The Mamas & The Papas: No Salt On Her Tail
[purchase]
I have a couple of friends who make fun of me for liking The Mamas & The Papas. Here's what I have to say about that: The Mamas & The Papas rock, and my friends can stick it! I love M & P's feel-good brand of Sunshine Psychedelic Pop, and the harmonies can't be beat.
Is this 2:42 song a "perfect" pop song? I'd say it's close. It's easy to digest, it's made up of only a couple of distinct parts that gently build in intensity, it's about troubled love, and it ends before you're tired of it. Tack another verse or a Coda on this thing and it could have been a disaster.
Also of note: Listen to the first few seconds, before the vocals come in, and note how similar it is to the beginning of Like A Rolling Stone. At least that's what I hear.
I noted that California dreaming displayed in iTunes at 2:42.
ReplyDeleteThen it displays elsewhere at 2:41.
A dilemma.
s
There is no such thing as a track that has an exact length -- in many cases, the rerelease of the same song on a compilation is listed as having a slightly different length, for example.
ReplyDeleteAs such, this dilemma is going to come up all over the place, so we've avoided it by letting the posters use whatever measurement they usually use to measure.
It does make the "2:42 is a perfect length" phenomenon a bit tongue in cheek. But I would say that raising the issue isn't new, or news -- instead, this dilemma is inherent in the very premise, and as such, it has always been tongue in cheek, for this and other reasons.
Yeah, so far two songs have popped up from other posters (Nick Drake and Pink Floyd) that I own as well but aren't 2:42 according to my iTunes. Same goes for some of the tracks listed in the original article about the song length at the Morning News.
ReplyDeleteOh well. Still a good excuse to share a bunch of concise pop songs.