0:01

Slap bass is the practice of smacking

0:03

and popping the strings on an electric

0:05

bass to produce percussive, blindingly fast parts.

0:09

It's an amazing, surprisingly flexible technique that shows

0:11

that at least when it comes to musical

0:13

instruments, sometimes violence is the answer. Welcome

0:23

to Strong Songs, a podcast about music.

0:25

I'm your host, Kirk Hamilton, and I'm

0:27

so glad you've joined me to talk

0:29

about slap bass, fingered bass, picked bass, arco

0:32

bass, pizzicato bass, and every other kind

0:34

of bass there is. If

0:36

you've been enjoying Strong Songs Season 6, I

0:39

hope you know that it is entirely

0:41

made possible by the amazing people who

0:43

support Strong Songs on Patreon. And

0:45

if you'd like to keep the show going

0:47

and get access to episodes two weeks early,

0:49

go to patreon.com/strong songs to find out more.

0:53

On this episode, oh man, it is time

0:55

for one of the greats, a musician and

0:57

songwriter who's long been one of my favorites,

0:59

but who I bet some of you out

1:01

there haven't listened to nearly enough. I am

1:03

really excited for this one, so let's warm

1:06

up our thumb and slap that bass till

1:08

the funk comes out. The

1:29

first time I heard Michelle Andegieciello play bass, I

1:31

didn't know who I was listening to. In

1:34

1994, in my hometown of Bloomington,

1:36

Indiana, and local music hero John

1:38

Mellencamp had just released a new

1:40

single called Wild Night. I

1:43

didn't know that it was actually a Van Morrison

1:45

song, nor did I know that it featured a

1:47

special musical guest. I

1:52

just knew that I liked it. It

2:00

was funky. It moved. And along with

2:02

old Johnny Cougar's vocal lead, there was

2:04

this soulful lady singing right along with

2:06

him. And you

2:09

walk a street crying

2:11

to remember me that

2:14

you all go by my

2:17

feet to smile. And

2:21

every night... I really just

2:23

love it. I remember very vividly hearing it even

2:25

though I was only in middle school. Melanchamp lived

2:27

right down the highway from where I grew up.

2:29

He was kind of everywhere when I was a

2:32

kid, and I'd never thought of myself as a

2:34

fan, but I went ahead

2:36

and bought this album, 1994's Dance Naked,

2:38

just to see if maybe I was.

2:40

It turned out I liked John Melanchamp

2:42

and I'd come to really appreciate his

2:44

music over the next few decades, but

2:46

at the time, I was really just

2:48

a fan of this recording of this

2:50

song. At

2:59

the time, Michelle Andegieciello was in her

3:01

mid-20s, an up-and-coming independent musician who

3:03

had just released her first solo

3:05

album, Plantation Lullabies, a year prior

3:07

on Madonna's Maverick label. I didn't

3:09

have any of that context, though.

3:11

Remember, this was 1994. I

3:14

couldn't just go look her up online, so all

3:16

I had were the liner notes to

3:18

Dance Naked, where I saw this unusual

3:20

name, spelled at the time with her

3:22

preferred mix of accents and capitalizations, and

3:24

a credit for both vocals and bass.

3:28

Now, I was no stranger to female singers

3:30

making guest appearances on male singers' records, but

3:32

bass, that was a little more unusual, at

3:34

least to me, at the time. And not

3:36

only could she play bass, she could play

3:38

bass like this. Time

3:47

passed and I became a jazz kid, got more

3:49

and more serious about music, went to music school,

3:52

and then at some point, right around the

3:54

turn of the century, her name came back

3:56

up. Michelle Andegieciello, right, I

3:59

remember her. She was the bassist who

4:01

guested with melon camp that one time, and

4:03

right around then a friend played

4:06

for me her second album, 1996's

4:08

Peace Beyond Passion, and I

4:10

met Michelle for a second time, not just

4:12

as a bassist and singer, but as an

4:14

artist. The

4:19

album's opening track, The Womb, is

4:21

a brief but incredibly funky tune

4:23

featuring Gene Lake on drums and

4:26

Wawa Watson on guitar with Integie

4:28

Achelo on percussion bass and other

4:30

instruments. It's

4:33

just a minute and a half long, at

4:36

least in its original, unexcended state, and just

4:38

as the groove gets cooking, it

4:42

stops and the next track begins. And

4:52

that was it for me. I sat, wrapped,

4:54

and listened to the entire rest of the

4:56

album. The

5:00

album has been with me ever since, and here

5:02

we are a quarter century later, and it's time

5:04

to pay tribute to one of my favorite musicians

5:07

of all time. There

5:14

are a lot of songs I could have

5:16

focused on from throughout Integie Achelo's long and

5:18

still developing career, but in the end I

5:20

decided to take it back to the start, back

5:23

to that first song of hers that I

5:25

heard, 1996's album opener, The Way. First

5:38

up, some vital stats. The Way follows

5:41

The Womb to kick off 1996's Peace

5:43

Beyond Passion, and is also the first

5:45

track in what I think of as

5:47

a bit of a spirituality suite that

5:49

makes up the first half of this

5:51

album. I've always felt like

5:53

Peace Beyond Passion is divided into two parts.

5:55

The back half of the album is a

5:57

collection of more straightforward, extremely funky R&D B

6:00

songs with covers of songs by Bill

6:02

Withers and Marvin Gaye, including a banging

6:04

cover of Withers and Stan McKinney's Who

6:06

Is He and What Is He To

6:08

You. In

6:18

singing Withers' part unchanged, presumably addressing

6:20

her girlfriend, Ndegeciello, who identifies as

6:22

bisexual, pokes at the classic soul

6:24

archetype of the jealous man that

6:27

sits at the center of the

6:29

song. The

6:37

first half of the album, though,

6:39

is much more directly provocative. It's

6:42

a collection of original songs concerned

6:44

with the contradictions and challenges of

6:46

spirituality. Songs whose titles

6:48

combine slurs, racial and homophobic

6:50

slurs, with Bible book titles

6:52

like Deuteronomy and Leviticus. And

7:00

songs like Mary Magdalene, God Shiva,

7:02

and Ecclesiastes' Free My Heart that

7:04

explore the divine feminine and indegue

7:07

each other's desires for spiritual transcendence.

7:16

The album is also a who's who of killing

7:19

R&B and jazz musicians of the 1990s, including folks

7:22

I've already mentioned like Gene Lake

7:24

and Wawa Watson, guitarist and composer

7:26

Wendy Melvoin, and soloists like the

7:28

great Dave Fusinski, master of the

7:30

fretless guitar who you can hear

7:33

here on Free My Heart. And

7:41

before all those songs and all

7:43

those soloists comes the way, kicking

7:45

off the album's spiritual suite with

7:47

a probing, fearless, and extremely funky

7:49

exploration of faith, doubt, and how

7:52

the two are and aren't able

7:54

to coexist. Jesus Killed the

7:56

blind man. Well.

8:04

I will do it there's so much or

8:06

with this on so many specific things that

8:08

make it as great as it is and

8:10

I'm very excited to dig. Least.

8:19

He's the on person was produced all david

8:21

camps in and while the album is every

8:23

bit ambiguous well as or to seclusion against

8:25

the census Simpson and to terrorist when the

8:27

most annoying play crucible supporting roles in putting

8:30

it all together Stamps and of course that

8:32

makes sense he was the producer. For

8:34

winning, Avoid was much more than just

8:36

a hired gun get Her Thumbs record.

8:38

She played a large creative role in

8:40

the album or Varanasi Cove Road God

8:43

Shiva with they Get Shallow and See

8:45

assembled the elaborate guitar arrangement on the

8:47

way and as you'll hear that arrangement

8:49

is extremely cool. Compared

9:02

with the rest of the album, though the

9:04

Way: it's actually pretty strip down in terms

9:07

of personnel ambiguous hello Saying and played bass

9:09

and drums actually aren't a drum set. they

9:11

were all programs by Danson and Into His

9:14

Hello As I Said Guitar and guitar arrangements

9:16

by Wendy My Voice and an alto sax

9:18

solo performed by Will Get To Him. Because

9:25

of the strip down personnel the way actually give

9:27

a good sense of that. Triangle of Talent.

9:29

As the top of this album

9:32

there's indicates hello driving the endeavor

9:34

with camps and and male voice

9:36

underneath supporting her vision. And those

9:38

three people basically made this sauce.

9:51

Sauce. Was a wonderful challenge

9:53

trying to figure all these parts out and

9:55

I'm excited to share some of when I

9:57

sound with you all Jesus. cure the blonde

10:02

So let's start with this basic groove which

10:04

underlies the majority of the song and is

10:06

one of the most distinct and interesting funk

10:08

groove I've ever heard. So

10:18

starting with the drums, I'm not sure

10:20

what drum machine Ndegio cello used for

10:22

this recording, it's probably some sort of

10:24

MPC sampler. I built the whole thing

10:26

myself just using my own samples and

10:28

sounds to try to get close to

10:31

what she's doing. Now I'm going

10:33

to talk about this groove in terms of

10:35

the thump, the pop, and the sizzle. That's

10:37

a framework that I've been using on strong

10:39

songs for many years and I find it's

10:41

a good way of understanding the three key

10:43

elements of most rhythmic grooves. The thump is

10:45

at the bottom, that's usually a kick drum

10:47

or another low sound, that's the four. The

10:49

pop offsets the thump, that's the snare, maybe

10:52

a hand clap, that's the second part of

10:54

the structure. The thump is the wall, the

10:57

sizzle is the final element, that's maybe the

10:59

window, I don't know, the metaphor has gotten

11:01

away from me. The sizzle can be hi-hat,

11:03

it can be shaker or tambourine, it's

11:05

something that plays more notes and provides

11:07

subdivision in between the thump and the

11:09

pops. So

11:12

one more time, listen to her groove

11:14

and really focus your ears on

11:17

the drums and see what you hear.

11:19

Alright, so let's get into these

11:22

drums and let's do things a little bit differently

11:27

this time.

11:36

I'm actually going to start with the

11:38

full drum and percussion groove as I

11:40

have been able to recreate it. And

11:44

then we're going to add and subtract different elements

11:46

to that groove so that you can get a

11:49

sense of what each one does and how it

11:51

all fits together. The

11:53

drum part doesn't seem all that complicated at first

11:55

listen but like everything with this song, it comes

11:57

to life in the form of a drum. So

12:01

we've got the whole group here. Let's

12:03

pair things down a little bit. Let's

12:05

start by taking away all those lovely

12:08

sizzles, those subdivisions up at the top

12:10

of the frequency stop. Alright,

12:17

that's a lot clearer. So now let's take

12:19

away that pop and snare pop. You're going

12:21

to mess it, but don't worry. We'll put

12:24

it back and just... So

12:29

we're left with the kick drum, something like

12:31

a heart pumping blood through the rest of

12:34

the song. So

12:38

that's the thump. It is a crucial part

12:40

of this song's pulse and it matches up with

12:43

the bass, which we'll talk about in a little

12:45

bit, to really drive the buff. So

12:48

with the thump sorted, let's talk about the pop.

12:53

Now thump and pop are basically the groove

12:55

version of peanut butter and jelly. They go

12:57

together just perfectly, so let's actually

13:00

pull the thump and just hear the pop

13:02

on its own. Now

13:07

I'm doing my best to cut Michelle's feel

13:09

here. As you can hear, there's a little

13:11

ghost note on the snare after each backbeat.

13:21

Of course, snare ghost notes have a

13:23

rich tradition in funk drumming. As my

13:25

buddy Russ Pliner talked about a while

13:27

back on my episode about strong funk

13:29

groove, drummers like Clyde Humblefield

13:31

and Jabo Starks were playing ghost notes

13:34

with James Brown 30 years

13:36

before Michelle picked up a drum machine for

13:38

this tune. And it's pretty cool how all

13:40

these years later, a completely different sort of

13:42

drumming could use the same technique and get

13:45

an equal evening results. Alright,

13:49

so that's the thump and the pop sorted.

13:52

Now let's talk about the sizzle. Okay,

13:57

this is fun. I like this. Okay, so

13:59

the sizzle, which you're hearing right now is

14:01

being provided by a couple of different

14:03

sounds working in tandem. On the left,

14:05

you've got the hi-hat. It's pulsing along

14:07

with a mix of open and closed

14:10

hi-hat sounds, cutting up the space between

14:12

the kick and snare hits. That

14:17

sizzle is aided and abetted by some sort

14:19

of a shaker which is panned over to

14:22

the right. I can't quite figure out what

14:24

Michelle used for this sound, whether it was

14:26

an acoustic shaker or a sampled one, so

14:28

I just double-tracked my trusty avocado shaker and

14:31

I got it sounding okay. The

14:38

choppy hi-hat and washi shaker really

14:41

work well together. They're

14:43

both providing sizzle but different flavors of sizzle, and

14:45

when you bring back in the kick and the

14:47

snare, you

14:52

get a drum groove that really gels. I

14:56

spent so much time trying to get

14:58

the feel on this groove dialed in.

15:00

Seriously, it'd be easy to just match

15:02

the notes, quantize the whole thing, and

15:04

be done with it, but that wouldn't

15:06

sound right. It wouldn't sound close to

15:08

the right. The snare drum is laid

15:10

back just a little bit, then the

15:12

downbeat. The whole thing stretches and swings

15:14

in a very specific way. Putting it

15:16

together gave me a whole new appreciation

15:18

for how much work Danson and Endegiocello

15:20

must have put into getting this groove

15:23

just so. So

15:30

that's the verse drum sorted, but if we're gonna

15:32

get deeper into the way this song moves, we

15:34

gotta talk about the most important instrument of all.

15:38

Michelle Endegiocello's primary instrument, the

15:41

electric bass. The

15:44

thing is, okay, I am a saxophone player.

15:46

I'm getting pretty okay at the guitar, but

15:48

while I can play the bass, I can't

15:51

play the bass, if you know what I

15:53

mean. So for this episode, I called in

15:55

some help. My

15:59

old buddy Sam has a great song for you. Howard is a killer

16:01

session player currently based out of Nashville

16:03

who dropped by my place in Portland

16:05

and spent an enjoyable afternoon with me

16:08

obsessing over the most minute details in

16:10

Michelle's bass playing, trying to replicate the

16:12

sound and feel of her bass lines

16:14

as well as we possibly

16:16

could. This

16:19

is Sam you're hearing right now, and after

16:21

a day spent chasing Michelle's every sixteenth note,

16:24

I asked him what he took away from

16:26

the process. I

16:28

think the most interesting thing about her

16:30

playing is just the fluidity with

16:32

which she connects all the notes and the

16:34

parts so even things that for you or

16:36

I seem like whoa that's a crazy fill.

16:39

It just kind of flies right out, it all feels

16:42

so natural if it's the

16:44

song so perfectly that I can approximate

16:46

parts but I can never play it

16:48

exactly how she plays. Sounds

16:54

familiar right? So

16:57

Sam was in town doing a recording session

16:59

for a local Portland singer songwriter and he

17:01

brought his P bass with him for that

17:04

session so we started on that instrument but

17:06

we quickly realized that it just didn't really

17:08

sound right. Sam was hearing more of a

17:10

J bass kind of a thing. So

17:13

the Fender P bass and J bass which

17:15

are short for precision bass and jazz bass,

17:17

those are two of the most common electric

17:19

basses in the world. The P bass is

17:21

a little bit bigger and a little bit

17:23

thumpier, the jazz bass is a little bit smaller,

17:26

it has a smaller scale, I find it easier

17:28

to play and I find it a little bit

17:30

more versatile but the P bass has a distinct

17:32

sound and when you really want a P bass,

17:35

you really want a P bass. Anyways as it

17:37

happens I'll have a jazz bass which Sam actually

17:39

helped me pick out way back when I bought

17:41

it so he switched from his P bass to

17:44

that and immediately started getting closer to the sound.

17:49

The next question was where on the neck to

17:51

play the part. Now the way is in C

17:53

sharp Minor, it starts on a low E

17:55

which is the lowest note on a four

17:57

string bass. Then it jumps up to a...

18:00

B and C Sharp than hops an

18:02

octave to be and the see sharp

18:04

up the artist. That's the basic foundation

18:06

for the group's. Is

18:16

the root of It is fairly

18:18

simple. But if you

18:20

just listen to it and then. Play what

18:22

you think it is. It's pretty

18:24

simple, great for like eighty percent

18:26

of with their yeah exactly. But

18:28

then it's like the intricate differences

18:30

which it turns out are all.

18:34

Pretty carefully arranged pattern press that sort

18:36

of stand out and then some of

18:38

the says that are a little kind.

18:47

Of like I said, salmon. I got pretty

18:49

granular trying to figure out the best way

18:51

to play this baseline And the thing is

18:54

there are two different places that you could

18:56

play it on the neck of a fourth

18:58

string face and that was really the question

19:00

that we were trying to answer is where

19:02

it's did Michelle P S. Take.

19:04

Many good students. I immediately referenced

19:06

videos City Of just to see

19:08

if I could find one of

19:10

her playing it to be like

19:12

than where there's two places you

19:14

could play this. Where is she

19:16

playing him. We

19:18

actually couldn't find any videos of her playing

19:20

the base part to the song. so we

19:22

had to become base detectives and rely on

19:24

our ears. And

19:27

so now you're playing and in the sec. Now I'm

19:29

dynamic languages way. I gravitated when I first learned it.

19:31

that's read play to. I tend to play a lot

19:33

of things down. Their fares and so on.

19:35

on. The high strength. And

19:38

then on the second string of the neck.

19:41

And yeah, you're right, you get that kind of

19:43

just tacky her he earns and it's like a

19:45

little buzz years and. You

19:48

know, the way that I played it

19:50

for the episode and the way that

19:52

I'll stand by until somebody tells me

19:54

different definitively. Namely.

19:57

Michelle. Yeah bro

19:59

is. So

20:10

now let's

20:13

return to that drum groove we built with

20:15

all those different parts bouncing off of one

20:17

another and let's anchor it by adding Sam's

20:19

bass line to the mix. Okay

20:23

so before we had a groove

20:25

going but now I think I'd

20:27

say we have a stew going.

20:35

The last remaining ingredients for that stew

20:38

aside from Michelle's vocals are the synth,

20:40

piano and guitar parts which are pretty

20:42

subtle here at the start. As

20:48

you can probably hear there are these

20:50

little pecs and pops from a spangly

20:52

synth and

20:57

also from an electric piano. More

21:00

noticeably there's this lovely synth pad that plays

21:02

throughout this song. I couldn't quite cop the

21:04

sound but it sounds a bit like this.

21:09

And a few bars into the song

21:11

Wendy Malvoin makes her first appearance on

21:14

the guitar with this nifty legato part

21:16

that sort of travels across the stereo

21:18

pan first from left to right and

21:20

then from right to left. It's

21:23

a cool minimalist approach to harmony that

21:25

a lot of soul and R&B musicians

21:28

use particularly in the late 90s and

21:30

early 2000s during that kind

21:32

of neo soul movement to flesh out

21:34

the harmony of a song without just

21:36

having the piano or the guitar play

21:38

each chord the way that they might

21:41

have. The overall effect of this

21:43

is to imply a C sharp minor 9

21:45

sound. It's basically a C sharp minor chord

21:47

with a flat 7th and a 9th on

21:50

top. It's a bit richer, a bit

21:52

more filled out, a bit more in the

21:54

songbook and jazz tradition the way that a

21:56

lot of R&B and soul music is. In

21:59

a more straightforward jam, maybe from an earlier

22:01

decade, you could have wound up with a

22:03

more fleshed out, say, electric piano part, which

22:05

might sound like this. It's

22:18

a nice sound and it conveys the same

22:20

harmonic information, but it's worlds apart from the

22:22

sparser thing that Michelle is going for. She's

22:24

got the same notes in there. The synth

22:27

is playing a fifth between E and B,

22:29

so that's got that flat seven. And

22:33

the top note of the guitar is going

22:35

back and forth between D sharp and E,

22:37

so you're getting the ninth in there, but

22:39

with everything more spread out, it leaves a

22:41

lot more space, which makes for a very

22:43

different energy. It's

22:52

a really smartly arranged group. It may

22:54

all sound tossed off, but it's actually

22:56

meticulously assembled. All the harmonic and rhythmic

22:58

pieces are in their place, based out

23:00

in such a way that your ear

23:02

can still draw its own pictures and

23:04

spaces between them. And

23:07

of course, with room left over

23:09

for Michelle's vocals to come clearly

23:11

through. Jesus killed the blind

23:13

man. I'm not the son

23:15

of a bitch, I'm the evil brother of the world. I'm not

23:18

the son of a bitch, I'm about

23:20

to laugh. The

23:24

neighbor's beautiful, the better man. The

23:27

man in the road with the same

23:29

age. I'd sing for the shame on

23:31

my little niece, and I'd be my

23:33

pretty white baby. Michelle

23:36

and DeGiacello is an incredible musician. She

23:38

is a brilliant vocal arranger, a top-flight

23:40

bassist, a smart collaborator, a great producer.

23:43

But in addition to all of that, she is

23:45

a fearless poet. Her songs

23:48

probe uncomfortable and powerful topics,

23:50

race, faith, sex, power, and she

23:52

expresses those explorations in such

23:54

a clear and fearless way. To

23:57

me, The Way is a song about questioning your feelings.

24:00

faith when the spoken tenets of that

24:02

faith are clearly in conflict with your

24:04

lived experience of it. She's questioning everything

24:06

here. Maybe Judas was the better man

24:08

and Mary made a virgin just to

24:11

save faith. And as she does so,

24:13

she's carrying on a long musical tradition,

24:15

able to effortlessly shift between speaking and

24:17

singing. This opening verse feels like a

24:19

spoken self-reflection, a person writing down their

24:22

thoughts, trying to make sense of things

24:24

as they prepare to ask the big

24:26

questions that they want to ask. She

24:30

starts to actually

24:32

ask those questions on the chorus

24:37

and it's interesting whom she directs

24:39

those questions toward. And

25:05

it is amazing what they do on that

25:07

chorus. So the basic drum groove stays the

25:09

same, but everything else changes. So

25:12

let's talk about all those things that

25:14

change. But first, okay, there is one

25:16

new percussion instrument. It's an instrument that's

25:18

come up a few times this season

25:20

and one that plays a small but

25:22

crucial role once more, and that is

25:24

the triangle which joins the groove on

25:27

the chorus. And it makes a surprising

25:29

difference given the small size of the

25:31

instrument. So I guess I've pointed out

25:33

how important the triangle can be for a

25:35

groove so many times that it should no

25:37

longer be a surprise. So

25:41

here's the chorus groove without any triangle, and

25:43

it's really no different from the verse groove.

25:45

So now I'm going to add triangle and

25:48

pay attention to how noticeably the groove ships.

25:54

You know, it's subtle,

25:56

but it's undeniable. Listen

26:04

for it over on the right, just a

26:06

little bit more high frequency subdivision. Another

26:12

instantly noticeable new texture on the

26:14

chorus is Melvoyan's guitar, which kicks

26:16

off the new section with this

26:18

lush descending chord. It feels

26:20

like this huge opening just stretching

26:23

out compared with her restraint on

26:25

the verse. I've

26:30

always loved that sound of a guitar chord pulled

26:32

down from the top notes to the bottom of

26:34

the instrument. I think the reason that I've always

26:36

loved that is because of this record. I couldn't

26:38

get my guitar to sound just like hers does,

26:41

but you know, I did my best. The

26:45

harmony here is going back and forth between two

26:48

chords. There's an F sharp minor 7 first,

26:50

that's the chord you just heard on the guitar. The

26:53

second chord is an A major 7. Both

26:56

of those chords are nice, rich, full

26:58

chords that sound great as a contrast

27:00

to that C sharp minor vamp from

27:03

the verse. So

27:05

here we're on F sharp minor

27:07

7. A

27:12

major 7. I

27:17

love that hit on the electric guitar

27:19

right before it transitions back to the

27:21

F sharp minor 7 chord. Ba da

27:23

ba. Listen

27:26

for it in the actual recording. My back

27:28

is wet. You're

27:31

a ball of sand. So

27:34

that's the guitar and the drum sorted,

27:36

which leaves us with the most important

27:39

rhythm section instrument of all, the bass.

27:46

And I want you to listen for something Sam

27:48

does right here. Now

27:54

maybe you caught that and maybe you didn't. Let's listen

27:56

to his isolated bass part and see if you can

27:58

hear what I'm talking about. That,

28:05

my friends, is a very cool technique called

28:07

a pinch harmonic that Michelle does during the

28:09

chorus of this song. Here it

28:11

is again. And

28:17

that is why I'm glad I brought in an

28:19

actual bass player for this episode. I had maybe

28:21

heard the term pinch harmonic before, but I didn't

28:23

really know what one was. I thought

28:25

of it as some advanced technique that I

28:27

don't need to learn because I'm still, you

28:29

know, learning how to play all my scales.

28:31

So I definitely wouldn't have clocked the fact

28:33

that Michelle is dropping pinch harmonics on this

28:35

chorus, but she definitely is. Listen for it

28:38

in the original recording. Each time she goes

28:40

up to that A major 7 chorus. See,

28:48

you can hear it, but I don't know if I would

28:51

have picked that out or known what she was doing. You

28:53

can hear it a little better the second time. And

28:59

the actual note she's playing is important.

29:01

That pinch harmonic is a high G

29:04

sharp while she's letting an A ring

29:06

out. That's a major 7th A to

29:08

G sharp, which emphasizes the most distinct

29:10

harmonic attribute of the chord. It's

29:13

an A major 7 chord. So

29:18

all music contains overtones. Overtones

29:20

are just fundamental to the physics of

29:22

sound and the way that pitch vibration

29:25

works. And they really are fundamental.

29:27

That wasn't just a little overtones joke. I've

29:30

talked about overtones in a variety

29:32

of contexts on past episodes, guitar

29:34

harmonics, tube and throat singing, saxophone,

29:36

now T-cemo register, reed, multi phonics,

29:38

and the basic functioning of most

29:40

brass instruments. All pitches

29:42

contain within them a variety of

29:44

overtones vibrating at increasing frequencies within

29:47

the original note. On

29:49

stringed instruments like bass and guitar, you

29:51

can often pop out harmonics, which are

29:53

just overtones that have been isolated by

29:55

letting the string partially vibrate at certain

29:58

points up and down the

30:00

note. neck. Musicians often use harmonics to

30:02

tune their instrument, especially stringed instruments, since harmonics

30:04

will ring out even if you take your

30:06

hands off the instrument so you can

30:08

manipulate the tuning peg while listening to the

30:11

pitch to tell whether it's in tune or

30:13

not. So

30:18

if you want to find harmonics on the

30:20

guitar, generally you have to go to certain

30:22

frets, which correspond with the overtones above the

30:24

strings' fundamental pitch. Look, I'm not going to

30:27

go too deep into the physics of sound

30:29

here. Suffice it to say, if you've played

30:31

guitar, you probably already know this. You're restricted

30:33

as to where you can go to form

30:36

a harmonic. For example, on guitar, you can

30:38

make a really strong harmonic right above the

30:40

12th fret at the octave. You

30:45

know this sound, right? That's the sound of a guitar

30:47

harmonic. Now, pinch

30:49

harmonics, also known as artificial harmonics, are

30:51

a very cool variation on that. Basically,

30:53

you place your thumb on a string

30:56

as an anchor and then use a

30:58

second finger on the same hand to

31:00

pop out a much higher harmonic than

31:02

you otherwise would have been able to.

31:04

It's something that you'll see bass players,

31:07

guitar players, acoustic guitar players, particularly like

31:09

finger-style shredders. You'll see them doing it

31:11

a lot, and it adds a ton

31:13

of flair and excitement to a given

31:15

part. Electric bass great Jaco Pastorius loved

31:18

artificial harmonics. You can hear him playing

31:20

them at the beginning of Weather Report's

31:22

famous song, Birdland. This

31:34

song is so good. So Jaco broke a

31:36

lot of ground in how he used pinch

31:38

harmonics, and Michelle clearly liked them as well.

31:40

In fact, when I went back to listen

31:42

to her bass playing on Wild Night with

31:44

John Mellencamp, while they may just be regular

31:46

harmonics, I'm not totally sure, but she's definitely

31:48

playing with similar sounds. I

31:56

asked Sam about the technique, and he was a little

31:58

bit hesitant. to tell you

32:00

that much about it because it's sort of like a like

32:03

I feel like I've been given

32:05

the secret knowledge and

32:07

I can't pass it down on the

32:10

internet but it's

32:15

a G sharp harmonic it's a

32:17

pinch harmonic it's

32:19

the ghost of

32:22

Jaco whether

32:28

you call it a pinch harmonic an

32:30

artificial harmonic or the ghost of Jaco

32:32

pastorius Michelle summons something on this chorus

32:35

and it adds a lovely high-frequency element

32:37

to her bass line the

32:40

final non vocal instrument to join on the

32:43

chorus is the piano which

32:45

doubles the bass line on this transitional

32:47

riff and

32:51

that's a really nice extra spice to the

32:53

chorus so

33:05

with those grand guitar

33:08

chords that new triangle

33:10

groove the electric bass pinch

33:12

harmonic and that new piano sound we've

33:15

got everything in the rhythm section that

33:17

clouded for this course so

33:33

Michelle and a guechello is performing all

33:35

of the vocal parts in this song

33:37

but she's arranged the vocals to invoke

33:39

two very different things first there's her

33:41

lead part which she speaks and sings

33:43

in equal measure it's a really cool

33:45

way to sing and not something that

33:47

I've consciously thought about listening to this

33:50

song some phrases are just spoken it's

33:52

a spoken word performer very

34:00

next phrase you'll hear her

34:02

sing actual notes while still

34:04

keeping the cadence of spoken

34:06

word. You know there's a

34:08

melody in there. Maybe

34:11

Judas was a better man. She kind of

34:13

sings that it's not just spoken in the

34:15

same way that she was speaking for the

34:17

first part of the verse. This is something

34:20

that Michelle does

34:24

consistently on so many of her recordings. It's

34:27

a big part of why her music has

34:29

this distinct energy and really why I

34:31

love it so much. Half the time

34:33

it's like she's just reading poetry to

34:35

you and half the time she's singing

34:37

and you never really know where you're

34:39

gonna be at any given moment. It's

34:41

a powerful way of performing. Not many

34:43

people can pull it off but Michelle

34:45

definitely pulls it off. So

34:51

that's the lead vocal part but the

34:53

second aspect of the vocal arrangement is

34:55

the backing choir first enter here on

34:57

the chorus. The

35:05

backup choir serves to support the

35:08

lead vocal part. They're singing in

35:10

harmony, these lush figures that outline

35:12

the chords of the chorus and

35:14

lyrically they're singing much simpler ideas.

35:17

Just a couple of words at

35:19

a time leaving space for the

35:21

more complex lead part to shine

35:23

through. So at the start of

35:26

the chorus when Michelle sings they

35:28

say you're the way the light

35:30

the choir just sings the way

35:32

behind her. When she sings the

35:35

light is so blinding they sing

35:37

so blinding.

35:42

At this point the lead vocal goes

35:45

off she sings am I not to

35:47

question your followers condemn me your words

35:49

are used to enslave me and under

35:51

all of that the choir simply sings

35:53

a single elongated word condemn.

36:03

After which, at the end of the

36:05

chorus, the two parts come together, echoing

36:07

one another on a final plea. Hear

36:09

my prayer. I

36:21

think it's also really important to

36:23

notice how she's changed who she's

36:25

addressing in the chorus, compared with

36:27

the verse. The verse is ruminative.

36:29

She's almost forming one side of

36:31

an argument with herself, poking at

36:33

the tenets of her beliefs. The

36:35

chorus is completely different. She's addressing

36:37

you. She's talking to

36:39

someone in particular, and it's not really

36:41

ambiguous who that person is. Like

36:43

a lot of prayers, this chorus has an audience

36:45

of one. Hear

36:48

my prayer. I

36:50

think it's a great way to say it. These

37:00

are huge questions to ask. They're huge

37:02

contradictions to confront, and I don't think

37:04

it's a coincidence that Ndegechello is doing

37:06

so in a way that evokes a

37:08

preacher testifying in front of a church

37:11

choir. So now that you've got

37:13

all of that in your ear, listen one more time

37:15

through the chorus. Listen to all

37:17

that cool stuff that's happening in the

37:19

rhythm section, but pay close attention to

37:21

the vocal arrangement. Not just how cleverly

37:24

and beautifully it's laid out, but how

37:26

perfectly the arrangement supports what Michelle is

37:28

saying and the anguished ambivalence in

37:31

her work. From

37:37

there,

37:39

Michelle

37:41

goes into the second verse with

37:45

further ruminations

37:47

on various biblical

38:00

figures and her conflicted feelings about

38:02

how their stories are told. This

38:10

second verse expands on the first one in some

38:12

pretty cool ways. The

38:17

biggest change is what she's doing with the

38:19

vocal arrangement. She's still speaking most of the

38:21

words but then sometimes when

38:25

she ends a phrase by singing the backup

38:27

vocals join her. It really

38:29

does feel like she's testifying in church, just

38:31

you know, her church. For

38:43

a while it doubles up on the chorus groove

38:45

then returns to the verse vamp for

38:52

letting the choir take over for a chorus. And

39:00

from this chorus transitioning into the most

39:03

outrageously funky part of this whole song,

39:06

the bridge. Oh

39:26

my god, where to begin with this bridge.

39:28

The bridge to the way is one of

39:30

the funkiest things I've ever heard in my

39:32

life. It's the reason I picked this song

39:34

for my Michelle and Diggy Acello episode and

39:37

it was a heck of a challenge to

39:39

try to learn to play it one tenth

39:41

as pumpily as the original. This

39:53

bridge marks a huge transition in the

39:55

style of every instrument in the ensemble.

39:58

The drums, the bass, the synths,

40:00

the guitars, all completely change up what

40:02

they're playing, and this is also where

40:04

the song introduces its final secret weapon,

40:07

saxophone great Joshua Redmond, who enters at

40:09

the bridge and sticks around until the

40:11

end of the song. The

40:23

total here is much more than the sum of

40:25

its parts, but there is something to be learned

40:27

from each of those parts, so let's try to

40:29

put it together piece by piece. Let's

40:33

start with the drums. This is the drum part

40:35

from the chorus, and the main difference between the

40:37

chorus and the bridge is actually what they take

40:40

away. Throughout

40:42

the song, that shaker and the triangle over

40:44

in the right have been filling out the

40:46

groove and creating a sense of density to

40:48

the pulse. Both

40:55

of those instruments are gone, leaving only a

40:58

tight hi-hat as the sizzle in the groove.

41:02

It makes everything much tighter, which better lines

41:04

up with what all the other instruments are

41:06

called. So

41:16

next we gotta add the bass, which

41:18

is similarly transformed compared with the bass

41:20

playing on the chorus. Michelle has transitioned

41:23

from the ringing tones and pinch harmonics

41:25

of the chorus into

41:28

a completely different style of playing.

41:35

Namely slap bass, a well-known style of playing

41:37

that I don't think I've ever really gotten

41:39

into on the show before. So

41:45

most electric bass players play the instrument

41:47

either with their fingers or with a

41:49

pick, but it's also possible to play

41:52

the bass by placing your hand along

41:54

the strings and smacking them with your

41:56

thumb and fingers. percussive

42:00

popping sound that moves the bass

42:02

further into the realm of percussion.

42:09

We're up in E for the bridge and

42:11

Michelle's bass part is a really cool mix

42:13

of bass effects. She begins each phrase with

42:15

a slap, a slap, a pump, a pop,

42:18

and a minor third. Bo,

42:22

bo, bo, kabodoo. It's

42:28

a meticulously put together part that she sometimes

42:30

steps outside like when she momentarily

42:32

jumps up to G halfway through.

42:45

Her satin is so smooth. She has a

42:47

ton of control and it's

42:49

just effortless and good. Beautifully

42:53

played in that bridge, so much so that

42:55

as we were discussing, you kind of can't

42:57

tell where the bass ends

42:59

and the guitar begins. And

43:04

that's an important point that Sam just

43:06

made. As tight as that bass playing

43:08

is, the most remarkable thing about this

43:11

bridge to me is the way that

43:13

Indegiocello's bass and Malvoyan's guitars mix together

43:15

to the point that it's actually a

43:17

bit tricky for me to tell if

43:19

some of the parts are overdubbed guitar

43:22

or overdubbed bass. There

43:25

are three or four guitar parts going on here.

43:27

There's a primary one over on the left, chipping

43:31

out this tight funk rhythm with

43:33

occasional embellishments, and

43:36

then there are a few overdubbed riffs. It's

43:42

just a killer guitar arrangement. And

43:47

it mixes with the bass beautifully. Of

44:00

course that makes sense given Melvoyne's history

44:02

as a guitarist. Winnie Melvoyne got her

44:04

start playing with Prince, who, as we've

44:07

discussed in the past, might be the

44:09

funkiest guitar player who ever lived. She

44:11

played guitar in Prince's band The Revolution

44:13

for much of the 1980s,

44:15

and think about that for a second. Think

44:17

about what it would take to play guitar

44:19

in Prince's band. I mean, she played on

44:21

Purple Rain. Winnie? And

44:23

that's the water

44:26

one. Shall we

44:32

begin? Afterwards

44:38

she and her lifelong friend, Revolution

44:40

keyboardist Lisa Coleman, found success as

44:42

a duo called Wendy and Lisa.

44:45

Melvoyne and Coleman are both super

44:47

interesting, important figures in pop music,

44:49

and I mean, just

44:51

listen to Wendy play the guitar here. Not

44:58

showy, but her pockets are deep.

45:06

Speaking of pocket, part way into this bridge groove,

45:08

Michelle does something with the snare drum that just

45:10

knocks me out and I gotta call it out.

45:13

It's a pretty established funk trick that might

45:15

have an official name, I've always called it

45:17

a double pop, where the snare drops a

45:19

second hit ahead of the backbeat, almost like

45:22

a second line kind of New Orleans thing.

45:25

You'll be cruising along

45:28

and then, listen to

45:31

it in the original recording, it's so good. Double

45:39

pop. There's

45:45

also this weird high tone that plays right

45:47

on the double pop on the downbeat. I

45:49

don't know quite what it is. It almost

45:52

sounds like a voice, it's like, what? Listen

45:57

for it. It

46:00

might be a guitar, but it doesn't really sound like

46:02

one. It might be some kind of a sample. Whatever

46:04

it is, it really adds. ["B R

46:11

D F

46:18

Whether it be F

46:25

D Spears

46:30

F G

46:41

A F

47:01

F F F

47:03

F The

47:05

final instrument I want to talk about on

47:07

this bridge is the tenor saxophone played by

47:10

the one and only Joshua Redmond. At the

47:12

time I first heard this record Redmond was

47:14

probably my favorite saxophonist. He still is one

47:16

of my favorite saxophonists. He's the son of

47:19

another famous saxophonist Dewey Redmond and had been

47:21

a rising star all through the 90s. This

47:24

is his quartet on Cat Battles from his album

47:26

Freedom in the Groove which was released the same

47:28

year as Peace Beyond Passion, in 1996. Just

47:39

speaking personally, he knocked me out the

47:41

first time I heard him. He was

47:43

the first current young saxophonist that I

47:45

heard when I was first getting into

47:47

jazz in the 90s who just sounded

47:49

different and exciting. And I mean... He's

47:58

so good. I

48:04

have transcribed a lot of Joshua Redmond's solos,

48:06

but I can't really play like Joshua Redmond.

48:09

However, I do feel more qualified to

48:11

recreate his parts than I do like

48:13

Wendy Melvoyne's guitar plagues, so I had

48:16

a good time trying to cop his

48:18

sound. Here on the bridge he's playing

48:20

overdubbed harmony with himself, so we get

48:22

two Joshua's Redmond doing a variety of

48:24

harmonized figures. Some

48:28

high, tight hits, and

48:32

a couple of drawn out harmonized

48:34

scoops. Here

48:38

on the bridge Redmond is simulating a

48:41

classic funk horn section, and I always

48:43

find it's tricky to get the punch

48:45

of an actual horn section without some

48:47

brass. I actually run into this a

48:50

lot as the saxophonist recording myself and

48:52

overdubbing saxophone parts. On this

48:54

record they compensate for that a bit by

48:56

using this synthesizer to drop in some additional

48:58

hits. You

49:04

probably couldn't hear it, but I actually doubled that

49:06

final short hit on the synth, which

49:09

I think they might be doing on

49:11

the record. There's also this fat synth

49:13

hit partway through the bridge. It's

49:17

almost offensively funky. I

49:22

don't know what synth that is, but it sounds like Prince.

49:29

It's such a quintessential bridge, and it was

49:31

such an education trying to reassemble it. From

49:34

how they actually removed elements from the drums,

49:37

to Michelle's ultra-smooth bass

49:39

slapping, which mixes so seamlessly

49:41

with Wendy's vertically stacked

49:43

guitar arrangement, to Joshua

49:45

Redmond's saxophones mixing with those

49:48

funky synths, and with

49:50

Michelle's vocals on top of it all, na

49:52

na na na na na. Hey, let's put

49:54

it all together and see what we... And

50:11

let's just focus in on those bass lines so

50:13

we can really start to hear it in context.

50:18

Now

50:24

back

50:28

to the original. The

50:32

groove is just on

50:35

another level. Back

50:40

to the recreation. I

50:47

really just got a shout out Sam for his

50:49

bass playing. Without him, the whole idea of recreating

50:51

this bridge would have been dead in the water.

50:54

But alright, let's let Michelle

50:56

take it home. This

51:11

final chorus sees the song at

51:13

its most lush and open. There's

51:15

this lovely little piano melody that

51:17

I actually never noticed before I

51:19

started working on this episode. Listen

51:25

for it in the recording. There's

51:32

a new effect on Ndegeciecello's lead

51:34

vocals, this radio-ecued delay effect that

51:37

pales out at the end of

51:39

phrases like, the way the light...

51:55

And there's the power of the

51:57

unified choir asking that all-consuming question.

52:01

After laying it all

52:04

out there

52:06

one last time,

52:08

Michelle draws it

52:10

back in and

52:12

drives it home. And

52:30

she does it with a final, funky assist

52:32

from Josh Redman. Like

52:38

I'm always saying, everything is better with

52:40

a saxophone solo. So

52:53

the way ends on a vamp with a

52:55

tenor sax solo, but not just any tenor

52:57

sax solo. Redman is putting his horn through

53:00

some kind of a filter. The

53:05

result is an auto-wah effect that triggers

53:07

a stronger wah the louder he plays.

53:09

I guess he's using a mutron or

53:11

something like that. It's a really

53:13

cool sound. I

53:21

spent way too long getting this effect on

53:23

my head. Let

53:32

me turn off the filter. Sounds

53:39

fine. Let me get some

53:41

of the saxophone. But

53:46

it's such a difference when you turn the filter

53:48

back on. With

54:04

that last funky element in place,

54:06

the way just cruises. It's

54:16

a song that combines everything I

54:18

love about Michelle and Negie Achela.

54:20

Her unstoppable bass tops, yes, but

54:22

also her ability to really make

54:24

you think, to transfix you with

54:26

her words and to choose the

54:29

perfect collaborators for each song. That's

54:34

a crucial skill that's just as important

54:37

as perfect tone or flashy technique. She

54:39

knew how to highlight each individual player's

54:41

strengths in ways that allowed each song

54:43

to become so much more than an

54:45

otherwise might have been. A

54:49

remarkable song from a remarkable

54:51

album made by a truly

54:53

remarkable artist. And

55:19

that'll do it for my analysis of The

55:21

Way by Michelle and Negie Achela. I know

55:23

I say this a lot, but I really

55:25

have been looking forward to making an episode

55:27

about Negie Achela's music since I started making

55:29

strong songs, and I am so glad to

55:31

have finally done it. I really hope that

55:34

some of you out there will go and

55:36

listen to her music after listening to this

55:38

episode. She's got a ton of albums spanning

55:40

so many different styles from over the years.

55:42

Her newest one, the Omnicord Real Book, is

55:44

really, really good. All her stuff from the

55:46

90s is great. Really, you can't go wrong,

55:48

and she really is one of my favorite

55:50

musicians ever, so I hope this episode has

55:52

served as a good introduction for some of

55:55

you. A huge thank you to Sam Howard

55:57

for providing bass parts for this episode. I

55:59

really can't imagine making it without someone

56:01

to provide bass examples, and it was also

56:03

just fun to spend a day in the

56:05

studio with one of my oldest friends activating

56:08

turbo nerd mode on one of my favorite

56:10

recordings ever. Thanks also to Emily

56:12

Williams for her production support during season 6,

56:15

and thanks to all of my patrons,

56:17

to everyone who's chipped in to make

56:19

this season possible over on Patreon. As

56:21

you can probably tell, Strong Songs takes

56:23

a ton of work to make, but

56:25

I love making it, and you all

56:27

really do make that possible by directly

56:29

supporting the show. And remember, if you

56:31

pay $5 or more a month, you

56:34

get episodes two weeks early, so if

56:36

you want to hear the next episode,

56:38

the subject of which was actually picked

56:40

by patrons, go to patreon.com/strong songs. That'll

56:42

do it for now, so until next

56:44

time, take care, and keep listening.