This is Would? by Alice in Chains, starting with a bass line and Drums cymbals with some confusing clean parts and a vocals melody, it starts to playing some kind of tribal drums notes, Its time signature is 4/4 and the intro atmospheric long sustaining notes in the lead gave it a special mood. the verse starts with that mood which started in the intro and then it rise with a drums fill to the Chorus section, the reverbs on lead guitar and Vocals are so nice and the guitar's distortion and drums filled the chorus part so well. after the second verse it goes back to the chorus which it ends with Staley's vocal melody which he performs it like a guitar solo, 2:05 a nice solo in that section and then this time it gets back to chorus with a reversed vocals, which it is how it feels but surely it was performed and it is not a computer reversed sound, and to do that he might have stand away from the mic and coming close to the mic slowly. his vocal fries are perfect. In 2:41 the song suddenly surprise us with an odd change which makes it really great. and Staley keeps singing perfectly in that part and the drummer is also playing awesome fills in that ending section.
This song has a dark theme and it also has a feeling that says something bad is going to happen. It is about addiction and losing something and frustration and being judged. as Jerry Cantrell, Guitarist and Vocalist of the band also said about this song, It is written for his friend Andrew Wood, He'd died of a heroin overdose.
And to bring that darkness into their music, they composed and performed this song by using a Phrygian mode (as Phrygian is generally considered the darkest of all the diatonic modes) and it also includes a bottom heavy arrangement with a special form of music which makes you feel the situation of an addicted person. and as we know what Grunge bands were doing with their chord progressions we can hear those amazing and unique changes in the chords in This song.
and I also decided to share another version of this song which it was performed live in a MTV Unplugged show. Recorded in April 10, 1996 , I love what Layne Staley had done in this performance, the notes he performs, he even performs a part of the guitar solo and this time it is live and well the guitars were performed perfectly which made this live performance interested to me specially when I hear an acoustic version of a heavy music :D in acoustic versions you can hear notes more clear so it is why I like it :) .
The first time I heard Alice In Chains was when I was in University and I downloaded some of their MTV unplugged and started to knowing more about this band, I can say what made me interested about this band was their Unplugged live performance which I can't forget each part of that show from the time they go up on the stage the way they start their first song and how they perform all the songs with no mistake like if you are listening to a studio recorded version of those songs :) , though Layne Staley is not alive anymore but his songs are not forgettable, he had an amazing vocal with a special character and tone. RIP Layne Staley. \m/
Peace & Love!
Thanks for reading this blog post,
Davood Faramarzi aka @davidfar