Popsicle tunes

Popsicle Tunes
There is a phrase used among musicians as to the construction and chord progressions that typified many early,
uncomplicated rock songs. These simple progressions were referred to as Ice Cream Chord Changes, and they
characterized a good many of the simple doo-wop-style rock classics.

So the leap from Ice Cream Chord Changes to Popsicle Tunes seemed like a natural to me as I wrote the lyrics to
this cheeky little social commentary about the ultimate dysfunctional family.

Since Reggae song lyrics often deal with the subjects of faith, love, sexuality, relationships, poverty, injustice and
other social issues, it seemed like the perfect style for this song.

Chuck played bass on all of the other Prufrock sessions, but for some reason didn't play Popsicle Tunes. We had a
bass player come in that was supposed to have the feel for what we were looking for. After listening over the next
couple of days to the playback of the basic rhythm track, Tom felt that the bass part didn't quite captured the real
essence of Reggae, with its rhythmic chops on the off-beat, sometimes called the skank by musicians. The bass
player had over played the part. Classic Reggae has accents on the third beat in each four-beat bar, and that
syncopation wasn't coming through. So Tom isolated the Bass Track of the recording, and laboriously erased
selective notes so a Reggae of sorts was accentuated. A couple of months later the bass player was in to do another
session and wanted to hear how Popsicle Tunes had turned out. Tom was worried the guy would get upset with all
the changes, but when he heard it, he thought be had played it that way, and congratulated himself.

The synth player on all the sessions would stand in the control room and crank out pretty much anything Tom would
ask for and more. The little melody on the organ was his idea. It was a melody on a kids TV pirate show.

Using rim shots instead of snare was something Tom wanted. A cheap Jamacian studio in the 70s would not have had
an expensive reverb, but a spring reverb which has a certain quality that is quite distinct. The rim shot beat has
spring reverb on it.

Finally, to add more vocal texturing to the song, the singer that had added parts to Look At That Bottom, and
Something's Going Right added her magic to Popsicle Tunes. She added three parts and her trio were the sprinkles
on top of the tune.