Ross Durand - Ultimate Gray

from SpinTunes 18 Round 1 by Spintunes

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about

I had no idea what color to write about, so for alternative inspiration I went and looked up the Pantone color-of-the-year for 2021. There are two of them, but the first one listed was “Ultimate Gray,” and I thought, “I can work with that.” The Pantone number for the color is 17-1504. This number serves as the musical back bone for the song. Assuming that all “dos” would be ones (no eights) I built both the main riff and the chord sequence for the chorus off of this number.

So the opening guitar riff that underlines the verses goes 1, 7 (it's technically a flat seven, but it works, and I hold the seven a little longer, representing the dash), 5, 1. Then there is a bit of silence with a ghost note “Chk” representing the zero, and it concludes with a power chord based on 4 (this is all in the key of B if anyone cares). The descending chord progression in the verses also uses these numbers B- A - F# - B - E, or 1-7-5-1-4 (I did not plug the zero into this part). I hope this all makes sense.

Anyway, I thought that could be of interest, since it is how I built the musical core of the song from the Pantone number for Ultimate Gray.

lyrics

The sky is gray
The shadows, too
The days are gray
Don’t know what to do
Since you’ve not been here
Don’t know what to say
But the way you make me feel now
Is the ultimate gray

It’s not black or white
It’s not ashes or lead
It’s not sadness or depression
It’s something else instead
It’s the color that says it all
When their’s nothing left to say
It’s the ultimate gray

My TV’s gray
When the signal ends
Everything looks gray
When the daylight ends
I close my eyes and it all fades away
But the way you make me feel now
Is the ultimate gray

It’s not black or white
It’s not ashes or lead
It’s not sadness or depression
It’s something else instead
It’s the color that says it all
When there's nothing left to say
It’s the ultimate gray

It’s not my favorite color
But it’s the ultimate
It’s not my favorite color

It’s not black or white
It’s not ashes or lead
It’s not sadness or depression
It’s something else instead
It’s the color that says it all
When their’s nothing left to say
It’s the ultimate gray

credits

from SpinTunes 18 Round 1, released October 4, 2021

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