Speak To the Sky
Speak to the Sky by Rick Springfield is my selected piece of music. The song featured in Springfield’s first album Beginnings which was released by Sparmac Records on August 28, 1972, in Australia. Rick’s hit song falls into a unique musical genre known as “skiffle”. What strikes me about the musical piece is first, the skilled use of an ancient acoustic guitar and how it blends with the banjo and drums that are played by his backup instrumentalists. The 2.37 minutes song begins with Springfield playing freely the G, C, and D minor chords of his guitar at the introduction of the song as he sings the verse two lines before the drums and banjo interlude (0:01- 0:20).
The song’s dynamics at the start capture the listeners’ attention as Springfield rocks the strings for five seconds before beginning to sing. There is cohesion between Springfield’s melody, the backup singer’s harmony, and the deep percussion pitch played by the drums (0:21-0:37). There is a smooth transition from one verse to the other, therefore attaining rhythm. The sousaphone-like sounding drums change the song’s tempo in between the end of the verses, thus eliminating possible boredom. Additionally, in the first two verses, Springfield repeats the words, “to the air” and “to the Lord” respectively, therefore creating repetition which enhances memorability of the song.
Towards the end of the song, the song’s tone slightly rises and the words “to the air” are repeated once whereas the words “and the world will look better from up there” are repeated twice to imply the climax of the song and also stress the song’s intended message (verse 7). The drums produce a sousaphone-like pitch, therefore, bringing life and danceable beats to the song. A combination of the three musical instruments gives the song the taste of a mixture of blues, jazz, country, and American folk music. It is the integration of these four genres that makes the song unique among other contemporaries.
Rick Springfield was born on August 23, 1949, in Guildford, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (Huey, 2020). He is an Australian-American who relocated to the United States in mid-1972 having worked with Zoot between 1969 and 1971. Springfield’s music career began at the early age of 13 years when he first learnt to play the guitar. Rick featured in various bands within England between 1958 and 1963and afterwards to Australia until 1971 when he relocated to the U.S.
However, in as much as there are no known and documented information on the song’s setting, the 1972 release came at a time when Australian music mas majorly jazz, blues, and American folk music. Richfield’s song, among other successive pieces, greatly influenced the works of other artists such as Anthony James Donegan who produced a version of Speak to the Sky in 1972 (Huey, 2020). Rick Springfield’s Speak to the Sky, is classified as “music in a sacred place”. The song has a spiritual impact as it reminds me of my dependence on God when troubles arise. The concept of speaking to the Sky implies looking up unto God.