On Making Tunes

Michael McDonald Don Henley On Making Tunes ONE thingI findperplexing,ifnot times McDonald reminds me of the way enough instruments but because there isn't inexplicable, is the great number of Ron Ziegler used to talk to the press from enough tune for the instrumentaliststo professionally written songs that are tune- the back of his throat. This can bother lis- work with. He does have one good tune less. I don't mean derivative or lacking in teners because they sense that the singer is which he wrote all by himself and applied to originality;I mean meandering, flat, aim- putting something between them and where I Can Let Go Now, but even there the styl- less, not capable of being sung, able only to he's really coming from, as we used to sa". ized vocals tend to undercut it. be chanted. I've concluded that, where the Henley's problem, in contrast, is that h:s After listening to hundreds of records construction of tunes is concerned, it's bet- voice seems capable of expressing only me- over the years, I suspect that songwriters in- ter to sound unoriginal than to sound lost. ancholy, which worked better in an Eagles fluence each other to be tuneless. A fair It's better to have a derivative tune than no album where Glenn Frey and others took amount of tuneless stuff sells-including a tune atall.Indeed,inpop music, the some of the vocals and expressed other cut from McDonald's album, I Keep For- "schlock of recognition," as Rust Hills calls emotions. gettin' (Every Time You're Near), that's it, will work in your favor in communicating McDonald comes off as having more getting mucho air play as this is written-so with the general public. I have at hand new class than Henley, but class alone doesn't that's a factor. Also, the fashions of recent solo albums by two gents who stepped out of get the job done; there's also subject matter. years, such as punk and New Wave, miti- Southern California groups, and they al- McDonald's lyrics may be alittle better gate against tunefulness. And then there's most seem designedtoillustratethat crafted thanHenley's,but McDonald'sthe computer study, some ten years ago, point. songs are almost all about "romance." Her- that supposedly found that all the possible In "I Can't Stand Still" on Asylum, Don ley's subjects include romance, but they combinations of notes to make "new" tunes Henley, singer -drummer of the (at the mo- also include lamentations over why Johnny will be exhausted pretty soon. I don't know ment erstwhile) Eagles, presents a batch of Can't Read (Henley blames television, like what the long-term answer to that is, but, tunes as derivative as Milton Berle's jokes. everybody else), why people seem to dote on for the time being, I say again, better un- At times you may think you've absent- other people's Dirty Laundry, why we tend original tunes than no tunes at all. mindedly put "Hotel California" on the to divide the world up into Them and Us. It -Noel Coppage turntable, but at least the tunes move the is refreshing to hear a song about Some- songs from point A to point B. The shortest thing Else once in a while. DON HENLEY:I Can't Stand Still. Don distance between two points, of course, is a Henley (vocals, drums); Danny Kortchmar straight line, but that's not what you want AL, inall, though, these albums are(guitar); Bob Glaub (bass); Jeff Porcaro in melodies. If it were, Michael McDonald, probably similar in more ways than they are (drums); other musicians. I Can't Stand the DoobieBrothersvocalist -keyboard different. Parts of both sound less like soloStill; You Better Hang Up; Long Way player soloing with "If That's What It than group efforts; parts of McDonald's Home; Nobody's Business; Talking to the Takes" on Warner Bros., would have a sat- sound like the Doobies, and parts of Hen- Moon; Dirty Laundry; Johnny Can't Read; isfying album, for he strings notes out on ley's sound like the Eagles. Both, believe it Them and Us; La Eile; Lilah; The Un- flat planes like birds on a wire. Either that or not, could use more action from the in- clouded Day. ASYLUM EI-60048 $8.98, ® or he rambles; in That's Why. written with struments-a strange thing to say in this E4-60048 $8.98. Randy Goodrum, he sounds like a not par- age of rampant overproduction-but only ticularly talented four -year -old making up in Henley's case could you say that some MICHAEL McDONALD:If That's What the "tune" as he goes along. cuts are underprocluced. Two of his best It Takes. Michael McDonald (vocals, key- The difference in tunefulness makes the songs,Talking to the Moon and Dirty boards); SteveGadd(drums);Willie Henley album easier to take, though both Laundry, have more holes than they need. Weeks (bass); Steve Lukather (guitar); oth- singers have vocal problems when it comes The first, a slow, pretty song, could use er musicians. Playin' by the Rules; I Keep to carryingoff a whole album. While some seamlessinstrument,probably a Forgettin'; Love Lies; I Gotta Try; I Can McDonald hasadistinctive sound, he woodwind, weaving behind the vocals. The Let Go Now; That's Why; If That's What It doesn't sound quite natural; a human voice second, an up -tempo blues -structured piece, Takes; No Such Luck; Losin' End; Believe just doesn't sound like that without a little definitely needs a harmonica. McDonald's In It.WARNER BROS.1-23703 $8.98, © artifice or affectation imposed onit.At holes are there not because there aren't 4-23703 $8.98. 82 STEREO REVIEW.

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