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Author Topic: Why did Dennis gradually end up mostly writing ballads?  (Read 1399 times)
Tom
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« on: December 20, 2020, 09:57:53 PM »

I might be in a minority but all my favourite Dennis songs are of the uptempo/soulful flavour. I like a few of the ballads a lot but I feel he really under-nurtured his ability to write great uptempo, commercial songs, especially from about '70 onwards. Did this have something to do with the fact that songs like Slip on Through and Sound of Free went out as singles and bombed? Did the trauma of the Manson experience + change in lifestyle upon meeting Barbara just naturally result in less jaunty songs about picking up girls in his car? Or maybe he just didn't enjoy writing the rockers as much - I'm reminded of Paul McCartney talking about how it's much harder to write a good upbeat tune cos there's less to work with.

Anyway, interested to hear peoples thoughts as this does perplex me somewhat.
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maggie
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« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2020, 08:41:54 AM »

I might be in a minority but all my favourite Dennis songs are of the uptempo/soulful flavour. I like a few of the ballads a lot but I feel he really under-nurtured his ability to write great uptempo, commercial songs, especially from about '70 onwards. Did this have something to do with the fact that songs like Slip on Through and Sound of Free went out as singles and bombed? Did the trauma of the Manson experience + change in lifestyle upon meeting Barbara just naturally result in less jaunty songs about picking up girls in his car? Or maybe he just didn't enjoy writing the rockers as much - I'm reminded of Paul McCartney talking about how it's much harder to write a good upbeat tune cos there's less to work with.

Anyway, interested to hear peoples thoughts as this does perplex me somewhat.

Not sure I agree with the premise -- about half of POB is midtempo or uptempo. It has five tracks that could definitively be called ballads, plus "Time" which is kind of a mixed case.


The Bambu stuff is pretty mixed in terms of tempo too.

A better question might be why most listeners seem to value Dennis's ballads over his other material. But I don't think Dennis's post-Sunflower material is any more downtempo on average than his '60s material.
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Peadar 'Big Dinner' O'Driscoll
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« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2020, 08:52:31 AM »

Think he really liked to put as much emotion as he could into his songs. I would say that's generally easier to do with slower songs.
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Wrightfan
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« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2020, 09:41:39 AM »

Pretty much right away imo. The I Can Hear Music release shows that with "Love Affair".
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