If you are a songwriter or musician, take the time to watch this video. It’s the second entry in Rick Beato’s excellent series, “What makes this song great?”
Even if you are a music theory beginner, you’ll find this easy to follow and full of insight.
This particular song? Everything She Does is Magic, by The Police. I’ve heard this song hundreds of times and never once saw any of the special that Rick Beato reveals. Great, great video.
[H/T Steven Woolgar]
Very interesting video. I’ve heard that song a zillion times but never thought to analyze it. Another way of thinking about the bass line is instead of being in G Lydian is that it’s always in D and playing 4-5-6-7 over and over without getting to the tonic until the pre-chorus. That would explain why the pre-chorus has such a huge sense of arrival. Either way, it’s a great song.
(Ok, this is my own little neurosis, but the delay between when he hit a key on the keyboard and when the sound happened was driving me crazy. He needs to reduce his buffer size.)
It’s also worth noting that Sting re-used the “umbrella” lyric from the fade in the song Oh My God on Synchronicity.
I love hearing about breakdowns like this, especially where the magnificent work of Stewart Copeland is concerned.
It’s also amusing to hear about a Police song’s tempo originally being sped up, after having seen their 2008 reunion tour… in which Sting deliberately slowed everything down.
I always enjoy hear an expert dissect something about which I know very little. One wonders what Sting’s reaction would be to hearing this analysis. Does he think, “I’m glad someone else gets this”? Or does he shake his head and say, “Wow, you’re seriously overthinking it”?
Or maybe everybody just preferred playing it at the natural rate they’d recorded it in the studio.
As I understand it, there was almost always a bit of disagreement in that regard between Copeland and Sting.
I’d really like know how he got his hands on this track recording.