By our usual metrics, can you think of any “hair metal” songs that are harmonically interesting? I loves me some hair metal, but it seems that things go right from the usual minor or mixolydian (mixolydian possibly being more common than major in hair rock?) (Ratt, Skid Row, Bon Jovi), to stuff you would call “non-chordal”, that borders on prog, like Extreme.

Footnote: once I picked up a pick from Pat Badger, the bassist for Extreme, after an Extreme show. That’s what was left after all the real fans crawled all over each other to get Nuno’s picks.

In any case, Google didn’t help much, but did turn up this article at metalguitarist.org, which I found pretty thoughtful. But it’s more about guitar interpretation than about underlying chord structure, and basically gives examples with a lot of I → bVII.

Ian, I’m sure you know this, because I know you totally give a crap about football… but for ~3 years the “Sunday Night Football” theme has been a cover of “I Hate Myself for Loving You”, with Faith Hill singing about football. Chords the same as the original, just up a half-step. I IV V in the verse (the same cool three-bar phrase as in the original), I IV V I in the chorus.

2012 verse:

[F]                                          
Hey jack it's a fact the show's back in town,
[Bb] 
Cowboys and the Jets slugging pound for pound
    [C]                                         
The stadium's rocking, let's crank up the sound
[no fourth bar in the phrase, like the original, which is cool]

This year Faith Hill was replaced with Carrie Underwood, and for reasons I don’t understand, they changed the chords to always be a four-bar phrase by having her say “yeah” a little extra, then they changed the chords to I IV vi bVII. I’m writing the chords here in F for comparison, although this year it’s in F#.

2013 verse:

[F]                                           
Hey jack it's a fact the show's back in town, 
    [Bb]
the Giants and and the Boys are about to throw down
    [Dm]
The stadium's rocking, time to crank up the sound
[Eb]  [Bb]
Oooh, yea, totally unnecessary fourth bar, yeah-e-yeah

What do these songs have in common? If you go and listen you’ll figure it out right away.

• Garbage – Only Happy When it Rains (starting around 2:55)
• Soundgarden – Black Hole Sun (starting around 2:30 then again around 4:15)
• Rush – Limelight (much of the chorus)

Do you know any other songs that do this?

Ian will quickly identify his favorite chord in Kermit the Frog’s version of “The Rainbow Connection” as the secondary dominant (F#) in the chorus:

[Bm]          [E]          [C#m7]     [F#]
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection
    [Bm]        [E]         [A]
The lovers the dreamers and me

Here’s Kermit rocking the VI:

Kermit the Frog – The Rainbow Connection

Jason Mraz, who re-popularized this song recently, changed the F# to a more predictable F#m, which should make Ian crazy:

Jason Mraz – The Rainbow Connection

Both versions are in A. Note that in the Jason Mraz video they clearly used random cuts of his hands strumming, so his hands don’t line up with the chords. But the chorus is clearly Bm E A F#m in the JM version, Bm E A F# in the Kermit version.

Just listened to some Alabama Song. I can’t think of another song that does i → #vi (Am → F#m). I would think it would sound intolerable, but I actually think it works here, maybe because the instrumentation screams “weird on purpose”:

[Am]          
Show me the way to the next whiskey bar
[F#m]        [D]
Oh don't ask why

Ian, do you have another i → #vi?

I can think of lots of “not very happy” songs that do I → VI, but I’d usually call them both major.

Extra cool that it’s really Am Am F#m D (I like the IV in minor keys, though not especially unusual).

Also is it weird that my first instinct was to call this i → ♭♭vii instead of i → #vi? That’s how disoriented I am by this transition.