Yeah, yours is more precise.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 22 November 2012 03:44 (eleven years ago) link
I'm going to revise my pinball interpretation to:
8 6 8 6 8 8 6 68 8 68 8 8 6 8 8 8 1014 bars of 8, one bar of 48 6 8 6 8 8 8 6
― wk, Thursday, 22 November 2012 06:31 (eleven years ago) link
I count Limelight's verse like this:
3 - 3 - 4 - 2 - 4 - 2 - 3 - 3 - 4(?)
that's really cool. on paper there are 4 divisions of six, but the way it's played is just like you say. It sort of has a consistency and a symmetry despite the odd meter.
― wk, Thursday, 22 November 2012 06:42 (eleven years ago) link
Listening again, I believe that last 4 in Limelight's verse is actually a 7/8. What a great song.
― Johnny Hotcox, Thursday, 22 November 2012 14:49 (eleven years ago) link
bob weir - "playing in the band" the entire song is in 10/4.allman bros. - "whipping post" is in 11/8 for a few bars.
― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 22 November 2012 15:40 (eleven years ago) link
I love how Give It To Me by Timbaland has a single drum sample throughout, yet it shifts it (or crops it?) so that, further into the track, beat 1 of the bar occurs at a different part of the sample than it did in verse 1, which defeats your expectations in an exhilarating way.
Survivor's Eye Of The Tiger does a clever thing in the intro, dropping a beat so that the guitar chord triple whammy occurs a heartbeat earlier than it did the first time round, mimicing an expert boxer's unexpected (to his opponent) timing.
I'm not sure these are genuine "weird time signatures" or rather examples of odd beats being cut in order to "create interest". The I Should Be So Lucky example six years upthread is a good one - some weird triplet thing happens at "hand in hand I'm dreaming...", although it stays in 4/4.
― Supposed Former ILM Lurker (WeWantMiles), Thursday, 22 November 2012 16:56 (eleven years ago) link
I think you're right!
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 22 November 2012 17:53 (eleven years ago) link
'Rockwrok' by Ultravox is mostly in 4/4, but the guitar solo section is in 7/4.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Thursday, 22 November 2012 19:31 (eleven years ago) link
That's just 'missing a beat out' tho.
― Mark G, Friday, 23 November 2012 10:31 (eleven years ago) link
It's still a time signature change.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, 23 November 2012 11:13 (eleven years ago) link
tru
― Mark G, Friday, 23 November 2012 12:04 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGSZKjTEaTs
This song is 4/4 but the "In the evidence of its brilliance" line she sings in 7/4, but around 3:48 she sings it on top of stuff that's being sung in 4/4 and it sounds kind of crazy.
― goya cézanne (Stevie D(eux)), Friday, 23 November 2012 13:49 (eleven years ago) link
Suddenly I think I understand part of the appeal of Idlewild's When I Argue I See Shapes. The middle-eightish vocal line that comes in at 3:13 is in 3/4 but then merges over another line in 4/4. (Video might be blocked, it is for me, fuckers.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPNFApou5_4
― ledge, Friday, 23 November 2012 14:30 (eleven years ago) link
The chorus 'Remind Me To Smile' by Gary Numan has an interesting one:
(4/4) - "Remind me"(4/4) - "To smile, you"(4/4) - "Know the 'old"(4/4) - "friends' line it"(4/4) - "gets so I"(7/4) - "feel like I'm in this"(5/4) - "cold... glass cage"(4/4) - *riff*
The 7/4 and 5/4 could be written as three bars of 4/4 - and this seems to help keep the Roland drum machine rhythm pattern in time when it gets to the next verse (which is rigidly stuck in 4/4), but it seems impossible to count them as three blocks of 4 because of the way the beats are stressed.
― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Friday, 23 November 2012 19:59 (eleven years ago) link
always enamored by this one:Barbara Manning - B4 We Go Under (teenbeat records classic, written by Robert Scott, later re-covered by his Magick Heads)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsfW6QmL_zc
my attempt at parsing:intro/verses: 4 4 4 6chorus: 4 4 6
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 25 November 2012 05:48 (eleven years ago) link
This is a crazy one that doesn't get talked about a lot, would love for the formalists talk this one through:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V7lTFzdSn0
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 04:08 (eleven years ago) link
Pre-chorus and chorus are obv in 4/4. In the verses, the rhythm section's parts are based on a pattern of 10 eighth notes grouped 3-3-2-2. You could notate that as a dotted rhythm in 5/4 or else in 10/8, which isn't a very common time signature but does seem to describe what's going on. The keyboard part still seems to be in 4 though!
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 05:24 (eleven years ago) link
(It's late and I've been drinking rum nog though.)
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 05:25 (eleven years ago) link
AMG describes it as "a surprisingly straightforward ballad"!
Is anything on the rest of Panorama this ambitious, rhythmically?
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 05:30 (eleven years ago) link
You could notate that as a dotted rhythm in 5/4
Would prob do this.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Tuesday, 11 December 2012 05:44 (eleven years ago) link
Please tell me I'm not crazy! My friends hear nothing but 4/4 in this George Jones song, but I'm hearing shortened measures early in the main verses. First happens about 13 seconds in. Very unusual for a traditional country song, methinks.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whj-ONfbH64
― Jazzbo, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 19:25 (six years ago) link
You're crazy.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 14 February 2019 05:01 (five years ago) link
Yeah, Jazzbo, you're not crazy...but you're not hearing the song correctly, I think. It's straight 4/4, a very simple two-step, completely standard structurally. Nothing unusual about it at all. What may be fooling you is the way it picks up within the measure, and the way it goes from I to V within the structure. You'll look in vain for a country tune that has any metric shifts or unusual time signatures; it simply doesn't occur.
― eddhurt, Saturday, 16 February 2019 15:26 (five years ago) link
There is absolutely one measure of 2/4 in each verse
― ebro the letter (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, 16 February 2019 21:06 (five years ago) link
Count along
4 bars of 4/4 1 bar of 4/4 • 1 bar of 2/4 • 2 bars of 4/44 bars of 4/4 4 bars of 4/4
― ebro the letter (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, 16 February 2019 21:11 (five years ago) link
It's not Dream Theater or anything but there's two beats dropped in each verse
― ebro the letter (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, 16 February 2019 21:13 (five years ago) link
yeah, E, but the song is simply a two-step. does the bassist ever deviate from playing the same pattern? Nope. you simply count the song in 2. One, two, one, two. Where's the complication here? There is none. What is perhaps notable is the structure of the song, which is completely standard in country music. There are no beats dropped at all. This song is quite similar to the Jones hit "Someone I Used to Know." Any country musician worth his salt would immediately see this is nothing to worry about and also, completely intuitive. The thing that makes it distinctive is the way it picks up from the second beat of the 2/2 measure, which I guess gives the illusion that there's something like "dropping beats" going on here. Great song.
― eddhurt, Sunday, 17 February 2019 17:50 (five years ago) link
Whiney's schemata is correct. The only difference between this part of the verse:
4 bars of 4/41 bar of 4/4 • 1 bar of 2/4 • 2 bars of 4/4
and this part:
4 bars of 4/44 bars of 4/4
...is that it spends less time on the V chord in the first part. Otherwise, the chord progression is the same both times through.
― timellison, Sunday, 17 February 2019 22:05 (five years ago) link
I wouldn't mind the idea of notating it in 2/2, though.
― timellison, Sunday, 17 February 2019 22:07 (five years ago) link
Here's another one: "Knock Three Times" by Dawn.
― SlimAndSlam, Thursday, 21 February 2019 11:28 (five years ago) link
In the Jones song, there's a measure of 3/4. At :46, when he sings "I broke the heart." So it actually adds a beat. It's probably best notated in 2/4.
― eddhurt, Friday, 22 February 2019 17:16 (five years ago) link
what's this song's time signature? on the album version you can hear a woman (Anna W., presumably) counting off "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgVHJjD5Bcw
― alpine static, Tuesday, 15 October 2019 16:02 (four years ago) link
i have no idea but i am so hyped that that dog. have a new record out
― Spironolactone T. Agnew (rushomancy), Wednesday, 16 October 2019 02:02 (four years ago) link
You'll look in vain for a country tune that has any metric shifts or unusual time signatures; it simply doesn't occur.
― Beware of Mr. Blecch, er...what? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 16 October 2019 02:16 (four years ago) link
Brandy - What About UsThe chorus to the Bee Gees' 'Jive Talkin'The instrumental part of MacArthur Park
Agreed that country rarely has metric shifts, but Mexican Banda and Mariachi music often does add extra beats, so when country emulates Mexican music, as with Ring of Fire, it will use metric shifts.
― Publicradio (3×5), Wednesday, 16 October 2019 03:43 (four years ago) link
that that dog song is 4/4, the chorus sounds like alternating measures of 6/8 and 4/4
― blows with the wind donors (crüt), Wednesday, 16 October 2019 03:55 (four years ago) link
"What About Us?" is straight 4/4, isn't it? Just with a lot of singing behind the beat or sounds off the beat
― Vinnie, Wednesday, 16 October 2019 04:03 (four years ago) link
I think the George Jones song is confusing because he starts singing before the beat appears, so every line seems to start on 2 instead of 1.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 16 October 2019 06:39 (four years ago) link
I don’t know how to say it in proper music terms.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, 16 October 2019 06:40 (four years ago) link
I'd say 6/4 & 4/4 but yeah. Although, the part at 2:30 is in 7/4, but the drums keep rolling through in 4/4.
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 16 October 2019 19:44 (four years ago) link
thanks. i guess i thought it was weirder than that. shows what i know!
― alpine static, Thursday, 17 October 2019 05:31 (four years ago) link
odd that Golden Brown hasn't been mentioned http://www.rebelmusicteacher.com/blog/2016/6/14/asymmetrical-compound-meter-in-the-stranglers-golden-brown
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Thursday, 17 October 2019 06:08 (four years ago) link
oops, I see it has, but it's not 3/4 and 4/4
The Carter Family's Rhythmic Asymmetry
Time on the Crooked Road: Isochrony, Meter, and Disruption in Old-Time Country and Bluegrass Music
― chips moomin (unregistered), Thursday, 17 October 2019 06:20 (four years ago) link
On occasions like this I like to pull out "South African Man" by Bohannon - which was a hit single in case anyone objects, in the UK at least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO3BEUMyzgs
― Michael Oliver of Penge Wins £5 (Tom D.), Thursday, 17 October 2019 06:52 (four years ago) link
I overheard MGMT’s Electric Feel and noticed it has an unusual time signature. Double checked on google and it’s apparently on 6/4 safe from the instrumental bridge which is 4/4.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 17 October 2019 15:27 (four years ago) link
This song is quite similar to the Jones hit "Someone I Used to Know."
Except that song ("A Girl I Used to Know") features the standard 32 beats per 8-measure verse. "Not What I Had in Mind" has 30 beats in each verse — just count them.Even if you consider this a two-step, there are still two beats "missing" in each verse. It doesn't bother me — I actually think it's a pretty cool thing to do in a country song. But I'm surprised so many people can't hear it.
― TO BE A JAZZ SINGER YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO SCAT (Jazzbo), Tuesday, 27 October 2020 17:30 (three years ago) link