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pentatonic minor figure. Instead, Radiohead introduce an Ab, implying an Am-Ab chord change, interspersed with a
bVI bVII I. When the electric guitars come in the riff's power is unleashed, but the band don't overdo the
headbanging – that heavy riff is played only a handful of times. This leaves you wanting more. After the first solo,
the music enters its hymn-like third section, which starts on a Cm chord and changes key to D minor via an A7.
Notice the feeling of dislocation when the music goes from A back to Cm, as they are distant chords.
The two solo breaks show how rock guitar returned to its roots in the 1990s, rejecting the over-technical widdling of
the late 1980s for a less-is-more approach. The first break has what I would call ''cultivated (apparent)
incompetence".
Maybe the whole isn't quite equal to the sum of the parts (the song was apparently pieced together out of three
fragments) but an impressive variety of emotion in one song by Oxford's finest.
Section 15—
Famous Songwriters on Songwriting
Musicians tend not to be a particularly articulate bunch of people. Those who write songs in the public eye
sometimes have personal reasons for not wanting to give away too much about how they write or the meaning of
what they have created. Nevertheless, almost all of them have, over the years, said things which offer fascinating
glimpses into how they write and what they think the process is all about. Here - with all their contrasting opinions -
are the songwriters speaking about the craft.
Paul Weller
When we finished Setting Sons (1980), I got the engineer to play the whole album backwards for me to listen to on
cassette, and there was one little piece of music, of backward vocal, that I really liked the melody of. So I wrote the
whole of 'Dreams Of Children' built around that, more or less made up on the spot. (1992)
I suppose in some ways I write in an old-fashioned way because I always have middle eights in my songs and not
many people do any more. It's usually just a verse and chorus. Structure is really important. Some I've really had to
work at, others come really quickly. Keeping the whole thing interesting – that's what it all comes down to. (1984)
Mike Mills (R.E.M.)
I asked everyone to sing a background part for the chorus [of 'Find The River']