Tonality and a sense of place:
When discussing tonality we have invariably referred to a sense of place, as if tonal centres were physical locations. That’s because sense of place is the key (both literally and metaphorically) to so much great songwriting emotion throughout popular music history.
after having been established - albeit very weakly ‘v -iv- i’ - with the descent from the C#m. We may still be on Please Please Me, but this very early Beatles modulation still qualifies as slick semantic movement.
‘You look tired love , let me turn down the light’ A move from D to G major from the v minor using a Tritone substitute for the expected V chord (the D7 that would have appeared in a ii-V -I ). Yup, Ab7#9 signals the return of The Gretty Chord!
‘Rest your head on my shoulder and kiss me tonight’ G itself now drops deftly to the parallel minor, which itself is then conceived as the ii minor of the impending F major. Another Gretty chord , Gb7#9, again slides down a semitone into its target.
‘Now and forever , come my way’ A move that we can reinterpret retrospectively as bVI-bVII-I in A major. The effect overall is of an exotic variation on an Imperfect cadence because A is the V of the parent key.
‘Bright ‘ Paul and ‘dark ‘ John - origins of a myth
So many theories have been put forward down the years to explain in the so -called differences between Lennon and McCartney that it would take another book to list them. They range from sociological character dissections through to an analysis of their musical influences and their respective needs for communicating through songwriting. Making distinctions between the two writers has become such a part of Beatles culture that it cannot be ignored.
Of course, in cases where a sequence doesn’t move down a fifth (as with the Plagal moves or the Aeolian bVII cadence} ~the overall feel is darker. But, again, Paul’s examples are not as dark as those in the Lennon column, which are in most cases obviously tougher, harder, and rockier. On the basis of this table alone, which covers many essential and recurring moves in popular music, we would indeed be forgiven for feeling that our intuitions are borne out.
Here’s the theory that we might come up with.
John’s ‘Plagal’ Fourths and flattened sevenths - tonal unconformity:
In stark contrast to this formal functionality, the same theory states that John Lennon’s harmony is characterized by dysfunctional moves that go against the grain, starting with a greater penchant for less direct, less authoritative, and less’ “classical “ Plagal moves.
‘Girl’s key switches: shunning the V-I transitions
The counter-theory - ‘bright’ John , ‘ dark’ Paul
To a great extent John and Paul - and George, too - seem to have been blessed with virtually equal facility with respect to
almost all……
But wait a minute , ‘Penny Lane’ as an example of the dark side of Paul’?! Surely there must be some mistake. After all, isn’t this (at least) the one song universally regarded as the antithesis of ‘Strawberry Fields’, and described as ‘bright and breezy as the suburban day it celebrated’?
It is perhaps appropriate that this inseparable pair (which at first sight confirm the stereotypical view of the ‘quintessential differences’ between the two writers challenges us to reconsider our prejudices.
