“Dress Me Up, Dress Me Down” is possibly the most intimate song I’ve ever written to the point where I’m not going to explain the lyrics. However, it’s probably the closest I’ve ever come to the Western art music (“classical”) tradition in my recorded output.
When I studied composition at university, one teacher (who later turned out to be a reprehensible sexual predator, but never mind) encouraged us to write vocal melodies which obeyed only their own internal logic, with no reference to harmonic progressions or diatonic logic, which could be added later if necessary. The ensuing dream-like, rubato quality of the composition is absolutely appropriate to the words
Of course, once I’d written it, I realised I could not physically sing it, and I had to spend a long time getting the extremely abstract intervals across to Tricia. She succeeded, admirably.
- Log in to post comments