INSIDE  INSIDE THE HITS


WHAT MAKES THE HITS WORK

        For each record and artist covered, I examine - in non-technical speak - the melody and arrangement, lyrics and the picture they and the artist’ vocal paint; the recording, mixing and “production” (what does a producer do, anyway?), and every piece of the puzzle that helps the record grab us by some portion of the anatomy, above and/or below the waist, every time we hear it.

        In addition, I look at factors including the artist’s personality and image, timing of the original release, and how these and marketing turned an already-great record into one of the songs that defines its time, the ones we return to out of all the other big hits that came and went. To my knowledge, no one has ever tried to put all this together in straightforward language for general rock-lovers. There is a bit of more technical musical and studio stuff here and there, as some songs and records are more sophisticated than others. But anyone who knows their “Do, re, mi’s” from The Sound of Music, or reads Rolling Stone interviews with artists and producers, is familiar with the most complex terms and concepts in the book. If not, just skip ahead.

        By the way, Berklee Press went to the unheard of trouble and expense to obtain permission for us to reproduce complete or partial lyrics for many of the records discussed, from the Beatles thru Tracy Chapman. Other larger and more famous publishers shivered at the thought of buying all those rights, but I really thought they were necessary, and having them is a breakthrough for a book about rock. For those of you who really care about lyrics, this is a BIG benefit. And they are transcribed as-sung, not cleaned up to fit or flatter the artist’s “grown-up” image.

        There are also some fifty inteviews published when the records discussed came out (rather than rosy hindsight “ah, yes, we were all heroes then” pieces by artists trying to make sense or define their legacy). If I am at all typical at age 54, memory fails concerning just how I created this sound, wrote that lyric or edited three takes together, so in terms of examining exactly how the Police got that drum sound, or how Tina revealed everything in that vocal, best rely on what they said then and there when they did it, not here and now. All kinds of soon-never-to-be-seen-again stuff from Rolling Stone, Melody Maker (U.K.), Cash Box , Stereophile, Musician, High Fidelity, Modern Drummer, and record industry trade mags like Mix, Studio Sound, Recording Engineer/Producer... are in  I.T.H., unvarnished and real.

        In addition, there are some - in light of today’s “tip-toe political correctness” - outrageous, embarrassing and heart-wrenching moments with artists from Elvis to the Troggs to Paul Simon. Some, in granting us permission to reprint their words, lamented that there is no use in retracting them now.


WHAT’S NEW & EXCITING ABOUT  I.T.H.

        Enough sales pitch.  INSIDE THE HITS may not be the greatest thing since peanut butter, but it is a first attempt at a kind of musical detective work that has long-since been applied to the works of every great filmmaker and all of classical music and jazz. Why not rock? Well, for one thing, you can rent any film for a buck or two - all two or three hours of it, and look at it frame by frame - along with the corresponding book about Disney, Hitchcock or Spielberg. Many libraries will loan you the classics of classical, jazz and “legit” music free, and God knows, there are plenty of books the explain the works of Mozart and Beethoven.

        With rock, however, you normally have to buy a whole CD, or have a custom compilation made up some web-based company that has the rights to do so. In fact, I highly reccomend you do so for at least your fave records or artists included in the book. To make it easier for you to acquire Recommended CDs for each artist, or a compilation, this site includes links to various online music sources. We did not put these in the book because sources come and go (as did some Recommended CDs that were in print when I wrote, but out of print by the time we we edited the book - and which I replaced at the last minute). Also,  I.T.H. discusses records that will still be important decades from now, and hopefully my analyses and revelations will be useful then too.


        On this website we will try to bring you materials that we couldn’t include in the book itself, for a whole variety of reasons. I’ll try to explain those briefly as we go along.

        And for true fans and afficianados, we have posted direct LINKS galore to websites posted by rock artists themselves, or their official & non-official biographers, producers, managers, wives and husbands, estates, fan clubs, and many other sources of information about every artist discussed in  I.T.H.

        As W.C. Fields was quoted, playing a circus barker in some obscure film or play, this book “walks, talks, wiggles and shakes, and there’s more inside.”


A TASTE OF THE BOOK AND THE MUSIC

        For starters, I am reproducing parts of Foreword (which also briefly outlines my own career, misspent years and all), Contents (listing each record that has a full chapter, except twenty-nine Beatles songs discussed in one long chapter of Part II), most of the Introduction and Part I (which explain the book’s organization, features, etc.), the “Key Elements Matrix” (whatever that may be) and the entire Index. The latter gives an idea of the broad range of topics and people that relate to the music itself, from Abbey Road, “Africa,” Spiro Agnew and “Ahab the Arab” to Frank Zappa, Zen and the Zombies. Each of these bites of the book goes into some of what’s mentioned above in greater detail. Don’t bother reading them if you’re not already interested, unless you’re curious.


        The most important group of materials on this site are 30-second clips from each of the eighty-five records (singles, that is) discussed in a full chapter, or as one of the main items in a chapter of  I.T.H. The music here follows the order of the book, and each clip is introduced here with data from it: the song’s Title, Artist, Composer(s) and Lyricist(s), Producers(s), Engineer(s), Label, original Release Date and the Release Number of the ORIGINAL ALBUM on CD, or a RECOMMENDED CD that includes the complete song, tempo, key signature... For most records we also found a short quote by the artist or producer that may astound or outrage you.

        By the way, we did not simply replay the first 30 seconds of each song, as most online music sources do. We searched for the 30 seconds that best shows specific musical, recording and other items cited and discussed in  I.T.H. I call these the Signatures or KEY ELEMENTS of each record. These clips display the heart of each hit. Any listener should be able to dissect what he hears here and identify what I point out and opinionate on.

        And what if you don’t agree with my opinions? Find evidence to support your own! Nobody ever agreed completely on what makes any real work of art work anyway. I just happen to have 35 years experience behind me as a rock artist, record producer, film maker and teacher of film and record production, the latter for seventeen years at Berklee, and a label owner. In light of the latter, I also expend some ink in  I.T.H. diessecting how the music bizness worked and now works, carving up the clean and schmutzy sides of the biz with an equal-opportunity scalpel.


DISCLAIMER, LAMENT and a HIGH-PRICED, low profit OFFER

        I wish we could present entire songs here, but those of you familiar with the legal issues threatening Napster et al. know that we simply can’t do that without buying the rights to each record from from its owner-label. However, the law and courts do currently allow us to present clips as a sample of what you can purchase legally, from Amazon, CDNow, B&N, your local mom ‘n pop record store, or from us! I run a mostly-classical label called Boston Skyline (at BostonSkylineRecords.com on the Web), and can provide copies of the Recommended CDs. But since Skyline is a small customer and must buy these from at high wholesale prices, often with delayed delivery, we have to charge full retail, plus S&H of $4 each. Check the retail prices on one of the other linked sites. I’m sure you will also find better purchase prices there.