Anguish, loss, and a class ring: She’s Got You (Patsy Cline)
Listen to the song
- YouTube - https://youtu.be/6ck__iCtc-8
- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/5IQPBVTvQ4mfdkzs0GFEZ6?si=2f866ddf86394a66
- Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/ca/song/shes-got-you/1443840404
- Amazon - https://music.amazon.com/albums/B07L6C8HX4?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_67xRkpxxKOMh1xxmkCOiFGwwx&trackAsin=B07L6B9462
Key takeaways
- Trist and Elaine discuss Patsy Cline's distinctive voice, characterized by its clear, mature tone and emotional depth, which made her an ideal choice for songs like "She's Got You." They highlight how her voice conveys pain and anguish, making her storytelling relatable and heartfelt
- Elaine and Trist analyze the song's lyrics, focusing on the tangible objects mentioned: a signed picture, shared records, and a class ring, that symbolize the protagonist's memories of a lost love. They emphasize the emotional weight of the refrain, "But she's got you," which encapsulates the song's theme of heartbreak and longing
- Trist and Elaine dig into the difficulties artists face in promoting their work, including feelings of discomfort, fear of being annoying, and the exhaustion of managing personal branding and marketing strategies in a competitive digital landscape
About us
Trist Curless is a Los Angeles-based vocalist, educator, and sound engineer. As a performer, Trist has toured worldwide as a co-founder of the pop-jazz vocal group m-pact and a 10 year member of the Grammy-award winning The Manhattan Transfer. In addition to these two vocal powerhouse groups, he’s also performed with Take 6, Bobby McFerrin, New York Voices, Vox Audio, Naturally 7, and The Swingle Singers. His latest venture, The LHR Project, is a new vocal group collective celebrating legendary jazz vocal group Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross.
As an audio engineer, Trist has toured nationally with several vocal groups and bands in a large variety of venues, working for Grammy award winners Pentatonix and Take 6, as well as prominent a cappella vocal groups Straight No Chaser, VoicePlay, and Accent.
Elaine Chao, M.Ed is a San Francisco Bay Area-based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, vocal percussionist, and songwriter whose career spans a cappella, contemporary worship, and classical music. She has leveraged her training in classical and choral music over the course of her contemporary performance, including in orchestras for musical theatre and in sacred spaces. In addition to music, she also is a martial artist and published author. She currently leads a product management team at a major software company dedicated to creative expression. All statements in this podcast are her own and do not reflect the opinions of her employer.
Transcript
Elaine: Hey, Trist, what do we have this week?
Speaker:Trist: Today we have one of my favorite country singers ever.
Speaker:Trist: Well, I think of her as a country singer.
Speaker:Trist: I guess at the time, these were such big hits.
Speaker:Trist: I don't know if people thought
Speaker:Trist: of it that way then, but I did,
Speaker:Trist: really her third big song from
Speaker:Trist: Patsy Cline.
Speaker:Elaine: Oh!
Speaker:Trist: "She's Got You."
Speaker:Elaine: Okay. Well, anything you want to
Speaker:Elaine: say about this before we get
Speaker:Elaine: into it?
Speaker:Trist: You know, just the usual fare from us.
Speaker:Trist: We really do appreciate that you're listening.
Speaker:Trist: No matter how, where, or why
Speaker:Trist: you're listening, we appreciate
Speaker:Trist: having you join us and like to
Speaker:Trist: encourage you to improve your
Speaker:Trist: listening environment if you
Speaker:Trist: can.
Speaker:Trist: We're all about the actual act of listening.
Speaker:Trist: Again, no matter what you're doing, we appreciate it.
Speaker:Trist: But if you can put on the better headphones, be by the better
Speaker:Trist: speakers, getting the better listening room, please do that
Speaker:Trist: now before you listen.
Speaker:Trist: Thanks.
Speaker:Elaine: Awesome.
Speaker:Elaine: We're going to go ahead and leave the links to this song in
Speaker:Elaine: the show notes.
Speaker:Elaine: So please pause the podcast,
Speaker:Elaine: listen to this maybe once, maybe
Speaker:Elaine: twice, maybe more and we will be
Speaker:Elaine: right back.
Speaker:Elaine: And we are back.
Speaker:Elaine: I just have to say this.
Speaker:Elaine: song is the sound of my childhood.
Speaker:Elaine: It is the
Speaker:Trist: Oh,
Speaker:Elaine: soundtrack
Speaker:Trist: really?
Speaker:Elaine: of my childhood.
Speaker:Trist: Really?
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: How so?
Speaker:Elaine: We did this bonus episode, near
Speaker:Elaine: the very beginning of the show
Speaker:Elaine: where we talked about our
Speaker:Elaine: musical influences.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: And for me, a big one was my dad and just the songs that he was
Speaker:Elaine: completely obsessed with.
Speaker:Elaine: And this was one of them.
Speaker:Trist: Oh.
Speaker:Elaine: So every single road trip, every single time that we were hanging
Speaker:Elaine: out together, I mean, karaoke, it was everywhere.
Speaker:Elaine: And so I could sing all of the
Speaker:Elaine: background tracks because I was
Speaker:Elaine: in the back of a minivan
Speaker:Elaine: singing.
Speaker:Elaine: Ah, yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: With the background
Speaker:Trist: Oh, wow.
Speaker:Elaine: tracks there.
Speaker:Elaine: So this was a very familiar song for me.
Speaker:Elaine: And at the same time, it was a
Speaker:Elaine: great challenge to sit and
Speaker:Elaine: really think of it like a
Speaker:Elaine: musician because, before, it was
Speaker:Elaine: just the soundtrack of my
Speaker:Elaine: childhood, right?
Speaker:Elaine: Oh, it was just that song that dad listens to or that is
Speaker:Elaine: playing in the car again as we're going on some kind of a
Speaker:Elaine: road trip down to Los Angeles.
Speaker:Elaine: And so I think that listening to
Speaker:Elaine: it this time was a different
Speaker:Elaine: experience because I was looking
Speaker:Elaine: at it through a very specific
Speaker:Elaine: lens, which is how we were
Speaker:Elaine: listening to it as The
Speaker:Elaine: Musician's Loupe.
Speaker:Elaine: But that being said, I would love to hear why you chose this
Speaker:Elaine: song because I certainly have a lot of associations with it.
Speaker:Trist: I love that.
Speaker:Trist: That is interesting when you
Speaker:Trist: have a song like that, that
Speaker:Trist: either in one part of your life
Speaker:Trist: where maybe you had a gig where
Speaker:Trist: you just had to play it so much
Speaker:Trist: that you really got sick of it,
Speaker:Trist: or you just grew to love it or
Speaker:Trist: whatever, where you have
Speaker:Trist: something like that where, like
Speaker:Trist: you said, your dad played it, it
Speaker:Trist: was on the rotation heavy and
Speaker:Trist: you heard it so many times and
Speaker:Trist: then way later, that's your
Speaker:Trist: instant reaction.
Speaker:Trist: But then to switch and have to think of it differently or hear
Speaker:Trist: things you never heard before.
Speaker:Trist: Um, even when I choose some of these, some of my favorites that
Speaker:Trist: I choose for this, the fact that then we dissect them and talk
Speaker:Trist: about lyrics, or I'll just hear a part I never heard before.
Speaker:Trist: I like that about this.
Speaker:Trist: I just every time I hear this
Speaker:Trist: song, it's usually used pretty
Speaker:Trist: effectively.
Speaker:Trist: There's not a lot of deep meanings.
Speaker:Trist: It's exactly face value here, right?
Speaker:Trist: It's telling you exactly what's going on.
Speaker:Trist: And with all of Patsy Cline's songs, she has that sound.
Speaker:Trist: You can it's obvious why she was
Speaker:Trist: chosen to record these kinds of
Speaker:Trist: songs.
Speaker:Trist: You can just hear the pain or anguish in her voice in these
Speaker:Trist: songs like "Crazy" or "I Fall to Pieces" or any of the other ones
Speaker:Trist: that she's known for.
Speaker:Trist: It's kind of the same.
Speaker:Trist: It's like, oh, here she is
Speaker:Trist: again, telling us another sad
Speaker:Trist: story.
Speaker:Trist: Oh, it's just crushing.
Speaker:Trist: I really like how on the
Speaker:Trist: podcast, I like to dig into lots
Speaker:Trist: of different things that have a
Speaker:Trist: lot of complexity and layers,
Speaker:Trist: but occasionally I like to get
Speaker:Trist: back to something that's just
Speaker:Trist: pretty sparse and basic, but yet
Speaker:Trist: really heartfelt.
Speaker:Trist: Especially in the reaction you have to listening.
Speaker:Trist: There's more than just listening to the specific parts that are
Speaker:Trist: going on, like the whole total really can get you.
Speaker:Elaine: Let's start out with her voice
Speaker:Elaine: because I think that she
Speaker:Elaine: definitely has a very
Speaker:Elaine: distinctive voice.
Speaker:Elaine: And at the same time, like I'm thinking about what is it about
Speaker:Elaine: her voice and her artistry that really makes this song?
Speaker:Elaine: And for me, part of it is that
Speaker:Elaine: she doesn't have a very thin
Speaker:Elaine: voice.
Speaker:Elaine: There's actually a lot of foundation in
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: her voice.
Speaker:Elaine: And so the way that she is
Speaker:Elaine: singing is probably a little bit
Speaker:Elaine: closer to what we would consider
Speaker:Elaine: belting.
Speaker:Trist: Especially
Speaker:Elaine: Um.
Speaker:Trist: in an era when you couldn't do a lot necessarily to make it be
Speaker:Trist: any different than it is.
Speaker:Trist: Now, you can have someone with
Speaker:Trist: maybe kind of has a thinner,
Speaker:Trist: weaker voice and you can do so
Speaker:Trist: much
Speaker:Elaine: Right.
Speaker:Trist: to make them sound better.
Speaker:Trist: Those mics are capturing what she really has.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that's what I hear
Speaker:Elaine: from a lot of the 1950s, 1960s
Speaker:Elaine: songs that I've listened to in
Speaker:Elaine: the past, is that they have
Speaker:Elaine: tended to elevate some of these
Speaker:Elaine: thinner voices or these more
Speaker:Elaine: nasal voices.
Speaker:Elaine: And Patsy Cline's voice is so clear and bell tone.
Speaker:Elaine: It has a foundation that really comes with more mature voices, I
Speaker:Elaine: find, as opposed to some of the younger voices that maybe skew a
Speaker:Elaine: little bit higher.
Speaker:Elaine: Is that something that you're hearing in
Speaker:Trist: Right,
Speaker:Elaine: her voice?
Speaker:Trist: right.
Speaker:Trist: Even if it's a great voice, more difficult for like a 16 year old
Speaker:Trist: to sing this song.
Speaker:Trist: Like they haven't felt enough pain in their life in the right
Speaker:Trist: way to, to actually deliver this in the way that she does.
Speaker:Trist: Also, I think, in most instances
Speaker:Trist: for her tunes and anyone like
Speaker:Trist: this, a real key is
Speaker:Trist: understanding the singer's voice
Speaker:Trist: and knowing where to put those
Speaker:Trist: good notes.
Speaker:Trist: These things, she sounds like you can hear the anguish and the
Speaker:Trist: pain as she's kind of belting through this part of her range.
Speaker:Trist: It's like built in that way.
Speaker:Trist: Like the I've got you the low, the when she's first talking
Speaker:Trist: about it's lower.
Speaker:Trist: It's more in the lower part of her range when she's starting to
Speaker:Trist: tell the story.
Speaker:Trist: But then as she's kind of exclaiming what she's feeling,
Speaker:Trist: it's moving up into a range.
Speaker:Trist: And you can bet that if this was written in another key, it may
Speaker:Trist: or may not have been.
Speaker:Trist: But whenever they got to oh, it's going to be Patsy Cline
Speaker:Trist: that sings this.
Speaker:Trist: No, this needs to be in this key.
Speaker:Trist: So these notes sound like that in her voice, very specifically
Speaker:Trist: done that way.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah, I was reading that this
Speaker:Elaine: song was pitched specifically to
Speaker:Elaine: her.
Speaker:Elaine: So I think it was not
Speaker:Elaine: necessarily one that was in a
Speaker:Elaine: pool that then she selected out
Speaker:Elaine: of, though
Speaker:Trist: Write.
Speaker:Elaine: they would need to change it.
Speaker:Elaine: So I think it was probably written for
Speaker:Trist: Specifically
Speaker:Elaine: her.
Speaker:Elaine: Um,
Speaker:Trist: for that
Speaker:Elaine: exactly.
Speaker:Trist: sound?
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: So I think that there was some other things that I wanted to
Speaker:Elaine: point out about this specific recording, which is where she is
Speaker:Elaine: on the rhythm and where she maybe chooses to sing a little
Speaker:Elaine: bit off rhythm for punctuation.
Speaker:Elaine: Can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker:Trist: Yeah. She does these things
Speaker:Trist: where it almost bring my music
Speaker:Trist: education up.
Speaker:Trist: show it off once again, there's
Speaker:Trist: a German style, which is, talk
Speaker:Trist: singing Sprechstimme.
Speaker:Elaine: Oh!
Speaker:Trist: How about that?
Speaker:Trist: where there's a melody, but then
Speaker:Trist: instead of rhythmically, being
Speaker:Trist: musically accurate with maybe a
Speaker:Trist: note that's written, it's more
Speaker:Trist: conversational.
Speaker:Trist: So they kind of come off of the voice a little bit.
Speaker:Trist: It's, when she sings, "I've got your memory / or has it got me,"
Speaker:Trist: it sounds like she's speaking it even though she is singing it,
Speaker:Trist: but it's not really in time.
Speaker:Trist: It's not way off, but it's just enough to catch your attention.
Speaker:Trist: I think that's also a key for this.
Speaker:Trist: It seems more plain.
Speaker:Trist: It seems more relatable.
Speaker:Trist: You're not just listening to a performance.
Speaker:Trist: Someone is telling you this story and sometimes literally
Speaker:Trist: it's closer to telling a story than singing a story.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah, I really noticed that as well.
Speaker:Elaine: Just that little catch in her
Speaker:Elaine: voice is enough to catch our
Speaker:Elaine: attention and really give us
Speaker:Elaine: that sense that she's telling
Speaker:Elaine: the story.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: Now, the interesting thing about this is that for some reason in
Speaker:Elaine: my memory, I had had that she was much more rubato at the very
Speaker:Elaine: end, at that very last line, and it was a lot more in time than I
Speaker:Elaine: thought it was.
Speaker:Trist: Right?
Speaker:Elaine: Um, so it was an interesting
Speaker:Elaine: thing for me to think about
Speaker:Elaine: memory and about how I
Speaker:Elaine: remembered the song and my
Speaker:Elaine: experience of it now years
Speaker:Elaine: later.
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Trist: Just like we were talking about when you go back.
Speaker:Trist: So because it might have slowed just a bit, you remember that in
Speaker:Trist: all these years later, that's the thing that's amplified.
Speaker:Trist: Our memories just evolve that way.
Speaker:Trist: So I remember that in songs too.
Speaker:Trist: Like I was saying, some of these songs that I pick, in my mind,
Speaker:Trist: oh, I love how it does this.
Speaker:Trist: And then I listen and go, okay, well, it does, but not as much
Speaker:Trist: as I remember it.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah, because it's a key that you remember.
Speaker:Trist: So it kind of grows just a little bit over the years.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, let's switch gears a little bit and talk about the
Speaker:Elaine: arrangement because, it was interesting that you mentioned
Speaker:Elaine: country because at first I was thinking, well, was it country?
Speaker:Elaine: I think that it was hard for me to classify at first because I
Speaker:Elaine: went for country.
Speaker:Elaine: I was like, okay, this is
Speaker:Elaine: definitely an older country
Speaker:Elaine: song.
Speaker:Elaine: But then I was thinking about
Speaker:Elaine: some of the pop songs that were
Speaker:Elaine: released in the 1950s, there
Speaker:Elaine: were a lot of things that were
Speaker:Elaine: very similar.
Speaker:Elaine: You know, "Sixteen Candles," the
Speaker:Elaine: kinds of things that were
Speaker:Elaine: released in the nineteen
Speaker:Elaine: fifties.
Speaker:Elaine: what we had found on a soundtrack called Senior Prom.
Speaker:Elaine: And that's in like quotes right
Speaker:Elaine: there because it was literally
Speaker:Elaine: called "Senior Prom" from the
Speaker:Elaine: 1950s.
Speaker:Elaine: Right?
Speaker:Trist: Sure.
Speaker:Elaine: So I'm thinking about these songs, and there were a lot of
Speaker:Elaine: things that were very reminiscent of that.
Speaker:Elaine: I'm thinking about the harmony backgrounds that are sung.
Speaker:Elaine: I'm thinking about the pluck bass arpeggiation.
Speaker:Elaine: There was also like a keyboard that I was listening to, like,
Speaker:Elaine: man, what is that keyboard?
Speaker:Elaine: I looked it up.
Speaker:Elaine: And it turns out most people
Speaker:Elaine: seem to think it's a Wurlitzer
Speaker:Elaine: with
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: some kind of vibrato.
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: And so I was like, oh man, it is a very classic kind of sound.
Speaker:Elaine: And then I think what threw me off was the piano, because it
Speaker:Elaine: was very, what I would call like "tinkly" in only the upper
Speaker:Trist: That's
Speaker:Elaine: register
Speaker:Trist: a very
Speaker:Elaine: was being
Speaker:Trist: technical
Speaker:Elaine: played.
Speaker:Trist: musical term, folks.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah,
Speaker:Trist: Only the best info here
Speaker:Elaine: exactly.
Speaker:Trist: from the very highfalutin educated "the tinkly piano."
Speaker:Elaine: The tinkly piano.
Speaker:Trist: Don't bother looking it up.
Speaker:Elaine: So thinking about this upper register and really that being
Speaker:Elaine: the fills in
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: between where the vocals are.
Speaker:Elaine: So where an electric guitar would play nowadays.
Speaker:Elaine: But that was a very specific
Speaker:Elaine: kind of choice when it came to
Speaker:Elaine: where the piano was playing, how
Speaker:Elaine: much and how much it wasn't
Speaker:Elaine: playing in this location, some
Speaker:Elaine: of the choices that were made
Speaker:Elaine: there.
Speaker:Elaine: So out of all of these things, I
Speaker:Elaine: just described this massive
Speaker:Elaine: arrangement and it's pretty flat
Speaker:Elaine: throughout where
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: it's just the same elements over and over again.
Speaker:Elaine: Where do you see this being country?
Speaker:Trist: Oh. It's interesting.
Speaker:Trist: I think a lot of times more than what we actually hear, we just
Speaker:Trist: in trying to share information with others and relate
Speaker:Trist: descriptions, just the fact that it's Patsy Cline and the other
Speaker:Trist: songs that she's had.
Speaker:Trist: I worked at record stores so many years.
Speaker:Trist: So sometimes I just think of people like where they were kept
Speaker:Trist: in the store, which is this weird dichotomy I have with
Speaker:Trist: being a musical artist.
Speaker:Trist: And "I'm open" and "music
Speaker:Trist: doesn't have labels" and it's
Speaker:Trist: whatever.
Speaker:Trist: But when you work at a store and you need to find something, "No!
Speaker:Trist: This goes there!" right?
Speaker:Trist: Like, "No!
Speaker:Trist: Patsy Cline goes in country, so
Speaker:Trist: I can find it in the C in
Speaker:Trist: country."
Speaker:Trist: And yet my artistic- Well, I
Speaker:Trist: mean, is it a country song or is
Speaker:Trist: it a popular song?" those are
Speaker:Trist: clashing when I think of those
Speaker:Trist: things.
Speaker:Trist: I suppose I just said country
Speaker:Trist: mostly because of the kind of
Speaker:Trist: song that it is, the kind of
Speaker:Trist: storytelling and really her
Speaker:Trist: previous output also being
Speaker:Trist: similar.
Speaker:Elaine: I was taking a look at this.
Speaker:Elaine: And this is part of the reason I was asking this question is that
Speaker:Elaine: with Patsy Cline, it did hit the Billboard Hot Country and
Speaker:Elaine: Western sides, like peak position number 1,
Speaker:Trist: Sure.
Speaker:Elaine: but it also hit the Billboard Hot 100, number 14.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: And so I think it was both of them.
Speaker:Elaine: But every time it's been recorded ever since, it was
Speaker:Elaine: underneath country, like Loretta
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: Lynn did a version of this that
Speaker:Elaine: made it into the Hot Country
Speaker:Elaine: Songs.
Speaker:Elaine: other people who are country artists have recorded this.
Speaker:Elaine: It was funny, after you
Speaker:Elaine: suggested this song, I was out
Speaker:Elaine: and about.
Speaker:Elaine: I don't remember exactly where it was, but I heard it playing
Speaker:Elaine: and I was like, oh, but it wasn't the Patsy Cline version.
Speaker:Elaine: It was some cover.
Speaker:Elaine: And so
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: it's like, okay, there we go.
Speaker:Elaine: It's
Speaker:Trist: Yeah. I feel
Speaker:Elaine: out.
Speaker:Trist: like it's
Speaker:Elaine: And.
Speaker:Trist: been covered quite a bit.
Speaker:Trist: It's such a good song.
Speaker:Trist: That's a good sign, the fact
Speaker:Trist: that people want to cover it so
Speaker:Trist: much.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. So let's switch gears a little bit and talk about the
Speaker:Elaine: lyrics because we haven't dug into the lyrics.
Speaker:Elaine: I know that you said that like what you see is what you get,
Speaker:Elaine: but I wanted to talk a little bit about the imagery here,
Speaker:Elaine: about what I see here.
Speaker:Elaine: Did you want to talk about this
Speaker:Elaine: or do you want me to take this
Speaker:Elaine: away?
Speaker:Trist: Oh, you in the back of the
Speaker:Trist: minivan can tell me all about
Speaker:Trist: the lyrics.
Speaker:Elaine: That sounds a lot more risqué than it really is.
Speaker:Elaine: You know, in thinking about this, I was looking at the
Speaker:Elaine: lyrics itself and thinking about, well, there are a couple
Speaker:Elaine: of elements that she brings up as visuals, right?
Speaker:Elaine: There's a signed picture that she talks about.
Speaker:Elaine: There are these shared records that she talks about.
Speaker:Elaine: These are tangible things.
Speaker:Elaine: And then there's this class ring.
Speaker:Elaine: And so I think about the signed
Speaker:Elaine: picture, which is all right,
Speaker:Elaine: maybe in today's parlance, maybe
Speaker:Elaine: a little bit unusual because
Speaker:Elaine: people don't really sign their
Speaker:Elaine: pictures.
Speaker:Elaine: Shared records,
Speaker:Trist: MM.
Speaker:Elaine: that's definitely something that I think people would understand.
Speaker:Elaine: Even today where you're like,
Speaker:Elaine: hey, we have these shared
Speaker:Elaine: belongings, but it's also this
Speaker:Elaine: shared experience,
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: you know, whether we're
Speaker:Elaine: listening to music together or
Speaker:Elaine: whatnot.
Speaker:Elaine: And then there's this class
Speaker:Elaine: ring, which I think is very
Speaker:Elaine: telling of the time because of
Speaker:Elaine: the importance of the class ring
Speaker:Elaine: to
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: high school and college culture.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think probably more high
Speaker:Elaine: school culture in this case,
Speaker:Elaine: mostly, I guess, because of my
Speaker:Elaine: understanding of quote unquote,
Speaker:Elaine: senior prom.
Speaker:Elaine: But if I think about that, to your point, it is like she has
Speaker:Elaine: all the tangible things, but she doesn't have the man.
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: And so, the song itself is
Speaker:Elaine: written in a way where she
Speaker:Elaine: paints this picture of all the
Speaker:Elaine: things that they have had
Speaker:Elaine: together and then ends with a
Speaker:Elaine: single line
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: of, I've got these things.
Speaker:Elaine: I've got these o]bjects.
Speaker:Elaine: But she's got you.
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Trist: Which is kind of the- there's not really a chorus, so it's
Speaker:Trist: like the last line, like the repeated line chorus.
Speaker:Trist: It's almost like a ballad, Other than that has like bridges like
Speaker:Trist: that the of the B section.
Speaker:Trist: Um, so yeah, it's kind of odd.
Speaker:Trist: It doesn't necessarily there isn't like a regular chord, but
Speaker:Trist: it has that little refrain at the end of each one of those
Speaker:Trist: verses is kind of the hook.
Speaker:Trist: The serves the same function as what a chorus does.
Speaker:Trist: There's a, um, there's a lot of songs like that.
Speaker:Trist: When you think about it, it's like, oh wow, I've always
Speaker:Trist: thought about that and never thought about the fact that it
Speaker:Trist: doesn't really have like a refrain, a chorus.
Speaker:Trist: So it's like a one line refrain, I suppose.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. That was something that I noticed as well.
Speaker:Elaine: I was like, what?
Speaker:Elaine: It doesn't have a chorus?
Speaker:Elaine: It just has these bridges.
Speaker:Elaine: And I was like,
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: is the bridge actually a chorus?
Speaker:Elaine: But then I really thought of it as a bridge.
Speaker:Elaine: and
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: we had talked about the bridge
Speaker:Elaine: as being really the carrier of
Speaker:Elaine: truth.
Speaker:Elaine: And this is one bridge that it repeats twice.
Speaker:Elaine: And so
Speaker:Trist: Right,
Speaker:Elaine: as I
Speaker:Trist: right.
Speaker:Elaine: take a look at that, it's "I've got your memory / or has it got
Speaker:Elaine: me?" And there's a sense of like, who is in control of these
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: memories?
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: Is she under thrall to these memories?
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that that's
Speaker:Elaine: something that she is really
Speaker:Elaine: struggling with.
Speaker:Elaine: And, "I really don't know / but I know it won't let me be."
Speaker:Elaine: So she is caught in the spell of these memories.
Speaker:Elaine: Now, what really is interesting to me, I think this is where I
Speaker:Elaine: lean towards the bridge is that it lands on a V. And so it
Speaker:Elaine: really draws into that downbeat of the verse.
Speaker:Elaine: it doesn't
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: come to a closure in the way that your typical chorus might
Speaker:Elaine: be, which is why I was like, oh, it's a bridge.
Speaker:Elaine: It feels like a bridge.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: Maybe it's not a bridge, but I
Speaker:Elaine: think you and I ended up on the
Speaker:Elaine: same
Speaker:Trist: Well,
Speaker:Elaine: page on this one.
Speaker:Trist: yeah, it's kind of semantics.
Speaker:Trist: it's a B section.
Speaker:Trist: there's two
Speaker:Elaine: Right?
Speaker:Trist: A's and then a B and then an A
Speaker:Trist: and then a B, and then an A.
Speaker:Trist: Sometimes people will just call
Speaker:Trist: that the B section a bridge,
Speaker:Trist: again semantics.
Speaker:Trist: It's called lots of different things.
Speaker:Trist: I love that the simplicity of
Speaker:Trist: that everybody can relate to
Speaker:Trist: those things.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah, it's great.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, any last thoughts on this before we move on?
Speaker:Trist: Oh, that's it.
Speaker:Trist: It's just really good.
Speaker:Trist: Hits me in the feels every time.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, it hits me in the feels for lots of different reasons as
Speaker:Trist: Ah
Speaker:Elaine: well.
Speaker:Elaine: And
Speaker:Trist: yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: so thank you for this trip down memory lane.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah. About that, I picked one you knew.
Speaker:Elaine: Exactly.
Speaker:Trist: Sweet.
Speaker:Elaine: One that I knew very, very well.
Speaker:Trist: Great.
Speaker:Trist: Love it.
Speaker:Elaine: Okay, with that, let's switch gears and move on to:
Speaker:Trist: I've got your mailbag.
Speaker:Elaine: That's right.
Speaker:Elaine: The mail bag.
Speaker:Trist: This is the place where we would love to hear from you.
Speaker:Trist: Anything that we've mentioned about this or any of the other
Speaker:Trist: songs, artists, producers, arrangers, records, or you love
Speaker:Trist: the way we covered something or we missed some drastic, very
Speaker:Trist: important point or, it has a certain meaning in your life.
Speaker:Trist: Any of those things, please, please, please write to us and
Speaker:Trist: let us know in the mailbag.
Speaker:Elaine: That's right.
Speaker:Elaine: You can reach us via email at themusiciansloupe, that's
Speaker:Elaine: L-O-U-P-E at gmail.com.
Speaker:Elaine: Or you can reach out to us via
Speaker:Elaine: Instagram and Threads at
Speaker:Elaine: themusiciansloupe.
Speaker:Elaine: So this week's mailbag also comes from Threads, and it is
Speaker:Elaine: from a user named goshfather from November of 2025.
Speaker:Elaine: And he says: "Looking cringe learning to promote or talk
Speaker:Elaine: about your music only lasts for a little while.
Speaker:Elaine: Never having made a peep to let anyone know about the art you've
Speaker:Elaine: created with your whole heart and mind while the world passes
Speaker:Elaine: you by lasts your entire life."
Speaker:Trist: You're right, goshfather, this is true, true, true, true, true.
Speaker:Trist: As artists, a lot of times you
Speaker:Trist: feel like you're just doing the
Speaker:Trist: thing and generally, most
Speaker:Trist: artists do not love promoting
Speaker:Trist: their own stuff, their own
Speaker:Trist: material.
Speaker:Trist: They don't like spending time
Speaker:Trist: trying to get people to come to
Speaker:Trist: shows.
Speaker:Trist: I don't know why; there's this aversion to it.
Speaker:Trist: Like you're boasting about it.
Speaker:Trist: or I don't know exactly what it is.
Speaker:Trist: And not all artists are like that, but boy, I know a lot that
Speaker:Trist: I'm like, man, I wish I'd have known about that.
Speaker:Trist: You should have made sure you did more to let me know.
Speaker:Trist: And I really want to go.
Speaker:Trist: And I find I have to push myself too, when I have created
Speaker:Trist: something just to.
Speaker:Trist: "Hey, you should listen to this."
Speaker:Trist: Or, "hey, you should come to this concert.: But you're right.
Speaker:Trist: Whatever feeling I have about, "Ugh, I don't want to be out
Speaker:Trist: there," that's going to leave right away, especially going to
Speaker:Trist: leave when there's a lot of people at my show.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that there are a couple of things in there.
Speaker:Elaine: Like one of them, there's this
Speaker:Elaine: reticence you were talking
Speaker:Elaine: about, about really just putting
Speaker:Elaine: ourselves forward.
Speaker:Elaine: It seems a little gauche sometimes.
Speaker:Elaine: I think we have the sense of, oh, man, am I being annoying?
Speaker:Elaine: Are my friends really going to
Speaker:Elaine: appreciate it if I push this
Speaker:Elaine: information out?
Speaker:Elaine: Is it repetitive?
Speaker:Elaine: Especially if you're busy.
Speaker:Elaine: Sometimes it can be a little bit hard to feel like pushing things
Speaker:Elaine: out is really like not annoying your friends because you're
Speaker:Elaine: like, oh, there's more to our life than just gigs.
Speaker:Elaine: So I think that that's one thing that comes up quite frequently,
Speaker:Elaine: at least for me.
Speaker:Elaine: The second one, though, might be exhaustion.
Speaker:Elaine: There is a sense right now where
Speaker:Elaine: everyone has to have their
Speaker:Elaine: personal brand and they're
Speaker:Elaine: constantly marketing to one
Speaker:Elaine: another.
Speaker:Elaine: And so in some ways, in order to
Speaker:Elaine: be authentic, it seems like you
Speaker:Elaine: don't want to do that kind of
Speaker:Elaine: thing.
Speaker:Elaine: And also, it's exhausting just to remember, like you were
Speaker:Elaine: saying, to put things out and make sure that people hear about
Speaker:Elaine: it ahead of time, whether it's like creating the artwork or
Speaker:Elaine: making sure that it gets scheduled or just remembering to
Speaker:Elaine: send it out.
Speaker:Trist: Well, that's part of the
Speaker:Trist: evolution that we've spoken of
Speaker:Trist: many times over these episodes
Speaker:Trist: of the podcast, the evolution of
Speaker:Trist: artists needing to take on more
Speaker:Trist: themselves.
Speaker:Trist: So again, it's great that artists don't necessarily need a
Speaker:Trist: label or a big company to support and do all these things
Speaker:Trist: for them to succeed.
Speaker:Trist: So it's great that you can go
Speaker:Trist: out in the world and do things
Speaker:Trist: on your own, but then that also
Speaker:Trist: means you need to have promotion
Speaker:Trist: or you need to do it yourself,
Speaker:Trist: or you need to be able to hire
Speaker:Trist: someone to promote things or
Speaker:Trist: post things.
Speaker:Trist: And now there's not just, oh, I'm gonna see that one ad on
Speaker:Trist: that one TV show that I always watch, or I'm gonna hear it on
Speaker:Trist: the one radio station I listen to, I'm going to look in the one
Speaker:Trist: newspaper that I look at.
Speaker:Trist: It's not that easy anymore.
Speaker:Trist: There's thousands of ways that people get information.
Speaker:Trist: So you're trying to cover all the bases.
Speaker:Trist: And then the way that some of it has changed.
Speaker:Trist: "Oh, I know a lot of people check this."
Speaker:Trist: Well, the algorithms are as such that people who are even like
Speaker:Trist: supposedly on your list of people don't see the information
Speaker:Trist: you want to send as much.
Speaker:Trist: So you send it ten different times.
Speaker:Trist: And some people are like, wow,
Speaker:Trist: why do they post this ad ten
Speaker:Trist: times?
Speaker:Trist: And one person's like, oh, hey, look, I don't really see much
Speaker:Trist: from this person because it just doesn't hit them.
Speaker:Trist: So, I've noticed an interesting trend back to email lists.
Speaker:Trist: So
Speaker:Elaine: That's right.
Speaker:Trist: kind of as email was starting,
Speaker:Trist: it was like, ooh, and instead of
Speaker:Trist: just sign up to be on our email
Speaker:Trist: list that got really, really
Speaker:Trist: big.
Speaker:Trist: And then over time with social media, it was like, oh, well, I
Speaker:Trist: don't need all of that because all my people just follow here
Speaker:Trist: on, on Facebook or on Twitter.
Speaker:Trist: And then those got eaten up by
Speaker:Trist: like, well, not all of your
Speaker:Trist: people are necessarily going to
Speaker:Trist: get it.
Speaker:Trist: You don't know who's going to do it unless you want to pay us.
Speaker:Trist: So slowly but surely, I've seen
Speaker:Trist: a lot of artists getting back to
Speaker:Trist: an email list that they can deal
Speaker:Trist: with, that they know that their
Speaker:Trist: people are getting the
Speaker:Trist: information.
Speaker:Elaine: That's right.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that that comes back
Speaker:Elaine: to the sense of marketing and
Speaker:Elaine: about social strategy or
Speaker:Elaine: marketing strategy.
Speaker:Elaine: That is a hard thing for
Speaker:Elaine: artists, especially, to grapple
Speaker:Elaine: with because it is a part of the
Speaker:Elaine: industry.
Speaker:Elaine: But as you were saying, it is
Speaker:Elaine: something that we as artists are
Speaker:Elaine: increasingly expected to have
Speaker:Elaine: responsibility over.
Speaker:Elaine: So you're not just expected to be a good musician, you're also
Speaker:Elaine: expected now to be a marketing professional, which I think is
Speaker:Elaine: maybe a little disappointing for a lot of people.
Speaker:Elaine: Like, all I want to do is make my music.
Speaker:Elaine: But especially if you're trying to get your own work out there,
Speaker:Elaine: sometimes you need to push a little bit harder.
Speaker:Trist: True story.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, let's talk about the flip
Speaker:Elaine: side, because I think you
Speaker:Elaine: mentioned it briefly as
Speaker:Elaine: consumers.
Speaker:Elaine: What kind of encouragement can you give to some of our friends
Speaker:Elaine: who are trying to market to us or trying to get us to show up
Speaker:Elaine: to their gigs or their events or buy their music?
Speaker:Trist: Be creative.
Speaker:Trist: I think people see a lot of information these days in all
Speaker:Trist: the different platforms and the way that we gather information.
Speaker:Trist: So the more creative you can be
Speaker:Trist: to catch someone's eye, the
Speaker:Trist: better.
Speaker:Trist: And again, not to be afraid.
Speaker:Trist: "Well, you know, I posted that one day a month ago.
Speaker:Trist: I put one message on Facebook and it has all of the times that
Speaker:Trist: my shows are."
Speaker:Trist: Again, you have to do more than that.
Speaker:Trist: Don't be afraid to do it multiple times.
Speaker:Trist: I will say every once in a while, someone who is very
Speaker:Trist: aggressive at making sure they cover all the bases.
Speaker:Trist: but really as fast as I think, wow, man, I've seen info about
Speaker:Trist: that show so many times.
Speaker:Trist: I can barely even get annoyed by that.
Speaker:Trist: And I'm almost instantly like, well, yeah, of course.
Speaker:Trist: Good for them.
Speaker:Trist: Like, great.
Speaker:Trist: You got to do what you got to do.
Speaker:Trist: I know about it now.
Speaker:Trist: So yeah, use the tools you have at your disposal.
Speaker:Trist: Always look for, smarter ways to do things and smarter ways to
Speaker:Trist: get someone's attention, differentiate yourself from the
Speaker:Trist: other info we get.
Speaker:Elaine: I think for me, I would say really think about how do you
Speaker:Elaine: reach people multiple times?
Speaker:Elaine: Because it's never that first time.
Speaker:Elaine: Like if it flies across my feed
Speaker:Elaine: and I'm not in a convenient
Speaker:Elaine: place to write it down, I'm
Speaker:Elaine: going to forget about it or I'm
Speaker:Elaine: going to make a mental note to
Speaker:Elaine: myself and then forget about it,
Speaker:Elaine: because that's just the way my
Speaker:Elaine: brain works.
Speaker:Elaine: I think a lot of people need to see things multiple times, and
Speaker:Elaine: the times that I have actually been close to coming to
Speaker:Elaine: something really has been: I've seen the reminder multiple
Speaker:Elaine: times, but I've also seen it far enough ahead of time that I can
Speaker:Elaine: actually make a plan to go.
Speaker:Elaine: Because the worst feeling is, oh man, I already have other plans
Speaker:Elaine: for that evening.
Speaker:Elaine: What am I going to do?
Speaker:Elaine: Am I going to say no to something I've already committed
Speaker:Elaine: to and see this other thing?
Speaker:Elaine: Do I just have to skip it?
Speaker:Elaine: And so
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: that's something that I think just as a reminder to everyone,
Speaker:Elaine: like the day before is not going to be enough, especially for
Speaker:Elaine: those of us who plan ahead.
Speaker:Elaine: Definitely give us a heads up.
Speaker:Elaine: It's one of those things where the bands that I have seen most
Speaker:Elaine: frequently and the ones that I make time to go see are the ones
Speaker:Elaine: that, first of all, let me know that they're coming a month and
Speaker:Elaine: a half ahead of time so I can actually buy a ticket and make
Speaker:Elaine: sure that I make plans and make time and put it in my calendar.
Speaker:Trist: Absolutely.
Speaker:Elaine: And then to remind me the closer they get.
Speaker:Elaine: And so, again, even a local gig where a friend of mine was
Speaker:Elaine: playing, I couldn't make that evening, but he posted about it
Speaker:Elaine: a couple of weeks ahead of time.
Speaker:Elaine: I was super excited until I found out it was a date that I
Speaker:Elaine: couldn't make it.
Speaker:Elaine: And then, he posted about it again a week before, three days
Speaker:Elaine: before, two days before, day of.
Speaker:Elaine: I was so excited for him and I'm
Speaker:Elaine: so glad that he was able to play
Speaker:Elaine: it.
Speaker:Elaine: And I was very aware of that gig
Speaker:Elaine: because of the way that he
Speaker:Elaine: promoted it.
Speaker:Elaine: And I thought that was just so wise.
Speaker:Elaine: I
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: was not offended at all.
Speaker:Elaine: I was actually really excited to see that he was able to play,
Speaker:Elaine: even though I couldn't make it.
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: All right.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, any last thoughts here of
Speaker:Elaine: anything that we were just
Speaker:Elaine: talking about?
Speaker:Trist: I think that's it.
Speaker:Trist: There's another good one, Elaine.
Speaker:Elaine: Awesome.
Speaker:Elaine: So with that, we have a big request of all of you.
Speaker:Elaine: If there is an episode that you really liked, please do share it
Speaker:Elaine: with a friend.
Speaker:Elaine: We are trying to grow the number of people who get to experience
Speaker:Elaine: our podcast and you are the people to help us to do it.
Speaker:Elaine: You already love us.
Speaker:Elaine: You already love music.
Speaker:Elaine: And we know that you know people who love music as well.
Speaker:Elaine: So please do share an episode.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah. Whether that's a song that
Speaker:Trist: you never had heard before that
Speaker:Trist: you really liked and want to
Speaker:Trist: want to share that song with
Speaker:Trist: somebody.
Speaker:Trist: Or maybe we've covered a song
Speaker:Trist: that is a favorite of a friend
Speaker:Trist: and you can pass that along as
Speaker:Trist: well.
Speaker:Trist: Spread the word.
Speaker:Elaine: Awesome.
Speaker:Elaine: Don't forget to like the podcast, share the podcast,
Speaker:Elaine: subscribe to the podcast.
Speaker:Elaine: All
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: of this helps us and helps other people find us.
Speaker:Elaine: So thank you so much for your support.
Speaker:Elaine: We love you all.
Speaker:Trist: Thank you.
Speaker:Elaine: See you next week.
Speaker:Elaine: Oh, that's not the timer.
Speaker:Trist: I was like, oh, I love that!
Speaker:Trist: Just do it one of the times.
Speaker:Elaine: I've heard it
Speaker:Trist: Oh,
Speaker:Elaine: through the
Speaker:Trist: yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: speakers
Speaker:Trist: See?
Speaker:Elaine: of a Cadillac.
Speaker:Elaine: I've heard it through the speakers of a Dodge.
Speaker:Elaine: I've heard it through the speakers of how many minivans.
Speaker:Elaine: I've heard it like a VW bus.
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: I've heard it through the
Speaker:Elaine: speakers of like my dad's Hi-Fi
Speaker:Elaine: stereo system.
Speaker:Elaine: I've heard
Speaker:Trist: Love
Speaker:Elaine: it on
Speaker:Trist: it.
Speaker:Elaine: Laserdisc. You know, I've heard it on,
Speaker:Trist: Love it.
Speaker:Elaine: you know, how many different
Speaker:Elaine: versions of karaoke have I heard
Speaker:Elaine: this on?
