Up | Home | Contact Us | Liobians' Forum     Lady Madona

A Series of WWW Pages Compiled and Published by John Snelson from 1996 ©     

I am indebted to a LIOBIAN, Ken Ashtcroft for this gem, which he sequestered from his associate John Szarak on the topic of the Beatles' "Lady Madonna" .. I found the story fascinating, and so it is reproduced here .... but before you read the technical stuff, this is how Ken Ashcroft got onto it ... and I quote Ken ...

Think I told you that I took music lessons from age seven, well, I made a really interesting discovery some 15 years ago. I had to practise a hymn to accompany some singing, and after playing it "straight" a few times, started "jazzing around" with it a little. All of a sudden, I found myself playing "Lady Madonna". The chord sequence is IDENTICAL !!

It must have remained tucked away in the L&McC subconscious, and just popped up some years after they left school Further evidence for this is contained in the lyrics, which disclose how the Beatles operated - I'm exactly the same myself.

"Lady Madonna, lying in your bed, listen to the music PLAYING IN YOUR HEAD" !!

(How else did Beethoven compose when he was totally deaf  ?   )

Does that knock your socks off  ?   The tune in question is "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven", written by J.Goss (1800-80) and widely popular in most English churches. The only change is that the original is in the key of G, and the Beatles play it in A flat, but they didn't know the difference anyway.

**********************************************

Now ... have a read of this explanation by  John Szarak ...

Subject: [liobians] Fw: Lady Madonna

The only change is that the original is in the key of G, and the Beatles play it in A, but they didn't know the difference anyway.

The Beatles may not have had any recollection of the original key of the hymn tune or had even been aware of the subconscious connection. Early on, however, they must have had some understanding of keys, chords, harmony and relationships otherwise they could not have successfully played together.

Sure, their theoretical understanding may not have been literate or scholarly - Bach didn't know what he was doing as far as rules were concerned since he was laying the ground work for scholars to analyze his music and later classify, organize and identify the rules.

Remember Bach was breaking away from his predecessors like Palestrina - modality was being replaced with tonality thanks to Bach.

McCartney and company broke rules and laid groundwork for the future of music as a whole - eg. John Lennon "discovered" flanging as a sound treatment/effect and McCartney instigated the design of the DI, or direct injection box, where a musical instrument can be plugged directly into the soundboard for recording in lieu of placing an ambient or directional microphone in front of the amplifier.

They thought of many ideas and the guys in white lab coats working for EMI made them happen - or George Martin made them happen.

Lady Madonna is played, recorded and scored in A major.

Its verse progression is ... I - IV , I - IV , I - IV , bVI - bVII - I (That's ... A - D , A - D , A - D , F - G - A)

The phrase's turnaround, consisting of the chords built on the flattened 6th and 7th scale degrees, are rather cliche and somewhat modal in character being a contrast of the tonic and subdominant progression of the antecedent.

Its chorus progression is transposed to C major (up a minor 3rd - non related keys having dramatic harmonic contrast) ... iim7, V7, I , vim7, iim7, V7, I - (iim7 - V7 of A major transition) return to verse

That's Dm7, G7, C, Am7, Dm7, G7, C - Bm7, E7sus4 - E7 back to verse in the key of A Major

JP Szarak

++++++++++++++++++