Dreaming the Beatles
Music done right captures a resonance between math and language.
Harmony/rhythm is basically a space/time language that is mathematical (an octave is a unit of space, a measure is a unit of time, and it’s all about how you carve and layer within those units). Lyrics are obviously the linguistic half of it. In the most basic songs, a nice poem is la
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When Brian Wilson first heard the Beatles’ Rubber Soul, his mind was blown. “If I ever do anything in my life, I’m going to make that good an album,” he thought at the time. He went on to explain, “I was so happy to hear it that I went and started writing ‘God Only Knows.’ ”
Rick Rubin • The Creative Act: A Way of Being
I love to hear the embryo of a classic song. Here in this case he had the chords and timing down right off the bat. It didn't need "improving" or shape. To their credit the others knew not to touch it as it sounded whole and complete. They could have said things like, "what if you went to a major chord there" or "slow it down" or "shorten it", etc.