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(c) Ian Hammond 1999
All rights reserved

Alanis Morissette and Uninvited
The song Uninvited, which Alanis Morissette provided for the film
City Of Angels, has already been commented on as Lennon-like by a
previous poster. I sometimes hear shades of _Revolver_ or Lennon's
first solo album in her work.  In her August 1996 Q magazine
interview, Morisette happily admits to being a neohippy:

   "Yeah, I am a hippy. I fluctuate between being very 1996 and very,
   um, 1970. If someone were to send me somewhere else in time it
   would definitely be to the whole hippy era, definitely."

So, here's a quick look at Uninvited, through a Lennonscope. 

The song has the basic scheme below (I don't have the track on me, so
this is a rough approximation from memory; some chords are wrong).

Verse   |D      D+   D  |D      D+  D   |g              |D      D+  D
|
        |D      D+   D  |D      D+  D   |g              |D      D+  D
|
        |D7             |G              |D              |A7/d
|
Verse   ...
Bridge  |D + lots of things ...
|
Verse   ...

The augmented tonics (D+) are reminscient of Lennon. Lucy, Dear
Prudence, Isolation, Nobody Loves You... and Free As A Bird are
just a few of this songs which combine a simple repetitive riff with
chromatic chords, including an augmented tonic. In this case the riff
is the notes d-a-bb-a, repeated over the chords D-D-g-D.

The general construction of the verse, with its repeated D chords and
close that suggests C-G-D, reminds me of Dear Prudence, particularly
when the first verse has a repeated single note D bass. 

Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out, from Walls And Bridges,
with its neapolitan G minor chords and with its general Italian
scheme (soft-loud), to the general harmonic scheme of Uninvited.

The cadence, on"un-in-VI-TED, handles VI and TED as in the early
psychedelic when the RAIN COMES, or the Rolling Stones' the WIND
BLOWS (Child Of The Moon). I-sol-AT-ION is not far away.

The psuedo-bridge, which harmonically consists of the tonic plus as
many discords as can be found, acts like the climax in A Day In The
Life. But Morissette still has yet to find her George Martin (and her
Ringo Starr for that matter). 

Melodically, the song is pure Alanis, using the same patterns as Your
House. But, in this song she hangs on to f sharp as a reciting note,
just as Lennon likes to do in Lucy... . It is the reciting note plus
the chromatic single note riff that puts a definite Lennon stamp on
the construction. Of course, the song has many other post-1970 colors
as well, along with Morissette's own indelible stamp, particularly in
the shining ferocity of the vocal harmony and the repentence of her
Jagged Little Pill tracks such as Forgiven and Your House.

So, do I think Alanis was directly influenced by Lennon? Maybe, but
probably not. These musicial traditions I mention go way back and have
been picked up by many others, some of whom are acknowledged
influences (e.g. Tori Amos). What we can say is that both Morissette
and Lennon are attracted to the same kind of tradition, which tells us
something about both of them.

ian hammond
=======================================================
"must be strangely exciting, to watch the stoic squirm"