"It's Only Money Pt. 2" b/w "Losing Hold"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (18 June 1973), Argent's "It's Only Money Pt. 2" (edit) b/w "Losing Hold" (Epic 5-11019) was released in the U.S. and Canada.

"Losing Hold"

About a week ago, I learned a mellotron phrase near the end of Argent's "Losing Hold."  I'd thought that after that one stand-out phrase, it just plays the same part as the electric piano, but as I was recording my own version, I discovered that that's not that case.  It plays its own phrase, doubles the electric piano, but then there's a second phrase.  While that second phrase has some similarity with the first, it's not exactly the same.  So while I thought I had the whole mellotron part, all I have is one phrase, which I guess is better than nothing:

"Losing Hold"

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I don't think my recording really does this justice.

I can't change the tone of the organ presets on my keyboard (an-other reason why getting a Nord - with physical drawbars! - would be such an advantage), so the organ tone doesn't match that well.

The bass during the repeated part at the end (which I played only part of because I don't know the whole mellotron part) is more complex than what I played, but I haven't figured out that part perfectly yet.  This is actually a lot more than I thought I was going to do when I said I figured out some of the bass part.  Mostly I was talking about the staccato notes and the long phrases that replace them later (one of them extends two whole octaves, up to the twelfth fret G), but then I kept learning more of it.

In Deep is the only Argent album I have as a record, so I can refer to the record sleeve for publication data (I'm not always too confident that what I find on the internet is right).  The record credits "Losing Hold" to Argent and White:

According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, Argent and White wrote separately but starting with "Imagine the Swan" they shared the writing credit.  Because of this ambiguity, I sometimes wonder if a song is an Argent or White song.  Obviously, I'm not sure of this, but I would guess that "Losing Hold" is a Rod Argent song because it has some of his characteristic three-note chromatic phrases in the bass part.  The staccato notes at the beginning are A G# G, over which are played A major, C# minor, and G major; the chromatic phrase starting from the root note of the first chord in the sequence is a very Argentian progression.  Later, during the repeated section at the end, there's a three-note chromatic phrase of C B Bb.

The chord progression has some resemblance to that of "Hung up on a Dream" too.  They both have a section where each chord is only one note different from the previous.  In "Hung up on a Dream" it's G major (G, B, D) to E minor (E, G, B) to C major (C, E, G).  Here, there's a section of F major (F, A, C) to A minor (A, C, E) to C major (C, E, G) to E minor (E, G, B) to G major (G, B, D).  This sort of incremental progression is more visually obvious on a keyboard instrument, which makes me think it's Argent's song.

In Deep

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Collection Audit:

Last night I listened to Argent's In Deep, and I noticed two small things about two songs. 

"God Gave Rock and Roll to You" 

The first line of the first verse is "Love your friend and love your neighbor," and the "Love your neighbor" part is a quote from the Bible.  I think it's actually in a couple places, but this is the first one I thought of: 

But when the Pharisees heard that he [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"  And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40)

For what it's worth, last year, I wrote about what I think are some more Biblical references (to the Sermon on the Mount) in "It's Only Money, Pt. 1" and "It's Only Money, Pt. 2" (a lot of the lyrics are the same in both songs). 

"Losing Hold" 

I'm surprised I hadn't noticed this before, but "slide" in the line "Let my fingers slide" has a melisma.  Instead of being sung as just one syllable, it's sung as two, and the note changes from an A to a B, so the word "slide" is itself sliding between those two pitches.

I found some more things about some songs from In Deep.  I also (finally!) sussed out a couple lines for my transcriptions:  "Gathering together a chandelier of time" in "Candles on the River" and "The thoughts in such a mind don't belong" in "Rosie."

I also figured out the part in "Be Glad" that's doubled on piano and tubular bells and - while I was figuring out the notes for that "slide" - the bass part at the very beginning of "Losing Hold."  I'll get around to recording and posting those in the next few days.

"Losing Hold"

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Two things:

1 . In that post about "Losing Hold," I forgot to mention that there's a chromatic phrase hidden in the chord progression.  It's C major, E minor, Bb major, F major, in which is hidden C, B, Bb, A.

2.  I just listened to Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent's Out of the Shadows because apparently it was released to-day in 2001.  Like always, I found a lot of stuff to write about, but I have to do some research on some things, so I won't be posting those for a few days yet.  There's some really exciting stuff though.

"Losing Hold"

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While listening to In Deep a few days ago, I figured out the part at the end of "Losing Hold."  It just alternates between sets of two notes and cycles among four chords.  While recording this, I realized that it actually has some resemblance to the chords in "Leave Me Be" (specifically C major to E minor) which makes some sense since "Losing Hold" is a White/Argent song.

I'm still not sure of the exact instrumentation, but I did the alternating notes and the chords on piano, the alternating notes on electric piano, and the chords on electric guitar.

This is pretty much just two and a half minutes of four chords.  On the record, it fades out, but I resolved it on C major.

This is also a new one in the catalogue.

In Deep

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I listened to Argent's In Deep to-day because according to Russo's Collector's Guide, it came out to-day in 1973.  And I noticed things!

"God Gave Rock and Roll to You"

There's some really obvious alliteration in this that I'd missed.  It's in the title line ("God gave rock and roll to you") and the second line of the first verse ("Love your life and love your labor"), which actually exhibits a sort of parallel alliteration.

There's parallel structure in the line "Don't step on snails, don't climb in trees."

"Losing Hold"

There's some parallelism in different iterations of the chorus in "Losing Hold":

I'm losing hold
Let my fingers slide
I see you slowly close your eyes on me
I'll keep mine open wide

And later:

I'm losing hold
Let my fingers slide
I've watched you slowly take the day from me
I'll keep the night to hide

To some degree, this parallelism connects "your eyes" with "the day."

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I found a structure that connects "It's Only Money, Pt. 2," "Be Glad," and "Rosie."  Each has a section where a line is repeated twice and then there's an-other line.

"It's Only Money, Pt. 2":

It's only money
It's only money
It's only money
Ain't it funny when you want it you ain't got it

"Be Glad":

Be glad
Be glad
Be glad
Oh, be glad

"Rosie":

Rosie
Rosie
Rosie
What have I got to do?

—

Somewhat similarly, there's a lyrical connection between "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" and "Be Glad."  "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" mentions that God "put [rock and roll] in the soul of everyone," and "Be Glad" continues that idea with "So throw the music in your soul to Heaven."

Like the similar structures in "It's Only Money, Pt. 2," "Be Glad," and "Rosie," including that idea of music in the soul in both "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" and "Be Glad" makes for a more unified album.

[I learned a couple parts too, and I'll get around to posting those in the next few days.  I discovered something really interesting about "Christmas for the Free" that deserves its own post and audio example.]