Tracy (Mogwai song)
Encyclopedia
"Tracy" is a song on the Scottish post-rock
band Mogwai
's 1997 debut album, Mogwai Young Team
. The song was written by the band's guitarists Stuart Braithwaite
and John Cummings
and bassist Dominic Aitchison
prior to the 1997 Mogwai Young Team recording sessions.
The song features glockenspiel
, electric guitar
, bass guitar
and drum kit
, bookended by sampled
prank call
s between Stuart Braithwaite and Will Simon (an employee of the band's American record label, Jet Set
) and between the band's drummer Martin Bulloch
and Colin Hardie (the band's manager at the time), revolving around a fictional disagreement between Braithwaite and Aitchison. The song differs from the genre the band usually employed at the time, known as "serious guitar music"; instead of being predominantly guitar-based and featuring heavy dynamic
contrast, it is based around a glockenspiel ostinato
, remaining dynamically quiet throughout.
"Tracy" received mostly positive reception from music journalists, with album reviews praising the song's quiet dynamics, the usage of varied instrumentation, and the inclusion of the sampled prank calls.
—whose song, "Fast Car
" originally reminded the band of "Tracy" in its early stages, was rarely performed live before being recorded; the only documented performances were on 8 June 1997, at The Leadmill in Sheffield
and 12 June 1997 at The Joiners in Southampton
—both dates on a tour to promote the recently released 4 Satin
EP.
The band recorded the song during the final week of the Mogwai Young Team sessions from July to August 1997 at MCM Studios, in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire
, Scotland, where the band had previously recorded the majority of their earlier material. The song was produced and mixed by Paul Savage, who handled production and mixing duties on the bulk of the band's previous recordings.
of E minor
, in 4/4 time
.
The song begins with ambient guitar noise and a bassline
played by a bass guitar, which is joined at (0:06) by the sound of the first of two prank calls heard in the song, between Stuart Braithwaite and Will Simon—Braithwaite playing a joke on Simon, discussing what to do after a fight in the band while at the studio. At (0:53), a drumbeat enters, along with the quiet electric guitars in the background which slowly become more predominant.
At (1:18), the song's main melody is introduced, played by a guitar, the bass guitar and a glockenspiel, based around the chords of E minor, C major seventh, G major, and D major. This is repeated until (3:28), when the guitars fade out into the background, and the drumbeat ends, leaving only the ride cymbal
to keep the beat, and the main melody, which is repeated until it gradually fades out, leaving ambient guitar noise.
At (4:30), the second of two prank calls begins, between Martin Bulloch and Colin Hardie, who have a conversation in which Bulloch plays a joke on Hardie, saying that Aitchison and Braithwaite had a disagreement, causing the former to punch the latter, and leave. Hardie, who was in a bookmakers at the time of the call, suggests that Bulloch and Paul Savage continue mixing the song, and says he will try to contact Braithwaite. This ends at (7:04), leaving the sound of ambient guitar noise to fade out and end the song.
noted praised the presence of "a long phone conversation . . . in the background of "Tracy"'s dreamy atmospherics." Brian Adair of Prog Archives praised the song's individuality from the rest of the album, describing it as "slow but utterly gorgeous . . . [relying] on a very different tone than the rest of the album" also comparing it to a film score, noting that it "[bore] resemblance to music from a sad movie scene."
Brandon Wu of Ground and Sky criticised the song's individuality from the rest of the album, saying "in any other context, "Tracy" . . . would be great, but here [it's] almost forgettable." Aaron Coleman of Almost Cool criticised the song's quiet dynamics, calling it "subdued."
French musician Kid Loco
remixed the song in 1998 at the Lafayette Velvet Basement in France, titling it "Kid Loco's Playing with the Young Team Remix". It was released on the 1998 compilation album, Kicking a Dead Pig: Mogwai Songs Remixed, as well as Kid Loco's 1999 compilation album, Jesus Life for Children Under 12 Inches.
Additional musicians
Production
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
band Mogwai
Mogwai
The word mogwai is the transliteration of the Cantonese word 魔怪 meaning "monster", "evil spirit", "devil" or "demon".-Mogwai/Mogui in Chinese culture:...
's 1997 debut album, Mogwai Young Team
Mogwai Young Team
Mogwai Young Team is the debut studio album by Scottish post-rock band Mogwai.-Overview:Mogwai Young Team was recorded in Summer 1997 at MCM Studios in Hamilton, Scotland, and was produced by Paul Savage and Andy Miller...
. The song was written by the band's guitarists Stuart Braithwaite
Stuart Braithwaite
Stuart Leslie Braithwaite is a Scottish guitarist, bassist, drummer, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the guitarist of post rock band Mogwai, with whom he has recorded seven studio albums.-Early life :...
and John Cummings
John Cummings (musician)
John Cummings is a Scottish musician and record producer, best known for being a member of Glaswegian band Mogwai, mostly playing guitar, as well as programming, keyboards and vocals.-Mogwai:...
and bassist Dominic Aitchison
Dominic Aitchison
Dominic Aitchison is a Scottish bassist. He is best known as the bassist and founding member of post-rock band Mogwai. Aside from Mogwai, he also plays bass guitar in Crippled Black Phoenix and Stage Blood....
prior to the 1997 Mogwai Young Team recording sessions.
The song features glockenspiel
Glockenspiel
A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and drum kit
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, bookended by sampled
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
prank call
Prank call
A prank call is a form of practical joke committed over the telephone. Prank phone calls began to gain an America-wide following over a period of many years, as they gradually became a staple of the obscure and amusing cassette tapes traded amongst musicians, sound engineers, and media traders...
s between Stuart Braithwaite and Will Simon (an employee of the band's American record label, Jet Set
Jetset Records
Jetset Records was a New York-based indie rock record label. The label has released a variety of independent bands, including Firewater, Sun Kil Moon and Mogwai.-Roster:*16 Horsepower*Arab Strap*Black Box Recorder*Dean and Britta*Congo Norvell...
) and between the band's drummer Martin Bulloch
Martin Bulloch
Martin Bulloch is a Scottish musician, best known for being a member of Mogwai.-Early life:Bulloch was born in Bellshill, South Lanarkshire. He was once a cook at a Chinese Restaurant in Glasgow.-Mogwai:...
and Colin Hardie (the band's manager at the time), revolving around a fictional disagreement between Braithwaite and Aitchison. The song differs from the genre the band usually employed at the time, known as "serious guitar music"; instead of being predominantly guitar-based and featuring heavy dynamic
Dynamics (music)
In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...
contrast, it is based around a glockenspiel ostinato
Ostinato
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase, which is persistently repeated in the same musical voice. An ostinato is always a succession of equal sounds, wherein each note always has the same weight or stress. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody in...
, remaining dynamically quiet throughout.
"Tracy" received mostly positive reception from music journalists, with album reviews praising the song's quiet dynamics, the usage of varied instrumentation, and the inclusion of the sampled prank calls.
Writing and recording
The song, titled "Tracy" after American singer-songwriter Tracy ChapmanTracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles "Fast Car", "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Give Me One Reason" and "Telling Stories". She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.-Biography:Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland,...
—whose song, "Fast Car
Fast Car
"Fast Car" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman. It was released as a single in April 1988 from her self-titled 1988 debut album Tracy Chapman...
" originally reminded the band of "Tracy" in its early stages, was rarely performed live before being recorded; the only documented performances were on 8 June 1997, at The Leadmill in Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
and 12 June 1997 at The Joiners in Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
—both dates on a tour to promote the recently released 4 Satin
4 Satin
4 Satin is an EP by Scottish post-rock group Mogwai, released in 1997 in the UK and the US through Chemikal Underground and Jetset respectively.-Overview:4 Satin is Mogwai's debut EP...
EP.
The band recorded the song during the final week of the Mogwai Young Team sessions from July to August 1997 at MCM Studios, in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire
Hamilton, South Lanarkshire
Hamilton is a town in South Lanarkshire, in the west-central Lowlands of Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It is the fifth-biggest town in Scotland after Paisley, East Kilbride, Livingston and Cumbernauld...
, Scotland, where the band had previously recorded the majority of their earlier material. The song was produced and mixed by Paul Savage, who handled production and mixing duties on the bulk of the band's previous recordings.
Musical composition
"Tracy" is 7 minutes 22 seconds long and in the keyKey signature
In musical notation, a key signature is a series of sharp or flat symbols placed on the staff, designating notes that are to be consistently played one semitone higher or lower than the equivalent natural notes unless otherwise altered with an accidental...
of E minor
E minor
E minor is a minor scale based on the note E. The E natural minor scale consists of the pitches E, F, G, A, B, C, and D. The E harmonic minor scale contains the natural 7, D, rather than the flatted 7, D – to align with the major dominant chord, B7 .Its key signature has one sharp, F .Its...
, in 4/4 time
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
.
The song begins with ambient guitar noise and a bassline
Bassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
played by a bass guitar, which is joined at (0:06) by the sound of the first of two prank calls heard in the song, between Stuart Braithwaite and Will Simon—Braithwaite playing a joke on Simon, discussing what to do after a fight in the band while at the studio. At (0:53), a drumbeat enters, along with the quiet electric guitars in the background which slowly become more predominant.
At (1:18), the song's main melody is introduced, played by a guitar, the bass guitar and a glockenspiel, based around the chords of E minor, C major seventh, G major, and D major. This is repeated until (3:28), when the guitars fade out into the background, and the drumbeat ends, leaving only the ride cymbal
Ride cymbal
The ride cymbal is a standard cymbal in most drum kits. It maintains a steady rhythmic pattern, sometimes called a ride pattern, rather than the accent of a crash...
to keep the beat, and the main melody, which is repeated until it gradually fades out, leaving ambient guitar noise.
At (4:30), the second of two prank calls begins, between Martin Bulloch and Colin Hardie, who have a conversation in which Bulloch plays a joke on Hardie, saying that Aitchison and Braithwaite had a disagreement, causing the former to punch the latter, and leave. Hardie, who was in a bookmakers at the time of the call, suggests that Bulloch and Paul Savage continue mixing the song, and says he will try to contact Braithwaite. This ends at (7:04), leaving the sound of ambient guitar noise to fade out and end the song.
Release and reception
During professional reviews, "Tracy" received mostly positive reception. Lee Harvey of Vox praised to the song's quiet dynamics and soft timbre, stating that it "stoutly [refuses] to rock out and accordingly [retains] a helium-light touch." John Mulvey of NMENME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
noted praised the presence of "a long phone conversation . . . in the background of "Tracy"'s dreamy atmospherics." Brian Adair of Prog Archives praised the song's individuality from the rest of the album, describing it as "slow but utterly gorgeous . . . [relying] on a very different tone than the rest of the album" also comparing it to a film score, noting that it "[bore] resemblance to music from a sad movie scene."
Brandon Wu of Ground and Sky criticised the song's individuality from the rest of the album, saying "in any other context, "Tracy" . . . would be great, but here [it's] almost forgettable." Aaron Coleman of Almost Cool criticised the song's quiet dynamics, calling it "subdued."
French musician Kid Loco
Kid Loco
Jean-Yves Prieur, aka Kid Loco is a French electronic musician, DJ, remixer and producer. He was born on June 16, 1964 in Antony, Hauts-de-Seine, France. Allmusic considers his style to be similar to Air and Dimitri from Paris...
remixed the song in 1998 at the Lafayette Velvet Basement in France, titling it "Kid Loco's Playing with the Young Team Remix". It was released on the 1998 compilation album, Kicking a Dead Pig: Mogwai Songs Remixed, as well as Kid Loco's 1999 compilation album, Jesus Life for Children Under 12 Inches.
Personnel and credits
Mogwai- Dominic AitchisonDominic AitchisonDominic Aitchison is a Scottish bassist. He is best known as the bassist and founding member of post-rock band Mogwai. Aside from Mogwai, he also plays bass guitar in Crippled Black Phoenix and Stage Blood....
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Stuart BraithwaiteStuart BraithwaiteStuart Leslie Braithwaite is a Scottish guitarist, bassist, drummer, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the guitarist of post rock band Mogwai, with whom he has recorded seven studio albums.-Early life :...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, monologueMonologueIn theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media... - Martin BullochMartin BullochMartin Bulloch is a Scottish musician, best known for being a member of Mogwai.-Early life:Bulloch was born in Bellshill, South Lanarkshire. He was once a cook at a Chinese Restaurant in Glasgow.-Mogwai:...
– drum kitDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, monologue - John CummingsJohn Cummings (musician)John Cummings is a Scottish musician and record producer, best known for being a member of Glaswegian band Mogwai, mostly playing guitar, as well as programming, keyboards and vocals.-Mogwai:...
– guitar - Brendan O'HareBrendan O'HareBrendan O'Hare is a Scottish musician, best known as drummer in the Scottish rock band Teenage Fanclub from 1990 until early 1994.-Career:...
– guitar, glockenspielGlockenspielA glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
Additional musicians
- Colin Hardie – monologue
- Will Simon – monologue
Production
- Paul SavagePaul SavagePaul Savage is a Scottish musician and record producer, best known for being the drummer in the Scottish indie rock group The Delgados.-Early life:...
– productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
External links
- "Tracy" at Last.fmLast.fmLast.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
- "Tracy" GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
tablatureTablatureTablature is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.... - "Tracy" Bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
tablatureTablatureTablature is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches....