0:01

A cyborg is a biological organism that

0:03

has been enhanced in some way by

0:05

a mechanical device. a hybrid of human

0:07

and machine. A. Musical

0:09

Cyborg is kind of the same thing, and

0:11

if you think about it, you been listening

0:14

the cybernetic music all your life. Welcome

0:23

the. Strong Songs A podcast about music.

0:25

I'm your host Kirk Hamilton and I'm

0:27

so glad that you join me to

0:29

talk about music made by Cyborg. Music

0:32

made for Cyborg Music made with sight

0:34

words and music made about Cyborg. Okay,

0:37

the word has lost all meaning.

0:39

This show is Patria unsupported, entirely

0:41

independent, and I get to make

0:43

it however I want, and that's

0:45

all. Thanks to you for supporting

0:47

me as I make it to

0:49

support this one hundred percent human

0:51

made podcast. Go to patria.com/strong Songs

0:53

on. This. Episode: It's time for me to

0:55

step aside and let you pick the topic.

0:57

And oh, what a topic you picked! The

1:00

results of our first ever voting bracket are

1:02

coming right up and there's so much to

1:04

talk about. So let's plug in the drum

1:06

machine, sync up the since, and. Dropped the

1:08

be. Disco,

1:29

Disco. Disco for a word that

1:31

for decades was almost considered a

1:33

slur by fans have some other

1:35

styles of music? It sure is

1:38

a fun one to say. And

1:40

speaking of that, Blondie Blondie Blondie

1:42

Blondie Blondie Blondie you know that's

1:44

a pretty fun word to say

1:46

to. Disco.

1:49

And Blondie to fun words that somehow

1:51

sound even more fun together. Maybe we

1:54

should look into that. As

1:58

I was beginning preproduction on strong some. season

2:00

6, I held my first ever

2:02

listener voting bracket to have listeners vote

2:04

on an artist for me to cover

2:06

in the upcoming season. We

2:08

started with 32 different artists ranging

2:10

from Cyndi Lauper to Ella Fitzgerald, and

2:13

everyone on Patreon got a vote. Several

2:17

rounds and many votes later, it

2:20

all came down to an unlikely

2:22

showdown between two very different bands.

2:24

On the one hand, Nirvana, and

2:26

on the other hand, Blondie. To

2:30

be honest, I really thought Nirvana was going

2:32

to pull it out. They had been dominant

2:34

in every round leading up to the finals.

2:36

That said, there'd already been a lot of

2:38

surprises, so I'd learn to expect the unexpected,

2:40

and only a few hours after voting opened,

2:42

it became clear that a winner was in

2:44

the office. Yes,

2:48

Blondie cruised to victory, which meant that it was

2:50

time for me to choose one of their songs

2:52

to break out on the show, and while I

2:54

listened to a ton of their music before making

2:56

my decision, in the end, I mean

2:58

you knew which song it was going to be. On

3:05

this episode, I am so excited to talk about

3:07

Blondie and their 1978 hit, Heart of Glass. This

3:13

is a great example

3:17

of a song that

3:20

I thought I knew, but when

3:23

I sat down with it, I

3:28

discovered layer upon layer of

3:31

fascinating production and songwriting techniques

3:33

that I hadn't noticed before.

3:42

With Heart of Glass, an unusually well-documented

3:44

writing and recording process led to a

3:47

one-of-a-kind song that took Blondie from the

3:49

clubs of the New York Underground to

3:51

dance floors around the world. First

4:01

up, some vital stats. Blondie was

4:03

fronted by now famous singer Debbie

4:05

Harry, but as she and the

4:07

rest of the band took great

4:10

pains to remind people, she was

4:12

not Blondie. Blondie was the band

4:14

which also consisted of guitarist Chris

4:16

Stein, drummer Clem Burke, synth and

4:18

keyboard player Jimmy Destry, bassist Nigel

4:20

Harrison, and guitarist Frank Infante. Blondie

4:22

was a great band and you

4:25

can hear their influence on all

4:27

sorts of rock bands today. They

4:30

sound very modern even though they were making

4:32

the bulk of their material so many

4:34

decades ago. But Heart of Glass, which

4:36

was the breakout single off of their

4:38

1978 album Parallel Lines, that was actually

4:40

a little bit of a stylistic outlier

4:42

for them as a pure dance number.

4:47

They've got plenty of other hits to their name

4:49

to give a sense of their style and the

4:52

breadth of their music. One way

4:54

or another off of Parallel Lines is a

4:56

great one. There's also Atomic,

4:58

which is off of their 1979 follow-up to

5:01

Parallel Lines' Eat to the Beat.

5:08

That's my other favorite Blondie song and it's

5:10

the one I almost wound up focusing on

5:12

for this episode. Really

5:15

just so I could talk about this part. Atomic

5:35

will definitely go listen to that song

5:37

if you've never heard it before. Their

5:39

other most famous song, Call Me, is

5:42

actually only sort of a Blondie song.

5:44

Harry only wrote the lyrics with the

5:46

song itself written by Giorgio Moroder for

5:48

the American Gigolo soundtrack and the other

5:50

members of the band were actually replaced

5:52

by LA session musicians on the original

5:55

version. Great

6:00

song though Heart

6:05

of Glass was a huge hit for Blondie

6:08

and in the wake of that song you

6:10

can hear a little more of those dance

6:12

grooves making their way into their songs But

6:14

even now Heart of Glass sticks out a

6:16

bit when you put it up against the

6:19

rest of their more sharp Elbowed new wave

6:21

rock tunes and that's also what makes the

6:23

song interesting like a lot of Blondie songs

6:25

It was written by Debbie Harry and guitarist

6:27

Chris Stein, but it sounded quite a bit

6:29

different in its original incarnation After

6:41

Heart of Glass became a hit Blondie released

6:43

this early demo they'd recorded of the song

6:45

back when it was called Once I had

6:47

a love and which they hadn't quite found

6:49

a home for or worked into a finished

6:52

state As

6:55

you can hear it was pretty different. It

6:57

was a slower kind of jamier thing It

6:59

had this like quasi reggae bounce to it

7:02

some of the band members apparently referred to

7:04

it semi ironically as the disco song Parallel

7:11

Lines was produced by Mike Chapman a now

7:13

legendary producer and songwriter who worked as a

7:15

bit of a hitmaker The guy

7:17

knew how to make a killer record according

7:20

to Harry in a 2013 interview

7:22

with the Guardian that I'll link in show

7:24

notes Chapman was listening to the songs the

7:26

band had ready for their new record and

7:28

once they'd gotten through them all he asked

7:30

Have you got anything else? So they played

7:32

in this song and he saw the song's

7:34

potential He

7:41

and the band quickly set about transforming

7:43

that raw material into what would eventually

7:45

become Heart of Glass And they did

7:48

so with the help of some at

7:50

the time cutting-edge instruments and production techniques

7:55

So as

7:57

you can hear it they had quite a ways to go to

8:00

get from that demo to the finished

8:02

song, and they've talked a lot about

8:04

that process over the years. There's this

8:06

great 2008 Sound on Sound article that

8:08

goes in depth with Chapman on how

8:10

they put the whole thing together. There

8:12

are a variety of other articles and

8:14

interviews and features about this song out

8:16

in the world, but I'm primarily going

8:18

to be referencing that article, which I'll

8:20

link in the show notes. First

8:23

up, they quickly dropped that whole skunky

8:25

reggae vibe, and they tried different feels

8:27

for the song. He says they tried

8:29

a traditional rock feel, but that wasn't

8:31

really working, so he pulled a classic

8:34

producer trick and he asked Debbie Harry,

8:36

alright, what music is turning you on

8:38

right now? Her answer, according to him,

8:40

was Donna Summer, which they all had

8:42

to acknowledge was disco and set them

8:44

on the path toward the song's disco

8:46

inflections, despite the fact that several of

8:49

the band members had an antipathy for

8:51

disco, which was pretty common in the

8:53

late 70s among rock fans.

8:55

Of course, Chapman and Harry had both heard

8:57

Donna Summer, they knew that disco could actually

8:59

be pretty great, so they set about turning Once

9:01

I Had a Love into a

9:03

disco song, albeit one with a blondie

9:06

twist. They

9:11

soon changed the title to Heart of

9:13

Glass, which is a much better title,

9:15

and they arranged the song around a

9:17

new, driving rhythm anchored by a crucial

9:19

piece of electronic music gear, a Roland

9:22

CR-78 drum machine. Happily,

9:27

the recording actually begins with a couple of bars

9:29

of the CR-78 playing one of

9:32

its standard grooves unaccompanied, so I could grab

9:34

that and use it for my recreation rather

9:36

than having to track down an emulation of

9:38

the machine or find a recording of it

9:40

somewhere. I do like to strive for authenticity,

9:42

and this is an easy way to get

9:44

it. The

9:48

drum machine is playing this jaunty little groove

9:50

that's actually got a little bit of salsa

9:52

to it. It's defined by a 3-2 clave

9:54

figure. With

10:03

one exception, this drum machine pattern plays

10:05

through the entire recording. It's over on

10:07

the left channel just cooking away the

10:09

entire time. And the band used the

10:12

drum track as a guidepost for the

10:14

song, similarly to how a band today

10:16

might use a click track, with the

10:18

difference being that the CR-78 was actually

10:20

included in the finished recording. Ordinarily, a

10:22

click track is more of an auxiliary

10:25

track that plays a metronome click through

10:27

the band's headphones, allowing them to keep

10:29

a groove consistent, which makes it easier

10:31

to overdub and edit after the

10:33

fact since the tempo remains constant

10:36

across every take. Click

10:38

tracks have become the norm in

10:40

music today, particularly in pop music,

10:42

as MIDI sequencing has allowed the

10:44

synchronization of dozens of electronic instruments

10:46

across an entire studio, and quantization

10:49

and rhythmic redistribution of parts after

10:51

they've been recorded is also possible

10:53

thanks to digital audio software. In

10:55

the late 70s, that was a

10:57

much less widespread practice, particularly for

11:00

rock bands like Blondie. So

11:04

using the drum machine as a guide,

11:06

Burke recorded each of his drum parts

11:08

separately. First he recorded the

11:10

kick drum, that four-on-the-floor dance thump,

11:12

carefully performed so that it matched

11:14

perfectly with the downbeat of each

11:16

bar. Next

11:20

came the snare drum, keeping metronomic

11:22

time on two and four, giving

11:24

the most straightforward thump-pop juxtaposition possible.

11:30

Finally came the cymbals, the hi-hat and

11:32

a crash cymbal, filling

11:34

out the groove with a subdivided

11:37

sizzle defined by a washy, half-open

11:39

disco hi-hat thing. So

11:45

that's the thump, the pop, and the sizzle,

11:47

and it's all really straightforward. If that was

11:50

all there was to the groove on this

11:52

song, it wouldn't sound as interesting as it

11:54

does. To me, those drums are

11:56

just a supporting structure for the elements that

11:58

Chapman and the band used to

12:00

bring this groove to light. The

12:03

keyboard, the bass, the bass synths,

12:05

and the electric guitars. Those

12:12

are all harmonic instruments, so before we get

12:15

into them, let's go over the harmony of

12:17

this verse really quick. Heart of Glass is

12:19

in the key of E major, or at

12:21

least this recording is. Blondie tends to perform

12:23

the song live in D. They were even

12:25

doing that way back in the

12:27

1970s in some televised performances, so I'm not

12:30

sure if they recorded it in D and

12:32

sped it up to raise the pitch. It

12:34

doesn't really sound like that to me. Regardless,

12:36

it is squarely in E on the record,

12:38

and so we are going to do it

12:40

in the key of E major. The three

12:43

chords of the verse are E major first,

12:45

which then goes to a C sharp major

12:47

chord, which is a nice little lifted sound

12:49

that then shifts to C sharp minor, which

12:51

is a more traditional place for the sixth

12:54

chord to be, before going back to E

12:56

major. So it's just those three chords, E

12:59

major, C sharp major, C sharp

13:01

minor, E major. So

13:13

those are the chords that everyone is

13:15

playing. Let's build this one up from

13:17

the bottom. So we've already got the

13:19

drums and the drum machine sorted. Those

13:22

are pretty straightforward. That means we need

13:24

to add the bass. The thing is,

13:26

Heart of Glass doesn't just have Nigel

13:28

Harrison's electric bass part. It's also got

13:30

this repeating synth bass firing out 16th

13:32

notes throughout the entire song. So Harrison's

13:34

bass line is pretty simple. He plays

13:37

these strong E downbeats, surrounds it with

13:39

an F sharp and a B, and

13:41

that's basically the pattern. Pretty

13:48

straightforward, but there's also this bass synth

13:50

of Roland SH-1000 that was synced

13:53

via MIDI to the drum machine,

13:55

so it just sat there spitting

13:57

out 16th notes like this. Alright,

14:03

let's add the electric bass to that. So

14:10

let's add the drums to that and we should

14:12

be getting somewhere. It's

14:16

really all about those robotic 16th

14:18

notes provided by the drum machine

14:20

in its period synths. So

14:24

when you mix in the other instruments played by

14:26

humans, the result is

14:28

this reguiling musical cyborg. It's like watching

14:30

a robot join a human family for

14:32

dinner. It's a little odd but it

14:34

works. So

14:42

with the bass in there, our cybernetic

14:44

musical superstructure is getting closer to completion.

14:46

Let's keep on going with those guitar

14:48

parts played by Chris Stein and Frank

14:51

Infante. So

14:54

there are two primary guitar parts in the

14:57

studio version of Heart of Glass. There's the

14:59

most obvious one, that's syncopated octave riff that

15:01

you can hear over on the right. And

15:07

then there's this more unusual one that I'm pretty

15:09

sure is a guitar, though it sounds almost like

15:11

a synthesizer. It's this repeating

15:14

delayed part. In

15:17

some ways it mirrors that repeating Roland

15:20

bass synth. So

15:24

to get that sound, I cranked up

15:26

the feedback dial on my digital delay

15:28

which caused the delay to just ring

15:30

out almost infinitely. I then played a

15:32

single very short note on the guitar

15:34

and the delay pedal did the rest.

15:36

So while I do think this sound

15:38

is a guitar, the human being is

15:40

only providing the very first note and

15:42

the majority of the sound production is

15:44

coming from that delay pedal so again,

15:46

this guitar part is a mix of human

15:49

and automated music. No,

15:53

I'm not actually sure who played which

15:55

guitar part here. In that sound on

15:57

sound interview, Chapman mentions putting Chris Stein.

16:00

Stein's guitar through a repeating effect, which

16:02

makes me think that Stein is playing

16:04

those layered, delayed single note parts. Chapman

16:06

also says that Infante was by far

16:08

the most capable technical player in the

16:10

band, which, along with what I can

16:12

glean from watching some live performances recorded

16:14

around the time they released their record,

16:16

makes me think that Infante was the

16:18

one playing the lead riff over on

16:21

the right, particularly given the fact that

16:23

later on in the song that part

16:25

actually gets more involved and technical than

16:27

I would have thought just based on

16:29

my surface level knowledge of this

16:31

song. This

16:34

is a fun riff to learn how to play. It's

16:36

not complicated just in terms of how many notes

16:38

it has, but you can get into a real

16:40

groove with it once you start playing. That

16:46

lead guitar part plays an important role in

16:49

the overall arrangement. It's

16:52

the most identifiably human element of the

16:54

band. If you take it out, you're

16:56

left with a more regimented, somewhat electronic

16:59

sounding dance track. Add

17:04

that electric guitar part back in, and it

17:06

gives just a little bit more rock. So

17:11

that's the rhythm section sorted. Now it's

17:13

time for the final crucial element of

17:16

any Blondie song, Debbie Harry's lead vocal.

17:21

I love

17:24

how Debbie Harry sounds

17:26

on this song. It's

17:37

an instantly recognizable vocal performance that's partly

17:39

due to how she sang it and

17:41

partly due to how it was recorded.

17:43

I wanted to talk about it, and

17:46

well, I decided to try to demonstrate

17:48

the vocals myself, and while it was

17:50

fun to sing it and it sounds

17:52

fine in this way, I can't say

17:54

that it sounds quite right. So

18:00

I decided it was time to call

18:02

in a favor. Caitlyn

18:09

and Laurie Shook, also known as the Shook

18:11

twins, are an incredible songwriting duo out of

18:14

my hometown of Portland, Oregon. I've known them

18:16

for many years now, I've written and played

18:18

horn arrangements for them on stage and on

18:20

a few of their records. I asked if

18:22

they'd be down to come by and sing

18:25

the lead part for you all, and they

18:27

were into it. Now

18:36

that's more like it. Now far be it

18:38

from me to suggest that a male voice

18:40

and its high head voice can't perform a

18:42

song originally sung by a woman, we did

18:44

just talk about Jack White's cover of Jolene

18:47

after all, but there are a couple of

18:49

particular things about the vocals on this song

18:51

that I think the Shooks will make easier

18:54

and more fun to highlight. To

19:00

start with, this vocal part has

19:02

a distinct, almost diaphanous quality. It

19:05

shimmers and shines in this slightly

19:07

unnatural way. It

19:11

actually embodies the title of the song. When

19:14

I hear Debbie Harry sing Heart of Glass,

19:16

in my mind's eye I see a Heart

19:18

of Glass. Harry

19:24

is singing pretty high in her vocal range.

19:27

She's mostly in her head voice, which is

19:29

the term for that lighter voice

19:31

up here, as opposed to your

19:33

chest voice, which is down here. Most

19:36

singers sing in some kind of a

19:38

mix between those two different resonances, and

19:40

sometimes head voices called falsetto, I actually

19:43

think it's more helpful to think of

19:45

head and chest as two different resonances

19:47

rather than two different voices, because it's

19:49

all just your one voice. So I

19:52

think of them as head resonance and

19:54

chest resonance. So when a singer goes, wha-pah-y

19:57

like this, they're mostly

20:00

singing in their head resonance. So

20:07

here's Laurie singing that same lead part

20:09

from the opening verse up in her

20:12

head voice mimicking how Debbie Harry sang

20:14

the part. Call

20:23

it head voice, head resonance, falsetto, whatever

20:25

you call it, that light upper register

20:27

vocal sound is a defining sound of

20:30

disco. Think chic, the Bee Gees, modern

20:32

acts like the Scissor Sisters, that vocal

20:34

sound is everywhere and that's what Debbie

20:36

Harry is evoking here. Now

20:42

there's something else going on as well.

20:45

Harry's light singing style is supported by

20:47

a production technique, the fact that all

20:49

of her lead vocals have been doubled.

20:51

She recorded everything twice, which adds a

20:54

slight warbling chorus effect to the lead

20:56

part and makes it sound slightly unnatural.

20:58

Now ordinarily I'd try to copy that

21:00

doubling technique by having the lead vocalists

21:02

sing the lead part twice, but since

21:04

I had the shook twins in the

21:06

studio, I realized I had an opportunity

21:09

to try something a little more fun.

21:11

See Caitlin and Laurie are identical twins

21:13

and one reason they're able to

21:15

sing so beautifully together is that

21:18

they've spent many years, their whole

21:20

lives really, working out interesting ways

21:22

to blend and differentiate their voices.

21:24

So first Laurie recorded the lead

21:26

part, and then Caitlin

21:29

matched her. Put

21:36

them together and we get a really

21:38

nice sounding take on Harry's original doubled

21:40

vocal part. The

21:44

Shooks and

21:47

I spent a

21:49

whole morning really

21:51

drilling down into

21:53

Harry's specific approach

22:00

to phrasing which was a lot of fun. When

22:02

all was said and done, I asked them what

22:04

they thought of the process. Just for your reference,

22:06

Lori's on the left and Caitlin is on the

22:08

right. Yeah, it's definitely

22:10

interesting to try to dissect everything and

22:13

match her like sweetness. She has like

22:15

a sweetness to her voice I thought,

22:17

but also gnarliness. Sweet gnarly. And just

22:19

the phrasing. I

22:22

was once I got in here, we started

22:24

dissecting every little nuance of

22:26

how, oh she rushes to and

22:28

holds on to that, oh a little bit longer, I'm singing

22:30

along with it and just listening to it over and over again before

22:32

we came in here. I didn't even pay attention

22:34

to any of those because I just felt so natural listening to

22:36

her how it came out of her mouth.

22:39

So let's go a little bit deeper

22:41

on how Harry phrased that opening verse

22:43

and I think you'll see what Caitlin

22:45

was talking about there. Take that opening

22:47

line, once I had a love and

22:49

it was a gas. When the Shooks

22:51

and I recorded it, we quickly realized

22:53

that there are a thousand different ways

22:55

to sing that line. Harry does something

22:57

pretty specific with the very opening of

22:59

the phrase. She holds on the W

23:02

sound in once, once,

23:05

which causes the line to sort of sneak

23:07

into being. Listen for it in the

23:09

original recording. Do you hear that? She

23:12

sort of sneaks in on it and

23:14

it's unusual for a singer to hold

23:16

on something like wuh as opposed to

23:19

an open vowel. It gives it a

23:21

very particular sound. An

23:26

opening phrase like that is very important since it's

23:29

the first part of the melody that the listener

23:31

hears so it's subtle what she's doing but it's

23:33

crucial for the overall effect of the song and

23:35

it took us a few takes to get it

23:37

right. Like here's an early take of

23:39

Lori singing it with the once a

23:42

little stronger on the downbeat which sounds

23:44

great but just doesn't quite match how

23:46

Debbie Harry sang it. Compare

23:51

that to a later take where

23:53

she stretched out the W sound

23:55

on once. So

24:00

we're going from To

24:06

It's a fine distinction But those fine

24:08

distinctions really add up when you put

24:10

them all together eventually you get a

24:12

distinct Musical performance like the one that

24:14

Debbie Harry gave on this song The

24:28

second half of the phrase is equally

24:30

specific it's easy to stretch out that

24:32

closing line Had a heart a glass

24:35

But Harry hits it and quits it to

24:37

me. It's an unsentimental way of singing the

24:40

line Pretty

24:44

straightforward one to sing though The

24:49

next phrase after that one seemed like

24:52

the real thing only to find it's

24:54

got a lot going on It's

25:01

easy to just let that line kind of pass you

25:03

by since that's just the second half of the first

25:14

But Debbie Harry didn't have to sing it that

25:16

way and in fact She didn't always sing it

25:19

that way Listen to the same line in that

25:21

earlier demo when the song was still called once

25:23

I had a love She

25:29

puts it right on the downbeat seem

25:32

like the real thing Super

25:34

straightforward as straightforwardly as you can sing

25:36

that phrase Now

25:42

compare that with the way that she sang it

25:44

in the finished version of heart of glass So

25:52

it's got bounce it's got energy and

25:54

that's because she syncopates the opening part

25:57

of the line seemed like the real

25:59

thing removes the phrase to

26:01

the upbeats which gives the whole thing

26:03

a rhythmic lilt right off the bat.

26:05

2, 3, 4. And

26:16

then there are those extra notes at the

26:18

end of the phrase. Instead of singing it

26:20

the way she originally sang it, only to

26:22

find an ending on the G-sharp. She

26:29

holds the word find and keeps going

26:31

down that C-sharp major triad. Only

26:34

to find, which really emphasizes the sound

26:36

of that C-sharp major chord, which like

26:39

I said, it's an unusual chord to

26:41

have a 6 major there, and the

26:43

melody really brings that out. As a

26:45

result, the harmony is in the melody,

26:48

by which I mean they've rewritten the

26:50

melody to include more notes from the

26:52

underlying chords, so if you listen to

26:54

the melody's sung acapella with nothing underneath

26:57

it, you can still hear the chords

26:59

as they're going by. The

27:05

final line of the first verse is

27:08

just pretty funny. She sings Mucho Mistrust,

27:10

Love's Gone Behind, and that's

27:12

just not a lyric that I'd ever heard or read

27:14

before and I just kind of think it's funny. Mucho

27:17

Mistrust, Love's Gone Behind It does

27:19

emphasize an interesting difference between the

27:21

lyrics of the verses of Heart

27:23

of Glass and the lyrics of

27:25

the choruses. The verses are a

27:27

little more conversational and they're a

27:29

little more casual in tone, while

27:31

the choruses have a more elevated

27:33

poetic tone, especially the second chorus.

27:36

And this is actually an unusual song in

27:38

that several of the verses repeat lyrics, but

27:40

the choruses actually each have different lyrics. Mostly

27:42

I just think that Mucho Mistrust is a

27:44

funny pairing of words and not one that

27:47

I was expecting to hear in this song.

27:53

So I want you to listen to the Shooks

27:55

sing through that entire opening verse and just pay

27:57

attention to each of those little nuances that we

27:59

just talked about. about. Each one took a

28:01

little bit of pinning down as we

28:03

listened, recorded, listened back, compared, recorded again.

28:05

It was a real process to get

28:07

it to match up. Learning

28:33

songs with this degree of reproductive precision

28:36

is actually an unusual part of the

28:38

strong songs process, and it's a way

28:40

that making this show is different from

28:42

learning a song in order to sing

28:44

it yourself. It's actually usually better to

28:46

adapt a song to your own voice

28:48

and style rather than getting too in

28:50

the weeds trying to recreate every little

28:52

phrase and placement from the original. And

28:54

it was eye-opening for me to have

28:56

the Shooks come in and learn the

28:58

song since it really helped me understand

29:00

that. Like Caitlin said, I didn't even pay

29:02

attention to any of those because then you felt so natural

29:04

listening to her. Oh

29:13

wow, it's very nuanced and to try to

29:15

match it perfectly with the Shepherds and it's

29:17

most natural things that come out of our mouth.

29:19

Right, because she probably didn't have to put that much

29:21

thought into it. No, it just came out. Because she's

29:24

just saying it the way she's saying it. Totally. She

29:26

was the first one to sing it. Yeah, and that's what

29:28

singing is like, you know? Like how you talk, how you

29:30

phrase the talking kind of thing. Okay,

29:35

so let's go through that whole

29:37

opening verse listening first to the

29:39

version I recorded with the Shooks

29:41

and then transitioning with open ears

29:43

to the original and try to

29:45

take in everything that we've talked

29:47

about so far. Those robotic, metronomic

29:49

elements like the Roland drum loop

29:51

and the repeating bass synth, the

29:54

drums played by a human in

29:56

the most robotic way that he

29:58

could, the Electric Bass adding the

30:00

human element to the existing robotic

30:02

since part and the to electric

30:04

guitar parts, one firing off echoing

30:06

delay notes and the other on

30:08

a more traditional rock. Risk skipping

30:10

a long as a top the

30:12

grew over all of that structure.

30:15

Listen for Caitlin and Laurie doubling

30:17

that vocal read, creating a simmering,

30:19

elevated vocal sound that pierce's through

30:21

the arrangement like a shard of

30:23

while You Know or Eight Years

30:25

on Let's Do It. The

31:07

second verse is pretty much the same

31:09

as the first, with one notable addition

31:12

to me death three synthesizer makes an

31:14

entrance over on the left channel, adding

31:16

these scintillating his cereal since pads that

31:19

further emphasize the songs glass like quality.

31:28

Time. With that, it's time for a

31:30

disco task transition into the core of.

31:53

snow i love this chorus and i apologize in

31:55

advance for her firmly it's going to get stuck

31:57

in your head it's while we talk about it

32:00

But before we talk about the chorus itself, I

32:02

just want to call out the transitions into and

32:04

out of the chorus. Infante

32:07

and Harrison doubled this extremely

32:09

silly octave-bouncing disco riff on

32:11

both sides. Listen

32:14

for it in the recording. Now

32:19

I can't speak to anyone's state of mind

32:21

when they recorded a given part, but it's

32:24

hard not to hear that part as a

32:26

kind of ironic jab at a disco cliché,

32:28

since remember, apparently several members of

32:30

Blondie didn't really care for disco music

32:32

and they weren't thrilled to be making

32:34

a song in that style. And that

32:36

octave jumping thing? It's such a disco

32:38

cliché. It's kinda to disco what

32:41

this riff is so it moves... or

32:47

what this riff is to jazz. Every

32:52

style of music has its cliches, and

32:54

if you embrace the cliché enough, a

32:56

certain level of irony kinda comes through,

32:59

but regardless of how they intended it,

33:01

these transitions kinda rule. Anyway

33:08

let's get into this chorus. A

33:11

lot of the basic pulse remains

33:13

unchanged. The hi-hat pattern's a little

33:15

bit different, which

33:20

does kinda tighten up the feel of the

33:22

chorus, but broadly it's a similar groove. So

33:29

the chords here at the top of the

33:31

chorus are bouncing back and forth between A

33:33

major, the IV chord, and

33:35

E major, the I chord. Just

33:38

A, back to E a couple of

33:40

times. The bass, bass synth, and repeater

33:42

guitar all just play those roots with

33:45

nothing more complex going on. with

34:00

Debbie Harry's song melody to make this

34:02

dense new sound that moves along on

34:04

top of the rest of the band.

34:07

So let's talk about that melody. The

34:09

melody to the chorus of Heart of

34:11

Glass is similar to the melody to

34:13

the verse. It has this relaxed, sing-songy

34:16

quality, and it is all about the

34:18

sixth. Heart of Glass is pretty into

34:20

the sixth in general. And by sixth,

34:22

I mean the sixth scale degree. That

34:25

scale degree plays an important part in

34:27

the melody to this song. So in

34:29

any key, you can count out the

34:31

parent scale in terms of its numerical

34:34

scale degrees. One, two, three,

34:36

four, five, six, seven, and then

34:38

eight is the octave. You can

34:40

do that for any type of

34:42

scale. That was a major scale.

34:44

A basic triad goes one, three,

34:47

and five. In a major key,

34:49

the sixth is one step above

34:51

the fifth. So this song's

34:53

verse begins in E major, and the

34:55

melody begins way up on a C

34:57

sharp, which is the sixth in that

34:59

key. The

35:02

chorus is in A, and the melody starts

35:04

up on an F sharp, which is the

35:06

sixth in the key of A. It

35:10

moves through that phrase and then repeats the

35:12

same notes over an E, which means it's

35:14

starting on an F sharp still, which is

35:17

the ninth in the key of E. It's

35:19

a sound that's kind of floating and suspended

35:21

in the same way that the sixth is.

35:23

It's a very logical, orderly melody. I think

35:25

that's actually one reason that it's so catchy,

35:27

that it gets stuck so firmly in your

35:30

head. To be seen, where

35:33

I find the reason I can't

35:35

believe in my love

35:37

is so easy. Now obviously, Debbie Harry

35:39

is singing that melody, but the synth

35:41

and the lead guitar are both doubling

35:43

it in their own ways. The lead

35:45

synth, which is over on the left,

35:47

is doubling the melody in a pretty

35:49

straightforward way. It's really just

35:51

playing the melody. That's

35:55

how you sing the melody.

36:03

Hello lead guitar part is actually pretty

36:05

interesting and was one of the biggest

36:08

surprises for me and learning this sought.

36:10

I never really noticed what the lead

36:12

guitar was doing on the chorus to

36:14

Heart of Glass and again, I believe

36:16

this is Infante, but I could be

36:18

wrong about that. So while the verse

36:20

guitar part was pretty simple just a

36:22

bunch of groovy octave risk, the chorus

36:24

guitar part is this much more complicated

36:26

figure. Is this meet very good? Sorry

36:29

Noble, stop saying. It's

36:38

a fairly technical guitar figure. it involves

36:40

thing as simple stuff six with things

36:42

to the tuning of the guitar is

36:44

actually pretty logical to play. If

36:49

I slow down, you can hear the two parallel

36:51

lines in the double stop. This

36:55

was fun to work out and it's a

36:57

clever part, especially how he lets us open

36:59

a and he swings ring out underneath the

37:01

pattern. In.

37:06

The context of the full recording, it kind

37:08

of fades into the background and he doesn't

37:10

always play every note in the figure. but

37:13

once you know what to listen for, it

37:15

becomes a lot easier to hear. Ah,

37:22

So that's the van service which leaves

37:25

us with the vocal. Typical arrangement is

37:27

split across two separate parts. There's the

37:29

higher read part which is in the

37:31

middle and then pan to the left

37:33

and the right. There's a secondary part

37:36

that things down the octave for the

37:38

longest time actually thought that that secondary

37:40

part with a male vocal. but if

37:42

you listen closely you can hear that

37:44

it's actually Debbie Harry. It's down in

37:46

the very basement of her vocal register.

37:55

both the high envelope parts are doubled with

37:57

the low part split apart and pans left

37:59

and right, this lower part was a

38:01

real stretch for Caitlyn and Laurie in terms

38:04

of their vocal range, but Laurie took it

38:06

on and I went ahead and jumped in

38:08

as well to help out with some of

38:10

the very lowest notes, and between us we

38:12

got a pretty close recreation of the chorus.

38:15

In between, what

38:18

I find is pleasing and I'm

38:20

feeling fine. Love is

38:22

so confusing, there's no peace of

38:24

mind. If I fear

38:27

I'm losing you, it's just no good.

38:29

You tease me like you do. I

38:32

really like how that vocal arrangement fits with the

38:35

synth and lead guitar parts, since

38:37

each of those is playing some element

38:39

of that melody. Listen to them isolated

38:41

from the rhythm section and just pay

38:43

attention for that, how the three parts

38:45

together create this layered sense of the

38:47

melody and how the instruments support the

38:49

vocals. Ooh,

38:52

what I find is pleasing and

38:55

I'm feeling fine. It's pretty cool,

38:57

right? It's a gentle melody, but that

38:59

extra instrumentation adds a nice thickness to

39:01

it. I'm losing you, it's

39:03

just no good. You tease me like

39:05

you do. Alright, so let's

39:08

listen back to that chorus, first the

39:10

recreation, then the original, and try to

39:12

catch all of that, starting with that

39:14

possibly ironic disco transition in the guitar

39:16

and the bass into that

39:18

slightly tweaked hi-hat pattern that tightens things

39:20

up a little bit. The synth and

39:23

that unexpectedly complex lead guitar parts supporting

39:25

Caitlyn and Lori's vocal melody as

39:28

it splits into a gentle octave

39:30

doubling arrangement. Here we go. I

39:42

really like to listen to

39:44

Debbie Harry over

39:46

on the right and the

39:49

left, down in her lower

39:51

register. Because

40:05

it is. It's

40:09

a killer one two punch of averse followed by

40:11

a chorus so I for coming out of it

40:14

for the first time he circle around and do

40:16

it again. In

40:24

classic pop fasten, the second verse

40:26

is half as long as the

40:28

first verse, quickly transitioning to a

40:30

second chorus that actually has different

40:32

lyrics from the first. And

40:49

then the second chorus repeat as an

40:52

odd meter instrumental. So

40:57

to me, the second chorus is really

40:59

by this song jumps to another level.

41:01

It starts with those new lyrics, some

41:04

over the same melodies and I love

41:06

these new lyrics and I love how

41:08

Debbie Harry sings them. Lost inside, adorable

41:10

illusion and I cannot hide, I'm the

41:13

one you're using. please don't push me

41:15

aside And then she just sort of

41:17

tosses off the final phrase. we could

41:19

have made a cruise am I love

41:21

ending a phrase with yeah, I never

41:24

think to do that as a songwriter,

41:26

but I said. It's a great way

41:28

to end a free. This

41:34

is something really melancholy in beautiful about the

41:36

way that she sings this chorus. It's a

41:38

contrast to house Debbie Harry saying a lot

41:41

of a time, but I really like this

41:43

mode for her. The. Six sang it in

41:45

their own way and I thought they sounded great

41:47

as well. Mom. A.

41:51

Illusion. I. am

41:55

a loser And

42:02

from there the band takes over with this

42:04

lovely instrumental section. He

42:09

takes the basic chorus arrangement, removes the

42:11

beat to put it in seven, and

42:13

elaborates it into something just a bit

42:15

more ornate. This

42:22

instrumental section functions as a bridge even

42:24

though musically it's pretty similar to the

42:26

chorus, but it makes enough subtle changes

42:28

that I'm going to say it's functioning

42:30

as a bridge. There should be a

42:32

name for that. A chorus-bridge hybrid. A

42:34

cridge and a borus. Neither of those

42:37

sound quite right. I'll show you on

42:39

it. I think we can come up

42:41

with a term. Anyways, the first thing

42:43

about this section is the odd meter.

42:45

They drop a beat out of every

42:47

two-bar phrase, putting this section in a

42:49

nice seven-four time signature. Just

42:53

count it. One, two,

42:55

three, four, five, six, seven.

42:59

One, two, three, four, and

43:01

eight. And

43:07

they're back to four-four for the next

43:09

section. And that's what's nice about seven-four

43:11

as opposed to seven-eight. Since we've talked

43:13

about seven a little bit this season,

43:15

it came up back on the episode

43:18

about Black Hole Sun as well, and

43:20

I do see people get seven-four and

43:22

seven-eight mixed up. I

43:24

think I've actually been kind of casual about

43:26

it at times on the show as well.

43:28

At least I should allow for that possibility

43:30

because sometimes I just say things are in

43:32

seven without specifying whether they're in seven-four or

43:34

seven-eight. But this is actually a good way

43:36

to tell the difference between the two. Seven-four

43:39

keeps a steady downbeat pulse because

43:41

the quarter note is still defining

43:43

the beat, while seven-eight causes a

43:45

stutter in the pulse. In

43:47

seven-eight, this section would be like... It

43:59

would be cool, but it... would cause the skip

44:01

in the groove that could cause an

44:03

issue on the dance floor. There are

44:06

plenty of great 7-8 dance traditions from

44:08

around the world, but in disco it's

44:10

kind of all about that four-on-the-floor heavy

44:12

quarter-note downbeat. Switching to 7-4

44:15

is a cool way to have a

44:17

bit of a skip, a kind of

44:19

a surprising rhythmic element without losing that

44:21

downbeat pulse. There

44:27

are really only two other new musical

44:29

elements during this section. Jimmy Destry joins

44:31

his synth part with an organ which

44:33

adds a playful beat to that melody.

44:40

And Infante plays his coolest guitar part,

44:42

yet taking the part that he played

44:44

on the preceding choruses and

44:49

jumping the whole thing up 12 frets

44:52

so that it's ringing out up an

44:54

octave which turns out works the exact

44:56

same ringing open strings and all. It's

45:07

such a good guitar part. I've seen a lot

45:09

of guitar lessons online talking about how to play

45:11

that basic verse riff, but more people should be

45:13

talking about how to play the choruses on this

45:15

song. It was a fun challenge trying to figure

45:18

out how to play it and how to get

45:20

it down. Thanks as always to my guitar teacher

45:22

Scott for showing me a way to play it

45:24

down and up the octave, and if you put

45:26

that guitar part together with the synth in the

45:28

organ, you get a nice rendition of the chorus

45:31

melody. Add

45:35

the rest of the rhythm section and you are

45:37

cooking! You

45:52

hear that guitar part over on the right? The

46:00

keep the nonverbal vibe going, with

46:02

a tall, soft, wordless vocal melodies.

46:07

It was actually son not by any other boys in

46:09

the van for five producing made. For

46:17

building to a break. Thera

46:24

lot of little things that I love about

46:26

that second half of the bridge after they

46:28

go back to for four time, Chapman's vocals

46:30

are perfect. They're kind of buried in the

46:32

mix. It's the small seats than than. That

46:37

I just love

46:39

have a thesis.

46:44

Even before I knew it was him, it

46:46

just doesn't sound very blondie in a way

46:49

that's kind of fun. Chapman is Australian and

46:51

I kind of feel like a little bit

46:53

of his accent is coming through something just

46:55

for a minute. A kind of sounds like

46:57

a different van. Infante

47:02

is actually playing yet another new guitar

47:05

part on this section. It's a more

47:07

they've been modified version of the lower

47:09

per se three on earlier choruses ago.

47:11

something like room. And

47:20

then at the end of the phrase,

47:22

building into the breakdown, he takes at

47:24

least an octave risk. And

47:28

he plays both notes together. But

47:33

he syncopate says guitar parts with

47:35

he's playing upbeat to Harrison Space

47:37

downbeat. It's

47:41

a little thing, but it's really cool

47:43

and it's emblematic of this guitar part

47:45

overall and why it's such a crucial

47:47

part of this recording. A significant percentage

47:50

of Heart of Glass is automated and

47:52

repetitive the drum machine the since base

47:54

the drums, but the guitar is resolutely

47:57

human, an ever changing. So when this.

48:00

The in it becomes

48:02

this. You

48:05

may not even notice that in the recording,

48:07

but it's there and it does matter and

48:09

I'll bet you'll notice. And now. Here

48:13

we go. The

48:20

breakdown on Heart of Glass is great

48:22

and it's a textbook breakdown. First Harrys

48:25

vocal sneak in halfway through the preceding

48:27

phrase. Which.

48:30

Creates a maximum contrast with the coming

48:32

break. Their. To

48:47

the first two bars of the breakdown,

48:49

our Heart of Glass at it's most

48:51

stripped down. it's most dramatic aspect is

48:53

actually an absence. This is the one

48:55

moment in the entire recording that the

48:57

drum machine drops out. You.

49:00

May not think about it or consciously

49:02

notice it, but it's absence completely changes

49:04

the feel of this part of a

49:06

son. It's just the droning pay since

49:09

and the repeater guitar on the right

49:11

and left, the Hi Hats and Harrys

49:13

Worthless vocal. Low

49:15

Incomes a monster drum still followed

49:17

by the as Soon as the

49:20

something sister I'm but no snare

49:22

classic breakdown move. In fact, the

49:24

textbook cut and paste nature of

49:26

this breakdown helped me understand how

49:29

important predictability is. To dance music

49:31

in general and why tropes like the break

49:33

down into a layered reassembly are so prevalent

49:35

in that style of music. When a crowd

49:38

is dancing to a song, it really helps

49:40

for the song to do the expected since

49:42

that keeps everyone in the groove and it

49:44

gives them peaks and valleys around which to

49:47

orient themselves to Dance Breakdown is just one

49:49

of a bunch of dance floor tropes like

49:51

The Drop or the Rise Earth and I

49:53

guarantee that all the thousands or even millions

49:56

of times that a group of people have

49:58

been ripping it up to this. In

50:00

Just Breaks has created a similar

50:02

moment in the crowd. So

50:16

since I had the six in the

50:18

studio I couldn't help but ask them

50:20

to sing this part and they did

50:22

such a great job that I feel

50:25

like I got a less you hear

50:27

them. So let's listen back to that

50:29

whole section. The instrumental bridge with that

50:31

organ on the melody and that hired

50:33

sangha league is Harpers than the chorus

50:35

reprise with the mail vocals tossing off

50:37

a wordless melodies while the guitar player

50:39

or third new part on that chorus

50:41

court progress in seem the breakdown as

50:43

the band plus out along with the

50:45

drum machine and then steadily. Predictably as

50:47

new elements until the groove is fully

50:49

cooking once more. And of course, after

50:52

the bridge you're here. the six doing

50:54

their thing. They actually recorded the ooze

50:56

together as opposed to one after the

50:58

other, which is how we recorded on

51:01

the other parts. It gives a good

51:03

sense of just how well they can

51:05

sing together in unison. Or eight years

51:07

on? here we go. From

52:03

the instrumental on out, this song is just

52:05

a party. Everyone's here, everyone's

52:08

got something fun to do, the people are

52:10

on the dance floor, so let's just keep

52:12

it going. It

52:16

has this easy-going revelers energy, which

52:18

is all the more remarkable given

52:20

how much exacting iterative work it

52:22

took to actually put the song

52:24

together. With

52:27

the band back in,

52:30

Blondie prepares

52:32

to say

52:36

goodbye with

52:40

one final verse, albeit a verse

52:46

with a playfully provocative new lyric.

52:55

Apparently that pain in the ass lyric was a

52:57

little bit of a sticking point for some radio

53:00

stations that played this song back in the 70s.

53:06

And really, that's about it. They came, they

53:08

saw, we danced, and the song can end.

53:13

Part of Glass is a good reminder of how much

53:15

work it can take to make something sound easy, and

53:18

it was a fascinating preview of some of

53:20

the production techniques that would become even more

53:22

prominent in the 80s into the 90s into

53:24

the modern digital era. Both

53:27

a glimpse of the future and a moment

53:29

in time as one of the great bands

53:31

of the era first truly arrived. And

53:48

that'll do it for my analysis of Heart

53:51

of Glass by Blondie. I hope you all

53:53

enjoyed it. You picked it after all. Thanks

53:55

to everyone who voted in the bracket to

53:57

pick this artist for this episode. That was

53:59

so much. fun. I can't believe it

54:01

took me so long to do a

54:03

bracket like that. We'll be doing another

54:05

one over this summer to pick an

54:08

artist for season seven, so if you'd

54:10

like to participate in the voting, go

54:12

become a patron! patreon.com/StrongSons. Thanks also to

54:14

Emily Williams for her production support this

54:16

season, to Scott Pemberton for helping me

54:18

work out some of those guitar parts,

54:20

and extra special thanks to Caitlin and

54:23

Laurie Shook! What a treat to have

54:25

singers of that caliber on the show.

54:27

You should 100% go listen

54:29

to their music they record and tour as Shook

54:31

Twins. They have a ton of albums and a

54:33

new one in the works, and you can even

54:35

hear me playing saxophone on a couple of them.

54:37

I'll put a link to their stuff in the

54:40

show notes. I continue to have a great time

54:42

making season six. If you can believe it, we're

54:44

more than halfway done with the season, but there's

54:46

still some great stuff to come. I really appreciate

54:48

all of you out there who are listening, and

54:50

while I know I pushed the Patreon a lot

54:52

since I do need to make enough money to

54:55

keep spending so much time making the show, there

54:57

are a lot of other ways if you can

54:59

help StrongSons succeed. You can leave a review

55:01

of the show wherever you're listening to it that

55:03

really does help people decide to give it a

55:05

shot, and you can just tell people about the

55:08

show. If you know anyone who's into music who

55:10

you think might enjoy StrongSons, well, the show really

55:12

does just grow via word of mouth, so don't

55:14

be shy about spreading the word. All

55:17

right, it's time for me to go practice

55:19

guitar because I'm going to need every ounce

55:21

of chops that I can muster for the

55:23

next episode after this one. Until then, you

55:25

know the drill. Thanks for being here. Take

55:27

care, and keep listening. you

56:00

you