Paradox Rock

Paradox Rock: Ain't That Peculiar?

I earned last week off, but I did some regrouping and have been listening and working on new sketches. There's a lot of stuff in development, so I expect to keep producing for a while yet. This week, I took another great Motown song to completion.

Composed by Smokey Robinson and fellow Miracles members, Ain't That Peculiar was Marvin Gaye's second million seller in 1965. Gaye recorded it backed by a band called The Funk Brothers along with vocalists known as The Andantes. The lyrics speak eloquently about jealousy inflaming passion - a paradox. Originally recorded on the Tamla label, it's has been covered by Japan, The Jackson 5 and quite a few other artists. Although Michael Jackson is the "King of Pop", Marvin Gaye will ever remain the "Prince of Motown", a land where Smokey Robinson is the undisputed king.

Turning Rock into A Cappella

As an a cappella arrangement, Ain't That Peculiar presents a number of challenges. Your audience won't be dancing - they'll be "all ears." You have to avoid getting stuck in a cozy rock groove that goes nowhere. You have to invent ways to keep the interest high. I decided to use lots of variation and some playful vocalese that allowed me to introduce familiar musical figures such as those laid down by The Funk Brothers who backed Gaye in 1965.

Vocalese To the Rescue

You can see some of these tricks in the final measures. I used The Funk Brothers familiar introductory figure to close a song that normally ends in fade out, employing vocalese and some crunchy harmonics to conclude with a punctuation mark.