hey, welcome to 12tone! on January 10th, 2016,
David Bowie passed away.
here at 12tone we never actually did anything
to commemorate him because we hadn't started
doing these song analyses yet, and honestly,
that's never sat right with me.
Bowie was one of the most stylistically adventurous
voices in the history of rock and roll, so
two years later, I'd like to finally pay tribute
to him by analyzing one of his most interesting
songs, "Life On Mars?".
it starts like this (bang) and here we see
a device called a line cliche, which is going
to come up quite a bit over the course of
this video.
a line cliche is when the harmony stays mostly
the same except for one rogue line that slowly
drifts up or down in order to create a sense
of motion over the otherwise static texture.
here, we start on an F major triad, which
has F, A, and C. then we move to A minor,
which also has an A and a C, but the F has
fallen down a half step to E. the A diminished
continues that trend, moving the E down another
half step to Eb. from here, though, things
get a little unusual.
if we follow the pattern, we'd expect to hit
D next, and if we keep the A and the C, we
get this: (bang) but that leaves a huge gap
between the D and the A, which makes it feel
a bit empty, so traditionally we'd just grab
the F from all the way back at the beginning,
giving us a D minor 7 chord.
instead, Bowie mixes it up a bit and uses
an F#, which turns this into a D7. it's still
technically a continuation of the line cliche,
but the unexpected note from outside the key
makes it stand out much more than normal,
as does the way the piano player, Rick Wakeman,
plays it.
the top line on the first three chords all
sounded like this: (bang) but when we get
here, he switches it up and plays a high D
instead.
so what's this chord doing that makes it so
important?
well, this is what's called a secondary dominant,
which is a highly directional chord that tells
us where we're gonna go next.
in this case, it points us to a G chord, which
is exactly what we get: (bang)
this section has a bit more going on, and
it's a great example of what's called functional
harmony.
this is the idea that different chords in
a key have different functions or jobs to
do.
the first four bars were all built around
F major, the I chord, which has what's called
tonic function.
this means it's at rest, and doesn't really
have much tension.
in these four bars, though, we start on G
minor, the II chord, and quickly transition
to Bb, the IV chord. these both have subdominant
function, which means they introduce a little
instability, making the music a bit more tense
and adding some color to it.
finally, we sit on C7 for a couple bars: this
has dominant function, and much like the secondary
dominant from earlier, it's directional, but
this time, it points us back to F, the root
of the key.
we go through that progression again, then
we find ourselves thrown into the prechorus,
which starts with another line cliche: (bang)
this time, though, the line is going up, creating
a sense of rising tension.
we start on Ab major, with the notes Eb, Ab,
and C, then the Eb moves up to an E natural,
then to an F. in the fourth bar it keeps moving
up to a Gb, but he breaks the line cliche,
replacing the C with a Db in order to avoid
too much dissonance.
he keeps the Ab at first, letting it serve
as an added note to add some extra color,
then moves it up to Bb to complete the triad.
the second half of the prechorus (bang) is
another line cliche, this time starting on
Db. the motion of the first three chords is
pretty much the same as the first half, just
built on a different foundation, but instead
of continuing up with the last chord, it falls
back down to Db major, resetting the progression
and leading into the chorus.
but before we get there, I want to address
something, because the verse was clearly in
the key of F major, but neither Ab nor Db
makes all that much sense in that key.
we can find them in F minor, but I think there's
a better explanation of what's happening here:
chromatic mediants.
these are chords whose roots are a third apart,
but that don't share as many notes as you'd
expect.
for instance, F major has the notes F, A,
and C. if you wanted to relate it to a chord
whose root is a third up, the obvious choice
would be A minor, which has the same A and
the same C. but you could also use Ab major,
which still keeps that C, but uses a different
kind of A. this violates your expectations
and makes things sound bigger and more dramatic.
so what about Db major?
well, that's another chromatic mediant of
F major, since if has the same F but a different
A. but there's more going on here, because
it's also a chromatic mediant of Bb major.
why does that matter?
ok, now let's look at the chorus.
(bang) there's a lot going on here, but the
headline is that it seems like we've changed
keys to Bb major.
we start on the I chord, which again, has
tonic function and, coming out of the dissonance
and weirdness of the prechorus, feels pretty
well resolved.
then we move to Eb major, the IV chord, which
again has subdominant function, taking us
away from that sense of rest and setting things
back into motion.
from there we move to G minor, the VI chord,
which is another tonic function chord, and
lets us settle back in a bit before moving
to F major, the V chord.
This has a strong dominant function, pointing
us back to the root, but Bowie doesn't want
to resolve yet so instead of going back home
he switches to F minor.
this is an example of modal interchange, where
a chord is borrowed from another scale.
in this case, we've got the V chord of Bb
minor, which has more of a subdominant sound.
after that we go to C minor 7, the II chord
in major, then to Eb minor 7, the IV chord
in minor.
these both have subdominant function as well,
and ending on the IV chord sets up what's
called a plagal cadence, where the IV chord
resolves to the I chord. it's not as strong
as a standard V-I resolution, but that's fine:
it does its job.
but you may have noticed I skipped a chord:
what, exactly, is this Gb augmented doing?
well, that's where our old pal the line cliche
comes back into the picture, because this
bit here (bang) is the start of another one
of those.
we don't get a full one, though: we've already
had plenty, and this section wants to keep
moving, so he just plays the first two chords,
then resolves the line into the next bit of
the harmony.
anyway, once he's done with the chorus, he
goes into the tag, where he just sings the
word "Mars" for a really long time, and see
if you can guess what the piano plays: (bang)
yeah. it's another line cliche, probably the
most classic one in the whole song.
it's based on G minor, which is significant
'cause it's both the VI chord in Bb and the
II chord in F, making it what's called a pivot
chord, which is a chord shared by both keys
that helps smooth the transition between them.
it ends on this E minor 7 b5, which is an
unstable chord that wants to resolve up a
half-step to F, which it does as we move into
the guitar solo, which we're running out of
time for, but here's the chords: (bang)
if we ignore the weird stuff for a second,
we get this (bang) which is just walking up
the scale from the I chord to the IV chord.
but let's go back to the weird stuff: this
F# diminished 7 is another secondary dominant.
the diminished 7th works a lot like the minor
7 b5, in that it wants to resolve up a half-step,
and here it does just that, resolving to the
G minor.
so what about this D diminished 7? well, it's
doing a similar thing, but it's being a bit
sneakier.
you see, diminished 7ths want to resolve,
but they're not that picky about where, due
to one unique property: they're symmetrical.
they're built entirely out of minor 3rds from
bottom to top, so in theory any note in the
chord could be the root.
he's playing a D in the bass, but in reality
this isn't a D chord at all: it's G# diminished
7, which just happens to have the exact same
notes.
that means it wants to resolve to an A which,
conveniently enough, it does.
finally we have this Bb minor, which is just
another example of modal interchange: he's
borrowing the IV chord from F minor in order
to darken the sound a bit before using another
plagal cadence to get back to the start of
the verse.
the song goes through all these sections again,
until we get back to the guitar solo, which
they start to play before interrupting it
and going back to Bb, ending on these three
chords, which are the same IV-IVmi-I progression
we saw before, but this time in the chorus's
key.
and that's pretty much it.
well, it's the chords anyway: there's a lot
more to say about the arrangement, the melody,
and, of course, the lyrics, but that's at
least a taste of what's going on under the
hood in this song.
it's a fascinatingly complex piece, and if
you haven't heard it in a while it's well
worth another listen.
so rest in peace, Ziggy Stardust.
you were truly one of a kind.
anyway, thanks for watching, and thanks to
Patreon patron Kevin Mullan for suggesting
this song! if you'd like to see your favorite
song analyzed, just head on over to Patreon
and pledge at any level.
you can also check out our store, join our
mailing list, like, share, comment, subscribe,
and keep on rockin'.
