Dave's Side One

When does a song stop being a fixed recording and become a performance? In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave continues The Art of Listening with The Allman Brothers Band’s At Fillmore East. A familiar studio recording can become the version of a song we carry in our heads: the guitar enters here, the solo lasts this long, the ending happens there. But a great live performance reminds us tha...

What is a record really worth once the needle drops? In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave begins a new week of challenges — The Art of Listening by separating market value from musical value. Using Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Cosmo’s Factory, Dave asks a simple question: if one copy costs $5 and another costs $50, is the expensive record ten times better to listen to? Condition, pressing, s...

You get one side of one album. No greatest-hits package. No custom playlist. Just one side to make the case for a band. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave closes Why Album Sides Matter with Side Two of Styx’s Equinox and introduces The Conversion Test: Can the listener enter? Does the side expand their idea of the band? Does it reveal something distinctive? And when the side ends, do they wa...

Sometimes Side Two does more than continue an album. It changes the rules. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses Rush’s 2112 to explore a record built around two very different listening experiences. Side One asks for immersion in an extended long-form suite. Then the record flips. Side Two resets the format and moves through individual songs. Dave introduces The Direction-Change Test: Doe...

What does “no weak tracks” actually mean? Does every song need to be equally brilliant? Dave doesn't think so. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Side One of Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road provides the test: “Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding” “Candle in the Wind” “Bennie and the Jets” Three tracks. Three different jobs. Dave introduces The No-Weak-Track Test: Does every song earn...

What happens in the few seconds between Side One and Side Two? On vinyl, the answer is: A lot. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses The Beatles’ Abbey Road to explore the physical and musical architecture of the album flip. Side One ends with “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” Then: Silence. The listener turns the record over. Side Two begins with “Here Comes the Sun.” That change in weight,...

What makes a side-long musical journey work? In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave turns to Side Two of Chicago’s Chicago II and “Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon.” The key isn’t the running time. It’s what the music does with that time. Dave introduces The Suite Test: Does the piece establish a theme? Does it change shape? Does staying with it pay off? And when familiar ideas return, do they...

Side One has one advantage: It gets to introduce the album. Side Two has another: It gets to use everything Side One already established. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses Queen’s A Night at the Opera to explore the four jobs of a great second side: Reopen. Escalate. Deliver. Finish. From “The Prophet’s Song” through “God Save the Queen,” the second side keeps changing shape before arr...

This week of of Dave's Side One begins with a question that's hiding in the name of the show: What makes a great Side One? Using Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, Dave ignores the album's enormous reputation and concentrates on the five tracks that originally occupied its first side. The result is The Side One Test: Does the side invite you in? Does it take you somewhere? Does it leave you s...

Do you love the song? Or do you love one particular recording of it? This episode closes out the week of Dave’s Side One: Seven Things to Listen For. Using Journey's “People and Places,” Dave separates the listening experience into four layers: Material. Performance. Arrangement. Sound. The material can travel from performer to performer. But the voices, instrumental choices, interaction, dynamics...

What happens when musicians choose not to fill every empty space? This episode of Dave’s Side One continues Seven Things to Listen For with Jay Ferguson’s Real Life Ain’t This Way. Dave listens for four kinds of space: CLEAR — removing clutter, FRAME — giving an important part room, BUILD — holding something back so its entrance matters, TRUST — allowing the song to exist without constant decorati...

What makes a rhythm section truly lock? It is not enough to have a great bass player. It is not enough to have a great drummer. The relationship between them is the real instrument. In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses Tower of Power's Live and in Living Color for the next Seven Things to Listen For exercise. Listen for: POCKET RESPOND HOLD FREE Do bass and drums share the same center?...

Can an arrangement tell a story? In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave continues Seven Things to Listen For with The Who's Quadrophenia. Instead of concentrating entirely on lyrics, Dave listens for: changes in density, instrumental entrances, shifts in scale, recurring themes, and musical ideas that return in new contexts. The listening framework is: ESTABLISH SHIFT RECALL RESOLVE A lyric m...

The human voice naturally pulls our attention forward. That means some of the most interesting musical information can pass by underneath it. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave uses Steely Dan's Aja for the next Seven Things to Listen For exercise: Listen behind the singer. Follow the bass. Then the drums. Then the keyboards. Then the guitars, horns, harmonies, and small musical details that...

What happens when you deliberately stop listening to the most obvious thing on a familiar record? Today's episode of Dave’s Side One continues Seven Things to Listen For with Journey’s Evolution. This time, Dave ignores the lead vocal and guitar and follows Steve Smith. The listening framework: PLACE — How does the beat feel? MOVE — How does the drummer help the band transition? SHAPE — How do the...

What happens when we stop asking what to listen to and start asking what to listen for? This episode begins the weekly topic on Dave’s Side One: Seven Things to Listen For. The first exercise is musical identity. Using Earth, Wind & Fire's I Am and the opening of “In the Stone,” Dave listens for the musical information arriving almost immediately: rhythm, horns, voices, arrangement, energy and sca...

Can you know every song on an album and still not really know the album? In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave closes Seven Musical Arguments by exploring the difference between hearing individual tracks and experiencing a complete album. Using Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Not Fragile, Dave looks at how sequencing, momentum, the Side One break and the album closer create relationships between...

Can you change an album without changing a single note? In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave makes Musical Argument #6: album sequencing is part of the music. Using Yes’s Tormato as the experiment, Dave physically rearranges tracks and asks what happens when an opener moves, a closer loses its final position, or a Side One ending becomes something else. Tormato was released in 1978, and its or...

Full Spotify Description More music does not automatically make a better album. In today's episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave makes Musical Argument #5: sometimes 35 minutes is better than 70. Using KISS’s compact Dressed to Kill as the main example, Dave explores the creative value of limitation. Vinyl could only hold so much music comfortably, which forced artists and producers to make choices abo...

Can you know every hit and still not really know the band? In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave makes Musical Argument #4: greatest-hits albums can distort a band’s legacy. Using Chicago’s Chicago IX as the primary example, Dave explores what disappears when songs are removed from their original albums: deep cuts, longer arrangements, instrumentals, transitions, sequencing and context. That do...

What makes a great Side One? In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave makes Musical Argument #3: great albums need great Side Ones. Using Genesis’s Duke, Dave follows the original first-side sequence from “Behind the Lines” through “Heathaze” and looks at how a vinyl side can function as more than the first half of a track list. The expanded Side One Test asks three questions: Did the side establi...

Does knowing an artist's biggest hit mean you really know the artist? In Episode 40 of Dave's Side One, Dave makes Musical Argument #2: the deep cut may tell you more about a band than the hit. Using Styx's Styx II and the familiar landmark of “Lady,” Dave asks what happens when we temporarily remove the famous song and pay attention to everything around it. The episode also introduces The Deep Cu...

Dave’s favorite song on Steve Miller Band’s Book of Dreams is “Jungle Love.” But he still would not move it to Track One. In Episode 39 of Dave’s Side One, Dave begins Seven Musical Arguments by asking what an opening track is actually supposed to accomplish. The album begins with “Threshold” leading into “Jet Airliner,” an opening sequence that Dave sees as a doorway into the record. The episode...

Blue Öyster Cult’s Mirrors arrived in 1979 with a new producer and a noticeably different sound. Tom Werman replaced longtime producer Sandy Pearlman, bringing sharper production, larger backing vocals and a more accessible presentation. Some longtime fans heard the album as an attempt to move away from the band’s darker identity. Dave hears a varied nine-song record that retains Blue Öyster Cult’...

America’s Harbor arrived in 1977 after a run of albums associated with major songs such as “Ventura Highway,” “Tin Man,” “Sister Golden Hair” and “Today’s the Day.” Unlike those records, Harbor did not produce another enduring radio standard. In this episode of Dave’s Side One, Dave remembers finding the album at a kiosk outside a shopping plaza and revisits its 12-song sequence, beginning with Ge...