Not that it matters, but if you ever want to rankle my musical sensibility, refer to this little number as a "simple, three chord song." It is not simple, it is quite complex in its own way. And it does not have three chords, it has four, and the fourth chord is arguably the most important of all, one without which this song simply would not be itself. To the hunt!
Intro
Besides creating a necessary delay, this intro also serves to create a
structure in the mind of the listener, to establish a pattern of sorts, and
a very familiar one at that. It's totally reasonable at this point in the
song to expect nothing but more of the same, or would be if this were not
Brian Wilson: that is, another 409 or similar straight blues-based car song.
Instead, we get a verse pattern that works off of the standard 12-bar but is
not that, and I contend that the raising of that expectation followed by the
failure to meet same is one reason why this song is so "catchy."
First Two Verses
Both of these have the same exact musical structure, and the first leads
directly into the second. They are differentiated from one another in at
least three significant ways: first, they are entered by different means,
the first verse is reached via the intro whereas the second is reached via
the first. Since the intro and verse are musically different, especially at
the end, the two verses have different "feels" as they each begin.
Secondly, the first verse has no backing vocals until the little "fun fun
fun till her daddy takes her T-bird away" hook line; the second verse has
backing vocals throughout. Lastly, of course, they have different lyrics;
the first verse sets a stage and sets up a conflict, the second develops
that plot further.
There is just so much to talk about here! Notice how all the vocal lines
start with a pickup, that is a couple/three notes in the previous measure
before the actual verse material begins. "Well she" actually comes over
the last part of the final Bb of the intro, and so forth. It is as if after
the delay caused by the intro, Brian can't wait to get started. The pickups
are used throughout, so that while each line ends with breathing room on the
word "now," the next line starts before the actual musical material it
accompanies. This contributes a feeling of, shall we say, acceleration,
zooming, taking off, hitting the gas pedal. This is accentuated by what
happens on the last line of all, (the "turnaround" that sets up each new
beginning in the song from here on in) where a very even harmonic rhythm of
two measures per chord all of a sudden quadruples to two chords per measure
with a very Buddy Hollyesque turnaround still based on the 1-4-5 12-bar but
different. The backing vocals enter on the last note of the lead vocal,
leaving no space but instead overlapping, contributing again to the feeling
of speed, acceleration, etc. The tail end of the backing vocal overlaps the
pickup of the first line of the second verse, so there is a feeling of
really taking off for a moment with no rest, then settling back in to hear
how the story develops further...
And what a story it is. If the music hasn't convinced you yet that there's
a lot more happening here than in your average car song, the words certainly
should. The hero is *female* and drives a T-bird; also, there is a
mythological Electra thing happening between her and her father. She
listens to loud rock and roll and drives fast; one is tempted to think of
her as a female equivalent of the Spector/Crystals "He's A Rebel." The
Foster's Freeze is of course totemic in its implications, the birth of the
drive through fast food joint in the womb of Southern California postwar Kar
Kulture. If the gun equalized all men in fights, the car equalizes males
and females in terms of mobility... And the generational conflict echoes
similar themes in the Beach Party movies of the time, and certainly relates
to issues later covered in somewhat more bombastic fashion by the
Shangri-Las.
Then we have the famous exchange between Murry and Dennis about this person,
the father stating that she should be shunned for her duplicity and lack of
scholarly work ethic, Dennis emphasizing that there's another point of view
from which her merits could be considered. And note that unlike many BB
songs, this one comes lyrically straight from Pop Lyric Tech Writing 101: a
clearly set scene, and a brewing conflict. This *is* "the formula."
Given that, it's no surprise that the second verse elaborates on the plot
started in the first, and elaborates on the desirability of this young lady
on the physical level and more. The jealousy she evokes, and the inability
of the pursuing males to catch her, develop the empowerment theme of the
first verse in a social context ( a point seemingly lost on the cockrocking
sourpussed feminist critics of the Seventies, who missed so much of the
point of songs like this and similar girl group material... if you look at
this and Surfer Girl, Brian seems ahead of his time and highly respectful of
women, especially in comparison to the likes of Mick Jagger). It is
therefore no accident that the backing vocals (which seem to play the role
of social peers, a Greek chorus, rather than mere instruments or inner
psychological voices) run throughout, creating differentiation since we are
after all repeating the musical material of the first verse ALMOST totally;
but not quite; there IS a fourth chord, and it appears for the first time
where perhaps one might least expect it:
The Instrumental
Those of you with sharp eyes probably caught it: that little F at the end of
the turnaround. Previously, at the end of the first verse, we went to the
predictable place, the Bb, the fifth, setting up a return to the root.
That's what you'd expect to see here, followed by an instrumental break in
one of two forms: a straight twelve-bar like the intro, or using the verse
chord pattern. Nope! We get this F instead, the famous fourth chord (in
enumerative terms; actually its the major of the second, or the ninth, also
referred to as the V-of-V or the fifth of the fifth chord). Now it's
actually pretty common in rock and roll; Chuck Berry used it a lot, and so
did the Beatles. It tends to occur in bridge sections, to help provide
variety, and to set up a return to the fifth chord and then to the root.
It's effective because it tends to provide a lifting feel (by both being
major where the standard ninth chord is minor, and by being exactly the same
shape triad as the root but a full step higher). The movement from the
ninth to the fifth to the root then contains a double lift, tension created
and released twice, setting things up for a one-more-time bring-it-on-home
final verse.
But not here; or more precisely, not just yet. Instead, it's used to
introduce some new and unique material that won't recur, the instrumental.
The color of this part is interesting in itself, it's a sort of alternating,
blended solo where what sounds like a heavily Leslied Hammond or Lowry organ
does some sixth-seventh-chromatic noodling *very* characteristic of BW in
alternation with a riffing surfy Chuck Berry style guitar that tends to
answer it and fill out the phrases. The feeling is actually that we've
modulated to B flat, and that that is the root chord of this break. Note
also that it seems to have two halves; and that the first half of both
halves is exactly the same. It's in the second half of the second half
(fourth quarter for you football fans:-) that we get the V-of-V feel in
moving from F to B flat to E flat:
Musically what we have is a total repeat of the first verse, which makes
sense since we're not going to go to the break again. But jeez, the story
is over so we can't do another verse, so where do we go? Two places: first
off, that little turnaround on the title is pretty neat, so let's repeat it,
not forgetting to preserve our feeling of takeoff by overlapping the first
word of the second repeat with the last word of the first:
Much as the turnaround itself acted to give us a feeling of acceleration at
the end of each verse, as if the entire song were a car picking up speed,
the combination of the modulation/new chord pattern, plus the soaring
falsetto, plus the stacked, perfect voices repeating the hook line, gets us
to warp speed. The song just disappears into the sunset at high speed,
headed for the beach or other nearest faraway place. It's an exhilarating
moment of youthful transcendance. One thinks that for Brian it is the
studio that is the vehicle he drives, and just as our hero and heroine
escape the mundane constrictions of a dying patriarchy in their automobile,
Brian and his song and voice drive out of this (Murry's) world in the
vehicle of the studio, in parallel, at exactly this moment.
Having recently done some recording myself, I can attest to how liberating
it can feel to let out that high pitched falsetto yell, reminiscent of that
in the Eagles' Already Gone or in countless Native American war chants.
There is something for a male in allowing oneself to attack that upper
register with reckless abandon, to get up as high as you possibly can as
loud as you possibly can. Call it letting out your female side or your
vulnerability or your inner savage warrior, there is something cool, of
compelling value here. Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!
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Boys page.
Eb (4x) Ab (2x) Eb (2x) Bb Ab Eb Bb
While there's an argument to be made that Brian chose this opening as a
"default" or as something easy and obvious, something more subtle seems to
be involved. One thing that happens in this particular song, and indeed in
none its predecessors in this series, is a full-flown plot line involving
some very interesting social issues. There's a feeling I get that Brian
instinctively felt a need to get some sort of atmosphere and structure
established before getting the plot going, to set the stage and establish an
uptempo, driving atmosphere (pun totally intended) without verbal or vocal
distractions.
Eb (2x) Ab (2x)
Well she got her daddy's car and she cruised to the hamburger stand now
Eb (2x) Bb (2x)
Seems she forgot all about the library like she told her old man now
Eb (2x) Ab (2x)
And with the radio blasting goes cruising just as fast as she can now
|Eb Bb |Ab Bb \
And she'll have fun fun fun till her daddy takes her T-bird away.
|Eb Ab |Eb Bb|
fun fun fun till her daddy takes her T-bird a-
In the above, 2x means two measures of four beats each; the chords within
vertical lines share a measure and cover two beats each.
Eb (2x) Ab (2x)
Well the world can't stand her cause she walks looks and drives like an ace now
Eb (2x) Bb (2x)
She makes the Indy 500 look like a Roman chariot race now
Eb (2x) Ab (2x)
Alot of guys try to catch her but she leads them on a wild goose chase now
|Eb Bb |Ab Bb
And she'll have fun fun fun till her daddy takes her T-bird away.
|Eb Ab |Eb F|
fun fun fun till her daddy takes her T-bird a-
The words use specific, interesting images, just like you're supposed to:
ace, chariot race, wild goose chase: no cliches, or at least not many.
They're hip and different enough to completely distract us from the stupid
"now" at the end of every line. Mike does deserve *some* money...
Bb (2x) Eb (2x)
Bb (2x) F Bb
The magic in this case works; for some reason, that last B flat sounds
completely different than the one before it, and it's that intervening major
ninth chord that does it. Brian is making great use of limited resources
here; the very same F chord that is used to get us OUT of E flat also serves
as a way station for getting us back. And he's not done yet, though we have
a plot to resolve first:
Eb (2x) Ab (2x)
Well you knew all along that your dad was getting wise to you now
Eb (2x)
Bb (2x)
And since he took your set of keys you've been thinking that your fun is all
through now
Eb (2x) Ab (2x)
But you can come along with me cause we got a lot of things to do now
|Eb Bb |Ab Bb
And we'll have fun fun fun now that daddy took your T-bird away.
|Eb Ab |Eb Bb|
fun fun fun now that daddy your T-bird a-
So the plot resolves; Electra's father can punish her, but the rising young
male can provide a ride, and things will be fine. What looked like a
setback is actually an opportunity. Interestingly we don't even know what
kind of car our hero drives, nor how fast or well equipped it is, nor how it
compares to that of the other males competing for dominance. What counts is
that he's empowered too, and as long as there's a set of wheels available,
off they go to pursue the mobile California vision of unlimited
opportunities.
|Eb Bb |Ab Bb
And we'll have fun fun fun now that daddy took your T-bird away.
|Eb Ab |Eb F|
fun fun fun now that daddy your T-bird a-
This worked quite nicely, since the Bb that concludes verse ending #1
circles back nicely to the Eb at the beginning of the turnaround. But
notice what happens at the end: we have our mystical F chord again, as if to
go to another repeat of the instrumental break. Fat chance of that
happening: instead we're heading toward one of those unforgettable Brian
moments, that falsetto phrase on the coda, repeating, that just drills right
through everything and in this case makes you want to speed off in a
convertible hooting at the top of your lungs. This very moment is so
compelling that the Beatles chose it as a major element of their Brian
tribute, Back in the USSR:
Bb (2x) Eb Ab
oo- Wooooh, ooo-woo-oo-oo-oo ooh, fun fun
This new material, which feels like a modulation but stays technically in
the key of E flat (alternatively, you could say it modulates and uses the
VII chord on Ab which is in itself out of that key), with the falsetto
accompanying the background singers who echo the turnaround hook phrase (but
sung over this different chord pattern), repeats ad lib until fade. This
marks the third different chord pattern over which the words "fun fun fun
... daddy took her t-bird" etc. are sung, getting the most out of limited
harmonic resources, reminiscent of the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
which phrase is sung over four or five different harmonic backgrounds, I
forget which.
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