I Got a Name
Background: This is a blog I’ve wanted to do for a long time – A blog about songs with people’s names in it. We’ve talked in multiple blogs about character development, but these songs we will discuss in this blog aren’t specific names, like Chuck Scarborough from Fountains of Wayne’s “Traffic and Weather” or “Buddy Holly” by Weezer, nor are they instrumentals named after people, such as “Kim” by Brad Paisley or “Jessica” by The Allman Brothers Band. Instead, we will discuss six songs, three named after guys and three named after women. Even with that narrowing it down, I will still provide a playlist of omissions at the end, because the possibilities are truly endless!
“Amie” by Pure Prairie League
Lyrically: “Amie” is told from the perspective of a narrator who hung out with a woman named Aime, in a somewhat romantic way, to the point where she thought the narrator had feelings for her. But somewhere along the lines, she wound up with someone else, and now the narrator is trying to hold on. In the second verse, he begs for another chance, saying, “Don’t you think the time is right for us to find all the things we thought weren’t proper could be right in time?” The narrator’s case is strengthened in the third verse when he says, “All the things you thought before just faded into gray,” meaning Amie’s other relationship didn’t work out, so the best solution is to come back to the narrator. It’s worth noting that on many albums (including its original parent album Bustin’ Out), the song is preceded by “Fallin’ in and Out of Love”, and it transitions so well, I swore growing up that it was a medley (even if I didn’t know what a medley was at the time). It also fits very well thematically – the narrator is falling in and out of love with Amie, but he wants to keep holding on to her and the possibility of the two of them working out.
Meloically: The song’s intro uses A, G, and D, played twice. With the song written in A major (Mixolydian), this is a I, bVII, IV pattern. This pattern gets repeated in the verses, before going to A, D, C, D, C, E, which puts the bIII chord before the IV, before going back to the bIII and V chords to close out the verse. The chorus then uses the intro chords, before ending on Bm and E (the ii and V) before going back to the intro. The solo uses the same chords as the verses. Instrumentally, the song uses acoustic, electric, and bass guitars, as well as drums.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo (over the verse), verse, chorus format. I love the simple structure of this song. I first heard it when I was probably four or five, but I could tell even at a young age what was going on in the song. I didn’t read too deeply into the narrator putting the ball in Amie’s court, maybe thinking it was him just wondering what she wanted to do when they hung out, but I still knew he was on the verge of losing her, and even the line in the last verse, “And I don’t know if it’s you or if it’s me, if it’s one of us I’m sure we both will see” always stuck out to me–but the journey to get there is super cool. It goes from “Eh, this might have been my fault,” to “We’re both kind of to blame here, but since you’re here, what do you wanna do?”
You can listen to “Amie” below.
2. “Lorelei” by Styx
Lyrically/Structurally: “Lorelei” is the love interest of the narrator, and she’s moving in, which has the narrator all kinds of excited. In a previous blog, we talked about “Josie” by Steely Dan, and how its effectiveness comes in the anticipation, rather than what actually happens. Similarly, it thrives when it describes the titular love interest: “As gentle as a butterfly, she moves without a sound” and “Her eyes become a paradise… She brightens every lonely night.” I’ve been listening to this song probably since I was in 8th grade, and it didn’t occur to me until now the effectiveness of the line “She said be there by eight” followed by “Tonight’s the night she’s moving in and I can hardly wait.” I don’t know why, but I always heard “Be there by eight” as a command, not “I’ll be there by eight”, but in addition to being a shorter way of saying the same thing, it also builds up the anticipation. When he says, “Tonight’s the night she’s movin’ in” does that mean she’s moving in with the narrator or moving in on the narrator? We don’t know, because the chorus doesn’t hit until after three verses, and then the payoff of the narrator saying, “Lorelei let’s live together.”
The chorus gets sung twice. If this were a story song, it would’ve been more effective to have a chorus between each verse, but since each verse talks about how awesome Lorelei is, the chorus is “Ok, I can’t take it anymore, we have to live together.”
I mentioned earlier that I’ve been listening to this song since I was in 8th grade, which is when my dad bought Styx’s Greatest Hits from 1995, and in addition to my dad showing off his falsetto before the first line of “Lady” even came in (much to the amusement of my brother and me), he also told us about a woman in college who used to come to their parties and bellydance to “Lorelei”. They never knew her name, they just called her “Lorelei”. It is a terrific song to bellydance to.
Melodically: The song starts out with mid-70s-style synth arpeggios then the vocals come in on the first verse, before electric guitar comes in, playing D, C, D, and G. Written in D major (Mixalydian), this is a I, bVII, I, IV progression. Much of Styx’s music is bombastic and frantic, so it makes a lot of sense to go from the I to the bVII (classic rock sound of the 1970s), and ending on the IV also makes sense, because there’s no finality, as the song is all about anticipation. The pre-chorus uses A, and G, the V and the IV, and the chorus uses the same chords as the verses. The outro uses D and C, the I and the bVII. Instrumentally, the song uses electric guitar, bass, drums, and synthesizers.
You can listen to (and bellydance to) “Lorelei”, as it’s embedded below.
3. “Denise” by Fountains of Wayne
Lyrically: I could have taken my pick of Fountains of Wayne songs that have a woman’s name in them, so make sure you check the playlist at the end of this blog for some omissions. But “Denise” is too fun a song to pass up chatting about. She’s the object of the narrator’s affection, even though she’s mildly problematic in hindsight (with her fandom of Puff Daddy and her heart made of gravel). Despite that, you can see the attraction: “She drives a lavender Lexus. She lives in Queens but her dad lives in Texas.” The best part about this song is that even though, as mentioned in my Rooting for the Underdog Blog (underblog?) Chris and Adam were masters at creating loveable underdogs. But here, the focus is all on Denise. There’s zero information about the narrator, and yet after each verse, he keeps asking, “Do ya love me Denise?” And yet that’s the beauty of it. We’re fascinated by this character, Denise, we don’t need to know anything about the narrator, yet it’s hilarious when he just asks out of nowhere if she loves him.
Melodically: The song uses Bb, F, and Gb in the intro, followed by Bb, F, and Gb in the verses. The verses are written in Bb major, the intro and verses use a I, V, bVI pattern. The pre-chorus changes to Gb major and uses Gb, Db, and Eb (a I, V, bVI pattern), and the chorus (which stays in Gb major) uses a Db, Gb, Bbm, and Gb pattern, which is a V, I, iii, I pattern). Instrumentally, the song uses electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, chorus format. This song does what many punk rock/power pop songs do so well – they keep it simple structurally and melodically, but are very descriptive nonetheless. We all know someone like Denise, who just oozes cool. She might be out of our league, but it’s worth asking, because she might be into you. As I mentioned in the lyric section, there’s no need to have a description of the narrator – just keeping it about Denise throughout the whole song, not having much detail in the chorus or the pre-chorus, because the only focus should be on the title love interest.
You can listen to “Denise” below.
4. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by The Rolling Stones
Lyrically/Melodically: The greatest songwriters are the ones who look for inspiration in everything someone says. The story behind this song is that someone was over at Keith Richards’ house and saw someone tending to his garden. The person asked who was in the garden and Keith’s response was “Oh, that’s jumpin’ Jack.” Keith started working the riff Bill Wyman had come up with. Richards kept repeating jumping Jack when Mick interjected “Flash,” and that’s how the song started.
The song is sung from Jack’s perspective, introducing himself to the listeners: “I was born in a crossfire hurricane and I howled at my ma in the driving rain.” If any of that sounds too edgy for you, like Jack wouldn’t be your kind of person, he says in the chorus, “It’s alright now, in fact it’s a gas, I’m Jumpin Jack Flash, it’s a gas gas gas.” The second verse then goes on to describe his mother as “A toothless bearded hag” and “Schooled with a strap right across my back.” The third verse says he was “Drowned, washed out, and left for dead”. In other words, by the end of each verse, we begin to empathize with Jack a little bit more. The song uses B, A, B, A throughout the verses, while the refrain uses D, A, E, and D, played twice, before returning to the B, A, B, A pattern. With the song written in B major, this is a I, bVII progression in the verses, which has a similar effect as the Styx song we discussed, and gets followed by a III, VII, IV, III pattern, followed by the aforementioned I, bVII pattern. Instrumentally, the song uses electric guitar, bass, organ, piano (where the riff was originally written by Bill Wyman), as well as drums, and maracas.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, verse, chorus format. Each verse is quick, though providing a lot of detail, so it not only forces us to pay attention, it forces us to empathize even quicker with the narrator. The first verse makes him sound a little fishy, while the following verses allow us to see how he got to be this way. It doesn’t give us any time to sit and think, we have to make a decision right away if we’re going to root for this person or not.
You can listen to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” below.
5. “Sweet Baby James” by James Taylor
Lyrically: James Taylor doesn’t seem to have a cocky bone in his body (other than gleefully referring to the crowd in Southaven as “Memphis” even after people started yelling), so it always struck me as odd that he would name a song after himself. But when I saw him in the aforementioned concert, he said that this song was written as a lullaby to his grandson, who was named after him. It differs from most lullabies as it’s also a bedtime story about baby James, being a cowboy who has an easy life of riding horses and drinking beer after a long day (as babies do), but later in the chorus says, “Won’t you let me go down in my dreams and rockabye sweet baby James?” He then goes on to discuss what to do when times get tough, when it’s snowing in New England and it might be hard to sleep. It’s a sweet song.
Melodically/Structurally: These chords are a little complicated to discuss in writing, but the song is in D major, and the chords are linked below. Instrumentally, the song uses acoustic guitar and pedal steel guitar, as well as bass, drums, piano, and backing vocals from Carole King. Structurally, the song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus format. Similar to the gentle melody, it wouldn’t make sense for a lullaby to be anything more complicated than it is. Having 20 verses wouldn’t be good. This is hyperbole, but even three would be excessive, because you kind of hope the baby you’re singing it to will be asleep before or after two verses. So it’s just perfect in both regards!
https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/james-taylor/sweet-baby-james-chords-644843
You can listen to “Sweet Baby James” below.
6. “Steve” by Jeremy Messersmith
Lyrically: “Steve” is told from the perspective of the narrator whose best friend has just gone through a horrible breakup. The narrator will do anything to help Steve get over his ex and/or get back out there, which includes helping Steve practice his kissing. On the surface, it might seem like the narrator is just trying to make his friend feel better, but to someone who’s not bad at picking up on signals like I am, it’s clear that the narrator has feelings for Steve. I say that half-jokingly, but this is a common theme throughout the entirety of the parent album, “Heart Murmurs”. In a previous blog, we looked at Jeremy’s “It’s Only Dancing”, where the narrator comes over to comfort his crush after her heart was broken, saying that if her dad comes in, they can tell him “It’s only dancing”, but as the song progresses, he realizes it’s more than that. And this is the goal of “Steve”, to, as it says, “Discover that we could be lovers.” It’s funny because Steve’s breakup is an excuse for the narrator to bring up his feelings for Steve, but it’s so well-written that it never explicitly expresses feelings for him other than saying, “Steve I’m your best friend.” So it doesn’t come off as a strong ulterior motive in the way it might in another song about a guy trying to help someone feel better about a breakup.
Melodically/Structurally: The song uses F, C, Gm, F, C, and F in the verses. With the song written in F major, this is a I, V, ii, I, V, I pattern. The chorus uses Dm, G, and C, a vi, II, V pattern that gets played twice.
As I mentioned in the lyric section, the song is mainly about comforting his friend, but the narrator is open to whatever might happen, and may secretly have a crush on Steve. As a result, his offer, “Kiss me under the moonlight, won’t you Steve?” is sung with certainty, hence ending on the I chord. The chorus, however, ends with some question as to whether the offer will be accepted, hence why the word “Try” paired with the V chord is able to have so much tension to it. Instrumentally, the only things used are a piano and violin. The simple arrangement, paired with the simple proposition (not many details are needed, we just know Steve is hurting and the narrator is very supportive), make the simple verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse format make sense, plus since nothing gets answered, whether Steve will take the narrator up on his offer, it makes sense to reassert the offer at the end, and have some sort of resolve, even though we never get an answer.
On a closing note, I can’t pass up the opportunity to tell one of my favorite jokes. A grasshopper walks into a bar, and the bartender says, “Hey, you’re kind of a celebrity around here – we even have a drink named after you!” and the grasshopper says, “Steve?”
Anyway, “Steve” is embedded below.
Below is also a playlist with some omissions. Some notes: I had initially envisioned putting “Christine Sixteen” in this blog, but given the topic, I figured I’d better not. That said, the guitar work from the late, great Ace Frehley is absolutely terrific, so its inclusion is a tribute to him. Speaking of tributes, “Merry Go Round” is a song Paul Westerberg wrote for his sister, Mary Lucia, who is one of my favorite radio DJs. Of course, I left some out, but I tried to include as many as I could, even if some are new to you!
