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| No, not THIS Iron Man. |
"Iron Man" by Black Sabbath is a widely used stand tune in the high school band world. I can't recall how many times I played a "Stand Jamz" version of it in my high school band, nor can I recall how many times I've heard it performed by other bands. And with good reason!
Black Sabbath made an important mark in the world of rock and roll. Although they may not sound like more than a hard rock band by today's standards, they laid the foundation for Metal.Without Black Sabbath, there would have been no Metallica, and so on. In other words, they were ground breaking.
"Iron Man" was one of their earlier hits, off of their second album, "Paranoid". Even though it was released in the 70's, I actually owned and regularly listened to a cassette tape of "Paranoid". My favorite track was probably "Pigs of War", or at least that's the one I remember the most... other than "Iron Man", of course. It would've been in the mid-nineties when I came across the tape, twenty years after the album's release. Need I say more?
Anyway, I remember at some point this last semester thinking, "You know, most bands really take 'Iron Man' too fast. It's a slow, powerful song. It's not meant to see who can play it faster." I think it was after being inspired by Benjamin Zander at TMEA. Of course I was into his "Art of Possibility" talks (great book, by the way!), but I was also fascinated by his interpretation of the Shastakovich 5th Symphony. It made perfect sense! And then later on I read his "Rite of Spring" blog, and caught a glimpse of what it takes to find great interpretations of music. That said, I also remembered something simple he said. Basically, he said sometimes you would be surprised if you just take the tempo marked, as many works often are performed a certain way out of tradition.
I quickly decided that "Iron Man", then, was one of these tunes in regards to high school bands.
Here is a video of the kind of tempo I'm talking about. The band seems to perform it well, and a lot of bands take this tempo, I just disagree with it. Anyway, here you go:
You may be laughing. Good! Granted, it's not a symphony, but it's a powerful song. And when performed correctly by a high school band, it can pack a major punch. This past week, I got to put this hypothesis to the test...
Adrian sat in his office dealing with the aftermath of his first negative encounter with a parent. Meanwhile, I sat across from the percussion tech listening to the band playing stand tunes (the entire band) just for fun since they were waiting on Adrian. They all were in their spots practicing music, ready to go a few minutes before start time, and some had even given up their entire break to work. Now they were having fun, jamming out. Adrian was understandably a little upset, but Caleb (the Percussion Tech) and I were just smiling from ear to ear at this band.
They soon got to "Iron Man", and no surprise, they performed it at the typical high school band tempo. Fast! After that rehearsal, once Adrian was off the phone, I asked him, "So, are you going to take the typical high school band tempo, or the Black Sabbath tempo?" I seemed to recall discussing this with him once. I didn't know if he'd thought about it yet, but I knew with the way I worded it that the choice would be obvious.
"Oh yeah, I want to take the Black Sabbath tempo!"
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to take credit for this or anything. Even if it becomes a trend to go back to the regular tempo, it really doesn't matter in the scheme of things. Besides, since it's NOT the norm, I think it takes some guts to go with the Sabbath tempo, so Adrian gets the credit there. I simply asked him the question, and was supportive of his response.
And don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are bands out there doing it this way. It's just that if I've heard them, I can't remember them. And actually, I found a couple of videos on YouTube of bands going at a slower tempo, but still not the Sabbath tempo, and even those bands didn't quite catch the character of the piece. But I digress...
And by the way, they're using a great arrangement for this tune. It's not a stand jam. It's a stand alone arrangement. Adrian said it's the standard arrangement for "Iron Man", and I'm sure he's correct. But to the rehearsals!
"Okay, so we're going to slow this one down a bit" Adrian began. A collected groaning followed from the band. It was probably the first collective groan I'd heard all week. Did I mention this was Friday?
Adrian's tempo was pretty good, but you could tell the band wasn't really into it. They sounded okay, but failed to change notes together, failed to find the groove, the character, etc. It lacked excitement to be sure.
"We usually play this a lot faster," one of the kids remarked. Adrian explained that the slower tempo was the tempo of the actual song. And then I switched something on, and Adrian graciously allowed me to step in with some comments. I'm going to paraphrase, but it was something like this:
"(In a passionate tone) You have to understand what this song is about, band. It's not about the Iron Man in movies. Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man' was about a hero turned outcast. He was a man who was placed in a suit of iron so he could save the world from something... I can't remember, but the sun I think. Anyway, in the process of saving the world, the iron suit melted onto his skin, and he survived, but became permanently disfigured. They couldn't remove the iron from the man, and so he had to live the rest of his life in that suit of iron. And even though he saved everyone's lives, nobody loves him, nobody helps him, nobody wants him. They just turn their heads! The tempo is so slow because the iron suit is heavy!"
At this point I began slowly walking like RoboCop, but with a mean look on my face, and singing the riff to "Iron Man". I promise it was very dramatic!
"And then at the end of the song, where it says 'Double Time Feel', at the end of the song he finally snaps, and goes on a murdering rampage, killing the people he once saved! And they can't stop him, because he has iron melted onto his skin! All they can do is run in fear! And THAT'S what this song is about, band. And that's what you have to think about while you're playing it."
(It was my "Teaching the Inner Game of Music Moment" for those of you who attended that clinic, or have read the book, or seen the DVD.)
I apologized for the speech taking a little more time than I meant, as I admittedly got carried away, but everyone in the room felt a spark (and Adrian said it was no problem). The next time they played it, they found the groove, the sound... the character! And I have to say that it was really pretty cool. After finishing, the entire band was pumped, and so were we. This is what it was supposed to sound like! But of course it gets better...
Before rehearsal ended I retreated to the office and pulled up Iron Man on YouTube. I hadn't heard the song in a while (outside of the movie commercials), and the video had lyrics, which was great. For my Metal Head friends out there, I realized it was a magnetic field and time travel, not an "Icarus Effect", but my memory was shoddy. Please forgive. Anyway, it was surprising listening to the song again. When Adrian walked in after rehearsal he was pleasantly surprised to see the video, and we all began listening to the song. Pretty soon a hand full of students crowded the door way to listen, and once they heard it, their eyes got big.
"Have you guys ever heard this song before?" I asked. They shook their heads. "Yeah, this band started Metal. This is a good pop music education!"
They were digging it, especially once Adrian pointed out to them that the section at the end doesn't actually change tempo, it just uses the faster rhythms to give that effect. They thought this was amazing.
But all of that was nothing compared to Friday's last full band rehearsal. They got to the song again, and they were doing well on it, but it lacked a little power. I think Adrian was also inspired by listening to the song again, because he pulled out this great analogy for what he wanted out of their air. He said that if he put a dollar bill on the white board, that he wanted them to push their air so fast that it would keep the dollar bill from falling. He even went to the trouble of drawing a JHS Band $100 bill on the board. And then something magical happened. This tiny band of about 30 kids discovered... their wall of sound! It was so loud in the band hall, and we were all so blown away by it, that Adrian was only able to conduct about five bars before his laughter could no longer be contained. I had jumped in with the tuba section for the first time all camp, and even I stopped playing in amazement. Pretty soon everyone dropped out in a collective moment of musical joy at what had just taken place!
Not to mention that the brass player's chops were practically shot after playing so much that week (roughly 7 hours a day, and we didn't take it easy on them until that afternoon). Incredible! Within a few minutes they were able to get through the entire song, duplicating that same powerful sound each time they saw ff on the the page. And once they had that it was explained that this was to be the band's fortissimo on almost every piece, with noted exceptions. They weren't able to duplicate it on every other piece they worked on that afternoon. Sometimes it depended on the scoring itself, of course. But they typically came close, and certainly much closer knowing now what they were actually capable of!
Granted, they were blowing so much air and had so little chop left that they weren't always able to sustain notes, but that will improve as their playing continues to mature. The main point is that not only did they discover that wall of sound as a band, but with that they were able to communicate the intention of the song even more effectively!
Now when a band hears JHS perform this, they will feel the true spirit of that world savior turned unstoppable mad man in the permanent suit of iron who plots, and then exacts his revenge on the world.
Now I'm not trying to put down anyone who has their band perform it at the faster tempo. I'm just arguing that the song is musically much more powerful when the original tempo and character are employed instead. Does anyone out there have any thoughts? Agreements? Disagreements? I'm always up for a good conversation.
But I'll say this for sure, once I heard them nail it, I had no question in my own mind that it was the correct interpretation as I'd hypothesized a few months earlier. The difference was that now I was more confident about doing it with my own bands, and I certainly plan to. Additionally, I hope I can just as successfully convey the spirit of other pop tunes to my bands as well.
Anyway, if anyone has thoughts on this, I'd love to dialogue about it. Otherwise, until next time, thanks for reading, and take care!
Musically yours,
Mr. Cooper
PS. Oh, and here is a video of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man". If you haven't listened to it in a while, take another listen. You might be surprised at how cool it is - Enjoy! Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LjbMVXj0F8
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