ITT: We compile a list of songs greater than anything The Beatles ever recorded

The fact that so many books still name the Beatles as "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art. Jazz critics have long recognized that the greatest jazz musicians of all times are Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Classical critics rank the highly controversial Beethoven over classical musicians who were highly popular in courts around Europe. Rock critics are still blinded by commercial success. The Beatles sold more than anyone else (not true, by the way), therefore they must have been the greatest. Jazz critics grow up listening to a lot of jazz music of the past, classical critics grow up listening to a lot of classical music of the past. Rock critics are often totally ignorant of the rock music of the past, they barely know the best sellers. No wonder they will think that the Beatles did anything worthy of being saved.

:^)

any song will do

Here's where things really get interesting! Compared to other songs (e.g. Can't Buy Me Love) where the phrases are all 4-measures long and come in 16 measure sections of 4-times-4, this song does some fancy things.

- The verses are indeed 16 measures long but are divided into three phrases in a 6+6+4 AAB pattern. This lends them a bit of a free-verse quality in spite of the underlying steady 4/4 rhythm.

----------------------- 2X ----------------------
|D |- 9-> 8|- |- 9 |C 3-> 2 |D |
D: I flat VII I

|G 9-> 8|D |G 9-> 8|A |
IV I IV V

- The melodic leaning tones add several harmonic dissonances I've notated above. The most iteresting one is the way the appgogiatura 9th (E) in measure 4 is not allowed to resolve until the next measure where its resolution note (D) is now become a dissonance over the new chord change.

- A precious Beatles "detail" moment: in the lone middle verse, they throw in a syncopated dotted rhythm into the final measure of the second iteration of the first phrase above. It's the only place in the song where it happens. In consequence, you wind up feeling as if they're winking at you when, in the same measure of the final verse, they blithely play even quarter notes with a casual vengeance.

- The bridge indeed contains only 4 measure phrases but these are organized into a 12 measure section of 3-times-4 which is repeated to make the overall bridge length 24 measure:

|b |- |- |- |
D: vi
b: i

|G |- 6->5 |F# 4-> |- 3 |
VI V

|b 4->3 |- |- |- |
i
D: vi

- The asymmetry of the this three line bridge is effectively underscored by the shift to the "3/4 oom-pah-pah" rhythm in the third phrase. This rhythmic shift is interesting in that it is done without changing the tempo. The length of a measure remains the same except it is suddenly filled for one phrase with 3 beats instead of four; a sort of time warp. When the verse returns after this it sounds faster but isn't really! Another characteristic detail: the way in which the slow triplets are articulated by tambourine and harmonium only; no drums, because the latter would be overkill.

- This type of slow triplet is something we'll discover to be a favorite of John's over the long run. They tend to connote a kind of rhetorical emphasis not at all disimilar from Macca's hammered leaning tones. A good precedent setting example of slow triplets that the Beatles surely would have been familiar with is the in final refrain of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day."

- Again there is harmonic dissonance created by melodic leaning tones which I've notated.

- The outro is a four measure extension of the final verse:

|D |G 6/4 |D 5/3 |- |
I (IV?) I

- The cadence sounds plagal, with the G chord in the second measure sounding like G Major in the second ("6/4") inversion. You'll get used to me asking you to think of that G chord as neighbor tone motion in the upper voices, rather than a true root chord change.

- This brief little outro makes for an ingeniously unifying effect. The tune, chords, and backing texture feel on the one hand as though derived from the verse, but the slow triplets are clearly an allusion to the bridge.

- The finished track does a neat fade down on the final chord. The unprocessed, rough take 2 mix betrays a long-sustained and ultimately frayed end.

>ITT: We compile a list of songs greater than anything The Beatles ever recorded

Starts by posting a glorified beatles cover band.

You had one job user.

GO TO BED SCARUFFI!

Tages, OTC, Todd Rundgren, Yes, the list goes on, Beach Boys

every Beatles song is great
prove me wrong, faggots

Beatles are shit
Prove me wrong
:^)

nuh uh I was first

Obladi oblada life goes on, brah!

Okay,
the fact that so many books still name the Beatles as "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art. Jazz critics have long recognized that the greatest jazz musicians of all times are Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Classical critics rank the highly controversial Beethoven over classical musicians who were highly popular in courts around Europe. Rock critics are still blinded by commercial success. The Beatles sold more than anyone else (not true, by the way), therefore they must have been the greatest. Jazz critics grow up listening to a lot of jazz music of the past, classical critics grow up listening to a lot of classical music of the past. Rock critics are often totally ignorant of the rock music of the past, they barely know the best sellers. No wonder they will think that the Beatles did anything worthy of being saved.

doesn't prove nothing

Shut up you delusional Beatle-dick choking retard without any musical taste.

>PROVE ME WRONG
>NO, THAT DOESN'T COUNT

kek'd and checked

- In particular, we'll discover how the harmony of "Eight Days A Week" (EDAW) is built out of a wonderfully teasing exploitation of the special effect called a "false (or "cross") relation". This harmonic idiom is used quite a bit throughout the Beatles' output and I think that EDAW provides an object lesson worth exploring.

- In terms of form, we have another double bridge with single intervening verse. The lyrics are on the light side in terms of content in spite of the characteristic cleverness of the title phrase. The four verses all end with the hook phrase, and verse pairs 1/3 and 2/4 respectively contain the same opening couplet.

- The one complete outtake and couple of fragments of EDAW on _Anthology 1_ reveal the following:

- Using the opening verse chord progression for the intro/outro was already in place, but the scoring lacks the driving triplets.

- Similarly, the "pedal point" for the intro/outro was originally planned for the vocals rather than the bassline. The chords are played in root position in the outtakes but the top vocal line sustains F# through all four chords creating the interesting free dissonance of E9 and G#7 in the process.

- When Paul is not harmonizing with John's lead vocal he's singing it with him in unison. The specific content of the backing vocals and their exact placement is different from the official version.

- The title phrase at the end of each verse is given an outrageous falsetto flip, an idea abandoned, alas.

- There's a small snippet of characteristic studio banter, with Paul dissing John in a "funny voice" that if something in the next take doesn't come out just right it'll be just "too bad."

- ("Hey, I thought he'd talk about those infamous parallel fifths, but this false-relation stuff sounds *really* kinky!")

- A false-relation is nothing more than a chromatic contradiction between two notes in a single chord or in different parts of adjacent chords. Within the confines of academic tonal theory this is considered a "syntax error" but it has been used throughout the ages by composers for expressive effect; a sort of a musical poetic license.

- As my one sentence definition above implies, false-relation come in two flavors; both are well loved by the Beatles and I'll cite examples of each though only the second flavor is of concern in EDAW:

1. contradiction between two notes in one chord -- the manifestation of this seen most frequently is the simultaneous use of the major and minor 3rd in a chord; this is one of the factors which makes the blues sound, well, bluesy. A Beatle example off the top of the head is "The Night Before"; the accompaniment is clearly in D major (which uses F#) while the melody repeatedly incorporates the F-natural of the minor mode.

2. contradiction between adjacent chords -- this is the more subtle of the two flavors because the ear picks it up only by following the succession of two chords over time, whereas the flavor #1 above involves an outright, instantaneous clash. As we'll see, the pervasive application of this effect provides a unifying influence on EDAW.

- False-relations appear in both the verse and refrain of EDAW. The song is in D-major and the false-relation in each case involves G-natural and G#; note that The G-natural has a melodic tendency to fall to F# and the G# has the tendency toward A-natural.

- The tune throughout stays within a relatively tight range of a 6th; from B up through G. The individual phrases manage some reasonably interesting melodic contour, but the restricted range is hard to avoid noticing; indeed, does it perhaps have the side effect of nudging you to pay more attention to the chord changes?

- A medium-large group of six chords are used in the song: I, ii, IV, V, vi, and V-of-V.

- EDAW provides a fine object lesson in the Beatles art and science of production values; demonstrating an amazing attention to detail in general, and the use of texture changes to help articulate form.

- The backing track contains electric, acoustic, and bass guitars, plus drum kit and hand clapping.

- John double tracks the lead vocal and gets strategically placed flashes of backing from Paul.

u sound salty

ob-la-di, ob-la-da
life goes on,
REEEEEEEEEE

icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/awp-alphabet.shtml

whassup

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