Background: Well, we made it to 100 blogs! When I hit number 77, I celebrated by doing a salute to songs released in 1977, and I’ve already done a blog about songs with numbers in them. I made a conscious effort after the first handful of blogs to try not to repeat themes (unless I had two themes that played well into each other, like the art of the medley and the art of the suite). So I won’t be doing a blog about 100-themed songs, but I do want to thank you 100 times over for reading these blogs and watching the vlogs. This has been a wonderful outlet for all the ridiculous trivia I have in my head, especially since it never comes up during actual trivia. With that said, I’m sure there are some weeks where you might be sick of what I have to say, so this blog will feature songs that tell people to shut up, in one way or another.
1. “Shut Up and Dance” by Walk the Moon
Lyrically: “Shut Up and Dance” is told from the perspective of someone meeting another person for the first time, referring to themselves as “victims of the night,” succumbing to perhaps a combination of alcohol and the general fun atmosphere the two were both in. The chorus has a playful back-and-forth between the two:
“Said don’t you dare look back
Just keep your eyes on me
I said, ‘you’re holding back’
She said, shut up and dance with me’”
In the second verse, he refers to her as his "discotheque Juliet teenage dream,” reiterating that they were “bound to get together.” If this were an English essay I was discussing, I would get on the writer’s case for using the word “said” so much, instead of “told,” but the whole song is meant to be told as a whirlwind start to a romance, so there’s no time to think about grammar at that point. I also love the line in the bridge where he says, “Deep in her eyes, I think I see a future, I realize, this is my last chance,” and when it transitions back into the chorus, it goes back to the nostalgia. There’s no resolve, as in this isn’t him telling his kids the story about how he met their mother (that would probably take 9 years, rather than 3:17 minutes and seconds), it’s just “This was really cool, but I’m not sure how it will end.”
Melodically: The song is written in the key of Db major. The intro uses Db, Gb, Db, Ab, which is a I, IV, I, V pattern. The chorus follows, and uses the same chords, except the last time out, they use Bbm and Ab, the vi and V chords. The verses use Gb, Ab, Bbm, Ab, Gb, Ab, a IV, V, vi, V, IV, V pattern, that’s followed by Db, Ab, Gb, Ab, a I, V, IV, V pattern, before ending on Bbm, Ab, Gb, Ab, Db, and Ab, a vi, V, IV, V, I, V pattern. The interlude between the chorus and the first verse uses Gb, Ab, Bbm, Ab, a IV, V, vi, V pattern, and the one between the chorus and the second verse Gb, Ab, Bbm, a IV, V, vi, pattern. The pre-chorus uses Db, Gb, Db, Ab, Gb, a I, IV, I, V, IV pattern. The solo before the bridge uses Bbm, Db, Gb, and Ab, a vi, Ib, III, IV pattern, played four times. The bridge uses Db, Gb, Db, Ab, Gb, a I, IV, I, V, IV pattern. Coming out of the bridge, there’s an instrumental interlude that uses Db, Gb, Db, Ab, a I, IV, I, V pattern that gets played twice. Instrumentally, the song uses electric and bass guitar, synthesizers, drums, and other percussion.
Structurally: The song uses a chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus format. I’ve talked about these kinds of songs before, the ones that start with the chorus and then say, “Here’s what happened” or “Here’s what I mean.” What’s cool about this song is that it doesn’t pick describing the atmosphere under which they met over describing the person he met. One verse covers the atmosphere, the second verse describes the other person, the pre-chorus and chorus describe their behavior, the bridge talks about the potential aftermath of that night. The melodic section got to be a lot, so I’ll say it here–they never end on the tonic, and it fits well with the up-in-the-air nature of this event. It’s nostalgia without resolve, and that’s what makes it so fun.
You can listen to “Shut Up and Dance” below.
Quick nostalgic note: This song came out in 2014, and I was a little busy student teaching, so I associate it deeper with my first year of teaching in 2015. That was somewhat of a miserable year, but hearing this song always makes me happy.
2. “Voices Carry” by ‘Til Tuesday
Lyrically: Before we dive into the actual lyrics of this song, I need to point out that beyond any of that, I cannot for the life of me use or hear the phrase “‘til Tuesday” without thinking about this song. In the first verse, the narrator wants to confess her feelings to her partner, and she can tell he’s being pulled in the opposite direction, because every time she tries to say something, his response is always the same: “Hush, hush, keep it down now, voices carry.” Like any good song, it’s not entirely clear what the situation is within the relationship. I interpret it similarly to the song “Lips of an Angel” (discussed in our last blog), because in the bridge, the narrator reveals that “He loves me, but only part of the time.” This could imply that this is an affair, and the reason why the other person wants the narrator to keep her voice down is so that his other partner doesn’t hear her say “I love you.” For what it’s worth, this song is sung about a man and a woman, but Aimee Mann wrote it about a relationship with another woman, and the label forced her to change it.
Melodically: The song’s intro uses G, Bb, C, and G. With the song written in G major, this is a I, IIIb, IV, I pattern. This pattern gets repeated four times throughout the verses, but the last two times, they play an F major, the VIIb instead of a C. The chorus then uses Am7, C, and G, a ii, IV, I pattern, that gets repeated twice, before ending on the F, which is the VIIb chord. The solo uses G, F, Dm, Am, Dm, and F, a I, VII, v, ii, v, VII pattern, followed by G, F, Dm, C, Am, and F, a I, VII, v, IV, ii, VII pattern. The bridge then uses G, Bb, Bbsus2, Bb, and Bmaj9, the I and variations of the IIIb chord. Like many of the songs we’ve looked at, nothing gets thematically resolved, and there’s a lot of tension between the two subjects, so trading off between ending each part on the IIIb and VIIb chord exemplifies that. Instrumentally, the song is driven by a synth riff, but also uses piano, bass guitar, electric guitar, drums, and other percussion.
Structurally: The song uses a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, bridge, chorus. As I said earlier, the bridge reveals that he only loves the narrator part of the time, and although that’s somewhat of a vague line, it takes the song in a slightly different direction, the way a good bridge should.
You can listen to “Voices Carry”, but keep it down.
3. “Yakety Yak” by The Coasters
Lyrically: I’m not sure why I never paid super close attention to the lyrics and structure of them in this song, but it’s a conversation between a kid and his parents. The parents are telling him to do his chores, or they’re cutting him off. If he doesn’t “Take out the trash” they warn, “You won’t get no spendin’ cash.” They also demand that he “scrub those floors” or “You ain’t gonna rock n roll no more.” The kid then responds with “Yakety yak” (imitating his parents talking–think about the adults in Charlie Brown), and the parents respond to that by saying, “Don’t talk back.” So it’s basically two people telling each other to shut up, without actually saying it. The song is an example of a “Playet,” a common type of song written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, with the members of The Coasters playfully acting out the dialogue.
Melodically/Structurally: The song contains all verses, of which there are four, and a solo. The verse chords are G, C, D7, and G. With the song written in G major, this is a I, IV, V, I pattern. The solo uses the same chords. Instrumentally, the song uses piano, tenor saxophone (played by King Curtis), guitar, bass, and drums (including congas). The contrast of the riff between the teenager and his parents and the happy sounding melody is another part of the playet on display here.
You can listen to “Yakety Yak” below.
4. “You Talk Too Much” by Run D.M.C.
Lyrically: “You Talk Too Much” appears to be about a reporter, who can’t get enough of the narrator for sensationalized stories. Run D.M.C. combined rock and rap together within their songs, but focusing on the rap portion for a second, many rap songs focus on a power imbalance–someone who achieved wealth and is bragging about it to the listeners. In this case, the narrator and the reporter are pretty much on the same level, even if the reporter just expected the narrator to just take the verbal abuse. But the narrator is not about that life, and he claps back with some all-time zingers: “You should be a stool pigeon who works for the mob,” “Your mouth is so big, one bite could kill a Big Mac,” and “You’re mouth’s moving fast, but your brain’s moving slow.” A few things are worth noting: It appears for most of the song that this person is a reporter, but they might just be a loudmouth with another job, because the narrator mentions the other person, “spreading the word like it’s your job,” so maybe it’s not. Also, the narrator mentions the other person’s “Yakety yak,” so that phrase must have continued in popularity 20+ years later!
Melodically/Structurally: The song is written in E major. Instrumentally, it’s driven by a bass line, with drums and keys thrown in, as well as brass at the beginning. The song contains 10 verses and after each verse is the hook, which basically comprises of the title, paired with “You never shut up.”
