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!


- - - - - - - - - - - -


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