From: awp@world.std.com (Alan W Pollack)
Subject: Notes on "What You're Doing" (WYD)
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992 02:43:53 GMT

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	            || Notes on "What You're Doing" (WYD) ||
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KEY	D Major

METER	4/4

FORM	Intro -> Verse -> Verse -> Bridge -> Verse -> 
	    Verse (guitar solo) -> Bridge -> Verse -> Outro (fadeout)
		



GENERAL POINTS OF INTEREST


Style and Form
--------------
- The form of this song is a quite standard two-bridge model.  

- Although the overall instrumental texture bears an uncanny resemblance 
  to that of "Every Little Thing", the arrangement does contain a number
  of features which, if not entirely novel and unique, we've not seen in
  our studies for a while.


Melody and Harmony
------------------
- Though clearly in the key of D Major, the heavily syncopated tune 
  makes emphatic use of the bluesy minor third scale degree (i.e. F 
  natural); it also contains an uncommon number of appoggiaturas,
  suspensions, and free dissonances.  While *some* amount of dissonance
  is the life's blood of most musical styles, the extreme amount of it
  found in this song is noteworthy.  On an almost subliminal level, 
  it is one of the main ingredients that make you relate to the song 
  as "jazzy" in contrast to Paul's more hymn-like songs, such as "Hey Jude" 
  and "Let It Be" where the dissonance is handled much more carefully, 
  almost quaintly so.

- An average number of chords (five, count 'em, 5) are used though this
  limited diet is rather spiced up by the high quotient of melodic 
  dissonance turning many of the plain triads into added-sixths and 
  "free" (i.e. non-dominant, non-resolving) sevenths and ninths.
  
- The chord progressions of both verse and bridge sections give some
  prominence to the characteristic feeling of alternating between
  vi and IV (i.e. b minor and G Major).  Interestingly, this device
  was something that Paul would come back to with increased fascination
  in "Drive My Car".  Note how in the refrain of that later song, the
  extreme emphasis on vi and IV momentarily blurs your clear sense of 
  what is the home key.


Arrangement
-----------
- The solo use of drums here in the intro is a first for The Boys.  The
  hard thumping is reminiscent of the timpani drums used in "Every Little
  Thing", though I believe in this song we are listening to the standard
  bass drum that comes along with the kit.  Timpani are tuned to a
  specific pitch and the drums on this track, to my humble ears,
  have no pitch, only "thud".  The other passing resemblance here to ELT 
  is found in the the heavy-on-those-lower-octaves use of the piano.

- The second half of the intro offers up an ostinato figure that bears
  partial resemblance to the tune; generally, in terms of its syncopated
  nature, and specifically in the way that the last four notes of it echo
  the hook phrase "what you're doin'".  This ostinato provides some overall
  unity to the song from the way it is deployed as a backing obligatto within
  the verses, though its execution there by George is a bit timid and awkward 
  sounding in places.

- Paul's solo is double tracked throughout.  The backing voices though
  alternate between two functions.  In the first instance, they are used
  to punctuate, exclamation-style, the first words of the first two
  lines of each verse.  This trick anticipates what is likely the Beatles
  most famous use of the technique in "Help!", though its worth noting
  that the gamibt had already been tried by them once before in the much
  earlier "P. S. I Love You."  In the second instance, the backing voices
  supply an "oohing" background wash to the soloist in the second half
  of the verse.

- Since we're already doing more than the usual amount of free-associating
  between this and other songs, I'd propose that the layered handling of
  the intro and outro here, not to mention the ostinato figure, suggests
  an anticipation of some of what would later appear in "Day Tripper."



SECTION-BY-SECTION WALKTHROUGH


Intro
-----
- The intro is longish and layered; its eight measures split into
  two four-measure sections, the first of which is for solo drums
  that mark out a repeated drum-majorette kind of fanfare, and the
  second of includes the rest of the ensemble joining with a dual-
  statement of the ostinato figure:


                       >         >
ostinato:D -  - F# BAF#E - - ED EF# - -
chords: |D		|G		|D		|G		|
D:	 I		 IV		 I		 IV


- The identity of the home key is established entirely by the I and IV
  chords.  Looking ahead, it is noteworthy how only one other chord (vi)
  in addition to these two is used until the bridge section; indeed, the
  all important V chord is held back all the way until the end of the bridge!

- An exceedingly subtle though important difference between the ostinato
  and the main tune is that the former starts off with a syncopation from
  the "four-AND" beat of the previous measure, whereas the latter starts,
  bang, on the downbeat. 


Verse
-----
- The verse is a standard eight measures which in turn breaks up 
  into two four-measure phrases.  The verse sections which are followed
  directly by another verse instead of a bridge are nine measures long,
  with a two-measure repeat of the ostinato figure that begins
  overlapping with the last measure of the eight-measure verse:


	|D	|G	|D	|G	|
	 I	 IV	 I	 IV


			
				--- ostinato ---
	|b	|G	|-	|D	|G	|
	 vi	 IV		 I	 V 


- Examples of dissonance here include the following: the F-natural in
  the melody against F# in the D Major chord every time the hook phrase
  appears (as on the word "you're"), the A->G appoggiatura in the second
  measure (on the word "doing"), and the G on the downbeat of measure 5 
  against the b minor chord.


Bridge
------
- The bridge is eight measures long and is to be parsed into three phrases
  which make an AAB pattern of  2 + 2 + 4 measures:


	|G	|b	|G	|b	|
	 IV	 vi	 IV	 vi



	|E	|-	|A	|-	|
	 V-of-V		 V


- The verse was harmonically closed in shape, and this section contrasts
  sharply with that.  The first half of the bridge is heard almost as 
  though there had been a modulation to the relative minor key (b minor) 
  in which case your ear interprets the chords b and G chords as i and VI
  respectively.   One thing is sure in any event; this section opens away 
  from the I chord and ends wide open on the V chord by way of a broad
  set up from V-of-V.

- The quotient of melodic dissonance remains the same here as seen in
  the verse.  To save space, I'll leave the finding of more examples as
  the proverbial exercise for the canonical reader :-).

- One example, though, is worth pointing out, and that in the last
  two measures where F# on the downbeat of measure 7 creates an added-
  sixth, followed by the 4-3 (D->C#) appoggiatura on the downbeat of
  measure 8.  There is an interesting dramatic effect to be observed
  in these two measures as well.  The sustaining of the A Major chord
  for two measures coupled with the descending melodic melisma on the
  word "me" is an essentially relaxing or winding-down kind of gesture.
  In sharp contrast to this, the rhythm backing takes the opportunity
  to use the last beat of the last measure as an energetic springboard
  into the next verse, and the overlap of the two gestures makes an
  uncanny effect; kind of like your being pulled in two directions at
  once.


Outro
-----
- The outro is longer and more complex in organization than usual.
  We first start off with Paul's making an "old fashioned" triple 
  petit-reprise of the final couple measures of the verse.  This sort
  of gesture had been common in outros on the first two albums, but
  the most recent time we'd seen one like this before now was back on
  "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You."

- The triple-repeat is followed by a reprise of the intro, more or less:
  first a single statement of the ostinato, followed by four measures of 
  the drum fanfare, accompanied this time in mid phrase by the bass guitar, 
  ultimately followed by a recap of the ostinato figure, repeated here not 
  just twice as above, but implicitly ad infinitum into the fadeout.
  


SOME FINAL THOUGHTS


- Paul's decision to rhyme "blue and" with "doing" and "fun in" with 
  "running" recycles a clever idea seen earlier in "She's A Woman."

- I'm evenly divided on the question of whether the abandonment of
  this pattern for the third verse ("lying" rhymed with "crying")
  was a purposeful avoidance of foolish consistency, or something
  more in the realm of careless oversight or being fresh out of clever
  rhyming pairs.



Regards,
Alan (awp@bitstream.com *OR* uunet!huxley!awp)


---
"And don't you take that tone with me, young man!"            072292#63
---

                Copyright (c) 1992 by Alan W. Pollack
                          All Rights Reserved

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