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"Help!" - 2 questions about Beatles song

ElectroVibe

ElectroVibe

Inactive
Mar 2, 2013
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5,452
#1
(1) Does this song stay in the same key throughout, or does it change during the chorus?
(2) How does the 16-note descending guitar riff at the end of each chorus fit so well?

This was literally one of the first songs I ever loved. I first heard it when watching the 1965 film on TV in the 1970's. I consider it a pop masterpiece, so it's almost like my ears are not a good judge, objectively. The chorus sounds like it could either be in the same key, or that it possibly adds 3 more additional keys.

The guitar riff has always sounded amazing. But I don't understand how all those notes could possibly fit during what I think is just one chord: A.

Thanks for any information.
 
#2
1. It stays in the same key throughout. The song uses 6 of the 7 available diatonic chords! It also features some borrowed chords, the most recurring being the bVII or G major, which is pretty prominent in the chorus section. We can label as being borrowed from the natural minor scale so it's just a bit of interchange and not a key change. It basically boils down to a ii - bVII - V - I progression!

When it's used in the intro it serves as part of a descending chromatic movement. Which is largely what happens in the chorus as well but the chorus doubles the harmonic rhythm.

2. The riff is all 8th notes. It just's a descending riff more than anything else over a I7 chord, the top part stays the same as it was likely played on open strings and the lower notes descend. Digging into it the riff outlines a lot of chord tones and some extensions of the chord but it's descending and resolves back to the I chord so it's the resolution that makes it sound really nice.

If you want to hyper analyse that line played over it an A7. The notes of the riff are E, G, G B (5, b7, 9) Eb F# G B (b5, 13, b7, 9), D F G B (11, b13, b7, 9) C# E G B (3, 5, 7, 9) and it ends on a A (1).

I'm a huge fan of The Beatles but I seriously doubt any of them were aware of any of this stuff and just went with what sounds good. Ultimately that's how it's done. Then people come along later and label the sounds, analyse what is going on and theorise it all.
 
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#3
Actually, I didn't dispute any of the chords were not in the same key. But I've never heard them in that kind of context before. It made me wonder if they were in a different key for just part of the song.

I can't even picture another song using the G like this one does in the chorus. It doesn't really sound like a flat7 there, to my ears. But the flat7 G is used in the verses.
 
#4
BrotherMister, I listened to it again. I think you may be right about it all being in one key. I get the feeling Lennon wrote this song in an inspiration of that moment in time, musically. I heard him trying to play it on a piano years later and he was struggling to find the right chords.
 
#5
I've always been impressed by that guitar riff. George never played it the same way again in their live clips I've seen. I doubt that the one in the recording was even played more than once, but probably repeated each time from the same take. I read that he had difficulty recording it even once the right way, and so it had to be done as an overdub.

The emotion is also really strong in John Lennon's voice.
 

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