Monday, August 23, 2021

Sonic Sorcery: The Fearless Modulations of "Good Vibrations"

In the third installment of this series, we took a look under the hood, as it were, at The Beach Boys song "Surfer Girl" which, harmonically speaking, is a gorgeous run through diatonic exploration. While it does possess a key change at the end (shifting up 1/2 step from D to Eb), the pay-dirt is really found in the prosody between the chord progression and melody.

By contrast, "Good Vibrations" (written just 3 years after "Surfer Girl" was released) leaps into the fires of modulation (aka: key change) with no reservations at all. Worthy of note: Brian Wilson was only 23 years old when he wrote this masterpiece that went on to hit #1 on the charts, be nominated for a Grammy, land on Rolling Stones "500 Greatest Songs list" at #6, and be cited as a major influence for songs like "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles and "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen (and, I suspect, much of Sting's work both solo and with The Police, which we'll examine in future installments).

Quick note: We will be strictly looking at the chord progressions & key changes for the purposes of this discussion. A discussion of lyrics as well as the rhythm & tempo shifts and texture is also a worthy discussion - one we will certainly look at in future.

Much has been written about Brian Wilson's "modular" composition method. However, I think much of it tends to inadvertently diminish the excitement and intrepid approach by (again, inadvertently) summing up the key changes as mere accidents of what is sometimes referred to as "cut-up technique" (writer William S. Borroughs, who wrote "Naked Lunch", is often credited with popularizing this approach in the literary world, which then influenced everyone from David Bowie [lyrically] to Al Jourgensen of Ministry [use of samples]).

But to my mind, this is a mistake. 

When one looks at the logic of the modulations, one can only conclude that there are no accidents.

Let's look at the chart (transposed down 1/2 step to facilitate analysis & discussion, as examining in the original key makes the conversation much more difficult for those not as comfortable with odd keys).

"Good Vibrations"

verse
Dm - - -/Dm - - - /C - - - /C - - - /
Bb - - - /Bb - - - /A - - - /A7 - - - /
Dm - - -/Dm - - - /C - - - /C - - - /
Bb - - - /Bb - - - /A - - - /C - - - /

chorus
F - Bb - /F - -Bb- /F - Bb - /F - Bb - /
F - Bb - /F - -Bb- /F - Bb - /F - Bb - /
G - C - /G - C - /G - C - /G - C - /
A - D - /A - D - /A - D - /A - D - /

bridge
A (8 bars)
A - - - /A - - - /A - - - /A - - - /
D - - - /D - - - /D - - - /D - - - /
A - - - /A - - - /A - - - /A - - - / 

bridge 2
E - - - /E - - - /F#m - - - /B - - - /
repeat

chorus 2
A - D - /A - D - /A - D - /A - D - /
G - C - /G - C - /G - C - /G - C - /

coda
F - - - /F - - - /F - - - /F - - - /
F - - - /F - - - /G - - - /G - - - / 
A - - - /A - - - /G - - - /G - - - /
G......(fade)


Now this all looks a simple set of chords if one is just following along strumming a guitar. However, one will immediately notice that there is no single key that contains all of the chords (which are, alphabetically: A, Bb, C, D, Dm, E, F, F#m, G).

But it makes sense once you look at it in sections.

The verse is in the key of F (tonal center Dm) and lifts into F for the first half of the chorus. But then it moves from the key of F to the key of G halfway into the chorus, then again into the key of A. Then the final A chord becomes the pivot around which it switches back to Dm for the second verse.

After the second chorus (remember, it ends in A), we segue into the first bridge while still in the same key, but then abruptly switch to the key of E for the 2nd bridge.

As the 2nd bridge winds up, we move to the chorus again, but this time the modulations take us backwards from A to G to F (rather than as above, F to G to A), with the F functioning as our picot from chorus to the final coda, which moves again from F to G to A, then back to G for the ride out.

I see, as my kids used to say, "none many" accidents. What I do see, however, is a smile on Brian Wilson's face as he takes us through a Escher-esque maze of harmonic play!

Ponder this joyful ride from Wilson's mind, and then see what sort of fearless key changes you can add to your own music!


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