It's About Time(s)
Any pop hack can make a splash with an odd time signature.
Like 5/4...
...or 7/4...
But today's prize goes to those pop songsmiths, individual and collective, who throw meter to the wind and follow their own bliss, mixing time signatures as freely as chords (and to similar purpose). Each of these songs perks up my ear when I hear them--and though I've looked under the hood of most of them to see how they work, I don't bother trying to count them anymore.
The first one is relatively easy:
This one can be counted (I've seen one blogger say it's in 7/16) but the effect of the shifting time signature sounds more like a beat has been dropped or snipped or squeezed out, giving it the feel of a three-wheeled car barreling to its doom.
This one I still can't get, even though I've read that the weird offbeat feel of the instrumental parts, where I can't seem to find the downbeat, is a case of drummer Bill Bruford playing a 5/8 against the song's 4/4. And then there's whatever bassist Chris Squier is doing:
This list wouldn't be complete without a nod to Bacharach, and I include this one not because it's difficult but because it's the best example I know of how the shifting time signature is a matter of feel--it absolutely fits and follows the phrasing of the melody. The only trick to this song, I've found, is to learn the melody, and the rest follows:
Like 5/4...
...or 7/4...
But today's prize goes to those pop songsmiths, individual and collective, who throw meter to the wind and follow their own bliss, mixing time signatures as freely as chords (and to similar purpose). Each of these songs perks up my ear when I hear them--and though I've looked under the hood of most of them to see how they work, I don't bother trying to count them anymore.
The first one is relatively easy:
This one can be counted (I've seen one blogger say it's in 7/16) but the effect of the shifting time signature sounds more like a beat has been dropped or snipped or squeezed out, giving it the feel of a three-wheeled car barreling to its doom.
This one I still can't get, even though I've read that the weird offbeat feel of the instrumental parts, where I can't seem to find the downbeat, is a case of drummer Bill Bruford playing a 5/8 against the song's 4/4. And then there's whatever bassist Chris Squier is doing:
This list wouldn't be complete without a nod to Bacharach, and I include this one not because it's difficult but because it's the best example I know of how the shifting time signature is a matter of feel--it absolutely fits and follows the phrasing of the melody. The only trick to this song, I've found, is to learn the melody, and the rest follows:
This track likewise flows through its time signature shifts so imperceptibly that it just feels natural, though to my ear it's not just the melodic phrasing that pulls it along, as in the Bacharach; it's the whole arrangement, with that squashy downbeat making itself known without fail, that somehow does the trick:
Among my high school set of music nerds, there were the prog-rock fans on one side, and the true rawk fans on the other. I was firmly on the prog side of the fence, and it wasn't until years later that I dove into the classic rock canon. That's when I discovered this time-signature mindfuck by Led Zeppelin, which sounds for all the world like they're all racing to catch up with each other measure by measure, even though one of them must know (Bonham?) what's going on. I can think of few other examples outside classical music, or maybe in oeuvre of Spike Jones or Carl Stalling, where the music itself has the feel of comedy. It's like blues-funk slapstick.
This one bends my mind every time as well, and what's crazy is that I've seen David Longstreth play this live (on video, not in person) on acoustic guitar like it's a folk song. I do not get how a mind makes something like this.
This one bends my mind every time as well, and what's crazy is that I've seen David Longstreth play this live (on video, not in person) on acoustic guitar like it's a folk song. I do not get how a mind makes something like this.
I'm not sure this one could even be said to have a time signature (though folks have tried to parse it.)
I'll close with something outside the realm of pop, though it's got great funk guitars driving it. Honestly, as many times as I've been to the Golden Festival and tried to dance to these Eastern European time signatures, I still don't quite grok them. As you can probably tell by now, not "getting" what's going on isn't a barrier to my loving these tunes; on the contrary, in this case the mystery is a magnet.
I'll close with something outside the realm of pop, though it's got great funk guitars driving it. Honestly, as many times as I've been to the Golden Festival and tried to dance to these Eastern European time signatures, I still don't quite grok them. As you can probably tell by now, not "getting" what's going on isn't a barrier to my loving these tunes; on the contrary, in this case the mystery is a magnet.
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