Dhany Saputra’s Blog

Chicago 17 is one of my favorite album. This most commercial album was released on 1984. Whole of this album showed the power and domination of synthesizer and orchestration. This album was one of 80’s album which had a very affecting soul of the 80’s genre. I had to admire on David Foster, a producer, arranger, horn arranger, synthesizer programmer of this album. He was also the main songwriter in this album. And you must know that this album affect most of Indonesian composer and arranger, included me LOL. The member of this band in this album is Peter Cetera (bass, lead vocal, back vocal), Bill Champlin (keyboards, lead vocal, back vocal, guitar), Robert Lamm (keyboards, lead vocal, back vocal), Chris Pinnick (melody guitar), James Pankow (trombone), Walt Parazaider (woodwinds, flute, saxophone), Lee Loughnane (trumpets), and Danny Seraphine (drums). After popularity of the album and the band name had been peaking, Peter left the band due to some disputes.

"Hard Habit To Break" was the song who made David to be winner on "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals" category and to be nominee on "Best Vocal Arrangement For 2 Or More Voices" on 27th Grammy Award. In the same program, he also won "Producer of The Year - Non Classical". "Hard Habit To Break" wasn’t written by David, but Kipner and Parker. David arranged the whole music and Jeremy Lubbock helped the string arrangement. The song told us about a man that being addicted to a girl and he thought that it was a hard habit to break. Peter Cetera (the bass player) and Bill Champlin (the main keyboardist) did the duet on this song. The clip told about dishonesty on couple, affairs. The song was opened with Bill’s play on his Hammond (his electric piano) and Walt Parazaider’s flute play. Then Peter sang only with Bill’s play. On Bill’s turn, Bill’s play was accompanied with David’s synthesizer complex arrangement. Afterward the band play their roles. I thought David needed 4 or more synthesizer tracks to do this complex section. David’s orchestra appeared clearly on the end of the song.

"You’re The Inspiration" was my favorite song in this album and over all Chicago’s album. There were lotsa kissing cameo in this clip.  This song has been recycled by Peter Cetera’s solo album ("One Clear Voice" and "You’re The Inspiration"), Az Yet featuring Peter Cetera (single), Kuk Harrel (album "Happy Day"), and Elkie Brooks (album "Inspiration"), even instrumentally by David Foster (album "Rechordings"). This song really show the power of synthesizer. I learn much arrangement lesson from this version. This song was written and arranged by both Peter and David and was lead sung by Peter. To show the complexity of arrangement, they had James and Lee to play the keyboard section, so there were 4 keyboard players played this songs : James, Lee, Bill, and Lamm. But I thought there were more than 4 string tracks in the real recording, because it’s too complex for 4 keyboard players. Hereafter, I think Peter didn’t play the real bass, but synthesizer bass with the help of keyboard. I think this song is an eternal love song. But you must know that this song was used to be given for Kenny Rogers’ album but it’s too late, then Peter got idea, "why don’t we put it on 17?"

"Along Comes A Woman", was written and arranged by Peter Cetera and Mark Goldenberg and was lead sung by Peter. This is a kind of upbeat song. The whole song was synthesized, including drum and brass section. The clip showed an adventure of Peter (acted as Indiana Jones) in Morocco, chased by the primitive tribes and Nazi army. The emptiness (except drum and melody) as an obligatory of an upbeat song was performed in mid melody part. Then the music entered one by one. Salute to David for his brass arrangement in the mid melody.

Stay The Night, was written and arranged by Peter and David, and was lead sung by Peter. This is the last clip Chicago made on 17. The song don’t need any brass sections. They only need the dynamic chord progression, good arrangement of back vocals, and synthesizer, as well as guitar play. The clip was so great! The clip was like a short film. Peter did the dangerous acts that might be done by stuntmen. Each of band member played a role in this clip.

"We Can Stop The Hurting", was written by Robert Lamm, Bill Champlin, and D. Neal and arranged by David Foster and Robert Lamm, and was lead sung by Lamm. Donny Osmond and Richard Marx did the background vocal on this song. This song need a bass player with strong and consistent hand because the bass was played in 1/16 tick and never stopped except for the bridge. What a bass player Peter was!

"Only You", was written by James and David and was lead sung by Lamm and Bill. Whole song arranged by David, vocal arrangement was handled by Bill and Lamm, and horn section was arranged by David and James. This song was also a brand new upbeat song. The modulation was so creative. Salute for the bass player.

Remember The Feeling, oh nooo this is a heartbreaking song. Written by Peter and Bill, arranged by David, vocal arranged by Peter, and string arranged by Jeremy Lubbock, this song just like Peter’s solo in this album. Besides Hard To Say I’m Sorry, You’re The Inspiration, 25 Or 6 To 4, after Peter’s departure of this band, he usually sings this song on his concerts and the fans always wait for this song to be sung. Salute for the string arrangement, it influence me much.

Please Hold On, was written by David, Bill, and Lionel Richie! This music arrangement was just like subgenre of 80’s. This type of arrangement can be found on Michael Jackson’s "The Way You Make Me Feel" and Titi DJ’s "Dandy". Bill used to sing this kind of song before he joined Chicago.

Prima Donna, written by Peter and Mark Goldenberg, was the original soundtrack of the motion picture "Two of A Kind" starred by John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. The synthesizer effect was so good that I had to learn it.

Once In A Lifetime, was written by James Pankow, and was arranged by James and David. If David didn’t help arranging this song, this song may get worse.

Overall this album wasn’t disappointing at all. Beside good materials inside, this album reminds me when I worked part-time. I used to work as a freelance programmer at that time, until my collected salary was sufficient enough to buy a computer. I used some of the rest of my money to buy this album and I saved the rest to the bank account. Such a nice memory.

David Foster is just a very talented arranger, composer, producer, and player in this world. In 1979, on 22th Grammy Award, David won Best R&B song category for After The Love Is Gone and was nominated for the category of Song Of The Year as well as Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals on the same song. This song then became a legend. In 1980 he was also being nominated for category Best Album Of Original Score Written For A Motion Picture on Urban Cowboy film with the well-known song Love, Look What You’ve Done To Me. In 1982, he won on category Best Cast Show Album as producer of broadway cast album Dreamgirls as well as he was just nominated to be producer of the year (non classical). In 1983, he was only nominated on category Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals on Al Jarreau’s Morning.
Nevertheless, in 1984 he won on category Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals on Chicago’s Hard Habit To Break and Producer Of The Year (Non-Classical) as well as was nominated to the Best Vocal Arrangement For Two Or More Voices on Kenny Rogers’ What About Me. After his success on producing Chicago, he was the most important person at that time. Then he was asked to write, arrange, and produce some movie soundtracks such as Color Purple, St Elmo’s Fire, White Nights. He was also asked to write, arrange, and produce some various artist (VA) albums, such as We Are The World, and make a success on some solo albums such as Kenny Loggins’ Forever and Chaka Khan’s legendary song Through The Fire. But in 1985 he was only nominated for producer of the year (non classical), Best Pop Instrumental Performance, Best Instrumental Composition, and Best Album Of Original Score Written For A Motion Picture for St Elmo’s Fire, as well as Best Instrumental Composition and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals for Through The Fire.

Surprisingly in 1986 he got President’s Merit Award. He also won Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals on Barbra Streisand’s Somewhere. He also nominated to be Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Producer Of The Year (Non-Classical). In 1988 David work for his own album and got nominee on Best Album Of Original Score Written For A Motion Picture for Winter Games and Best Performance Music Video for The Symphony Sessions. Notice that Winter Games was a proudly original soundtrack of Olympic Games in that year. The next years he wasn’t got any awards from Grammy.

In 1991 he shocked back the world by win the Producer Of The Year (Non-Classical), Record Of The Year, and Album Of The Year category for Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable. In 1992 he did the great music on The Bodyguard’s soundtrack. He produced and arranged I Will Always Love You and Run To You sung by Whitney Houston, and also Even If My Heart Would Break performed by Aaron Neville and Kenny G. He also produced, arranged, and composed a very lovely song on that soundtrack album, I Have Nothing, sung by Whitney Houston. So in 1993 he won Record Of The Year on I Will Always Love You and Album Of The Year on this album. He was nominee of Best Song Written Specifically For Motion Picture Or TV and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompaying Vocals on I Have Nothing. Besides, in the same time he also won Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompaying Vocals on When I Fall In Love (Theme from "Sleepless in Seattle" Soundtrack), sung by Celine Dion and Clive Griffin. He was also nominated for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompaying Vocals for Barbra Streisand’s Some Enchanted Evening. No wonder he was also won (again) Producer Of The Year (Non-Classical).

His music career didn’t stop there. In 1996 he also won Album Of The Year of Celine Dion’s Falling Into You and Best Instrumental Arrangement With Accompanying Vocal(s) for Natalie Cole & Nat King Cole’s When I Fall in Love, even if he just nominated for Album Of The Year of Michael Jackson’s History Past, Present And Future Book I, Record Of The Year of Celine Dion’s Because You Loved Me (Theme From Up Close & Personal), and so just nominated for Producer Of The Year (Non-Classical). By his age, he wasn’t just giving up. Now he was the producer of Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Buble, and Renee Olstead. Big salute for David Foster!!

Yesterday, precisely on Wednesday night, I came to UPT to join the "free" English conversation club for the first time. It’s so exciting, because the caretaker was my favorit tutor in UPT ITS Language Center, Mr Azzam Bey. That day he brought his friend, a student of UTAH University. It was so nice to talk to both of them. And suprisingly I recognized the other participants. They were mostly from Informatics ITS. I used to join their Informatics Conversation Club but now we met again on the same aim.

That day we learnt about academic behavior. We discuss about killer teacher, uncriticized teacher, misunderstanding with friends in the same class, until cheating vs "looking". After we finished discuss it, we compare it with American academic behavior.

Now I had two nice places to talk in English without any annoyance, IALF and UPT. The situation of both place was a fit one for talking in English. Hope my speaking skills are able to be improved.

At last I’ve found the right surrounding for get my English better. Today I’ve got placement test on IALF. There’s many interesting things I’ve experienced. There were 4 section for the test. Listening section took 10 minutes with 2 native speakers talking back and forth for different test number. There I had to choose the right word they spoke without any break or rest. I had to decided the very similar words. For example, the one that I was remembered, the speaker said, “The president was (s)elected ….” and we had to decide whether the speaker have said elected or selected.

Grammar section took 50 minutes. As I was used to getting in touch with grammar, so I could do it approximately 40 minutes. But there were many complicated and rare problems given in the test. That’s past perfect and simple perfect tenses. I used to have never to choose between past perfect and simple perfect tenses. But it did. Nevertheless, I have learnt it much recently so it doesn’t matter for me.

Next, writing section took 60 minutes. Again, I could do it approximately 45 minutes. I felt it just like when I write a blog. It flows anyway. And I think I need more self-improvement on it and I’ve got the place. Blog never correct your way of writing but IALF courses does.

After I’ve finished that, the receptionists told me to wait for the result on the sofa. I thought it was the last section when I was being called by Alex, examiner of last section, Speaking. The section was as fluent as my Indonesian interview except for the grammar, I used to obey them. Anyway, this is my first time speaking with native speaker, and I really need those kind of conversation. Then in the last section Alex gave me 4th grade of 7 on my overall English skills, meanwhile I got advance grade on UPT. So you must know which is better now. I had experienced those level degradation when I was enrolling the college. Teachers in my hometown told me that it would be easy for me to adapt my level of ability at college, but they’re wrong. I was nobody in college.

Nonetheless, after I’d failed struggling for reactivate English Area in my programming lab campuss when I needed English area of conversation, at last I found the right place to improve my speaking skills. Until now I’ve not met the right and capable English teacher for me yet, so I used to teach myself with book, but now I think I’ve found the right tutor. Beside English conversation at the class, I also heard about conversation night and English Area Cafe at IALF, and it motivate me to practise more on English conversation. But I still keep struggling English Area in my programming lab, in order to improve my other friends’ conversation skills.

Yesterday each finalist showed relatively bad performances. On Indonesian Idol 1, every finalist showed relatively bad performances, except Joy. Yesterday on Indonesian Idol 2, it did it again, but with exception of Judika and Mike, two thumbs up for them, although they didn’t do it maximally. I thought it’s right that singing upbeats needs an exclusive ability and learning, especially for the 80’s. Not every people can sing these well. That’s why I honour 80’s musicians and singers so much.

The very bad performance performed by Glenn, Fira, Yudi, and Maya. I give no eyes to theirs yesterday. Monita was going to a bad performance. She wasn’t success singing "Surat Cinta", written by Oddie Agam. She had no soul of that. I was going pessimistic while she sang that song yesterday and either were the three judges. Harri had very much pitching problem although he had had the soul yesterday. I thought the latter is of no wonder because he has Harvey Mallaihollo as his idol. Harvey have released th upbeat album, "Mau Tak Mau" on late 80’s and he might learn from them. Firman got better on this performance. He sang Hard To Handle, popularized by BlackCrows. I thought that was not really an upbeat. That was a rock. I thought he did it well because BlackCrows is his idol. I never saw Firman better than this. But I still don’t believe he will sing well on another unspecialized songs.

Mike … A+ for Andi Rianto, gave a very good intro. It seems that Mike can performed well on every kind of beats. He has soul on upbeat. I love this performance rather than his previouses. And I thought among all other finalists, Judika performs the best souls on the upbeat 80’s, Puncak Asmara, popularized by Utha Likumahuwa, written by Oddie Agam. Why in my opinion Judika performs better than Mike? Because Judika brought a great number of 80’s upbeat ornamentations, and Mike brought those less than Judika. Despite of that, Judika have a little pitch problem caused by his nervousness. And unfortunately, I have a little disagreement of Andi’s arrangement only on this song. He should be more 80’s than yesterday. He took less emptyness on string section. It’s too much lower octave string section and to little higher octave string section for an 80’s upbeat song.

And I just realized something after I saw the collaboration of 9 finalists : Judika sings better when he performs collectively with other people. It’s of his nature that he is a member of my favorite acapella group, Antero Boys a.k.a. Penta Boys. He always performs better than the others in a singing battle, but his ability hides again when he performs solo. Why?? Only Judika can answer it and fix it. It has been proven that he performed better than other singers on his singing duet with Ello, "Pergi Untuk Kembali", last week and "Serasa" yesterday.

And some views for the judges. Indra Lesmana, still keeping his objectiveness and professionalism. Titi DJ fixing her honesty. Meutia Kasim, don’t do dirty things in front of the camera. Don’t tidy up your (excuse me) bra when the camera is on, and don’t yawning without closing your mouth when the camera is on. You only deserve to criticize about fashion and clothes (maybe I’m learning this much from you) but you don’t deserve to criticize about vocal ability.

That’s my humble opinion about yesterday’s Indonesian Idol 2 Spectacular Show. I hope there will be better cameramen and camera manager for the next shows.

Still admiring Judika Indonesian Idol, I think he really has a good talent. When I see the recorded live singing of Ello featuring Indonesian Idol of Pergi Untuk Kembali today, I just realize that Judika sang better than Ello, more than I thought. In this song, he sang with a very ornamented jazz style. Although his mic had a small volume (sigh, set by the stupid or envy mixer operator), at the end of the song he can outperform Ello when Ello did the ornamentation. When he did the better ornamentation than Ello, all other Indonesian Idol who just shutted up on the stage, suddenly point their eyes to Judika and show their admiration. Also on Boys 2 Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You”, sung by the 10 finalist, he dominated the stage, and when he turned to sing, all of finalist again turned their eyes to him. And check me if I’m wrong, Judika was trying to help Maya from the elimination, to help Maya to improve her skill, but he failed. Judika still much better than Maya. But I think now Maya had a better performance than before, even if she’s just worse than Judika, Monita, Mike, Glenn, and even Harri. Talking about Harri, he was a newbie in jazz learner. His style was like me on the first time learning jazz. But soon I improve my ornamentation. I think Harri need time and hard willing to improve his professionality. He’s not ready to be the winner of Indonesian Idol now.

Talking about Monita, she’s just a very talented moderate skilled jazz singer. She had a very good future, only if she is well managed. Because of her, I’ve inspired to write a song for her. Hoping she accept my demo, later.

Talking about Mike, I think he was a boring singer. His style was stagnant. He had no good ornamentation skill. He just had charms and good attitude, with a “lazy” voice like mine :), but I can’t blame him to be an idol. I just disagree when Indonesian Idol decide Mike is better than Judika and Monita.

And talking about Andi Rianto I thank to Andi, due to his performance which make arrangers play more important in public’s eyes. Someday I’ll take his role. Someday …

So I’m waiting for Indonesian Idol, 30 minutes later.

KORSI (Komunitas Renang Sistem Informasi) kemarin kembali ke rutinitasnya yg udah sekitar 3 mingguan nggak aktif. Kemarin aku, Dolfi, Robi, Soni nyoba di Kenjeran … behhhh ternyata kemproh (meskipun tidak sekemproh yg dikatakan Ghofur). Dan yg jelas … bikin gosong … ternyata sama aja dg yg di KONI. Sekarang kakiku jadi belang 3 warna … putih (atas), agak hitam (agak ke bawah, bekas KONI yg sudah mulai kembali memutih), dan hitam (bawah, gara-gara Kenjeran, huh!). Untuk sementara aku bakal pikir panjang kalo diajak ke kolam outdoor.

Terus juga mengenai keamanan … buruk!! Untung tas ditaruh di loker. Kalo tidak … bisa ilang tuh. Wong kacamatane Dolfi ae ketemon diambil orang. Yg parah juga … kamar bilasnya. Masa’ tutupnya tirai semua, beberapa sobek-sobek pula, yg pintu cuman 3. Yg paling lucu pas si Robi mau masukin barang-barangnya ke tas setelah selesai mandi (tasnya ada di tempat duduk panjang), tiba-tiba Robi dikagetkan oleh orang seumuran Robi, nggak kenal, masih telanjang abis bilas, naik di tempat duduk itu, pas di depan wajahnya Robi, sedang pake celana sambil nerusin ngobrol dg teman-temannya yg lain. Raine Robbi pas kaget lhoo … wuakakakak. Paling dalam hatine Robi “wess wong-wong iki”

Ketidakmenarikan tsb akhirnya diakhiri dengan makan-makan (sarapan sekaligus lunch) di rumah Dolfi. Sing jelas untuk sementara waktu aku kapok dijak nang Kenjeran.

I’LL BE OVER YOU - Toto

Music & Words : Steve Lukather, Randy Goodrum
Album : Fahrenheit (November 1986)
Band formation : Mike Porcaro (bass), Jeff Porcaro(drum), Steve Porcaro (keyboard), David Paich (keyboard), Steve Lukather (lead vocal, guitarist), Joseph William (back vocal)

Some people live their dreams
Some people close their eyes
Some people’s destiny
Passes by

There are no guarantees
There are no alibis
That’s how our love must be
Don’t ask why

It takes some time
God knows how long
I know that I can forget you

REFF :
As soon as my heart stops breakin’
Anticipatin’
As soon as forever is through
I’ll be over you

Remembering times gone by
Promises we once made
What are the reasons why
Nothin’ stays the same

There were the nights
Holdin’ you close
Someday I’ll try to forget them

As soon as my heart stops breakin’
Anticipatin’
Someday I’ll be over you
As soon as my heart stops breakin’
Anticipatin’
Someday I’ll be over you

As soon as my heart…

At last, I’ve finished one f*cking day with Ghofur and Irfan. There are some interesting things that we’ve found. Gotta read the brochures soon and gotta come back there. Must I find the right choice. And I just realized, the last TOEFL I’ve got from UPT Bahasa is just a junk for them. Either junk for the score, or for the type of TOEFL. Even if you’ve got 600 in your institutional TOEFL, you’ll have no any proudness. That was a small score for them. The real challenges facing me. I must have a very good IELTS!! And I must get both a real International Paper Based TOEFL and an International Computer Based TOEFL as well as IELTS, rather than just an Institutional Paper Based TOEFL. Why I know it lately? Ohhh, I haven’t spent my age optimally yet. Hope for any miracle from God.