I am in a geeky mood this morning. Alan W. Pollack is a musicologist of some renown who started to write detailed musicological analyses of The Beatles' music in 1989. He started with a blast at 28 of their songs and then - an Everestesque aim - decided to take on the rest. 11 years later and the job was done.
Dr. Pollack's Notes on ... Series is a brilliant, dense read that rewards a long sit down with a bunch of Beatles tracks and some presence of mind. I've chosen this site rather than their original home because of the presentation, but also for Ger Tillekens' insightful writing that binds the series together.
One of the reasons I love t'interweb so much is because other people have got über-geeky so Joe Public can reap the rewards. On this occasion, it truly is a reward. In book form, I'd happily pay £15-20 for this (that's about a million US dollars now the currency has been trashed). If you listen to music or if you make it, bookmark the Notes on ... Series. You will learn something.
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2 comments:
I recently came across Mr. Pollack's analysis of "Things We Said Today" while looking for the chord chart for same. I still can't believe what I read. For example, he treats the song's bII/I cadence as something unusual and praiseworthy, when, in fact, that cadence is a pop cliche which predated the Beatles by at least 40 years. In fact, bII remains the most commonly used substitute chord for V, a fact bound to pop up in any basic songwriting course. And he makes other points that are just as far off the mark (mainly, he treats dirt-common modulations as bold musical strokes--not). I wonder if Pollack is catering to the widely-disseminated idea that the Beatles were great innovators? Whatever the case, I have no desire to read his other essays. I'm still trying to recover from the first one!
Stunned,
Lee Hartsfeld
Actually, yes, because of the circle of fourths: D, G, C. D is the V of G; G is V of C.
Problem is, in this case D doesn't go to G--if memory serves me right, it goes to F, which is IV. It's harmonic deception, imo. I/II/IV/I, with the listener expecting to hear I/II/V/I. Rock is full of thwarted dominant-tonic cadences.
Lee
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