When it comes to music, it’s sometimes easy to get too much of a good (or not-so-good) thing. Whether you’re a wedding band musician who’s sick of the same old requests or a roommate to someone who seems to own just one-freaking-album, there are likely a few songs you feel you don’t ever want to hear again.
For the latest episode of Soundfly’s podcast, Themes and Variation, our home panel of Carter Lee, Mahea Lee, and Martin Fowler all sat down to reminisce, complain, share, and speculate about the theme, “Songs You’ve Heard Too Many Times.” This episode is built around selected songs by Journey, Europe, and Francisco Tárrega and covers topics like shredding guitar solos, the gravitational pull of the planet Venus, and musical communication in the mid to late ’90s.
Listen in to Episode 44 in its entirety right here:
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Episode 44 Highlights
1. A couple of bass players talk shop.
Carter: “Do you think it’s a fair first line to learn or is it maybe a little too challenging for a very first bass line?”
Martin: “It’s got some pretty big jumps. I would call this an intermediate line.”
Carter: “Yeah, I think that’s fair. I think it’s ambitious for a first line. You could get it if you were just learning, but I don’t know that I would use it to teach a brand new bass player.”
Martin: “You know, it’s ‘Smoke on the Water,’ ‘Seven Nation Army,’ and then Journey. I think that progression, there you go.”
Carter: “‘A Whole Lotta’ was mine and I’ll never forget it. I mean, there’s like two notes that you play basically, but, you know, good line, fantastic line.”
2. Martin shares some surprising knowledge about a classic song.
Martin: “It wasn’t supposed to be a hit. It wasn’t supposed to even necessarily get radio play. It was supposed to be the thing that introduces the band, that gets everyone hyped, which obviously it does very, very well.”
3. Mahea weighs in the question of what makes “Don’t Stop Believin’” feel cheesy.
Mahea: “To answer your question, the cheese, I think some of it comes from the subject matter. Like that hook is… we’re just not used to hearing optimistic, positive messages that don’t feel cheesy in most music.”
Episode Playlist
With every new episode of Themes and Variation, we launch a new Spotify playlist that includes the songs mentioned in this episode and more. Here’s this episode’s Spotify playlist!
We’ll see you in a couple weeks with a new theme, new guests, and some new songs to break down. If you have any comments, questions, or theme suggestions, drops us a (bass) line at [email protected]!
