The Royal Scam, Steely Dan’s fifth album, contained a song written years earlier but never professionally recorded that was radically re-worked for the album. In its demo and album versions, “Caves of Altamira” offers an instructive look at a musical “before” and “after” and how certain choices can strengthen a song.
The song’s signature opening is a one-measure, rocking piano figure. In the demo, where the piano is the only instrument and carries the rhythmic and harmonic structure, this figure underlies the entire song. For the album version, however, it is simplified to its basic syncopated rhythm, then the piano is stripped down just to chords for the verse and chorus.
The original melody of the verse is redundant, with the first phrase (the antecedent) varying from the second phrase (the consequent) only on the final note. The pair is repeated twice, with relatively long gaps between each melodic phrase: A1+gap / A2+gap / A1+gap / A2+gap. Together with the redundancy in the melody, the gaps slow down the momentum of the music.
For the album version the gaps were eliminated, so each phrase flows smoothly from the last, and the harmonic underpinning was altered along with the second half of the melody to create one long antecedent and consequent: A / B. Refining the shape in this way creates a stronger sense of musical movement that is more effective than the stasis of the demo. Compare the two versions in the sample below:
—You’ll also notice that the tempo of the album version is slower and smoother, not as choppy as the demo. The beat was also regularized to 4/4 by eliminating an irregular measure between phrases in the verse, which also helps smooth out the music.
All of these alterations strengthen the song and make it more successful musically — a good example of musicianship at its finest.
Brilliant! I was going to contrast these two examples at a mixing class I’m doing at a church in Nigeria next month, and you vindicated me by doing it yourself. Bravo, man. Cheers.
They solved some of the awkward parts to the original rhythm, but I feel the sheen of the horns and additional instruments competes too much with the nature of the lyrics: a child’s contemplative solitude and awe at the beauty of pre-historic art.
Interesting criticism. You may be right. A simpler arrangement could have created a more powerful effect that matched the character of the lyrics.
M. Greco good ear. They literally made the demo Hollywood. I see it as an middle age man reminiscing on his youth with a budget. upon hearing both you do tend to miss the isolation of the the demo.