Beatles "Cliche Chords"
Daniel Caccavo
sch...@mail.coos.or.us wrote on 8/6/00 1:21 PM:
> Alan W. Pollack describes I->V-of-V->IV->I
sorry, gotta ask. What do you (they) mean by "5 of 5" (V-of-V)?
--
Danny Caccavo
dcac...@bellatlantic.net
"for your information, it IS a baby eagle...."
--
All follow-ups are directed to the newsgroup rec.music.beatles.moderated.
If your follow-up more properly belongs in the unmoderated newsgroup, please
change your headers appropriately. -- the moderators
Eramon1
>sorry, gotta ask. What do you (they) mean by "5 of 5" (V-of-V)?
>--
That'd be like the 2nd except that this way it's major...
that is, the 2nd (in C) would be Dm, the 5th is G. The 5th of G is D, so I-V of
V-IV-I would be (again in C) C-D-F-C, all major chords.
-Eric Ramon
Portland, Oregon
paramucho
wrote:
>The "Corny Chords" message thread has rekindled my interest in a topic
>that was driving me nuts a few years ago...
>
>In his notes on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (22 Nov 1995),
>Alan W. Pollack describes I->V-of-V->IV->I as *the* archetypal Beatles
>chord progression. (In the key of C this looks like C->D->F->C.) It is
>found in the songs Eight Days A Week, You Won't See Me and Sgt. Pepper's
>Lonely Hearts Club Band, and with minor variations in She Loves You, I
>Call Your Name, Yesterday, She's Leaving Home and even The End. In the
>aforementioned note Alan says:
Let me restate your question in more concrete terms:
o The sequence you're looking for is I-II-IV-I, i.e [C D F G] in C:
(I'm not sure I'd call it the "archetypal" Beatles progression).
Here's that sequence in each of the common Beatlekeys:
C D F C
D E G D
E F# A E
F G Bb F
G A C G
A B D A
o [C D G C] is very common in pop music: it's that closing [F C]
rather than [G C] which is rare.
o C major, the sequence [D F] is found throughout
the Beatles songs.
195x L *I Call Your Name C7 A7 D7 F (f) C7 Main chords
1963 LM *She Loves You C a6 F C Chorus
1964 LM Eight Days A Week C D(2) F(6) C Main chords
1965 M *Yesterday C(5) D7 F C Verse close
1965 M You Won't See Me C D7 F C Main chords
1967 M Sgt Peppers C7 D7 F7 C7 Main chords
1967 lM *She's Leaving Home Cgd g D9 G11 C Verse (weak)
1969 M *The End C D/c Eb F C Verse close
1974 L Nobody Loves You... C D F C Main chords
I CALL YOUR NAME
"I Call Your Name" shows the roots of the old pop music cliche [C A D
G |C ] very clearly. We can think of [C D...] being an abbreviation of
[C A D...]. In any case the essential feature you're looking for is
certainly present in that song: [...D F C], with the plagal close [F
C] replacing the expected full close [G C].
SHE LOVES YOU
The chord sequence used in the chorus comes in a couple of different
flavors, but the [C a6 F C] shows the remarkable similarity of the
sequence to the favorite doo wop [C a F G| C].
EIGHT DAYS A WEEK
The "perfect" hit record that wasn't chosen because it was too
perfect? This has to be the prototypical use of the archetype. Note
that (Lennon I think) adds some open pedal notes to the chords in the
intro and outro.
YESTERDAY
The chords are cleverly worked into the verse close. McCartney
explores the natural descending chromatic line.
YOU WON'T SEE ME
A remake of "Eight Days A Week" with the chromatic descender very
prominent.
SGT PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND
Like "I Call Your Name" this song uses blues chords.
SHE'S LEAVING HOME
It's a bit of a stretch to relate this one to the model. There are two
many intervening chords I think. In any case, the F chord is actually
more like a G11, which goes back to the "common pop model".
THE END
The very last five chords of the last Beatle song use the sequence
modified to fit in a triple plagal (:-) sequence (as also heard in
"Lady Madonna" and other songs.
The question is: are there earlier songs that we can point to with
this sequence.
SHARP-SHARP
The traditional model of the sequence is [C D G C] (going right back
to one of the earliest recognised pop songs "Hello My Baby"). The
Beatles use that as well. "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" shows the
progression in all it's "Magnificient Men In The Flying Machines"
glory.
This sequence is related to the other common model [C A7 D7 G7 |C],
which we see as related to the doo wop chords [C a d G |C ].
SHARP-FLAT
The point of the [C D F C] sequence is that [G] is replaced with [F].
That's the reason you're going to find it hard to find precursors. You
will find sequences starting with [C D] and sequences ending [F C],
but they tend to belong to different traditions.
If you look at Lennon's first example, "I Call Your Name", it's
interesting to note that it combines two worlds. The overall chord
sequence is that of many western pop songs such as "Moonlight Bay".
However, Lennon plays the sequence in an african-american blues
context where the tonic has a (minor) seventh. In this tradition the
plagal close (F C7) is more common and more effective than the western
[G C].
FLAT-FLAT
n later years the Beatles changed this four chord model to act
entirely on the flat side with the double plagal sequence [C Bb F C].
George Harrison goes a step even further with [C c- F C] ("Isn't It A
Pity"). If we look at all these examples what we have in common is
this:
GENERIC SEQUENCE
Let's look at the four sequences identified so far:
[C D7 G7 C] sharp-side tradition sharp-sharp
[C D7 F C] "I Call Your Name" sharp-flat
[C Bb F C] "She Said She Said" flat-flat
[C c- F C] "Isn't It A Pity" flat-flat
The first and last chords are the tonic. The second chord is the
"exciter": in each case it goes somewhere a little unexpected. The
third chord is the cadence chord.
We can see an evolution here:
1. the "cadence" chord [G] is replaced with a flat-side chord [F]
2. the "exciter" chord [D] is replaced with a flat-side chord [Bb].
BTW: in traditional western musical language we have the "dominant"
being replaced by the "subdominant" and the "supertonic" being
replaced with the "subtonic". All a bit subversive.
THE QUEST
So, the quest is to find a pre-Beatles sequence of [C D F C]. I don't
think we'll find it in straight Western pop music. Some of the more
idiosyncratic composers who were aware of african-american music may
be a source. This could be as early as Debussy (who has some wonderful
chord progressions, including something pretty close to what we want
in "Claire De Lune").
Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gerswhin, Noel Coward, Roy Orbison,
Buddy Holly, Leiber/Stoller and the Everly Brothers songs would be a
good place to start. Country blues (and thus Rockabilly) would be
another place to look.
Ian
robert andrews
>So, the quest is to find a pre-Beatles sequence of [C D F C]. I don't think
we'll find it in straight Western pop music.
I first thought this claim was absurd, & then realized I couldn't come up
with an earlier song. I also view the chords like you, as I-II-IV-I. No
point in calling the II the V of V, when there's no V.
I think we'll have to go back to the turn of the 20th century to get the
first examples in American pop, and maybe some ragtime & early New Orleans
as well. The standard way is either I-II-V-I, or I-II-IV-IVdim-I. Folk
music uses the I-IIm-IV-I quite a bit, & Dylan has a famous one with
Positively 4th Street. As Tears Go By is I-II-IV-V.
Holly & Orbison are two good bets (not that I'm betting on this one), & they
may have used it as an intro or closer (like Yesterday). I'll think about
it & see what I can remember.
robertandrews
>The standard way is either I-II-V-I, or I-II-IV-IVdim-I.
Make that #IV dim, and usually followed by I-V-I, or I-VI-II-V-I.