hey, welcome to 12tone! this may come as a shock, but many scholars consider the Beatles
to be one of the most influential bands in the history of modern popular music.
I know, wild, right?
anyway, a while back we analyzed Blackbird, but the Beatles' catalogue is just so deep
and full of interesting stuff that I figured it was time to take another look with a very
different song of theirs, Hey Bulldog.
it starts like this (bang) and this opening riff just screams Blues. and there's a good
reason for that: it's in the blues scale.
this is a scale built by taking the minor scale (bang) removing the two most dissonant
notes to create what's called minor pentatonic (bang) and then adding an extra bonus note
here.
(bang) this added note is a half-step away from both the fourth degree and the fifth,
and it's a tritone above the root, so it brings back all that dissonance, but in a slightly
different way.
this added tritone plays a big role in the opening riff. here, check it out: (bang)
the other thing I want to mention about this riff is its use of the root note.
it starts by playing it twice, and it features prevalently throughout the entire thing.
I see this a lot in heavy, blues-y riffs, probably most famously this one (bang) from
Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne.
I think this works because the root note is the most stable note in the key, and also
usually the lowest note in these riffs, so leaning on it like this helps the whole thing
feel grounded and powerful.
that's my theory, anyway.
the piano plays the riff three times, and each time through we add more instruments.
the first time is just John on the piano, the second time George and Ringo join in on
guitar and drums, and the third time Paul fills it out with a bassline.
but they're all playing the same riff: even Ringo's playing along with the rhythm.
this gradual introduction of instruments helps to build energy without having to write new
musical elements, and it's a great way to introduce the song.
after that, we move into the verse, where the guitar drops out and we hear this: (bang)
this is just two chords, but it already creates a lot of questions.
let's start with this B major.
weren't we just playing a riff in B minor?
well, yes, we were, but this is a classic element of the blues: riffs and melodies are
written using the blues scale, which has a minor tonality, but the underlying harmony
uses major chords or, if you want to get fancy, dominant 7ths. this gives the blues its signature
edge: it's trapped between two different emotional states, not quite happy but not quite sad
either.
just… blue.
so, ok, we've got major harmony, which brings us to the next question: what's up with this
F#mi? in a traditional blues progression we'd expect to hear a big fat V major chord, but
instead we've switched back to minor.
I think the simplest explanation is that Lennon didn't want all the baggage that comes with
a traditional V chord. you see, the V major has what's called dominant function, which
is a fancy way of saying it points you back to the I chord. here, listen to it: (bang)
the V minor, on the other hand, doesn't really have that same sort of directionality, so
using it instead helps prevent any strong sense of finality or resolution because the
song is just getting started.
the last thing I want to highlight here is McCartney's part.
a lot of the transcriptions I found said that the bassline was something like this: (bang)
which is a totally fine rock bassline.
it's simple quarter notes, holding down the pulse and acting like a metronome, and it
alternates between the root and the fifth of the chords, the two most stable notes.
it works perfectly fine, and it does everything a bassline needs to do, but there's one problem:
it's not what Paul is playing.
a better approximation would be this (bang) although the MIDI recreation doesn't really
do it justice and besides, every time through he plays something a little bit different.
he's experimenting and improvising underneath what is, otherwise, a fairly straightforward
section.
I mention this because it's easy to underestimate the importance of a good bassist, but more
than anyone else, I think McCartney is responsible for giving this section life.
next comes the prechorus, which sounds like this: (bang) again, just a couple chords,
but interesting ones.
we could analyze this in B minor, but I think it's best viewed as a key change.
this section sounds to me like we've moved to the key of A major.
we've got the I chord here, then the VI minor, which is often viewed as like an extension
of the I chord, and finally the V major, followed by the V7, which as we mentioned has dominant
function.
A major is an interesting choice because it sits directly between B major and B minor,
so it's closely connected to both tonalities. this switch is hidden by the F# minor we saw
in the verse, which exists in both keys, helping us pivot smoothly between the two.
anyway, the E7 at the end really wants to resolve back to A, which it does with the
second half of the section (bang) which is the same as the first, except instead of going
to the E, it suddenly jumps back to B major.
this stands out because B major isn't in the key of A, but again, it's prepared by an F#
minor.
after that we go through the verse and prechorus again, then finally wind up in the chorus:
(bang) and, at first glance, it looks like we've got a lot of different chords to deal
with, but it's not actually as tricky as it seems.
the whole section is based on a device called a line cliche, which we talked about in our
Life On Mars video: basically, a line cliche is when the chord stays mostly the same except
for one rogue line that slowly drifts up or down in order to create a sense of motion
over the otherwise static harmony.
this first chord, B minor, contains a B, a D, and an F# and those first two notes stay
perfectly still throughout the first two bars.
the F#, meanwhile, slowly drifts upward to a G, a G#, and an A, creating a sense of rising
tension without really changing the harmony, so even though it feels like it's constantly
moving, the entire thing is actually just a cleverly decorated B minor chord, and this
bit here does the exact same thing except we start with E minor instead.
in effect, this whole section is really just two chords, even though it looks like 8.
and those two chords are fairly easy to explain: they're the I and IV chords in B minor.
this gives us another interesting color: the verse had a blues-y major-minor thing going
on, and the prechorus was borrowed from a different major scale, but here, in the chorus,
we've gone straight-up minor.
the IV minor here is serving a similar role to the V minor in the verse: it's different
enough from the I chord to provide motion, but not directional enough to create a real
resolution.
the chorus wraps up with this tag: (bang) which is just the I and IV chords again, like
a little mini-chorus, and then… (bang) we're back to the riff.
and that's pretty much it.
there's a solo over the verse and prechorus, then another time through with lyrics, then
the chorus again, then the outro, which is just Lennon and McCartney ad-libbing over
the verse progression until it fades out.
before we go, though, I want to do something I don't normally do and talk a bit about the
history of the song.
Hey Bulldog was one of four original songs released on the Yellow Submarine album, which
accompanied the movie of the same name and, by all accounts, the Beatles phoned that album
in pretty hard.
they viewed it as an annoying contractual obligation and the songs they wrote for it
were mostly recycled rejects.
Hey Bulldog was recorded because they had a film crew in the studio anyway for another
promotional video and they figured they might as well record a real song, and it was apparently
originally called Hey Bullfrog until McCartney randomly starting barking during the recording
and they changed the lyrics mid-song.
by any reasonable estimation, this whole thing should be an unlistenable mess, but it's not.
it's a really cool take on a trippy, blues-y soundscape.
I think this goes to show that sometimes, stripping away the need to be perfect can
actually help you make something great.
at least if you're John Lennon.
so that's the song, but before I finish I wanted to let you know about another project
I've been putting together over on twitter.
I'm organizing a rotating-curation account where a different music educator is gonna
take over every week and talk about music, music education, music academia, or public
music discourse.
we've got some really exciting people signed up to host, including myself, Adam Neely,
and Steve from the Listener's Guide, and it officially launches on monday, so if that
sounds interesting go follow @music_babble, and if you want to sign up to host, there's
a link to the application in the description.
anyway, thanks for watching, and thanks to Patreon patron MasterDSlay for suggesting
this song! if you'd like to see your favorite song analyzed, just head on over to Patreon
and pledge at any level.
you can also check out our store, join our mailing list, like, share, comment, subscribe,
and keep on rockin'.
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