AFFLICTION
Affliction is a state of pain, distress, grief or misery. Each song listed is an expression of an experience with mental or bodily pain, as sickness, loss, calamity, or persecution. Affliction has a place in every life. The feelings of deep sadness, loss, and pain add realness and sensitivity to our lives. Experiencing afflictions in life can be likened to a farmer burning the foliage on the land to add minerals to the soil to produce better crops. These sad times don’t last forever. They can serve as motivation to live for happier times.
Exile by Lo Mimieux
The piano project Lo Mimieux consists of a Swedish composer and an actor Patrik Berg Almkvisth started in 2016. The song floats into existence on one sad melody that then spins into a consonance that blends an instrumental story spoken by the piano; life is beautiful, life brings changes; life has seasons, additions, losses that cause an emotionally turbulent crescendo that has a counterpoint of melodies with notes ranging from high to low submits, then returns with a theme of hope, that repeats a harmonious melody, then a pianissimo tone, and then there is silence.
It’s Over Now by LA Guns
The group consists of the lead singer, drummers, percussionists, backup vocalists, and a bass guitar player. The song starts with a consonance theme that introduces the lead singer telling a story of a heartbroken lover who is in a state of affliction and in emotional dissonance between wondering why the estranged lover hasn’t reached out to him and then envisioning the estranged lover in the arms of another. As the story escalates from one extreme to another, so does the lead singer, the drums, the bass guitars, the percussionists, and the backup vocalist, each on separate notes leading to a full musical dissonance. The melody is unstable, but so is a person in a state of affliction.
Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone by Boney James
Bony James begins this piece with the saxophone playing the words of the song, Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone. Bony James once said, “I don’t sing at all; I’m a terrible singer. I think of myself as a singer with a horn.” The song Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone, was written in 1971 by Bill Withers. Bony James’s saxophone is matching lyrics with additional sparks of saxophone magic. The saxophone brings passion and color to the melodic line, makes the tone smoother, and sets the theme on fire. He is even able to mimic the part, “I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know I gotta leave the young thing alone, but ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone. The saxophone is the star in this show. The saxophone tells the story of a man afflicted by the realization that he is unhappy and hopeless without the one that he loves.
Dear Mama by Tupac
Tupac Shakur praises his single mother in this rap song for raising him even while enduring the painful afflictions in her life. The song begins with a harmonious chord of musical instruments softly playing as his mother is speaking softly about being imprisoned before giving birth to her son. Tupac follows with his story of trials and tribulations of being raised in the hood by a single mother. The thuggish sound of Tupac’s voice meets a symphony of the melodic rhythm of many instruments in consonance with a sampling of the Spinners 1974, “Sadie,” an R&B soul recording that tells a story of a mother devoting her life to raising her children. The theme of instruments and even the voice of the artist, Tupac, blend to complement one another to form a harmonious structure.
Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash
The song begins with the guitar’s consonance with a rattly instrument waltzing into a counterpoint melody that forms a structure as it introduces Johnny Cash, who sings his tale, in a somber tone, of being stuck in prison while hearing a passenger train in the distance. He begins to imagine that the people on the train are eating, drinking, laughing, and enjoying themselves, while he is stuck in prison as time drags. The melody’s structure later forms a theme, that ends as he hears the train’s whistle and the realization that he is in prison is too much to bear.
The Thrill Is Gone by BB King and Bobby Bland
The Thrill Is Gone written in 1951 by blues musician Roy Hawkins and later recorded by BB King and in 1970 became a big hit for BB King. Lucille introduces this song about a relationship that has gone bad. Lucille is BB’s electric guitar. He once stated that he loves Lucille’s sound because it sounds like she’s crying. Lucille’s rhythms are followed by the whaling tone of BB King singing, “The thrill is gone, The thrill is gone so far away and you’re gonna be so sorry one day.” Lucille reenters center stage with the other instruments in the band, trumpet, the drums, the keyboard, the low bass, and the guitar instigating on behalf of these blues musicians. Bobby Bland interrupts with a loud throat-clearing “Whoop”, as he tells his side of the one-sided story of his relationship gone bad. The instruments in this blues song playing softly in the background while the two men are whaling and singing their sorrows. The melody is smooth and all working for a melodic low-key consonance sound. BB recorded this song many times and was never quite satisfied with it. In one version of this song, BB is singing the “thrill is gone,” while the violins are softly playing in the background. It adds a deep depressing feel to this song.
