Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger (p.509)

Context

  • Song recorded 1996 by Manchester group led by Gallagher brothers.
  • Tribute to John Lennon – opening bars (solo piano in rocking chord pattern) very like start of Imagine, and lyrics in bars 13-16 are Lennon’s own words.

Instrumentation

  • Standard rock band of lead, rhythm & bass guitars with drums; piano, organ and strings filling out the texture.
  • Bass guitar generally very low set and distortion on guitars, all creating heavy sound.
  • Lead guitar duets with solo voice and has extended solo from b.33.

Harmony

  • C major diatonic (chords belonging to the key of C) except for the E chord (b.6), Fmin.7 (b.13) and G sharp dim. (b.20).
  • Fmin.7 & G sharp dim. generally function as passing chords – look at the piano part to see how they form a smooth chromatic link between two diatonic chords.
  • In the final section of the song the music pauses for two bars (60-1) on Fmin.7 before setting off again, and the final bars insert G sharp dim. into a standard IV – I plagal cadence.
  • E chord is more prominent, occurring in each verse as part of the chord progression C – G – Am – E – F (bs.5-7) which is also found in Pachelbel’s famous Canon.

Melody

  • Vocal line quite high during verse and rises well into tenor register for chorus.
  • Melodies tend to revolve around a few central pitches (C, D & E in bars 5-7, for example) giving a chant-like, incantatory feel to the song.
  • Many melodic patterns – both voice and lead guitar - are pentatonic (5-note scale, here C-D-E-G-A), especially in the verses, or made up of descending major scales (the chorus from b.25).
  • Occasional Ebs (flat 3rd) give a bluesy feel to the music (e.g. guitar solo from b.33).

Structure (bars 5-32 are repeated as V2 & Chorus)

Bars / + Melodic unit? / Harmony / Phrasing
1-4 / Intro / C-F-C-F
5-12 / Verse / C/G - Am/E - F/G – C/Am/G (x 2) / 4 + 4
13-24 / Bridge / F/Fm7 – C (x 3) – G – G# dim. – Am/G – F G - G / 6 + 6
25-32 / Chorus / C/G - Am/E - F/G – C/Am/G (x 2) / 4 + 4
32-35 / C/G - Am/E - F/G – C/Am/G / 4
33-44 / Instr. / F/Fm7 – C (x 3) – G – G# dim. – Am/G – F G - G / 4 + 4 + 4
45-52 / Chorus / C/G - Am/E - F/G – C/Am/G (x 2) / 4 + 4
53-62 / Chorus / C/G - Am/E - F/G – C/Am/G
C/G – Am – F – Fm7 – Fm7 - C / 4 + 6
62-65 / Coda / C/G7 – Am/E – F/G# dim. - C / 4

Notice how the phrases are almost always in 4-bar units.

Why do bars 13-24 seem to be split 6 + 6?

In two places the last bar of one phrase also serves as the start of another, telescoping the two sections together and giving the music a bit of a break from the regular 4-bar patterning.

Identify the two places where this happens.

The voice part uses three main melodic ideas (call them A, B & C).

Add the appropriate letter to the table above to show which melodic idea is used in each section (not including the intro and coda).

Notes