The “Take Five” thread reminded me . . . Does anyone know of any nifty pop/rock tunes that aren’t just in plain ol’ 4/4 or 6/8? The only one I can think of is the aptly titled “5/4” by the Gorillaz . . . Anyone else got anything? Thanks.
There are many Pink Floyd songs that are in 3/4. I believe one titled “Mother” changes from 4/4 to 3/4 and vice-versa throughout the song.
OK, 3/4 counts as a very common meter too. I thought it went without saying.
Oh, I see. Sorry, you didn’t say it.
Sting used to do a lot of messing around with time signatures.
“Seven Days” is in 7/4, as is parts of “Love is Stronger than Justice”
“I Hung My Head” is also in a bizarre meter.
Also, “I was Brought to My Senses,” if I recall correctly (I don’t have the CD here, sadly)
Phil Collins-era Genesis had “Turn it On Again,” which had extra eighth notes inserted in various places.
I wouldn’t pretend to be an expert on any pop music since the late 70’s or so. It used to be, at least, that pop music had to be easily danceable, and/or love songs/ballads, and/or appeal to 12-year-old girls. Neither criterialent themselves to odd time signatures in pop music. (All IMHO of course.)
Turn It On Again by Genesis is in alternating 6/8 and 7/8 (essentially 13/8, in other words), and they still got people to dance to it at concerts. (Genesis did a lot of odd time signature work, but most of it wasn’t Top 40. Much of their album A Trick of The Tail is in 7/8.)
More if I think of any.
Bohemian Rhapsody is in 12/8. At least the version we played in symphonic band was arranged in that meter. Memory from Cats is, too, but that’s not pop…by my definition, anyway.
Didn’t the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” have several meters all mixed up?
“Hey Ya!” by Outkast is in some crazy meter, like 11/4 or something like that.
Is it, now? :dubious:
“Money” is in 7/4
Don’t let me down wove in and out of 5/4–4/4 – again the Beatles who did a lot of screwing around in meter once they hit the studio. Part of it was from the diddling of tapes in things like Strawberry Fields and I Am The Walrus, part of it was intuitive on their part and then realized in final production.
IIRC, Pink Floyd’s “Money” is in 7/4.
Great example. I had forgotten about that one.
12/8 isn’t an unusual meter. Tons of old-school soul songs are in 12/8 (“nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,” Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”).
“Diamond Dust” off of Jeff Beck’s Blow by Blow album is in 5/4.
Isn’t Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill in 7/4 as well?
Why, so it is!
re. “Here Comes the Sun”: as Mark Hertsgaard explains it in A Day In the Life [paraphrasing from pp. 300-1]:
1-4-5 chords in A Major, except for the bit added in at the end of the first verse, just before “And I said, It’s all right”. Followed by the middle eight, played in a 4-1-5 chord pattern in G Major – and in a quicker tempo.
Me, here: what’s happening in the two-bar bits at the end of the verses is two bars of two triples per bar, with each triplet having a value of 2/4. It’s still following the same 4/4 meter, but not the original rhythm, since in the two-bar bits the beat falls on one and three instead of two and four. The first two times this occurs, the triplets are followed by a one-off 2/4 bar descending pattern of four eighth notes – although you don’t get that bar every time the two-bar bit occurs (as in the acoustic reprise of the two-bar bit after the second verse). So, chord changes and key sig changes, yes; rhythm changes, yes; but time sig changes, not really, not to the degree it sounds like that’s happening.
Two songs I like with 5/4 meters: “English Roundabout” by XTC and “5-4 = Unity” by Pavement.
I was told (by someone who knows music a lot better than I) that Band of Gold by Freda Payne was in 5/4.
Burt Bacharach wrote some odd meter tunes for Dionne Warwick. “Anyone Who Had A Heart” is in 5/4, “Walk on By” is something like 3+3+2 and, incredibly, “Promises, Promises” has 20 meter changes.