The Art of the Medley
Background: Around 2009, when the show Glee was gaining popularity, we also saw a rise in popularity of the mash up. These were songs that got mashed together, usually due to a common theme. In Glee, the cast did a mash up of “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor and “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child, with the common theme being the word “survive” and empowerment of women. They also did a mash up of Journey songs. But a medley, which we will be focusing on in this blog, is unique in the sense that it’s two complete songs mushed together. And while mash ups tend to be incomplete snippets of songs that weren’t necessarily meant to fade into each other, medleys are, for our purposes, two complete songs. Most mashups also tend to be cover songs, and all the medleys we will look at were conceived as medleys in their original form, with the exception of two. Two of these medleys will feature one song that is instrumental, and a second that contains lyrics. Finally, I want to distinguish a medley from a song with multiple different movements, that is housed under one title. This, we will look at in my next blog. But with all that in mind, let’s chat about the art of the medley.
“Foreplay/Long Time” by Boston
Melodically: This medley is rather unique in that the first part of it is completely instrumental, with the lyrics coming in during its successor, “Long Time”. “Foreplay,” begins with organ, followed by a booming electric guitar and drum sound. The organ then continues with a bassline in the background before the guitar and drums come back in. The organ and the drums then blare, coming to a grinding halt. The organ then eerily plays on its own before “Long Time” begins its intro, with a blaring guitar, drums, and organ. In “Long Time,” the “Now I’m takin’ my time” part is distinguished by an acoustic guitar. Both songs were written in the key of F#, which explains the smooth transition, despite the radically different sounds of the two different songs.
Lyrically: “Long Time,” lyrically talks about moving on from a past relationship and not looking back, though the narrator is lonely and will never forget about the person in question. Conversely, they insist that their significant other will forget them after he leaves.
Structurally: Of course the song starts off with the “Foreplay” intro, followed by “Long Time.” The latter follows a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus format, with the chorus repeating at the end. The ending also uses an electric guitar, using the same chords as the acoustic, in the last chorus.
“Foreplay/Long Time” is embedded below. It’s also just outside of your front door.
2. “Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” by Elton John (Lyrics by Bernie Taupin)
Melodically/Structurally: Like Boston’s combination of “Foreplay/Long Time,” the opening song to this medley is an instrumental. Elton composed the song while thinking of what kind of music he would like played at his funeral. “Funeral for a Friend” opens with theatrical sound enhancements that move into a neoclassical section which introduces foreshadows of pop (1970s) piano and guitar, This moves into a section with latin overtones and ultimately merges into “Love, Lies, Bleeding,” a pop-rock anthem with prominent power guitar sections. There is a bridge that calls back to the neoclassical feeling of Funeral for a Friend, but the pop-rock productions close out the piece. David Henschel, who was the album engineer, also overdubbed many effects and other Elton John songs, to create a funeral-like atmosphere. The songs he overdubbed included “The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909 -1934),” “I’ve Seen That Movie Too,” and “Candle in the Wind,” all of which appeared on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
Lyrically: “Love Lies Bleeding,” interestingly enough, talks about the end of a relationship, using the visual of roses, which “Have tilted to one side.” I say interesting, because the song talks about the end of a relationship, and in the final end of a relationship (death), you tend to give the mourners flowers. But in this case, a breakup, the flowers die with it. The second verse, however, switches from the flower metaphors to a very powerful line: “I wonder if those changes have left a scar on you, like all the burning hoops of fire I jumped through.” By all accounts, though, the other person isn’t scarred at all, as the narrator seems to be the one who has to clean up the mess. On a side note, the band Fuel used a similar metaphor, even borrowing the phrase “Love Lies Bleeding” for their 2000 hit, “Hemorrhage (In My Hands).”
“Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding” is embedded below.
3. “The Load Out/Stay” by Jackson Browne (“Stay” originally by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs)
Lyrically: This medley closes out Jackson Browne’s innovative live album Running on Empty, which was a live album of previously unperformed songs, paired with songs recorded on the road, about life on the road. “The Load Out” is Browne’s ode to his roadies, and how hard they work through the grueling travel schedule. In a previous blog, I talked about “Road Song,” by Fountains of Wayne, and in that song, there’s a line that says, “Today was Green Bay and tomorrow Chicago,” while “The Load Out” says, “And we’ll do the show in Chicago, or Detroit, I don’t know,” so apparently all arduous tours have to go through Chicago. However, the difference is that in this song, the narrator eventually says everyone, “remembers why they came,” which transitions the song into something a little more upbeat – all the cool people they see out on the road. After this section, it slows down again, before diving into “Stay.” The interesting thing about “Stay” is that it was originally written as a love song, with the narrator begging his girlfriend to “Stay just a little bit longer,” but in this case, the lyrics were changed slightly to be about the fans, and everyone who “doesn’t mind” if the fans stay just a little bit longer.
Melodically: “The Load Out” is written on piano in the Key of G. The intro uses G Bm C Em C D G C G, while the verses use G, Bm, C, Em, C, G, C, and G, as well as A7 and B7. When the verses speed up, he uses G, C, Em, C, G, C, G, Em, C, D, a pattern which repeats, except for the last line, which uses G, D, instead of G, C. Starting with the “People you got the power” section, he uses G, C, G, C, G, C, G, Em, C, followed by G, C, G, and Em. This section ends with the “But we’ll be scheduled to appear a thousand miles away from here” line, sung to the chords of C, Em, D, C, and G. After this, “Stay” kicks in, using G Em C and D in various combinations for the remainder of the song. The Load Out is written in G major, as is “Stay,” hence the smooth transition between songs. It is also worth noting that Jackson sings lead vocals on the entirety of “The Load Out,” but is accompanied by Rosemary Butler on the second chorus and beyond of “Stay.”
Structurally: “The Load Out” is all verses, with two different parts, while “Stay” is just a chorus sung repeatedly. Despite the differences in tempo and feel, the songs, with a little bit of a tempo change at the end of “The Load Out,” transition into each other very nicely, also because of them being written in the exact same key.
“The Load Out/Stay” is embedded below. Go ahead and listen–your mama don’t mind.
4. “Devil with a Blue Dress/Good Golly, Miss Molly” by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels
Background: This is the other song that was not conceived as a medley in its original form, as “Devil with a Blue Dress On” was originally written and recorded by Shorty Long on its own and “Good Golly, Miss Molly” was made famous by “Little Richard”. However, I still distinguish this from the compilation covers I mentioned earlier, since many R&B and soul songs were recorded multiple times in the 60s and 70s.
Lyrically: “Devil with a Blue Dress On,” talks about a love interest of the narrator who walks around with a “wig hat,” “alligator hat,” and “high heeled shoes.” Unlike later songs like “Witchy Woman,” or even songs of the era, like “I Put a Spell On You,” there is nothing malicious going on with this woman, other than the fact that she’s incredibly fashionable and good looking, projecting a large amount of confidence every time she walks by. “Good Golly, Miss Molly” takes a similar approach, but also mentions what a great dancer she is, knocking the narrator out (metaphorically) with her awesome dance moves.
Melodically: “Devil with a Blue Dress On” uses C and F/C in the intro. The chorus, where the song starts, uses G, F, C, F, C, F, and C, F, C, while the verses use C7, C, C7, and C, which repeats 3 times. This is followed by an F, then by C, C7, and C. “Good Golly, Miss Molly uses C, F, C,G7, F, C, and G. The bridge uses a C7, C, C7, C pattern, which gets played twice. Both songs are written in the key of C major.
Good Golly! “Devil with a Blue Dress/Good Golly Ms. Molly” is embedded below.
