tomorrow never knows (1966)
The Beatles. Rock/Pop, UK.
key: C mixolydian
mode: C D E F G A Bb C
melody: R F s t r
form: intro — verse 1 — verse 2 — verse 3 — interlude — verse 4 — verse 5 — verse 6 — verse 7 with extension
meter: duple
English function names: tonic subtonic
Tagg (modified): home counterpoise (away)
Riemann: T dP
Scale degrees: I VII
Chords: C Bbverse:
C
|/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |
Bb C
|/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |/ / / / |
interlude: open jam on CThe Beatles are one of those bands that I never got into, but of course, you can't avoid them. They are everywhere, all the time. There's a lot to like, but if, like me, you are sensitive to music that seems unavoidable, *controversial opinion alert* they also seem a bit overrated. But that's me. It's definitely music worth investigating, even if it doesn't speak to your condition.
This song has a pedal or drone on C. Originally, I thought “pedal, drone, same difference.” But it’s not. The concept of a pedal tone is specifically out of European Classical Music Theory: the sustaining of a tone in the bass while the chord progression continues on above it. This phenomenon explicitly does not negate the effect of the chord progression; in a sense, it just further emphasizes the importance of the tonic and its sense of gravitational pull. A drone, however, is the harmony; we have no need for chord progressions because the interest is in the interaction of the melody and the drone. Drones are the harmonic equivalent of a groove — it creates the sense of the extended present. Whether you hear this as a pedal or a drone affects whether you hear this song as a "one-chord song that's not really a one-chord song" or a "two-chord song that's not really a two-chord song." What do we mean by this? Tagg has a whole chapter in his book "Everyday Tonality" dedicated to this concept. Often, when we have a one-chord song, there are many harmonic-melodic ornamentations going on with that one chord:
"[O]ne of the main reasons for tonally expanding single chords well beyond the notes they theoretically contain is to create tonal movement, usually by shuttles in the bass line and inner chordal parts. That sort of movement livens up the single chord, producing appropriate harmonic activity as an intrinsic part of the relevant groove. It is in that sense of harmonic groove that single chords can, as suggested earlier, turn into ‘somewhere worth staying’. "
[Everyday Tonality, p366]
The idea is that something that is analyzed as one chord or indicated as one chord on a lead-sheet isn't actually performed that way.1
The other side of the coin is something like this Beatles tune. One could argue that this two-chord song is not really a song with chords in the Western sense, but simply a drone-based song, much like the Laz song Narino we previously examined. The dilemma comes down to this: What kind of effect do these harmonic-melodic changes create? Is it ornamental? Is it structural? Are the harmonies passing or is it somewhere to be?
To my ears, the Bb is a different place, perhaps because we are there long enough to feel that. In many of the examples Tagg provides, the other chords are fleeting, even though they often fall on strong beats. It's a two-chord song that really is a two-chord song. And yet…
other recordings:
Junior Parker, Funny How Time Slips Away, LRC Ltd. C. A slow, spare arrangement.
Danielle Dax, Blast the Human Flower, Rhino Records. C. For all your extended dance remix needs.
The Mission, Singles A's and B's, Universal. A. For all your 80s UK alterna-pop needs.
Our Lady Peace, Soundtrack to movie The Craft, Columbia. B. For all your 90s emo needs.
You might see C and C11, you might see C and Bb/C. I leave out the C in the bass when teaching this on uke, because it's impractical both in a fingering sense and in a conceptual sense — the kids don't need that information at this point.