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Originally Posted by Flint
I heard "Sunset Grill" by Don Henley at the grocery store on Monday morning, and two parts of that song have held a fascination for me all week:
1) The keyboard phrase that opens the song, and prefaces the verse that comes after the keyboard solo. This is a very creepy phrase, and falls under the category of, "how do you write something like that?"
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This intrigged me, so I investigated. Benmont Tench is the keys player and gets a songwriting credit.
Benmont Tench is a Heartbreaker, as in Tom Petty and the *. But y'know what... Benmont Tench doesn't have one songwriting credit on any Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers albums.
So maybe Mr. Tench had this one in his back pocket for a while, and Tom always told him that it was a little too much for anything in their catalogue.
Just speculatin'
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2) The bridge section that prefaces the keyboard solo. I love dramatically up-transposing 1980s bridge sections. I try to sing this in the shower (tuesday, wednesday, and thursday), although it goes way above my vocal range.
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It is the best section of the song.
I mark the song down, though, for two aspects.
1) It up-transposes again, this time by one note, for the final bit. I just personally find that to be a hokey songwriting trick most of the time. (It shares that trick with "My Baby Takes the Morning Train", for example.)
2) As with Mr. Phil Collins before him, here you have a drummer who over-employs the shitty drum machines of the early 80s. Not one real drum on the song. Sir are you not offended.