Brians most interesting chord changes.

[mike8902]

Which song do you think has Brians most interesting chord changes?

For me I'd say it's a three-way tie between Girls on the Beach, Warmth of the Sun and Our Sweet Love. 

[Jason]

Frank Zappa once commented on Brian's chord changes in Little Deuce Coupe, of all songs. Said the 1-2-5 progression was a novel idea.

[mike8902]

Yeah I read that too. Cool to hear a virtuoso musician diggin brians songcraft.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

V-ii-V-ii-I, slightly more accurately.  I don't know, there's a lot of neat changes.  Wouldn't It Be Nice's key changes are cool and subtle.  The bridge of "Friends" is neat, how the bass climbs chromatically.  Cabinessence is an engaging sequence.

[Ron]

I'm not well versed on theory, but I think the chord change at the end of the chorus of "Let Him Run Wild" is great... the part just before "I guess you know I waited for you girl".  Anybody else think that? 

[mike8902]

Yeah I like that one a lot, very tasteful. Changes from a C#7 to a C#m7.

[Uncomfortable Seat]

The Warmth Of The Sun, IJWMFTT, and I Went To Sleep immediately spring to my mind . . . and also Surf's Up, etc., ad infinitum . . .

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

To me, the most interesting element of IJWMFTT is the melody.  The chords are great, but Brian involved more inventive changes.  The melody is just really kind of out there when you think about it, or play it on a keyboard by itself.  You could teach a class in melody writing around that melody.

[mike8902]

True. All the pet sounds melodies are wacky. Oh and I forgot to mention the changes on Don't Talk are stunning as well.

[Jeff Mason]

No love for This Whole World?

[LaurieBiagini]

My vote for most interesting chord changes would be "The Warmth of the Sun"

[NimrodsSon]

I would say "Wonderful." The chords are just all over the place.

[b.dfzo]

I Wanna Pick You Up has some really beautiful changes, if one were to take a closer look.  I think musically it ranks up right with Warmth Of The Sun, Girls On The Beach, Surf's Up, etc. when it comes interesting chord changes, combined with melody, of course, because the greatest chord changes in the world would only be that because of how they work with the melody. 

[mike8902]

Oh man, I totally forgot about This Whole World. Good choices guys.

[Jeff Mason]

Mike, I think you started a great thread and people are digging it.  See what we mean...?

[I. Spaceman]

 

[Chris Brown]

Awesome thread!  This is tough, since there are so many innovative chord changes in Brian's music.  A few songs that come to mind:

Warmth of the Sun: That E flat major comes out of nowhere but works flawlessley with the melody lines
Don't Talk: Strings during the break.  Subtle changes but very effective.  No chord repeats!
God Only Knows: you know the chords in a song are good when you can argue for more than one home key.  Is it in A?  Is it in E (most likely but who really knows?)?  And what about the vocal break?  The chord changes are fascinating, yet sound so logical with the melody.  An awesome bass line helps too.

Others off the top of my head include Wonderful, Cabinessence (especially "Grand Coulee Dam"), Caroline No, It's Over Now...I'm sure there are many others that I'm forgetting.

[b.dfzo]

Can't forget a very early example: The Lonely Sea, with the single note over the changing chords, like a soul afloat tumultuous, cascading waves.

[Jeff Mason]

Didn't Gary Usher write most of the music for that one though?

[b.dfzo]

Wasn't aware of his contribution.  Anyone else want to chime in on this?  I thought it was mostly Brian, personally.

[Jeff Mason]

Can't find any documentation, so it's not in a standard book (other than to say it was their first song together), but somewhere someone stated that Gary had the chord progression he showed Brian and Brian added the melody, and the two did words together.

[b.dfzo]

Don't take this serious, but, somewhere, someone stated in their previous post...

 

[Jeff Mason]

So you memorize every source of every thing you find on the web, and save every post you ever see?  I have been on the web now for ten years, and have seen countless posts from Alan Boyd, Brad Elliott, Mark Linett, AGD, and so on.  ONE of them at some point posted that.  Please forgive me if I can't remember who posted it and when, but someone did.  And I don't see you stepping up with anything different about that.  Plus, the chord progression is so different from standard Brian Wilson changes.  It is a lovely song, but it doesn't sound harmonically to me like a BW song.

[b.dfzo]

So you memorize every source of every thing you find on the web, and save every post you ever see?  I have been on the web now for ten years, and have seen countless posts from Alan Boyd, Brad Elliott, Mark Linett, AGD, and so on.  ONE of them at some point posted that.  Please forgive me if I can't remember who posted it and when, but someone did.  And I don't see you stepping up with anything different about that.  Plus, the chord progression is so different from standard Brian Wilson changes.  It is a lovely song, but it doesn't sound harmonically to me like a BW song.

Hey, that's not fair --- you took me serious! 

[Compost]

I remember that too, Jeff.  Something to the effect that Gary began the song, played it for Brian, and then Brian finished it.