10:10 I'm So Tired (pt.2)

The Melismatic Madrigalistic Mystery Tour

Last time, I characterised I'm So Tired as a throwback to an earlier standard of writing for Lennon. One very clear blast from the past is the return of melisma, the technique of stretching one syllable over many notes. Melisma is all over early Beatles albums like a rash

Misery: “treating me ba----d”
All I've Got To Do: “Whenever I------”
Hold Me Tight: "It's you, you you----"
I Wanna Be Your Man: "Ma-an!"
and Not A Second Time - all over the place!

But it all but vanished from later work, the only real example that come to mind is Because “it turns me on------”.

Here though it really emphasises the drowsy subject matter, stretching out “I'm so-o-o-o tired” like one long yawn. The effect is even more pronounced when he slides down from a B to a G# on the second verse “I'm sooooo tired”

Madrigalism

In fact the whole song is great example of madrigalism (Ticket 49), the stretched out lazy rhythm of the vocals and the drop from the root chord to the (out of key) VII chord

I'm so (A) tired (G#7)

makes it sound as though he's sliding down the wall as he slips into unconsciousness.

Melody

There's a lot of originality in the melody too. Lennon stays off the root note, hardly ever coming to rest (geddit?) The melody starts very unusually on the 2nd degree of the scale (ticket 50), the 2nd verse slide (see above) misses the root note out altogether and John uses other non-chord tones (ticket 13) as well, mainly singing lots of B's over D chords (6th).

In fact the whole song avoids camping out on the root. At the end of the verse the melody lands on the root, but over a Dm chord (the legendary iv or minor 4 chord) and at the end of the chorus we get the root chord A major but Lennon stubbornly keeps singing an E (the 5th). Apart from a solitary incident of b3rd blue notes, (ticket 22) on “no no no” the melody is completely diatonic giving a great example of ticket 14 – write in key melody over out of key chords. (We'll look at those chords next week).

Lyrically, we have some parallel lyrics (ticket 24)

I wonder should I - get up/call you
my mind is – on the blink/set on you

and straight repetition (I'm so tired on line 1 and 2) which adds to the stickiness, but the jewel in the crown is the humorous rhyming of cigarette/stupid get*, which should be enough to earn Lennon the title of 'Scouse Cole Porter'. It's something that the Arctic Monkeys did well on their first two albums, most notably coupling 'Ford Mondeo' with 'have to say owt' on When The Sun Goes Down.

Lennon sings “my mind is set on you” which is a weird phrase, especially when you think that 19 years later George Harrison went on to cover Rudy Clark's 1962 song Got My Mind Set On You.

Coincidence or something more sinister?!?!?!**

*If you're wondering 'get' is the Liverpool pronunciation of the English word 'git' which is roughly equivalent to the American 'S.O.B'.

**It was a coincidence, obviously. And yes, Paul is still alive.

12:5 Instant Lennon - Because (pt.5)

I’m finding lyrical parallels (T24) all over the Beatles catalogue but Because is the mother load. The whole song is based on just two such parallels.

Each and every verse is constructed like so...

Because the ____ is ____ it ____ (produces a particular feeling)

The Bridge

Love is ____ Love is ____ Love is ____ Love is ____

My turn

What about -

Because the milk is sour it makes me ill?
Because the bus is full it makes me late?
Love is fat, love is thin. Love is her, love is him?

It’s the Lennon random lyric generator!

Take it for a spin and share your efforts in the comments section!

Read more posts about Because here 

Another post? It Won't Be Long/All My Loving

12:4 Mr Lennon Is Unwell - Because (pt.4)

If the static chord-bound melody is one reason for Because feeling cold and detached another is the clash between the mood of the music and the lyrics.

Lennon is saying he feels turns him on, but he doesn’t sound turned on (in any sense of the phrase) he says he’s crying but he doesn’t sound upset. He just sounds strung out or in shock.

The whole song is one big mental BSOD
 
So if you want to write like a heroin addict here’s two suggestions for getting that emotional disconnect into your music.

1) Write a melody that just uses notes taken from the chords you’re playing over. Try to find progressions that threaten to go somewhere but somehow keep heading back to the root chord. Just make sure you throw in a few of the most left field chords you can find to stop it from getting boring.

2) Try to put lyrics and music together that are in conflict with one another. If the music is chipper make the lyrics depressed (see The Smiths for further details). If the lyrics are all about how hyped up you are make the music slow and ponderous.

Next time: The random Lennon lyric generator

Read more posts about Because here

 

12:3 The Bridge To Nowhere - Because (pt.3)

Though it’s not that obvious, the ‘Lennonised’ b5 (T22)  makes an appearance on because the world is roooouuunnnddd (0:49). We last encountered this sucker on From Me to You. As with all the other weird intervals in this song Lennon supports it in the chord part by making the A chord an A7, so you hear the b5 (which in this key is a ‘g’) in the melody aswell as the chords.

The bridge provides another brilliant move. We have F#maj leading to a G#7. This is the classic IV V move which 99 times out of a 100 leads us to the major root (in this case C# major). That’s it boys! We’re going to break out of the dismal orbit of C#m into the free clear skies of C# major!! Here we go into…C#m. Oh man I feel so depressed.

Next time: How to write like a junkie

Read Because Part 1

12:2 Acappella Road - Because (pt.2)

Silly me. In all my focusing on the weird chords and emotional detachment in Because I almost forgot to mention the brilliantly written and performed 3 part vocal harmony (each one triple tracked!)

Them boys worked hard!

Sorry about previous the video - the forces of darkness saw fit to remove it - If they do again you'll have to make do with this instead. There's four talented youngsters instead of 3 (maybe one is singing Ringo's part? ;-)

Because Part 1

12:1 Abbey Road - Because (pt 1)

A great song, some real songwriting lessons here, but not a very likeable song to my mind. It got a very detached ‘soulless’ feel to it.

Like I Me Mine, Because can’t be consider the last Beatles song because Ringo doesn’t appear on it (though he did play the role of human click track playing a bongo track which was later erased).

Lennon claimed he wrote the song by getting Yoko to play the chords Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata backwards, but really there are only the most tenuous of links.

They’re both

in the same key  - C#m
based largely on arpeggios (as is much of Abbey Road)
and use C#m, A, & G#7 (very common) and D major (very unusual)

Musically this song is a good example of how to balance complex and simple ideas in the music.

SIMPLES

The melody is made up almost totally of chord tones which gives it a very static feel. There is almost no development arrangement-wise throughout the whole song.

The intro is one complete instrumental verse (30 seconds worth!). This is quite a ‘stock’ thing to do nowadays but the Beatles were usually better than that (think about the creative intros on Help, She Loves You and all the other T4 songs aswell as the non-existent intros!).

COMPLEXTICATED

The song works because the chord progression is out to lunch.

The song is in the key of C#m. Here’s a complete list of chords that they use from that key.

C#m,
D#dim
A major 

Here’s the chords they use in the song that don’t belong in that key.

D maj
D maj b5
D dim
F# maj
G#7
A7
A7add13

In plain English that means they spend more time out of key than in key. Despite the arrangement the song never feels static or boring because you’re constantly being wrong-footed by the chords.

The melody sticks like glue to the chord tones but that’s not a problem when the chord changes are so bizarre.

Next time: the Lennonised 5th and the Bridge to nowhere.

Because pt 2 (acappella)
Because pt 3 (melody, bridge)
Because pt 4 (lyrical musical disconnect)
Because pt 5 (lyrical parallels)