key: E dorian/blues
mode: E F# G A (Bb) B C# D
melody: T D r f s l te t d r' f'
form: verse-chorus
meter: duple
English function names: tonic subdominant
Tagg (modified): home counterpoise (away)
Riemann: t S
Scale degrees: i IV
Chords: Em7 A7
Em7 A7
|:/ / / / |/ / / / :| loop
Since I primarily teach middle school kids, I'm required to be vigilant about lyrical content. This is not a song I would use with middle school kids. But if you are an adult following along at home, you can take responsibility for dealing with the lyrical content yourself. I guess that's a content warning: the lyrics require an ability to parse nuance.1
That said, having recently worked on Drunken Sailor with my middle school students, it's always a tough call. In a lot of ways this song is far tamer than the blatant violence in the lyrics of Drunken Sailor. That's an example of how poorly we treat people when they don't do what we want; some things have changed — labor laws, for one — but some things have not. The lyrics here are strangely subtler and not really ones I want to go over with middle school kids. You have to choose your battles.
And in many ways, it's too bad because the groove on this is one to get to know well. What a great bass line, all the more interesting because it's played on a synth. It's a really nice combination of acoustic and electric instruments in a sparse arrangement.
Is it dorian, is it blues? I think we have to say yes to both. It's another tough call. Blues does not usually have a sixth scale degree; dorian doesn't usually have blue notes like the raised 4th/flattened 5th. Classical music would say that the blue note is simply a borrowed note, an accidental. However, an accidental, non-diatonic pitch is ornamental or indicates a temporary tonicization (or a modulation), whereas a blue note does not serve those purposes. It's a note that belongs, because it makes the blues what it is.
other recordings:
Esther Phillips, Alone Again Naturally, Legacy Recordings. Bb dorian. This is a nice reggae + soul version, with horns, great vocals, the whole thing.