Members Stackabones Posted July 30, 2010 Members Share Posted July 30, 2010 What has influenced you as a songwriter in the past ... or since the last FIT? * Mento could be called Jamaican calypso. You may think you haven't heard it, but almost all the songs Harry Belafonte's Calypso were mento -- from Jamaica, not Trinidad. Essentially an acoustic music, it features acoustic gutiar, maracas, banjo and rhumba box. I've been listening to this music for around six years and have several CDs (there aren't too many to be had). It's a style that has largely been forgotten and frequently denigrated, yet it influenced Bob Marley and many other Jamaican musicians. Interesting to note that Belafonte's release was the first full-length LP to sell a million copies, but how many folks then or since then knew that they had been really spinning mento? The Jolly Boys have been playing this music since the 50s and have seen some tough times ... As work slowed down for the Jolly Boys, Minott was reduced to performing at a carnival sideshow at Coney Island, singing Island in the Sun while a female midget danced with a male giant. "I have been through some hard times," he says. "I have been playing music for 50 years and I have given so much to my country, but I was not treated well in return. I kept wondering, 'When were we going to get a break?'" So I was happy to read that they have a new recording coming out. [YOUTUBE]XOwl-bMfIkc[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted July 30, 2010 Moderators Share Posted July 30, 2010 Producer Mickie Most. For taking rock and roll youth and spirit and packaging it into pop delectables. Not good for you, low in nutrition, very short shelf life... but really fun. The Animals - Baby Let Me Take You Home, House of the Rising Sun Herman's Hermits - I'm Into Something Good Donavon - Mellow Yellow and Hurdy Gurdy Man The Yardbirds Using Page and John Paul Jones on his pop tracks pre-Zeppelin. Giving people like Joan Jett and the Runaways and Kim Fowley plenty of ideas to steal. Disposable art. Crotch Rock for 13 year olds. Bad Taste. High in sugar. Platforms. Razor Cuts. Marshall Amps. Beer. 70's drugs. Wet dreams. Innocence with bad intentions. ROCK. [YOUTUBE]7SXWgC0SLCA[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]b6jeQUbovjI[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members davesacre Posted August 2, 2010 Members Share Posted August 2, 2010 Anthrax. In particular the songs "Catharsis" and "Packaged Rebellion." These two songs really made evident for me the idea of the pre-chorus. Not just that, but each verse/pre-chorus/chorus has some sort of shift in it that keeps it interesting. Songs I have written in the past had one riff for a verse, one for the chorus and maybe some sort of odd bridge. My riffs were usually short turnarounds that got repeated so much that they got stale. Anthrax, on the other hand, may have one riff for the first part of the verse, then a variation or second riff for the latter half of the verse. They may do this for the pre-chorus and chorus as well. Then another for the bridge. That's up to seven distinct riffs per song as opposed to the three that I was using. While seven riffs may not always be useful, discovering this really helped me see new directions I could take my own songs and riffs. The two songs I listed have pretty obvious shifts, but hearing and being aware of these has helped me spot them in other songs in different genres. In the last year I would say this knowledge has been the most influential in my study of music. [YOUTUBE]BFIbEnXOvXo[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]2H-YzDx1md8[/YOUTUBE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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