Robert Abate plays “Wreslin’ With The Devil”
“Wreslin’ With The Devil” is one of those tunes that just popped right out. Melody, chords and lyrics took about 5 minutes
“Wreslin’ With The Devil” is one of those tunes that just popped right out. Melody, chords and lyrics took about 5 minutes
Please give my latest work a listen, it’s a little over 8 minutes long, and like and post it. I’m getting the word out that I do this type of thing. Thank you.
Robert Abate
robertabatemusic@gmail.com
231-421-1401
robertabate.com
Recently I was approached by Michigan poet Robb Astor to provide a musical background for his written in Tanzania poem “Green”, here’s what we came up with:
green, how green
leaves of banana trees
fields
where crowned cranes danced
fields how yellow
dabs of yellow dappled fields
of african daisies
fireflies green with light
in darkness
shone stars i did not know
had never seen
rigel kentaurus
canopus
aldeberon
how we lay those nights
beneath the stars
show me you said
the southern cross
lost in interstices
of sky above the alleys
a green dress
satin shining in the shop window
your eyes in the glass
beneath old electric speakers
wired in the heights of marinets
the fullness of your hair eclipsing
clouds of magellan
how you danced
in midnight streets humming
that sappy bollywood music
the silhouette of you
beneath the screen and me
but oh how far from green i’ve wandered
how far
alcor
mizar
how cloudy my vision
all things colored
even the black mold
clinging to white stone
ruins where i used to sit
in forlorn grasses
drawing doorways in time-worn walls
This is a tune I wrote, arranged and recorded in 1998, with a lot of help from friends. Hope you like it.
The most powerful and most used progression in music is dropping a 5th in the root. Anyone has merely to play a Dominant chord of a key followed by the 1st chord or Tonic of that key to understand why the monks of Europe in the Dark Ages named the 5th chord of a key Dominant. It is an inherent rule of music that the Dominant chord leads to the Tonic. Anyone can hear the settling of the tone center when this particular chord change is played.
For this particular example of chord substitution I’m going to use an E7 going to an A7 resolving to a Dmaj7. The A7 chord in this progression is going to be substituted by an Eb7 chord which is the same chord type an augmented 4th away in the root. You can hear in the example that this is a pleasing similar sound. I don’t know why this works but it does. It also happens that the 3rd’s and 7th’s of the A7 and the Eb7 are the same notes reversed in position, making the different chords quite alike. What you can realized out of this harmonic device is a chromatically descending chord progression that is different from the cycle of 5th’s with the same amount of solidity and power. When using this device you must adjust the chords to reflect the notes of the melody that are happening when the chord substitution is being played.
Chemical Reaction, I’m feeling kind of hot
Chemical Reaction, You know I just can’t stop
‘Cuz you’re looking kind of sexy
And whatever comes I will
Chemical Reaction, I just can’t get my fill
When I see you walking down the street
I see you talking to the people that you meet
I want to tell you that I love you
But I can’t get up the nerve
The nerve, the nerve, the nerve
To say it’s so