The Love Below
Guitar Tabs
Lyrics
Hidden Lyrics
Summary
Sounds
The Love Below imposingly condones inklings toward 1940's Broadway orchestras. I believe the "Paris, France" lyric was borrowed from Frank Sinatra. Likewise, the entire link is uniquely baritone-sang, and with oodles of fermatas.
Love Hater was thoroughly influenced by the rhythm section of Miles Davis, but the opening tag is intended to pay homage towards 1960's virtuoso black musician Jimi Hendrix. If you want to play "Where's Waldo?" listen for brief clacks of castanets in this piece.
"God" was the only skit I did not cut from the album. There is virtually no treble turned up on the acoustic guitar. This coincides with Andre's insistence on Frank Zappa's baritone-voice-styled toilet humor.
Happy Valentine's Day is the first song with direct influence from Prince. The Guitars are picked unusually close to the fretboard. Happy Valentine's Day is not a romantic song. Listen carefully to the outro harmony "fuck that valentine's day."
The three descending chromatic notes of "Spread for me" are quite similar to those of "Put your head" in the lyrics from The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds' "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder). The soprano saxophone on the intro is almost certainly a hat-tip for Andre's favorite musician to listen to while making love, John Coltrane. Some fans were initially disgusted by the song's intimately grotesque lyrics.
Prototype is one of the album's most interesting selections. The microphone delay pattern is sonically set to match the beats per measure. Radiohead's Kid A was a landmark for stereophonic success such as this. That is not to say that microphone effects did not originate in the 1960's.
All in all, Prototype sounds as if Earth, Wind, and Fire were hired to accompany Prince. The bassline is highly influenced by Jaco Pastorius. The low-mix guitar solo is, again, of Jimi Hendrix influence, and concluded by one scrape of a disc jockey's turntable.
The outro is my favorite moment of the record, almost of any record. Notice the minor 2nd in the fourth chord to the permanent progression: Dmaj9 - Amaj9 - Dm9 - Am9. Not unlike Prince, the chords are simple but effective.
She Lives In My Lap is sonically influenced by Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Doggystyle," and musically influenced by "Body Heat Motion Picture Soundtrack." Notice the effects of an octave pedal (up one octave) for the vocals and a phaser for the synthesizer. The same guitar and amplifier appear to have been used on Happy Valentine's Day. The outro's sentimental characteristics include a disc jockey cut of the sentence "Why is it that I love her?" and a tenor saxophone solo played by Andre himself.
The lines "Why are you acting like this?" by Rosario Dawson might be from the motion picture "He's Got Game," although uncredited in the press. The words "The Love Below," rather intended by Benjamin Andre (A.K.A. Andre Benjamin) or unintended, are an audio palendrome. Not only by playing the end of the song backwards on a record player do you hear the words "The Love Below," you also hear the main beat to Vibrate. The tune had been sped up, then recorded while the tape played backwards. Likewise, by playing Vibrate backwards you hear the beat to She Lives In My Lap.
Everyone has heard Hey Ya. This is probably the most Beatles-influenced hip hop song ever recorded. The outro synthesizer is strangely linked to the descending one on Prince's "I Would Die 4 U."
Roses begins with eight challenging measures for jazz piano. Even Paul Shaffer couldn't play the song verbatim when the band played on "Late Night With David Letterman." The melodic line "yeah" on chorus two is potentially borrowed from Prince's lyric "please" on "If I Was Your Girlfriend." The fuzz bass indicates that Ben Folds Five may have seemed tasteful to Andre. The song again shares the same women-devaluation that Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Doggstyle" had.
Behold a Lady is the least prepared song on the disc, hands down.
After the opening disc jockey cut, Pink and Blue begins with stereo-enhanced electronic jungle drums. Andre lustfully spouts out the lyrics that R. Kelly co-wrote. The guitars that occured in Happy Valentine's Day are complimented by an orchestra outro that can only be said to have been virtuostically influenced by The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds.
Love and War contains lyrics from John Lennon's "Mind Games" as in "Make love, not war." The brief rhythmic typewriter clacks seem to be relevant to the bridge of Marilyn Manson's "Apple of Sodom." The re-peat is equally as electronically satisfying as any tag on the album. Observe the electronic dulcimer effect.
She's Alive is digustingly groundbreaking. It was written about Andre's mother, just as John Lennon wrote "Julia" for his 'mum.' Andre has been quoted as saying that this is one melody he couldn't carry on without recording.
Dracula's Wedding deceptively appears to have been influenced by Justin Timberlake. Lyrically, it is the most clever song on the record. The synthesizers are unlike anything I've ever heard. It's almost as if this were meant to be released one hundred years from now.
My Favorite Things was performed by Kevin Kendricks on this record, written by Richard Rodgers, and naturally influenced by John Coltrane. The drum shuffle is nearly the only indication that Andre listens to Aphex Twin for leisure. This song could improbably be recorded twice.
Take Off Your Cool gains second place for "most non-prepared" on The Love Below. Its immediately noticable influence is "Come Away with Me" by Norah Jones, who co-wrote the tune. This acoustic guitar solo alone probably eludes the album from being thy favorite of all time.
Vibrate will eventually be unspeakably influential. Although the emphasized disc jockey warp (no pun intended) is a sample from a sound snippet contained on disc 2, track 2, of Aphex Twin's "26 Mixes for Cash," notice that by playing Vibrate backwards on a record player you hear the drum beat to She Lives In My Lap. The tune has been slowed down. The muted trumpet was innovated by Chet Baker's use of it on the classic ballad "My Funny Valentine."
In conclusion, The Love Below was influenced by a slew of innovators. Consider them alphabetically: Aaliyah; Aphex Twin; Chet Baker; The Beach Boys; The Beatles; Ben Folds Five; Cameo; Wendy Carlos; John Coltrane; Miles Davis; Earth, Wind and Fire; Goodie Mob; Jimi Hendrix; Norah Jones; John Lennon; Marilyn Manson; Jaco Pastorius; Prince; R. Kelly; Radiohead; Richard Rodgers; Frank Sinatra; Phil Spector; Snoop Doggy Dogg; Justin Timberlake; and Frank Zappa.
You are listening to Richard Rodgers' 'My Favorite Things."
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