#pre-chorus

[emberunderscore]

fuck I finished the part of the animation with little to no people in it...

now I have to draw people :(

[thecoleopterawithana]

Photo-realistic oil paintings by Klaus Voormann, depicting the years he spent with The Beatles in Hamburg, from 1960 to 1962.

Klaus was part of a group of The Beatles' friends in Hamburg. His "memory drawings" of our Hamburg days are not only beautiful drawings in themselves, but capture the spirit of the times.

– Paul McCartney

The Top Ten Club ‘96  |  The Beatles play the Top Ten Club with Klaus on bass.

Ringo, Keiserkeller Dressing Room ‘96  |  Backstage with Ringo and Rory Storm in the Kaiserkeller dressing room.

Paul and Rosa ‘96  |  Paul is shown receiving slimming pill amphetamines to help sustain round-the-clock performances in the Kaiserkeller.

Stu Betkante

Daybreak ‘96

Breakfast with John ‘95

Breakfast with John ‘06

At the Kirchherr’s Bathtub ‘12 

Davidwache Police Station ‘96  |  Prior to being deported, Paul McCartney spends a night in the Davidwache Police Station.

Hamburg Doorways ‘18

[I am endlessly fascinated by illustrative records made by people that were actually there. Like Paul said, these seem to capture the spirit and the ambience of the moment, with an emotional acuity that photographs normally lack, limited to an instant as they are. Klaus Voormann is a blessing in the sense that he allows us a peek behind the curtains, placing us there with him in the scene, in a way that little else can. I wanted to gather all these pieces in one place, despite having seen some of them floating around. My sincere thanks to those who brought them to my attention in the first place.]

[hong-kong-art-man]

WHEN YOU CUT OPEN A POP SONG, THE 10 TOOLS THAT YOU WILL FIND? 

We listen to pop songs but do not bother to dredge up the elements. There are often 10 components in a pop song:

1. intro

2. verse

3. pre-chorus

4. chorus

5. outro

6. solo

7. interlude

8. bridge

9. tag

10. hook

The fundamental structural parts of a popular song are the ‘verse’ and ‘chorus’. Pop songs almost invariably have both a verse and a chorus. The basic difference is that when the music of the verse returns, it is usually given a new set of lyrics to develop and tell a story; and the verse may be usually the statement by the singer but the chorus can sometimes be sung by a back-up group.   It is a consequence of the verses. The chorus is mostly the highlight of a song.

The chorus usually retains the same set of lyrics (or repeating a few words) every time when its music appears. Chorus is used to communicate and reinforce the main message of a song. For example, the famous song ‘Auld Lang Syne’ means ‘time gone by’.  Its chorus is chiefly: “For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne….”

‘Intro’ is the opening instrumental section of a song without lyrics. It introduces the mood and most importantly grabs the listener’s attention with aural pleasures. The song ‘Yesterday’ of The Beatles shows the short and powerful impact of an Intro of guitar strumming: “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away….”  Another example is the opening music intro of ‘Hotel California’ by Eagles.  

Functionally speaking, a ‘pre-chorus’ may be words or small instrumental section connecting the verse and the chorus. It may be just a couple of bars. Pre suggests ‘beforehand’.  A pre-chorus builds emotional suspense or anticipation for the catharsis of the chorus and can heighten the impact of the chorus.  A good example is found in ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ by Oasis.  Every time before the long chorus starts, there is a pre-chorus as follows: “So I’ll start a revolution from my bed. Cause you said the brains I had went to my head….”  Then, the chorus proceeds to describe a girl named Sally.

Outro is usually the melody with or without words fading out or repeatedly fading out at the end of a pop song. The fading may be slow or abrupt; and the volume may either drop or rise. Outro leads a listener to the meaningful afterthoughts or aftertastes of a song. Remember Barbra Streisand’s song ‘Evergreen’ and she sang at the end emphatically: “Ageless and ever…ever…green….”  Another example is the instrumental repeat of ‘Memory’ in the musical ‘Cats’.

For lyricists, there are 2 trade terms known as ‘hook’ and ‘tag’. A hook is the punch of a song which is often a short riff or phrase that is used to ‘catch the ear of the listener’.  An example is ‘One Way Ticket’ by Eruption. The expression “one way ticket” must have been sung more than 20 times in the song to promote.  Another two good examples are ‘When will I see you again!’ sung by The Three Degrees and ‘Y.M.C.A.’ by Village People. “When will I see you again!” serves as an outro in the song and likewise “Y.M.C.A.” repeated the phrases too.

A ‘tag’ is a line or a few bars in length that are repeated, sometimes at the end of a song and sometimes going back to the chorus. It may only be a few bars in length. Listen to the song ‘I Will follow Him’.  The tag is “I love him, love him, I love him” although the hook in this song is “I will follow him”.  Another tag example is ‘What a Wonderful World’ sung by Louis Armstrong.  Hooks may be longer and tags are the shorter tricks to make a song more easily remembered and become popular.

A solo is the section of a song featuring and highlighting a single performer or music instrument. Two good examples are the last guitar solo section by Eagles in  ‘Hotel California’ and the last guitar solo section in the song ‘Mr. Postman’ by the Carpenters. In pop songs, rock guitar solos are common. Also you must listen to Rod Stewarts’s famous song ‘I was only Joking’ for the solo.

A bridge in songwriting is a section that differs melodically, rhythmically or lyrically from the rest of the song. It often links up the verse and chorus and offers a unique surprise and perspective; or serves as an ‘emotional shift’ in a song.  The use of a bridge reminds a listener that the song has more than the basic two parts of verse and chorus; and has something refreshing to offer. One good example of a Bridge section is Barry Manillow’s ‘Mandy’.  The bridge is “Yesterday’s a dream….” and it returns to the chorus beginning with “Oh Mandy”.  Another good example of hook is John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’.   The bridge begins with: “I hear a voice that …” and returns to the hook: “country roads, take me home….”

An ‘interlude’ is an instrumental music break passage that usually comes between the chorus and chorus repeat; or between the chorus and verse repeat in a song.  It is used to present the main melody theme in an instrumental style, rather than just the lyrics part. It can even further present the song differently by offering another cosmetic presentation of the thematic variation.  It simply strengthens the song’s main idea in a purely instrumental way.  Examples are the wailing saxophone toward the end of Billy Joel’s ‘Only The Good Die Young’ and the guitar instrumental interlude of ‘Reflections of My Life’ by the Marmalade.   

It is not easy to write a good pop song.  But, the music vocabulary introduced above does help understand more about how pop music are structured.  The chemistry of the 10 components of a pop song is often beyond calculation. Chemistry just happens. It is like falling in love. You can tell you are in love but you cannot explain the ways of falling in love.

(pictures downloaded from internet)

[beewaggle]

I've been kinda down lately so could yah do anything with Felix and animals? (Sorry Felix with cats and dogs and shit is just so cute in fics???)

Title: Animal Friends for Snow WhiteCharacters: Locus, FelixPairings: GenRating: GWarnings: Someone yells at a dog in a flashback, but no animals are harmed during the making of this fic. Summary: There are times when Locus and Felix live together. Locus expected a bad roommate. He didn’t expect the menagerie.Note: I hope this cheers you up a little!

It’s not just money Felix likes.

“…Where did that come from?”

Sharing space with Felix when they weren’t doing jobs was never exactly ideal.

And it wasn’t because of the loud music, the reality shows, the fact that he would leave the tv on when he wasn’t even there, that he finished milk and put the carton back in the fridge, or even the string of strangers brought home from clubs and discotheques (his word).

All that he expected on the ‘off season’ as Felix had put it. Rent was tight, and they were used to close quarters with each other. It had made sense.

What he didn’t expect was the stray dogs and feral cats.

…And that racoon one time.

“Oh, Nimrod. Yeah, followed me home.”

The mangey orange cat bumped his head against Felix’s arm as he passed by for coffee.

“But why is it in the apartment?” Locus pressed. There was a no pet rule–not that he expected something as banal as apartment rules to make Felix pause, but still.

“Followed me home,” Felix repeated. “Jeez, Sam, what’s so hard to understand?” He rolled his eyes as if it was Locus being the unreasonable one. Felix took a gulp of coffee, leaning against the kitchen counter (now covered in paw marks, he had just cleaned that last night). ‘Nimrod’ continued to happily scent mark Felix. Felix reached over and idly scratched his ear.

During the war at one point they had been stationed at a human outpost. A stray dog had attached itself to Felix. Felix called it Dipshit (But it became known as Dippy). He loved Felix. Trotted beside him on patrol. Sat at his feet during meals. It wasn’t that Felix took care of him. He wasn’t his… pet exactly. Sometimes Felix would throw him scraps, and he would pat him, but the dog was expected to find his own square meals (the unit easily took care of that). It didn’t matter how much someone else fed him though, Dippy loved Felix. Felix seemed nonplussed about it, except for bragging purposes that the dog loved him best.

He was not attached.

Except one day one of the guys in the unit was yelling at Dippy for pissing on his gear. Looked like he might try to rub his nose in it when Felix appeared, wrenched his wrist back, looked him directly in the eyes and said: “Don’t fucking touch my dog.”

It was an intimidating look that slid into an easy Issac Gates smile, “Your own fault for leaving your shit lying around asshole,” Everyone laughed it off. Except the guy Felix told off. He looked at Felix differently after that. And no one tried to discipline Dippy again.

The dog ended up left behind.

“Aren’t you worried about Dippy? I hate leaving him all alone,” One of the guys said. He had been known to give a good portion of food to the stray.

“Nah, he knows how to take care of himself,” Felix replied, unbothered.

“Don’t worry, last I saw him he was playing by the orphanage. Apparently he’s gonna be their new guard dog,” Another guy laughed. “He always did like going out on patrol.”

Locus saw the self-satisfied smile right before Felix put his helmet back on.

Locus had thought Dippy was a one off.

When they settled. When Siris brought them together again. When they started having to rent in the city, he learned that, no. It wasn’t a one off at all.

“Mrew,” Nimrod demanded pawing at Felix’s arm.

“Cat’s don’t drink coffee, moron,” He pulled his cup away, and looked at Locus. “Are you fucking analysing me again?”

“No,” Locus denied and moved to the fridge.

“Hand me the ham while you’re in there.”

He tossed the packet over while pulling out out the milk.

Felix put down his coffee, pushing the cat away from it when it tried to dip it’s head in. “That’s mine.”

“Just leave the carton on the table if it’s empty,” Locus grumbled throwing the empty milk into the recycling. Every single time. Unfortunate. He’d skip coffee then.

Felix rolled his eyes throwing the ham on some bread. He took a huge bite and this time, when Nimrod tried to swipe the sandwich from him, he tore off a piece of meat and handed it over. “Little shit,” he fed it a few more pieces and finished his sandwich. Rubbed the cat’s ears.

“It probably has fleas,” Locus finally said.

“What?”

“The cat, it probably has fleas.”

Felix glanced at Nimrod as if he had just noticed him for the first time.

“I care why?”

“It’s your cat,” Locus ground out. “I’m not taking care of it.”

“Neither am I,” Felix held up his hands in a whoa gesture. “And it’s not my cat. He followed me home.”

“Just like the pitbull?”

“Asshat? Yeah. He followed me around and then went home to the junkyard. Idiot was lost.”

“The siamese?”

“Loudmouth was looking for… pussy,” Felix stuck out his tongue. “The alley out back was the perfect spot. He moved on, probably has a few litters now, what a slut.”

“And the racoon?” Locus gave him a dead eyed stare.

“Trash Lord Lexington wanted to eat garbage. You didn’t take it out and left the window open. It’s on you.”

“You let him sleep with you!” Locus shouted.

Felix’s face scrunched, trying to figure out Locus’ angle. Meanwhile Nimrod had crawled on Felix’s shoulders and hung off him. God the cat had the same expression as Felix.

It suddenly occurred to Locus that he was right about Dippy and the rest of them.

They weren’t his pets.

They were…just… similar.

All the ratty, torn up, dirty, grubby animals that took to Felix. Felix was the same as them. A stray that believed in survival of the fittest. Felix wasn’t babying them. He didn’t want a dependant.

But he allied with them.

“We don’t fight with Partners, Locus, we work with them, feed them, and do the job with them, even if they’re assholes,” Felix had once growled at him when a former ally had made a few too many comments on his scars. Locus had taken that particular lesson to heart. Felix didn’t say a lot of things that made sense to Locus, but when he did it always struck a deep chord in him.

Probably, feral cats and stray dogs were the only friends Felix really considered. They didn’t have expectations of him, and he didn’t have any of them.

Felix leaned over and opened the window. They were on the second floor, but a tree grew up against the building. Nimrod sniffed the air, crawled off Felix’s arms and left. “Problem solved,” Felix smirked.

“Until the next one,” Locus countered.

Felix snorted, “Yeah. I’m a fucking Disney Princess, aren’t I?”

[thecoleopterawithana]

John and Paul naturally sang their own songs; then, in order to give George and Ringo something original to sing, they began to write for them too. It would be some time before George began writing his own material and 'Do You Want to Know a Secret' was written for him. Based on an original idea by John, it was essentially what Paul calls a 'hack song', a 50-50 collaboration written to order. John says that he based the tune on 'Wishing Well' from Walt Disney's 1937 cartoon Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which his mother used to sing to him when he was two or three years old.

In Barry Miles’ Many Years From Now (1997).

-

[thecoleopterawithana]

When we got to the Cavern, we realised everybody and his uncle knew all the tunes we knew, so we started to move towards the В sides and the more obscure tunes like Ritchie Barrett's 'Some Other Guy' [1962]. Of course you only had to do 'em once and everyone had 'em. Arthur Alexander's 'Shot of Rhythm and Blues' [1962], Gerry and the Pacemakers did it. But we always feel we did it better. 'Let them do it, doesn't matter, we'll do it better.' We took James Ray's 'If You're Gonna Make a Fool of Somebody' [1961] to the Oasis Club, Manchester, and Freddie and the Dreamers had it the next week! It was one of our numbers. That was a waltz, a funky soul waltz, and nobody did waltzes. We were looking to be different because we realised the competition out there.              There were groups that did Cliff and the Shadows. There was a group called the Blue Angels that sounded exactly like Roy Orbison; they were immaculate. The Remo Four did a lot of Chet Atkins stuff, with clever guitar picking. So we decided we couldn't keep up, we couldn't better any of them, we had to find our own identity. We looked on Bo Diddley В sides, we looked for obscure rhythm and blues things: 'Searchin" by the Coasters [1957], 'Anna' by Arthur Alexander [1962].              We did the Shirelles' 'Soldier Boy' [1962], which is a girl's song. It never occurred to us. No wonder all the gays liked John. And Ringo used to sing 'Boys' [1960], another Shirelles number. It was so innocent. We just never even thought, Why is he singing about boys? We loved the song. We loved the records so much that what it said was irrelevant, it was just the spirit, the sound, the feeling. The joy when you did that 'Bab shoo-wap, bab bab shoo wop'. That was the great fun of doing 'Boys'.              So at the Cavern we started to introduce a couple of our own songs along with these obscure В sides. We thought, There's one way they can't do it, they wouldn't dare do one of our songs. The first couple of songs we did of ours were rather laughed off, but a couple of girls in the audience quite liked them and would request them. 'Like Dreamers Do' was one of the very first songs I wrote and tried out at the Cavern. We did a weak arrangement but certain of the kids liked it because it was unique, none of the other groups did it. It was actually a bit of a joke to dare to try your own songs. They didn't go down very well with Gerry and the Pacemakers and other groups. If they told us what they liked it would be 'What'd I Say' or 'Some Other Guy' or Little Richard stuff that I did. It was the more genuine shit, not stuff you wrote yourself. For you to write it yourself was a bit plonky, and the songs obviously weren't that great, but I felt we really had to break through that barrier because if we never tried our own songs we'd just never have the confidence to continue writing.              By the time we got to 'Love Me Do', they started to feel a bit bluesier. When we eventually got down to London, that was the one we insisted on recording rather than 'How Do You Do It', the Gerry and the Pacemakers song, which was more George Formby than anything else. We knew that the peer pressure back in Liverpool would not allow us to do 'How Do You Do It'. We knew we couldn't hold our heads up with that sort of rock-a-pop-a-ballad. We would be spurned and cast away into the wilderness.

Paul McCartney on how the Beatles had to work hard and develop their own identity to stay ahead of the competition provided by the abundance of groups in Liverpool, and how that eventually led them to play their own songs. In Many Years From Now, by Barry Miles (1997).

[thecoleopterawithana]

When we first started it was all singles and we were always trying to write singles. That’s why you get lots of these 2 minute 30 seconds songs; they all came out the same length. ‘Hold Me Tight’ was a failed attempt at a single which then became an acceptable album filler.              The thing about the Beatles is it wasn’t vulgar. We were actually very good. It was like being in an art group, it was being in an association with a few artistic friends. That was the kind of underlying feeling we had after having been in Hamburg. I remember we had a joke with the sax player from another band. He knocked on the door and I grabbed a volume of Yevtushenko’s poetry and started quoting from it and the guys all sat around, like really into it, like Beat poets. And the sax player crept in, 'Oh, sorry.’ He put his sax back in his case and crept back out again. And we howled. But this kind of cheek gave us a feeling of being different from the pack.              We didn’t particularly like the girl adoration, although it was marvellous if you wanted a date. The main thing for us, first of all, was just doing our craft. We were genuinely trying to be artists; we’d actually comment on it, 'Hey, there’s a guy in the front row who’s really clocking all your chords!’ If we played a good bit, a new technique or an innovative riff, we saw that they noticed; the guys were watching our guitars and our hands, not our legs and willies. That was what we liked.              There was always an underlying ambition to go in a slightly artistic direction, whereas a lot of our fellow groups didn’t have that. This is why we didn’t do 'How Do You Do It’ when George Martin suggested it. 'It’s a number one!’ he said, and God knows we needed a number one. We said, 'No, no! No thanks!’ And we wouldn’t go to America till we had a number-one record either, and again, God knows we wanted exposure, we wanted an American tour. In a strange way we were very conscious of where we were heading whilst having no map whatsoever. We just had a feeling that 'God, this John Lennon guy is pretty special and Paul McCartney’s not too bad either. And fucking hell, George is a little bit of a head. And Jesus Christ, Ringo’s a dude!’ And we all knew, boy, these four qualify for something, there was no dead weight at all. It annoys me when people discount some of us; and obviously the easiest one to discount is Ringo - 'Well, he just hit some skins at the back of it all, didn’t he?’ George in one book is described 'standing around with his plectrum in his hand waiting for a solo’. Well, you know, 'Too easy, love. Too cheap a shot. You check George out some time and you’ll find a little more there than that.

Paul McCartney on what differentiated the Beatles from other groups and made them succeed. In Many Years From Now (1997), by Barry Miles.

[im-rudi]

Impregnable lover In your ivory tower Where you endlessly wonder While I'm stuck under hi. first post. i write lyrics. this one feels like a pre-chorus, i think. got some wips in the daw, but they’re still too rough to share. eventually, i hope to post the musical stuff too. (also, happy birthday Patrick. "this is the love song in my own way". the universe is pushing me to post this today.)