Tag Archives: night

#1223: Kings of Leon – Slow Night, So Long

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It was during the Aha Shake Heartbreak era of Kings of Leon that I properly go into the band, due mainly to the three singles that popped up around those youthful times of 2004/05. But I didn’t get my hands on a physical copy of it until 2008, when I got it as a gift for Christmas. I don’t know what it was about that year that made me request it. By that time, Only by the Night was the band’s latest album which hoisted the group into household names thanks to ‘Sex on Fire’ and ‘Use Somebody’ which were now worldwide hits. I’m going to guess that, even at the age of 13 that I was that year, I was one of those people who thought, “Man… Kings of Leon have changed,” and wanted one of their old albums to remind me of the good times. But that is just a guess, I feel like I might be making that up completely.

‘Slow Night, So Long’ opens the album up, and I’ll straight up say it doesn’t really hold a lot of sentimental value. It was one of those songs where I heard it that first time and knew that it was a keeper, and so it’s been in the library ever since. Unlike the opener on the album before, which got things started quite swiftly, ‘Slow Night…’ builds itself up layer by layer, letting the anticipation set in before the whole band eventually kick into gear. Gotta appreciate that bass guitar hook by Jared Followill in that introduction, it’s the melody of that which Caleb Followill almost mirrors with his vocals and the riff that I think really ties the whole song together. I didn’t know this before typing out, so it’s a surprise to me as much as it might be for you, but the song concerns Caleb Followill’s feelings about a girl younger brother Jared was seeing at the time. He kind of liked her, the feelings weren’t reciprocated. It was a weird thing going on there. And Followill at the end of the song asks where the ‘leading ladies’ can be found, in the search for an emotionally stable relationship. KOL songs in those days were usually about women in some way, but would never have guessed any of that myself.

But as the people who enjoy this song will know, this track has a little surprise for you. The band come to a big finish, but there’s still about a minute and a bit remaining until time runs out. And after a bit of suspense, with Nathan Followill’s last chord still sort of ringing nearing silence, Caleb Followill’s guitar comes in on the right-hand side introducing a completely unrelated chord progression and segueing into the smooth coda to which you wanna grab your partner and slow dance to. Even got a little güiro going on low in the mix there. During this part, Caleb asks the “gold digger mothers” out there if “they’re too good to tango with the poor boys”, which I think could mean anything whilst also being very obvious. And with a nice touch of piano, the whole song comes to its actual close. But not really because ‘King of the Rodeo’ picks up right where the next bar would begin. No time to rest before kicking things up again.

#921: Big Boi ft. B.o.B & Joi – Night Night

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Who would wanna go back to 2010? In some ways I wouldn’t mind, in others the answer would be a big nope. But it wasn’t such a bad time to be alive. I think there was some optimism going into what was a new decade. Plus there was all the new music to look forward to. That year saw the release of Big Boi’s debut album, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty, his first since OutKast fizzled out about four years prior. Had it not been overshadowed by My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy a few months later, it was probably bound to go down as the greatest hip-hop album of that year. It’s an album where Big Boi’s flexing on almost every track, telling the listener how good he is at his craft, how other rappers should just stop when they come up against him. No surprise he does it here on the album’s 12th track, ‘Night Night’.

My first experience with the track would have been in 2010 when a friend of mine from school told me I’d be into it. He was always obsessed with finding the newest hip-hop/R&B music, and he knew I was into that stuff to, so just passed on the word. Went to YouTube and ‘Night Night’ was there, but was uploaded with a higher pitch so it could get past copyright laws. You could get away with that back in those days. In fact, it was very similar to this. So for a few years I thought that’s how the song was recorded. But even then I thought the track sounded good. B.o.B came in clutch on the hook. This was when it was cool to listen to B.o.B, before he went on about how he believed the world was flat and had beef with Neil deGrasse Tyson. The instrumental slapped, still does I believe, carried by that driving rhythm and those horn-like synthesizers. The general gist of the entire track is that Big Boi’s going to put his competition to sleep with his bars and flows, hence the song title. Not in the way that they’ll be bored. More in the stunned-into-submission-that-they-lie-down-and-never-try-again kind of way.

It wasn’t for a couple years that I listened to the album in full and was surprised by how it really sounded. GCSEs and exams got in the way. Either way, the song still holds up as it did 12 years ago. I use Spotify, do with that information what you will, and I’m really surprised to see that the track has the least amount of listens on the album. Even less than the minute and a half intro song that starts it off. I’ve always thought the track was potentially single worthy. I can only put it down to the skit at the beginning. Probably should have been tacked onto the end of the preceding song. It lasts only ten seconds though. I guess people don’t have the patience anymore.

#920: The Beatles – The Night Before

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‘The Night Before’ was one of the first few tracks of the Beatles where I heard it and thought, “Wow, these Beatles people aren’t actually too bad.” It was 2009. Earlier that year I downloaded Sgt. Pepper just to see how it was the greatest album ever as I had read in a lot of places. I thought the songs were just all right. The mixing didn’t do them much justice. So I kind of left the Beatles aside and pursued other things. But later that year their whole catalogue was released alongside The Beatles: Rock Band, all on the same day, and VH1 Classic was showing a “Beatlemania” slot that dedicated about 30 minutes of air time to Beatles music videos. Seeing those pretty much sent me down a bit of a spiral. I haven’t stopped being a Beatles fan since then.

Representing ‘The Night Before’ was its little section cut out from the Help! movie. The closest I can get to showing you that clip is via the video below, which uses alternative audio and switches some camera shots around. But seeing the four members actually ‘playing’ together, seeing how happy they were alongside the general catchiness and upbeat tone of the music was a bit of a revelation. Before then I’d only ever properly heard of the Beatles through the news and “Oh, how great they were” and all that, so the usual reaction would be “Well, how good could they have been really?” And with ‘The Night Before’ I was swayed to the other side that little bit. Then in that “Beatlemania” slot, ‘Penny Lane’ played and that was that. Went to search for those songs on YouTube on the daily.

You could definitely argue that it’s very difficult for a Beatles track to be considered ‘under the radar’, but I think in this case this song might just go under that category. There’s not a lot of people out there who you could say “Ah, man, “The Night Before”, that’s song’s great,” and expect a reciprocated response from. Except Beatles fans, and even then they might not listen to anything before Rubber Soul. I’ll always hold it dear though. For that sentimental value as described above, and because it’s just a good song. Paul McCartney belts out his lines, George Harrison and John Lennon harmonise in response. There’s an electric piano which makes it sound a lot smoother. Ringo Starr’s banging away on the drums. I think there’s meant to be a sense of sadness to the song, but I can’t help but feel good when it’s on.

#919: 747s – Night & Day

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I know. You’ve seen the title and you’re probably thinking “What?” and “By who?” I couldn’t blame you. 747s are one of those bands left in that huge pile of those who arrived during that big UK indie-rock movement of the mid-2000s and either disappeared or were forgotten about not too soon afterwards. This is one of two songs that I know by the band, and I only know those two because those were the ones that were shown on TV. Otherwise, there’s a great chance I wouldn’t have an idea this band existed. Luckily I caught this one sometime during a morning, and it’s stuck with me ever since. I’ll guess it would have been 2006 or so, because that’s when Wikipedia says the track was released as a single.

‘Night & Day’ is the opening track on the band’s only album Zampano. Was the band’s first ever single too. And to be fair, I would say it has everything you want in a piece of music that you would want to introduce yourself to the masses to. Great opening guitar line to set the mood, it comes back here and there throughout, and the bass guitar mirrors it to emphasise its melody. Those guitars have some fantastic tones to ’em too. The rhythm’s kind of buried in the left channel, which opens up the space to the lead guitar in the right that really carries the song’s momentum. Gotta give a shout-out to the chorus to, where the chord progression rises and builds some intensity alongside these backing ‘aah-aah’ vocals. There’s something about this track that also makes me think of those showtime tunes. A lot of jazz hand thrown about. I think there are a lot of seventh chords being used, maybe that’s why. Then again, I’m not even sure about that, so someone’d have to tell me. But around 2006, it was much different to a lot of the bands who were pretty much Arctic Monkey wannabes.

The track is about a seemingly fleeting relationship in which the narrator wants to make their partner happy and follow their own free will, while coming to the point that at some point they’ll split and go their separate ways. Doesn’t sound like there’s any ill will that’s meant or anything. You know you can get those songs that are a bit off-putting that way. But it’s one where the message is along the lines of “Well, these things happen and it’ll be okay,” which I’m all for. Of course I didn’t know this when I was 11, but 15 and a bit years gives you time to think about this stuff. But that’s as far as it goes with me and 747s. That other song by them that I know, I’m very sure played just the once on MTV2, and they were never heard from again. Didn’t have much of an effect as this one.

My iPod #486: The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night

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John Lennon took on the task of writing the theme song for The Beatles’ movie debut; something that grabbed the audience’s attention as soon as the first shot of the film hit appeared on the screen, would get the crowd excited for what was to come. He did so over one night. He then came up with a final lyric whilst on the way to Abbey Road Studios to record the track the next morning. Less than three hours later, “A Hard Day’s Night” was complete.

Taking its name from an accidental but witty remark by Ringo Starr, “A Hard Day’s Night” begins both the album and film of the same name with a strident, hard-to-replicate guitar chord, before launching into its first verse in which Lennon declares to us that it has been ‘a hard day’s night’ because he’s been working too much. He wants to sleep, but when he gets home to his lady all the stress goes away. Pretty standard subject matter, right? But Lennon used it to make one of the most exciting album openers of the 1960s. Paul McCartney provided some help too.

You have probably heard it already, if not, take some time now. It’s only two and a half minutes.