The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn): Difference between revisions

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→‎Writing process: made a sentence a little less ambiguous so it doesn't sound like Riv's dad died

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 In [[2004]], [[Rivers Cuomo]] began taking private music composition lessons from Bruce Reich at UCLA.<ref name="avclub">Rizov, Vadim. "Rivers Cuomo" ''A.V. Club''. 27 January 2009. https://www.avclub.com/rivers-cuomo-1798215593</ref> Some of the vocal harmonies written for "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" were originally composed for a focal counterpoint excercise from these lessons. Cuomo excitedly contacted Reich after the release of ''The Red Album'', but was dismayed to learn that Reich had recently passed away.<ref name="avclub" /><ref>Cuomo, Rivers. ''Mister Rivers' Neighborhood''. 6 September 2020. Archived by ''Wayback Machine'' 15 July 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210715183154/https://books-r-fun.herokuapp.com/wiki/Bruce%20Reich</ref><ref name="ytgreatestman">Rivers Cuomo interview with [[KROQ]], "Rivers Cuomo - Greatest Man" ''YouTube'' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx4mX-rDPIQ Archived from original: http://www.kroq-data.com/wah/wah/dcvideo/avc-view.aspx?v=3446</ref>
-In describing his initial inspiration for the song, Cuomo has said, "I just had this really strong and kind of sudden conviction that I am sick of writing verse-chorus-verse songs. I've been doing it for so many years, that's what everyone else does; I wanna do something completely different."<ref name="ytgreatestman" /> Cuomo decided to instead write a song using the musical structure of [https://www.musictheoryacademy.com/understanding-music/theme-and-variations/ theme and variations], as used in classical music, using different bands and musician styles (Slipknot, Jeff Buckley, Aerosmith, etc.) as the different variations. Cuomo intially also attempted to utilize different lyrical perspectives for each variation, but found the results too disjointed, and resolved to maintain the same persona throughout. Early alternate song titles in consideration included "Mack Daddy," "The Player," "Player 4 Life," and "The Ballad of [[Wikipedia:Oswaldo Sánchez|Oswaldo Sánchez]]" (named for the Mexican soccer goalie). Cuomo was inspired by Sánchez after seeing him play [[Wikipedia:2006 FIFA World Cup|the World Cup]] in 2006 despite having just lost his father to a heart attack.<ref name="ytgreatestman" />
+In describing his initial inspiration for the song, Cuomo has said, "I just had this really strong and kind of sudden conviction that I am sick of writing verse-chorus-verse songs. I've been doing it for so many years, that's what everyone else does; I wanna do something completely different."<ref name="ytgreatestman" /> Cuomo decided to instead write a song using the musical structure of [https://www.musictheoryacademy.com/understanding-music/theme-and-variations/ theme and variations], as used in classical music, using different bands and musician styles (Slipknot, Jeff Buckley, Aerosmith, etc.) as the different variations. Cuomo intially also attempted to utilize different lyrical perspectives for each variation, but found the results too disjointed, and resolved to maintain the same persona throughout. Early alternate song titles in consideration included "Mack Daddy," "The Player," "Player 4 Life," and "The Ballad of [[Wikipedia:Oswaldo Sánchez|Oswaldo Sánchez]]" (named for the Mexican soccer goalie). Cuomo was inspired by Sánchez after seeing him play [[Wikipedia:2006 FIFA World Cup|the World Cup]] in 2006 despite Sánchez having just lost his father to a heart attack.<ref name="ytgreatestman" />
 Cuomo had difficulty writing the spoken word section of "The Greatest Man", and so contacted [[Rick Rubin]] to get examples of spoken word sections in pop songs. Rubin suggested [[Wikipedia:Elvis Presley|Elvis Presley's]] rendition of "[[Wikipedia:Are You Lonesome Tonight? (song)|Are You Loneseome Tonight?]]," which Cuomo studied.<ref name="ytgreatestman" /> The lyrics for the spoken word section from "The Greatest Man" is derived from similar lyrics in Presley's song (which itself was partially derived from the play [[Wikipedia:As You Like It|''As You Like It'']] by [[Wikipedia:William Shakespeare|William Shakespeare]]).