This one is long. Rush "Xanadu" Vocal ANALYSIS by Opera Singer

welcome back to the charismatic voice honestly today's song is a bit daunting to me because many of you have hyped it up so much add to that it is one of Russia's longest songs which is saying a lot because rush and it's considered by many to be one of the greatest progressive rock songs of all time I don't know if I will be able to capture and analyze the essence of it in my first listening but I'm excited to hear it so let's get to it [Music] thank you [Music] thank you foreign [Music] okay in the first minute here I feel like we have just an establishment of the Ambiance that we're being drawn into right Xanadu some sort of idyllic paradise and we get that if you just go back and you like go to the original poem that this is inspired by Samuel coolridge I think was the writer of that and also start to understand a little bit behind the words Kublai Khan and xanadi was sort of a retweet for the dynasty in China at the time this whole idea is there's some sort of uh gorgeous wonderful location that we are being drawn into I think the moment you hear the birds you're like oh yeah that was probably a pretty sweet spot right birds are chirping except for me those birds I'm pretty sure that they recorded I think they're probably house finches and that one particularly sounds like the little babies when they're cheaper and like feed me feed me feed me so I just have to have to mention that that particular bird was like oh that was the one that was in my garage for a long time that I couldn't get out of it I'm gonna go back to the beginning there's some other really cool things here all right so sometimes we'll just call this a pedal tone when you've got a note that's held forever and ever it's like if you put a pedal down on the piano it just continues to reverberate the whole time and this I have to say this bothered me when I first saw this visualization right you see the Chimes going back there but we don't actually hear any Chimes yet that is not the wood blocks that you're getting clunked on the Chimes that are flowing there they're not present in the audio yet baby [Music] there's your Chimes now [Music] so that that synthesizer that's kind of bouncing around here and there there's uh there's I think a delay between you when you play a note and the sound sort of emerges this is really fascinating to me how some synthesizers are designed to have a delay from the moment that you trigger them to actually sort of expanding into the sound and that actually feels somewhat peaceful in my mind unless you want something exactly on time and said this it represents a sort of luxuriousness and that the sound can come out and Blossom in its own time it doesn't have to be really attached to a particular time signature so I like the way that it can wind and create beautiful sounds without being uh obligated to time [Music] thank you [Music] I think because we have this very much out of tempo feeling you get that relaxed Ambiance you also have Birds makes you feel like maybe I'm in The Woodlands somewhere also because you have wooden blocks that are being tapped on or clunked on it definitely feels like a location that is in nature and they've established that beautifully all while having some underlying some sort of uh spiritual element because you have this music that's just continuing to be present in that base [Music] we have a repetition of a Melody there that might be a hook that comes back later I don't know we'll see here [Music] Tubular Bells foreign [Music] bending Tubular Bells like that it's like a like a wedding gone wrong [Laughter] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I love the evolution of how this faded in and really this is the first time that we've got a time that has been established it was very uh fluid and I had like an amorphous kind of feeling up until the guitar started establishing it yes there was a repetitiveness in time of the Tubular Bells but they weren't actually there wasn't any sort of subdivision in the Butte yet that gave us a sense that we had a time signature until uh you had that guitar entrance in there and there's something that feels incredibly epic about it too reminds me I can't put my finger on it but it reminds me of another guitar riff that I analyzed recently on the channel we'll see if it comes up in my mind [Music] what is that what is that familiar let me know in my chat what that reminds me [Applause] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] maybe maybe that's I think that might be why it feels familiar it's familiar but different it sort of has like an Excursion in a different direction after a few notes [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] I feel like Neil Pierce is essentially warning us that this is going to go somewhere so much bigger all of these fills they almost feel a little bit over the top to me at times but then we have this space in between and this repetition of the Riff so it feels like he's sort of um getting us really excited for a moment and then letting us simmer and then getting us excited again it's definitely doing a great job of building up the anticipation [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] all right just a little side note here I think that we're in a seven eight time signature at this point which they've made feel somewhat normal because of how cyclical that riff is so we have one two three four five six seven one two three four five six seven one two three four five six seven I'll go back just a little bit and count that out foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] I love the double necks on both of those instruments they're just so much uh oh that's that's really cool uh the shift is like we've had two definitive chapters already going into a third one and it's really surprising to me that this had uh so much evolution in the second chapter and I thought we were going to take that straight into some sort of singing and it didn't go there so I feel I feel like my expectations have been shifted a bunch already let's see where else it goes [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] because of the way it hits that bottom note just slightly ahead of the downbeat of each mother's measure so we've got like a one two three four one two three four which is a four or four time signature that's happening but you get and that little bow when it goes down to the low note it goes just a little bit ahead of the one two three four the downbeat being the strong beat that is at the beginning of each measure and it makes it almost feel like it's not a normal time signature it's uh it's definitely it's like a little jab each time [Music] I love that Gap [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] entirely [Music] I loved that that was that was such a a really fun little uh extra percussion moment oh this is really cool so uplifting I think I want to say that he's got like different sizes of cowbells that he's playing in a very particular way to create this sound it might be a slightly different percussion instrument [Music] it's so much fun it's uh so uplifting what a cool sound I like that sound one more time [Music] one of the reasons I think this works really well here is because this particular sound has a quick fade has a quick attack and a quick fade so we get more space between each sound that's made like a little more uh not total silence but just a little more quiet between each sound so it has sort of like a like a like bubble coming up kind of feeling [Music] bubbly [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] it's always amazing to me how three people can make so much sound together and it's so intricate and well woven together they I mean this really is a power Trio here incredible [Music] [Music] oh and there's like that luxurious lugubrious kind of feeling back [Music] oh back to Turkey [Music] such a big shift in the tempo overall and bringing the Tubular Bells back definitely sort of Harkens to a moment earlier so it feels like uh in Xanadu we're kind of getting different flavors of maybe different scenes or images that might be in this city of paradise and there are moments that seem really fun and uplifting like I don't know maybe kids playing or something like that and then you've got moments where maybe you're just lounging underneath a tree and it's the perfect temperature outside I think we're definitely back to a lounging moment here and uh we're nearly five minutes into the song and I haven't heard of vocal yet I thought there are vocals in this one but maybe I'm wrong I'm actually maybe we're gonna find out really if there are they should be entered right now [Music] of course of course there are vocals because I had some lyrics ahead of time I just had a lot of Doubt because that was a really long instrumental intro but he looked like he was approaching the mic so I was like okay I think this is gonna happen let's go back a little bit [Music] choice seek the sacred River out to walk the caves of ice [Music] foreign [Music] so Getty Lee many of you when you're recommending Getty to me many of you said well you should absolutely listen to him but you're probably gonna hate his voice and I was so surprised when I first listened to him because I I felt nothing of that distaste for his sound whatsoever there's a specificity to his sound that works so perfectly in this power Trio but it there's a uniqueness as well so it's got the signature sound to it but there's nothing about his sound that I hate nothing I think other people might dislike sort of a certain nasality that is there in the sound there's definitely a very forward Focus um and I it's probably just part of that signature sound that he has partly from his genes from the bone structure in his face there's something about that Timbre I'm guessing that some people don't like but I just I like having Unique Sounds I like the signature that he puts on every single note he sings I'm gonna go back one more time to where he begins [Music] he is very specific with the rhythm of his words words all words have uh inherent Rhythm to them just by the combination of consonant consonants vowel vowels that are included in that word and he's so specific about where certain consonants and vowels come in and where they end I think that this is largely developed because he's a bass player too and bass players have to be so particular about their rhythm River out the bikes break my fast on honeydew and drink the milk of paradise and when you have a longer moment like that where the words are elongated more you can notice some of the specificity more because that requires the singer to make choices about where is the diphthong going to take place are you going to linger more on that first vowel or the second vowel of the diphthong where exactly is that consonant gonna come in there's if somebody has a lot of rhythmic experience they'll often choose subdivisions in the beat for placement of consonants which is exactly what Getty Lee is doing let's I'll go back just a time but we'll continue for now I'm sure we're gonna get into this with more detail soon [Music] diamonds [Music] I really dig the way that it sounds so easy for him to go up uh but then he has just a Teensy bit of a little Edge to the sound just a tiny bit of distortion and even more than that I dig how much his mouth is moving while not disturbing the focal point of his sound so he's getting really really clear lyrics to us I understand all the words it's just La it's like the Pez dispenser mouth that we've gotten going on and I love the view in this video where you can see that too and then with that it if you're moving your mouth a ton that is shaping the resonance that your sound is coming through so it's really easy when somebody's moving their mouth a whole bunch for them to sort of lose focus on the sound it takes lots of practice to learn how to keep the sound in the same focal point while moving around to create really really clear and Rapid lyrics so I have a lot of appreciation for what he's doing right now me a story [Music] that's some good stuff [Music] didn't expect that a really good example of choosing win a vowel should end in a consonant begin is in this Xanadu part some singers would choose to go Xanadu and sing to the Inn a lot more there's an absolute choice though that needs to be made here of am I going to continue the first ah vowel or the in consonant which one is going to be longer and here he's going for definitely way more time on the aval it is so very deliberate [Music] and his eyebrows there they uh they kind of remind me of Justin Hawkins that particular shape it's even accentuated by a xylophone and the percussion [Music] the fruits [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] wow this section is a great example of something that I'll sometimes call sprinkling consonants on top he's being again extremely precise about his timing and when he goes to a consonant he tends to make it very very quick it's a like there's nothing uh nothing lingering so if I said like Kubla Khan for example I could say Kubla Khan where I'm really going through each constant like it was a bit of mutt you can really Linger on them really draw them out and instead he's doing this sprinkle on top so most of the time is spent on the vowel this helps with the Legato and he's going Kubla Khan so all of those consonants are super super crisp and extremely timed with subdivisions of the beat I'll go back a little bit to catch some more of that maybe here the pleasure don't decree [Music] [Applause] [Music] I will say almost every time that he has a diphthong where the second vowel is an e diphthongs are one sound that actually contains two vowels so I the word I like me myself and I I is actually made of an ah and an e i i and he spends more time on the second part of that dip dung and goes to the E quicker I think that's just because he likes e vowels better you may have heard me say this in a previous analysis of him that everybody has a particular vowel that is a preferred vowel actually really like e vowels oohs are pretty good too but I I like e vowels more than ah that was for sure and maybe maybe it's just a natural tendency for him or maybe he knows that that's the vowel he likes better like sitting on more so he is drawn to it and goes to it a lot quicker [Applause] okay love you feel the pain [Music] he's just very specific about his rhythm about his vocal tone keeping it in a pocket that is his pocket the whole time and then he also has got so much control over the techniques so as it's going up and down I don't get big bursts of a much louder Dynamic on top I get a definitely continuities through the bottom of the sound as well it's a very controlled sound but then you add to it moments where he has extra Distortion or Edge and that gives it more emotional aspect too I have so much respect for what Getty Lee does with his voice let's keep going [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] there's that really fun anticipation of the downbeat again foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] I I so dig the chapters of this and I really like the way that they have that devolving moment again that seems like such a fun extension of this uh idea a musical idea that they've established and then they explore it further that to me is the definition of progressive it's like how can we progress the music into a new place A Thousand Years [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] so interesting how both times they've when he comes to Xanadu at the end he sings it again a second time in a totally different way like saying it once made him kind of wonder in his thoughts to another area so that he needed to sing it again I it's fascinating how Rush makes transitions from one part to the next and I wonder often how those transitions have come to be and I wonder if maybe this particular transition happened because as they were reading some poetry they went oh Santa do oh Xanadu like what would how can you say that in a different way [Music] [Applause] [Music] out of this world held within the pleasure Dome decree bye [Music] [Applause] how can you not appreciate this man's enunciation when you see that kind of view of his mouth you go wow it is moving so much that somehow he still has that same Focus like think about other instruments uh a wind instruments for example you have different notes that you can um you can push a stop in and you can change where the air is going to be exiting but that overall instrument it's still structurally the same all the time when you're moving your mouth this much it's like it's like you had a clarinet that was made of Play-Doh or it's just continuously molding in different ways so to be able to maintain Focus like this with this much mouth movement that takes so much perfecting and it's incredible how clear it is held within the pleasure Dome [Music] try out [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I just adore the amount of cut he has in his upper sound it is a very specific sound yes and it still has like a certain it's like a there's a there's definitely an exality in it but there's a certain Bell behind it so it's like a nasal belt to me at times because of the way it's piercing but not uh it doesn't feel crazy aggressive I've heard much more aggressive sounds a Judas Priest for example right Rob Halfords the whole time his has got that Focus but there's a certain um yeah I think like if I think about a hand bell that it reminds me of something that has Brilliance and a little bit of mellowness to it just a tiny bit but then a lot of nasal Focus [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you wow [Music] wow he's wailing up there and there's moments where the it actually sounds like the vocal folds are about to burst apart because there's so much breath pressure that is built up beneath the vocal folds in this High powerful moment and you hear it where like it starts to crack just a little bit which is actually a release of pressure cracking though it can sound absolutely terrible can actually be good for the voice because it's releasing all of the built up pressure and I hear that entering his voice here but he's somehow still really controlling it [Music] [Applause] right there oh it's like a speech that comes through oh you know I actually just realized I think that might be the last I think that's the last lyric that's here and it's Woe Is it Paradise which is fascinating to me because they've talked about this this sort of incredible area and there's a lot of thought put into these lyrics but this question at the end of is it Paradise you know the birds are chirping maybe that bird is really just yelling for food all the time and it's not such a paradicycle place is that a word let me know if that's a word [Music] all right [Music] it's feeling again at least we think that that temperature is perfect [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I feel like this is the guitar's response to that question of whoa is it Paradise this felt like a continuation of that thought into moments that were just totally over the top and glorious but then there were moments that had some more tension in it it definitely it was exploring an idea that was fantastic side note I read that uh that Rush performed Xanadu frequently live as well and that it was always different every time because you have these extended instrumental sections and that just is really exciting to me I mean I wonder what this solo would be like in another performance and in another one it'd be so fun to see how that evolved over time let me go back just a little bit into it and then we'll keep going [Music] I like that apartment [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] back to that that riff that circular weight that's seven eight riffs that we had earlier so it's almost like a circle in the whole song something about this shift makes me think that they reversed the river they did something they evolved it in some very particular way so that it's very heavily related to the one that was earlier [Music] foreign [Music] oh man there is no possible way that you can understand how all of that goes together in our first listening of it it is just such an incredible work I all the chapters and you could I could hear the glimmer of how those chapters were intertwined how they circled back but I didn't get all the details I just need to listen to it like 200 million times more because that's how many times it would take to get to the bottom of how incredible this composition is if you want to see some more first time analysis of a very very difficult songs where I feel like I need that 200 million more times to listen to it and really get it you can check out this playlist over here and may you fall more in love with music every day foreign

Channel: The Charismatic Voice

Views: 383,141

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Id: Ec2gA75VYfc

Length: 42min 12sec (2532 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 05 2023