I’ve tried, dear reader. I’ve tried to be diverse, but I just keep coming back to Geoff Castellucci’s arrangements because they are so damn good.
This song is as old as the hills, and it’s not exactly known who wrote it, but the most famous version of this song is the one by The Animals. Once again, Geoff has taken a repetitive, downright annoying song and turned it into a work of art.
Paying homage to the original, the song starts with a 6/8 feel, at first evidenced only by the solo lead line that opens the song and then extending into the second verse with the introduction of the background vocals. It isn’t until the transition going into the third verse that we flip into 4/4, giving a more driving, stomp feel to the rest of the song.
The Animals stuck to the same chord progression throughout:
(i – III – IV – VI / i – III – V)
(A minor – C major – D major – F major / A minor – C major – E major)
I gotta give them credit – that’s a hella interesting chord progression. Jumping from D major to F major, and ending the second phrase with an E major are most unexpected choices and out of pocket, and really gives this song an interesting flavour. The Animals kept all of these chords in root position, however, which is very typical of the age of the song.
Geoff, on the other hand, has departed a bit from this chord progression and made it even juicier. The background vocals provide the chord structure starting in the second verse, singing a delicious i7 3rd inv / i / IV 2nd inv / VI 2nd inv.
Hang on. That looks a little wacky and hard to read. Let me break that down a bit better.
*Karaoke track posted with permission from Geoff Castellucci
That first chord is a G# minor 7, but in 3rd inversion. This means that the 7 of the chord (in this case, an F#) is the bass of the chord. Interestingly, though, the background vocals do not sing the D# of this chord, giving it somewhere to lift to (wait for it…) Moving right along, we have a G# minor chord in root position (ahhhh, THERE’s that D#!), followed by a C# major chord in 2nd inversion, followed by an E major chord in 1st inversion. Having these chords inverted not only gives them an even more interesting, spicy texture, but allows for some cohesion as we move through these chords, as for the last three chords, the G# is consistently the bass note of the chord.
And that’s just the first line.
*Karaoke track posted with permission from Geoff Castellucci
The second line follows The Animals’ progression of i / III / V (G# minor / B major 2nd inversion / D# major 1st inversion), but, similar to how the first line was constructed, Geoff has continued to use inverted chords which keeps the voicing tight and close and…kinda…mysterious?
The thing that caught my ear with this line is the lead line, “Sewed my new blue jeans.” On the word
Rather than writing a bridge for this song, as Geoff so often does, this time he wrote a
We started with a solo singer for the first verse, added some background vocals for the second verse, and now in the third verse, we’ve switched out the background vocals for a bit of guitar and a simple foot stomp percussion. The background vocals are still there, but they only sing a gentle “ooh” chord at the beginning of the phrase
Slowly building again – now we have guitar and full background vocals, pausing at the appropriate time to let us fully appreciate
Now the bass guitar has joined the party and things are rockin’. We’ve pulled out all the stops and invited everyone to come and play. Dynamics and overall fullness have been added, ramping things up. The fifth verse gives us
In a Geoff arrangement, we always know that the background vocals are going to take the lead line for a chunk at some point, and
Bringing the song back down from this peak, the repeats of
Overarching comment about this song that didn’t really fit anywhere else so I’ll include it as a postscript: Geoff always makes great use of singable consonants – pay close attention to when he holds a note on an ‘N’. He will often move to that N before you’d think and hold it for the duration of the note.
Will I be successful in diversifying my subsequent write-ups? Stay tuned…♫
Angie, again, you have spoken a foreign language in a way that makes me almost understand it – at least most of it.
You could do all Geoff all the time and I would be perfectly happy. Although if you branched out to some Voiceplay arrangements, I would also be perfectly happy. From my perspective, it doesn’t get any better.
Loved your collaboration with David K Reacts!!
And for your amusement, my first and only date with my husband was a Sweet Adelines concert, 56 years ago. After that date we were inseparable, so no formal second date.
Thank you for your kind words, Ilona! What VoicePlay song would you like to see analyzed?
I would start with one of Geoff’s arrangements, Christmas Don’t Be Late, I Can’t Make You Love Me, or Dragonborn Comes.
Maybe switch to one of Layne’s, like In the Air Tonight.
Loved this analysis, thank you! And getting to include parts of the karaoke track as you broke them down was a special treat, so glad you got to do that. The video representation of the chords were a nice touch as well!