key: G minor
mode: G A Bb C D Eb E F F# G
melody: M SI l t d r m f
form: verse-chorus
meter: duple
English function names: tonic dominant
Tagg (modified): home counterpoise (away)
Riemann: t D7
Scale degrees: i V7
Chords: Gm D7
verse:
Gm D
|/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |
D Gm
|/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |
chorus:
Gm D Gm
|:/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / :|
Recorded by Guerrero and company in Los Angeles, the Pachuco style is a bit of everything going on musically in Latinx culture, jazz, and pop in the late 1940s. The cool kids are dancing rumba, as the song says. If you, like me, know these styles only peripherally, my post on Oye Como Va discusses rumba vs. cha-cha vs. mambo vs. all of it. It's clear from this song that the common language of Spanish trumps the actual distance, from say, Southwestern US/Northern Mexico, to Cuba or New York City where these styles developed.
Why, it’s that counterpoise inversion again! Even better, the chorus is a counterpoise sandwich. A full counterpoise meal. As mentioned in the post Fidel Castro, the counterpoise inversion is nice primer in the ways harmonic rhythm can mimic linguistic phrasing, giving the listener a sense of question and answer. In some ways, the counterpoise sandwich is a bit like a faster version of the counterpoise inversion, especially if we look at it this way:
Gm D
|:/ / / / |/ / / / |
D Gm
|/ / / / |/ / / / :|
The question and answer all happen in one phrase, in a sense. We get a sense of finality right way, instead of having to wait another phrase. Pedagogically, this is one of the strengths of looking at two-chord songs — we can really dig into phrasing and the ways in which harmony sets us up for closure or continuation. This then prepares us both aurally and analytically for more complex progressions, because even the complex progressions are still playing with these two sensations, closure or continuation.