Re: Harmony and rhythm
- From: Evan Kirshenbaum <evan.kirshenbaum@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 08:36:48 -0700
Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
On Mar 21, 4:56 pm, Mike Barnes <mikebar...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Lewis <g.kr...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:...
There's something odd about all Jethro Tull Songs.
"We Used to Know" seeming odder than most, by reappearing many
years later though a hole in the space-time continuum as the
Eagles' "Hotel California".
Now we get to the part of music I don't hear. I just listened to
"We Used to Know" for the first time (and liked it), and I would
never have connected it to "Hotel California". Apparently it's the
chord progression.
Interesting. Never noticed that, but having had it pointed out, it's
obvious. Looking at chord charts I see on the web (and playing them
on guitar, they sound right), "We Used to Know" is
Em B D A C G F# B
5m 1 3b 7b 2b 6b 5 1
in B.
and "Hotel California"'s verse is
Bm F# A E G D Em F#
1m 5 7b 4 6b 3b 4m 5
in B minor. Which looks very different, but if you think of it as
being in F#, it would be
Bm F# A E G D Em F#
4m 1 3b 7b 2b 6b 7bm 1
So it's much the same chord progression (1-3b-7b-2b-6b-x-1), but not
only in a different key, but not even in the key the song is in. In
"Hotel California", it's around based on the fifth, since the verse is
leading into the chorus (which starts on the sixth, and which explains
why the "x" is a minor fourth leading from the minor third to the
fifth), while in "We Used to Know", it's based on the tonic (which it
ends on, and which explains why the x is a fifth, leading to the
tonic).
Unless I screwed up the analysis, which I probably did.
Here's an interview with Ian Anderson where he discusses it:
http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/ian_anderson_of_jethro_tull/
I like his take on it:
But they probably heard us play the song, because that would have
featured in the sets back then, and maybe it was just something
they kind of picked up on subconsciously, and introduced that
chord sequence into their famous song "Hotel California" sometime
later. But, you know, it's not plagiarism. It's just the same
chord sequence. It's in a different time signature, different key,
different context. And it's a very, very fine song that they
wrote, so I can't feel anything other than a sense of happiness
for their sake. And I feel flattered that they came across that
chord sequence. But it's difficult to find a chord sequence that
hasn't been used, and hasn't been the focus of lots of pieces of
music.
To me this is as if you said a biscuit (scone) and a pie crust were
the same thing because they have the same proportions of flour and
fat. But I understand that for people with better ears for music than
mine, it's hardly an exaggeration to say that two songs with the same
chord progression are the same song. In fact, without that, I don't
see how jazz could exist.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
Still with HP Labs |Code should be designed to make it
SF Bay Area (1982-) |easy to get it right, not to work
Chicago (1964-1982) |if you get it right.
evan.kirshenbaum@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/
.
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