Beathoven

Studying the Beatles

Theory

Home

Mail


(c) Ian Hammond 1999
All rights reserved

The idiom in which the pattern is used is described by the behaviour below:

Norwegian Wood (1965)
Here we see the beginnings of the idiom. All that is missing is the chromatic step between B and Bb in the bass.

Lennon plays an A in the bass at the beginning and end of the sequence, making the bass run a-c-b-a rather than d-c-b-a, which is what we might have expected. The rainbow shape of a-c-b-a recurs in Lucy and Prudence. In Isolation the notes occur in a different sequence.

That C2 chord is ambiguous, particularly after the D. It could be treated as a D chord with a 2nd, 4th and 7th (a little like the opening chord of A Hard Day's Night). In fact, the ambiguity is part of the allure of the sequence which we'll see in other versions of this chair.

If we reduce the sequence to bare essentials we have:

This is the skeleton of the Lucy without the chromatic filling.

The sequence can be further reduced to D-D7-(D) which provides a fundamental opening ploy for Lennon and which branchs in a number of directions.

Here's the same chords in A major for comparison:

She Said She Said (1966)
She Said has the same distinctive tonic seventh in the bass.

Again, the G6 chord is ambiguous. The verse cadence is G-D-A: a plain, simple double-plagal. The verse as a whole is an expansion of that sequence:

This is not a Lucy but rather another direction for that opening tonic seventh seen in Norwegian Wood. Doctor Robert and Good Morning Good Morning follow this trail, as does Walrus which alternates this idea with a Lucy.


Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (1967)
The most influential member of the set. An evocative progression that combines the unsettling effect of the tonic seventh, in the bass, with a chromatic run. Technicolor music.

Like Norwegian Wood, the bass begins on E, not on the tonic A. The bass run is now e-g-f#-f-e adding a chromatic step between f# and e.

As in Norwegian Wood and She Said there's not a dominant in sight and the major third is prominent.

Here it is again, in D:, for comparison with Dear Prudence and Norwegian Wood:

Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Here's a progression which comes close, but is not a Lucy. The chorus has the basic bass sequence, but here it's presented in a cliched diatonic idiom (I-I7-IV-iv):

There's not much there beyond the opening D-D7/c. The chorus ends squarely on the dominant (of the chorus key) and the melody includes the flat third.



I Am The Walrus (1967)
Walrus makes reference to the figure with the opening sequence that drops to the flat seventh. It omits the chromatic chords however, preferring a flat side progression.

The second half of the verse imitates the first but involves a chromatic ending to the progression:

Given the strong A-A/g motive in the band track and the vocal, these chords are sufficient to impart an honoury Lucy badge to the song, albeit in a very punctuated form. The verse itself has no dominant.



Dear Prudence (1968)
Transformed by finger picking, the full glory of the pattern is demonstrated by making the progression the overwhelming feature of the song, driving almost every aspect of its construction.

The two bar pattern repeats six times in the verse, interrupted only by the double plagal cadence, D-C-G-D, which is closely related to the pattern. This is seen very clearly in the coda where the C chord is played as C2 (the high D is on lead guitar), exactly as the chord is presented in Norwegian Wood.

I've noted three chords above as D3, because they have no fifth. This leaves the interpretation of the actual chord names open.

The bridge repeats a D-G-A-G sequence, however this is thoroughly thwarted by the lower half of the pattern, on the bass strings of the guitar and on bass, which doggedly repeat the D major drone strings D and A (as was the case in the verse of Norwegian Wood).

Here's the Dear Prudence chords in A: major for comparison. They are identical to those of Lucy.

Isolation (1970)
Another evocative song built from the progression. The change he makes he is tiny, but lo and behold, it shows us that what we have been examining is not much more than a Bond (e.g. D D+ D6 D+ etc):

Instead of a-c-b-bb we now have a-bb-b-c.

Lennon's intro sounds for all the world as if he's trying to point out very clearly what the chords are by playing them as four held chords. He repeats this to return from the bridge, singing that long held ecstatic f# above them, which brings us back to the fervour of Prudence. It's one of Lennon's best prepared returns and beautifully orchestrated.

Here it is in A: for comparison. The chords are identical to those of Prudence and Lucy, only the order is changed.

Free As A Bird (1980)
Instead of using the flat seventh (A7) Lennon moves to the second chord of the standard Doo Wop sequence (f#7).

Here are most of the chords used in the song, as Lennon wrote it.

In the verse the chromatic tail of the sequence has moved down a semitone from g-f#-f to f#-f-e. That lands us on the dominant which Lennon attacks and weakens with a pivot modulation leading to C major.

The bridge seems to have something close to the bass sequence in reverse.

The outro comes closest to a Lucy, but the effect is quite different: eery rather than ecstasy.

No, I haven't gone crazy. I'm not trying to say that reversed sequences in the bridge are meaningful etc. What I am saying is that this song looks like a ghostly transformation of the Lucy in a slightly different world, where the subtonic and a chromatic descender over three chords play a similar role to the Lucy. But a Lucy it is not.

Summary
All the Lucy songs are Lennon's. Lucy, Prudence and Isolation are the major examples and high points of the style. In each song a different aspect of the sequence is picked up and developed. It is instructive to look at each song and examine the environment he builds for the sequence.

One of the real peculiarities is the opening note of the bass when it lies on E (in A:) instead of the expected tonic. This use produces a neater tune: e-g-f#-f.

Isolation shows us the Tin Pan Alley interpretation of the chord, as heard in The Third Man Theme and other songs that slide chromatically from the fifth to the sixth degree, and vice versa. From this point of view the seventh may be seen as a "blues" addition to that run (we hear this kind of usage in Lennon's Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out.)

Isolation reorders the basic chord progression. The important point is that Lennon achieves the same effect, as is best heard in the return to the verse, demonstrating a remarkably plastic and intellectual approach to chord progression construction.

I think two significant points emerge from this outline discussion. First, we see Lennon at work with his jigsaw puzzle approach to constructing songs. Two, we see how strongly rooted his basic constructions are in pop and blues.


APPENDIX: Other Songs

Carl Orff: Carmina Burana (1937)
The songs in the Carmina Burana are often built around simple harmonic sequences. One of these (15. Amor Volat Undique) comes very close to a Lucy. The initial chord is D major seventh rather than a plain tonic. Apart from that the first four bars look, and more importantly, act like a Lucy. (I've changed the time-signature for easier comparison and shown the second four bars so you can see how he continues).

It's interesting to compare the immaculate score of Orff's piece with Lennon's just to see how two completely different compositional styles can arrive at much the same result.



Donovan: Bert's Blues (1966)
Donovan's song has the same bass line and holds a single chord throughout:

The minor key robs the passage of a Lucy character completely. This is a fairly common blues idiom that also drives George Harrison's song While My Guitar Gently Weeps (and makes an appearance in Something):

Lennon uses it in Steel And Glass (1974), a song built around sequences that fueled How Do You Sleep (1972) and I'm Losing You (1980). Glass Onion (1968) has an interesting relationship to this model.

You don't need to go far to find the folk/rock model for this sequence: the primordal The House Of The Rising Sun is strongly related to While My Guitar Gently Weeps and to Steel And Glass (along with the verse of I Want You, albiet not as strongly).

Donovan's use of the idiom in Bert's Blues is that of cool jazz. Lennon comes closer to this idea in One Day At A Time (1973).



Neil Young: The Needle And The Damage Done (1972)
Neil Young's extraordinary album Harvest concludes with the live performance of a song with a great chord set, including the rudiments of the Lucy. However, his use is a I-I7-IV-iv cliche. What drives this song is the great closing sequence ending on II. The sequence is so impressive that he need do no more than repeat over and over for the complete song.

The pattern is closer to that of Magical Mystery Tour, particulary the bitonic base of the song. Not a Lucy.