Yes, this is Part One. The subject of complex harmonization and creative chord progressions in the music of The Beatles is a topic that offers a lot to discuss and, for music students of every age, a lot to learn from.
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It was Tom Petty who, after working with George Harrison in The Travelling Wilburys, said that George had crafted his songs with “naughty chords.” The implication is that George himself, with his famous sense of humor, used that term for compound chords, for chords that added even more than a seventh, or for diminished and augmented chords. In his 1966 song I Want to Tell You, on the breakthrough album Revolver, George Harrison said: “That’s an E7th with an F on the top, played on the piano. I’m really proud of that, because I literally invented that chord.” Well, that is kind of like saying one has invented a mathematical equation; but I understand what he meant. I cannot think of any song or piece of music that had used it before. A minor seventh is used all the time; but this is a minor ninth.
By this time, considering so much that has been said and written about their music, it is quite often that we are told about how The Beatles expanded their musical exploration beginning in 1966, and it is obviously true. What we seem never to be reminded of in such articles and videos is that The Beatles were creating very unconventional and creative music right from their earliest days. John Lennon and Paul McCartney came right out of the box with works of genius: The unconventional construction of several early songs seemed to sound conventional. It was as if the average person was suddenly able to sing Debussy in the shower, without even realizing it. Involved in that unconventional approach was a frequent use of very “naughty” chords. And with apologies to Pete Townshend (himself a brilliant composer) that includes the fact that The Beatles, not the Who, introduced the suspended chord to Rock ‘n’ Roll (1965 in We Can Work it Out).
In The Beatles Anthology Paul McCartney tells how he insisted, from the beginning, that the music had to be good quality stuff. Obviously, John Lennon agreed. For example, in their first album, Please Please Me in 1962, the song P.S. I Love You makes use of a C# dim. 7th chord. Now, if you have one of those books for people who play guitar chords it will probably say C# dim., rather sophisticated itself compared to what was common in Rock ‘n’ Roll back in 1962. That’s right as far as the guitar or piano goes. But the sung note is G natural. This is an important point. The chord we hear is the combination of notes that concur in each instrument, and the voice is an instrument. To appreciate the complexity and creativity of their harmonic progressions one must consider the melody line or lines that they were singing, all part of the chords that we hear. The most famous example is in She Loves You, where the opening refrain resolves to what would be simply a G Major chord, except that George Harrison added his voice to those of John Lennon and Paul McCartney to sing the note E at the top. John and George may have played the E as part of the chord on their guitars as well, and probably did. But that E turns the G Major chord into an inverted E minor 7th, or, as any guitar and piano book of chords will put it, a G Major 6 (an easier way to get the point of the chord, as it really is an expansion of the anticipated G chord). An even more important vocal addition to a chord came two years later in Ticket to Ride. At one point near the end of the refrain, with the word “Ride,” we have something I will write more about in coming posts: Both thirds, major and minor, in the same chord. A guitar and piano chord book will simply tell you to play E major. And it works, with that G# being the third in the chord. But atop that chord in the melody line is a G natural sung by John. That is not just a naughty chord; that is a very naughty chord. In Catholic terms, we’re talking three “Hail Marys” and four “Our Fathers.” It has to be the naughtiest chord since Bach played his C# diminished 9th chord near the beginning of Toccata and Fugue in D minor, audaciously playing that ninth in the bass with his foot.
In an upcoming part we will see the origin of using a minor and major third together from the roots of Rhythm and Blues. In conventional terms it is a “no-no.” Some musicians, schooled only in traditional classical music, have become agitated in my presence by the sight of both thirds in a score. I was told by one “That’s too confusing: Nobody will be able to read that and play it. Is it major or minor?” The answer is, “Yes, it is.” In the music of The Beatles this naughty combination of both thirds is not only in Ticket to Ride, but also forms a very interesting bass line in Hold me Tight, it dominates the song Day Tripper, and appears elsewhere. It sneaked its way into Rock music from songs like little Richard’s Long Tall Sally. For that we will be looking at Rhythm and Blues in future posts.
Where did The Beatles come up with such sophisticated harmonies, and the genius to make unconventional music sound completely conventional? In some of their early songs you can hear the same elements that you find in Big Band Jazz. Billy Strayhorn, for example, used a very naughty chord in Take the A Train; he used a D 7 chord and added a diminished 5th to it. All of that was expected in jazz, in which the musicians were expected to have a lot of training and experience. The Beatles did not have formal training; but you would never know it from the music itself, and never from their very professional and top-notch performances. The fact is, much of what made their earliest songs stand out was the use of elements from jazz, particularly of the jazz of the big bands.
Occasionally, in fact regularly, I will be adding parts to The Beatles and Naughty Chords as a series of posts, and that is because I have only scratched the surface here. Let me wrap this first part up by reminding us all of what a chord essentially is. Let us take a basic triad, the simplest of chords. We begin with the interval of a major third, C and E. Now, let us add the interval of a minor third on top of it, E and G. So, we have a C Major chord. We see that a basic Major triad consists of two intervals: A major third and a minor third. Now, if in the chord we take the third down a half-step, changing the E to Eb (E Flat), we have two intervals, a minor third under a major third. The triad is now the C minor chord. The feeling of the minor triad is very noticeably different from the feeling of the major triad. But the formula is the same: A major third plus a minor third. The same formula gives two different results, two very different colors. In a recent interview Paul McCartney was asked why the use of notes and harmonies, the changing of frequencies, is so moving. He gave the perfect answer: “It’s magic.” I will add, magic can be learned.
Beatles freak here, since '64. I later studied jazz and theory at the New England Conservatory (and every day since, on my own), before attempting to understand theology for the past 40 years. And I enjoyed this article a LOT. Keep it coming.
Btw, I think George's naughty chord is a Dom7b9, and the "both" thirds chord is a Dom7#9, and yes, both from jazz. They definitely blew open rock harmony by borrowing from jazz, music hall, the great American songbook, and Motown.
You're spot on and highlighting the good stuff.
Thanks I really enjoyed this post. I can't help thinking of those early interviews with the Beatles when they kept being asked what they were going to do when all of this blew over. Well, it never did. My own fascination with them has just grown over the decades and they surely make good music. The scope of their invention and the joyfulness of their music has just made my astonishment grow.