It’s difficult to categorize contemporary guitar/guitar synth pioneer Pat Metheny‘s “Are You Going With Me?” (1989). But the key changes are far less ambiguous.
The tune’s intensity grows little by little, driven by the Metheny Group’s trademark wordless vocals and Lyle Mays‘ fluid keyboard lines. The performance was likely heightened by the huge scale of the live setting, Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. The first modulation hits at 3:44; the second key change “telegraphs” melodically by hinting at the shift slightly before its arrival at 5:20.
Pretenders‘ breakthrough third album Learning to Crawl (1984) spawned six singles, but also the devastating non-single track “I Hurt You.” For the album’s re-issue in 2004, Rolling Stone‘s Kurt Loder wrote of the band’s founder and frontwoman Chrissie Hynde: “To say that Learning to Crawl reconfirms Hynde as the most forceful female presence in rock already demeans her achievement: The matter of gender aside, she is the most unaffectedly personal of contemporary singer/songwriters, and surely the most astringently intimate lyricist working within a real rock & roll context.”
Starting in D minor, a series of unconventional modulations starts at 1:53 with a switch to Bb minor. Later, the mournful tune returns to D minor at 2:28 and ends in Bb minor with a spare, jagged guitar solo outro at 3:37.
AllMusic‘s review of Billy Childs‘s album, Twilight Is Upon Us (1989), asserts that the pianist/composer’s “second CD as a leader puts as much emphasis on his composing and arranging talents as his skills as a pianist…It was clear even at this fairly early stage that Billy Childs was on his way to developing an original voice.” Having cut his teeth playing with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard‘s band for half a decade and keeping his varied list of role models in mind, from Herbie Hancock to Maurice Ravel to Keith Emerson, it seems that Childs was on the road to that original voice very early on.
The title track is nothing short of a sonic journey — it clocks in at 8.5 minutes, but is definitely worth the time.
The gentle intro yields to an unsettled, multi-meter, multi-key accompaniment under a plaintive saxophone melody line at 0:59. We’re thrown headlong into a bass-heavy, groove-driven solo section for the sax at 2:32, clearly in 6/4 time. The clearest pivot in tonality arrives at 3:46; from there, the piano solo and rhythm section rebuild gradually. We eventually return to the maelstrom, with Bob Sheppard‘s sax lines navigating skillfully over the turbulent, angular accompaniment.
“‘Never Gonna Let You Go'” (1983) marks a moment where Brazilian composer, keyboardist, bandleader, and performer Sergio Mendes, formerly of Brasil 66, can be considered to be fully assimilated into the US musical scene. The song was a smash hit, spending weeks on the charts — which at the time meant Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 and the TV show ‘Solid Gold.'” The Solid Gold Dancers, emblematic of the popular weekly show, apparently took their coffee break during this segment.
This tune’s keys-of-the-moment and modulations are too numerous to track: Exhibit A, the shift from the intro to the first verse (0:23).
EDIT, June 2021:
Rick Beato managed to wrestle the entire tune into submission. What a chart!
Funk/pop superstars Kool and the Gang, best known for 1980’s uptempo mega-hit “Celebrate,” took a decidedly mellower turn in the early 80s. According to AllMusic, the band “left the fast lanes of funk for the smoother ride of the adult-oriented R&B expressway.” The 1983 album In the Heart produced a lead single, “Joanna,” which hit #2 (pop) in the US, #2 (pop) in the UK, and #1 on the US R&B chart.
No stranger to a broad harmonic vocabulary, the band outdid itself on the mod scale with the ballad “September Love,” a non-single track. Modulations begin with an almost jarring early shift as the first verse starts at 0:21, followed by more key changes at 1:15, 1:49, 2:43, 3:18, and 3:59.
Utopia, an American rock band formed in 1973 by songwriter, performer, and producer Todd Rundgren, started with a progressive rock sound and a fluid personnel list. In the late 70s, the band morphed into a tight power pop format with a stable quartet of players. Its only top-40 hit was 1980’s “Set Me Free,” written and sung by bassist Kasim Sulton (who later became known for his work with Meatloaf, Hall & Oates, and Joan Jett as well as his own solo releases).
A whole-tone modulation hits towards the end of the track (2:36), which just might be the bounciest song ever written about a doomed relationship (in this case, reportedly, between Sulton and his record company).
A submission from MotD fan, double bassist, and multi-instrumentalist Peter McCutcheon:
“‘Jump’ was a 1984 single released by Van Halen in anticipation of their album, 1984. It reached #1 on the Billboard charts, as well as #1 in Canada and Italy. Typically, Van Halen’s style is heavy metal, with strong guitar, but this song shows that the group has some pop and synth in them too.
Primarily, the song is in the bright and energetic C major, possibly to accommodate Eddie Van Halen‘s less prodigious keyboard skills. But the eight bars of Eddie’s guitar solo suddenly shift to Db major, even beginning on a strong Bb minor chord (vi in Db Major). To return back to C Major, EVH plays a sequence in which the finger and fret pattern remain the same across five strings, beginning firmly in Db major and then ending on a high G to return to the original key (for a synth solo using only white keys). Since the progression of the guitar solo ends on the tonic rather than beginning on it, the shift to C Major is even more dramatic, by the half step motion in the bass — a musical breath of fresh air that separates Eddie’s two instrumental features.
The modulation is blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, but once you begin to notice it, it’s really cool. The modulations occur at 2:15 and 2:31.”
Elvis Costello‘s 1980’s atmospheric “Clubland,” produced by Nick Lowe, is another contribution from prolific mod correspondent JB. The track features “quasi-latin” piano by Steve Nieve, according to American Songwriter, that’s “all over the place, propelling the song in different directions, without ever getting in the way of the tune.”
Starting in B minor, there’s a switch to B major for the chorus at 0:35, then back to minor for verse 2 at 0:51. At 1:37, the bridge begins, combining alternating B major and B minor within the vocal line from 1:52 – 2:07. Many thanks to blue-ribbon mod contributor JB for this tune!
“Believe It or Not,” performed here by Joey Scarbury, was the theme song for the 1980s TV show The Greatest American Hero, and was also a Billboard Top 40 hit. Direct whole step modulation at 2:24.
Marking Bruce Springsteen‘s debut on MotD, “Hungry Heart” was the lead single on Springsteen’s 1980 album The River and hit #5 on the pop charts. Originally written for The Ramones, the tune ended up becoming a keeper for the Boss instead, winning the Rolling Stone Reader’s Poll for best single of the year.
The early instrumental bridge brings a modulation from C# major to E major at 1:37, and then reverts to the original key at 1:55.
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