On Sunday, June 15, 2003, at 08:30 AM, David H. Bailey wrote:
Very interesting! I happened to see what he had to say about "You Know My Name, Look Up The Number" and I wonder what any of the Beatles themselves would think of his analysis -- I know that it certainly was way more involved than I ever considered when I heard the song. But in typical musicologist manner, he does find some interesting links that I wonder whether the Beatles had in mind when they recorded the song.
I haven't checked out his analysis of that tune, but in his page on "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," Alan makes what I think are some reasonable caveats about the band's awareness of more intricate structural stuff present in their music:
Most salient in this scheme is the repeated motif of root harmonic motion by a third (rather than along the cycle of fifths), creating in each case a tangy cross relation; i.e. the move from A to F pits F# with F-natural, and the move from B-flat to G pits B-flat with B-natural.
What really sparks my imagination here is the way in which this same motif of motion in thirds is carried through in the melodic material. For example, in the verse you have triadic outlining (C# -» A, C# -» E), and in the bridge you have that slide from D -» B-flat (on the two syllables of "away"). For that matter, you can also point to those parallel thirds harmonizing the refrain!
And yes, I'll grant you that John was an essentially intuitive composer working entirely without awareness aforehand of such precious internal details. But that doesn't mean the effect is not implanted in the music. Attribute it to, or blame it on, George Martin, if you > will.
I leave you with one final detail in the song that, intuition aside, convinces me that what I'm describing is no random accident:
Did you ever notice how, in the transition from verse to bridge, the bassline outlines a D-Major triad (| F# - A - F# | A - F# - A | D ... |) and immediately following, the so-called harpsichord part mimics the bass's melodic oscillation over a minor third using notes chosen for the extent to which they emphasize the cross relation between F# and F-natural; | E - C# - E | F-natural - D - F |.
Go check it out -- in the second verse/bridge combination they execute it more sloppily than the first time around, but it's there both times, no question. No coincidence.
My best guess is that John and Paul just intuitively gravitated towards this stuff. They found these structural relationships interesting for the same reason that a lay listener might find them interesting, without being consciously aware of what's going on, or able to describe it in technical terms. They just had really, really, really, really good musical instincts. (And, as he says, a brilliant, sensitive producer.)
- Darcy
----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Boston MA
No one likes us I don't know why We may not be perfect But heaven knows we try But all around, even our old friends put us down Let's drop the Big One and see what happens
- Randy Newman, "Political Science"
_______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
