Jump Val Halen

 

When I think of a classic 80's song, Jump immediately comes to mind. The classic synthesizer and the guitar solo so unique to this era makes the listener think of crazy permed long hair, fish net clothing and bright pants. This song was Val Halens first #1 hit. I spent some time researching the meaning behind this  song but all I found was that they came up with the lyrics after watching a news update of a man attempting suicide by jumping off a building. But it is also vaguely said to be about a woman. Other than that, there isn't much context for the song. In the music video, Halens jumps high in the air (I mean the song is literally called Jump) and then keeps singing- as is true to most 80's music videos. I love the way the keyboard, synthesizer and guitar work together in this song and I love the choice of using the synthesizer as the main instrument although not everyone in the band wanted that.

Play That Funky Music

 The Band Wild Cherry is best known for their hit "Play That Funky Music". They started out as a pure rock band but slowly turned towards disco because their fans kept asking for more dance music. Which the song "Play That Funky Music" references saying "Now at first it wasn't easy, changin' rock and roll and minds and things were getting shaky. I thought I'd have to leave it behind. But now it's so much better" During a performance, a crowd member shouted, "Are you white boys going to play some funky music?" Which inspired this song. The music begins with a bass/guitar solo and a bit of Rob Parissi riffing and yelling random sounds. There isn't much harmony in this song among the singing band members until it says, "White boy" There is a lot of guitar solo areas and Wild Cherry uses a lot of scat in this song, although they are a white band. In previous units we discussed how mostly black artists used scat but this is showing the integration of music types. This song and this band seems to represent the transition from funk music to disco music and retains a lot of attributes from both.

Hotel California

This song brings so much summer nostalgia for me. I distinctly remember driving to a softball tournament with my dad in summer and listening to this song. I remember when I was learning guitar someone played this song at our summer concert and I was blown away that someone could just whip up a guitar solo on the spot. The first thing I thought when I heard this song was how weird the lyrics are. So, for my blog post I decided to look up some of the history behind this song. There is a lot of different interpretation in Hotel California. One take is that the song is a metaphor for weed, which was really popular in southern California at the time. Another way to look at the song is by what The Eagles said- “it is about the jaded, blasé, hedonistic lifestyle that characterizes California” the song shows the high life of southern California, including lines about nice cars, expensive alcohol and expensive living. 

Aside from the lyrics, the score of this song is fantastic. It is very true to the 70s and early 80s style. The guitar solos are famed all over and seem to represent the song in its own way. The instruments have an eb and flow of high, upbeat to hollow and distorted sounds that support the lyrics or the verse/chorus relationship. 

Bad Moon Rising

 

Usually, I pick a song that is bolded on the Canvas list but as an avid Ute fan, I had to choose Bad Moon Rising. My family has season passes and every game of this past season the loudspeakers play this song when Cameron Rising comes out with the offense to throw another winning touchdown. 

This song has electric guitar throughout the whole song that is pretty true to the time period. The lyrics prophesy of extreme weather conditions and events. The song was written in response to the 60's when America was walking a tight rope of war. John Fogerty, the composer, said the main inspiration for this song was from a movie where a man sells his soul to the devil and several catastrophic geological and atmospheric events happen all at once. Eventually (it seems) the meaning evolved into an anthem of the cold war and so many other messy things happening in the country at the time. As I understand it, there was an oil crisis because Russia was invading occupied territory (sound familiar?) and that caused a snowball of events during the 60's that are foretold in this song.