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« Last post by tellomon on Today at 01:02:40 AM »Was Ginger Baker correct to have disdain for Paul McCartney because he couldn't read music?
Just to start out, here is a breakdown of the melody for Paul McCartney’s “Penny Lane”. It is from the Wikipedia article on the song: Penny Lane - Wikipedia
"Penny Lane" begins in the key of B major and is in 4/4 time throughout ... In its melody, the composition has a double tonic structure of B major verse (in I–vi–ii–V cycles) and A major chorus connected by formal pivoting dominant chords. In the opening bars in B major, after singing "In Penny Lane" (in an F?–B–C?–D? melody note ascent) McCartney sings the major third of the first chord in the progression (on "Lane") and major seventh (on "barber") then switches to a Bm chord, singing the flattened third notes (on "know" with a i7 [Bm7] chord) and flattened seventh notes (on "come and go" [with a ?VI maj7 [Gmaj7] chord] and "say hello" [with a V7sus4 [F?7sus4] chord]) … Musicologist Dominic Pedler describes this as a profound and surprising innovation involving abandoning mid-cycle what initially appears to be a standard I–vi–ii–V doo-wop pop chord cycle … To get from the verse "In the pouring rain – very strange" McCartney uses an E chord as a pivot, (it is a IV chord in the preceding B key and a V in the looming A key) to take listeners back into the chorus ("Penny Lane is in my ears ..."). Likewise to get back from the chorus of "There beneath the blue suburban skies I sit, and meanwhile back ...", McCartney uses an F?7 pivot chord, which is a VI in the old A key and a V in the new B key. The lyrics "very strange" and "meanwhile back" reflect these tonal shifts.
Penny Lane - Wikipedia
My wife (who is a trained musician) says that it is precisely McCartney’s lack of formal training that not only allowed him to think outside the box, but also kept him delightfully unaware that there was a box in the first place.
Faulting a composer for not being able to read music is like faulting a poet for not being able to type.
Just to start out, here is a breakdown of the melody for Paul McCartney’s “Penny Lane”. It is from the Wikipedia article on the song: Penny Lane - Wikipedia
"Penny Lane" begins in the key of B major and is in 4/4 time throughout ... In its melody, the composition has a double tonic structure of B major verse (in I–vi–ii–V cycles) and A major chorus connected by formal pivoting dominant chords. In the opening bars in B major, after singing "In Penny Lane" (in an F?–B–C?–D? melody note ascent) McCartney sings the major third of the first chord in the progression (on "Lane") and major seventh (on "barber") then switches to a Bm chord, singing the flattened third notes (on "know" with a i7 [Bm7] chord) and flattened seventh notes (on "come and go" [with a ?VI maj7 [Gmaj7] chord] and "say hello" [with a V7sus4 [F?7sus4] chord]) … Musicologist Dominic Pedler describes this as a profound and surprising innovation involving abandoning mid-cycle what initially appears to be a standard I–vi–ii–V doo-wop pop chord cycle … To get from the verse "In the pouring rain – very strange" McCartney uses an E chord as a pivot, (it is a IV chord in the preceding B key and a V in the looming A key) to take listeners back into the chorus ("Penny Lane is in my ears ..."). Likewise to get back from the chorus of "There beneath the blue suburban skies I sit, and meanwhile back ...", McCartney uses an F?7 pivot chord, which is a VI in the old A key and a V in the new B key. The lyrics "very strange" and "meanwhile back" reflect these tonal shifts.
Penny Lane - Wikipedia
My wife (who is a trained musician) says that it is precisely McCartney’s lack of formal training that not only allowed him to think outside the box, but also kept him delightfully unaware that there was a box in the first place.
Faulting a composer for not being able to read music is like faulting a poet for not being able to type.
