Members rasputin1963 Posted February 16, 2013 Members Share Posted February 16, 2013 How good are your ears after standing by the Marshall amp at that REO SPEEDWAGON show in 1978? Listening today to one of my favorite records again, 1963's "On Broadway" by The Drifters Listen starting at time 2:30. Can you hear the violins screaming in their very highest sopranissimo range--- we're talking dog-whistle notes here--- playing that syncopated quarter-note figure above the "wall of sound" ? My keyboard shows that this note is an extremely high Bb (MIDI NOTE: Bb 6), adding a 9th scale degree to the overall bluesy Ab7 chord. This note has always eluded me in the previous 5 decades I'd listened to this recording. kewl, huh? I'm guessing Jack Nitszche wrote in that note for them to play.... It adds a melancholy, almost creepy feel (sopranissimo strings are always glassy, creepy, slightly hackle-raising, which is why Bernard Herrmann used them for that infamous PSYCHO riff) to the desperate tone of this song... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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