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Polythene Pam
Composer(s) : Lennon and McCartney
Year : 1969
Chords/Tabs: Polythene Pam
Notes on "Polythene Pam" (PP)
KEY E Major
METER 4/4
FORM Intro -> Verse -> Intro -> Verse -> Intro -> Outro -> (segue al subito)
GENERAL POINTS OF INTEREST
Style and Form
- "Polythene Pam" (PP) maintains a relationship with its preceding (literal)
brother track uncannily balanced between the forces of unity and contrast.
- The two songs are musical portraits of individuals who are blood-related
but otherwise very different personality types, not to mention separate
genders.
- Both songs are relatively abbreviated in terms of both form and duration.
By the same token, the two of them are sequenced to create a single,
unbroken and quite powerful one-two wind up punch of a lead into
"... Bathroom Window."
Melody and Harmony
- The tune is pattering again, perhaps even more so than in
MMM. Like the
latter, this one provides melodic contour, such as it minimally exists,
by transposing its simple downward motifs up or down the scale. In
particular note the chromatic upward crawl in the 3rd phrase.
- The two songs manifest an harmonic unity of both home key and, with one
exception, the same set of chords. G Major is the one chord that appears
in only PP. Its more obvious label would be flat III though I believe
one hears it, in this case, as making a delayed V->I like resolution to
the C Major chord a measure later.
- The two songs contrast most sharply in their harmonic teliology.
MMM
a starts from I and opens out to V, cycling always right back to I. PP
never starts on I but always converges inexorably upon it.
- Similarly the two songs handle the V chord very differently.
MMM allows
V to serve its traditional role of full cadence maker. PP relegates V
to a supporting role (where it resolves deceptively) to flat VI; relying
instead on flat VII to make cadences, either directly or by way of the
double plagal chord progression.
Arrangement
- The PP backing track alternates between a wall of sound similar to, or
compatible with that of MMM
, but it provides some welcome relief using
different instrumentation and stereo imaging for the recurring Intro
section, and a generally higher quotient of airtime given to instrumental
music minus singing. Note the special lightness added by the appearance
of acoustic guitar and even the smallest amount of silence surrounding
some of the chords.
- John does the lead vocal double tracked. Scat backing vocals in parallel
thirds join in the third measure and stay the rest of the way through the
verse.
- The two songs have contrasting backbeats, a side effect of their handling
syncopation differently.
MMM leaves you with the musical aftertaste of a
marching cakewalk in spite of its ocassionally placing hard syncopations
on the eighth note before the downbeat. PP creates a more swinging aura
without as much syncopation, relying on its faster tempo, and the widespread
use of the rhythmic motif that emphasizes the last three eighth notes in
the first half of a 4/4 measure; what I jokingly refer to as the Beethoven
5th gambit. The only other place I can recall that motif showing up in a
Beatles song, by the way, is the abandoned early version of
OA909 from
March '63.
SECTION-BY-SECTION WALKTHROUGH
Intro
- Lest there be any lingering doubt about it, the final D Major chord of
MMM
(and which could have just as easily been the first chord of PP) is
found at the end of the album, just before
"Her Majesty" kicks in.
- The actual splice that ties
MMM and PP together is pretty darn smooth
in any event, though it places that opening D Major chord (along with
the other two chords in the introductory double plagal cadence) of an
pedal point of E in the bass:
------------------------------ 2X -------------------------------
1 2 3 4 1 & 2 & 3 4
rhythm: |Bom! Bom! | Ba, Ba, Ba, Bom! |
bass: |E E |E |
chords: |D A |E |
E: flat VII IV I
- This instrumental section alternates with two verse sections, thus
appearing virtually unchanged three times over, and providing the musical
basis for the extended instrumental outro.
Verse
- The verse is an unusual 10 measures long that you parse as a quatrain
plus additional spacer phrase; AABA' + spacer. The latter stands in
formal counterpoint with a tiling of musical phrases running AABCC:
------------------------------ 2X -------------------------------
|D A |E |
flat VII IV I
|G |B |
V-of-flat VI V
------------------------------ 2X -------------------------------
|C D |E |
flat VI flat VII I
- Similarly, the change of harmonic rhythm for just the middle phrase,
combined with the extent to which both outer phrases converge toward
I via flat VII but by different routes, creates an harmonic structure
of AABA'A'.
- I'm left wondering here if the "Yeah, yeah, yeah" lyrics for the spacer
phrase are an ironic tip of the hat to
"She Loves You" or by this point in
time just a lazy habit.
Outro
The outro is relatively long, accounting for as much as ~40% of the
overall track length. It is 22 measures long and parses out as
eight iterations of the double plagal phrase (the version with the
root note of each chord in the bassline) followed by six measures of
build up on just the I chord. The last four measures of the latter
phrase contain a dramatic downward scale in the bassline that effectively
leads right into the next track by making you hear that E Major chord pivot
as V of the key of A.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6
|DA|E DA|E DA|E DA|E DA|E DA|E DA|E DA|E E |E |E |E |E |E A
bassline:E D C# B I
- A lead guitar solo kicks in during iteration 2 of the double plagal
phrase and continues to the downbeat of measure 3 of the plain E Major
chord. This is the same point at which John says, "Listen to that now."
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
- We have an outtake of PP from the Get Back sessions done at Apple on 1/24/69
that is only one of this song known prior to the Abbey Road sessions.
- This performance is so rough and stumbling by all involved that I'm tempted
to call it more a "sketch" than a rehearsal or runthrough. John and Paul
in particular seem to be having a dickens of a time keeping their signals
straight with respect to either words or chord changes.
- Given that the earliest outtakes of
MMM we looked at last time are dated
either 1/8 or 1/14 and appear in more polished shape compared to the PP
performance from the 24th of the same month, I'm willing to interpret this
as supporting the theory that John really didn't have Pam at all in mind
yet when he earlier referred to the Mustard man's sister as Shirley.
- This kind of speculation brings to mind the an observation often
repeated by Erle Stanley Gardner's fictitous detective/lawyer, Perry Mason,
with regard to circumstantial evidence. He would warn, on the one hand,
about the grave danger inherent in the possible misinterpretation of
such evidence. But he'd hasten to reiterate, just as quickly,
that such evidence is often the best, if not only, evidence we have
to go on; and that's regardless of whether you're a laywer, detective,
or musicologist who follows the Beatles.
Regards,
Alan (awp@world.std.com)
---
"Eh, look at that talent." 123199#187
---
Copyright (c) 1995 by Alan W. Pollack
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