Song Structure, Squeeze: Up the Junction

Bellycaster

As part of being off work and in the house most of the time with the CoVid -19 Situation, I told myself I was going to get to grips with understanding more Theory, particularly, being able to explain song structures. Some songs sound so simple, but are actually "Theoretically" brilliant.

I'm going to attempt to put forward my explanation using my level of knowledge and then if I have made an error or have a question of a part I am uncertain of, then, someone with more knowledge can put me right.

Today's Song

Squeeze - Up the Junction

Intro in E Major

Verses 1, 2 and 3 in E Major

Bridge (First 4 Bars) in C#Minor..................Relative Key Modulation from E Major?

Question:

In the first half of the Bridge there is a B Minor Chord at the Lyric "Tenner"! In C# Minor the B Chord is B Maj. So, is this what is known as a Chord Substitution?


Bridge (Last 4 Bars) in D Minor...................A Modulation up one half step to function as the link into the A Maj Chord at the end of the Bridge?

The Organ Fill after the Bridge that links the A Maj Chord to the D Maj Chord: "A" Mixolydian? passage leading to a Key Change to D major.

Verse 4 in D Major

Questions:

Re the 3 Chord movement back to E Major, that being D,A,E

1. Does this kind of thing have a "name" in Theory terms?

2. As the E Chord in D Major is E Minor, am I assuming correctly that the reason it can sound right going back to E Major is because the A Major is also a Subdominant Chord in E Major as well as being the Dominant Chord in D Major?

Verses 5 and 6 in E major.

Thanks, any discussion or corrections greatly appreciated.

Kebabkid

The key change is clever.

I played in a Squeeze tribute for a short while and whilst the music is heavenly, the parts were a joy to play and as a nice challenge, try the solo from 'Another Nail in my Heart' - it's wonderfully constructed and Glenn Tilbrook was no slouch on guitar.

Jalapeno

re: (2) A lot of songs will substitute a Major for a Minor in terms of the harmonic scale (and vice versa) - your ear hears the Root of the chord rather than the b3 vs Maj3 variation - it isn't strictly a key change though you can address it as one (or not). Pretty much depends on what happens next in context - these are more frequently off-beats so can be thought of as a passing note/chord if they really aren't a key change. 

Music theory isn't my forte, so this may be complete cobblers, but it fits my autodidactic experience to date

Bellycaster

Kebabkid said:

The key change is clever.

I played in a Squeeze tribute for a short while and whilst the music is heavenly, the parts were a joy to play and as a nice challenge, try the solo from 'Another Nail in my Heart' - it's wonderfully constructed and Glenn Tilbrook was no slouch on guitar.

Aye, Cos, that's a great solo and a great band. I'll get round to trying that one.

This song is very clever, more than one change of direction and 2 or 3 steps to get back home to the original Key of E.

guitars4you

Is this one of the few songs that doesn't mention the name of the song until the very end ?

KKJale

guitars4you said:

Is this one of the few songs that doesn't mention the name of the song until the very end ?

Yes! Virginia Plain is another, there must be more.