Golden Ticket: The Seven Drop

How do you use the 'seven drop' (Ticket 60) in one of your songs? Easy! Just start on the root chord and then immediately descend to the chord built on the seventh tone of the scale. In minor keys this is nothing special - it just gives you Em to D or Am to G etc - but in major keys things get interesting...

the 'correct' I – VII change in the key of C would be

C to B dim (B D F)

 or

C to B half dim 7 aka Bm7b5 (B D F A)

But that's a weird jazzy chord and many rock/pop guitarists don't like it (or even know it!).

So the Beatles tended to make things more complex by using simpler chords that don't fit in the key, like

C B7 (B D# F# A)

I VII7

or

C Bm7 (B D F# A)

I vii7

(out of key notes are in bold)

So we get progressions like I'm So Tired

      A  G#7   D                    E7
      I   VII7   IV                  V7
I'm so tired I haven't slept a wink


or Sexy Sadie

G          F#7      Bm
I           VII7      iii
    Sexy Sadie,          what have you done?

The verse of Martha My Dear doesn't have chord changes per se as it's made up of several interweaving lines but the progression that's implied is

Eb                                    D5           Gm
I                                       VII5          iii
Martha my dear though I spend my days

There's more going on than meets the eye (ear?) tonality wise here, because the root note and key here is actually F, but I'll save that for the next post. For now all we need to know is that our ear assumes the initial Eb is the root until we get to the end of the phrase.

Another example is Radiohead's Karma Police (directly inspired by Sexy Sadie) where the chorus has the same chord progression as part of Sadie's verse


Sexy Sadie 

C                      D                 G      F#7
IV                    V                  I       VII7
    You made a fool of everyone


Karma Police

C              D             G      F#
IV            V              I       VII
     This is what you get


The most famous/obvious example of this is Yesterday

F               E7sus4            A7                         Dm
I                VII7sus4         III7                        vi
Yesterday             all my troubles seemed so far


It's interesting that almost all these examples are from the beginning of the verses. So you could say the ticket works most effectively as a means of pulling the rug out from listeners the second they set foot in(on?) the song.

And also, whether we're going on a brief trip to a new key or heading for a home we didn't realise we had, the next step is often the same. Start on a major chord, drop a semitone to the seventh and then drop a fifth to the third degree of the scale.

     I – VII – III
eg C - B   -   E or Em

Next time we'll pause to look at some essential background work. What key is Martha My Dear in, and where exactly is the 'one'?

10:11 I'm So Tired (pt.3)

12 Bar Snooze

One of the great mysteries to me about the Beatles evolution is how a band that cut their teeth playing 12 bar blues covers in Hamburg nightclubs could go on to pen so few 12 bar blues songs themselves. To be sure the influence survived in the bluesy vocal lines and inflections in melodies like From Me To You and She Loves You. But the 12 bars structure seems to be something they outgrew. Or did they? Because a surprising number of tracks that don't appear bluesy from Don't Bother Me to The Fool On The Hill are built on 12 bar sequences (ticket 35).

In I'm So Tired the chorus chord progression clearly owes a debt to the American south

A A A A
D D D D
E E A A

just switch the D's in bars 7 and 8 to A's and you have the most basic 12 bar you can have. But the AABBC rhyme scheme does a great job of disguise the origins.

On the verse

A G#7 D E
A F#m D E
A E+ F#m Dm Dm

we have 13 bars, but the Dm is really nothing more than the Lennon extension (ticket 52). John drags out the sequence merely to add “no no no” in precisely the way that John Lee Hooker or Robert Johnson might stretch a pattern to squeeze in one more fill or phrase.

In the verse, though the chords are a 106 miles from Chicago, the lyrical structure again reflects the blues.

Consider the stock lyrics scheme

“When you got the blues, you repeat the the opening line
I said, when you got the blues, you repeat the the opening line
Then sing something else, just make sure it rhymes”

essentially a three section structure with two parts the same (or similar) followed by one contrasting part. In I'm So Tired we have and 2 lines that start “I'm so tired...” sung over almost the same chord progression twice

A G#7  D E
A F#m D E

followed by a line that contrasts musically and lyrically -

  A                         E+            F#m           Dm
I wonder should I get up and fix myself a drink...

All in all a stellar example for ticket 35 - a non blues 12 bar structure.

Chords and Contrasts


While we're looking at that last line check out the chords. The song has only (!) three out of key chords (ticket 28) but each is an absolute gem. First the Dm in last two bar of the verse is the classic Beatles doo wop chord the minor 4 (iv) a trick so ubiquitous it's earned it's own ticket (ticket 8). Here instead of the doo wop approved progression IV iv I (D to Dm to A) we slam into it from a minor 6 (F#m to Dm to A) which is a progression we ran into last time in Bungalow Bill

He’s the E all-American G bullet-headed Am Saxon mother’s Fm son

Note: the final verse chord in both songs is a iv, both are Lennon songs recorded on the same day. Who says you can't recycle ideas?

You can hear this on She Loves You, You Won't See Me and I Will amongst others.

The other two chords, E augmented (E+) and G#7, both contain C natural which is the only out of key note that appears in the melody. The G#7 is the VII7 chord and is of interest because it's same striking chord Lennon used in Sexy Sadie

I'm So Tired - A G#7 D   E   -  I  VII7  IV  V
Sexy Sadie   -  G  F#7 Bm      -  I  VII7  vi

McCartney did something similar (using the minor version – vii7) on his most famous song

Yesterday - F Em7 A7 Dm - I vii7 III7 vi

Stuart Kidd and I used exactly the same G – F#7 Bm move on our song Sadie's Sister (hey, if you're gonna steal be shameless!) but this time the key is D major renedering the progression

Sadie's Sister - G F#7 Bm - IV III7 vi

which is similar to what Radiohead do in Karma Police

Lastly we have a lot of cool contrasts between sections (ticket 5). The verse has one chord per bar but the chorus spends a long time on each chords. Lyrically the verse states “I'm tired” but the chorus talks about why he's tired. And reflecting that distinction the rhythm of the verse melody is very dragged out with lots of melisma but the chorus is more rhythmic and bursting with nervous mental energy.

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.

10:9 I'm So Tired

It's not surprise that a song called I'm So Tired was written by John Lennon, the Beatle dubbed “probably the laziest person in England” and the composer I'm Only Sleeping and Good Night (Paul's Golden Slumbers being the only non-Lennon sleepy Beatles song).

What is more surprising is that it is such a well crafted, compact (ticket 2) song, worthy of Lennon's '64-'66 golden period, but with grungy production and real sense of humour. A perfectly written song with a woozy melody that is surprisingly 'vertical' for Lennon. John himself held it in high regard -

One of my favourite tracks. I just like the sound of it, and I sing it well

Lennon accompanies his own excellent vocals with some great organ playing, along with electric and acoustic guitar, McCartney doubles on electric piano, and Ringo overdubs a second kit (panned centrally on the choruses with the original kit panned left). Ringo, like the rest of the band, is on form, a subtle swing almost undetectable on the chorus (where everyone is banging out ¼ notes) but coming through on the verse.

More surprises? Though there's a massive contrast with the ragged Bungalow Bill, in terms of writing and performance, both songs were recorded and completed in the same session, the day before Lennon's 28th birthday.

Does the song consist of early period 'verse and bridge' structure (ticket 26) or more modern pop style verse and chorus? On balance the “You say I'm putting you on” feels more like a chorus but if so, it's one of the rare occasions that the title appears in the verse, rather than the chorus.

The spoken outro is gibberish, rather than anything meaningful in french, and certainly not any backwards masked message about Paul being dead.

The most fascinating elements to this song are the way it's built on a 12 bar structure though it isn't a blues, the use of madrigalism to unify the mood of the lyrics and music and as always a judicious helping of crazy out key chords. We'll cover some of those next time!