Stevie's Most Complex Chords
 

Since I've had a sinus headache today, I've had a lot of time to think about which song of Stevie's (has to be one she wrote the music for) has the most complex chords & chord progression.

Stevie's got a superb talent for taking simple chord progressions (for example, Am/G/F) & weaving beautiful lyrics & a powerhouse vocal together to create a complex tapestry of emotions & images. But a couple of her songs are actually somewhat complex in terms of their strictly musical structure.

"Crystal" came foremost to mind. The way the chord progression descends, pauses & ascends across the scale is far more advanced than the typical I-IV-V rock structure. And the chords themselves are more complex & variegated than pop usually provides. She uses some beautiful chords, including suspended 4ths with dominant bass tones ("holds true") followed by major 7ths with nontonic bass tones ("I turned around"). In fact, the song's progression as a whole is a masterly use of drifting bass tones, which lend prettiness, urgency & even novelty to the progression. On musical grounds alone, "Crystal" is great.

Runner-up honors go to "Escape from Berlin" ("Doing the Best That I Can"), which takes the suspended 4ths & 6ths & the drifting bass tones of "Crystal" & transforms them into a minor.

Also (believe it or not) worth noting is the song Stevie & her brother co-wrote, "The Nightmare," which repeats an interesting minor-tonic/submediant pattern in two scales a whole step apart ("That was when the dream took her prisoner . . . but the nightmare was not over").

Stevie herself frequently says that she writes simple melodies & uses simple chords, but her more complex chord patterns can stand up to some of the complexities of other Fleetwood Mac members, particularly Bob Welch in songs like "Coming Home" (from Penguin) & "Somebody" (a song from "Mystery to Me" that compares favorably to the music of Steely Dan in its chordal complexity).

Isn't there a I chord in the musical bridge section? Very fleeting though.

I've never really analyzed the songs this way, though I've noticed that she tends to only use a few specific chords/keys.

It's easy to tell which songs she writes on piano--she hardly ever uses any black keys. Gypsy is the only Nicks song I could easily think of that does. It has Bb. And on second thought, Edge of Seventeen has D. And darn, Stand Back has A and D... Ah well, she may not have written them on piano or fully realized the chords. ;)

I'm pretty sure Landslide was written on guitar...

response
 

I wish I knew as much about the technical side of music as you do. that was very interesting to read. :nod:

Thanx David for taking the time to explain Stevie's intricate and complex songwriting, something I could never do. People often overlook her incredible songwriting technique. :angel:

Not to mention boring as all hell!! Thanks, David.

Of course, I didn't mean a word of it! :lol: :lol:

Let's Keep This Going! :)
 

I have NO idea what you guys just said, but just the same I TOTALLY

agree with it!!! :nod: :lol:

Seriously, though, I am SO so glad that serious musicians are finally

beginning to take notice. Let's actually say the word, SHALL we? :wavey:

The woman's a Genius, with a "Capitol G."

I hope that we can keep this thread going and that it will be noticed -

It's HIGH time that someone did a SERIOUS analysis of her music.

By the way, this may have at least in part been a Rupert Hines thing,

but you might want to take a good look at "Long Way to Go," also on

"The Other Side of The Mirror" (1989). :shocked:

Rock on GDW!

OH well, off to become "part of the wind!" :laugh:

Sincerely,

"Ghost_Tracker"



>Stevie's got a superb talent

If I remember correctly Stevie has in fact confirmed that she wrote Landslide on the guitar. During her introduction in Boston she said that Lindsey "taught her to play the chords on the guitar that she used to write Landslide".
The rest of the thread has been an interesting read even though I have no idea what any of it means, for the most part. Every time a discussion about chords comes up with regards to Stevie, I think about Christines comments on Dreams, about how she only used "two chords" and it was repetative and pretty boring. Lindsey stuck up for her and said "she uses the right three chords and we will make some beautiful out of this song..it will be GREAT". They did make something gorgeous out of her rough demo and the song remains GREAT. Carry on with your discussion, please.....

Yeah, she writes in the key of A sometimes; "If You Ever Did Believe" is another example. But you're right that she sticks to just a few keys! F, A, C and Am seem to be the biggies.
You mentioned "Gypsy," which I think is one of Stevie's best-written songs. It may be the only example (anyone?) of Stevie writing a formal bridge in one of her tunes (the "To the gypsy that remains..." section.) Usually, she was quite frightened of these, and when they do appear in her songs it's because someone else wrote them. You can hear her asking Tom Petty to write a bridge for "Sanctuary," for example, on one of the master reels. I think Keith Olsen wrote the one for "Has Anyone Ever," and Benmont Tench wrote one for "Kind of Woman."
But with "Gypsy," it seems clear she wrote the bridge herself because it's on even the early demos. And a beautiful bridge it is, repeating the same few chords but under a powerfully rising melody that makes the return to the final verse especially satisfying. Go Stevie!!! :woohoo: