28 - Tangerine (Led Zeppelin)

Measuring a summer's day...

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Let's get into some Led Zeppelin. Here's a tangerine. I've always loved this song, and it's key to play with a 12 string. I love 12 strings, they're just kind of annoying because they're just so hard to stay in tune. But let me read uh a quick Wikipedia on the tangerine. Check it out. Tangerine is a folk rock song by Led Zeppelin. Recorded in 1970. It is included on the second, more acoustic-oriented side of Led Zeppelin 3, released in 1970. The plaintiff ballad reflects on lost love and features a drummed acoustic guitar rhythm with a pedal steel guitar. The Yardbirds, with guitarist Jimmy Page, recorded an early version of the song in 1968, just two years prior, entitled Knowing That I'm Losing You. And I thought this was cool, some background on Let's Upplin III. To develop material for the follow-up album to Led Zeppelin II, Page and Robert Plant took a working holiday at Braun Yar, a rustic retreat in South Snowdonia, Wales. Plant in particular was inspired by the Back to the Land trends in Northern California and the British folk scene. Accompanied only by acoustic guitar, hand claps, and harmonica, the pair created tunes that served as the basis for several songs on Love Zappen 3 and later albums. Although written earlier, Tangerine reflects this rural sensibility, and journalist Nigel Williamson includes it with the acoustic material born of the Brainyard sojourn. Okay, so let's dive into the musicality. So they're like tuned down like half a half step something. I don't know, they pinched it down or whatever, but uh I'm in standard tuning. It doesn't start with the main riff right away, right? It starts with the one two and then it goes one two five six. It's six beats. It's really cool and peculiar. So I'm just doing A minor and then it's like the C over G thing. I'm kind of doing three X two zero one and then That's so cool! And then the song starts and it just feels like the gates are opening up, right? Just like a book has started. Now the the strumming pattern is really interesting. Look, so it's like and that's that's A minor, and then that's A sus four, back to minor, A minor, and then that's A sus two. And then G, that's the seven chord. We're calling A minor one, right? This is G, the seventh chord, and that's the major four chord, okay? In the key of A minor, it's supposed to be a minor four chord, but it's like a borrowed major chord from A major, so but uh look what he does here. Watch the strumming. He goes. I love that note. I just love that arpeggio. That's just it's just a simple thing that he's doing, but it's very tasteful with like the the ands of the strumming are really nice, and I I love the crawl down that it's just C major and then C over B and then lands on A minor and then again so minor one to seven to four. That's another suspended that he's like kind of teasing right there. D sus four and then rubber plant with measuring a summer's day. Love that it's just highlighting A minor. Okay, and I love what he's saying, measuring a summer's day. I just love how well the chords are supporting what's going on with the lyrics and the vocals, because he's like it's sli only find it slips away to gray to gray, and it's like slipping away down to the sad minor chord, right? And then uh the hours they bring me pain. So that four chord, it kind of just like hangs on, like it leaves you like hanging, and it's kind of like that, it helps with that longing feeling of the song. The hours they bring me pain. Now this part is awesome because I think that we've been in A minor, like the key of A minor, right? Feels like A minor, doesn't it? And this is the major four chord, right? This is D. But then when it goes, whoa, okay, it's like I really feel like it's a key change. You could look at the whole song being in the key of G major, I guess, but that it really feels like the intro and the verse and the main riff are an A minor, and then when it goes, it really feels like this is now the five chord of G. So it's four to the five to the one, two, three. Oh I love the strumming here too. So this these are just very like you can't get any simpler than this in G major, but I love that. It's so simple, it's just one, five, four, back to five. Like one, five, four, one, four, five, those are like the simplest chords you could play. Like, so many kids' songs do that, like oh my donald, had a bar. Right? Or the itzy bitsy spider, what up the water spider? Yeah, I'm seriously playing kids' songs right now. It's like like just like a big sunny sound. So, another thing to comment about this song is the harmonies, like they're off pitch. Sometimes it's like it's kind of like hard to listen to, but it's there's something just fundamentally so beautiful about it, so raw about it. But there's like you can tell that Robert Plant was like lazy about it, like that they're not really like tight with each other. Uh like the harmony and the lead vocal, like rhythmically. It's like kind of off and it's off pitch, and it it just kind of adds to the whole vibe. There's something I love about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:23

I was remaining, and now it's down to right.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

So we just did one, sorry, four, five, one. Again, the strong pattern is very important. So it leaves you hanging again between. And now we go to the verse two. I love this verse, it's short, right? The vocal is mirroring the riff. This is the best part to think of us again. Oh, okay, now was the uh chorus. No, it's not. Okay, now it's the solo. Love the structure, right? It's like verse chorus verse solo chorus. And the solo has a whole new set of chords. So it's like leaves you hanging, and I do, and then one, seven, G. Okay, but then right here. F. Oh nice, it's the the six of A minor, okay. Major five, very Spanish-y. Back to it. Back to it again. Oh man, okay, so let me just play the chords and like look how beautiful like that trade-off between the F major to E major. Very like, like I said, Spanishy chords. Put it put it together. Right, especially the major five. So it's like an ado. Okay, so the solo, I'm just gonna play it here.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

It goes It's a it's a high D.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

But his tone is absolutely insane. It's like super distorted, I think, but it's like I I I want to read up on how on how we got it, but damn, and the movement of the chords, like it's supporting it so well.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Especially here.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

This is the moment where you're like, god damn, this song is like kicks ass. And now it's felt it is between and it's like between and I love it just like just hangs on the four chord right there. Right, and then Bonham's picking it up. Oh my god, like John Bonham's drum sound is amazing. Obviously, right? Uh, but also John Paul Jones, real quick, just gonna pause it and rewind. When it goes measuring a summer, he's going measuring a summer's day. He's like John Paul Jones is playing a mandolin and he's playing like really like smart notes to harmonize with uh Robert Plant's melody there. I I love the mandolin touch in this song. That with the 12 string guitar, it's like a really really nice pairing. So, anyways, the end of the song between and it's like and it's like holding there for a while, and then it's and then it finally resolves to A minor and then That's G, and then it goes to F again, just like it did in a solo. Like the only other time it happens, it doesn't and then a love and then So it's like like ends happily on G major kind of after everything that just happened. The song is super short, it has that peculiar intro, and otherwise it's three minutes and eleven seconds long. Gorgeous composition, and they just got the tones down so good, like with the bass and the mandolin and the 12-string guitar and bottoms, the drums, like ever iconic drums and Robert Plant's vocals. I love that it's called Tangerine. Tangerine, living reflection from a dream. I was her love, she was my queen, but now a thousand years in between. It's so great and really gives like a whole edge to Led Zeppelin's canon. Hope you enjoyed that, guys. And if you're interested in working together, I have a few spots left of my own your sound program, which is where I work with you as your personal producer to help bring your songs to life and help shape and define your style and your sound. So just check out learn.dambarracuda.com slash own your sound. Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you in the next episode.