"Don't Answer Me"

Yester-day was the fortieth anniversary of the release of Ammonia Avenue.  I listened to the album and started wondering whether the three syllables of "ev'ryone" in the line "Run away and hide from ev'ryone" in "Don't Answer Me" are sung to all different pitches.  This turned out not to be the case (the pitches are G Ab G), but after looking into this, I had a different realization.  Under the lines "Run away and hide from ev'ryone / Can you change the things we've said and done?," the chord progression includes two Bb majors.  Since the song is in C major, the root of Bb major is an accidental, and this foreign tone provides something of a sense of the distance involved in "run[ning] away" and of that "chang[ing]."  In the vocal line above this, there are also some accidentals (Eb and Ab) that contribute to this effect.

"Don't Answer Me"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Last night, I learned the bass part for "Don't Answer Me."  It's just the root notes of the chords, so it should have been obvious (although now I'm a bit suspicious of some of the chords I have).

While recording it to-day, I also got some more of the glockenspiel part.  This is just the first third or so; it repeats, but I didn't think it would be that interesting with only three parts.

"Don't Answer Me"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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I listened to Ammonia Avenue this morning, and I tried to pick out some parts that would be pretty easy to figure out.  I started with the glockenspiel part of "Don't Answer Me" (at least I think it's glockenspiel; the credits on their website don't list glockenspiel specifically, but there is just general "percussion").  I figured out only the parts during the choruses (although I'm not too confident in the last two phrases).

The chords came pretty easily too, although I'm unsure of one in the later part of the chorus.

My recording is just the first minute and a half or so because it would have been boring otherwise, since I know only the chords and a short glockenspiel part.

I found it interesting that the verses start with a C major to A minor modulation, which is the difference of only one note (C, E, G to C, E, A) and the choruses do the same thing, albeit with C major to E minor (C, E, G to B, E, G).

"Don't Answer Me"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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I listened to Ammonia Avenue to-day, and I noticed a small lyrical thing about the chorus in "Don't Answer Me":

Don't answer me, don't break the silence
Don't let me win
Don't answer me, stay on your island
Don't let me in

I'm pretty sure that the "stay on your island" part is a reference to and an extension of John Donne's "No man is an island."