The two very different great songs we’ll look at today use the same device to give both songs, in very different ways and to different ends, a momentum that never settles or lets up.
Im both songs, after a buildup to the V chord at the end of each Verse, when the songs hit the Chorus your ear expects the chord to resolve to the root (the I chord)… but it doesn’t – it goes to the IV chord instead.
‘Shame Shame Shame’ by Shirley & Co., written by Sylvia Robinson (listen below), is one of the great classic funk/dance tunes of the ’70s. The chords are simple: The song is in ‘G’ and the chords in the Chorus go back and forth between C and G (the IV chord and the I chord). The Verse is 8 bars long – 2 bars each of the chords B7/Emin/Amin/D7.
When it gets to the D7 – 2 big bars of V chord at the end of the Verse – the ear wants the resolution of hearing the ‘G’ chord at the beginning of the Chorus . This song never gives you that ‘satisfaction’. Yes, the G chord is in the 3rd bar of the Chorus, providing some resolution, but starting the Chorus with the IV chord (‘C’) keeps us on our toes, as does the move to B7 to begin the Verse – starting the whole pleasurable cycle all over again.
When listening to this song, there’s a sense that it can just go on and on, around and around… and in this case that’s a pleasant sensation.
In a very different kind of song, the ballad ‘One Step Up, Two Steps Back’, performed in the key of F, Bruce Springsteen does almost the same thing harmonically. Never one to miss a songwriting opportunity though, the Boss ups the ante by including the lyric in the equation. For example, as the chords rise to the V chord (C7) at the end of the Verse, he sings…
We danced as the evening sky faded to black
One Step Up and Two Steps Back
On the word ”Back’, which comes on the downbeat of the beginning of the Chorus, he goes back to the IV chord (Bb) instead of the I (F), thereby perfectly reinforcing the circular nature of the unstable relationship described in the lyric.
In fact, the F (I) chord is never played in the whole song. Like Godot, it’s anticipated but never arrives. The relationship, the lyric, and the chords just keep going ’round and ’round, never settling down. Masterful.
In Sprinsteen’s tune, using the A in the bass line for the tonic key (the F) gives it such a beautiful suspension. A delicate touch instead of the heavier, more grounding F. Beautiful.
Thanks for writing, Ilise! And when it goes to the Bb to start the Chorus (instead of the F)… it satisfies by postponing fulfillment… a neat and masterful trick, which includes what the lyric is saying at that point!