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23 <p class="first"><span class="dropcap">W</span>hereas a considerable number of Dylan songs use only a limited number of chords, often
24 the classic three-chord blues pattern, often just one sustained chord throughout a whole
25 song (e.g. Political World), some songs stand out as far more advanced, harmonically
26 speaking. I would like to discuss Dear Landlord from this perspective. </p>
28 <p class="first">Dear Landlord begins with a C [<em>I will refer to major chords with upper-case letters
31 next line sees this E used as a dominant to a, which, by way of a standard bass-descent,
32 reaches F. Again, after a short excursion to d, this chord is used as a new dominant, this
33 time even as a seventh chord (F7), to the Bb of the third phrase. The last phrase leads
34 the harmony back to d, where it seems to end, until the accented F and G chords bring back
35 the C of the opening.</p>
37 D E A R L A N D L O R D</pre>
40 C E
41 Dear landlord, Please don't put a price on my soul.
42 Am F Em Dm
43 My burden is heavy, My dreams are beyond control.
44 F F7
45 When that steamboat whistle blows,
46 Bb (Bb7)
47 I'm gonna give you all I got to give,
48 C Dm7 C Gm/bb
49 And I do hope you receive it well,
50 F Gm Dm F F G
51 Dependin' on the way you feel that you live.</pre>
54 <p class="first">Now, this dry description of the basic harmonic outline of the song conceals a very
55 dramatic line of events. The move from C to E is in fact a wide leap. Why this is so, can
56 be explained in many ways. Traditional harmony considers chords to be arranged according
58 with the lowest notes separated by five steps) are more closely related than other chords.
59 This gives two close relatives for each chord: a fifth above and a fifth below. The
60 chord above is, for different reasons, the nearest relative, and is called the <em>dominant</em>,
62 its dominant and F as subdominant, and there you are: the three chords upon which 80% of
63 all blues, rock - and classical music - is based. The distance from C to E along the
64 circle of fifths is four steps: C-G-D-A-E, which is a long way to go in a single
65 leap. <br />
67 third in the C chord. As such, it is the tone that defines the chord as a major chord -
68 lower it one step and you get instead a minor chord, leave it out, and you get no chord at
69 all, just an interval, a fifth. Thus the third is the most essential interval in
70 traditional harmony. The variability of the third makes a chord based upon this tone
71 somewhat unstable, in relation to the firm relations between C, G and F. <br />
72 Thirdly the major chord over E contains two tones a half step removed from the
73 corresponding tones of the C major chord: E - G sharp - B, as opposed to E - G - C.
76 the seventh chord: the G chord contains the leading note B of the C major chord, and this
78 is experienced as leading to the tone E in the C major chord.</p>
79 <p>All these factors contribute to the experience of the passage from C major to E major
82 that follows. The E major chord immediately serves as a dominant chord for the A minor
83 that follows. (It should be mentioned, at least in a parenthesis, that this chord sequence
84 - C, E, Am - is very common in several genres of popular music. But usually the E is
85 merely inserted between the C and its close relative, Am. What is special in this song, is
86 that the E major chord is given a prominence of its own; not merely as a passing,
87 preparatory chord, but as the goal of the first phrase. It is rather the Am that is a
88 passing chord in the following sequence, to which I will return, if only I can get out of
89 this parenthesis.)</p>
91 formally correct to refer to what has been said in parentheses, but that's how it is when
92 you get stuck) the E may be seen as a preparatory chord to the Am that follows. But this
95 <p>Compared with the high-point at E, we have now reached a more relaxed level, five steps
96 down, so to speak. But now enters the hand of God: The F/Dm level of repose is turned
97 into a level of tension by divine intervention, i.e. by the artist. The F of relaxation is
98 turned into an F7 of renewed tension (the seventh makes the whole difference) and we
99 tumble yet another staircase down to Bb. And as if that was not enough, the last process
100 is (almost) repeated, when even the Bb is turned into a Bb7. The distinctive seventh note
102 piano this is the same key as the G# in the E major chord. In reality it is the farthest
103 away you can get - 12 steps along the circle of fifths, which happens to make a full
105 different. (Time for a new parenthesis. It is only on a modern, equally tempered
106 instrument like the piano that the tones Ab and G# sound the same. The wonderful mystery
108 to the same tone, but to a tone a little bit higher. On a piano this little interval has
109 been divided in 12 and distributed among all the fifths, which means that any interval
110 played on a piano is in fact out of tune . . . A singer, on the other hand, will usually
111 bring out this difference, consciously or unconsciously.)</p>
113 redefine F into F7 - that is a creative act. To repeat the act is daring, but to refrain
115 which would have been Eb. Instead we are left suspended in the air, until we somehow land
116 on C, but still not, since the C is just one among many restless steps on the way down to
117 the Dm which seemingly ends the last phrase. At this point it may be correct to say that
118 so much has happened in the meantime, that one really doesn't remember the sound of the C
119 that started it all. The C major chord has appeared here and there throughout the song,
120 but always in passing, never as the basic tonality upon which everything rests. Now this C
121 is evoked again through the abrupt hammering of F and G, which rashly sweeps away
122 everything that has happened and very emphasisedly re-establishes C as the tonal centre
123 again.</p>
125 <p class="first">What's happening in here, then? I'm not about to argue that the E in the first
126 phrase by necessity leads to everything that follows. Nor, actually, that it is a
127 successful song - maybe the hand of God is too daring, maybe the return from Bb to C is
128 too blunt, and maybe the final directionless descent to Dm and the following return to C
129 is too contrieved, I really don't know. What I know is that the song and touches me,
130 precisely because of these things. What I've tried to do above, is to explain, in
131 harmonical terms, why it is that the tremendous burst of energy which I sense in the song,
132 ultimately feels so tired.</p>
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