18 - Man In The Box (Alice In Chains)

Now you've sewn them shut! What a POWERFUL song with a great dose of peculiar and bluesy elements. The vocal is everything, and so are those harmonies!

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Transcript

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Man in the box is Alison Chains. Okay, so I'm gonna dive into this song with my acoustic guitar, of course, because it's nice to listen to it bare bones, you know? And uh let's really dive into the musicality of the song. So I'm in drop half step, okay? E flat standard tuning. So I'm just gonna simplify things and just call this E. Okay? So, but it's actually E flat, okay? Alright, the first thing you gotta understand about this riff here, that's the is that yes, he's letting a low E, low E string go, right? But he's also hitting the fifth fret on the A string. So that's the minor seventh. Okay? So that's a very cool texture. He's not doing like a regular power chord or even octaves. He's going. The key note is the the D, okay, which is actually a D flat, right? But we're just gonna call it D. So and then Right, it's a hammer on from the fourth to the fifth, and then back to that D, that minor seven. That's the minor seven, the very reaching note. It sounds like it's reaching. And then we get to the pentatonic, the wa riff, right? That Jerry plays. That wow. So and then that's just like the pentatonic notes. The main rock scale, just the main scale, man. Oops. It's like such a simple riff, but it's the style, and I love that Lane is um doing unison. He's singing the same exact notes, he creates like such a cool texture. Lane's voic vocal timbre mixed with like the wa lead guitar is a very cool mix. And they're singing the exact same notes. Very nice touch. Wow wow. And then we got I'm the man in the box. I love that. So he's singing the fifth, which is a normal note. That's the minor seventh, but then he goes, and that right there touches on the Dorian scale because it's the major sixth, okay? I'm the man. It's so nice, it sounds like kind of creepy, right? Because it's like a major note, but it's a weird context for it. I'm the man in the box. And then read in my shit. And then and then I love this. Okay, this is cool. We just go to G and it's like it's like G blues. I mean, if you ever hear a guitar go like this, right? That's just the root and the fifth, and then poking up to the major six. That's the major six right there. So he's doing that in this G. Okay, the G is a third of uh E, the key of E that we're in. But it's like it's such a cool, it's like very very bluesy. I mean the whole song is very bluesy, but this part in particular. And then uh right, that's just again more pentatonic stuff, but we got the That's the blues note, okay? The flat five. And then we explode into the big section. Oh, okay. It's not E major, actually, it's just it's just E5, which just means the root, the fifth, and then the octave. But you really gotta give it all you got. He's singing a fifth, and he's singing feed my eyes. Feed my eyes. I love that. He's going He's like literally dropping a whole octave. Feed my eyes, and then Jerry, can you sew them shut? And then when he goes, Jesus Christ, there's a really cool harmony on Christ. He goes, Jesus Christ! And he goes, Christ deny your maker. I love that. Deny your maker. He who tries will be wasted. Oh Fe and then I love I love the release on Uh Feed my eyes. Oh now you've sewn them shuts. Back to it. Okay, so the chords. So we're like So we're doing the the one, and then we go to the three, which is G, and then we go to D, the seven, and then to the four. Very like rock open chords. One three D D A I love that. And the bass line. I love I love that. Right? And then that's crazy. So it's so it's like yeah. Can you sew them shut? I love that. That is so that chromatic walk down is so cool. Can you sew them shut? I love it. It's like such a bop, right? And then we go back to They take their sweet ass time getting into the second verse. And then he goes, I'm the dog who gets beat. Right? Just the fifth to the minor seventh. Major sixth is the magical note here. It really is like a nice color. I'm the dog who gets beat, and then shove my nose and shit! Shit! Yeah, I think that major uh minor third shit! And then WAON SHIO K Save me That Save Me That Major Third really sticks out. Like we don't really hear that anywhere else in the song, but it's it's very bluesy to have ambiguity in the minor third and the major third, especially in the context of this song. It's it's so cool. Save me. And because we're going and he's going me, he's like outlining an E7 chord, which is like such a bluesy chord, E dominant seven. Save me. Right? That's what it sounds like. So cool. And then save me, sorry, save me. And then I love the So bluesy. Like if it was the song wasn't bluesy enough, back to it. Fan you sew them shut? Oh and then the there's a stick harmony that goes will be wasted on fee. Oh no no no no that's aw fee. Now you saw them shut okay. The shut and then I love Jerry right here. Like Hendrix does that a lot. That's when you go from the minor seven to the root, okay. I love that, and then that's the That's the same thing as the right? So and then I can't really do it on this acoustic, but it's like I love that because like you bend up a full step, and then you keep picking as you bring the bend down. Uh another solo that makes me think of this is the end of the smoke in the water solo. Right here. Right? I love that. But I digress. He goes, Jerry Cantrell goes and then he goes back to a full bend right at the end of the end, and then he does a crazy high bend there and then it goes it goes to this section, he's still soloing. And then it goes back to a final chorus, but this time instead of going faize, he stays there in that up upper octave. If he goes fais. Oh my god, can you so let's judge you? I love the contradiction. Like he's nice and reverbic, and then Gary uh Gary, Jerry, his his backing vocals are like drier than you think. They're not that reverbic. It's a really nice like production move, like a mixing move there. Lane is like, got that reverb, he's like so incredible. And the harmonies are really nice taste. It's so well produced. So when you really dive into the melody, it's like da da no no no That's the that's I'm the man. He's singing the major six there. And then he's like just pentatonic notes, right? But he does a little, he goes, he slides down right. Singing that fourth there, it's just like gotta lifts it up, it's like a nice tension. Can you so let them shut? No, denial make a and then chill be wasted. And then instead of going, he goes feed my eye. Just so bluesy. Right now you saw them shun owl owl owl owl owl owl owl owl. Shut! Such a sick song. It's so heavy and the mix is like so great. You can hear everything very clearly, the snare is huge. And Lane's voice, man, and God bless. Unbelievable. Thanks for listening, guys. It would mean the world to me if you could leave a rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. That really helps the podcast a lot. And if you'd like a private breakdown of your own original music, just check out learn.dambaricuda.comslash breakdown. I love listening to people's demos or you know their release tracks, just their original songs and giving my two cents on the production, the mixing, the songwriting. Uh discovered a lot of really cool music that way. So yeah, you can check out the show notes for that link as well. Or like I said, learn.dambarricuda.comslash breakdown. Thank you guys. See you in the next episode.