Head East/”Never Been Any Reason”: An Appreciation of Harmony Rock

 Head East/”Never Been Any Reason”: An Appreciation

Click here for "There's Never Been Any Reason."

I think about music a lot. Although I play a couple of instruments poorly and sing in a church choir, I don’t consider myself “a musician.” I just love music—a pay attention to the sounds, the words, and how it makes me feel. I am also a great lover of multi-part harmony.

My favorite music is good rock and roll in multi part harmony—different voices singing different parts, combining into a whole better than any of the individual parts. Some of my favorites from the “Rock Era” (60s to 80s):

• “Seven Bridges Road” by the Eagles. (if you have time, just listen to the first 20 seconds: (Click here to listen ). That’s five male voices, singing five different parts, in perfect harmony.)

• “Southern Cross” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash (it’s worth taking 40 seconds of your life --Click here to listen--advance the recording to 1:00, and to listen from then until 1:40). You’ll never hear better harmony singing than that.)

• “I’ve Seen All Good People” by Yes (if you’ll give me 15 more seconds, just listen to the first 15 seconds here: (Click here to listen) Like the Eagles, this begins a capella, meaning voices only, with no instruments. Like Crosby, Stills and Nash, this is perfect 3 part harmony.

I won’t go on and on, but, if you like good singing, I will say it’s good stuff. All of it came out in a 10 year period from 1971 through 1980 and was intended to be sung live, in front of people (as opposed to the recording studio; in fact, the Eagles never recorded “Seven Bridges Road”; it only exists through recordings of live concerts.

In case you’re wondering where I’m going with this, it’s because, this past weekend, I found another song to add to this list. Diana (my bride) and I were out on Saturday and realized that, the next day, all the restaurants would be closing. So, on impulse, we went to La Playa on Saratoga, and ordered some Nachos A La Playa (basically, shrimp nachos with a yummy sauce) and enjoyed them together; kind of a “last party” until things reopen. Their music system was playing classic rock.

Head East’s “Never Been Any Reason” came on. I loved this song with it first came out (I was a freshman in high school), and, although I hadn’t heard it in years, I realized why I loved it so much—terrific harmonies and great instrumentation.

The lyrics are pretty typical mid-70s rock—about a relationship with the speaker (presumably a girlfriend) that is rocky. But the music itself. . . .

It’s pretty unusual. First of all, there are two lead vocalists, not just one. Steve Huston and John Schlitt switch back and forth on the lead; Huston was the drummer (pretty unusual for a drummer to sing lead in rock) starts out “Did you see any action . . .” and sings three lines. Then, John Schlitt, the usual lead vocalist (If you are a Christian Rock fan, Schlitt was later the lead singer for Petra) jumps in, about half an octave higher with “I’ve been walking behind you . . . “

Then the fireworks start. The chorus begins with two part harmony: “There’s never been any reason . . .” Next, comes one of those glorious accidents that can occur. Roger Boyd, the vocalist, laid down one track after the chorus, and then, just to try something different, laid down a different track (this was in the early days of synthesizers, which are called “keyboards” now). When they got into the studio, the recording engineer accidentally played both tracks at the same time. When they heard it, says Boyd, “we thought WOW!” so the accident became part of the final version of the song.

Boyd and Schlitt do through another shared verse, and to the two part chorus.

Then, after the second chorus, it happens.

Full blown, five part harmony: “Save my life, I’m going down for the last time . . .” This is the only song I know of that has five part harmony in the middle of a song when you have full drums, guitar, bass, and synthesizer going at the same time. With the Eagles and Yes, the five part harmony is a capella, no instrument, and with Crosby, Stills, and Nash, it’s one simple, slow rhythm guitar. I don’t’ know of any other rock song that has five part harmony in the midst of the instruments all going full throttle. And, to nerd out a bit more, this second, five part chorus (“Save my life, I’m going down for the last time” is repeated at intervals throughout the rest of the song, with several key changes.

In case you’re wondering why it’s a big deal, it’s hard to sing.

It’s not easy to play a musical instrument.

If you have never tried it, try, just once, to sing and play a musical instrument at the same time. Sing well, like you’re trying to sound good. Since something that doesn’t match what you’re playing on your instrument.

Then, try and do it singing in parts. Sing something that’s a completely different set of notes from what four other people are singing at the same time, but that somehow fits in perfectly. Now, do it while you’re playing a part on a musical instrument that is a completely different set of notes than what you’re singing.

Hint: this may sound hard; if you try it, it’s even harder than you imagine it is.

My point: that Head East’s “There’s Never Been Any Reason” is a musical gem, and underappreciated masterpiece, that’s well worth a listen. If you are inclined to try it, there's a link to it on the top of this page.

Super Bowl of Songs

It won't surprise you to learn that, vocally, my three favorite bands are probably Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Yes, and The Eagles. On Super Bowl Sunday, I have decided to have a playoff championship of great rock and roll harmony songs.  My three entries are, in no particular order, “Seven Bridges Road” by the Eagles, “Southern Cross” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and “I've Seen All Good People” by Yes.

You can find them here:

            The Eagles’ “Seven Bridges Road”

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grhVbIrwDDg

            Crosby, Stills, and Nash “Southern Cross”

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw9gLjEGJrw

            Yes “I’ve Seen All Good People:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJM7TdshUbw

            Why I love vocal harmony in rock, and why it’s so hard to find

My two musical loves--love of rock and roll and love of great vocal harmony--don’t get along very well. Multiple voices singing together—2, 3, 4, or 5 voices singing in harmony creates this amazing, rich listening experience that touches my soul. It’s probably why I’ve sung in choirs since high school.  

Rock and roll, the soundtrack of my life, doesn’t provide a lot of this kind of singing.  Occasionally you'll have a couple of voices singing together on a song, especially in older stuff like the Beatles, or the occasional duet. Rock and roll usually, though, is about the solo voice, or a solo with backup. Rock and roll rose to success on the star system. You want a person out front-- Jim Morrison or Grace Slick or Scott Stapp or Darius Rucker or Marc McGrath.  Rock and roll with great multi part vocal harmonies are pretty hard to find.

Entry One:  The Eagles

First off is the Eagles’ “Seven Bridges Road.” It was actually written by a country songwriter named Steve Young, who was a driving force in the "Outlaw Country" movement.  So right away, the Eagles lose points because they did not write the song.  Plus the arrangement was by Ian Smith and Mike Naismith (the guy in the Monkees who wore the knit cap all the time), which the Eagles had heard many times.  This means their version is less original.

But that opening, five-part, glorious acapella harmony they all sing:  "There are stars in the southern sky” is one of the best vocal moments in rock and roll. All five of the voices--including Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Don Felder, Timothy Schmit and Joe Walsh-- just hit every note perfectly. They combine to create overtones and harmonics that you just don’t hear in most rock.

Furthermore, this song was never done in the studio, under perfect conditions, in a sound booth with sound engineers  controlling every aspect.  It was always sung live. Apparently, the Eagles were just messing around one day before a concert and all singing into the same mike. They realized they had a good sound, at least in the concrete dressing room.  Then, they walked out and did it live in front of an audience, and the crowd was blown away. After that, they always opened their show with this song.

The entire song was sung in five-part harmony, unlike the others on my list. The instrumentation is also minimal - - the focus is on the vocal singing. Just a little surprisingly subtly but driving Joe Walsh guitar rhythm after the first verse, and that's it for the instrumentation. Just people who like to make music together, singing for the audience in front of them. Ian Smith wound up loving this version, by the way.

Entry Two:  Crosby, Stills, and Nash

Second on the list is “Southern Cross,” by Crosby, Stills, and Nash.  It was written by Stephen Stills, along with the Curtis Brothers. Actually, it was originally a song called “Seven League Boots” by the Curtis Brothers, which had some nice elements to it but was kind of a mess. Stephen Stills contributed heavily to the song, but it was as much a good editing job of a previously existing song as it was original work on his part. Still, the band gets points for being involved in the songwriting, which the Eagles weren't. This was also an original arrangement, and the Eagles used somebody else's.

However, unlike “Seven Bridges Road,” this doesn't open with vocal harmony, and the harmonies are not even evident until part way through the song. “Southern Cross” begins with a highly recognizable rhythm guitar opening performed by David Crosby, and then Stephen Stills begins to sing in what at first appears to be a pretty traditional rock and roll “front man” situation.

After the first verse, though, the fireworks begin. Stills has been singing about taking an ocean voyage to recover from the heartbreak of lost love. Then, the chorus begins:  “I've been around the world,” and the magic happens. Crosby Stills and Nash provide amazing 3 part harmony.  Two of the backup singers on the album are Timothy Schmidt from the Eagles, who also sang on Seven Bridges Road, and Art Garfunkel, of Simon & Garfunkel Fame. Two pretty serious singers to provide some backup!

The rest of the song is amazing, kind of a call and response between Sills, of the trio of him plus Nash and Crosby, and Crosby's rhythm guitar. It is amazing musicianship, and beautiful singing. The harmonies are the most memorable part of the song, but they fit in pretty seamlessly with the vocals and the instrumentation.

Of the three, I have the most powerful emotional response to the lyrics, especially the chorus:

            You understand now why you came this way
            ‘Cause the truth you might be runnin' from is so small
            But it's as big as the promise, the promise of a comin' day

Maybe I react so strongly because I was in the Navy when this song came out, and I remember spending many and night outside on the fantail of the ship thousands of miles from land staring up at the stars and contemplating the vastness of the universe and my own tiny tiny part in it. Or maybe it's because, I have seen the Southern Cross. I was in Zambia, walking back in the dark to where I was staying, looking up and seeing this big constellation that is unmistakable. You've never seen anything like it. Huge. Immediately recognizable. It's actually pretty hard to pick out constellations if no one is showing you how to find them, but you cannot miss of the Southern Cross. And immediately these lyrics came to my head—“When you see the Southern Cross for the first time”--I went back to my where I was staying and immediately called my family back in the States.

Entry Three:  Yes

Third in this entry is Yes, the only one of these bands I have seen live in concert. “I've Seen All Good People” is the oldest song on the list, dating back to 1970. “Yes” was one of the First Progressive Rock, or ProgRock, groups, which deliberately made their lyrics more like poetry, and used more sophisticated instrumentation techniques borrowed from classical music and jazz.

“I’ve Seen All Good People” is also the only fully original song on my list, meaning that it was completely written by members of the band that performed it. It is written by Jon Anderson and Chris Squires, and it features three part harmony with Anderson, Squires, and Steve Howe.

Like the Eagles’ song, “I've Seen All Good People begins with acapella harmony: 

I've seen all good people turn their heads this way
So Satisfied I'm on my way...  .

It has a similar effect to the opening of “Seven Bridges”—beautiful, tight harmony, immediately recognizable. Perhaps because there are fewer voices in the opening to The Eagles song, “All Good People” has fewer overtones and harmonics than you can hear with the Eagles. But this is still beautiful, tight singing.

Like “Southern Cross,” there is a call and response between the harmony, the instrumentation, and the lead vocal. The opening harmonic vocals are immediately followed by a rhythm introduction played on a vachalia, a Portuguese guitar-like instrument that has an ethereal sound... Remember prog-rock is noted for its complex instrumentation.

Then, Anderson's lead vocal dances in and out of the vachalia, and introduces the main metaphor of the song, which compares the complexity of human relationships to a chess game...

            Move me on to any black square
            Use me anytime you want
            Just remember that the goal
            Is for us all to capture all we want 
               (Move me on to any black square)

            Don't surround yourself with yourself
            Move on back two squares
            Send an instant karma to me
            Initial it with loving care

Of the three, these lyrics are the most poetic. Chess is a wonderful metaphor for human relations, and, there’s some real musical cleverness. The last part of the lyric I quoted... “Send an instant Karma to me”... is a nod to John Lennon.  If you listen very, very closely at that point you will hear a tiny bit of the song “Give Peace a Chance” playing beneath it. An early form of sampling. Musical fireworks here.  

The Verdict

So there you have it:  spectacular, pure acapella singing on the part of the Eagles, call and response vocals and instruments with Rock and Roll Hall of Famers singing backup for Crosby Stills and Nash, or spot on harmonies with musically and lyrically complex work from Yes.  How do you choose among the three? I will not cop out, as my students might sometimes do. They say, “It depends on your taste” and don’t answer they question.

Well, I do have taste. It may not be good taste, but it's taste. Here goes.

Number one is Crosby, Stills, and Nash. I just love the way Crosby’s rhythm guitar walks back and forth in between Stills’ solos and the vocal harmonies. Plus the lyrics are the most personally meaning of the three to me.

Number 2 is Yes. There is something magical and otherworldly about the song’s opening harmonies.  I just love chess.  But you will never hear this full song on the radio, because, like most ProgRock, the song istoo long for radio play. 

Number 3 is the Eagles, which surprises me, because even as I'm writing this, I acknowledge this is the best singing of the three. Maybe I vote this way because neither the song nor the arrangement was original, or maybe because, despite the singing, the lyrics are the least interesting (There are stars, but they’re just stars—both of the other two songs take their lyrics to the realm of good metaphor).

I hope you will play along with me, and give me your thoughts.

The Rock Star Next Door

              Tom Petty didn’t look like a rock star.  He wasn’t devastatingly handsome—those goofy buck teeth made sure of that.  He didn’t dress outrageously, and he didn’t strut around arrogantly.  He looked like the kind of guy you’d have a friendly chat with in the checkout line at the local grocery, or the helpful customer who’d help you find the right head light for your car in the endless maze of the auto parts store.  He looked like someone you’d want to talk to.

                Onstage, he was the same way.  I couldn’t tell you how many concerts I saw growing up in El Paso, but the 70s and 80s were a good time for rock and roll and the Pass of the North was a good rock and roll town.  But I can tell you about some of the entrances rockers made—Alice Cooper singing “Welcome to My Nightmare” while people clad as monsters danced on stage, Ted Nugent swinging onstage on a faux vine, ZZ Top and its laser light show, or Aerosmith coming on nearly an hour late with no explanation or apology (sorry, Steven Tyler, love ya, man, but you sucked that night in ’77). 

                Tom Petty just walked onstage and said, “Hello.”  He could have been your neighbor coming over to borrow a lawn mower, or maybe to come over and have a beer.  No pretense, no fuss, no grand entrance.  Just someone who realized that thousands of people had come to the Special Events Center (now the Don Haskins Arena) to hear him play his music, and that they deserved the courtesy of a “hello.”   It was that simple—that genuine connection to fans by a genuine guy.

                Bear in mind that “simple” is the hardest thing in art to do well.  If you write a “simple” song, like the four-chord progression played to the melody of “American Girl,” you have to do it perfectly, or the simple song becomes amateur hour.  But Petty’s simple notes and chords, played in the right way, mixed in with simple, clear words to tell stories become art nearly anyone could relate to.  We all relate to the American girl, “raised on promises,” and, like her, we “couldn’t help thinking there was a little more to life somewhere else.”  When our lives got too much for us, we all wanted to “Leave this world for awhile” and go “Free falling” and “glide down” and away from it all.    When we were in love and the relationship wasn’t going well, many of us thought, “Don’t do me like that,” or wished the other person would “Stop dragging my heart around.”  Simple songs with lyrics that told the stories of our lives—this was one of the reasons Tom Petty was one of the most loved and longest lasting rockers.

                But old Tom’s songs had a built-in secret weapon that was so subtle most people didn’t realize it:  they were written in a key that almost anybody could sing.  Seriously—try this experiment.  Get on Youtube and type in the name of any Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song—American Girl, Free Fallin’, Don’t do Me Like That, or dozens of others.  Then try and sing along.  You can—you can join Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and sing along with him.  You can participate.   You can be part of the band.  Tom’s musical talent is the not the kind of virtuoso talent that dazzles you and makes you want to stop.  It’s the kind of talent that invites you to join in.

                Now, try and do the same thing with the other Rockers of his era.  Seriously.  Try and sing along with Steven Tyler on Aerosmith’s “Dream On.”  You’ll be visiting an Ear, Nose, and Throat Specialist by this afternoon, ‘cause your voice don’t go that high.  Try and sing along with anything by Ozzie Osborrn, or Alice Cooper or the Who.  Heck—try and sing along with the Beatles in the key they actually wrote the song in.  Don’t drop down an octave—actually try and sing along.  Unless you are a highly trained woman vocalist, or a male who happens to be a high tenor, you can’t sign along with most of the great rock from the 60s, 70s, or much of the 80s. 

                But you can join along with Tom Petty, who wanted you to.  He wrote songs about lives like yours, in tunes you can remember, in a key you can sing in.  That, to me, is the highest level of genius—not the genius that dazzles, that makes me stop in wonder, but the genius that fills me with the shock of recognition, that seems like it’s about my life, or the people I know, that makes me feel a little bit less alone in the world, because Tom Petty had his heart broke, too, and got over it, or Tom Petty knew what it was like to work long hard hours and come home to more work and he wanted to go “Free Fallin’,” just like me.

                I am saddened by Tom Petty’s death.  I’m also profoundly glad that he ever lived, and that I got to hear his songs, and see him in person.  He was the rock star next door, the man whose genius was accessible, whose songs invited me in.  Tom Petty was, in my mind, unique among American rockers, because his genuine humbleness, his friendly nature, and the deceptive simplicity of his fans made his greatness all that easy to overlook.  We shall never see his like again.