Thanks to Jeremy Tuplin for sponsoring this video. Check out his new album ‘Orville’s Discotheque’ jeremytuplinmusic.bandcamp.com/album/orvilles-discotheque
I think Bowie's 3/4 bar is a consciously introduced emotional whiplash, energetic effect, and a hint that we are to wake up a bit from the hypnotic state of modal major-minor interchange.
Just had a listen to Jeremy (can't think of many Musical Jeremys although beadle had great music knowledge) and it's really good,!! Bit of a gainsbourg vibe who is one of my heroes I'm writing songs about being a dad if anyone is interested th-cam.com/video/XP26fXM1QxA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=UiAAdK6ZP3o0mqUK
at 8:55 - You say logical predictable route and then I immediately realised the 'logical one' is Liability by Lorde, which means it's probably a chord progression you've covered in one of your videos 😀
You and Whose Army is a perfect example of how the instrument and how it is tuned/ set up/ played etc. can influence the composing itself. On a piano you don't see it but if you play those chords on guitar you can see exactly how it begun: it's just shifting down the frets rather than a conscious thought of what key it's in.
One cool thing about the F Bb G C turn around in All The Young Dudes is that, while the chord jumps sound pretty random, it actually contains a climbing chromatic line A Bb B C! Quite fittingly for a turnaround, it "reverses" the otherwise descending movement in the chord progression.
@@rome8180 That happens for a couple of reasons. 1) Fans of the band are irked by the fact that it's so popular and people only mention that song when the band name comes up with people who aren't real fans. 2) Died in the wool fans are often quite possessive and cliquey and don't like outsiders who haven't done their homework acting as thought they are fans because they know one song. To be fair, BHS isn't representative of most SG output, most of which is much heavier and far less accessible - even a cursory listen to their 'A-Sides' CD demonstrates that.
Its such a weird chord progression and yet the vocal melody sounds very smooth and natural over it. You'd expect a few odd notes in melody to accomodate the madness underneath but it sounds almost diatonic (though I doubt it is).
@@ballefranz7059 It was Ron Geesin who wrote the wild chord progressions, but it was for Pink Floyd and he's credited on the album so I'd say it still counts.
As a guitar player, I love these videos. Really expands my knowledge in a way most guitar channels don’t, probably cause you don’t show the guitar shapes and I actually have to figure it out. Nice work
The All The Young Dudes chords remind me of another great bowie progression - the chorus of Quicksand. That one’s definitely worthy of a musical investigation, too.
Bowie recorded a demo of Quicksand called Divine Symmetry. It's just him sining with an acoustic guitar. It sounds way better than the album version IMO.
That Radiohead progression sounded so familiar to my ears, and after some wracking I remembered where I heard it before. Check out the song Message personnel by Francoise Hardy, written by Michel Berger. The first six chords use the same progression.
I remember an interview with Rick Wakeman enthusing about the song 'Life of Mars' (which he played piano on as a pre-Yes gig), where he explained how it had a really unexpected chord progression, which spoke to Bowie's genius as a songwriter.
Soundgarden, Radiohead and Bowie... not a coincidence that these monsters genius created such original songs. Nobody progress (sings) like you anymore ! 😉 You nailed it @DavidBennetPiano 💪
I think the band XTC always had some really unique chord progressions. One of my fave bands. Andy is still at it with some new stuff thats just as wild.
Good point. There's an interview where he shows a few examples of how bands who cover his songs get the occasional chord wrong. Those quirky chords are the main contributor to their unique style, especially in their early records. Here's the video: th-cam.com/video/0IvYTsXpRNA/w-d-xo.html And here are two others on his style: th-cam.com/video/C6FUKcCP7dA/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/C6FUKcCP7dA/w-d-xo.html
As demonstrated in Andy's recent in-depth songwriting TH-cam interviews with Chanan Hanspal. See also many of the songs by the original 10CC/Godley&Creme and even Madness.
When I read the title and saw Bowie's picture, I thought for sure one of them would be Life on Mars. That song has amazing chord progressions I have not heard elsewhere. Specifically, the chord changes from line "But the film is a saddening bore" to "Sailors fighting in the dance hall..."
@@ernestguinovart1651have you ever heard Scott Weiland cover Ashes to Ashes? I went down a Weiland cover song rabbit hole and this song was phenomenal.
The backstory behind 'All The Young Dudes' is incredible, and a testament to Bowie's genius. (From Wikipedia) By 1972, Mott the Hoople were on the verge of splitting up. Having been together for three years, the band had released four well-received albums and developed a small loyal following but had failed to garner commercial success. An appearance on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops in late 1971 was not enough to push their recent single "Midnight Lady" onto the charts. The band had also finished a tour which left them financially unstable. On 4 February 1972, David Bowie sent the band a demo of "Suffragette City" in hopes they would record it. The band played it and believed it did not fit their style. Bassist Pete Watts contacted Bowie in late March 1972 and politely rejected it, stating the band broke up. Upon learning this, Bowie contacted Watts back *two hours later* and said: "I've written a song for you *since we spoke* , which could be great." That song was All The Young Dudes.
sometimes we like to make things more complicated than they actually are. it takes a great mind like David's to help bring things back around. always look forward to your uploads bro!!
Around 2012 I was fascinated with progressions where one note moves only by a semitone such as the loop cm, E, am, fm The walk is g - g# - a - ab and i loved the fact that the note between g and a was once used as a g# and once as ab in the very same progression. Writing a melody around that was a bit challenging (i think my friend wrote most of that back then), but it was one of the very first songs we did (and uploaded years later). I liked to think about these chords as being voiced for a choir an as many voices as possible should have to sing mostly semitone scales; that was the challenge for me.
Incredible video David! I would LOVE for a unique chord progression series! Common chord progressions are all well and good, but the ones that are unique are far more interesting! ❤
Another great one among many by Radiohead is just... Just. Every section of that song has a completely unique chord progression. The intro goes C, Eb, D, F which is I, bIII, II, IV over which they play an ascending octatonic scale, even though those chords don't fit within that scale. Then the verse goes Am, Ab, Eb, F Am, Ab, Eb, Bb Am, Ab, G, F#(#4), F which is vi, bVI, bIII, IV vi, bVI, bIII, bVII vi, bVI, V, #IV(#4), IV Then the chorus goes C, Gb7, F which is I, bV7, IV The only other song that I know that uses that progression from the chorus of Just is Rockaway by Joshua Lee Turner. I know David likes him. He plays in D major, but keeping the F# over all three chords, such that you get D, Ab7, Gmaj7.
@@Shoeg4zer I only found another song with the chorus progression consisting of three chords, not the rest of the song. Pretty safe yo say the song "has a unique progression."
I made a Spotify playlist called "Unusual chord progressions" which is just what it says. Some of the more well-known songs on the list: Hello it's me (Todd Rundgren), Bel Air (Lana Del Rey), Nakamarra (Hiatus Kaiyote), Golden lady (Stevie Wonder), Shinunoga e-wa (Fujii Kaze), Like a star (Corinne Bailey Rae)
Todd Rundgren’s music has some of the most brilliant and unique harmony I’ve ever heard. The changes to his song “Be Nice To Me” are incredible and very unique.
Back in the day when I had no idea about music theory, I always had a hunch that Black Hole Sun was a unique song in the way it sounded. Thanks for confirming that for me and after watching this video, I can now appreciate that the unique chord progression in this beautiful song is *exactly* the reason why it is so special.
I love a bizarre chord progression. I especially love it when an artist can use the singing melody to make the bizarre chord progression sound "normal." There's something about the combination of catchiness and surprise that just does it for me every time. I actually have a whole Spotify playlist of songs that do this. I would love to see you do a whole series of videos analyzing strange chord progressions in popular songs and why they work. Just a few hit songs that come to mind: Nirvana - Lithium Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke Squeeze - Pulling Mussels (from the Shell) Billy Joel - Uptown Girl Prince - Under the Cherry Moon And those are just popular songs by popular artists I named. If you got into more indie music by Elliott Smith, Jellyfish, Speedy Ortiz, Mr. Bungle, Self, Bill Wurtz, etc. the possibilities are endless.
On the 3/4 F Bb G turnaround: More by accident or totally intentional matters little, but I hope it was at least partly intentional. What such a thing does to me is to introduce something that wants to resolve, both rythmically and harmonically, much stronger than a 4/4 would. It sort of introduces rythmical tension, but until you pointed it out here I've never consciously noticed - and ive listened to this song for 50 odd years. Re Mott v/s Bowie I'm on the fence, but grew up with the Mott version so leaning towards that. What a band they where! But _it's getting a wee bit nippy of late_ so I'll stop typing after this.. (A-one two three four..)
Please do more analysis of Bowie songs. They're incredibly creative. All the young dudes, Life on mars, Ashes to ashes... They have very interesting proggresions
A lot of memorable rock music came from the early 1990’s, but Black Hole Sun is the one song that really stands out, for several reasons. It is a remarkably unique piece, as highlighted by the chord analysis in this video. Additionally, it’s the song that unifies so many sub-genres of 20th century rock - 60’s pop, 70’s classic, 80’s metal, and 90’s alternative. The original recording is iconic, but I think one can’t really appreciate the unique excellence of Black Hole Sun until you listen to Cornell’s solo acoustic performance.
Just to say really enjoyed the more advanced stuff about soundgarden! Really enjoy your stuff when it comes out. I was wondering if you’ve considered doing some really quite deep dives into songs and how the theory conveys the emotions and re enforces their themes? Would love to see stuff like that, like those chord progression videos on three rounds of steroids. Your modal brightness video for example was quite close, I really liked the way you explained stuff in that in an accessible way but the topic had great depth. Either way, thanks for the videos and doing what you’re doing. I’ve learned a lot from them :)!
Once again a fascinating analysis of some great songs. Surely though in terms of unusual pop chord progressions Squeeze are absolute masters. I'd love to hear your analysis of some of their songs - I find them both beautiful and very interesting.
These chord sequences are so cool! In "All the Young Dudes", to my ears it sounds like the second half is in F major, with lots of chords from Mixolydian.
About the Bowie example, while I do agree what happens is a modal interchange within C, i'm more inclined to say it switches to C Dorian because of the F major and consequent use of the natural 6th (A) instead of an Ab
Steely Dan has so many songs with unique chord progressions - it would tough to even list five percent of them. If you consider an album like "Aja" - Pretty much every song on it has a unique chord progression. The Title track, Black Cow, Deacon Blues - everything on there.
i'd love to see you do a video going into real deep depth of all the chord functions, how theyre notated and how you know which chords are what function from a certain tonic note
The end of All the young dudes makes sense when you consider that Bowie wrote mostly on guitar. There’s a geometry to the chord movements that he uses in other songs, and if you think of F as the temporary tonic then it’s I IV II V. Bowie also loved Lennon, and Lennon often had a healthy disregard for bar lengths, eg All you need is love.
Thanks for another great, highly instructive video! Speaking of BOWIE, a special request from Brazil: please do a breakdown of Mike Garson’s PIANO in “Aladdin Sane".
I agree with Rick Beato. Consider the second line as a transpostion of the first line to Bb: [Bb Bbmaj7/A] Gm Gm7/F, but omit the first two chords. Next the (sub dominant) sequence Eb-Bb-F-C, only Bowie chooses not to go directly to C, but instead adds Bb and G.
There's an absolute treasure trove of weird and wonderful chord patterns and incredible time and key changes and modulations in Cardiacs' music. Check out the 1995 double album Sing To God, particularly "Bellyeye", "Dog Like Sparky", "Manhoo" and "Dirty Boy." The last one in particular is an epic work of mad genius.
Great video. You’ve really delved deep into the place where lyrics accompanied by the right music convey expressions of feelings without necessarily making sense. I believe a writer should never have to explain his lyric’s because it’s there for self interpretation. Like the writer describing life from an ant’s viewpoint and realizing the commonalities with the human experience. If one doesn’t pick up on the writer’s intention, oh well. There still is something beautiful there that waits to be discovered by someone at some point.
Great video! Every once in a while I stumble upon super special chord progressions that I'm pretty sure that are unique... Here are a few examples: Genesis - Time Table Kansas - The Wall Dream Theater - Octavarium Muse - Knights of Cydonia Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone Again (Naturally)
I'm going out on a limb here to say the Radiohead chord progression is one of economy. Its E and Am shaped bar chords on guitar (open E & A). Nice to play and an example of 'if it sounds good, it is good'.
The cool thing about music theory is that you can analyze, in a really nerdy way, things that we're probably done completely without even thinking of the theory behind them
@@LxE9799I disagree. It might appear that way but on this record Radiohead were donning and conscious jazz influence. Most apparent on the closing number. I have no doubt Jonny Greenwood was studying the 'Coltrane changes' (a succession of 2-5-1s where the last chord in each progression acts as the 2 in the new key) and wrote the song around them. Keep in mind this was also one of the few records where radiohead used session musicians as well as just members of the band.
Hi David. Great video as always. In All the Young Dudes the second section beginning in Gm is definitely a key change, though more of what I call a "phantom" key change, where it makes more sense to maintain the dominant key and employ accidentals to handle the phantom key change, in this case, Bb. The second section is also a hybrid progression that includes chords from both the key of C and Bb, which is why the G at the end works so well to resolve back to C.
The Radiohead song that moves its ii-V-i chord progression in whole tone steps by having the i chord also having the functionality of the ii chord in the next round, ie having the pattern overlap, is reminiscent of a similar approach, using all major chords, in the outro of All Good People by Yes. The chord progression for the main part of the song is I-bVII-bVI- bIII-IV. In the outro, there is a descending sequence where the VI chord has the additional functionality of being the V chord for the next round. So, we have E-D-C-G-A then D-C-Bb-F-G, followed by C-Bb-Ab-Eb-F etc.
You and whose army has cool interval patterns. The ii V I pattern is an interesting assessment of the progression. Very neat. My mind looks at the chords this way. 1, 3, 5, 7 (ii, i, bvii, bVI)all fall back a whole step from one another. Chords 2, 4, 6 (V, IV, bIII) do the same as well. And chords 1- 7 are separated by consecutive 4ths. The 8th or last chord in the progression lands on the tonic. Very interesting starting on minor second (ii) and ending on the tonic. Radiohead is inspiring and are great musicians. Thanks for the video!
I’ve always heard “All The Young Dudes” as a parallel minor thing. I’m so glad you broke it down because the second half just sounds minor to me. The mood shifts dramatically at Gm which makes that final 3/4 journey back to Major so epically satisfying :)
Thanks for the insightful analysis! You and Whose Army? is one of my favourites to sing and play, but I didn’t know the name of the jazz technique :D I think the band Everything Everything has some fairly unique chord progressions - their songs Qwerty Finger, Photoshop Handsome, and Luddites & Lambs come to mind, I’d love to see you analyse some of their work :)
I also note that the chord progression in the Radiohead song also can be thought of as going around the circle of 4ths for 7 chords but not the 8th chord.
@@gx1tar1er sure, but I'd say the time signatures themselves were not as interesting as where they chose to put the accents on. Take for instance Rusty Cage: it's a plain 4/4, but the way the guitar riff subdivides the beats pushes them into uncommon places, making it feel as an odd ts when it actually isn't
Curious about the chord progression to “Carry the Zero” from Built to Spill, it’s Amaj7, E, B7, F#m, though at the end the song breaks down to just two bars of Amaj7 and two bars of E going in a loop. It’s fun to play on guitar because Amaj7 and B7 have the same chord shape, just one string lower.
Wilco's song Hummingbird has a very unique meandering progression in the verse that modulates throughout the chorus into a new key which the second verse picks up in.
Julian Cope called that chord progression "The Glam Descend", to refer to those glam songs with said or similar progression, like All The Young Dudes, Metal Guru, Changes, Ballad of Maxwell Demon, TIme, etc.
Bowie of the era did a lot of work around blending minor and major key. I suspect he was writing lot of hunky dory on piano, despite not being a trained pianist, and finding unconventional cool stuff with a kind of beginners open mind. Then Rick Wakeman pro played it on the album.. it's a lovely combination.
One song i wrote called "Dont Come In" continously changes key up a half step and you dont even notice. Gadd9 - Cmaj7 - F - Fm - Fm7 V - I7 - IV - iv - iv7 The iv7 outlines the V of the new key. Fm7 (F - Ab - C - Eb) Ab (Ab - C - Eb) You continue this pattern for as long as you want. Gadd9 - Cmaj7 - F - Fm - Fm7 Abadd9 - Dbmaj7 - Gb - Gbm - Gbm7 Aadd9 - Dmaj7 - G - Gm - Gm7 And so on...
I agree that the second half of ATYD feels more like a mode change than a modulation, though to me it's to the dorian rather than a mixture of major and minor. (Yes, I realise that sounds like splitting hairs). That three chord turnaround really has no business sounding as smooth as it does, Bowie really had a gift for making odd choices sound logical in the moment.
Great video David. One of my all time favorite songs is Us and Them by Pink Floyd. I’m fairly certain that is a truly unique chord progression. A radio hit that contains a minor major 7th chord.
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Thanks to Jeremy Tuplin for sponsoring this video. Check out his new album ‘Orville’s Discotheque’ jeremytuplinmusic.bandcamp.com/album/orvilles-discotheque
I believe the Beatles opened up these weird tone chord progression changes, even early on, by stretching the blues & after split. Is that true?
I think Bowie's 3/4 bar is a consciously introduced emotional whiplash, energetic effect, and a hint that we are to wake up a bit from the hypnotic state of modal major-minor interchange.
Just had a listen to Jeremy (can't think of many Musical Jeremys although beadle had great music knowledge) and it's really good,!! Bit of a gainsbourg vibe who is one of my heroes
I'm writing songs about being a dad if anyone is interested th-cam.com/video/XP26fXM1QxA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=UiAAdK6ZP3o0mqUK
@@clarekuehn4372get yourself the book songwriting secrets of the Beatles if you haven't already - it's amazing
at 8:55 - You say logical predictable route and then I immediately realised the 'logical one' is Liability by Lorde, which means it's probably a chord progression you've covered in one of your videos 😀
You and Whose Army is a perfect example of how the instrument and how it is tuned/ set up/ played etc. can influence the composing itself. On a piano you don't see it but if you play those chords on guitar you can see exactly how it begun: it's just shifting down the frets rather than a conscious thought of what key it's in.
One cool thing about the F Bb G C turn around in All The Young Dudes is that, while the chord jumps sound pretty random, it actually contains a climbing chromatic line A Bb B C!
Quite fittingly for a turnaround, it "reverses" the otherwise descending movement in the chord progression.
I loved the fact that you mentioned Rick Beato and his different interpretation. You both enhanced my rhythmic and harmonic knowledge. Thank you both.
I always love the First of October shirt. Literally can't wait until October.
I love Soundgarden so much! I didn't know that Black Hole Sun's chord progression was that unique
It's one of the strangest and most creative popular songs ever written. That's why I don't get Soundgarden fans who bash the song.
@@rome8180 THERE ARE SOUNDGARDEN FANS WHO BASH BHS?! :'D
@@rome8180 That happens for a couple of reasons. 1) Fans of the band are irked by the fact that it's so popular and people only mention that song when the band name comes up with people who aren't real fans. 2) Died in the wool fans are often quite possessive and cliquey and don't like outsiders who haven't done their homework acting as thought they are fans because they know one song. To be fair, BHS isn't representative of most SG output, most of which is much heavier and far less accessible - even a cursory listen to their 'A-Sides' CD demonstrates that.
@@rome8180 Not a big fan of the chorus, love the verse though - very weird.
Its such a weird chord progression and yet the vocal melody sounds very smooth and natural over it. You'd expect a few odd notes in melody to accomodate the madness underneath but it sounds almost diatonic (though I doubt it is).
I'd have to include Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother in this. That song has a couple of unique chord progressions.
I always thought that was composed by someone else...
@@ballefranz7059 It was Ron Geesin who wrote the wild chord progressions, but it was for Pink Floyd and he's credited on the album so I'd say it still counts.
i'm fairly sure it's Pink Floyd's progression. Ron Geesin came up with the brass orchestration and choral arrangement, no?
@@PatioRS yes, that will be right enough, they were performing a non orchestral version for a while before getting Ron involved.
Yes, I was just about to comment that
As a guitar player, I love these videos. Really expands my knowledge in a way most guitar channels don’t, probably cause you don’t show the guitar shapes and I actually have to figure it out. Nice work
The All The Young Dudes chords remind me of another great bowie progression - the chorus of Quicksand. That one’s definitely worthy of a musical investigation, too.
It reminds me of whatever by oasis cant remember which part
Bowie recorded a demo of Quicksand called Divine Symmetry. It's just him sining with an acoustic guitar. It sounds way better than the album version IMO.
@@elliottcovert3796going to look that up now 🤩 thank you!
@@NonononowweOasis' Stand by Me is a "homage" to Bowie, we could say.
So glad you included my suggestion of Black Hole Sun in this video 😍😍
This guys is making such great videos which are taught at music schools with such high fees🙏
Just Golden (tho I retain little afterwards)!
Your explanation of all the young dudes is definitely more sound and robust than the other guy's. Thanks for being thorough and thoughtful!
That Radiohead progression sounded so familiar to my ears, and after some wracking I remembered where I heard it before. Check out the song Message personnel by Francoise Hardy, written by Michel Berger. The first six chords use the same progression.
I remember an interview with Rick Wakeman enthusing about the song 'Life of Mars' (which he played piano on as a pre-Yes gig), where he explained how it had a really unexpected chord progression, which spoke to Bowie's genius as a songwriter.
Soundgarden, Radiohead and Bowie... not a coincidence that these monsters genius created such original songs. Nobody progress (sings) like you anymore ! 😉
You nailed it @DavidBennetPiano 💪
I think the band XTC always had some really unique chord progressions. One of my fave bands. Andy is still at it with some new stuff thats just as wild.
Making plans for Nigel; killer progression!
Good point. There's an interview where he shows a few examples of how bands who cover his songs get the occasional chord wrong. Those quirky chords are the main contributor to their unique style, especially in their early records. Here's the video: th-cam.com/video/0IvYTsXpRNA/w-d-xo.html
And here are two others on his style: th-cam.com/video/C6FUKcCP7dA/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/C6FUKcCP7dA/w-d-xo.html
"Pink Thing", for example.
As demonstrated in Andy's recent in-depth songwriting TH-cam interviews with Chanan Hanspal. See also many of the songs by the original 10CC/Godley&Creme and even Madness.
Just getting into them and yes! The Beatles, Elliott Smith, and Radiohead have been my biggest influences and woh now XTC! Better late than never
You should do a video on Chris Cornell's first solo album: Euphoria Mourning. It is a very harmonically complex album.
@Luke5100 Tim or Jeff ?
@@terryenglish7132 Jeff
Sure. About That, Im currently very addicted to Alains Johansen. Do anyone here do follow his career? Salute to you all!
Yes please. My favorite is "Pillow of your bones". I'm not good enough at music theory to analyze it.
@@terryenglish7132Jeff.
When I read the title and saw Bowie's picture, I thought for sure one of them would be Life on Mars. That song has amazing chord progressions I have not heard elsewhere. Specifically, the chord changes from line "But the film is a saddening bore" to "Sailors fighting in the dance hall..."
Ashes to Ashes too
Life on Mars is based on the chords of My Way, so it's not that unique
@@ernestguinovart1651have you ever heard Scott Weiland cover Ashes to Ashes? I went down a Weiland cover song rabbit hole and this song was phenomenal.
@@dariovega9772 Well, the first few chords of "My Way" ... he used them as a starting point, but then took it in his own unexpected direction.
@@ZeusKingOfAllGods Thanks for the suggestion, I will look for it right away!
The backstory behind 'All The Young Dudes' is incredible, and a testament to Bowie's genius.
(From Wikipedia)
By 1972, Mott the Hoople were on the verge of splitting up. Having been together for three years, the band had released four well-received albums and developed a small loyal following but had failed to garner commercial success. An appearance on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops in late 1971 was not enough to push their recent single "Midnight Lady" onto the charts. The band had also finished a tour which left them financially unstable.
On 4 February 1972, David Bowie sent the band a demo of "Suffragette City" in hopes they would record it. The band played it and believed it did not fit their style. Bassist Pete Watts contacted Bowie in late March 1972 and politely rejected it, stating the band broke up.
Upon learning this, Bowie contacted Watts back *two hours later* and said:
"I've written a song for you *since we spoke* , which could be great."
That song was All The Young Dudes.
Radiohead's one is very similar to a French song, called "Message Personnel" written by Michel Berger and performed by Françoise Hardy
Yes ! That literally struck my mind (or my ear) at once when I heard this progression, so glad you pointed it out 😊
Yep. Was thinking the exact same. And the Berger/Hardy song was released in 1973, almost a quarter of a century before the Radiohead one.
I was about to post the same thing !
Radiohead borrowing somebody else's song for their chord progression?
@@davidmcauliffe8692 Who is your favourite artist or band. I am sure I can give you an example where they are are doing the same.
I love that you are wearing a First of October Tee. Amazing band.
sometimes we like to make things more complicated than they actually are. it takes a great mind like David's to help bring things back around. always look forward to your uploads bro!!
Around 2012 I was fascinated with progressions where one note moves only by a semitone such as the loop cm, E, am, fm
The walk is g - g# - a - ab and i loved the fact that the note between g and a was once used as a g# and once as ab in the very same progression. Writing a melody around that was a bit challenging (i think my friend wrote most of that back then), but it was one of the very first songs we did (and uploaded years later). I liked to think about these chords as being voiced for a choir an as many voices as possible should have to sing mostly semitone scales; that was the challenge for me.
I'd love to see a video like this but only with Cardiacs songs. Their discography is a treasure trove of unique chord progressions.
Yes, and timing changes!
The opening chord progression in Sting's "Hounds Of Winter" have always sounds has always sounds very unique to me.
Great video as always David. All the young dudes has to be one of the best chorus' ever! just amazing.
Incredible video David! I would LOVE for a unique chord progression series! Common chord progressions are all well and good, but the ones that are unique are far more interesting! ❤
Squeeze also features interesting bass notes that are often not on the root.
Another great one among many by Radiohead is just... Just. Every section of that song has a completely unique chord progression.
The intro goes
C, Eb, D, F
which is
I, bIII, II, IV
over which they play an ascending octatonic scale, even though those chords don't fit within that scale.
Then the verse goes
Am, Ab, Eb, F
Am, Ab, Eb, Bb
Am, Ab, G, F#(#4), F
which is
vi, bVI, bIII, IV
vi, bVI, bIII, bVII
vi, bVI, V, #IV(#4), IV
Then the chorus goes
C, Gb7, F
which is
I, bV7, IV
The only other song that I know that uses that progression from the chorus of Just is Rockaway by Joshua Lee Turner. I know David likes him. He plays in D major, but keeping the F# over all three chords, such that you get D, Ab7, Gmaj7.
Not a Radiohead fan but that song is Great, had it on a shine cd back in the day
If another song uses the progression, it isn't unique. It may be uncommon, but not singular.
@@Shoeg4zer I only found another song with the chorus progression consisting of three chords, not the rest of the song. Pretty safe yo say the song "has a unique progression."
I made a Spotify playlist called "Unusual chord progressions" which is just what it says. Some of the more well-known songs on the list: Hello it's me (Todd Rundgren), Bel Air (Lana Del Rey), Nakamarra (Hiatus Kaiyote), Golden lady (Stevie Wonder), Shinunoga e-wa (Fujii Kaze), Like a star (Corinne Bailey Rae)
Todd Rundgren’s music has some of the most brilliant and unique harmony I’ve ever heard. The changes to his song “Be Nice To Me” are incredible and very unique.
all the young dudes brought back some wild memories
Back in the day when I had no idea about music theory, I always had a hunch that Black Hole Sun was a unique song in the way it sounded. Thanks for confirming that for me and after watching this video, I can now appreciate that the unique chord progression in this beautiful song is *exactly* the reason why it is so special.
I love a bizarre chord progression. I especially love it when an artist can use the singing melody to make the bizarre chord progression sound "normal." There's something about the combination of catchiness and surprise that just does it for me every time. I actually have a whole Spotify playlist of songs that do this.
I would love to see you do a whole series of videos analyzing strange chord progressions in popular songs and why they work. Just a few hit songs that come to mind:
Nirvana - Lithium
Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke
Squeeze - Pulling Mussels (from the Shell)
Billy Joel - Uptown Girl
Prince - Under the Cherry Moon
And those are just popular songs by popular artists I named. If you got into more indie music by Elliott Smith, Jellyfish, Speedy Ortiz, Mr. Bungle, Self, Bill Wurtz, etc. the possibilities are endless.
God Only Knows would be a good candidate for this
@@DanThomasUKtrue, I think David has talked about it earlier though
Thanks for reminding me of pulling mussels!
Nice please share the playlist
Smooth voice leading between chords is pulling the most weight in making the progression work well rather than the melody.
David Bowie's songs have so much chords....One of my favourite: Memory of a Free Festival
Another great video David!!
Thank you!
On the 3/4 F Bb G turnaround: More by accident or totally intentional matters little, but I hope it was at least partly intentional. What such a thing does to me is to introduce something that wants to resolve, both rythmically and harmonically, much stronger than a 4/4 would. It sort of introduces rythmical tension, but until you pointed it out here I've never consciously noticed - and ive listened to this song for 50 odd years.
Re Mott v/s Bowie I'm on the fence, but grew up with the Mott version so leaning towards that. What a band they where! But _it's getting a wee bit nippy of late_ so I'll stop typing after this.. (A-one two three four..)
The 3/4 bar in The bowie song also has ascending notes A Bb B then goes to C which feels like a nice movement
Please do more analysis of Bowie songs. They're incredibly creative.
All the young dudes, Life on mars, Ashes to ashes... They have very interesting proggresions
Agreed, I've been playing this song for my entire life and I've always considered it a Major/Minor walk down with a nifty turnaround
Interesting sponsor.
I definitely paid more attention than I usually do to sponsor messages.
And I do like me some indie. Perfect!
The first three chords of "All the Young Dudes" remind me "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum.
The outro to Sir Psycho Sexy has a very interesting chord progression.
Man I was wondering if anyone would say it..The Blackhole Sun song has similar movement in places.
Man, Your videos, I love them!
The first of October t-shirt was my favorite part of the video and Soundgarden is my favorite band.
You’re absolutely right about the parallel minor.
A lot of memorable rock music came from the early 1990’s, but Black Hole Sun is the one song that really stands out, for several reasons. It is a remarkably unique piece, as highlighted by the chord analysis in this video. Additionally, it’s the song that unifies so many sub-genres of 20th century rock - 60’s pop, 70’s classic, 80’s metal, and 90’s alternative. The original recording is iconic, but I think one can’t really appreciate the unique excellence of Black Hole Sun until you listen to Cornell’s solo acoustic performance.
Just to say really enjoyed the more advanced stuff about soundgarden! Really enjoy your stuff when it comes out. I was wondering if you’ve considered doing some really quite deep dives into songs and how the theory conveys the emotions and re enforces their themes? Would love to see stuff like that, like those chord progression videos on three rounds of steroids. Your modal brightness video for example was quite close, I really liked the way you explained stuff in that in an accessible way but the topic had great depth. Either way, thanks for the videos and doing what you’re doing. I’ve learned a lot from them :)!
Digging the sponsored artist, really cool that you do this with your channel. Mad respect for real 👍
Wow.. All songs I love for their uniqueness. Now I know why!
Inspired me to come up with a unique chord progression inspired by the movements in the Bowie song! Thanks! :D
David, you knocked it out of the park again! thx
Once again a fascinating analysis of some great songs. Surely though in terms of unusual pop chord progressions Squeeze are absolute masters. I'd love to hear your analysis of some of their songs - I find them both beautiful and very interesting.
In “Black Hole Sun” is the Ab just a tritone substitute for the V in G (D).. Black Hole Sun is my favorite Soundgarden song.
These chord sequences are so cool! In "All the Young Dudes", to my ears it sounds like the second half is in F major, with lots of chords from Mixolydian.
About the Bowie example, while I do agree what happens is a modal interchange within C, i'm more inclined to say it switches to C Dorian because of the F major and consequent use of the natural 6th (A) instead of an Ab
Wowow what a cool video idea. Awesome songs too!
Steely Dan has so many songs with unique chord progressions - it would tough to even list five percent of them. If you consider an album like "Aja" - Pretty much every song on it has a unique chord progression. The Title track, Black Cow, Deacon Blues - everything on there.
Coffee and TV would be a good chord progression to analyse
I love that song 🥰
Another Chris' song with a unique progression is Preaching the End of the World. Great video!
i'd love to see you do a video going into real deep depth of all the chord functions, how theyre notated and how you know which chords are what function from a certain tonic note
The end of All the young dudes makes sense when you consider that Bowie wrote mostly on guitar. There’s a geometry to the chord movements that he uses in other songs, and if you think of F as the temporary tonic then it’s I IV II V. Bowie also loved Lennon, and Lennon often had a healthy disregard for bar lengths, eg All you need is love.
Only A Northern Song! That one has some weird chords intentionally.
I've just discovered your channel and your content is amazing. Thanks!!
Thanks for another great, highly instructive video! Speaking of BOWIE, a special request from Brazil: please do a breakdown of Mike Garson’s PIANO in “Aladdin Sane".
My favourite version of Aladdin Sane was him and Gail Ann Dorsey duetting it live, with his guitarist using a piano-like effect 🎶🥰🎶
th-cam.com/video/J1x7XhIwrIM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=9uNUO4CwRfkZWNQr
I agree with Rick Beato. Consider the second line as a transpostion of the first line to Bb: [Bb Bbmaj7/A] Gm Gm7/F, but omit the first two chords. Next the (sub dominant) sequence Eb-Bb-F-C, only Bowie chooses not to go directly to C, but instead adds Bb and G.
There's an absolute treasure trove of weird and wonderful chord patterns and incredible time and key changes and modulations in Cardiacs' music. Check out the 1995 double album Sing To God, particularly "Bellyeye", "Dog Like Sparky", "Manhoo" and "Dirty Boy." The last one in particular is an epic work of mad genius.
Great video. You’ve really delved deep into the place where lyrics accompanied by the right music convey expressions of feelings without necessarily making sense. I believe a writer should never have to explain his lyric’s because it’s there for self interpretation. Like the writer describing life from an ant’s viewpoint and realizing the commonalities with the human experience. If one doesn’t pick up on the writer’s intention, oh well. There still is something beautiful there that waits to be discovered by someone at some point.
Great video! Every once in a while I stumble upon super special chord progressions that I'm pretty sure that are unique... Here are a few examples:
Genesis - Time Table
Kansas - The Wall
Dream Theater - Octavarium
Muse - Knights of Cydonia
Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone Again (Naturally)
I'm going out on a limb here to say the Radiohead chord progression is one of economy. Its E and Am shaped bar chords on guitar (open E & A). Nice to play and an example of 'if it sounds good, it is good'.
The cool thing about music theory is that you can analyze, in a really nerdy way, things that we're probably done completely without even thinking of the theory behind them
@@LxE9799 yep, I completely agree.
@@LxE9799I disagree. It might appear that way but on this record Radiohead were donning and conscious jazz influence. Most apparent on the closing number. I have no doubt Jonny Greenwood was studying the 'Coltrane changes' (a succession of 2-5-1s where the last chord in each progression acts as the 2 in the new key) and wrote the song around them. Keep in mind this was also one of the few records where radiohead used session musicians as well as just members of the band.
@@body-horrorragdolls1826 we can never know, that's the beauty of it :)
Hi David. Great video as always.
In All the Young Dudes the second section beginning in Gm is definitely a key change, though more of what I call a "phantom" key change, where it makes more sense to maintain the dominant key and employ accidentals to handle the phantom key change, in this case, Bb. The second section is also a hybrid progression that includes chords from both the key of C and Bb, which is why the G at the end works so well to resolve back to C.
The Radiohead song that moves its ii-V-i chord progression in whole tone steps by having the i chord also having the functionality of the ii chord in the next round, ie having the pattern overlap, is reminiscent of a similar approach, using all major chords, in the outro of All Good People by Yes. The chord progression for the main part of the song is I-bVII-bVI- bIII-IV. In the outro, there is a descending sequence where the VI chord has the additional functionality of being the V chord for the next round. So, we have E-D-C-G-A then D-C-Bb-F-G, followed by C-Bb-Ab-Eb-F etc.
You and whose army has cool interval patterns. The ii V I pattern is an interesting assessment of the progression. Very neat. My mind looks at the chords this way. 1, 3, 5, 7 (ii, i, bvii, bVI)all fall back a whole step from one another. Chords 2, 4, 6 (V, IV, bIII) do the same as well. And chords 1- 7 are separated by consecutive 4ths. The 8th or last chord in the progression lands on the tonic. Very interesting starting on minor second (ii) and ending on the tonic. Radiohead is inspiring and are great musicians. Thanks for the video!
Stevie Wonder is great for chord changes and harmonisation (mid 70s stuff)
While being super catchy and poppy
That's interwsting being sponsored by an artist rather than a corporation... I like it
Awesome video David, thanks a lot!
This is great stuff! I understand it, even though I haven't had any formal music training.
Hi, David! Come to Brazil, i love your channel
I’ve always heard “All The Young Dudes” as a parallel minor thing. I’m so glad you broke it down because the second half just sounds minor to me. The mood shifts dramatically at Gm which makes that final 3/4 journey back to Major so epically satisfying :)
Thanks for the insightful analysis! You and Whose Army? is one of my favourites to sing and play, but I didn’t know the name of the jazz technique :D
I think the band Everything Everything has some fairly unique chord progressions - their songs Qwerty Finger, Photoshop Handsome, and Luddites & Lambs come to mind, I’d love to see you analyse some of their work :)
First of october shirt, you just gained my respect sir
I also note that the chord progression in the Radiohead song also can be thought of as going around the circle of 4ths for 7 chords but not the 8th chord.
The Radiohead song actually displays a wonderful example for a Circle of Fifth progression.
Amazing stuff, as prr usual
If you think Black Hole Sun is unique, can't wait to hear your thoughts on the chord progression in Blow Up the Outside
Not just chord progression, but I also noticed Soundgarden love unusual time signature in their other songs.
@@gx1tar1er sure, but I'd say the time signatures themselves were not as interesting as where they chose to put the accents on. Take for instance Rusty Cage: it's a plain 4/4, but the way the guitar riff subdivides the beats pushes them into uncommon places, making it feel as an odd ts when it actually isn't
David Bowie's 'Move On' has a very similar chord progression to 'All The Young Dudes', but played backwards.
It IS All the young Dudes played backwards-...th-cam.com/video/kqhvmVFtxPI/w-d-xo.html
I’m loving that first of October t shirt
Check out the chord progression of I'm Not in Love by 10cc. Very clever
Curious about the chord progression to “Carry the Zero” from Built to Spill, it’s Amaj7, E, B7, F#m, though at the end the song breaks down to just two bars of Amaj7 and two bars of E going in a loop. It’s fun to play on guitar because Amaj7 and B7 have the same chord shape, just one string lower.
I think the verse of Absolute Beginners by David Bowie has a very unusual progression too. Very interesting video, btw!
Was half expecting some Nik kershaw in here too! I’d love to see you break down The Riddle 👍
Wilco's song Hummingbird has a very unique meandering progression in the verse that modulates throughout the chorus into a new key which the second verse picks up in.
Thanks! Learned a lot - no joke.
The 3/4 section of All the Young Dudes was borrowed by Oasis in the song Stand By Me
Julian Cope called that chord progression "The Glam Descend", to refer to those glam songs with said or similar progression, like All The Young Dudes, Metal Guru, Changes, Ballad of Maxwell Demon, TIme, etc.
Dirty Boy by Cardiacs is a great song that feels like it changes key all the time like that Radiohead song.
YES! You really should listen to "Base Primitiva", from Jupitar Maçã (Jupiter Apple), I'm sure this song uses only minor chords! 9 or 10 of them!
Bang, bang, bang, bang....
That's how I've always heard Mott the Hooples version as well...😊
Bowie of the era did a lot of work around blending minor and major key. I suspect he was writing lot of hunky dory on piano, despite not being a trained pianist, and finding unconventional cool stuff with a kind of beginners open mind. Then Rick Wakeman pro played it on the album.. it's a lovely combination.
One song i wrote called "Dont Come In" continously changes key up a half step and you dont even notice.
Gadd9 - Cmaj7 - F - Fm - Fm7
V - I7 - IV - iv - iv7
The iv7 outlines the V of the new key.
Fm7 (F - Ab - C - Eb)
Ab (Ab - C - Eb)
You continue this pattern for as long as you want.
Gadd9 - Cmaj7 - F - Fm - Fm7
Abadd9 - Dbmaj7 - Gb - Gbm - Gbm7
Aadd9 - Dmaj7 - G - Gm - Gm7
And so on...
Simply super this video, again, just like always, because the subject was also as much of super😊😊These chord progression videos rule😊🎉🎉
I agree that the second half of ATYD feels more like a mode change than a modulation, though to me it's to the dorian rather than a mixture of major and minor. (Yes, I realise that sounds like splitting hairs). That three chord turnaround really has no business sounding as smooth as it does, Bowie really had a gift for making odd choices sound logical in the moment.
Great video David. One of my all time favorite songs is Us and Them by Pink Floyd. I’m fairly certain that is a truly unique chord progression. A radio hit that contains a minor major 7th chord.