Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol

Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol

I’ve been wanting to dive into this song for some time now. (Yes, I know, I say that about all these songs! Cut me some slack or go write your own song analysis blog. :))

For whatever reason, the first thing I tackled was the chord changes and I have to tell you I am completely shocked. This is a one progression song. Every verse, every chorus, uses the same exact progression…

A…E/G#…Dsus2…A

…that’s it. That’s the whole song.

This tell me several things. First, that you don’t need tons of fancy schmancy chords to create a likeable hit like this one. I genuinely like this song. Usually a “three chord” song is attributed to country music and simple rock songs. Not ambient pop, but there it is.

Finding out stuff like this makes me re-evaluate myself as a writer. As a keyboard player, I love lush progressions. As an arranger I love tangling up and untying chord progressions. But this teaches me, at a root and basic level, I can create a great song using just three chords.

Melody – Where the phrases start

I need to point out the reason this three chord song works so well is there are other elements at play that are creating contrast. Namely, the melody.

Let’s examine WHERE the melody comes in:

In the verses, the melody starts right on beat one, the downbeat (or on the pickup note to beat 1, which is basically the same thing).

We’ll do it all, everything, on our own

We don’t need anything or anyone

..that’s the first verse. Each of those phrases is divided up into three parts, which all utilize the same melodic motive, and each melodic phrase, as I said starts on beat 1.

The chorus is different. It’s phrases all start on beat three. Here’s the chorus. I will highlight beat 1 again. Notice how far into the phrase it is.

If I lay here, if I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world

The IF I’s both start on beat 3, well before the downbeat. They are starting early.

Melody – melody shapes

Another thing I noticed about the melody, is the verse melody jumps around much more. It is in constant movement. The chorus melody is more static. Look how long it takes to sing a new note. Here’s the first phrase again…

If I lay here, if I just lay………………HERE

“Here” is the first new note of the melody. That is another great contrasting technique this song uses. Jump around with the melody using chord tones in the verse…become stable using a scale in the chorus. Pretty cool, eh?

Lyrics – Song Form – Super-size your chorus as you go

The song form is kind of all over the place, which is charming (in my opinion) instead of bad. My arrangements tend to be more traditional, but you can’t argue with a hit song.

The song form only uses verses (A) and choruses (B). The song form is ABABAB, but here’s the kicker. Each time you hear the chorus, it gets longer. The first time it’s only two lines. Next time four. The next time it’s ten(!) lines. Holy moly. Didn’t see that coming. (How do we not notice these things when they are playing on the radio. I NEVER picked up that the whole last section is all chorus). If you notice below, I underlined part of the last super-sized chorus. One of the reasons I think their super-sized chorus works, is that the underlined section comes where a bridge would normally go, but instead of a bridge, they blew through another chorus with alternate chorus lyrics.

(verse)

We’ll do it all, everything, on our own

We don’t need anything or anyone

(half a chorus)

If I lay here, if I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world

(verse)

I don’t quite know hot to say how I feel

Those three words are said too much, they’re not enough

(normal chorus)

If I lay here, if I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world

Forget what we’re told before we get too old

Show me a garden that’s bursting into life

(verse)

Let’s waste time chasing cars around our heads

I need your grace to remind me to find my own

(super-sized chorus, everything is chorus from here on out!)

If I lay here, if I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world

Forget what we’re told before we get too old

Show me a garden that’s bursting into life

All that I am, all that I ever was

Is here I your perfect eyes, they’re all I can see

I don’t know where, confused about how, as well

Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here, if I just lay here

Would you lie with me and just forget the world

Rhymes – Who Needs Stinkin’ Rhymes?

Last thing I’ll look at is the rhyme scheme…I kind of laughed to myself when I wrote that, because there IS NO rhyme scheme. That’s right. Look for yourself. Look for one line that rhymes with another line. The closest thing to a rhyme we get is own/anyone, which is a consonant rhyme…meaning both words end with “N”. It is the loosest of all connections. My guess is that they got lucky with that connection and if it had been pointed out, they would have removed it. :)

I really don’t mind there not being any rhymes. I really don’t. I still like the song. Notice however how difficult it is to remember a single section from memory (at least for me). I’ve heard this song a ton of times and I still can’t really sing along with it. I’ll remember a line only after he’s halfway through it. Is this a flaw? Maybe. (Maybe I’m the one flawed!) It doesn’t make it a bad lyric…it just “is”.

I should point out here, that I never let these song observations change the way I feel about a song. That would be musically elitist of me. I think of these songs as people with personality traits. If I met someone new and like them, but found out later they were divorced, or from North Dakota, or drive a hybrid, it would be shallow of me to like them less for those reasons. It is those unique traits that make them more interesting to me. I am happy to find out I’ve been friends with a song that doesn't totally agree with the way I think.

Thanks for hanging with me. We’re two weeks old today! Hoo Ha!

Please go write something special today. I would really appreciate that.

Cheers,

~Shane

PS. I have two polls running this week. Make your voice heard and vote. Thanks!


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If you'd like to purchase this song on iTunes, go HERE: Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol.

I’ll Follow You into the Dark – Other Cool Elements – Power Positions

I’ll Follow You into the Dark – Other Cool Elements – Power Positions

The most important lines of any verse are the opening and closing lines. These are called the power positions. (At some point I’ll explain the scientific reasons why, but for now, trust me…)

Great songs have great power positions. The most important ideas of your verses should be in the power positions. They should compliment each other. If the power positions are mismatched, the verse feels awkward.

I’ll Follow does a great job with its power positions. Especially the first two verses…

Love of mine, someday you will die

But I'll be close behind, I'll follow you into the dark
No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white

Just our hands clasped so tight, waiting for the hint of a spark

In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule…

I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black
And I held my tongue as she told me, son, fear is the heart of love

So I never went back

You and me have seen everything to see, from Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now, it's nothing to cry about
Cause we'll hold each other soon in the blackest of rooms

…here’s just the power positions…

Love of mine, someday you will die

Just our hands clasped so tight, waiting for the hint of a spark

In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule

So I never went back

*You and me have seen everything to see, from Bangkok to Calgary
Cause we'll hold each other soon in the blackest of rooms

*(In my opinion, verse three power positions have merit, but they aren’t as clear or cohesive as the first two verses)

Notice that you get a pretty good idea of what the verses are about by only reading the power positions. This is a great test to perform on your own lyric. If you strip all the middle lines of your verses away, do the remaining lines make sense? Do they tell your story? If your power positions are cohesive and the answer is yes, then your lyric is probably fine. If your power positions don’t make sense, you are probably in trouble.

Song Power Positions

I wouldn’t really call this next thing a technique or tool. I’m sure it only has a minor bearing on understanding the song as a whole…still, I think it’s cool the way it works in this song. The first and last line of the ENTIRE SONG brilliantly summarize the entire song….

Love of mine, someday you will die

Then I’ll follow you into the dark

BAM!

How cool is that? I don’t think a song needs to do that to be “great”. In fact, I personally prefer putting the hook/title of the chorus in the OPENING line, which is a stronger position for it. Still, I love the way that concept works in this song.

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Unbalanced Last Chorus – Saving the Best for Last!

Alright, I have one last thing to say about this lyric…appropriate because this is the last blog on this lyric, and it has to do with the last chorus. All the verses and the choruses of this song have an even amount of lines – 4 lines apiece. These are considered “balanced” sections. They are extremely stable. Most sections, in most songs we hear are balanced like that. There is nothing out of the ordinary. This is not a bad or good thing…4 lines “feel” right, when we write them.

Aha! The LAST chorus of this song has 5 lines, Gibbard adds an extra line, throwing the section out of balance. Here it is again…

If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NO’s on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark
Then I'll follow you into the dark

This is incredibly significant. Think about the subject of the song…following someone beyond this life…following someone into the unknown. What is more unstable and unbalanced than going somewhere unknown and unfamiliar? Repeating the line at the end gives the statement extra resolve even in the face of uncertainty…it’s like a musical exclamation point…an exclamation point that happens just prior to stepping into the imbalance and chaos of the ultimate abyss. My guess is he didn’t intend it to be that way. He was just repeating the hook for emphasis. Still, you can’t argue with the power of that metaphoric closure, whether intended or not.

Good luck in your writing this week. Go write something cool and inspiring. Deal?

Cheers,

~Shane

PS. Okay my Songwriting Nation, I have a couple of ideas for expanding this blog and I request your input.

Idea #1: What if we did a request Friday (or an entire week?) every now and then, where I analyze your requests?  

Idea #2: What if we did one of YOUR songs every couple of weeks? You submit your lyric/songs, I pick one and I’d do a quickie analysis, like the Saturday blog…(or would you rather me stick to analyzing popular songs?)

Let me know your feedback. What are your other ideas? I want you (and me) to be amazing songwriters. We can achieve this by working together.  Post your suggestions and votes in the comment area.

I’ll Follow You into the Dark – Harmony

I’ll Follow You into the Dark – Harmony

This song smartly uses a small palette of chords in interesting ways to keep our interest up and a momentum moving forward.

All of my students know I am big on creating contrast between verses and choruses. Gibbard uses harmonic rhythm to create excellent contrast.

Harmonic rhythm is how often the chords change during a progression. For example: A different/new chord every beat; a different/new chord every 2 beats (twice a measure, in 4/4 time); a new chord every 4 beats (every measure), etc.

I’ll Follow You uses two different harmonic rhythms, one for the verse, another for the chorus.

The Verse

The verse harmonic rhythm is one chord per measure …

|F…|Dm…|Bb…|F/C, C|*

*(Yes, I realize there are two chords in measure 4, but they both use C as a root…get over it HERE)

This particular chord progression is very common.

I, VIm, IV, V

…recognize it? That’s right…it’s the progression most people use to play the Heart and Soul* duet on the piano (although the proper progression is actually I, VIm, IIm, V :))

The Chorus

The chorus speeds up the harmonic rhythm, 2 chords per measure. Here’s the whole progression…

|Dm, F|Bb, F|Dm, F|C, C|

|Dm, F|A7, Dm|Bb, Bm| F, F|

Speeding up the harmonic rhythm speeds up the momentum of the song without altering the tempo. It’s a great groove tool whether you are writing a ballad like this, or a Heavy Metal tune. My ears love when the songwriter alters this element. So many songs do the SAME EXACT THING throughout the entire song. This song does not disappoint.

Verse 3

The only alteration of chords happens in the 3^rd verse. We’ve talked about this last line previously, how many tiny changes in this moment combine to create amazing prosody between lyric and music. The change happens when he sings “darkest of rooms”. If you remember from the last couple of posts, that line is an addition to what is normally played in the other verses.

 Here’s the normal verse progression…

|F…|Dm…|Bb…|F/C, C|

|F…|Dm…|Bb…|F/C, C|

|F…|Dm…|Bb…|F/C, C|

|F…|Dm…|Bb…|F/C, C|

Here’s the third verse… He throws in a Dm chord for a measure of 2/4, instead of the normal 4/4 measure.

|F…|Dm…|Bb…|F/C, C|

|F…|Dm…|Bb…|F/C, C|

|F…|Dm…|Bb…|F/C, C|

|F…|Dm…|Bb…|F/C, C| Dm |Bb…|Bb…|

In other words, he creates a passageway through Dm! Lyrically he’s talking about passing through death to life after death.

There is a lyric passageway AND a harmonic passageway (and as we learned yesterday, a MELODIC passageway).

No wonder that phrase is so amazing. It’s perfect prosody. The constructional elements, the harmony and melody, are reflecting exactly what’s happening in the lyric...beautiful!

Okay…stop reading and go write something amazing.

Cheers,

~Shane

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Advanced concepts for my students:

I feel strongly compelled to remind my songwriter nation that the reason this last line works so well, is that he established a pattern in the other verses. This line isn’t special all on its own. The other verses did their job of setting us up to think he was going to do something else…and then he ADDS something. In other words, if Gibbard had done the same progression each verse, it wouldn’t have been anything special. Us listeners would have heard it as normal. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a beautiful progression…but saving it made it even more special. A great lesson learned.

I’ll Follow You Into the Dark – Melody

I’ll Follow You Into the Dark – Melody

This melody is 99.999% pentatonic…to be honest, this completely surprised me. This is ANOTHER example of a simple, powerful melody, that I love, that also turned out to be pentatonic.

What’s the big deal about that, you ask? You see, pentatonic really bugs me. I tend to avoid pentatonic writing in my own compositions…I always kind of feel that pentatonic melodies are “too simple” or there aren’t enough notes to say what I need to say. Boy, do I keep finding out how wrong I am.  [Side note: This reminds me how I used to feel about TTTT chorus forms. They used to drive me crazy too. However, the sheer number of great songs, that I love, that use a TTTT chorus form convinced me I was wrong.]

This melody is absolutely charming in its singable melancholy.  That’s just not fair. Don’t they know that you need more notes to be a great melody? Man, I hate being wrong, but it is a powerful lesson learned. It is hard to argue against what appeals to you…and this melody appeals to me.

Melodic Contrast – Beginning Note Choice

Each verse’s starting note begins on a non-chord tone that immediately jumps to a chord tone. You get this little burst of instability looking for stability. This is one of the reasons the melody lends itself to the melancholy earnestness of the singer…he never starts on a stable note.  

The chorus, on the other hand, ALWAYS starts on a stable note. What word is on that stable note? Heaven. What’s more stable than heaven? So the verse is based on melodic instability, while the chorus is based on stability. Excellent.

Melodic Contrast - High vs. Low

One thing Gibbard does amazingly well is utilize the lows and highs of his melody to create contrast between his sections (which has been proven over and over to work in ALL genres). The concept is simple….start your chorus melody one note higher than what you sang in the verse. That’s it. That’s all. That’s what happens here. When you hear “heaven and earth” in the chorus, those notes are only one note higher than any previous melody note. The effect is astounding.

Look at the prosody here…what word is on the highest note in the chorus? Heaven! Isn’t that brilliant? What’s higher than heaven? Nothing is. Period.

There is another shining melodic moment. Remember our spot in the third verse? You know, I talked about it yesterday in the songform blog on this song (What? You didn’t read it yet…go HERE…we’ll wait…)

[Humming Jeopardy theme song]

The melodic highlight (literal and figuratively) is in the moment he sings “blackest of rooms”. For the word “rooms” he leaps over all previous high notes and let’s the highest note of the entire song fall on “rooms”.  What is that saying? [Caution: Shane opinion forthcoming…] The highest place this character could be, is not in heaven, but in the after life in darkest of rooms with the one he loves! (Ahhh…emo love!) Seriously though…that’s brilliant writing.

Now go out and write something.

Cheers,

~Shane

I’ll Follow You into the Dark – Song Form - Rhyme Scheme

I’ll Follow You into the Dark – Song Form - Rhyme Scheme

Song Form

This is easy. A standard ABABAB song.

A = Verse

B = Chorus

Rhymes and Rhyme Scheme

This song is deliciously full of internal rhymes. They create what I call a 3+1 pattern...three internal rhymes, followed by the main sectional rhyme. Verse 3 is a little different, so I’ll cover that in a second, but here’s the first two verses…

Verse 1

Mine, die, behind…dark

Light, white, tight…spark

Verse 2

School, rule, bruised(!)…black

Tongue, son, love…back

Technically, verse 1 is an abab rhyme scheme, and verse 2 is xaxa.

Love of mine, someday you will die

But I'll be close behind, I'll follow you into the dark
No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white

Just our hands clasped so tight, waiting for the hint of a spark

xaxa – rule/black/love/back*
In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule…

I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black
And I held my tongue as she told me, son, fear is the heart of love

So I never went back

*(or… rule/black/son/back, if you line up the phrases exactly like verse 1)

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The chorus creates a nice aabb rhyme scheme (to contrast the alternating abab, xaxa verses)…

If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NO’s on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

The first two lines have some great internal rhymes…

Decide, satisfied, signs

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Chorus Form

Remember us talking about chorus forms?

T = This chorus line includes the hook/title

- =  A swing line, a chorus line that doesn’t include the hook/title

The hook title only happens in the last line of the chorus, so the chorus form is…

 ---T

If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NO’s on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

[Side note: He sneaks the title into the second line of the verse too! Did you catch that?]

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FINALLY, the REALLY cool stuff!

Up to this point I’m being Captain Obvious…(there’s actually a bunch more internal rhymes, but I’ll leave it up to you to find them)…so I want to break out and go over the amazing verse 3.

The simple way to say it, is that Ben Gibbard tricks us in the last line. Up to this point all the verses have used that 3+1 pattern. Gibbard actually does a 2+1 pattern in the first part of verse 3…but we’re so used to hearing the 3+1 that we don’t really catch it.

To see, Calgaray…down (there’s no other “E” rhyme after Calgary)

The next lines do the same thing…the 2+1 pattern…

Now, about, soon

At this point, the song would have normally gone into the chorus, finishing up another xaxa verse. “Soon” is a great alternative rhyme for “down”. Notice their vowels aren’t the same. It’s the “n” on the end of each that makes a connection. The connection is slight, but it’s there. [For those keeping score, it’s called a consonant rhyme…a very weak connection, but a connection it is.]

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Let’s get esoteric for a moment. He’s talking about death, right? Death is about losing connection with life, right? Well, all the ending rhymes, in all the sections, have been perfect rhymes up to this point…

Dark/spark

Embarks/spark

Black/back

…also look at all those hard consonants…all “K” sounds.

Now, I don’t think Gibbard meant this next idea, but think of the harshness of death, and how those consonants get cut off. You can’t hold out a “K” sound. It ends as soon as the breath stops…just like life.

So here’s the brilliance of the last verse, Gibbard changes from the harsh “K” sounds to the “N” ending. You can hold out an “N” sound for a long time. Try it, I’ll wait. [Whistling…]

See.

But that’s not the brilliant part, the brilliance is that he EXTENDS the line…

We’ll hold each other soon… [it should end there] …in the darkest of rooms

AND, he actually holds out the note, on “rooms”.

Do you see what he’s doing? He’s extending their time together…past the harshness of death…to the other side…together. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. The last line doesn’t end where it “should” end, the section continues. Life after death.

My guess is that he got lucky with the “K” sounds, that he wasn’t thinking in terms of consonant closure…but extending the last line? He nailed that meaning.

Whether Gibbard meant those things or not, they are still there, they still happen, and they still affect how we hear the song.

Those same tools are available to you. Now go write something.

Cheers,

~Shane

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Advanced concepts for my students:  There are some great alternative rhymes in this song, my favorite being…

School/rule/bruised

…the “D” sound against the “L” sound is called an assonance rhyme, because “D” and “L” are in different pronunciation families.

Soon/room, in the last line of verse 3, is a great family rhyme using “N” and “M” from the nasal pronunciation family.

Honorable mentions:

mine/die…subtractive rhyme

die/behind…additive rhyme

hands/clasped…assonance rhyme

Quickie: Notice how he uses the word “no” differently, in the chorus

Isn’t “illuminate the NO’s on their vacancy signs” one of the most brilliant and original lines of the decade? I think so.

I'll Follow You into the Dark – Death Cab for Cutie – Monday Musings

I'll Follow You into the Dark – Death Cab for Cutie – Monday Musings

I’m a mooch. There, I said it! Happy now? To be honest, it feels great to get that off my chest. You see, although I pretend to be [Keyword: “pretend”], I’m not really on top of the latest/greatest music out there. For that I depend on my friends. I’ll introduce you to many of those friends over the course of this blog, but here’s my current go-to guy…Josh Preston.

Josh is the guy you wish could be when you grow up. He’s a phenomenal music business man (I won’t go into who he’s worked for, trust me though, he’s the man!), he’s an incredible guitar player, producer, songwriter, performer, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. (Check him out HERE).

Those are great qualities mind you (he showed up, out of the blue, uncoerced, to help me unload our moving truck…how great is that) , but he has an additional trait that puts him beyond us mere mortals. Josh, at anytime of the day, is listening to cooler music than the rest of us. How does he do it? It’s best not to ask.

I worked for Josh a few years ago, and no matter when I walked by his office, he always had something on that was the bomb. Something that would always eventually become huge. ALWAYS. He’d call me in….check this out…and BAM, there I was, floored again.

Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap

Valerie - Mark Ronson (Amy Winehouse’s producer)

Lay It Down - Al Green

 I eventually left the company, but Josh and I frequently have “lunch” [Translation:  a secret plot on my part to commandeer a mix CD of whatever he’s listening to…which he always graciously provides. I think he’s on to me.]  

One of those “aha” moments was when he introduced me to Death Cab for Cutie. I was complaining about the lack of cool lyrics in current music when he smiled, patted my head [okay, he didn’t pat my head, but he should have…]and put this number on…

I'll Follow You into the Dark

(verse)

Love of mine, someday you will die

But I'll be close behind, I'll follow you into the dark
No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white,

Just our hands clasped so tight, waiting for the hint of a spark

(chorus)

If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NO’s on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

(verse)
In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule…

I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black
And I held my tongue as she told me, son, fear is the heart of love

So I never went back

(chorus)
If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NO’s on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

(verse)
You and me have seen everything to see, from Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now, it's nothing to cry about
Cause we'll hold each other soon in the blackest of rooms

(chorus)
If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NO’s on their vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark
Then I'll follow you into the dark

I’ve been wanting to tackle the song since then, but never got around to it. It was nominated for Grammy, but lost to Black Eyed Peas “My Hump” (which I actually like…but c’mon, did the emo’s really need to lose out to Fergie’s lovely lady lump?)

So check out Josh’s Website, and check out the blog tomorrow as I get down and dirty with Then I’ll Follow You into the Dark.

Cheers,

~Shane

PS. I was originally going to do my favorite Shawn Colvin cover tune "Someday", but couldn't find it on YouTube. I'll get to it later on down the road. 

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iTune links to songs mentioned in this article: 

I Will Follow You into the Dark

My Humps

Hide and Seek

Valarie

Lay it Down