Nik Kershaw's most crazy moments - L.A.B.A.T.Y.D. / Violet To Blue (Analysis)

[@seancummins9559]

I've been waiting for a channel and content like yours, covering Nik's work, since the internet became a thing. Thank you so much. It's insane how little Nik's music is appreciated. Almost as insane as his compositions.

[@dateddelvings1695]

2:22 "knocked my socks off" too! Instantly catapulted the song to a favorite of mine, and I love these detailed analysis videos.

[@myhumbleopinion1036]

The most difficult thing to grasp on a first listen of Violet To Blue is the lyrical content which is right up there with the chord progressions. Great vid, Nik Kershaw all day 👍👍👍

[@kevinallen9106]

Your analysis, narration and video production are exemplary. I can't stop watching these! ... and I love the cartoon inserts, especially the cat drummer!

[@jonaswolfmusic1775]

Thank you for your enthusiastic appreciation!

[@leonarrow]

I am loving your channel and it is so so great to have someone as knowledgable as you break down the technicalities of the genius Nik's wonderful songs. I have written over a hundred songs myself but I know I have so much to learn. Not one of mine comes close to Nik's but watching your channel has helped me to see that I could improve my songs by incorporating some of his modulation tricks. Of course the genius of Nik's songs are that the casual listener wouldn't even notice the key changes as he is so effortless. That is now a goal of mine. Thanks so much!

[@jonaswolfmusic1775]

Thanks in return! I am so glad to hear that this is useful for you. :)

[@Apollonia19]

Thanks again for your wonderful analysis. Regarding "Violet to Blue": Could you also explain the lyrics? For me as a non-native English speaker, those are quite difficult to understand. I get the literal meaning of course, but not the context/sense... Maybe you could start an own Nik Kershaw lyrics analysis series 😄

[@fortsechs]

I´m no native English speaker either but I think I "get" the lyrics. Thematically, they are quite in line with other reflective/ culturally critical Kershaw-songs like "City of Angels", "L.A.B.A.T.Y.D", "Wide Boy", "Somebody loves you" or even "The Riddle", expressing awareness of the vanity of "high society" and its contrast to real life and of Kershaw´s own role as a pop star in it, steering the listener´s mind into philosophical waters, so to speak. The lyrics of the verses are quite impressionistic/vague but they clearly lament the loss of reality/sense/love in all the superficial beauty of a "rich" life ("Danced before her eyes/ But where did love go?"), while the chorus seems to warn the listener against taking part in this kind of human racing: "(I) can´t stop, (you better) don´t start".

[@Apollonia19]

@@fortsechs Many thanks for sharing your insights! I was spellbound by the hermetic poetry of the lyrics although I wasn't able to pin down their contextual meaning... No wonder, considering the great artistry of Nik Kershaw! Aside from the music, I admire the profound message of his songs. How refreshing that there is hardly any love song in his oeuvre!

[@fortsechs]

@@Apollonia19 Well, I hope I´m not only projecting my own thoughts into his lyrics. But there are some themes & perspectives that Nik repeatedly takes up in his songs and that express his ambivalence or critique regarding e.g. a pop star-lifestyle or -image, and "Violet to Blue" is probably a rather subtle or implicit example of that. And you´re right, there´s hardly any actual love song I know of him, maybe "So quiet"? "Life goes on" is more of an end-of-love song.

[@lubmir2k]

L.A.B.A.T.Y.D. is my favorite song from Nik Kershaw! The harmony you mentioned also knocked one of my socks off when I first heard it. The second sock was knocked off after a semitone change. Subbed to your channel at once.

[@jonaswolfmusic1775]

Haha, yes, sometimes one has to have several pairs of socks as back-up when listening to Nik Kershaw. :)

[@starpoint271]

Mark Brzezicki was the drummer for LABATYD, and Simon Phillips was on violet to blue, so expect the unexpected.

[@linnilinnert]

L.A.B.A.T.Y.D. is criminally underrated! What a great song! Anyway, could you do an analysis of The Alan Parsons Project's Urbania? The drums on that one are crazy. I love that Jazz-Fusionish touch there. Magnificent!

[@SwappingIsSaving]

I think Simon Phillips was the drummer on this track.

[@samtan4729]

Doing the famous Purdie shuffle.

[@Gusrikh1]

This is just so fabulous and educational!

[@jonaswolfmusic1775]

Happy to hear, thanks for your response!

[@jimmypanthew4391]

TALK TALK "had done same thing with the song "TIME IT'S TIME" on 3 last minute !!!!!

[@ihasmdb389]

I'm a huge fan of all of Nik's work and the key changes keep blowing my mind. And yet, what ends up becoming my favourite of his? Don't Lie, the B-side of Don Quixote, that just remains in G major all throughout 😆

[@jonaswolfmusic1775]

Haha, well played! 😀

[@billabobyt]

Loved this series!! Do you have any plans to continue?

[@jonaswolfmusic1775]

Thank you! What would you suggest as a follow up?

[@billabobyt]

@@jonaswolfmusic1775 I was asking because you stopped putting the "Next video" links in the video descriptions, but I found the rest and you did cover the songs I was thinking of! Brilliant series!

[@jonaswolfmusic1775]

@@billabobyt Thank you, glad I could help!

[@guitarraguitarraguitarra]

Another amazing video, brother. The verse for Violet to Blue is a backbeat with the snare on 3. I think something about this throws off the feel in the vocal. There is a guitar tutorial for LABATYD on my channel if anyone is interested. Dare I even try to put Violet to Blue on guitar......? 🧐

[@fortsechs]

I don´t hear/expect neither that "duogroove" nor that 9/8 thing, but that´s maybe because almost all of Kershaw´s compositional quirks seem so natural to me, having grown up with them. Only very obvious "beacons of craftsmanship" like the surprising major chord at the end of "One Step ahead"´s chorus and the chorus in "Faces", that seems harmonically totally unrelated to the verses, already consciously irritated me / stood out somewhat in the past. But I noticed there´s a typo in the (original) lyrics you reproduced here, as he´s clearly singing "morTality´s soul", which makes much more sense than "morality´s"... And I don´t understand your remarks about "Violet to Blue"´s metre. Isn´t it really just triplets? What´s the difference when described as 24/16? Thanks again for your insightful work!

[@wietzejohanneskrikke1910]

There's really nothing tricky going on rhythmically. It's a Purdie Shuffle. Just keep feeling the groove.

[@ShirubaGin]

Here he goes again

[@unicostampoofficial7222]

Fortunately, music is not mathematics.

[@hillemannschrankwurst5954]

Your analysis is brilliant, even if a bit overanalyzed at times. I mean to try imprison swing and offbeat feel like that doesn´t capture the thing in its core, like you already realized yourself. About the violet to blue thing. Its really a metaphor for all of niks music. The main trick and speciality of kershaw is in my opinion recontextualizing. His songs are build on recontextualizing thirds, cadences, even beats with textures (Roses). And many more. His music stands as a hallmark of the saying that you need to look at things from more than one side of the coin. And thats where the magic lies in his music. And to be frank his 3rd and fifth album just struggled the right marketing, because theyre brilliant nonetheless.

[@RealBesty]

That “early” beat you hear may be due to Simon Philips playing a flam..? :)

[@jonaswolfmusic1775]

Could you give me a time stamp of where you refer to? Greetings:)

[@RealBesty]

@@jonaswolfmusic1775 Hi. 7:35. That passage has always sounded even enough to my ears - maybe Nick’s fluid singing rhythm is blurring the lines a bit. :) 🇬🇧

[@jonaswolfmusic1775]

Yes, his singing definetely blurrs things a lot. The drum articulation makes no difference for me, but I admit this might be different from person to person.

[@TelexToTexel]

This is like Nik Kershaw playing Parliament/George Clinton, a homage to P Funk