CUST2547H - Baby Song Essay PDF

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Mandatory to analyze the song Baby Song

Professor of the course - Martin Arnold...

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Caroline Henson 0663569 CUST2547 Professor Martin Arnold November 2, 2020 Baby Song Essay The song titled "Baby Song" by The Raincoats is like no other song I have ever heard before. I generally do not listen to experimental music; therefore, listening to this song for the first time made me feel uneasy and brought me out of my comfort zone. The piece began with a constant drumming sound, essentially alluding to a drum roll that evolved into a crescendo. The drum roll remains constant for the first five seconds of the song. At 0:05, an eerie sounding instrument (my guess would be a synthesizer) enters the song at what appears to be inconsistent intervals. When I first listened to this song at two o'clock in the morning, I felt a sense of unease take over my body when the haunting synthesizer made its debut. The ghostly vibes of the song intensified when low, soft voices that made inaudible sounds appeared at 0:16. The singers seemed to have been recorded on two microphones that gave the illusion of one person singing into my left ear and another person in my right ear. The voices felt almost as if there were two people directly behind me, which extended my feelings of discomfort. What I think the lyrics said from 0:16-0:27 was, "I need my own function, shaped by culture." From what I could hear, these lyrics repeated twice, followed by quick exhales that blended together at 0:35. As these lyrics were spoken, the bass guitar and possibly the bass pedal were slowly added into the sound mix, contributing a groovy element to the otherwise inaudible lyrics. So far, I think this song has a very mysterious vibe to it, at least according to the first 35 seconds. The use of the synthesizer and bass in the instrumental break from 0:36 to 0:43 gave off a surf rock feel. Within this instrumental break, there was an addition of a sound that I would assume to be two drumsticks that were hit together in multiples of three. To conclude this wall of

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sound, there was a faint, underlying drumroll in the background, which dropped out at 0:43. At 0:43, there was a quick dun dun on the drums before the high pitch voices entered the song. I interpreted the lyrics from 0:43 to 0:51 to say, "nobody can stay to the rhythms, to the rhythms of my heart." The wall of sound continued while the voices sang and created an additional layer with the sound of a cowbell. At 0:53, faint, lower female voices repeated the phrase "tell them look away, look away, look away," which overpowered the vocalist who initially began as the primary voice of this section. The whispered voices appeared closer to the microphones, which felt as though the singers had whispered directly into my ear. The original vocalist, whose voice faded into the background, appeared to be singing, "how am I in nature, and are you taking, can I accept it as my own?" Another instrumental break occurred between 1:00 to 1:07, followed by the lyrics "animal function, ruled in culture. Eternal power and the value of caring, all skewed by history." As the lyrics began to be introduced back into the song, all instruments except for the drums and bass dropped out, allowing for the lyrics to come through clearer. While these lyrics are sung, a staple surf rock wavy guitar sound is played at 1:10. The use of the wavy guitar sound enhanced the surf rock vibes given off by the synthesizer. A breathy, inaudible whisper is then used from 1:15 to 1:17 to reinforce the mysterious feeling from the beginning of the song. I believe that the whisper was used to create a sense of familiarity throughout a musical style that is unfamiliar to many. Ten seconds later, another use of a quiet voice was introduced, except this time, the voice gradually became louder as the song continued. The singer sang "ahhhh" in what felt to me like an added vocal layer typically used in Bollywood music. Semi-audible lyrics were then reintroduced at 1:35 to say what I interpreted as "a choice to stretch, a limit to make a choice to stretch or lose." At 1:40, while the lyrics above are sung, a soft voice started singing the word

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"baby" repeatedly. The repetition of the word 'baby' originally began quietly in the background and then progressively increasing in volume, eventually becoming louder than the main lyrics sung. Additionally, the repetition of the word 'baby' continued five seconds after the main lyrics faded out. A chaotic wall of sound began at 1:50, which involved layered voices, cymbals, bass drum and bass guitar. In this section of the song, there were two sets of lyrics sung at the same time. One set sang, "don't push me away," and the other sang, "don't look away." These two sets of lyrics were sung repeatedly from 1:50 until 2:09, with the lyric "don't push me away" appearing louder and closer to the microphone than the lyric "don't look away." During the first eight counts used when the lyric 'don't push me away" was sung, on beats one, two, five and six, a cymbal was hit to make a slight crashing noise. Additionally, the bass drum was hit on beats one and two, and again on five and six on the eight counts after the lyric "don't push me away." Throughout this section, the bass guitar played the same eight notes repeatedly. When I first heard this part of the song, I was overwhelmed by all of the different noises occurring at once. Now that I have dissected each contributing factor, I can enjoy the groovy vibes of this section. The combination of the cymbal crash and wavy guitar sound at 2:09 signified a change in tone from the chaos of the wall of sound back to the mysterious feel from the beginning of the song. I interpreted the lyrics that followed the vibe change as "we can be moon mothers for these moments." A quick five-second instrumental break was taken before another set of lyrics were sung. I interpreted these lyrics as "changing eternally," which was followed by the repetition of the words "upside down." The repeated use of the words' upside down' greatly contributed to the mysterious feel of this section. This pattern is then broken when the lyrics say, "in the inside out and upside in and upside down and downside up." Following this change in lyrics was an

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instrumental break from 2:43 to 3:02. The synthesizer and bass came in strong at the beginning of the instrumental section, with a highlight of the wavy guitar sound at 2:46. After the wavy guitar sound, the drums increasingly became included in the foreground and concluded the instrumental section with a drum roll and cymbal crash. A haunting new section to the song began at 3:02 when a new wall of sound was created. In this chaotic part of the song, there was a vocalist singing "ahhhhhh" which sounded to me like it was from a spooky renaissance song. The use of the cowbell in this part of the song was also very prominent. The cowbell's fast, repetitive sound added to the chaos of this section while also confusing the audience with a random new sound. Furthermore, various parts of a drum set were used in this section and occurred sporadically. For example, at 3:06, a drumroll on a cymbal began and later faded out slowly to the point where I could not tell where the drumroll ended. The central part of the drum was also hit to make a quick duh duh on beat two but only in some bars. Another contributing factor to the chaos was the addition of a layered voice that entered at 3:11. This voice made inaudible whispered noises that reinforced the mysterious feeling. By 3:20, the disorder appeared to mellow out as the voices and cowbell dropped out. However, at 3:26, the bass intensified, and the lyric "don't push me away" reentered the song. This time the lyric "don't look away" was not used, but instead, "don't push me away" is repeated to create a call and response. A wavy guitar sound at 3:45 is used to transition to the next section. In this section, the lyrics "animal function, fueled in culture. Eternal power and the value of caring, all skewed by history" are once again repeated. The background music for this set of lyrics had shifted from the previous section where these lyrics were originally sung. First of all, the volume of the background music appeared to be much greater than the background music in the last part. The

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drums seemed to have been hit harder to make louder, more prominent sounds and essentially became the main focus of the section along with the lyrics. At 4:00, a very distorted guitar sound was played, followed by the rapid use of a cowbell. Additionally, the Bollywood sounding "ahhhhhs" returned, along with the repeated use of the word "baby." The distorted electric guitar sound was used multiple times throughout this section of the song, which I felt almost gave off a "walking through the desert" kind of feel. The lyrics singing "in the inside out and upside in and upside down and downside up" were sung again and repeated four times before the song came to an end. During each repetition of the lyrics, the singer's voice slowly started to fade away while the instruments remained at a high volume. The song ended with one last funky guitar sound with a few faint cymbal crashes. Since I have never listened to a song like “Baby Song” before I was left confused after I had listened to it for the first time. Now that I have spent multiple hours listening to and dissecting each part of the song, I have found “Baby Song” to be groovy yet mysterious....