The Animal Years
Background: In 2006, Josh Ritter released an album called The Animal Years. Although only one of the other songs on the album actually mentions animals (which we will talk about later in the blog), the record instead focuses on us going back to our primal urges to survive. The title has always fascinated me, and as a result, I decided to borrow the title for this blog, which will actually be about animals. Before the release of Josh’s album, Stephen King listed it as one he was especially looking forward to in the coming year, and I can only guess that he feels the same way about this blog.
“Monkey in a Suit and Tie” by 8 Ball Aitkin
Lyrically: “Monkey in a Suit and Tie” is our first animal song, and it’s at this point in the program that I confess this is a metaphor, rather than being about a real monkey, because real monkeys are a lot more charming than this metaphorical one. The narrator discusses the title character and eventually reveals that he’s a politician, but that actually feels rather unimportant to telling the story, as this could work just as well being about a corporate CEO who’s too good for everyone else and wants everyone to know it. He refers to the guy as “Jim daddy rolling down the alley coming to collect his protection money” and “eating a banana while we’re slipping on the peels.” Later on in the song, the narrator (who’s a musician) gets warned by the waitress about this guy (like he needs it), with her uttering one of my favorite lines of the whole song, “He won’t accept a slice, he wants the whole pie.”
As I said earlier, there are some specific details in this song that makes us think this is about a politician, but it’s vague enough so we first of all don’t know which one, and second, even if it’s not, we can all picture this guy clear as day. Maybe it’s the guy’s manager, maybe it’s just some slimeball, but either way, the song paints a terrific picture.
Melodically: The song uses acoustic and electric guitar, as well as bass guitar, drums, and organ. The main riff of the tune follows a 12 bar blues riff of E, A, and E, which is a I, IV, I pattern, with the song being written in E blues. The simple riff allows for the poetic lyrics, which I just mentioned above, as well as the ability to transition seamlessly to the second half tension of the verses before resolving what the narrator already knows about the guy: He’s a monkey in a suit and tie.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, solo, chorus format. We have talked extensively about story songs, hybrid songs, and example songs, and this is a weird type of hybrid song, as it’s a screenshot that’s not the whole story. We don’t know why this monkey has it out for the performer. But since there’s such a vivid description of the guy, we know immediately why there’s tension–since one has a bunch of money and the other does not. By the time we get to the third verse where the waitress catches on, we’re already fully invested, and that’s just a glorious exclamation point on this guy.
You can listen to “Monkey in a Suit and Tie” below.
2. “Honky Cat” by Elton John (Lyrics by Bernie Taupin)
Lyrically: Much like the first song we looked at, “Honky Cat” isn’t actually about a cat, but rather about lyricist Bernie Taupin’s desire to live more isolated than his fame would allow (on that topic, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” and “Country Comfort” do the same). The title is a play on the album’s title, Honky Chateau, which was taken from the name of the studio in France where it was recorded. The narrator in the song references how important it is for him to “Quit those days and those redneck ways” while they insist, “Change is gonna do me good.” There are some really simple but cool lyrics in the chorus, like when his friends tell him finding happiness in the city is “Like trying to find silver in a gold mine, like trying to find whiskey in a bottle of wine.” The redneck ways could have been a reference to the country influence of the parent album, and having to write lyrics for that album perhaps being a bit taxing for Taupin.
There’s an interesting narrative structure to this song in that it’s an autobiographical tune, but since Bernie was writing it for someone else to perform, he disguised it a little bit. The interesting narrative structure comes from the fact that it’s the relaying of advice, rather than the narrator giving advice. It’s also notable that if you change it around slightly, it could take on the tone of something like “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” in which the narrator is telling himself to get back, rather than others doing so. It’s similar to Billy Joel’s “Vienna” in that regard, except it’s told from the perspective of the other person, yet we never hear whether or not he’s taken that advice, and that’s where the transition from writer to performer becomes apparent, because we know the writer lived outside the spotlight by choice.
Melodically: The intro uses D7, D, and G, which is a I, IV pattern. The verses follow the same pattern, before transitioning into the chorus, which uses B7, and E7, the VI and II chords, creating the necessary tension for transitioning back into the I chord and the main riff. In many songs we’ve looked at, someone suggests a change and we don’t know if it’s going to happen or not. We don’t really know here (though maybe it can be inferred that the only reason the narrator is telling you this right now is that you may be in a similar situation and he saw the light just like his friends did), but there’s something satisfying about hearing the I chord with the word “change,” even though it does end on the uneasiness of the IV chord. Melodically, the song uses a Fender Rhodes electric piano, bass, drums, trumpet, saxophone, and trombone.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus format. I find the chorus of this song fascinating, because it has two parts to it. The first part, “You better get back in the woods” flows nicely, but the second time, he sings, “Livin’ in the city isn’t where it’s at” and although that’s only a total of one extra syllable, it messes with your ears to know he’s doing something different. And yet somehow, it works just as well. I guess you could say the change in the chorus did him good.
3. “Two Birds” by Lori McKenna
Background: Before I dive into the details about this song, I want to point out that Lori McKenna was part of the writing team that came up with the song “Girl Crush,” which for my money, is one of the most clever commercial songs to come out of Nashville in the last handful of years. So when I discovered this song, I was thrilled, because it’s a whole different skill to be able to write for yourself, versus writing to fit someone else’s sound.
Lyrically: “Two Birds” tells the story of two different women who were with the same guy. As we know from almost every sitcom’s school dance episode, this isn’t going to end well for anybody. The song compares, or more accurately, contrasts the two, as one of them was married to the guy and the other was his mistress. The interesting thing is until you hear about the way they got treated in the chorus, you have no way of knowing which one was which. The first verse says, “One wore a red dress, a wild one from out west, didn’t waste a minute with her heart. The other was a bluebird, careful with her sweet words, unless she let you hold her in the dark.” The pre-chorus then references his “Silver-tongued pickup lines” and how that led them “Easily into the cage.” In the chorus, you start to see the disparity between the two: “One got a diamond, the other got a hotel room. One got a promise, the other got to say ‘I do” then the commonalities come back in: “Both up so high ‘til they met one night his name came up and they both fell from the sky. Two birds, one stone.” There’s some fantastic imagery here, while still not feeling like a metaphor is being rammed down our throats, but maybe my favorite line is the phrasing of “One got a promise, the other got to say, ‘I do.” When you say “I do” at your wedding, it’s called a vow, and another word for a promise is a vow. But she’s very careful to not say the person getting married was promised anything, she just got to say “I do.” Did he? That’s a different question that never gets answered.
There’s also one final line at the end of the song that says “He’ll roll along, we all know he will, find another set of wings on some windowsill, two birds, one stone.” The bridge to “Before He Cheats” says, “I might have saved a little trouble for the next girl” but this song clearly is just a lamentation. The narrator has no confidence that by singing this song, this person won’t strike again, and the circular nature of the tune is absolutely terrific in that regard.
Melodically: The song is played with the capo on the third fret, and uses D, C5, and G throughout the entire song. This is a I, VII, IV progression, with the song in F major and Drop D tuning. As we talked about in the lyric section, there’s no resolve to the predicament, so having the sections end on the IV chord is especially fitting. Instrumentally, the song uses piano, acoustic guitar, and drums. I don’t know why, but I remember the melody being faster the first time I listened to this song. The only reason I bring that up is because it actually works better with a slower one, as it forces you to sit with it and wait to see what happens, even though you know it’s not going to end well for the main characters in the song.
Structurally: The song uses a simple verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, ending format. I love the choice to end on this ending (I know that sounds funny), rather than ending on the chorus, because everything about the two has already been put out there. You could argue that about the second chorus too, but the second verse has more contrasts between the two women, so it’s a nice thing to drive home their differences, while talking about their commonality: that they were both struck by the same guy.
You can listen to “Two Birds” below.
4. “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan
Lyrically: While coming up with song ideas for this blog/vlog theme, I remembered I had discussed “A Horse with No Name” in a previous blog and vlog, but that was with a different topic, and this seemed like a horse of a different color. “Pink Pony Club” tells the story of a girl who lives in Tennessee, but dreams of living in Santa Monica, California, where she’s presumably visited before and felt more like herself (after saying, “Santa Monica, you’ve been so good to me.”) She then imagines being a dancer at a night club, the titular Pink Pony Club, while imagining her mom’s reaction, thinking she’ll say, “Oh look what you’ve done, you’re a pink pony girl and you dance at the club,” while the narrator will respond by saying, “I’m just having fun” and “I’m gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club.”
The song was written after Roan, who grew up in a conservative household in Missouri, visited a gay bar in West Hollywood. It was the first time, as she said, that she was able to be herself, and decided she wanted to be a go-go dancer like the people at the club. This formed the nucleus of the song. Beyond that, however, it’s worth noting that this song has become somewhat of an anthem for young people asserting their independence. I’ve seen people of all different walks of life scream their lungs out to this tune, simply because it’s all about finding who you were meant to be, and I just think that’s a super cool thing. (It’s also just generally important for us as songwriters to figure out why popular songs, outside of our typical genre work so well, and this is a terrific example!)
Melodically: The song is written in F# major and uses C# in the intro (the V chord), followed by F#, G#, D#m, and B in the verses (a I, II, vi, IV pattern, which gets played twice). The pre-chorus uses F#, G#m, D#m, and B (a I, ii, vi, IV pattern, that gets played twice), and the chorus uses the same pattern as the pre-chorus, also getting played twice. Instrumentally, the song uses piano, isolated in the first and last verse, synthesizers and strings in the chorus, as well as drum programming.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, solo, verse, chorus format. In a previous blog, called Hey Look, Ma, I Made It, we talked about “Baby Girl” by Sugarland, and how it starts off with the narrator asking her parents for money, before the final verse sees her being able to send money to her parents because she’s made it. In this particular song, though, the narrator’s progression into her most authentic self involves her not caring what her mom thinks of her, but kind of realizing that her mom should want her to live her truth. I mention this in the structure section because as the song progresses, she expresses more confidence, and by the time you get to the last verse, it doesn’t matter a whole lot, it’s just that she’s stated her case for happiness and letting her know, rather than asking for permission like she maybe had to before.
You can listen to “Pink Pony Club” below.
Closing Fun Fact: If you read my blog regularly, you know how much I love Olivia Rodrigo. Not only do Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo share a producer (Dan Nigro), but the two artists have been friends for a. while, with Olivia saying she remembers Chappell working at a donut shop before she hit it big. It’s so cool to see the two of them making such intriguing music and supporting each other!
5. “Wolves” by Josh Ritter
Lyrically: There are 11 tracks on Josh Ritter’s 2006 album, The Animal Years (which inspired the title of this blog and vlog kick), but only one of them has an animal in the title. “Wolves” is a rare relationship song from Josh, reminiscing about the time he and a former love danced in the moonlight, and it was so quiet, the only other thing they could hear was the howling of the wolves. The implication is that the wolves, notoriously nosy, wanted to see what was going on between the two characters, so they were circling around trying to figure it out. It’s then revealed that the relationship fizzled out and the night it did, the narrator was howling as loud as the wolves, which disturbed even them. He says, “I still don’t know how they found me, I’ll never quite know how, I still can’t believe they heard me, that I was howling that loud.”
As a whole, the idea behind the title The Animal Years is that the songs see people at their most primal–acting in either a good or bad manner after being triggered by someone else’s behavior. Much of the bad gets discussed in “Idaho,” on the same album, and that references wolves, with the narrator crying out to them for some sympathy. But in this one, the same visual is used, yet the narrator is so spooked by his own behavior that he doesn’t know what to do with it.
Melodically: The song uses piano and drums prominently. You can play the song on guitar with a capo on the second fret, but I’m sharing the piano chords, and it will work just as well without the capo on guitar. The whole song is built around a main riff of D, Em, and G, and the song is written in D major, so this is a I, ii, IV pattern. The plagal or amen cadence used here works tremendously well, because although it reads as a sad song, it plays as a nostalgic one, almost bragging about the rise and fall equally as much. One again, credit for the piano on this song goes to Sam Kassrier, who has no idea who I am, but his mom once commented on a Josh-related blog I posted to a fan page, so at least someone agrees with me about how awesome he is!
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus format. This is a simple structure, and what makes that work is the fact that the feel is even throughout. Even in the second verse when he mentions the relationship ending and the last verse when he mentions the wolves crowding around to see what happened to this guy, it’s sung with the same amount of adulation that was present when the relationship was going well. There’s no need for a bridge for the narrator to say, “Wait a second–I’m mad!” as the story is told objectively.
You can listen to “Wolves” below.
Closing Note: Josh actually has 7 other songs that discuss animals—”Song for the Fireflies” from his second album, Golden Age of Radio, “Snow is Gone” (which mentions starlings and bluebirds—we talked about this one in our weather blog/vlog kick), Historical Conquests’ “To the Dogs or Whomever” (the title is not used in the lyrics, but the song starts off with the line “Deep in the belly of a whale somewhere”), Sermon on the Rocks’ “Birds of the Meadow” and “(My Man) on a Horse is Here”, Spectral Lines’ “Horse No Rider”, and I Believe in You, My Honeydew’s “Thunderbird”.
6. “Cows” by The Suburbs
Lyrically: As a Minnesotan, I’m contractually obligated to discuss the lyrical prowess of Bob Dylan whenever I get the chance, but sometimes there’s enormous power in keeping a song simple, and that’s exactly what gets done here in this song by Minnesota’s own, The Suburbs. The song is a love letter to cows (and therefore is our only song on this blog about animals that’s actually about animals). The narrator talks about enjoying watching cows eat, which is especially fascinating to him when they don’t have to move to do so, loves it when they go “moo,” and loves their skinny feet (which makes them better than “Their friends, the shaved sheep”). Like I said, there’s not a lot of intellectual discussion to go with this song, but I have a running joke about cows with a friend of mine, and another friend shared this song with me when I posted something about said joke. It made me laugh immediately, and sometimes you just need a song like this to get you out of a bad “mooooooood”.
Melodically/Structurally: The song uses A5, A, E, A, and G throughout the entire song, but stays on the A and the E for an insanely long time, so this is not your normal three chord progression. This is a I, V, VIIb progression, but unlike some other songs that we’ve looked at, where the 7th chord is used to create some unresolved tension, the point of this VIIb chord (as is the case with many), is to transition back into the I chord. It also provides an important contrast that separates the A part in the song from the B part. Like I said, there’s a long stretch of time spent on each chord, so that doesn’t matter a whole ton, in terms of being on the edge of your seat about a story, but it still makes the song a little more pleasant to listen to with those changes. Instrumentally, the song uses bass, drums, and electric guitar (with its distinct sound, known as the beejtar, which was named after the late great Beej Cheney, a former member of the band). The song uses four verses, played in succession.
You can listen to “Cows” below.
