sgt. Pepper, but there musically there are plenty of things about it that hold it up as one of the best ones on there.

It changes its time signature many times. That’s something that still confuses me, and if I were to get all technical about it you would not be able to understand it either. Ringo and Paul own the rhythm section on here. The former playing on a drum kit utilising two bass drums which can be heard in full force during the final minute or so, and whilst playing a sliding bass line which maintains the song’s momentum, Paul showcases his guitar skills by shredding out a soaring guitar solo in the middle. Also, as the song begins to fade out and all the animal noises pan from ear to ear John, Paul, and George jokingly begin to sing in German. What more could you want.

So yeah, “Good Morning Good Morning” deserves more praise than from what I’ve witnessed. Just as important and infectiously catchy.

My iPod #458: Kanye West – Good Morning

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Kanye West’s third album Graduation, the last in the Dropout Bear/Education trilogy (the latter name I made up myself, probably not a good title), was the one in which the rapper now saw himself to be up there as one of the greatest rappers of this generation. Sure he had released two classics before, but it was the 2007 release where his ultimate goal to become known as one of the greatest of all time was set and established. Though “Stronger” was the first single from it to show the new edgier and focused Kanye, it’s “Good Morning” that starts it all off.

The first thing you hear upon entering the disc into your computer is a brief “Uh”, before the track’s beat kicks in followed by a descending synthesizer which leads into Kanye’s declaratory “Good Morning” and the soulful “oooh” sample that repeats after every time he says the phrase. Can’t get enough of that sample, could listen to that every day. In general the track is Kanye psyching himself up, telling himself to wake up, get focused, and prepare himself for what was coming now that he’d made a name for himself.

The guy never disappoints on his album openers.

My iPod #396: Nick Drake – From the Morning

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“…listening to this album, with headphones to be isolated of all exterior noises, with eyes closed, is a unique experience. Because at the end, the last song you hear is FROM THE MORNING, and this song is so positive! After all an album of a beautiful darkness, you finish on this moving celebration of life, telling you that another day starts after this tormented night, all starts again with a beautiful morning, that everything is possible with the rise of the sun. It’s at the opposite with the whole rest of the album, and it ends like that. I’m telling you, you can’t arrive at the end of PINK MOON with your eyes dry. That’s why this song has a particular saviour. And you need to know that FROM THE MORNING was his parents favourite song, proof that it has a positive reflect, and that’s why they chose a quote of this song as epitaph on his gravestone “Now we rise, and we are everywhere”.

That is a comment under the lyrics of “From the Morning” on songsmeaning.net. And I actually couldn’t put it better myself.

“Pink Moon” is the album to play during the hours of a cold winter night; its bare atmosphere and depressing lyrics matching the dark, silent environment. You walk around wondering where to turn.

But then “From the Morning” begins just as the sun rises, the skies turn a pinkish colour, the birds start to sing and you realise you’ve been bugging out over nothing. Everything will be alright. Another day is here. Time to learn something new.

The track’s presence wipes the sadness and desolation present throughout “Pink Moon” away, and as the last song ends the album on a happy, positive note. Sadly he would pass away only a few years later, but at least his official discography came to a definitive conclusion with this highly-spirited tune.