This week Tony and I discussed the flat 2 aka the minor second— that is, the second note of a diatonic scale that has been lowered by a half step (a semitone for British listeners). It is often used to add harmonic colour and emotional interest to a piece of music. Widespread use of flattened 2nds began in the 17th century, but this week we explored flat 2s from Motown, Metal, and Modern Pop. It’s rare in pop music, but when we do hear it, it’s used with intention, and often for disquieting effect!
From Motown to the Messiah
He Was Really Saying Something by The Velvelettes was written by Norman Whitfield, William “Mickey” Stevenson, and Edward Holland, Jr. in 1964. The song is notable for both the Velvelettes’ 1964 version and the later Bananarama cover (1982). The Velvelettes were founded by Bertha Barbee-McNeal & Mildred Gill Arbor, students at Western Michigan University. He Was Really Saying Something peaked at no. 64 on the Billboard Hot 100, and no. 21 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. It’s based on a Motown-standard two-chord vamp in the verse. The ‘arresting’ flat 2 comes in the the pre-chorus, when the chords move up to Eb chord (“With his collar unbuttoned”) before lingering on the Db – “By my side he was struttin'”). To really make the point of the intentionality, they linger on the Db for one extra bar, making a style-atypical 3-bar pre-chorus. I think this is a really creative use of the semitone chordal transition (Db to C); for me, it represents the protagonist’s slight apprehension in what is otherwise a simple girl-meets-boy story.
Heaven On Their Minds is the opening song in Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s 1971 musical Jesus Christ Superstar. The musical, loosely based on the Gospel’s account of the Passion of Christ, opens with Judas worrying over the disciples’ out-of-control behaviour, and the looming threat of persecution by the Romans. His political paranoia is underscored by a dark and moody guitar riff, which owes its character to the use of a flat 2.
Excerpt from Heaven on Their Minds (© 1970 Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice; rights administered by Universal Music Corp.; published by Hal Leonard; licensed via Sheet Music Direct). Used under fair use for scholarly commentary.
This is London Calling
The Clash released London Calling in 1979, as the lead single to their eponymous third studio album. London Calling was released as the only single from the album, and became the band’s highest charting single until Should I Stay Or Should I Go went to no. 1 ten years later. The song is an apocalyptic and politically-charged rant, and is named after the BBC World Service’s station identification: “This is London calling …”, that was used during World War II, often in broadcasts to occupied countries. Musically, much of the song is defined by guitar stabs that fluctuate between the tonic chord – E minor – and the major flat 2 – F major.
Björk‘s 1995 single Army of Me, from her second studio album Post, is dominated by a heavy bassline in C Locrian (the seveth mode of the major scale, which features a flattened 2nd). Army of Me is inspired by the damaging behavior of Björk’s brother; the lyrics tell him to stand up and regain control of his life, otherwise he will face an “Army of [Björk]”. It was her first single to enter the top 10 of UK Singles Chart, and the music video features Björk driving an enormous vehicle through a city, fighting a gorilla dentist to get back a diamond he took from her mouth, and bombing a museum with dynamite to free a boy. The song also samples its drums from Led Zeppelin’s When The Levee Breaks (1971).
Unholy For You
Unholy (2022) by Sam Smith and Kim Petras is in F♯ minor, and makes use of the C♯ Phrygian Dominant scale. The song is a sexually-charged electropop romp, taking influence from dance-pop as well as synth-pop with both choral and hyperpop influences. The song won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, which
made Petras the first openly transgender artist to win a major-category Grammy Award. Unholy also topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks and the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, making Smith and Petras the first openly non-binary and openly transgender solo artists, respectively, to have a number-one song on Billboard.
Ariana Grande released Imperfect For You in 2024 on her seventh studio album Eternal Sunshine. The song was written and produced by Grande, Max Martin, Shintaro Yasuda, Davidior, and Ilya, and describes two people who are in love, despite their imperfections. These “imperfections” are highlighted musically by the introduction of a triad built from a flat 2 chord (F major in the key of E major). Grande herself said of the song: “I think sonically it’s my favorite. It’s very different for me, it’s very like trippy, Rubber Soul vibes and that is kind of my favorite music to listen to and I don’t think I have ever really explored it for myself, but it just felt really fun to lean into it and make something like super trippy and 60s, organic feeling.”
Bob Marley and the Bananas
Our soundslike this week involved Bob Marley and The Wailers, and the theme tune to the TV show The Banana Splits; Buffalo Soldier and The Tra-La-La Song share a very similar melody. The bridge in Buffalo Soldier is rumored to be inspired by the chorus from The Tra-La-La Song, written by Mark Barkan and Ritchie Adams. There is, however, no proof of this. A 2008 story by the BBC seems to cast doubts on this origin story, while acknowledging that the two riffs are extremely similar and that Marley could very well have heard the tune, as could his producer…
Flat 2 Quiz
For our quiz this week, we played choruses from famous songs featuring flat 2s—guess the artist and song!
As always, find the show and blog at joebennett.net/5live, with occasional Instagram extras at @joebennettmusicology. With a new show comes a new Spotify mega-playlist, which contains all songs featured on the show:
And you can still listen to our old mega-playlist here.
- Words: Joe Bennett, John Pierce O’Reilly
- Audio production: Joe Bennett, Rafi Waters
Recent Comments