He said, "Listen to this Matt: it's two and a half chords for seven minutes, but the arrangement is really sophisticated."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP7dDCeR3rQ&feature=youtu.be
He's played me stuff by the Grateful Dead before - it is very much his kind of thing: eclectic, quirky, interesting, fun, and a skillful mix of guitar playing. Plus, this jazzy, hippyish, free-flowing sunshine-rock is exactly from Tim's generation, without being too specific about how old he is.
How can you make two and a half chords interesting for seven minutes? I wondered. Well, if you're thinking the same thing, I'd suggest listening because somehow The Grateful Dead have pulled it off. In the 70s.
I say 'somehow', but what they've really done is exactly what Tim had told me they'd done. They've made the arrangement of the song varied and interesting and yes, sophisticated. Listen to the way the guitar solos are structured, what happens where, the vocal sections, the rhythm of the thing and the dynamics. It's great.
Plus, this has a real shuffle about it that made me smile and got my shoulders moving. It made me feel really good.
I did a bit of research and it turns out that Franklin's Tower is from a story about Benjamin Franklin casting great bells. Apparently his technique was to steam the bells to cool them and then 'roll away' the dew droplets that had formed, with cotton sheets. When no-one understood why this should make the bells sound better, Franklin just said:
"If you get confused, listen to the music play."
And that, in the midst of excellent arranging, brilliantly simple structure and some proper feel-good music, is really great advice.
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