RE: Fwd: RE: [Harp-L] MISS YOU--what key?

["Jimbeau Harp" <jimbeauharp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: "Winslow Yerxa" <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>
>
> Listening to the chords on a clip of the Stones' version, I hear the
> main riff being sung over an A minor chord, landing (then vamping) on
> D minor, which has a feeling of finality and rest.
>
> This tells me that the tune is in D minor, despite everyone saying
> it's in A.

Winslow,

I can understand why you might come to this conclusion, but I gotta 
disagree, especially with your contention that the D minor chord has a 
feeling of finality.

When I play guitar on this song, after vamping on it for a long time, I feel 
that if you tried to end the song on the D minor, it was not have a feeling 
of finality. That would only come from the Am.

Ask a guitarist friend to try the following: after vamping on the main riff, 
have the guitarist play a shortened version of the riff  by playing G - A - 
D - C - A - G  - A, cutting the last note short, and then playing an ending 
crescendo chord using Am one time and Dm another time. (This, in fact, is 
how my band and I end the song since the original version on Some Girls 
fades out at the end).

Tell me which sounds final to you then, the Am or the Dm?

Also, in the bridge section, the chords are

F - Em - Dm
F - Em - Dm
Em

Note the Em, which here is acting as a V chord to resolve back to the root I 
chord of Am.

> Sugar Blue himself claims that he plays the song in second position.

I haven't heard the extended version in a long time. But Sugar Blues also 
does a version of Miss You on his Blue Blazes CD, again with a fade-out 
ending so no "resolution" of the question you raise here. But again looking 
at all the chords used in the song and their functions, we'd have:

                Am   Dm  Em  F
Key of Am    I      IV    V   vi
Key of Dm   V       I     ii    iii

While the song is very modal in feeling, nevertheless, harmonically the 
chords function more traditionally in the key of Am than Dm, esp. the V - I 
movement I mentioned before.

Finally if Suger Blues says he plays the song in 2nd position, and we all 
seem to agree that he's using a D harp, then I'm inclinded to go along with 
the man who made the song what it is. If it walks like a duck, and quacks 
like a duck, then it's a duck. (smile)

So, over here in NJ, my band and I will continue to play the song as if it's 
in Am, because it works for us. And we've played this song in many different 
types of venues, from high-end clubs to biker bars, and it always goes over 
great.

Good talkin' to ya.

Jimbeau

_________________________________________________________________
Check out Election 2004 for up-to-date election news, plus voter tools and 
more! http://special.msn.com/msn/election2004.armx