Foreigner – I Want to Know What Love Is

Album: Agent Provocateur

Writer: Mick Jones

Producer: Mick Jones, Alex Sadkin

Released: 1984

Genre: Soft rock

Length: 5:01 (2008 Remaster)

Chords: http://www.e-chords.com/chords/foreigner/i-want-to-know-what-love-is

Mick Jones joins the camp with other songwriter throughout the years that said the song just came to them. He was playing around one night with his new synthesizer and the chords and chorus manifested in a burst of inspiration. I believe I read the chorus to Toto’s “Africa” being written in a similar fashion.

However, the song is quite spiritual in nature and is considered a power ballad by many although Jones still thinks of it as a universal love song. It’s an anthem of the era with big gated drum sounds, lush synthesizers and powerful choruses. In fact, “I Want to Know What Love Is” might have the biggest chorus of the entire decade with a 30 party choir borrowed from New Jersey Mass Choir.

Song Structure

“I Want to Know What Love Is” has only three parts, verse, pre-chorus and chorus.

Intro-Verse-Verse-Prechorus-Chorus-Verse-Prechorus-Chorus-Outro

The solid vocal melody is what makes this song so powerful. The spacious and melodic chords that counterbalance the melody makes the whole production work so well together. And you know, that choir definitely helps.

Arrangements

The ambiance starts off right away with the instantly recognizable synthesizer playing pad-like chords with a distinctively 80’s sounding drum kit playing a simple straight beat in the background. The four-note bell melody is a recurring theme throughout the song that plays a counter-melody to the main vocal line.

First and Second Verse

The vocals enter with the intimate yet spacious vocal sound of the typical 80’s ballad. The constant synth organ plays the chords in the background, and even though it’s a pad-like instrument it’s actually the instrument that drives the whole production.

The arrangement breaks between the two verses for an explosive accent with every instrument sustaining underneath the main vocals gasping a haunting “woohah”

The synth chords that sustain into the second verse melody gives the second verse an added depth that brings something new and interesting for the listener to enjoy. The second synth part plays the same chord progression in a higher register. Take a special listen to the groove of the hi-hat pattern that creates an opposing fluidity to the song that contrasts with the other rhythm parts. Additionally the bass perks up a little bit and starts grooving more and also plays the counter-melody with the bell synth.

Pre-chorus

The rhythm section changes things up a little bit in the pre-chorus. Listen to the groove of the kick drum and bass guitar. The bass follows the double kick-drum pattern and it creates a contrasting rhythm to the fluid sound of the rest of the instrument as well as the other parts of the song. The organ plays a higher register to add extra depth and presence, making the pre-chorus bigger than the preceding verses. The pre-chorus ends as all instruments unite in following the same walking line of notes, pushing us into the chorus.

Chorus

The chorus takes the cake for probably being one of the biggest power ballad choruses. The New Jersey Mass Choir picks up backing vocal duties and lends it a distinctly spiritual feel. If “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2” owns the best choir production of the 70’s then “I Want to Know What Love Is” is the gold medalist for the 80’s.

However, it’s not all lead melody as the recurring countermelody plays subtly in the background and the organ pad plays lead rhythm. The drummer predictably switches to the ride to give it a bigger feel as one would do in the chorus playing a simple beat in the background.

Third Verse

The counter-melody opens up the third verse. After the first vocal phrase the counter-melody is repeated, but this time layered with additional synth sounds. A new backing vocal element singing “oohs” is used to contrast this third verse with the other two.

Pre-Chorus

The difference in rhythm and timbre of first phrase of the vocal melody from one pre-chorus to the next keeps the song from sounding the same every time. Other than that, the arrangement in the pre-chorus is mostly the same with the exception of a stringy synth sound that’s used to sustain and build up the pre-chorus into the chorus.

Chorus & Outro

The second chorus is pretty much the same as the first one just with a little more intensity in the performance. When it repeats the performances really shine. The vocal ad libs really make it sound gospel. The choir gets even more intense and Jennifer Holliday really  pushes her vocal chords to the extreme in the background. All the synths are playing full blast with the counter-melody responding to each vocal phrase.

The Production

The 80’s sound of power ballads has two very distinct things going for them.

Reverb and synthesizers.

And they both need to be big and massive. The synth pads that dominate this song probably came from the Yamaha DX7. The hall presets on the Yamaha SPX90 was also used on multiple 80’s records and you can get very close to an eighties sound with a judicious amount of reverb. But reverbs were also gated and the distinct snare sound on the song is the classic gated snare sound that was popularized by Phil Collins, Prince and countless other 80’s artists.

What’s also interesting is the complete lack of guitar. This is a purely synth-driven song, with every lead instrument except the vocals being some sort of synthesizer or keyboard part.

Key Take Aways

Pads can be leads – The pad instruments are a huge part of the song and really drive the song and would dictate most mix decisions if you were to mix it.

Choirs make things big – You don’t need a 50 person choir to make a massive chorus. If you can get a few people in a great sounding room singing together as an a cappella group you can try to do a couple takes to stack the vocals. Get the effect of the choir with less people.

Build and Drop – “I Want to Know What Love Is” builds very gradually into the choruses but it also drops quite quickly between different parts of the song. The walking rhythm that leads into the chorus is a good example of different rhythm dynamics. The repeated intro between the chorus and third verse is an example of arrangement dynamics and the explosive hits between the first and second verse is a good example of transition dynamics that ties two similar parts together with a quick production idea that keeps things interesting. B