Saturday Night Classics

I chose this song for several reasons. It's a classic in the sense that it still holds up, is a song that is well-known (one reactor labeled it 'elevator music' - but in the best sense) and is generally under appreciated.

The structure of this pop song is worth exploring.

Intro (a partial hook from the chorus)

Verse I: we drop into the middle of a man's thoughts. One remarkable aspect is the verse doesn't try to rhyme which was strange in those days - it's more narration, setting the feeling.

Chorus: the musical hook the message We still really don't know what the song is about but the music carries us

Verse II more exposition and still mysterious, yet we feel this man's sentiment

Chorus emphasizing the message again

Instrumental: The guitar takes us away, gives us time to feel and launches beautifully into the bridge

Bridge: This is the crux, the meta-message, a climax of expression

You tell yourself you're not my kind

But you don't even know your mind

And you can have a change of heart

Chorus: Now we know more background with more emphasis

Outro

The piano is the star of this song, along with the vocals of course.

When appreciating music it's useful to approach listening from various instruments as a basis of interpretation, which brings different perspectives. Here is a bass tutorial that allows us access to one such perspective.

Another reason I chose this song is I am learning piano. I'm a rank beginner and stumbled on this song, and I'd like to play it. I already play violin and (still learning, but far from a beginner) I actually like the learning process.

There are some things about piano that us violinists are quite jealous of. All you have to do is press the right button and the note resounds clearly and perfectly pitched. This one thing takes years on a violin. The keyboard is laid-out simply and musical notation is designed for piano. But other things are much more challenging, left hand/right hand syncopation is difficult, you are using all ten fingers as opposed to just 4 of the left hand (although bowing with the right hand provides other challenges -but many many rewards a pianist can't possibly articulate).

So I include this:

I love reaction videos of songs I like, here's one of many by guys who know music

This is a great song by itself but Steely Dan wrote and recorded many songs I like even more, but are more obscure and were never 'hits'. Below is my view...thanks for reading!