Songs That Change Time Signatures

Yes, but the other ones listed are changing time signatures–it was only “Unsquare Dance” that didn’t fit the OP’s bill.

“Classical Gas” by Mason Williams has several time changes in it.

I should expound:

“Blue Rondo a la Turk” goes from the 9/8 riff into a swinging 4/4 in the solos.

“Three to Get Ready” is a hodge podge of 3/4 and 4/4. It starts with 12 bars of 3/4, then goes into alternating two bars of 3/4 with two bars of 4/4 for the solos, and then eventually settles back into 3/4 for the last 12+ bars, where the melodic tag from the intro returns.

“Kathy’s Waltz” goes from a straight 4/4 (or cut time, 2/2) in the intro, to a 3/4 in the improvisations (and it’s a weird 3/4, with the bass and instruments following along in three, but the drums playing through in 2s or 4s instead of following along in 3s with the other instruments.)

“Everybody’s Jumpin” floats around, interspersing normal sections in swing time, punctuated by odd time signatures.

So, on Time Out most of the songs actually do change time signature.

Laziness strikes again. :wink:

I once asked my band playing college roommate about this: he said Glycerine. I am not musical in anyway so I have no way of verifying it.

Augh! I’ve had that floating in the deep background of my head since I posted the OP, but couldn’t get it to come forward far enough into the light to actually figure out exactly what song it was. Thanks!

Extremely unlikely. (Assuming you were serious.)

.

“I Say A Little Prayer For You” has three different time signatures. It’s mostly 4/4, but there’s a 2/4 measure inserted into each verse (just before the lyric, “I say a little prayer for you.”), and a 3/4 measure in the chorus (“…I will love you.” Well, “…will love you” is the actual 3/4 part, and it’s a bit syncopated. but you get the idea.)

I’ve always loved that song for precisely this reason; there’s funky time signature changes, yet it flows beautifully.

The arrangement I have tosses a 2/4 in there as well.

“Good Morning, Good Morning” is another Lennon song with time sig changes throughout.

.

Some Velvet Morning” by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood.

I don’t here any 3/4 as I play it in my head.

I know you’re joking, but you are way, way off the mark on this one.
mmm

It’s there.

Listen Here

“Love, love, love (pause) Love, love, love” 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3

“(There’s) Nothing you can’t do that can’t be done” 1-2-3-4-1-2-3

Etc…all throughout the verses.

Note the difference with a straight 4/4 version:

Echo and the Bunnymen’s version

OK, gotcha. My brain only offered the 4/4 rendition. :slight_smile:
mmm

Dude - and you wondered why I forgot you were a keyboardist and thought you were a drummer! :wink: You really listen to rhythm well…

**Soundgarden does this with songs like Black Hole Sun **(middle 8 and end are in an odd time) and **Spoonman **(verses in 7/8)

The song **Lateraus **by **Tool **changes from 9/8 to 8/8 to 7/8. It also features a staccato opening verse whose syllable count increases in the Fibonacci sequence. Math rock at its finest :slight_smile:

Almost anything by Mr. Bungle, a typical example:Stubb A Dub.

While taking my one and only music theory course in college I decided to try out my newly-acquired skills by entering favorite pieces (one note at a time) into an old Mac composition program. The goal was to match, as closely as possible, the playback to a CD recording of the actual piece. I succeeded with The Falls from the soundtrack to The Mission. Easy enough as there’s only four or five notes in the whole piece. Encouraged, I moved on to the Tanz from Carmina Burana. The motif seemed simple enough – four steady notes, a triplet, four more steady notes, two triplets back-to-back. Mind you, the score was not available to me. My university didn’t have a real music program (just a few courses available as electives) and thus no music library. So I must’ve struggled for three or four days with that simple sequence and grumpily concluded that the software just couldn’t handle triplets properly. Fast forward a few years when I finally got my hands on a score (I sang with the local symphony chorus). I paged through to the opening of Tanz and discovered that the composer had achieved his effect by changing the time signature at the beginning of each measure (or nearly). Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

well no, not really.

Supper’s Ready” by Genesis has numerous time changes, including the wonderful switch to 9/8 time during “Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet)”