If only there had been a Nobel Prize for Music 8: from Denise to Mama

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By Tony Attwood

If only there had been a Nobel Prize for Music

• 1: We might have noted the musical innovations more
• 2: From Hattie Carroll to the incoming ship
• 3: From Times to Percy’s song
• 4: Combining musical traditions in unique ways
• 5: Using music to take us to a world of hope
• 6: Chimes of Freedom and Tambourine Man
• 7: Bending the form to its very limits

In 1964 Bob Dylan’s lyrical themes in his opening seven compositions had been varied ranging from reflections on internal pain with Guess I’m doing fine to love with Spanish Harlem Incident to rejection and farewell in It ain’t me babe – with a touch of humour along with way via Motorpsycho Nightmare,    And in the midst of this he also created one of his almighty masterpieces in Mr Tambourine Man, a song which almost defies classification in terms of its lyrics.  My argument in this series is that this variety of lyrical themes encouraged Bob to explore a variety of musical themes and musical possibilities while staying within the general ambit of popular music.

But Dylan was from the start of his career in writing music, very experimental, and in the last episode of this series I touched on  “It ain’t me babe” and noted how Dylan was bending the musical form that he used to its very limits.

And perhaps it was as a reaction to this, the next song Dylan composed was a 12 bar blues, which sticks exactly to the 12 bar format of a melody line sung once against the tonic chord (often written in music as I), once against the subdominant (written IV) resolving back to the tonic, and then a final answering line which runs from the dominant chord (V) back to the tonic.  In the key of C major that takes us through the chords of C, F and G.  It is exactly how we expect a 12 bar blues to sound in terms of the chords.   What makes it different in this song is the “chugging” sound of the harmonica.

Thus the piano part that Bob plays is an absolutely standard boogie-wooogie style where the left hand plays the three notes of the chord rising and falling in succession, and right hand is pumping away with the chords.   But in addition to this Bob is singing – and when he isn’t, he is pumping out the rhythm on a harmonica.  It’s not a song most of us remember from the Dylan catalogue, but it’s fun to hear once in a while.

As for the character of the “Denise” in the song, she is something of an enigma.   She is smiling inside out, he is already lost, she calls out his name by mistake, he looks at her and sees himself….  It is a song of dislocation.

But also it sounds like a light-hearted interlude, an “interlude” not least because it was composed between “It ain’t me babe” and “Mama you been on my mind” – two much more profound reflections on relationships.  Indeed it could have been improvised just for the recording.

However the next song, “Mama,” although unreleased at the time of composition, appeared on the Bootleg 1-3 triple CD and it is worth going back to this studio recording, rather than listening to the live performance that is available on the internet, as the studio recording which turned up on “1-3”  gives a real insight into the way Bob was further exploring what he could do, musically, at this time.

In my view, Bob was clearly experimenting with the way the music in his compositions could be extended in order to match the angst expressed in the lyrics.  And this, I feel, is seen by the chords that he is using.   As before I am quoting Dylan chords for the chord sequence…

   C                                  E
Perhaps it's the color of the sun cut flat
    Am           D7/f#
An' cov'rin' the crossroads I'm standing at,
   C              /b      Am G              C/g
Or maybe it's the weather or something like that,
    G              G6 G7 C         G
But mama, you been on my mind.

And there is more because the third line in verse two is musically different from the third line in verse one…. (again chords are taken from the authoritative Dylan chords site)

   C              /b      Am G              C/g
Or maybe it's the weather or something like that,
    G              G6 G7 C         G
But mama, you been on my mind.

This variation continues as can be seen in verse three, and as a result of these constant although minor changes, musically the song feels like it is on the edge from the very start (reflecting the “crossroads” that the singer is “standing at”) by opening clearly in C major for we tend to expect the first chord of a song to be representative of the key that the song is performed in, and more often than not it is the tonic – thus C major being the opening chord of a song in C.

(Although we might note that Bob had already broken this rule with “Tambourine Man” which starts on the subdominant – chord IV of the key one is playing in.)

So to summarise in this song Bob starts with the key chord of C, but then immediately Bob moves to the chord of E major, a chord which has nothing to do with a song written in C major.  (By which I mean one of the notes of the chord of E major is not available in the scale of C major – this being the note G sharp.)   This then is totally unexpected the first time we hear it, and gets us metaphorically on the edge of our seats.   It is the musical equivalent of a movie which opens with a couple clearly in a relationship and one says, “I love you” and the other turns and walks away.   It is not what we expect.

And as if that were not enough, he changes things again in subsequent verses.  Not with major changes to the music, but enough to give those who don’t immediately relate the accompaniment to a set of chord changes, a feeling of unease, and of nothing being stable.

Of course, the actual chord sequence is not unique to Dylan; that is not the point, for although the sequence is very unusual and thus unexpected, the constant minor variations on the accompaniment add to the feeling of unease.  We can say that very few songs open with a sequence of chords running C, E, A minor.  It is not a Dylan invention, but it is rare.  But also very few songs have these sorts of minor variations in the music of each verse.

And then again I would suggest it is very unusual (if not actually is novel) to move in the way that Dylan does onto D7 while then holding the song there.   For through this sequence, we can reach the end of the second line and musically still be totally unsure of what key we are in.  This reflects the fact that we are unsure of the mental state of the singer and the person about whom he is singing.  The chord sequence perfectly reflects the lyrics which are about uncertainty.

Now given the many millions of pop and rock songs that had been written by this time, finding a chord sequence with which to open a song, which had not only not been used before as an opening, but which actually works musically, is indeed something of an achievement.   And maybe somewhere there is a song that opens in this way.  But I am pretty sure that even if there is, there is not a song that then has these chordal variations through the start of each subsequent verse.

But we are left with uncertainty after just two lines of music, and so to resolve this Dylan then uses the chords of C, Am, and G all of which are clearly in the key of C major which is the key he started in, but so readily departed from.   So yes by the end of the verse, we have a clear feel of where we are – but still that sense of uncertainty.   Such changes are rare, and even then where a songwriter wants to use the technique of jumping into an unrelated key in this way, it is done later in the verse not at the start.

Musically this is therefore very unusual, but if we look at the lyrics we can understand why Dylan has gone down this route.

Perhaps it’s the color of the sun cut flat
An’ cov’rin’ the crossroads I’m standing at

The introduction of the “sun cut flat” and the “crossroads” confuse, but also work as a symbol for the singer’s uncertainty.  Thus the emotion of the song, and the unexpectedness of the chords (even if what is actually happening in the chords is not something a non-musician is likely to understand) work together.  But the verse does get resolved back to the everyday return to what we expect through the final two lines.  Effectively these take us back to the key we thought we were in.

Or maybe it’s the weather or something like that
But mama, you been on my mind

The pattern is now set for an edginess in the opening lines and a resolution in the final two lines as seen again in verse two.

I don’t mean trouble, please don’t put me down or get upset
I am not pleadin’ or sayin’, “I can’t forget”
I do not walk the floor bowed down an’ bent, but yet
Mama, you been on my mind

The lyrics of the song are very different from the norm of pop songs at the time where love and lost love were the themes.   Indeed within the context of the times some of the lines are bordering on being shocking as with “It don’t even matter to me where you’re wakin’ up tomorrow.”

And in an era where expressions of love or moaning about lost love, are the prime issues within popular music these lyrics such as,  ‘I am not askin’ you to say words like “yes” or “no”,’ are completely out of the norm.    As is the expression of confusion in “I’m just breathin’ to myself, pretendin’ not that I don’t know”   Here again the change in the music brought out by the unexpected change of the chords, through the utilisation of a chord that is not part of the key each verse starts and ends in, is very powerful and relates the music to the lyrics.

Then just to make sure we have got the message, the final verse opens with

When you wake up in the mornin’, baby, look inside your mirror
You know I won’t be next to you, you know I won’t be near

This is most certainly not how pop lyrics work, and that key change at the start of each verse makes the point all the way through.   It does not matter if the listener knows that Dylan is suddenly using a chord that is not in the key he is performing in, it still feels like a disjointed jump and thus will nonetheless feel odd to most people – which is exactly the point, because the message of the singer, is not the message found in most popular songs.

I can’t say for sure no one has ever done something like this before, but certainly, I have not found it.   To my mind, this composition represented a musical revolution, both in terms of the lyrics.

Of course, Dylan then did re-write the song to make it possible for him to perform it with Joan Baez

G              D            Em
Maybe it's the color of the sun cut flat
    Am
An' cov'rin' the crossroads I'm standing at,
   G              D          Em             C
Or maybe it's the weather or something like that,
    G                 D     G
But mama, you're just on my mind.

… and so the meaning is diluted.  But what lasts in the memory is Dylan’s version in the studio.  And decades later it can still send shivers down the spine.