Expert: Skeeter - 2/1/2009

Question
QUESTION: I heard a song most likely from the early to mid 70's on a radio station owned by a high school and operated by students.  They play anything and everything, all styles and eras of music.  The song had a singer that sounded like Steve Miller, so I will assume it is by him.  It has electric keyboards and a slight wah-wah guitar throughout the song, kind of a light funky feel.  The song changed key twice, from D to E (for the chorus) I think, and then back to D again, then back to E for the a repeat of the chorus.  Then it fades out.  The only lyric I remember, and it is repeated in the chorus both times, goes "There's still hope in this small town" (it could be "home town.")  It is the final line in the chorus.  The chorus repeats before the song fades out.  A google search has turned up nothing.  I checked some Steve Miller sites out and could not find these lyrics.  Any songs of his that came anywhere close to these lyrics ended up not being this song from the sound snippets that I could find.  So maybe it is not by Steve Miller at all.  There were no backing vocals that I recall, not even of him harmonizing with himself via multitracking.  I know it isn't much to go on.  But it was hard to make out even these few lyrics.

ANSWER:
I am a big Steve Miller fan but cannot think of a song by him that fits your description.

 I am going to have to ponder this one for a while.
 
 In the meantime, could it be a Joe Walsh song?  That sounds like something he would do.   It also seems to me he did do a song  with similar subject matter.  
 How do you know what key it is in and that it modulated up a step?  Was you holding an instrument and playing along with it?

 Also, do you know if this was a song that was a popular single?   That would narrow it down a lot.  I suspect if it is a college kids station they likely are not limited like commercial stations and can play album cuts.


 Anything else you can think of,  such as other instruments in the song, the tempo, a song that has a similar drum beat or tempo, a song it reminds you of,  any details  no matter how seemingly small might jog my memory.
 
 If I come up with anything I will send a followup.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: It sounds more like Steve Miller's voice than it does to Joe Walsh's.  But it may actually be by neither.  I used to play music in the high achool band years back, so I have some musical ability, which is how I know it changed keys.  It has been some time since I heard this song, so it may have started at E and went down to D in fact, i.e. the reverse of what I said earlier.  

In fact I tried to find this exact type of message forum to ask this question about the song at the time, but found nothing.   I stumbled across this site yesterday quite by accident.  Also at the time, I emailed a local DJ who worked for rock and classic rock stations from the 70's through the 90's and now hosts a radio show called "Relics" on a public radio station, a show that features old stuff from the mid 60's to mid 70's, and he didn't know the song either.  The student station that played the song plays both singles and album cuts from all eras.  This song is not a single as far as I know, as I have only ever heard it twice on that one single station.

They played another song that I also googled and fortunately struck gold that time, the song being "Mr. Skin" by a group called Spirit.  I only heard that song one time there, so it shows that they will play anything and everything.

But back to the song at hand, I will describe what is going on musically during the chorus.  The song is in common 4/4 time, and its tempo is about the same as that of "Life In the Fast Lane" although the feel of the song is not like that one at all.  The chorus, if it is indeed in the key of D, it is D major for one measure, then the 7th (the note C above the D) drops to a C flat for the next measure, then it goes back up to regular D major for the next measure, then the 7th drops again for the fourth measure.  There is singing in the chorus in the first measure (though not the lyrics I quoted), then there is no singing at all in the second measure (where the 7th drops), then the lyrics I quoted are sung in the third measure (regular D major here), then no singing in the fourth measure (dropped C).  Then it repeats again.

The exact note pattern of the singing in both the first and third measures is this:  Imagine the lyrics "there's still hope in this whole town" falling on even eighth notes but with "this whole" jumping in before the downbeat, and then "town" being a quarter note.  The exact notation being as follows for each word:  "There's" - C/eighth note, "still" - C#/eighth note, "hope" - D/eighth note, "in" - A/sixteenth note, "this" - C/eighth note (so it feels like it jumps in before the downbeat), "whole(or home or small)" - C#/dotted eighth note (again feels like it jumps in before the downbeat), "town" - D/quarter note.

If you can't read music, then the above will make no sense.  But I felt I should spell out as much as possible what I remember about the song in my head.  Thank you for any help you can provide.

Answer
  I do read music,  but I cannot say I recongize that melody line from anything.
  That melody line almost makes me lean toward something jazz,  such as Steely Dan.   

 I did quite a bit of research and I am not coming up with anything.  
This one has me stumped.  
If you can think of anything else, such as instruments or more of the lyrics please let me know.
 And if you find out the name of the song, please let me know, it has me curious now.