Pachebel’s *Canon in D *andjust about everything.
Iron Butterfly gettin’ jiggy with Cream.
Old 97s Salome, where the guitar solo turns into I Hear A Symphony.
25 or 6 to 4 seems to be a descending series of chords. You can find them used in a different rhythm in Walk Don’t Run and much later in Blank Generation.
It’s hard to imagine Floyd making something of this, as it’s kind of a pop cliche, but Interstellar Overdrive is series of descending chords that was a big number for them early on, though it wasn’t the same. Maybe it shared some elements.
That four-chord decending progression that you hear in “Walk Don’t Run” (and "Blank Generation) is the Andalusian cadence. It is heard all over popular music. (“Hit The Road Jack,” “The Cat Came Back,” “Sultans of Swing” come to mind.) “25 or 6 to 4” and “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” is a bit of different progression, though, but a similar minor key descending idea. There’s an extra chord in there, and an extra bass note. So, an Andalusian cadence would go A-G-F-E in the bass, with the respective chords on top, but those other two songs go A-G-F#-F-E. It’s a minor change, but it’s major enough to be distinctive. (Also, the chords themselves are a little different. Whereas the second chord in your examples would be a G major, in the other two songs it’s either a C/G or Am/G).
In The Sunshine of Your Love melds with the theme to the A*Team in my mind.
Islands in the Stream - in the instrumental bridge section before the last chorus’ - where they vamp ‘Sail Away’ - the melody and chord sequence are identical to the passage at the end of the chorus in SOS by Abba ‘When you’ve gone, how can I even try to go on?’ (Islands in A flat and SOS in F)
SOS released in '74 and Islands in '79. I’m in no way suggesting the Gibb brothers nicked it, rather it may have been a subconscious influence.
I’ve always sung SOS to myself over that passage.
MiM
Good points. I was being a little careless. Of course the zep song is minory. I looked up the chords, and it proposes that the first and third chords are minor: Am G F#m F E. I don’t know about the slash chords.
There’s also Louie Louie and Wild thing, one having the minor dominant and the other one standard.
The second chord isn’t a G, though. It’s a C/G or a Am7/G, depending on how you want to interpret it. And the third chord might be a D/F# rather than an F#m. (I think of it as Am, Am7/G, D/F#, F, E.) But, anyhow–I’m just saying it’s not just stepping down diatonically on a minor scale from I to V. As I was picking up the kids from school, I heard yet another song on the radio with the Andalusian progression and thought of this thread: “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” by the Animals (Originally recorded by Nina Simone, of course.) It’s everywhere!
No one’s mentioned “All Summer Long” being an amalgam of “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Werewolves of London” yet?
I prefer to pretend to live in a universe where that song doesn’t exist.
The descending chromatic is also a feature of Cream’s Tales of Brave Ulysses.
So am I right that Walk Don’t Run is played in major chords but is in a minor key?
I can’t keep “Frankenstein” and “Cheap Sunglasses” separate in my head sometimes.
Good call.
A-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Another good call. After listening to this link it’s easy to home right in on its melding with the Abba bit.
That was almost the perfect example I’ve been looking for, so far - super close match - a fine melding!
An interesting call, but I’m pretty sure what you meant to post was something closer along the lines of, say, this? (just reeks of ole Slowhand).
Indeed, as well.
Those same low, bassy notes, and rhythm.
I do this ALL the time, and I’m encouraged that others do it as well.
My wife works long weekend shifts, and I hum to myself constantly around the house (ostensibly to amuse the dogs), and occasionally I’ll realize that I’m humming. So I stop and wonder “Where did that come from?” Then I think back, and realize I started out with the bassline from My Brave Face which morphed into Chet Baker then Les Miz then a Squeeze tune I thought I’d forgotten and ended up as a jazzy Second Brandenburg.
Missed edit window
My bold (which is probably a redundant thing to say for this post)
That should be “similar”.
I swear, there’s a song by Dione Warwick or Diana Ross that has similar chords to “Here, There and Everywhere” but I can’t find that on my phone at the pub right now.
The tonic is minor, so it’s Am, G, F, E. There’s nothing unusual about that. In songs in minor keys, generally it’s only the i and the iv that are minor.
That’s a good one! I can totally hear it.