What Makes This Song Great? Ep.65 Stone Temple Pilots (#2)

hey everybody I'm Rick Beato on today's everything music it's what makes this song great episode 65 the band is Stone Temple Pilots and the song is interstate love songs coming up next [Music] interstate lovesong was the third single off stone Tama pilots second record entitled purple which came out in the summer of 1994 the song was produced by Brendan O'Brien and it was engineered by Nick DoDEA it's one of my favorite stone double pilot records it was really a great great record for that era a really important record and stunt-double pilots is musically one of the most interesting bands from the era now what I call them a grunge band I don't know if I would I don't necessarily consider them a grunge band they were not from Seattle and they have a different style than most grunge bands although some of their songs are grunge songs they have riffs like run songs but this isn't one of them this is really a great song it's got really interesting chord changes and it's got a great intro riff let's check it out [Music] [Music] okay so this is my second STP video I've done now this song is actually very simple in the fact that it has only a couple sections to it but what's going on in them is actually really hip and complex things that they borrow from really progressive rock and fusion I remember one time Dean DeLeo was was was they were playing some sample vials years ago I went to see him play here in Atlanta and during one of his solos he quoted that Allan Holdsworth solo the intro to in the dead of night during one of their songs so you can see where his influences come from that's off the first UK record but I want to talk about Robert to Leo's bassline here because he's got really sophisticated parts he moves all around borrows from Motown borrows from fusion and uses a lot of really hip hip bass moves check it out right here right there in the e cords he does a to do in the c-sharp minor then I love he does it he goes down to the fifth but then here he does it a major triad there in the E chord he fills in but dude it and then then he goes on to a chord listen [Music] Wow listen to it so load doo-doo-doo-doo death dead dude netted you to do even [Music] though it's a g-sharp suspended to G sharp major change he's using the G sharp major arpeggio it's great dude I'm a former upright player those are the lines that you would play if you were a jazz player playing upright bass that depended to do actually works easier when you're playing upright and coming back across the strings like that so I would bet that Robert was an upright bass player originally let me solo the intro slide guitar it's really a great sound it's got a beautiful ambience on it check it out [Music] [Music] it continues on you and right there he does another arpeggio on the 8e use the a major tribe two three four and then [Music] that's really hip listen [Music] this part is great I love that that slide [Music] this is totally out of the Gailey Chris choir plus some fusion bass playing school play live [Music] the guitar riff on the song is also a classic let me play along with it [Music] I love the droning on the open string and that such core there that PDS us [Music] in a one again [Music] the verse chords are also really have been really unusual okay so he's going c-sharp minor then a flat over C perseveres major RJ the third chord is really an inverted dominant chord sort of like a D flat 7 with a B in the bass or C flat in the bass D flat 7 in 3rd inversion then to B flat half diminished or minor 7 flat 5 and then and then [Music] listeners of the guitar solo [Music] [Music] next let's talk about the verse vocal I'm gonna play the vocals solo too so you can hear the sound of it and then we'll talk about the melody we dam on a Sunday afternoon for wood I read between the lines [Music] your lies okay let's talk about the melody for a second so this is a chord tone based melody and it's pretty straight ahead until you get to the third chord so he starts out Weyden starts in the root of the C sharp minor on a Sunday afternoon and on this second chord the a flat with the C in the bass he's going you can see it's right in the chord shape the notes of the melody but then he goes on this third chord which to the ear you don't realize is a real dissonant melody part he goes for what I've read between the then he returns back into the chord progression lines from the seventh to the flat third of that B flat half diminished chord and then he goes the last from the fifth to the third to the second and that's harmonized with thee to give you this a Lydian sound the melody just opens up right there it's really beautiful that's also where there's a 2/4 bar which is really kind of cool let's check this part out right here three four then you go back to the e section and then back to the verse same melody many guys that's just really weird I mean because by so fast that you don't really notice it most people I think thinks they think that chord progressions going they didn't do today - did it editor I think people think that that maybe the cord or something but this is really the voicing the happen zone it's a very interesting chord progression great really really interesting writing I want to point out to what's going on the drums this is a pretty straight ahead drum part but the drums sound killer Nick DoDEA is a phenomenally great engineer and Brendan O'Brien mixes these records and Brendan is a great engineer as well and a great producer and they just sounds so phat I mean it's it's like the the kick drum everything you hear the drums are totally natural sounding they're not gated you don't hear that you hear all those the ghost notes on the snare and it's it's just really really well done that's the thing about all their records oh oh all the records Brendan did in the in the 90s through the 2000 are incredibly great sounding all the STP records sounded killer and the plains great listen of the drums and bass together misses just a great rhythm session check it out [Music] it's so heavy and then when you get to the verse straight up [Music] I love all that ring on the snare sense so good it's so natural [Music] once again [Music] stellar faceplant [Music] in the base okay let me talk about what's great about this chorus first of all the chord progression is really great but the melody is incredibly strong let's check it out rare and then and then we're back to the rift the thing that really makes the hook work in the chorus that makes the Sun great is really when it goes to that G sharp or a flat sus4 and how he outlines the chord of the melody there this is what I'm talking about right there that's second half of the chorus and then he's got he's he's outlining this perfectly outlining this sus chord to the resolution and then goes to the he goes right through that sharp for that a Lydian cuz that's the fork heard we ran a major here right even though we're starting on the 6 and 1/4 to the 5 of 6 it's a secondary dominant but resolving back to 4 that's the thing that's really interesting about it that that 5 of 6 chord 5 706 secondary dominant chord resolves back to 4 instead of 2 6 and I think that that really makes the whole song right there that that's really what grabs your ear that hook a couple of the things to note about the song there is no real bridge in the song there's a little tag section that kind of functions like a bridge there's a really cool melody line in this last verse I love that and then there's repeats again okay this I always thought that was weird the timing of that it's cool it's it's almost like that they are just playing it and that's where they decided to go with it right tap it out [Applause] almost there's a time around love it and then we're gonna put last for us so it goes through the final chorus and then we just go back to the riff for the ending it's great two three four [Music] and Oh there you have it now I want to just say one thing about this song so this was recorded here in Atlanta at a studio that no longer exists called southern tracks I got to work in southern tracks one time in in the year 2000 I did a record there for about a month and it was an incredibly great studio Brendan O'Brien did most of his records at least mix the records that he did almost all at southern tracks this one most of this record was tracked at southern tracks right here in Atlanta and the idea of the interstate love song has something to do I believe that when I heard it at the time that them talking about it that Scott or Robert had the idea while they were driving down i-80 v which is one of the main interstates here in Atlanta and I have real fond memories of this studio which is an incredibly wonderful place and when I hear those drum sounds it's that southern tracks sound and when you hear any of Brendan's records you know you can recognize though the ones that were recorded at southern tracks you hear that room sound and it's just yeah it sounds amazing that's all for now please subscribe here to my everything music YouTube channel remember to ring the bell if you're a new subscriber if you're interested in the Beato book or anything in my store to support the channel you can go to my website at wwlp.com follow me on instagram at rick be idol one I post a lot of different stuff on there a lot of different music stuff a lot more guitar playing and if you want to support the channel even more you can become a member of the Beato club thanks so much for watching [Music]

Channel: Rick Beato

Views: 807,467

Keywords: rick beato, everything music, rick, beato, music, music theory, music production, education, Scott Weiland, Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo, Eric Kretz, what makes this song great?, song analysis, hit song analysis, music analysis, how to write a hit song, rick beato what makes this song great, alternative rock, rock mixing, music production tips, chord progressions, dean deleo guitar solo, robert deleo bass, everything music playlist

Id: PAHLpaYQDds

Length: 18min 2sec (1082 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/YOUREABOT]

This song made me fall in love with STP. Ever since then i became a huge fan. Love all there songs

[u/ecstatic_broccoli]

Robert holds his electric bass almost totally vertical when he plays, even though he's not an upright player per se. Cool to see him point out the technical advantages of that in his riffs.

[u/[deleted]]

Rick does the best song breakdown videos.

[u/ecstatic_broccoli]

I love highlighting those harmonic changes. He doesn't mention what makes the verse chord progression hold together so well despite the odd chords - it's that the bassline moves chromatically down a 1/2 step each time: C# - C - Cb - Bb - A

[u/zuckuss00]

Absolutely fantastic!

[u/TheOriginalFireX]

Rick Beato is probably the best music teaching YouTube channel. He's so down to Earth and real.

[u/ClarkyGuitar]

I love how Rick Beato is really into this era of music, AIC, Soundgarden, STP etc. It really validates my already superlative taste in music lol.