Understanding Call Me
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- Опубликовано: 30 апр 2020
- The 80s were a wild time for music, with new technologies bringing new, experimental approaches of music to the forefront, and one of the most enduring bands of that New Wave movement was the legendary Blondie. They pushed the envelope in lots of different ways, challenging the very idea of what a pop act could be, and while they've got plenty of great songs to choose from, probably their best-known hit today is the disturbingly upbeat Call Me. Originally written as the theme for American Gigolo, Call Me has endured as one of popular music's strangest love songs, and I want to understand why.
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Last: • What I Got Wrong About...
Script: docs.google.com/document/d/1f...
Huge thanks to our Elephant of the Month Club members:
Susan Jones
Jill Jones
Duck
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And thanks as well to Corvi, Henry Reich, Gene Lushtak, Eugene Bulkin, Logan Jones, James Treacy Bagshaw, Abram Thiessen, Anna Work, Oliver, Jc Bq, Adam Neely, nico, Michael Fieseler, Rick Lees, Ben LaRose, Dave Mayer, Davis Sprague, Paul Quine, rhandhom1, CodenaCrow, Nikolay Semyonov, Arnas, Sarah Spath, Skylar J Eckdahl, Harold Gonzales, Caroline Simpson, Michael Alan Dorman, Marc Himmelberger, Chris Borland, Blake Boyd, Trevor, Michael McCormick, Dmitry Jemerov, Ian Seymour, Charles Gaskell, Luke Rihn, Daniel Gilchrist, Elliot Burke, Alex Atanasyan, Alex Knauth, Elliot Jay O'Neill, Tom Evans, Greg Borenstein, Tim S., Elias Simon, Elliot Winkler, Jerry D. Brown, Max Wanderman, Ohad Lutzky, Hape Company, James A. Thornton, Benjamin Cooper, Ken Bauso, JH, Brian Dinger, David Conrad, Stefan Strohmaier, Adam Wurstmann, Kelsey Freese, Shadow Kat, Adam Kent, Jake Lizzio, Paul Grieselhuber, Lee Rennie, Richard T. Anderson, Angela Flierman, Chris Chapin, Mark Feaver, Kevin Johnson, Brian McCue, Stephan Broek, ml cohen, Darzzr, Roger Grosse, Rodrigo Roman, Francois LaPlante, Jeremy Zolner, Rowan Fox, Britt Ratliff, Eddie O'Rourke, Ryan, John July, Volker Wegert, Danny, Matthew Kallend, Patrick Callier, Joshua Gleitze, Emilio Assteves, Alex Keeny, Alexey Fedotov, John Bejarano, Charles Hill, Valentin Lupachev, Joshua La Macchia, DSM, Gary Butterfield, Niko Albertus, Luke Wever, Todd Davidson, David Christensen, Paul Guziewski, Elizabeth von Teig, Steve Brand, Rene Miklas, Connor Shannon, max thomas, Lamadesbois, Greg Hodgdon, Jamie Price, Kennedy Morrison, Red Uncle, Doug Nottingham, Peter Leventis, Scott Howarth, Nicholas Wolf, Ben Phillips, Scott Nystrom, Douglas Anderson, Blake White, Michal Mikolaj Maslowski, Phillip N, Aaron Epstein, Chris Connett, Scott Frazer, ZagOnEm, Robert Beach, Kevin Boyce, h2g2guy, Kenneth Kousen, James, Skyler, W. Dennis Sorrell, Mordredd, veleum, Melvin Martis, Aaron Zhu Freedman, Hexa Midine, John Polgreen, Tuna, Mathew Wolak, Killian Hackenschmidt, Professor Elliot, Jozef Paffen, Larry Siden, T, Lincoln Mendell, Vincent Engler, Noam Fields-Meyer, Luke, Carsten Lechte, Sam Rezek, Lucas Augusto, Matt McKegg, Dominic, Marcus Doyle, Beth Martyn, Caitlin Olsen, Roming 22, salman karout, NoticeMK, Natalie Ferraro, Hubert Ulber, Hikaru Katayamma, Sarah Sutton, Doug Lantz, Evan Satinsky, Strattara, Stephen Shephard, Anna, Brian Cohen, James Little, RaptorCat, Adam Granger, Andrew Engel, leftaroundabout, Jigglypuffer, Jens Schäfer, Mikely Whiplash, room34, Austin Amberg, Jasmine Fellows, Francisco Rodrigues, Elizabeth, Peter Brinkman, maikerujon, Sloo, Thomas McCarthy-Ward, Wes Darling, Anton Vodonosov, Robert Whittington, Carter Stoddard, David Van der Linden, Brandon Legawiec, Carolyn Priest-Dorman, Brx, Robert McIntosh, Preston Harris, Dennis Fahlesson, Patrick Aupperle, Mark Lauer, Evgeni Kunev, and Jim Hayes! Your support helps make 12tone even better!
Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!
Some additional thoughts/corrections:
1) In the bridge, you could also analyze the F-C section as the bII and bVI in Emi, which would imply phrygian. It ultimately leads you to a pretty similar result, and has some advantages over the modulation analysis I used, but personally I think the most important point here is that the I-V motif is maintained, which the modulation approach centers a bit more strongly. Either way makes sense, though.
2) Another cool thing in the bridge is that bar of 6/8 in the ending part. I couldn't really fit it into the script, but the half-bar throws off your sense of rhythm and allows them to build a melodic structure that lands on the chord transition both times even though the second one has to take longer to get there.
I love your analysis videos! Would you consider analyzing a Sufjan Stevens song? Some of them are more simple than others, but they seem to have some of the most truthful, poetic lyrics. Maybe Chicago or Futile Devices. Love your stuff.
Hello! You said you would link to the full version - have i missed this? Thank you :)
Can you analyze Alan Walker Faded in a future video?!
Big thumbs up to 12tone for covering it and to Giogio Moroder for his work on this No. 1 .
My cover band has been playing this since we formed in 2014 and I was today years old when I found out there's a 6/8 bar in the bridge (though I feel it way more triplets in 4/4 rather than 12/8).
The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" and The Rolling Stones' "Paint It, Black" seem like they'd make interesting subjects for this sort of breakdown.
Philistine47 I’d love to see an analysis of both, particularly Paint it, Black. I am in total agreement here.
8:15 right hand elephant
THAT was totally unexpected
@@maxivillafane4273 You could say "it clearly violates expectations".
The best version of this song is the Alvin & the Chipmunks version, played at 16 rpm.
Based Sludgefest Enjoyer
That's given me a new appreciation of that song. I hadn't thought of it as 'sinister' before.
12tone:"I was born almost a decade after that film came out..."
Me: Checks date film came out.... feels old
Me too
I was 10 when that came out... crap, I really am old
This song has always sounded...predatory to me. Kinda reminds me of Jaws. As you say, that intro rhythm could be tapped out on anything, and I would know it.
The fact that Direct Modulations are informally referred to as a “Truck Driver’s Key Change” is the most wholesome and hilarious thing I have ever learned about music theory from this channel.
Bless your soul, Cody. 🙏
I really appreciate the focus on the rhythm in this analysis as I find that some of my favorite songs involve some fascinating (to me anyway) rhythmic elements. Syncopation in "Life is a Highway" (Tom Cochrane) and the hard to describe but driving, happy, dancing rhythms of "Walkin' on Sunshine" (Katrina and the Waves) just to name two. I hope to hear more on how artists use rhythms to make their points. Thanks!
Oh my god, you're left handed. The subversion bit where you drew with your right hand is what pointed it out to me. How have I been so blind?
Has anyone else every felt that this song's opening riff sounds like "Children of the Grave" by Black Sabbath?
I was about to write it. And the chorus of later Kiss "I was made for lovin' you" is very similar to the first melodic line of this song.
Appreciate how you're incorporating (oft-ignored) rhythm choices into the analysis. Great work
So much cool things hidden in that song, I wish one day I can write such a pop banger, and have it have all those counterintuitive elements, as always thanks for the analysis!
I can only think of the Sludgefest version whenever I hear this song
Tru
That version sounds like doomer jim morisson
As far as I'm concerned, the Sludgefest one is the definitive version
I think you meant to say Franz Ferdinand.
@@jaccuse4086 based profile pic
I just discovered that the intro is subtitled as "(tick, tick, tick, tick, tock)".
Makes more sense as (tock, tock, tock, tock, tick).
Blah! Meh don’t think so
"...the B-52's and the Talking Heads were doing some sh-*badly placed commercial break*"
Oooohhhh always exiting to see a new video from you! ^_^
So insightful and so cool, as always
Very cool.....thank you!
Good job of pointing out the importance of the lyrics and music agreeing on what the feeling is, reinforcing each other.
Your videos are always good but this one is probably my favorite. I always liked this song but overlooked its complexity, just sang along or focused on the fact that it also plays with a few words in Italian and French. You multiplied its value to my ears by a thousand times!
“More of an advertisement” wow yep
My grandma used to play it all the time in the car, had no idea it was so complex
Thanks
What I've learned from watching hours of your videos, despite being minimally inclined to knowing what chords are labeled, is that music hits hardest when there's a structure and then we break the structure
Holding the note over a key change to make the change less jarring is something I haven't paid much attention to. The whole tone step up seems to be in a few styles. When a teacher told me a semi tone away is always a working leading note I questioned Dom7. Definately a blues staple but I never paid attention to the chrunchy Dom7 leading in this tune. Interesting, articulate and humorous as always. Thank you 12Tone.
If you want a song that has a surprising amount of depth and complexity listen to this town ant big enough for both of us by sparks. It's such a well crafted song with strange vocals and a very catchy piano hook.
Blondie is such a good band!! also you have a giant thumb nail lol
6:26 I think it's worth mentioning that the melody in the pre-chorus also appears in the Song "Just The Way It Is, Baby" by The Rembrandts - in the pre-chorus.
Love Blondie!!
12:28: You said you'd link to the full version in the description, but I can't find it.
Here's one: ruclips.net/video/LhJNUbF8nWI/видео.html
The video is amazing, as every single one, though I think I could help by adding another way to explain the G major chord in the pre-chorus. A IV major chord in a minor context, especially if it's followed by a V major, can easily be found in the harmonization of the Ascending Melodic Minor scale, which has, as its "perfect cadence" (so to speak): Dm(6) - G(7) - A(7) - Dm(6) (the tetrad version of these chords in parenthesis, just to give a bit of context). Other than that, the analysis is just amazing
First of all, thanks for all your content. Second, how much do u spend on blank sheets?
Yes! So great to finally see a Giorgio Moroder tune on your channel.
2:01 ...and then it continues to the same rhythmic pattern, but transposed to F minor. Brilliant! Reminiscent of the development section in the first movement of Mozart's 40th symphony. Who said it doesn't work?
This song is my ringtone
9:10 is my favorite part ❤
(5:30) We also need variation. We can't have complex music so the time, we need some simple music too. Then having music combining simple and complex progressions to get more variation.
Oddly enough... listening to the midi created shuffle rhythm at the intro reminded me of the old rotary phones.
Let's not be coy about this track. It was co-written and produced by Giorgio Moroder and doesn't stray too far from the mechanised beat of his previous key songs Love to Love You Baby, I Feel Love, and Hot Stuff (all for Donna Summer). Indeed, the working title of the song was Man Machine, probably not a nod to Kraftwerk (though who knows) but more a functional description of what an gigolo does: sex on demand. Love as a business transaction; going through the emotions. Of course the focus is going to be on the rhythm :)
Long version: open.spotify.com/track/6wzbWsPbfIR0nBjSqdbV7m?si=ByfHSZm8S46rAOIKkMwwdw
The way you play that intro makes me think of the beginning of the Doctor Who theme.
I think it’s quite valid to compare Call Me to Doctor Who. That rhythm is certainly similar, and personally I think the chorus melody evokes the theme’s sweeping lead. It’s interesting to listen to them back to back (sacroiliac...). I often wonder if Moroder was actually thinking about Doctor Who, or it’s a coincidence.
A-hem. Co-written and produced by Giorgio Moroder. Not to take anything away from Debbie, who I have been in love with since I was eight. But to ignore Moroder as a co-writer and producer is to ignore a seriously influential power player in the industry, and a man who arguably institutionalized the use of pop singles as a means of major movie advertising.
3:15 cool elephant in my new favorite thing now
Does anyone else think that Call Me is just a pop version of Children of the Grave by Black Sabbath? At the very least the shuffle groove with the two chords at the end of the bar feels very familiar.
"...link to the long version [of Call Me] in the description" ya say?
Yeah, I actually really wanted to listen to the whole thing .. Don't leave us hanging! >_
@@JuliaAllenHesse or to quote Blondie, don't leave me hanging on the telephone!
This is it ruclips.net/video/i4DI71X6PeM/видео.html
Hey,could you do one of these for Tomorrow's world by Mat Bellamy?
The progression that "doesn't work" at 1:57 sounds like a black metal riff.
This song kinda reminds me of a song by ray lynch, “celestial Soda pop”. Or at least the vocal melody does. It also kinda reminds me of Rossana by Toto.
Your truckdriver's keychange is called "Ansa Schmäh" in Austria. Hard to translate, since it's dialect but the closest would be "The pro's trick" (Schmäh means joke or trick and ansa is dialect for "the first one's; Also it is meant sarcastically...). Especially when used to prolong an otherwise too short song by shifting up a (half-)step an repeating the chorus again for a few times...
The chorus of call me feels very similar to. house of the rising sun as well as you are not alone from FFIX
Can you do London Calling by the Clash?
Why does the verse melody sound like a cross between "Get Ready" by The Temptations and "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac? Or am I just crazy? Lol
It's just a walk up and down the scale
Search for "call me in this moment". Enjoy the cover.
Wish I could be on patreon so I could suggest a song. I'd love to see your take on Pan from the new Nightwish album. But alas, am broke.
1:54 Sounds pretty Metal to me! |m/
I don't think that slide from note a step lower to the target tone is something specifically punk-ish. Blues, rock - and even jazz - guitarists were doing it long before punk ever appeared. It's just some technics are so deeply ingrained in guitar playing itself because ...well, they are a cool thing to do while playing the guitar. I don't think somebody ever thinks "let's do this because it creates a bit of messiness" - he just does this because Ritchie Blackmore, Jimmy Page or Tony Iommi did that before and he learnt from them. Compare that to King Crimson Robert Fripp's music, who created a special weird tuning system (tuning mostly in 5ths, making a guitar somewhat more relative violin or cello) - to break away from those guitar player automatisms and stereotypes.
I fucking love Blondie.
Why did I think he was gonna talk about Call Me Maybe.
Ohhh, Blondie's Call Me. See, I thought you were gonna talk about Go West's Call Me. Why do so many songs have to share a title? :D
you heard it here, folks
12:8 is debauchery
I'd love to see your thoughts on Jack Whites Lazaretto!
Backdoor resolution you say?🤔
What's the deal with the ant drawing (4:52). I see that about once a video, and I can't figure out what it's supposed to represent.
I don't know, but my best guess is that he's ant ...
... icipating the beat by coming in early.
I always call Direct Modulations “Slam” Modulations
This makes the slowed down chipmunks version even better
Hi
So what was the purpose of switching to your right hand in the middle of the video?
i thought the thumbnail said "bladee" for a second and because i know nothing about their discography, i just assumed that call me was a bladee song and that 12tone was suddenly delving into *really* modern music
Song sounds like a long version of the first level in lion king snes and sega
I don't know why, but the verse melody never had that "going up and down the scale" feeling to me. I was introduced to this song as a kid through a karaoke game, and when I later learned about music theory, I was surprised to learn that this melody was just going up and down the minor scale.
You play the same scale degrees in major, and it's super obvious, but I feel like minor does a better job at disguising these sorts of things.
1:57 the wrong chords sound so right to me. Amy I bad?
The first four minutes of this video covers the first 10 seconds of the song.
Maybe
About 2/3 into the video I noticed how long your thumbnail is...
After these videos I don't like the songs more, I like them better. I feel more like trying to cover them as bad or good as I can.
here's a link to the long version of the song ruclips.net/video/i4DI71X6PeM/видео.html
1:07 sounds like a Venom riff.
I don't agree that the i and the bVI would be the most stable chords in minor. The root of the bVI is just one semitone above the fifth of the i chord, pulling pretty strongly downwards, whereas all the notes in the III chord are at least a whole tone away from anything in the i chord, so isn't the III therefore more stable than the bVI?
Call me beep me maybe when you're sober
The intro makes me think of the Doctor Who theme
Uhh first intro sounds like red fang. Then the melody sounds like Stevie nicks rhiannon
Yes and so you are making the basic agreement against western music. Sort of like all books written in English.. I see that theme, description, etc. over and over..
8 minutes!
Always thought that was a dark and obsessive song
Incredible! Consider me subscribed.
953rd!
Hey could you look at a youtube clip: "What a fucking liar, but I vocoded it" by comrade Luigi? I think you'll like it
Minor key disco
Anybody else chortle when he demonstrated the Dm-G#m-C# progression? 😂
I chuckled
12Tone uses they/them, not he/him, jsyk
Got them quarantine nails
omg XDD
I'm OKAY with these videos, but you know what I'd really like? A music theory analysis on songs that don't use conventional structure or functional harmony. Like, what makes stuff like free jazz, grindcore, noise rock, extreme metal, etc enjoyable. Genres which would sound a lot more boring if they stuck to conventions of popular music. You can find literally thousands of videos analyzing music theory around freebird or whatever, but none that analyze the aforementioned forms of music with any degree of nuance and understanding of theory.
I just imagined an 'explaining free jazz' lecture where the lecture could only make sounds like and instrument (no talking) to explain the story. Maybe a panel of speakers to improvise the explanation. It brought me a smile. I wonder how many students would get it?
I often wonder if I get it. I seem to laugh happily at the unexpected when it is cleverly found.
I haven't seen any clips trying to explain free jazz either.
This song was written by georgio.maroder. according to him blondie the band really didnt like playing it cause it was totally different than their style
Has youor thumbnail always been that long and I have yet to notice?
Same here lol. I was kind of distracted by that vampire nail.
thanks for pointing out that there is an 8 min version of this gem. ruclips.net/video/m95Iv8UfvhM/видео.html
i didn‘t know. it‘s awesome!
Please do Metallica-To Live Is To Die. It is a criminally underrated tragic masterpiece.
understanding call me maybe
Go debate that
Came here for Yoko Kanno and Steve Conte, but this'll do I guess.
It's not The Talking Heads. Just 'Talking Heads'.
Not gonna lie, clicked on the video because I thought it was "call me maybe". Oh boy, that would be interesting hahaha
Whoa...never realized 12 tone has such long fingernails. Love your stuff, don't mean to take away from that. Just an observation.
The long fingernails are new.
Same
... because the manicurist is on coronavirus-related lockdown?
I don't recall, does he play guitar? Because I'm used to seeing those types of nails on classical/fingerstyle guitarist.
Vox Potentiae they’re a vocalist (I think his preferred pronoun is they/them).