Chapter 7 Flashcards
borrowing and the rise of rock
what is chord borrowing?
Let’s draw up this enlarged family, which involves recognising minor chords on the scale degrees of l, 4, and 5 (previously thought of as exclusively major), while ‘filling in the gaps’ ,’with major chords on the scale degrees of b3, b6, and 7 (sometimes referred to as
chromatic points when used in a major key).
The ‘Parallel ‘ Master Source - C Major and C Minor
The Beatles put each of the borrowed triads to work in a range of novel ways throughout their songwriting. This chapter goes through some applications for each chord in this enlarged framework, starting with the new minor chords.
McCartney gets right to the heart of the iv sound by having the melody exploit the only non -diatonic note in the chord: the C natural that acts as the b3rd of the Am chord. Though now it doesn’t drop by that lone semitone to B - as in the ‘ IV- iv’ minor cliche - it lives and breathes in its own right, leaping up to the 5th of the key scale, producing the melancholy effect of the opening line.
Most importantly, the dissonance created by the iv needs resolving and Paul manages to do this in two ways, returning first to I directly, and then by suggesting imminent resolution through a ii- V. The fact that the verse thwarts this set -up, moving instead to new pastures, adds to the sense of meandering that characterises this song.
The principle to take from both these songs is simply that ‘iv can substitute directly for IV’ - replacing it entirely.
the opening to the bridge in ‘I’ll Follow The Sun’ demonstrates neatly how The Beatles appear to conceive this ‘borrowed iv ‘ as originating from the very same ‘IV-iv-I’ ‘trick’ that they heard and favoured so much in the early days.
Just think for a minute about this ii -iv-I sequence. Isn’t the ii just a relative minor substitution for IV ? Replace the IV and we’re back where we started! ‘Variations on a theme’, as John Lennon would say. But it was with precisely such variations that The Beatles distanced themselves so cleverly from cliche.
John Lennon was equally familiar with iv, using it in a wide range of songs. For a Lennon example of a straight ‘iv for IV’ swap, look no further than the verse of ‘Nowhere Man’. The song may start out as a Three-Chord Trick, before the Em adds initial interest, but we soon swoon as Gm replaces G in the final line of the verse.
Lennon was using a determined iv-I cadence on With The Beatles to reconcile the potential Aeolian ambiguity in the verse of ‘All I’ve Got To Do’ (remember the effect of an opening vi chord?):
Notice also the preceding ii chord, which gives the effect of the extended ii -iv-I of ‘I’ll Follow The Sun’. Lennon’s use of both the ii and the iv here allows him to avoid the up - beat predictability of the IV (major) until the chorus (‘and the same goes for me’) by which time we are ready for it after the melancholy feel of a long stretch of minor chords.
It seems The Beatles were highly aware of the power of precisely this juxtaposition. Dig out ‘The Night Before’ to hear a predictable IV (en route to a V-I) being trumped by another mood -altering ‘iv’, again with the 6th in the melody. And what better ‘harmonic
rethink’ to accompany the very line: ‘Now today l find that you have changed your mind’ (0.23- 0.27)7
Lennon was still milking the same contrast as late as ‘Real Love’. Once again here’s ‘iv supporting a touching melodic 6th “ and one that lends subtle depth to the pre - chorus section, ahead of the conventional A major that follows in his favourite Four -Chord Turnaround.
But Lennon’s use of the minor subdominant surely reached a peak in ‘The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill’. It first features proudly in the sing-along chorus - one that’s, repeated identically in another key three semitones away, and each time with the melody line using the
b3 of the highlighted chord.
But this use of iv in the chorus is nothing in comparison to Lennon ‘s exit from the minor -key verse:
A humble setting, but that’s precisely why it makes the point so well. For this moment can be seen purely as a ‘borrowed v minor’, a chord that MacDonald perceptively suggests was used not to ‘pique classical ears by creating modal instability in the melody line but because going to A major would have been too obvious’.
And it’s a change that obviously fascinated John Lennon, too. For while it may have been light years removed from this early, hysteria-fuelled Beatlemania context the same ‘I-v’ move would later be responsible for some memorable, psychedelic unease in
‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. Here it defines the plunging denouement at the end of the line ‘Let me take you down ‘cause I’m going to .. .’
Here again the v proves a sure -fire method of creating tension and interest, particularly when providing support for
b7th in the melody.
Check out too, how, in the ballad context of ‘She’s Leaving Home’, a ‘I-v’ creates a dreamy backdrop for the teenage girl as she tip- toes downstairs on ‘Wednesday morning at 5 o’clock’.
Note how the minor dominant contrasts with the regular, major V, which itself resumes at the end of each verse, before the return
to E major.
Finally, the appearance of the same chord in two Lennon songs, ‘Julia’ and ‘Sun King’, helps us to make some interesting
observations in terms of substitution analysis (both songs in the key of C for ease of comparison).
Both extracts are harmonically similar, with the one differing chord easily explained as a simple ‘vi. -for -I’ substitution. Meanwhile,
the v minor itself can be seen as a substitute for a tonic dominant seventh chord that would have added flavour directly ahead of another secondary dominant. Play the ‘Sun King’ sequence as C7- A7 to hear the familiar sound. But, instead, Lennon effectively
harmonises the line using a standard jazz device known as the ‘Dominant Minor Substitution Rule’.
The Dominant Minor Substitution Rule
‘when a dominant seventh chord appears, you can substitute a minor chord a fifth above’ Hence Gm7 emerges as an effective substitute for a C dominant chord. The basic chords share two common tones, while the
substitute now also introduces implied 9th and 11th flavours in terms of the parent key. The following chart sets out the relationship.
In ‘Julia’, the Gm works especially well as the F and A notes in the melody create pretty ~ b7th and 9th extensions that reinforce the dreamy theme. In ‘Sun King’, the b3 of the chord (Bb) acts to extend in the harmony the descending chromatic line begun by the melody as C drops to B. The latter represents a great example of the way that harmony acts to subtly develop an idea even though the melody may have taken a different path.
To confirm our understanding of these harmonization principles, compare ‘Sun King’ with the famous opening line of ‘Something’, which features the same three -semitone drop of 1-7-b7-6, but this time in both the
melody and the harmony.
Notice how the sense of security provided by the opening 8- bar chorus is so poignantly - if fleetingly - questioned as we jump to
the rogue chord on the words ‘when everybody has gone’, reinforcing the lyric perfectly with a tinge of sly knowingness. It’s really no surprise that Mann singled out this precise moment , another that neatly encapsulates The Beatles’ novelty just as surely as the ‘v’ of ‘I’ll Get You’.
Just to confirm this , let’s see how that C major chord - the bVI from E minor - gatecrashes the party in E major, in true ‘borrowed’ style.
Locating the ‘borrowed ‘ ‘Flat Submediant ‘ - ~ bVI
In both Perkins’ and Holly’s great rock ‘n’ roll classics the bVI appears as the only departure from the Three -Chord Trick. But
what a departure! Given the extreme rarity and novelty of such a move there would seem no question that The Beatles were
influenced by this pair of songs. Nevertheless, in keeping with our theme of songwriting development, they duly perfected the idea
by also featuring the very specific non -diatonic notes that the chord introduces - in the melody. It is the C and G natural notes in
the tune - notes that are facilitated by this C chord - that create The Beatles’ knock- out punch.
We can also explain the power of this change in terms of an extreme substitution : for theory tells us that as long as there is one common tone between two triads
we can substitute one/or the other. E major and C major do share the lone E note, and so ~ bVI
can substitute for I.
While the ‘I-bVI-I’ move was integral to ‘ It Won’t Be Long’, the re - emergence of the same chord change as a throw -a way gesture at the close of ‘Till There Was You’, a few tracks later, shows the nonchalant facility with which The Beatles could incorporate exotic
harmony at will. Even in 1963, we find a string of elaborate codas confidently featuring dramatic twists and exceptional attention to detail. The closing bars of this cover are a case in point.
Not content with that brief disorientating slide back from the dominant to the bV, the tonic then alternates with bVI to give us something far tastier than any of our familiar cadences. In terms of our theoretical framework, we’ll soon see how this deceptive wrap- up can actually be rationalised as a super -slick alternative to the Plagal cadence.
