Read Instructions Before Assembling

One of my favorite things in music are meta-instructions to the band in a song or descriptions of what the band is doing or about to do. . . Especially when it is on a studio recording and thus has to be a very self-conscious (and unnecessary) thing - as compared to a recording of a live performance where it might actually be serving to instruct/direct the band. I am talking about when the singer/bandleader just announces "bridge!" and the band breaks to the bridge (like James Brown might). Prince does this a lot (like on "Mountains" when he says, "Guitars and drums on the one," or "Superfunkycalifragisexy" when he says, "In seven measures I want somebody to scream," and then someone does. . . him), but I have written a lot about Prince lately so I won't focus on him.

Another common example is a lot of the older salsa I listen to (my taste in salsas and rhumbas ends in the 70s somewhere, basically the music my mom exposed me to growing up). There are a lot of call outs to particular instrumentalists in the recordings, giving them instructions or announcing their solos. This might be jazz influencing the music.

On Taj Mahal's song (or his version of it anyway) "Cluck Old Hen" he says, "And this is what the cluckin' sound like on the banjo. . ." And then he plays it. The whole song has the banjo sounding like a bunch of clucking chickens.

This reminds me that sometimes these instructions or explanations are for the audience, as he says later "Now listen to them hens!"

Dance songs of course are the most common example of instructions for the listeners, often describing the dance that goes along with the song. But still, that is not quite what I meant when I started writing this. Live recordings are also a very common example of this, with the band imploring the crowd to clap or sing along or to cheer out or scream. I remember many years ago a friend of mine admitting that he felt a little embarrassed when he heard recordings of crowds acting that way, but I scoffed. "They are at a concert. They are just really into it. . ." I guess I am empathetic since I can get that into it just listening to my ipod waiting for the train to go home from work. Once at a Flaming Lips show, Wayne Coyne implored us to pump our fists as they played "The Gash," saying "Yeah, I know it's cheesy, and you feel like just some follower - but that is what we come to concerts for. Forget yourself! Play along!" I appreciated that moment of awareness of audience participation and his jab at the too-school-for-school alt-rockers who would never be caught dead pumping their fists in time to the music along with everyone else.

I guess, the most common example of instructions or guides in a song is just counting off to begin a song, "1. . 2. . 3. . 4. ." Or I guess sometimes in the middle when there is about to be a change or some new instrumentation is about to come in.

Boogie Down Productions' song "Nervous" off of By All Means Necessary is a particular cool example. Hip-hop is full of self-reflective instructions/descriptions, but on this particular track KRS-ONE actually explains the things he is doing "on the 48-track board" while he doing it. For example, "There's two ways to do this, you see what I'm sayin? / If you feel the board, you feel around / We got tracks one to track 48 / We find track seven, and break it down!" And of course, the beat breaks down at the moment. . . This is an example of a song I used to not like and would skip, but over the years of listening to album that meta aspect began to appeal to me.

Another variation is when little snippets of instruction or conversation are kept on a cut and becomes just part of how you think of the song. For example, the version of "Revolution" on The Beatles (aka "The White Album") has a little flub at the beginning and Paul McCartney saying "Take two" with John's response "Okay!" And then there is the infamous "I'VE GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!" at the end of "Helter Skelter," a song that proves the Beatles could rock when they wanted to - though I guess there is plenty of evidence of that in their earlier stuff that is more influenced by early American rock n'roll music. . . But anyway, that lamentation is more of a tangential outburst referring to the playing/recording of the song, rather than the song itself or some detail about how it is played. Who knows how many takes it took? Those blisters probably really hurt! One of the things I liked about the Beatles Anthologies that came out in the 90s were the alternate takes with the flubs and mess ups which included a lot of those tidbits - like Paul chuckling through to the end of a fucked up version of "Rocky Racoon." ("Sminking of gin")

So, now I am giving you instructions for listening to music, listen for these instructions and try to decide what they add to the song, or perhaps you think they diminish the recording in some cases? What does it acommplish to make the seams of a song transparent?