In My Life

My daughter is getting deep into the Beatles, so I’m listening to them a lot with her. I don’t usually listen to the Beatles all that much, because I know their songs backwards and forwards and inside out. But it’s always nice to come back to the songs in a new context, and it’s rare to listen through them closely and repeatedly with someone who has never heard any of them before. One of the ones that piqued the kid’s interest was “In My Life.” When I was a teenager, I loved that tune without really knowing why. Now I have the tools to find out. So let’s find out!

The song sounds so innocent and conventional, but is actually pretty strange! Here’s my chart. I included a version of George Martin’s piano solo that’s slightly simplified so it’s playable on guitar.

Let’s get the piano solo out of the way first. It’s more interesting sonically than music-theoretically. The timbre is bright and strange because of some creative studio trickery. When George Martin went to record the solo, they slowed the tape down by half, which dropped the pitch an octave. Then when they sped the tape back up, the piano part came out twice as fast and an octave higher. The harmonics are closer together than your ear is expecting, which is why it sounds so weird.

So that’s cool. But the real interest for me is the rest of the tune, both because it has some peculiar chords, and because the melody’s relationship to those chords is even more peculiar. The song begins with A and E chords, the I and V chords in A major, nothing too interesting. The first phrase in the verse moves through A, E, F#m and A7. The voice leading from the F-sharp in the F#m chord to the G in the A7 chord is an interesting wrinkle, but it’s well within the bounds of conventional Western tonality. Then A7 resolves to D, followed by Dm, and then back home to A. This IV to iv movement has been nicknamed the “Beatles cadence”, even though it isn’t a cadence and plenty of people other than the Beatles have used it. The main thing you’re hearing in the voice leading is the F-sharp in the D chord stepping down to the F in the Dm chord, and then down to the E in the A chord. It’s so wistful!

The chorus starts on F#m, the relative minor to A major, which is no big shock. The next chord is D, and that root movement down a major third has some nice drama to it. This is followed by a G chord, which is a surprise. If we think of the main key as still being A major, then G is the bVII chord from A Mixolydian. But if we’re thinking of the local key of F-sharp minor, then G is the bII chord from F-sharp Phrygian, a much darker sound. Not only that, but John Lennon sings an F natural on this G chord, implying G7, which is an even darker sound.

The second phrase in the chorus starts the same way as the first, on F#m. But then instead of going to D, it goes to B7. Like the G7 in the first phrase, B7 is a move outside the key of A major/F-sharp minor. However, while G7 is a move in a darker direction, B7 moves in a brighter direction. In a normal song, B7 would act as the V7 chord in E major. It would resolve to E7, which would in turn resolve back home to A. But no! John Lennon resolves B7 to Dm. There is no functional relationship between these chords. You could justify it as a voice-leading thing. The F-sharp and D-sharp in the B7 chord descend chromatically to the F and D in the Dm chord, which then descend chromatically to the E and C-sharp in the A chord. But voice leading is hard on guitar, and the movement feels pretty jagged in the song. It’s not out of the blue, though; it calls back to the Dm in the verse. John Lennon was not the first person to use this progression; it also appears in music by Vassily Kalinnikov and Willie Nelson. I have previously described it as the saddest chord progression ever.

So those are the chords. Now check out how the melody relates to them. On the very first downbeat of the first verse, the word “places” begins on the note B. It resolves down to A on the second beat, but that is still a pretty surprising note choice right out of the gate. The first beat of the second measure, the word “remember”, uses a strange note too: it’s an E, the seventh of F#m. That’s a chord tone, but it’s not part of the basic triad, and you don’t typically hit a seventh that prominently in a rock melody. The third measure has even wilder melody notes. The line “all my li-i-i-ife” is on the notes B and C-sharp. Those are the sixth and major seventh of the underlying D chord, which puts us into some serious jazz territory.

In the chorus, Lennon uses the same two notes, B and C-sharp, on the D chord in the word “moments.” In the verse, he moves past B and C-sharp to land on the more stable A. However, in the chorus, B is the target note, the conclusive one. Duke Ellington would emphasize the sixth of a chord in a melody like that, but you don’t ever hear it happen in rock. Over the line “in my-y-y-y life”, Lennon sings C natural. This does two nice things: it highlights the flat seventh of Dm, accentuating its minor-ness, and it also references the flatted third of the blues.

The note choices in the piano solo are more conventional, with one exception. George Martin plays prominent B naturals on each of the Dm chords, implying either Dm6 or Bø7. Either way, it’s a rich and colorful sound, and another thing you don’t tend to hear in rock songs.

This is classic Beatles: the lyrics are dopey and don’t bear much scrutiny, but the melody is rock solid, and the harmony is rich and satisfying. I also want to point out Ringo’s drum pattern. He doesn’t just keep time, he does a whole miniature percussion orchestration. In the chorus, on the line “All these places have their moments”, Ringo dings out a distinctive pattern on the bell of his ride cymbal. Someone had the good sense to double those dings with a tambourine, accentuating their chime-y brightness. Teenage me did not pick up on that kind of detail, but teenage me definitely picked up on the general freshness and creativity of the track.