On Really Hearing the Chords

Again, As if For the First Time

One of the things writing the diary has taught me is that I think in, or through, music.

I go to music for ideas about possible forms or ways of working through.

A lot of writers are like this. And a lot of writers are failed or wannabe musicians.

Of the novelists I’ve asked, the majority would — at least at one stage in their life — have swapped sitting scribbling by themselves for playing in a band.

Is that true with you? Or do you have a different wished-for life?

I don’t meet many writers who wanted to be sculptors or chefs.

Anyway, this trait of mine means there are things I find I can only say about writing by saying them about music.

This today is something I’ve thought about for years, without being able to express it in a way I’m happy with.

Also, it’s likely to have some readers just shaking their heads.

But here we go —

I’ve waited until the Oasis reunion furore has sunk away to put this out, because they are involved.

There was much hatred for them during that week.

Here’s what I have to say — about music but it’s equally about writing.

Occasionally, a band comes along that really hear the chords.

That’s it.

Maybe it doesn’t sound like a big claim, but the implication is that all those other bands playing those chords don’t really hear them.

In saying this, I hope I’m not just offering a defence of songs I just happen to really like.

I sort of like Oasis, but slightly against my will.

And I think that’s because, like them or not, Oasis have the thing of hearing the chords, again, as if for the first time.

And then playing them that way.

But you can’t play them without first hearing them.

There is a wonder in D to G and then, after some teasing, to A or A minor.

Musically, it’s banal, but — done wholeheartedly — it can mean everything.

Very often, the band which can do this become very successful very fast, because really hearing the chords can mean writing really catchy songs.

They are also songs, though, that feel as if they are made out of incredibly simple elements that fit together in big blocks of pleasure.

Here’s a list of bands/songwriters who I think really hear the chords —

• The Shirelles/Carole King, Gerry Goffin, ‘Will You Love Me Tomorrow’ and all of Tapestry

• The Ronettes/Phil Spector, ‘Baby, I Love You’

• The Shangri-Las/Ellie Greenwich, George “Shadow” Morton, Jeff Barry, ‘The Leader of the Pack’

• Sandy Denny, ‘Who Knows Where the Times Goes’

• T.Rex/Marc Bolan, ‘Cosmic Dancer’

• Marvin Gaye, ‘What’s Going On’

• Big Star, ‘Thirteen’

• Bob Dylan, ‘Man in Me’

• Meatloaf/Jim Steinman, ‘Bat out of Hell’

• Bruce Springsteen, ‘Hungry Heart’

• The Cure, almost anything, but let’s say ‘Just Like Heaven’

• Billy Bragg, ‘New England’

• U2, ‘A Sort of Homecoming’

• Prince, ‘Raspberry Beret’

• The Jesus & Mary Chain, ‘Just Like Honey’

• Madonna/John Bettis, Jon Lind, ‘Crazy for You’

• The Waterboys, ‘This is the Sea’

• Cowboy Junkies, ‘Sweet Jane’

• Tracy Chapman, ‘Fast Car’

• Maria McKee, ‘Show Me Heaven’

• Oasis, ‘Rock’n’Roll Star’

• Aimee Man, ‘One’

• Ryan Adams, ‘Come Pick Me Up’

What’s missing? What shouldn’t be here?

Mike Scott of The Waterboys called what he did ‘the Big Music’, and I think that applies to all of these songs. They are open, direct, singable. I believe it’s all somehow related to Gospel music.

There are other bands/songwriters who want to give the impression they’re doing the same thing, but they aren’t really.

Spiritualized. Coldplay.

Across in writing, I think you can find equivalents of the clarified hearing.

The wow.

You could say that having an orphan child as your main character is a very tired proposition. But in the first Harry Potter books, JK Rowling heard the chords of this — isolation, independence, incompletion — very clearly.

Perhaps this is just saying that there’s a commercial advantage to doing something very simple with great sincerity.

It can’t be faked and, with rare exceptions, it can’t be repeated.

Here’s a playlist —

Photo credit: The Shirelles by CSU Archives / Everett / Alamy