12:8 She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (pt.3)

OK my answers to the questions I posed last time.

1. Where does each section start?

The verse starts on the A chord. There is no lead in. The weird thing is, the band drops out for the first bar - very unusual. But examples abound of them dropping out for the bar that precedes the first bar (in practice usually that last bar of the intro or chorus).

The next section? I don’t know! I’m changing my mind even as I type this!

If the section starts on the Dm – preceded by a lead in of “didn’t anybody” then that makes the verse 8 bars long, but also makes the second section very weird.

So here’s my answer. The last bar of the verse IS the first bar of the next section.

(pauses to take medication)

2. Keys

More certain about this. The verse is in A mixolydian. Not A major because there isn’t a G# in sight but G naturals are everywhere (in fact the first note of the melody is G).

A mixolydian - A B C# D E F# G A

The next section is in D melodic minor – (that right! you heard me right, fool! Melodic Minor baby!... ahem..) going into C major on “Sunday’s on the phone” part.

D melodic minor – D E F G A B C# D

C major - C D E F G A B C

To me the D sounds like the root note of this section (which, added to the band dropping out, is probably why I hear it as the first bar).

3. Bridge or Chorus?

Even easier. The other section is a chorus.

If they’d sung it once I might have been tempted to call it a bridge, but if you sing it twice with exactly the same lyrics and all you have in the rest of the songs is 3 verses, then to me it’s a chorus.

A title-less chorus maybe, but a chorus all the same.

So what have we learned

Apart from the fact that McCartney’s lyric writing mojo had left him, not a lot. We’ve just had a two post theory lesson that is even starting to bore the pants off me.

Never mind!!!

Now we’ve cleared up the confusion (or maybe just created some more) next time we can delve right into possibly the greatest chord change McCartney ever wrote.