Woke Up This Morning

"Woke Up This Morning"
Single by Alabama 3
from the album Exile on Coldharbour Lane
Released June 1997
Format CD single
Recorded 1997
Genre Electronica, acid jazz, trip hop
Length 4:14
4:05 (Chosen One Mix)
Label One Little Indian
Writer(s) Jake Black
Rob Spragg
Producer(s) Alabama 3
Alabama 3 singles chronology
"Ain't Going to Goa"
(1996 & 2010 )
"Woke Up This Morning"
(1997 & 2011)
"Speed of the Sound of Loneliness"
(1997)

"Woke Up This Morning" is a song by English band Alabama 3 from their 1997 album Exile on Coldharbour Lane. The song is best known as the opening theme music for The Sopranos, which used the "Chosen One Mix" of the song.

Background and writing

Described as "a propulsive hip-hop song complete with Howlin' Wolf samples and a swelling gospel choir",[1] the song has been cited as a paradigmatic example of a "great theme song", which "generates anticipation, immediately puts the viewer in a focused frame of mind, and creates the kind of sonic familiarity that breeds audience loyalty."[2] Alabama 3 frontman Rob Spragg wrote the song after hearing about the 1996 murder case of Sara Thornton,[3] who stabbed her husband after two years of abuse, mistreatment and neglect.[4] The song is co-written with Piers Marsh, Simon Edwards and Jake Black.

"We started with a Howlin' Wolf loop, but a lot of blues lyrics are quite misogynist," Spragg observed. "So I turned it round to be about a woman who's had enough and gets a gun – it's quite ironic that it's become a New Jersey gangster anthem."[5]

Musical structure

The song is in 4/4 time and in the key of F minor. It uses combinations of other styles such as electronic music and blues. During the breakdown, there's an electronic chord progression in F major while the lyrics' melodic line is in F minor. It fades out with the electric chord progression in the tonic major.

Use in other media

References

  1. Murray Smith, "Just What Is It That Makes Tony Soprano Such An Appealing, Attractive Murderer", in Ward E. Jones and Samantha Vice, eds., Ethics at the Cinema (Oxford University Press, 2010), ISBN 978-0199793167, p. 78. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  2. Ron Sobel and Dick Weissman, Music Publishing: The Roadmap to Royalties (Routledge, 2008), ISBN 978-0203895689, p. 101. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  3. Duncan Campbell, "Face off", The Guardian, September 27, 2007.
  4. David Johannson, "Homeward Bound" Those Soprano Titles Come Heavy", in David Lavery, ed., Reading The Sopranos: Hit TV from HBO (I.B. Tauris, 2006), ISBN 978-1845111212, pp. 35-36. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  5. Q, May 2001
  6. Q, May 2001
  7. Gerard Gilbert, "TV credit where credits are due", The Independent, June 14, 2011.
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