# Popular music analysis // Nick Drake



## 666666 (5 mo ago)

Hey, folks. My name's Joe. How's it going?

I signed up here because I've been taking an interest in theory recently but have slowly come to realize that most of the books I've been reading are geared towards classical music and that my areas of interest span wider than that.

So I started reading a couple popular music analysis papers, and I've already reserved a couple books at the library, namely _Understanding Rock_ and a couple others.

Now... While taking a look at some of my favorite music, I remembered "Nick Drake" who was famed for his jazz and baroque tinge, and I came across his opener from his debute, _Time Has Told Me_. Pretty run of the mill pop song in the beginning... SRDC type melody with an AABA form but... Here's a couple things that I find a little weird and would like to shed some light on:

First of all, his hook or SRDC phrase or whatever you want to call it...

It starts on F, the tonic, goes to C and he does this a couple times as you would expect.
And then he plays... V7, I, vi, *II*. Why does II feel like home, guys?

Then the other thing that caught me off guard when I was looking at the chord sheet is the B section...

It starts on E major! Which... I can't be ***** to use roman numerals at this point but I will... VII7, VIIb, IIIb, VI...
How is this succession of seemingly random major chords still fitting into the harmonic structure?

Thanks for taking the time to read, everyone. Looking forward to hear back.
Joe


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

You should just give us the progressions for the song in chord symbols and let us do the analysis. Having hinted that your training in theory is informal(?) and perhaps self-taught, it's better for us to have the straight dope than your interpretation of it.


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## 666666 (5 mo ago)

EdwardBast said:


> You should just give us the progressions for the song in chord symbols and let us do the analysis. Having hinted that your training in theory is informal(?) and perhaps self-taught, it's better for us to have the straight dope than your interpretation of it.


Well, yes. Let's take the middle man out. I do have a bachelor's in Music but nothing beats the straight dope. It might even be better if you made the chords out yourself in case I'm mishearing. Here's the song and here's the online chord sheet.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

Functional harmony has limited applicability to rock and folk music which tends to either cycle through a few campfire chords and / or is modal in nature


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## 666666 (5 mo ago)

Bwv 1080 said:


> Functional harmony has limited applicability to rock and folk music which tends to either cycle through a few campfire chords and / or is modal in nature


Wow, great follow up to a popular music analysis thread. Thanks a lot for your input.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

666666 said:


> Wow, great follow up to a popular music analysis thread. Thanks a lot for your input.


You being sarcastic? It was a serious response - thinking about this music in terms of Roman numerals and harmonic function is often a waste of time


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## bagpipers (Jun 29, 2013)

I find rock/pop/folk tends to be far more by the books theory wise.Most pop musicians I know are very serious about theory.I tend to try to defy theory as often as possible.

I do notice that accidentals in pop/rock/folk tend to be Flat whereas in classical they tend to be augmented.In pop the pet favorite dissonant chord in the Dim-VII and in classical it's the German VI (or other aug 6 chords) in pop/rock/folk they call the German VI and dominant VII chord which is written with a flatted 7th step as opposed to a augmented 6th step,same **** different day.

The main thing I notice is that classical musicians are laid back on theory whereas in pop/rock/folk they are super strict I find especially heavy metal guitarists are super super strict on theory.


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## 666666 (5 mo ago)

Bwv 1080 said:


> thinking about this music in terms of Roman numerals and harmonic function is often a waste of time


Oh, the last thing I would want to do is waste your time. If you ever do feel compelled to read more into popular music analysis, try Walter Everett, Philip Tagg or Allan F Moore and think of dropping by here and sharing whatever insight you might have parsed out.


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

666666 said:


> Oh, the last thing I would want to do is waste your time. If you ever do feel compelled to read more into popular music analysis, try Walter Everett, Philip Tagg or Allan F Moore and think of dropping by here and sharing whatever insight you might have parsed out.


Oh this will be the last time I waste with you - you join 4 hours ago and are already behaving like an ***?


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## 666666 (5 mo ago)

Bwv 1080 said:


> Oh this will be the last time I waste with you - you join 4 hours ago and are already behaving like an ***?


No, trust me. I've been behaving like an *** a long time before I ever joined this forum.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

666666 said:


> Well, yes. Let's take the middle man out. I do have a bachelor's in Music but nothing beats the straight dope. *It might even be better if you made the chords out yourself in case I'm mishearing*. Here's the song and here's the online chord sheet.


The guy that you're asking to do your homework for you has a Ph.D in musicology...


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## 666666 (5 mo ago)

EdwardBast said:


> You should just give us the progressions for the song in chord symbols and let us do the analysis. Having hinted that your training in theory is informal(?) and perhaps self-taught, it's better for us to have the straight dope than your interpretation of it.


Hello, sir. Here are the chords I parsed out. There might be a few mistakes in the B section as I'm not really sure what happens after the transition to E7.

*Section A:*

F - C - F - C - C7 - F - Dm - G

*Section B:*

E7 - Eb - Ab - D


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