So last night, my wife and I were listening to some of our band’s new music. She wasn’t sure if she liked it compared to our earlier music and referenced her favorite PRAIRIE DOGZ song ME AND YOU. She quoted a line from an old recording of DICK CLARK/AMERICAN BAND STAND where a teen aged girl said, “IT’S GOT A NICE BEAT, YOU CAN DANCE TO IT.” In this girl’s mind, it was the highest compliment for the piece of music she was referring to. When my wife referenced it, she meant it as an honest compliment about some of our more straight-forward songs.
Later last night, I was reflecting on the conversation and this quote came to mind. I remembered that through my teens this line was quoted with a significantly different meaning.
Through those years I spent many hours staring at the liner notes and album covers like LED ZEPPELIN 4, RUSH 2112 and PINK FLOYD DARK SIDE OF THE MOON while sitting in my basement in front of our department store stereo with the round speakers that my parents had bought for my sister and me. Through high school I went further down the rabbit hole listening to RETURN TO FOREVER, MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA and JEFF BECK, definitely not the mainstream music of the day but hey, I was serious guitar player. So, when I would discuss music with fellow players and my music snob buddies the best cut down of all time would eventually come up. I don’t know who was the first person to use this line in a sarcastic manor, but when criticizing a piece of music for being too shallow or simple, IT WAS THE ULTIMATE BURN TO SAY “IT’S GOT A NICE BEAT, YOU CAN DANCE TO IT.”
Now fast forward to today. After 100+ performances and being in and out of several different bands with some good and some not so good writing partners, here I am. DWIGHT, TERRY AND I were given a huge gift recently when DAVE and MARTIN joined THE PRAIRIE DOGZ. Nothing against the previous members of our line-up, but I feel like this is as close as I will get to having musical soul mates. We can talk about long forgotten songs by YES like GATES OF DELIRIUM – LIVE from the YESSHOWS album and even jam to YOURS IS NO DISGRACE a YES classic! We are so lucky to have five guys who are on the same musical page. This led me to go back and listen to some of the old prog rock and art rock music that was on a back burner somewhere off in the distance.
So now after all those years of listening to, playing and discussing music, here is my take on the idea of “A NICE BEAT”.
IT IS INTEGRAL TO THE SUCCESS OF THE COMPOSITION.
The rhythm determines the level of excitement in the arrangement and supports the emotion behind the lyrics. Everybody’s musical palette is different, so I push myself to be open minded about different kinds of music and try to understand why it reaches people.
Good music is good, no matter the genre and great players are great players.
I still spend lots of time, probably too much time staring at a screen, listening to music or streaming recorded performances, always looking to broaden my understanding of music and I appreciate a good beat.
Keith Hambrook
The Prairie Dogz