In breaking a bit from my usual ‘I don’t know art (or much else), but I know what I like’ fashion, I know almost exactly why Sylvia Plath is one of my favorite songs by Ryan Adams. Now watch my flail a bit trying to explain it without knowing any music theory.
I’m a total sucker for chord progressions with a very resonant tonal center. Think of the center of a hypnotist’s wheel that doesn’t spin for suggestions or repressed memories, but just to slip you off into a dreamless trance. Go ahead and drown your sorrows in literal renditions of real life screw-ups, I’d rather zone out for as long as it takes to forget. What else could be more therapeutic than a musical induced waking coma? I find progressions like the one in Sylvia Plath slow everything down to a pace where you can stand anything no matter your mood. They climb or fall so gently and reach a resolution so quickly, that repetition doesn’t strip them of their potency. I’d equate it to the calming effect of having your hair stroked by a parent as a child. I believe Daniel Levitin touches on this in his most recent book This Is Your Brain On Music.
By hammering around on my Casiotone CT-360 I was able to pull out the basic progression of Sylvia Plath as Bmaj – F#maj – Emaj (inverted). The chorus diverges a bit from this, but the center still remains: it’s the B note that is holding my attention, you know, basically. I think.
My untrained ear finds much similarity in the progression for Willie by Cat Power (Gmaj – Dmin – Cmaj so says my casiotone). The major difference for me, is how the progression resolves. The Cmaj is a more solid landing than the Emaj inverted from Sylvia Plath. Willie is all repetition though. The song never strays from the three chord descent and there is no particular A-B-A structure to the song.
Putting all of this fractured and most likely incorrect musical analysis aside, the final noteworthy (hardy har) and most obvious characteristic I love about these sorts of progressions is their simplicity. They don’t require a great deal of attention, effectively boring most of your brain into sleep mode, leaving neurons to bounce around your skull like the animation from a paused DVD player. Instead of just knowing what’s coming next, you anticipate it and feel momentarily satisfied when it arrives. That they’re so simple though allows for a greater shelf life and a spot for their host song on your ‘Most Played’ playlist.
As mentioned before, one of these days I’m going to get around describing all the things I love about Glassworks by Philip Glass. Consider this the preface.
Dude, this is awesome. You should write like this more often. Great way to blend elementary theory (which I didn’t go and check but which seems fairly solid) with the abstract stuff like feelings and impressions. I really enjoyed this.