With or Without You

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So many angst-ridden teenage moments spent having my heart squeezed by this song.  Find out why it gets to us in my analysis of the harmony of this classic song here.

 


Bittersweet Symphony

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Another true anthemic classic.  Is the harmony exotic and inventive or straight down the line?  Find out what I think when I slide this song under the SeeChord microscope in my latest addition to my analysis of the top 20 songs of all time 

ore to say except if you want to write a classic, you dont need to try too hard with your chord progressions.

 


“One” by U2 – How easy is it to write a hit song?

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Number 8 on my top 20 songs is “One Love, One Life” by U2.  Find out what makes this song tick and why it has gained the status of all time anthem.  All from a music harmony point of view of course.

 


Smells like Teen Spirit and Live Forever

Two more songs from my top 20 are now up, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana and, Live Forever  by Oasis.  Let me know what you all think out there!

 


Number four is Hey Jude

So Mr. McCartney sneaks in at number 4 with his classic song “Hey Jude”.  He is known as a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to song writing so find out what his secrets are by reading my analysis of this song.

 


Next on the list – Angels by Robbie Williams

This all time classic by Robbie Williams is next under the spotlight.  Will it follow a well worn path through conventional chord progressions or is there some magic twist that makes it stand out?  Find out in my latest analysis here

 


Number two in the top 20 songs is Imagine

My voyage through the harmonic world of the top 20 songs of all time continues.  Number two on the list is “Imagine by John Lennon“. Find out what secrets lie in store in this wonderfully yet deceptively simple piece of song writing.

 


Top 20 songs analysed

I must be mad, but I am going to attempt to analyse the top 20 songs of all time (as identified by everyhit.com) using SeeChord.  The madness is made more real by the fact that number one is of course Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.  A song I have analysed before, but not in its entirety.

Anyway, here goes.  Number 1, Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

 


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Skyfall – what makes it sound so Bond-like?

I saw skyfall last night, and was fascinated by how the music managed to sound like Bond, without being a direct repeat of previous bond themes.  I whipped the chords onto a SeeChord chart to have a look at what was going on.  For once, it was not that illuminating really.  There are only a handful of chords in the whole song:

cm-Ab-fm Ab mainly.  However there is a crucial change of chord that occurs early on:

cm-Ab-F7-Ab.  It is this use of F major that provides us with the crucial note to make one of the archetypal bond hooks.  If we take now, just the top note of this chord progression (assuming that each chord has C as it’s lowest note) we get this tune.

G-Ab-A-Ab –

And it is this little hook that makes so much of Bond sound so, well, Bondy.

The thing I found most interesting was the fact that the Adele song uses such a strong harmony of F7 at this crucial point.  Many Bond themes I have heard before – and I will analyse these further soon – stay on the more enigmatic chord made up of C-Eb-A – without the F.  This might be a cmin6, which would not have the strength of that F chord.

One further thing that occurs later on is a nice “turnaround” (ii-V-I) of D7-G7-cm.  The D7 chord would be quite surprising were it not for the occurance of the F7 before it.  The A natural in the F chord prepares us for the D7 chord which also contains an A natural.

 

Sorry if this is a bit technical, it is hard to explain without a piano in front of me but I thought I’d share it with you anyhow! I have put the SeeChord chart of skyfall up on the site for those interested.  More bond to come soon I think.