Week 3 Listening Blog Post

Music 30R                                                                                                                                                                         Ally Wright 

 "MY BLUE HEAVEN" by Gene Austin

    

      I chose the song "My Blue Heaven" by Gene Austin for my song this week. After listening to this song a few times, I have understood what crooning sounds like. Gene Austin was one of the first crooners and "My Blue Heaven" was the best selling record from 1927-1942. The lyrics are sung in first person. The lyrics are talking about having a peaceful night after, getting away from the craziness of the world. The lyrics are fairly romantic. "My Blue Heaven" starts with an instrumental section of the saxophone and piano that plays the melody of the refrain. Once Austin's voice comes in, he sings a verse that is not repeated again. The rest of the song is the refrain which demonstrates the AABA design of a Tin Pan Alley song. This song makes me feel relaxed, it is slow and beautiful. My favorite part of the song starts at minute 1:22 where the piano and saxophone take the melody. The piano has a pretty cool solo! This song reminds me of smooth jazz. This would be a fun song to listen live, I can picture people slow dancing and smiles on their face. It's crazy that music went from upbeat jazz/ragtime music to crooning becoming popular. I enjoyed listening to this song! 






Comments

  1. Case CrandallSeptember 22, 2020 at 2:21 PM

    Hey Ally, I'm surprised you noticed that the song is in AABA form, that was some good critical listening, I agree that this is a very good, slow and relaxing song. When the saxophone and the piano take the melody at minute 1:22 is definitely one of the best parts of the song. This song would be a great song to slow dance to and it really is crazy how much this song is like smooth jazz.

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  2. Medana CincaSeptember 23, 2020 at 2:03 PM

    I like how you commented about what the instruments are contributing to the song. Nice how you commented about the refrain form of the piece. You really did listen critically. Smooth jazz is a cool genre of music, similar to this piece. Odd how the different music popularity shifts overtime so quickly.

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  3. MikinleeSeptember 28, 2020 at 9:11 PM

    I also enjoy this song very much. I would agree that this song has a super relaxing tone to it causing it to be super peaceful and realxing. I love how you talk about the instruments beacuse I would agree that the brass instruments in this song really stand out.

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