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.

The Band Who ... Lived Outside

In my recent guest post for songwriting scene I let slip the remarkable fact that the very melodic and accessible Beatles only stayed in key for a remarkable 22 songs out of 186. Well I spoke too soon. I was looking primarily at chord progressions. When I factored in the actual vocal melody the number dropped to an incredible 16!

That right,

16 out of 186.

Here’s the list (with primary authors) followed by a breakdown and some ‘also rans’.

The 16 in key songs

All Together Now - M
Dig It - LMHS
Don’t Let Me Down - L
It’s All Too Much - H
Long Long Long – H
Love You To - H
Misery - LM
Not a Second Time - LM
Paperback Writer - M
Rain - L
She Said She Said - L
Thank You Girl - LM
The Inner Light - H
Tomorrow Never Knows - L
Yellow Submarine - M


The first thing that stands out to me is that percentage-wise Harrison (and Starr!) are over represented - I think. (Help me out with the maths someone!). 4 Harrison tunes (It’s All Too Much, Long Long Long, Love You To, The Inner Light) might not seem a lot but he only contributed 21 (and a quarter!) songs in 7 years).

There are 2 kids songs (All Together Now, Yellow Submarine), 1 throwaway track (Dig It) and 3 ‘Indian’ songs (Love You To, The Inner Light, Tomorrow Never Knows).

There's more. Don't assume 'in key' means in the major or minor scale. Paperback Writer, Rain, She Said She Said, The Inner Light, Tomorrow Never Knows are in the Mixolydian mode throughout and Love You To is built exclusively on the Dorian mode.

Are You Sure?

If you’re surprised about Rain (which sounds major but for McCartney’s bassline) and Love You To (which sounds Mixolydian) – so was I!

Both song mess with your head by omitting a note, but tricking you into thinking you've heard it. By leaving out the 3rd but using the major 6th, Harrison cons you into thinking you’ve heard the major 3rd as well. Rain’s chord progression of G C D5 has you mentally filling in the missing F# (in the D chord) simply because you’ve heard that progression a million times.

And The Runners Up Are...

And I Love Her stays in key for most of it’s length but blows it with a key change from E to F and then a weird final chord.
Goodnight loses it in the instrumental interlude (which to be fair may be arranger George Martin’s work)
In Spite Of All The Danger stays in key, but also stayed unreleased till Anthology.
I’ve Just Seen A Face would have made the list but for a G natural in the guitar intro.

2 more would have made the list but for bluesifying the melody, (Ticket 22) namely, Starr’s Don’t Pass Me By and the harmonica opening of Love Me Do.

So what?

Let's Get Lost

There’s no getting away from it. The Beatles songwriting career was one long mission to escape from the straight-jacket tonality of major and minor scales (whether they were conscious of it or not).

Think I’m making something out of nothing? Here’s your assignment. Out of your next 18 songs, only 1 of them can be in a major or minor scale.

Let me know how you get on!

Related post: The band who needed no introduction

Under The Influence

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Chapter 2.9 With The Beatles - Not A Second Time?

In every great artist's bottom draw there are a million failed experiments and 'nearly great' works of art.

Not A Second Time is one.

Where several songs on this album kick off with a vi I progression they keep shaking things up by trying the chords the other way round (I vi - G Em) instead.

But nevertheless the song plods along aimlessly, stopping by a soporific piano solo before (horror of horrors!) fading out (perhaps through lack of interest).

What’s missing? 

(other than a proper ending)?

Backing vocals. Non diatonic chords.

But I think the song is killed by an overdose of melisma and the fact that nothing happens lyrically.

Lennon’s not doing anything.
Not even crying.
And he’s certainly going to go out with her again.
Meh.

Yes, A Second Time!

Here’s a funny thing. Listen to the vocal phrase at 1:54. (give or take a second if you're watching the video)

 

Now listen to the vocal phrase in All I’ve Got To Do at 0:10.

 

Exactly the same melody and rhythm! How’s that for recycling?

Not a second time my eye!

Today’s lessons?

1. Use melisma sparingly, unless your name is Handel.
2. Try make sure something happens in your lyrics.
3. It’s OK to blatantly steal (as long as you’re stealing from yourself).

Discuss.

Lennon stretches ‘you’ and ‘time’ out here for seven notes. FAIL.
What the longest example that you can think of that actually works?

The Band Who...Needed No Introduction

So here I am working my way through With The Beatles and I’m blown away all over again by the Beatles' economy when it comes to intros. Here’s a survey of what happens before the vocals come in.

2 songs have no intro whatsoever

It Won’t Be Long – (song starts with chorus vocals)
All My Loving - (song starts with verse vocals)

6 more tracks have only a single note before the vocals enter

She Loves You – ½ bar drum fill (0.5 sec)
I’ll Get You – one bass note
Please Mr Postman* – single hi-hat
All I’ve Got To Do – single free time guitar chord
Not A Second Time – single piano bass note
I Wanna Be Your Man – single guitar string bend

The rest have intros ranging between 1 and 17 seconds. 

5 of these (including the 3 longest) are cover versions*.

Hold Me Tight – band intro (1 sec)
Don’t Bother Me – guitar solo (4 sec)
Little Child – harmonica solo (6 sec)
I Want To Hold Your Hand – band intro (6 sec)
Devil In Her Heart* – guitar solo (6 sec)
Till There Was You* – guitar solo (7 sec)
This Boy – band intro (9 sec)
You Really Got A Hold On Me* – band intro (14 sec)
Money (That’s What I Want)* – band Intro (15 sec)
Roll Over Beethoven* – guitar solo (17 sec)

Author Jay Frank devotes a whole chapter in his FuturehitDNA book to explaining why intros got progressively longer after the 60s (longer intros suited radio ident jingles) and peaked in the early 90s when the rise of mp3s and the 'skip' function in streaming once again began to reward shorter intros.