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Help me understand "Tainted Love"

mrbell321

mrbell321

Mar 26, 2012
844
117
N. Colorado
#1
So, my band is covering Imelda May's version of Tainted Love. The verse is in A-minor. The progression is A-min, C, F, C and D-min. In roman numerals that's i-III-VI-III-iv. Pretty straight forward.
However, the verse then switches to using A maj. So, maybe a key change? But it keeps the C, F and D-min. If the key changed to A-maj, then diatonically, the C should become C#-min, the F -> F-min, the D-min -> D.

So can anyone help me understand why this works?

Also, it's possible we haven't quite worked this out correctly, but this agrees with a lot of what we've found online.
 
#2
I pulled up this on the song; Invalid Link Removed

First it really does not fit chord for chord in either Am or A. The verse starts with Am, but ends on A. The key of C is close but again not exact. I think this is a case of songwriter choice.

Since this is the sheet music the band will be using, follow the chords and smile a lot.

Of course IMO.
 
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#3
Essentially, theory is an established set or rules that predict what works and will sound good. These rules are bent and broken often by composers and songwriters. In the "Tainted Love" tune, the appearance of the A major chord doesn't have to dictate that the following chords will be diatonic to the aforementioned A major. It's simply an artistic choice or a color change that adds a desired emotional effect - a deviation from standard diatonic harmony, but still listenable.

In common practice theory, the A major that momentarily replaces the A minor is a borrowed chord, so it is actually accounted for in music theory but it's deeper level material that might not appear on websites that only cover basic stuff. The Beatles did this as well in "She Loves You", where a a diatonic IV chord, which is supposed to be major, is replaced by a minor chord.

There may be a 15 page argument about the theory behind this, and 20 guys will answer this the same way I did. Look up borrowed chords and try to ignore the charts, graphs, bolded text, and walls of type to surely follow. :D
 
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#4
Malcom, that link you provided... Why do you say it's A major? It seems primarily A minor to me? As 20db said, the A major seems to be the borrowed chord.
I guess what's kind of throwing me is that the tonic chord is the one being substituted.

To me, the A major doesn't add much if anything to the song. So I kind of want to play it w/o that.
 
#5
mrbell321 said:
Malcom, that link you provided... Why do you say it's A major? It seems primarily A minor to me? As 20db said, the A major seems to be the borrowed chord.
I guess what's kind of throwing me is that the tonic chord is the one being substituted.

To me, the A major doesn't add much if anything to the song. So I kind of want to play it w/o that.
Click to expand...

I'd put "Tainted" in A minor since the melody is mostly in A minor. Don't leave the A major out. It adds a flavor to the song that was meant to be there, intended by the songwriter. There's also a momentary major 3rd in the melody that happens along with the A major that won't work well if played against the A minor. I know this because I listened to the music and didn't consult a chord sheet.

There's a toggle between parallel minor and major chords in Seal's "Prayer for the Dying", and ignoring that ruins the chorus, IMO. It's easy to think that the rules of theory have to be followed lockstep in order for music to sound good, but it isn't the case all the time.

OP, if you have further questions, PM me. I don't do pointless over-analyzation of theory on forum here . It always happens with the same members here - and it's something that people playing regularly in bands never do.
 
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#8
mrbell321 said:
Hmm... there is? I'll have to consult w/ my guitarist on that... BTW, which version of the song are you using? I can hear the bassline best in this one:
Click to expand...


Listen to the C# note she sings on the word "once" when the A major of the chorus arrives. It's the major 3rd of that A chord. No need to consult your guitarist. Please respect those trying to help you.
 
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#11
mrbell321 said:
Malcom, that link you provided... Why do you say it's A major? It seems primarily A minor to me? As 20db said, the A major seems to be the borrowed chord.
I guess what's kind of throwing me is that the tonic chord is the one being substituted.

To me, the A major doesn't add much if anything to the song. So I kind of want to play it w/o that.
Click to expand...
Well, like I said this one does not fit exact in anything. That does not make it wrong; if it sounds good it's good. As the band will be using this piece of sheet music play it as written and chalk it up as songwriter's choice.
 
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#12
mrbell321 said:
Hmm... there is? I'll have to consult w/ my guitarist on that... BTW, which version of the song are you using? I can hear the bassline best in this one:



oh?
Click to expand...


Technically I guess there are........but I just think of keys in A as A, A sharp, and A flat. This would, for me, still determine the key regardless of whether there are A-major or A-minor chords in the work.
 
#13
ZenG said:
Technically I guess there are........but I just think of keys in A as A, A sharp, and A flat. This would, for me, still determine the key regardless of whether there are A-major or A-minor chords in the work.
Click to expand...

Except the chords in A major are different than the chords in A minor. In fact, using original my question for example, the 3rd chord in the key of A minor is C major, but in the key of A major, it's C#-minor. So the key is fairly important there, if you are interested in analysing it in this way. If you only cared about the chords on their own not as they relate to each other, and you didn't want to outline the specific tonality(ie stick to roots, fifths and octaves), it's probably not important.

In this case, as I understand it now, the key is A minor throughout, but it borrows the A-major chord.
 
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#14
ZenG said:
Technically I guess there are........but I just think of keys in A as A, A sharp, and A flat. This would, for me, still determine the key regardless of whether there are A-major or A-minor chords in the work.
Click to expand...

"In music a key is the major or minor scale around which a piece of music revolves. A song in a major key is based on a major scale. A song in a minor key is based on a minor scale."
"In music theory, the key of a piece is the tonic note and chord which gives a subjective sense of arrival and rest."

In our example - it's A-minor - no sharps or flats (with some accidentals).
 
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#15
Analyzing some popular music is like analyzing Wagner: it'll blow your mind if you try to fit it all neatly in a theory box. Recently I was playing a newer Devo song called "Fresh", and the guitar riff goes E-G#, B-D, G-B, A-C#. The simplest way I could describe this is it's in E major, with the B-D part of the riff continuing the E maj chord to the 7th (even though the bass is playing a B) and G-B is a borrowed chord from E minor. There's other ways to analyze it, but the important thing is it sounds really cool.
 
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#16
MonetBass said:
Analyzing some popular music is like analyzing Wagner: it'll blow your mind if you try to fit it all neatly in a theory box. Recently I was playing a newer Devo song called "Fresh", and the guitar riff goes E-G#, B-D, G-B, A-C#. The simplest way I could describe this is it's in E major, with the B-D part of the riff continuing the E maj chord to the 7th (even though the bass is playing a B) and G-B is a borrowed chord from E minor. There's other ways to analyze it, but the important thing is it sounds really cool.
Click to expand...

A borrowed chord (also called mode mixture and modal interchange) is a chord borrowed from the parallel key (minor or major scale with the same tonic).

Anyway, Febs is very good at that kind of questions.
 
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#18
20db pad said:
the appearance of the A major chord doesn't have to dictate that the following chords will be diatonic to the aforementioned A major. It's simply an artistic choice or a color change that adds a desired emotional effect - a deviation from standard diatonic harmony, but still listenable.
Click to expand...
-this

mrbell321 said:
To me, the A major doesn't add much if anything to the song. So I kind of want to play it w/o that
Click to expand...
-
yes it does-
it gives release from the previous minor cadence. it also supports that aforementioned major 3rd melody note.
 
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#19
Am is the complimentary minor of C, so you can use the same chord notation for Am and C, so Am - C - F - C - Dm would be VIm - I - IV - I - IIm and A - C - F - C - Dm would be VI - I - IV - I - IIm, so it's not really a key change, just using the VI instead of the VIm
 
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