26 - Exit Music (For A Film) (Radiohead)

In everlasting peace! An epic track off OK Computer. Dive into all the little things I think make this song brilliant. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Okay, let's dive into some Radiohead. Exit music for a film. So this song was made for the Romeo and Juliet film. And uh it's so intense, and there's so much to take away from this song. Yeah, I just love the mix. Like, let's just talk about the intro for a second. Like the very lonely acoustic. And those chords, right? But Tom Yorick's vocal, like the way it's mixed, it's so loud. If you really realize, like, listen to that mix. The acoustic is like small and like lonely. And the vocal is like super loud and it's clear, but it has this like long, like dark reverb, like big reverb, like attached to it. And it's uh such a vibe. He's like he sounds like so it's so big, like way. And you hear that reverb, right? From your sleep. So great. So it's a uh okay, so it's in B minor, but it's just the A minor shape on the guitar. Capo 2, so but I'm just gonna label everything like A minor, okay? It's like standard tuning. Ko 2 though, so it's actually everything's a full step up. So it starts on A minor, which is actually B minor. And when it goes, so that those are two suspended chords. That's A sus2 and then A sus 4. Both very like mystical sounding, like heavenly, celestial is the word I love to use. And then that's also celestial. All variations of A minor in the song, including A major. Very cool. And we'll talk about that. So it's like right, and then when the singing starts, he's like, Wake. And he's singing the perfect fifth. He's like, wake From your sleep. He keeps singing the fifth. Sorry. He keeps singing that E, right? Which is the fifth of A. So it's a very like. Really nice. Just like very whole, like grand. But like again, like the vibe is so dark. What? And he's like whispering, or not whispering, but it's like I just love this part of Tommy York's voice, like such nice tone. Sleep. And then the drying of the drying of. He's like. But he's singing that, the fifth to the root, over like the major lift. So it's C over G. Or uh C over G is second inversion. That just means that. So first inversion is when the third is on the bottom, like uh is in the bass. Second inversion just means the fifth is on the bass. It's not that big of a deal, it's just like a different, like it doesn't change like anything big harmonically, it's just like a a nice like thickness. So here's regular C major. But when you put the fifth on the bottom, when you put that on the bottom, you get so as it's just like a little bit thicker. Now if you put the third on the bottom, you get so that's that's like a different that's like more of like a more of a change, first inversion, but this is just second inversion. The drawing of Yo T. That's so nice. So that's uh the four chord, right? But it's D add nine.

unknown 3:25

Right?

SPEAKER_03 3:26

O23 O open over F sharp. So this is first inversion, okay? Because the third of D major is it's F sharp, so that's on the bottom. So we got because it's add nine, so we need that E in there. So yo T so beautiful T today we escape. That five chord is like it's kind of Spanish-y, right? Right today we escape. We escape. Now that's really nice because we go Asus 4. Nice tension that we want it to land. But now we've landed on A major, but the song is in the key of A minor, so it's like it's like a chromatic fall there. We go that juxtaposition between landing on A major and then like descending back to A minor makes it like feel so dark. Much darker, right? We esc in the major second down to the root. So final ayy. A little solace there. It's like it's okay, and then pack damn. And good dressed, and then before you father, now it goes he same thing, right? D add nine over F sharp. Here's us now, but now it goes to F. It's like D minor. Like, we're not playing around. This is dark. And then before, back to the minor one chord, all hell. There's that Spanish E5 chord again, same cadence. Breaks loose. Damn. Okay, and now the B section. I mean, yeah, so the form of this song is A B A C A, like abaca. Here's the B section, it doesn't happen again. He goes break he's like outlining G minor. And he's playing G minor. This is a crazy move, guys. Like when you're an A minor, if you want to play the seven chord, you want to play G, it's usually G major. Really opens things up. But they do G. Sorry, did I say G minor? So they go to G you would go to G major usually. Like most songs, you're playing an A minor, you're gonna go to G major. But they go to G minor, which is like crazy. It's like whoa! It's like a it's pretty much like an instant key change uh in that moment, but maybe not necessarily. But G minor has no place in the key of A minor, which we've been in. We're also we're also like it's it's ambiguous because A minor is still ambiguous because we just did A sus4 at A major. Okay, so breathe at eleven. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Breathe, keep breathing.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

Now the way I play that G minor at 11 chord, this is like, so here's D7 over F sharp. But if I just do this and I just move like most of the fingers, everything except the pointer finger up a fret, I get that. Look at that. It's like 3x open 313. Breathe keep breathing. So tense, and he's like telling you to relax in this section, but it's like super tense, and then don't lose as two to a minor. That's so cool. Like a sus two to a minor to quick asus two, asus four, and then a minor over C. Now that is first inversion because if you just do A minor like this, but here's the minor third, the note that's making it a a minor chord. You put that in the bass as well. That's first inversion. Look at that. Yo nerk. And then this is so nice. It's E sus 4. And usually E sus 4 wants to go to right that tension. Suspended ESUS4 to E. But they don't do that because it's radiohead and it's so tense. Yo ner. E sus four. And they go straight back to G minor at 11.

unknown 7:58

Breathe.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

I love how there's no harmonies. Like you're just like lonely, man.

unknown 8:04

Keep breathing.

SPEAKER_03 8:06

Little relief there with like the D7 over F sharp. And then back to A minor, but they do A sus 2 first. I can do this. And then E sus 4, and then finally E major, which is the 5 chord, back to S. But in the production, during this whole bree, there's like some keys going on. It's like it thickens up, it like fills up. I think the bass is there, but then when it goes sing Uh Song, it's back to being empty, and you get those cool effects, right? I forget what the sound, but it's like sing. It sounds like a train's going by, like city sounds almost. Uh su. This is back to remember abaca. A B A. Here's the verse again. But it's a half the half the length. Uh su song a song. And here instead of going a song to keep, he goes a song to keep. It's like more emotional. Uh I love this line. There.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Such a chill.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

I love how when he begins this line, the ride, right? The ride gets hit. It's like there. Ts.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Such a chill.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

Tss. So nice. Such a chill. A sus four to A. Okay, now abaca, right? A B A, and now here's the C section. And this is like so beautiful. It goes it starts on A minor, just like the A section does. And you can this is like the Joker chord, laugh. And he says laugh. It's like ha ha. B7. Oh my god. Only time in the song that this chord happens. And you can laugh. It's like sinister. A spine less laugh. Beautiful. Oh my god. F there. Oh my god. So yeah, and you can laugh. That B7 is beautiful. It's a secondary dominant. Okay, you call that the five of five. That's what you would call it because it's called the five of five because. So five of five. So what's the five of A minor? It's E. And the five of that is B. So it's just called secondary dominant. And you can laugh as laugh. Love that catch right there. Like catches you. And it holds there, it stays there. We hope your rules. That B flat is beautiful. It's like we're in like F major for a second with that, right? Or you call it like a Phrygian move because B flat is the minor second of, or like the flat second of A minor. But it's anyway, anyways, it's like new colors are opening up. What a journey. You can laugh.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

A spineless laugh. We hope pure.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

So right here, he he's like he ascends like an E dominant seven chord. He's like Right, we got E to the third to the seven. Up to back to E. The octave. It's like such a nice ascension of that E dominant right there.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Choke He's outlining the five chord of it's so it's so epic.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

Now, guys, this melody is an octave above wake from your sleep. Right? He's doing an octave up now. So this is like abaca A B A C A. Now we're like in that last um section here. Um but it's like the same thing as the verse, it's like the same chords. This is like so amazing because he's saying an everlasting piece, and this is like the climax of the song. It's like the heaviest, like most intense moment, and he's saying an everlasting piece. And he he says it on the the major lift chord, like the C over G lasting Peace, we hope So dark that's you chop That's you chook We hop That's you choo That's you choo It really sounds like the end of a movie It sounds like the end of like life just like Armageddon like everything has died away like you're like in this like barren desert We hope right We hope that you chop That's you choo so intense man what a song and it's like fits beautifully kind of sticks out an okay computer but it like fits beautifully I just love the acoustic touch the mixing of everything I love when it goes to and you can laugh like that the bass this distortion there like that that drivey bass is such a great touch uh it lands perfectly on that B7. It's just like the perfect chord for that moment. A lot of brilliant things going on in the song. Thanks for watching, guys. I'm excited to be incorporating more video into this podcast. Please leave a review and a rating that really helps the podcast a lot. And if you're interested in working together on a production level, just check out learn.dambaricuda.com slash own your sound. It's a new program I'm rolling out. It's a very limited spot, so uh check it out if you'd like to work with me. Thanks, guys, and see you in the next episode.