The Sound Hole: The Turtles - Elenore
Come in, come in!
Well, hello again, music lovers! Welcome to the warming embrace of this – my musical hovel; a lasting enclave of old new, new old new music. Music that stands up against the inevitable perniciousness of time and says: “You have no power here, Timedalf The Grey!” laughing with overconfidence. Please, perch your cheeks upon one of my many handmade wooden stools and I shall regale you with tales of your undiscovered treasures – musical treasures!
Welcome to The Sound Hole!
Weh-w-What?
Every now and then I come across a song that I have never heard before, I imagine most of us do. However, it seems the more pieces that I discover, from eras past, the more I come to the realisation that modern music is just a massive pile of unadulterated garbage and we feign ignorance because, really, we all know that it is.
I know that the appreciation of music is subjective to one’s personal taste, but it seems (objectively), music has become (more so than ever) strictly about how much money a song can make. Songs have always been about love, girls, boys, sex, money, success, life etc. It just seems that now, there’s no alluding to it in a poetic sense - the love and the care for the craft ceases to exist.
I have two theories behind why this may be:
Musicam Perpetua.
There’s a cycle of positive feedback that exists between the music industry (marketers) and its listeners. People who care little for what is playing on the radio but, nevertheless, will listen to it anyway, provide positive feedback to the music industry who will think “Oh, well they like that – make more! MORE!!! AHAHAHA!”Musicis Servorum.
Artists that get signed to the industry are done so because they are mouldable and will provide music on the basis of sales rather than production through artistry or raw musical power.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some incredibly talented people out there, and I mean gods among wo/men; these people never get seen to nor heard of, they sit at the bottom of the musical furnace under the insurmountable weight of all the slag that floats atop. Even popular bands that do have talent are having to change under the pressure of what is popular – it is a sad countenance that we have to trudge through the swamps of calamity to find our little, heartfelt gems of delicious music.
Anyway, rant over!
Why are you not talking about this song yet?
The song I’m going to introduce to you is by a band name The Turtles.
The Turtles are an American rock band, formerly the Crossfires, led by vocalists Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman. They began their careers with a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘It ain’t me, Babe’ in 1965, but scored their biggest and best-known hit in 1967 with the song "Happy Together"
While they may not have been a band with unprecedented degrees of success, you can hear that surf-rock style very clearly, a style that made The Beachboys extremely popular around the same time; the band just ran into a lot of problems with their label and made a slew of bad decisions.
Hidden beneath the popularity of ‘Happy Together’ (a song I imagine most of you already know), is a beautiful little ditty named ‘Elenore’. This is such a heart-warming love song that has the 60s knocking at your front door, grabbing your toes and getting them tapping. Have a listen and, by all means, enjoy it…
What is in my ears?
So, this is a pretty standard band set up – Guitars, Drums, Bass, Piano, Vocal. However, there are some things to listen out for:
The wonderful pittering and pattering of the bongos in the beginning. I assume that the drummer is playing them, as the only other percussion heard alongside them is the hi-hat foot peddle.
The beachboys style backing vocal harmonies, on the chorus line, really help fill out the song and make it into this big, fat, dreamy love-sick fantasy – fantastic!
There’s a sneaky little synth line that sounds like a digital flute in the second verse. I’m not one for having inconsistent use of instruments in songs because they can often be distracting from the main content; I only think this sound is used once in the second verse and, if not, it is drowned out by everything else later on. However, in reality, it just adds a little extra flair and a little something new and shiny to focus on while the second verse connects both choruses together – it plays around 1:05 mark.
One of my favourite parts is the ‘One more time’ that is quietly yelled at the 2:05 mark and brings around the final statement of the chorus – sickeningly wonderful.
Favourite lyrics award goes to:
“You’re my pride and joy, et cetera."
Et cetera
I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed this song and are now clutching your heart in adoration. If you didn’t enjoy it, then that’s the way the news goes - each to their own, I guess.
I will be posting some more tracks in the future, hoisted from the ever-expanding depths of my ‘sound hole’. For now, enjoy the musical styling of The Turtles and their eternal pursuit of the lovely lady Elenore.
You be good now,
Dan