A Dad, aged 40, will now gush about Radiohead and Miles Davis. Please ignore.
I just had one of those lightning moments that keep me listening to old flames. A dozen years of In Rainbows, Kind of Blue 4 life, but still something new. As Radiohead reached the all-the-notes climax of “All I Need,” it crossfaded in my head to “All Blues” and the warbling piano sorta clashing with, also sorta tickling, the horn line. Harmony and dissonance at once. Tingly.
Since that moment, I’m hearing Kind of Blue ghosts all over In Rainbows. The lads cop to studying Miles, but mostly people peg this to the imprint of Bitches Brew on their rhythms and their Frankenstein studio knifework. Here, it's in the notes.
I hit Google and got walloped: Dorian! Cmaj9(#11)! I think it’s all about scales and chords that are ambiguous - not major or minor, kind of both, also neither - and homeless. (No metaphor: if you hear G major then F major, they imply C major: “home.” Listen to Elvis rag on his hound dog.) Sounds right. The mood conjured is ambivalent. Let down, kind of blue, but so what? Still hanging around.
Now, bluesmen nailed down this upbeat misery way back, and their two-note chords work similar tricks, refusing to be major or minor. Metal brought these back, amped, fast, as POWER CHORDS: the ambiguity maybe “what's this pissed dude gonna do next?”
I love it all. There's only one song, Zeppelin said that. Enjoy it.
