Big Bad John – Geoff Castellucci - Confessions of a Chord Junkie

WARNING: War and Peace-length appreciation analysis ahead…

In keeping with Jimmy Dean’s original, Geoff Castellucci’s recent re-interpretation of Big Bad John is like a narration set to music. The Storyteller is great and engaging…but because I’m a Chord Junkie, my focus was grabbed by each transition in the harmony parts. Each one sounded carefully crafted to be interesting and unique, to move the song along, to take us on an emotional journey. Whenever choices have been made that deviate from the predictable, it’s like candy for my brain, and lucky for me, Geoff seems to love to do that. Allow me to show you how my brain listened to this song…

But first we need to take a listen to the original.

A storytelling type of country song typical of the era, the original version of this song keeps to the same, repetitive chord structure throughout. Verses with a pulsing, bare G-F-G, and the choruses utilizing the “50s progression” – the I-vi-IV-V that everyone learns on the piano to play with their friends.

Now let’s take a look at Geoff’s updated take on this song:

I was happy to see that Geoff kept this I-vi-IV-V progression through a lot of the song, but I was *extra* happy to see when it deviated from this, in the verse (1:13) where, deliciously, he went with I-bVII-IV-V7 instead. It made that C major chord sooo extra tasty, and that bVII (the F major chord) made me sigh with delight and sent shivers up my arms.

Let’s backtrack a bit to the transition in the harmony singers at 0:45:
i-V-bVII-I (Gmin / D maj / F maj / G maj). (Oh boy! There’s that bVII again!!)
Predominant melody line in the harmonies: G A Bb D C Bb / A / F / G .

I literally couldn’t get past this chord progression the first time I listened to the song. I had to keep rewinding and listening, shaking off the shivers, then rewinding and listening again. It struck me in my soul somehow. Often we hear those sung notes paired with an Aeolian cadence (in this case, that would be walking up the chords of Eb, F, then G) but this is even better! The choice to flirt with G min, when we’ve been in G maj this whole time, was amazing. That sung A is the fifth in the D maj chord and carries over to become the third of the F maj chord, and resolves up to B, back into the G major chord, giving almost a Picardy third feel because of that hint of G min at the beginning of the phrase. F maj is a non-diatonic (out of key) chord, something that pops out as an interesting deviation from the norm.

“There came a day at the bottom of the mine when a timber cracked…” (1:13) Now that we’ve heard John’s backstory, we are being told about the actual story here, and with that, the instrumentation is bigger, fuller, more present and driving. This section is also introduced with another quick peek at a G min chord. This is going to be an interesting story.

The transition at 1:47 give us the progression of:
I-vi-iv7-V (Gmaj / Em / Cm7 / D)
Predominant melody line in the harmonies: D C / B G A / Bb C D / D.

A nod to the 50’s progression of the chorus of the original. The iv7 (Cm7) *(am I imagining this is Cm? Is there actually an Eb in there?)* is again non-diatonic and is again, well, delicious. (I’ve said “delicious” so often here that this is turning into a gourmet meal.)

So cool how at 1:55 Geoff has actually *invented* a bridge for Sixteen Tons Geoff to sing – he likely has quite a few mining stories of his own, too. During the phrase “light up above,” (2:05) the notes also go up – nice attention to detail there.

Immediately, the tone is brought down (2:20). We only hear the root note of the song from the harmony singers in staggered unison with a bit of extra reverb, like they are calling out to Big John down the mine shaft. I can almost see and feel the aftermath, the plume of dust spilling forth, the stunned looks. What is going to happen next? My curiosity is piqued…

Ahhh, there it is. At 2:32 – We have moved fully into G *minor*, a brilliant choice to convey this next part of the story – the tragic part of the story. In the original, the entire song is in G major, and this departure from the original for this part of the song is a much more emotional way to tell this tale. The i-bVII-IV-V progression is a nice nod back to the deviation from the 50’s progression set earlier, and at 2:52, the F#4 (the 5^th in that D major chord) sung in the harmony part feels like the penultimate chord that is going to lead back into G…but that is withheld from us. Leads us to lean in closer, cock an ear toward the sound…NOW what’s going to happen??

Now we get gentle arpeggios from the harmony parts while the Storyteller tells us what has happened to John. Realization is setting in. Starting with a simple G minor arpeggio (2:55) in the background singers, root position (G Bb D), we then get the most heartbreaking chord of them all. That second arpeggio. OMG. At 3:00 – C major 1^st inversion (E C G), i.e., bass is on the third. In any song, when the lowest note of a chord or arpeggio is on the third, it evokes such sweet sadness to me and almost immediately brings tears to my eyes. AMAZINGLY arranged during this part in the lyrical journey.

Hey, remember what I said about the incredible emotional impact 1^st inversion chords have on me? Get a load of this run of chords in the harmony parts at 3:04: Gmin, Bb/F, C/E, Cm/Eb, Gm/D, D. Geoff, you master emotional manipulator, you!

I love that we now return to the 50s progression to finish out the song, bringing it back full circle. Thank you for this incredible re-imagining of this song, Geoff!

Gretchen G

March 9, 2022 at 12:58 am

Angie, I always enjoy reading your analyses of Geoff’s songs on YouTube! In my own recent YT comment on Big Bad John I was lamenting that my lack of technical know-how kept me from noticing / describing all of the awesome things Geoff was doing with storytelling and emotion in this song. The detail in his creations (music & video) is really incredible, and it is so cool that you can analyze it like this! Thank you for sharing your insights! I must admit that I can’t follow all of the technical stuff here, but the parts that I do understand are very interesting, and I’ve learned some new music terms & concepts. Hope you keep posting these, it’s really fascinating stuff to read!

Shannon D

March 14, 2022 at 5:23 am

Ditto all that Gretchen said. I finally sat down and worked through this, and even though I don’t understand everything, I now have even more appreciation for this piece. Thank you Angie! Looking forward to reading more of these 🙂

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