MUSIC REVIEW

·        A REVIEW OF BENJAMEN KING'S (B.B KING) THE THRILL IS GONE 

BY OLADOYIN MICHEAL

           Title: The thrill is gone

·        Artiste: The song ‘the thrill is gone’ is a blues song originally composed by Roy Hawkins and Rick Darnell in 1951. The song has however been made well known after the performance and re-arrangement of the song by the famous American blues guitarist and singer, Riley Benjamin King popularly known as B.B king.

·         Year of Production: June 1969.

·         Genre: Blues

DYNAMICS

It is obvious that dynamics is consistent all through the music ‘the thrill is gone’. For instance, the legato movement of violin became more pronounced and heard when playing along with the lead guitar and vocal thus making the music smooth.

Also, lacrimoso is deployed by the artiste in the first and third verses of the music to depict his sorrow and sadness of the breakup he had with his lover.

Another case of dynamics could be heard in the last stanza of the music where the artiste infuse furioso with his baritone voice just to express his anger of being free from the bondage of the fall apart love he had for his love partner.

RYTHYM

So as to make a proper rhythm flow of this music, the artiste made use of 4/4 beat (i.e. four beat per bar). This beat actually fit in to the song as it is even the commonly used beat count for blues music of this nature.

The music last for five minute with an adagio tempo to compliment the fact that the once thrilling moment and affection of love is gone.

STRUCTURE/FORM

The structure or form of the musical piece ‘The thrill is gone’ is strophic as it involves the same musical melody being used for several verses in which each verse is arranged into a twelve bar.

At the first count, drum fill ‘intro’ to twelve bar instrumental with guitar lead. Second twelve bars see the vocal. Third twelve bars bring in strings with vocal. Fourth twelve bars, an instrumental break with strings and guitar lead, the fifth brings back in vocals for two sets of twelve bars. At the seventh set of twelve, we return to guitar lead accompanied by strings which brings us right to the one note hold until the end.

MELODY

The melody of the music is on a minor key and it is quite conjunct as it easy to memorize and play. There is no much difference between the verses and the instrumental fill but for the little improvisation deployed by the guitarist.

The performance of the music on a minor is but also a complimentary part of the sad mood in the music.

INSTRUMENTATION

The artiste of this music made use of the sting family, percussion, keyboard and voice.

In the string family, the artiste made use of electric bass guitar, electric lead guitar, violin and cello. The artiste also made use of set of drums for percussive effects while an organ effect with a tremolo is played as an accompaniment in the music. 

TEXTURE

The song is arranged in such a way that the vocalist take the prominent melodic line while the set of instruments take the less intricate harmonic accompaniment, so the texture is an homophonic one.

TONE COLOUR

The effect of tone colour cut across the music without failing to add its impact to the song. For instance, the use of organ and tremolo effect by the keyboard in the accompaniment of the first and third verse implies the lachrymal cover in the tone of the vocalist’s voice and his feeling towards his relationship that has gone bad with his love partner. Another tone colour is deployed in the second and strongly in the third verse of the music as the vocalist in a furioso tone and vibratos declare his freedom and accept his fate as could be seen below;

                                    ‘You know I'm free, free now baby

                                      I'm free from your spell

  Oh I'm free, free, free now

                                      I'm free from your spell

                                     And now that it's all over

                                     All I can do is wish you well’

CONTEXT

The song is about moving on from a relationship that has gone bad.

In the first verse, the vocalist made it known that his lover has really wronged him in a bad way and that someday she will actually get to know the gravity and implication of what she has done. He felt hurt or betrayed by an action of cheating, or perhaps just allowing the relationship to disintegrate through boredom. He also feels that eventually she'll miss him, or he'll be an example of her failure through his future attempts at finding a working relationship.

In the second verse, he still has positive feelings and memories of her, but he has to live without her, even though it will actually cause pain and loneliness to him. The vibrato in his voice at the latter part of the verse,

“Although, I'll still live on

                                                              But so lonely I'll be”

Reveals his anger on how hard painful it is for him to let go and live even though he claims to be free from the ‘thrill’ i.e. excitement of love he has for his lover.

There is however a transition of mood in the third verse from furioso to a less remorseful one as the vocalist resolves to take off his mind from the heaviness that is gone and hope for a better tomorrow which might be a favourable romance moment.

In the fourth verse which happens to be the last verse of the song, the vocalist feels relieved that all the things preventing him from leaving her are over, but at the same time, he feels like it is the mature thing to do to let her go and wish her good luck on her future endeavors even though in the first verse he was clearly resenting her. Perhaps his emotional state has changed from anger and sadness to acceptance of fate. Indeed the thrill is gone and there is no need crying over split milk!