Listening Guides

Listening Guide 21.3

Listening Guide 21.1
"Stairway to Heaven" 4 beats per measure

iTune link = Stairway to Heaven

Analysis of "Stairway to Heaven" (Led Zeppelin IV, Atlantic 7208)

"Stairway to Heaven" remains a classic in the history of rock. It is a model of the multisection heavy metal concert epic, traversing from gentle acoustic music to raging electric rock in eight minutes. Jimmy Page's fascination with old English lore is apparent from the beginning. He opens "Stairway to Heaven" with a supple acoustic guitar solo passage. It is repeated, accompanied by an ensemble of recorders (vertical wooden flutes prominent in the Renaissance, roughly thirteenth to sixteenth centuries). In the chorus, the recorders play a more dominant, melodic role. This section of "Stairway" consists of a minor-key verse and a major-key chorus.
     Robert Plant enters with a subdued but pain-filled vocal. The story line of the song is disjunctive, its meaning as elusive as many a John Lennon psychedelic lyric. But a pained, lonely feeling remains a constant throughout. The form of the vocal in this section is somewhat different from the introduction's form: a verse, a half-chorus, then a closing vocal verse and an instrumental verse similar to the introduction. This concludes the first section of the song.
     An interlude begins and the acoustic guitar changes from a light picking style to a stronger strumming pattern. A Wurlitzer electric piano and an electric guitar join in. The second section of the song has a verse similar to the first section, except the chord progression has been altered a bit. The interlude now acts as a chorus. The form for this section is interlude, verse, interlude, verse, interlude.
     The drums enter for the third section. The form is based on repetition of the interlude from the second section. A new vocal melody is now heard over that interlude. There is a fanfare-like guitar transition to the fourth section, a guitar solo. The form is a two-measure, three-chord figure over which Page plays a screaming, blues-based prototypical heavy metal guitar solo. The song has been making a gradual buildup all along, and Page's solo brings us to the climax of the song, the fifth section.
     The fifth section features Robert Plant singing in the upper-most register of his voice, a characteristic of the heavy metal style of singing that has influenced singers to this day. Plant's verse is based on material heard earlier in the piece, but it is superimposed over the chord progression used in the previous section for Page's guitar solo. The band suddenly slows to a halt and Plant finishes the song alone, bringing back the earlier mood of loneliness and melancholy.

iTune link = Shining Star

Analysis of "Shining Star" (That's the Way of the World, CD format, Columbia/Legacy 65920)

Earth, Wind, and Fire's 1975 soundtrack album That's the Way of the World was the group's finest and best-selling album. Every track is a winner and the production is excellent. The 1999 CD release listed above includes some outtakes, or sketches.
     "Shining Star" is the opening track. There are intricate solo and group vocals, well-harmonized, tight unisons with extremely high falsetto male voices. The guitar lines are short and clipped, bass lines are very active, and the horn section plays tight, staccato, intricate lines. Particularly striking is the studio reverberation effect at the end of the track. On the third time through the vocal vamp, the reverb is suddenly taken out and it sounds like the members of Earth, Wind, and Fire have jumped out of the stereo and into your lap.
     The form of the song is a straightforward verse/chorus form. After the first cycle, there is an odd-length (seven measure) instrumental interlude of electric piano and guitar. In the second verse/chorus cycle, the length of each part is significantly extended and elaborated upon. The ending discussed above follows.
     There is tremendous precision in every aspect of the performance—the interlocking parts of the rhythm section to create an infectious groove, the vocal acrobatics of the lead vocal, the blend, rhythmic accuracy, and intonation of the group vocals—all hallmarks of one of the best funk bands in popular music.

iTune link = Disco Inferno

Analysis of "Disco Inferno" (Saturday Night Fever, CD format, Polydor 800068)

The 1978 movie Saturday Night Fever and its soundtrack were the undisputed catalysts for the disco fad of the late 1970s. The soundtrack is dominated by a number of excellent hit songs performed by the Australian brother band, the Bee Gees, but the Trammps' "Disco Inferno" is selected for this analysis because it is an example of an extended length dance mix as typically played in a disco. The Bee Gee songs conform more to the four-minute hit format.
     "Disco Inferno" has a common verse/chorus format with a bridge, or contrasting section. As a typical pop hit, the song proper would only be three and a half minutes long. As a disco dance mix, however, the band vamps for a long stretch, with intermittent instrumental solos, solo and group vocal utterances, and punctuations by a brass section. The entire verse/chorus song never returns.
     The recording is highly produced. The orchestra and vocals sound like an army, with a chorus of voices, an orchestral string section, and a large brass section of trumpets and trombones. The rhythm section features a busy and unfaltering four-measure figure that is labeled here as a groove, a lilting rhythmic vamp that is used for the song's verses, featuring a solo singer, and for the long instrumental dance passages. It is in a minor key. The chorus, by contrast, is half the length of the verse and is in a sunnier major key and features a vocal group. After two verse/chorus combinations, the song introduces a bridge, a completely new section of the song that sidetracks us for a moment before returning to a final verse/chorus combination. This is the end of the song for all intents and purposes.
     From this point, the recording goes into a long stretch of the verse groove. For the next seven minutes or so, there is a series of unassuming events over that groove—a guitar solo, chants by the vocal group, a half-spoken, half-sung recitation by the solo singer, and a solo by an electric piano. The end of the recording is signaled by a long-awaited return of the chorus. For the first time around, only the instrumental backgrounds are heard, then the vocals reenter. The music is electronically faded out.