memphis, tennessee (1959)
Chuck Berry. Early Rock'n'roll, Missouri USA.
key: F# mixolydian/blues
mode: F# G# A# B C# D# E
melody: s l t r d
form: strophic
meter: duple
English function names: tonic dominant
Tagg (modified): home counterpoise (away)
Riemann: T7 D7
Scale degrees: I7 V7
Chords: F#7 C#7intro/interlude:
F#9
|/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |
verse:
C#7
|/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |
C#7
|/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |
F#7
|/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |
C#7 F#7
|/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |Same song, different lyrics, different keys, all Chuck Berry. This is a super fascinating song harmonically. No, really. I know what you're thinking: "Sweetie, I think you've gone off the deep end with this two-chord thing. It's still only two chords, right? How is this any more fascinating than any of the other two-chord songs?" The combination of how the chords are used, the form that is used, what the lyrics are about, and the shape of the melody all combine to set up expectations and then thwart them.
What's even better is the deception in the chords reflect the deception in the lyrics. You think he's talking about his wife, but he's actually talking about his daughter. You think the song is a typical blues progression, you think it's tonic-subdominant, but it's actually dominant-tonic. The intro tells you up front what the tonic is and yet somehow when the voice enters, it sounds like we've modulated. It's not a twelve-bar blues but it feels like one, especially when we get to the third phrase on the tonic, because it sounds like we're on the subdominant. Then the last phrase pulls a switcheroo harmonically and the melody walks us on down to make it explicitly clear what key we are in and which of the two chords serves what functions. This is genius right here, folks. Anybody who thinks that few harmonies indicates less sophistication has not examined this masterpiece.
I've written elsewhere about how to tell when two chords are in a tonic-dominant or a tonic-subdominant relationship to one another, because they are the same sounds, in two relationships, either of which could be the home or the counterpoise. And as we've already seen there are plenty of songs that only use tonic & dominant in those roles and plenty of other songs that only use tonic & subdominant in those roles.
A few years later (1964), Berry wrote new words ("Little Marie") and kind of ruined the thing with a Hollywood/Disney/American happy ending; see the recordings below. I'm going to stretch that happy ending and say that now we have an example of what not to do. Banal words can ruin good music. Good music can't save bad lyrics. Suddenly we just have a strophic song with two regular old chords.
I'm not hearing a neutral third in this song, so I'm going with mixolydian for the pitch set. Mixolydian and the blues (and the pentatonic scale) are, let's say, bedfellows for our purposes. If you were to improvise with either scale, it would sound fine and would still sound like the blues.
other recordings:
Tom Jones, Along Came Jones, Universal. C mixolydian/blues. Starts like Sesame Street.
Chuck Berry, St. Louis to Liverpool, Geffen. Eb mixolydian/blues. "Little Marie"
The Beatles, Live at the BBC, Universal. E mixolydian/blues. They ditch the intro.
Elvis Presley, From Nashville to Memphis, RCA. G mixolydian/blues. Starts like the Monkees.
Al Green, Listen: The Rarities, Fat Possum. A mixolydian/blues. Some extra harmonic embellishment; very different vocal delivery.