May 18, 2011
6 pop songs in unusual time signatures
Obviously, there are way more than 6 popular songs with interesting meters, and I probably didn’t pick the most obvious ones. Leave your favorites in the comments…
“Money,” Pink Floyd – 7/4
“Hey Ya,” OutKast – Emulates 11/4
Uses a cadential six-measure phrase consisting of three 4/4 measures, a 2/4 measure, and two 4/4 measures
Mission Impossible Theme, Lalo Schifrin – 5/4
The intro of “Whipping Post,” Allman Brothers – 11/4
Gregg Allman:
I didn’t know the intro was in 11/4 time. I just saw it as three sets of three, and then two to jump on the next three sets with: it was like 1,2,3—1,2,3—1,2,3—1,2. I didn’t count it as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11.
“Strawberry Fields Forever,” The Beatles – shifting meters
“I Say a Little Prayer,” Dionne Warwick – 10/4 for verses and 11/4 for chorus
(Sources: Wikipedia and Time Blimp)
* * * * *
I’ve always thought Gilmour’s solo on “Money” was an underrated Floyd moment. Most people just talk about Comfortably Numb or Time.
Oddly enough, the solo is in a part of the song that is not in 7/8 time, it switches to 4/4 (for the guitar solo, not the sax solo).
How do you figure this sort of thing out?
With a little musical experience, it’s generally easy enough to be able to just hear it – without it, just listen to the emphases and count. In general, emphasised notes will mark the start of a bar, and you can count from there.
I have learned to play the guitar, banjo, and I play the djembe every Sunday. I learned by ear, and by watching people, etc. No one ever taught me how to count time, really. It fascinates me that you can do this without even knowing that you are doing it.
Not really a pop song, but Schism, by Tool, apparently changes time signature 47 times. The band says that it is in 6.5/8 or 13/16.
It’s fun to try to tap your foot to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhjG47gtMCo
Well if you want to move outside of the realm of pop songs, Dream Theater’s “The Dance of Eternity” has (by a quick glance at the sheet music) 124 time signature changes. Within the context of an approximately 6 minute song that comes out to a meter change every 2.9 seconds.
But the cool thing about of lot of these songs that were posted is that the average listener hardly notices that they’re using unusual time signatures.
Nobody hears the Mission Impossible theme and thinks “oh man – this song is in 5″. Unless of course…they try to dance to it. Then they’ll know something is amiss…
1) Not a pop song, but surely a widely popular jazz tune which many people could have heard without noticing it’s in 5/4 is Dave Bruebeck’s Quartet’s ‘Take 5′:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwNrmYRiX_o
2) Less popular but still known (I think), and with even stranger signature (the intro alternates 14/8 and 16/8, as in 3,3,3,3,2 + 3,3,3,3,4) which could go unnoticed perhaps: Goblin’s ‘Profondo Rosso Sountrack’:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JpuislFVzU
3) Not popular at all but I’ll just leave this here since it’s by far my personal favourite among “songs with weird signatures which rock”: Ozric Tentacles’ ‘Coily’, in 17/16:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf0-zrV0uHg
That is weird because for the most part I feel variations of phrases of alternating bars of 5/8 and 7/8 then alternations of 6/8 and 7/8. There’s also a section of 12/8 in there.
I’m pretty sure this song has 5/8, 7/8, 6/8, 12/8 and 4/4 measures.
“Paranoid Android” – Radiohead
This song is just in 4/4. Not unusual
nevermind I am mistaken, it takes some 7/8 at the end lol
Sting has “I Was Brought to My Senses” in 7/4 and “I Hung My Head” in 9/8.
i wish i could click a ‘like’ button for this comment. These are two of my favorite tunes on one of my favorite albums.(‘mercury falling’ for those who might inquire)
“Truck” by The Octopus Project is a very catchy song that’s mostly in 7/4… certainly not popular though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDeTv12mulo
Sting, “The Munificent Seven” in 7/4. Yeah, Matt C., Sting is crazy awesome with those time signatures…
What about 9/10? That represents the number of times that an unusual time signatures signifies a bored songwriter.
Or, in Sting’s case, someone who wants to show off the awesome drummer he’s got to add chops to a dull song. (actually, that’s not fair, some of his songs are pretty good.)
I can’t hear the “10/4″ in Dionne Warwick either. I hear 4 bars of 4/4 plus a bar of 2/4, (after “makeup”) which, if we’re being ludicrous and completely ignoring the relevance of the downbeat in time signatures, is a bar of 18/4, followed by two bars of 4/4.
There’s quite a few Beatles songs with crazy time signatures, most of which were written by John Lennon. He was fascinated by the breaking of what feels “natural.” Examples include:
The aforementioned “Strawberry Fields Forever”
“Happiness Is A Warm Gun”
“All You Need Is Love”
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”
“Tomorrow Never Knows” is technically in 4/4, but the vocal rhythms rebel against it, as do the orchestral swells.
“Don’t Let Me Down”
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds also has a great little metric modulation between the verse and the chorus. Not sure if that’s one of Lennon’s though.
Gotta love those crazy time signatures. One of the main reasons I started listening to Prog Rock and Math Rock is because of how brain-shatteringly confusing some of the timing on those songs can be. Check out The Littlest Viking-Labor and Lust. It’s a great Math Rock instrumental album with some cool time changes in it.
In college we used to go see a band called Jambay/Lazy Porch Dogs (Same band electric/acoustic) they were sort of jazz fusion jam rock. They would mess with time signatures in many of their songs. Ah the good old days back in Eugen Oregon.
very cool. I sing in a choir, but I would have never heard this intuitively without you pointing it out. Thanks
~a
Those are some good ones! The first one that came to mind was “Let it Rain” by Ok Go. I never thought I’d be able to use that lil tidbit as a comment on a blog…lol.
Bastard – Ben Folds. Awesome song, awesome meter. It switches between 7/4 and 4/4 with some others.
The Isengard theme from Fellowship of the Ring is in 5/4.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF0x0MnHvm0&feature=player_profilepage
Times like these – Foo Fighters – 7/4
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Almost 12 the meter is 11 1/2 / 16
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hk6SbLdpTE
The music from The Incredibles has great “odd” meters. There’s one part of the main theme that has 8/8 in all but the drums, which are playing a straight 4/4. There’s also a part that switches back and forth between 6/8 and 3/4 using equal eighth note tempos (which might actually be written as 12/8). In the same area as that one, there’s a 10/8.
(not to mention the GREAT trumpet playing!)
White Room – Cream: http://youtu.be/uGZeqwdWoeo
The intro is in 5/4
There are a number of blues tunes that have 2/4 bars interspersed with 4/4.
For example, this tune http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhitzeuFeDM by Frankie Lee Sims counts out as 11 bars of 4, but it’s really a 12 bar blues with bar 8 and bar 12 having only beats.
More here: http://www.youtube.com/user/guy0saurus#grid/user/B85D9CBAD89DECB5
Wrong: Money has a 7/8 time, except for the guitar solo. That switches to 4/4 time, because Gilmore didn’t want to have to count.
I disagree with your disagree, although a few others on the Internet have made this claim. If you tap your foot to Money, the emphasis is on the quarter note, and the “rate” of your foot tap never changes throughout the measures. With 7/8 time, you have a “triplet-duplet-duplet” rhythm (or less commonly “duplet-duplet-triplet”) that requires you to change the rate of your foot tap from measure to measure. 7/8 is also called a “compound” time signature.
I’m not sure if this counts as pop music, but the Number 12 Pinball song on Sesame Street is amazing… It has a real name… and some amazing time signatures :P
Solsbury Hill, Peter Gabriel
11 times 7/8 beat and 1 time 8/8 beat
I think compared to Money and Paranoid Android maybe the biggest hit in pop music!!!
Actually 7/4.
Don’t forget the sections of “Heart of Glass” by Blondie, during the synth solo, where a beat disappears from every other measure – 4/4, then 3/4, then 4/4 etc.
Meshuggah !~!
‘She’s Always a Woman’ by Billy Joel: alternates between 6/8 and 9/8
“Living in the Past”, Jethro Tull 5/4 time
Think as a Brick – Jethro Tull (can’t remember but it’s pretty funky)
Hi,
Is “The Point of Know Return” by the 1970′s band Kansas in 3/3 time?
Kansas – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-R8gHj_7v8
Point of Know Return constantly flip-flops between 3/4 & 4/4…almost to the point of being in 7, but it never stays in a 7 for more than a few measures.
Golden brown- The stranglers
kiss from a rose- seal
One- Metallica (I absolutely love the first 5 minutes)
And most things by dream theatre
I love music in non-traditional time signatures. :) Which sounds weird, but sometimes I’m literally in the mood to listen to songs in different time signatures.
Kashmir by Led Zeppelin,
Ween’s song “Even if you don’t”
Also, many songs by Stereolab. I think I counted one with 11 beats per measure.
Also, Parachutes by Pearljam has a shifting time signature.
There are some songs by the Dead in compound meters…(yeah, not exactly pop…)
Estimated Prophet & Lazy Lightning- Supplication are in 7. Uncle John’s Band has the instrumental part in 10, and also Playin’ in the Band is in 10.
Some non-Dead, but great tunes in compound meters? Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel (in 7), Do What You Like by Blind Faith is in 5 (I think written by Ginger Baker)
Also, consider some showtunes (!, I know, right?) Half of the soundtrack of Jesus Christ Superstar (and for that matter, lots of other Andrew Lloyd Weber stuff)…
Thanks for these.. Didn’t know the Dione Warwick one.. very nice..
I’d say mission Impossible is 10/8 rather than 5/4.. It’s a subtle difference
but it’s broken into 3-3-2-2 so doesn’t fit well so into 5/4.