Absolutely the Bbsus2 in 'Sometimes It Snows In April'..! You know, when he sings 'sometimes I WISH..' My God, why ruin such a beautiful song..?? He probably wanted a certain complexity, but that chord in that key just sounds so ugly...

Gomp said:

it was Wendy's idea
trust me
it added color, didn't it?

I started to notice a trend around New Power Soul time of him singing in a really 'out-of-tune' falsetto that sounded so off key to me that I was sure it must have been a mistake.....but he's continued that trend until today.

What happened to his crisp falsetto?

Let me see if I can think of an example...When Eye Lay My Hands On You, Eye Love U But I Dont Trust You,

Dont get me wrong - it still works but something about that style is 'difficult; to listen to.

Perfect Chord, Perfect Change, Perfect Song.

machinegun said:

I really like the song too. I just %$#!%-ing hate that chord dude...

It stands out the first time you hear it, but after a while it just becomes part of the song - doesn't bother me at all now. And in theory, modulating: Amaj | Bbmaj7 | Bmin7 | E7 | F#min7 | B7 | Emaj || makes perfect sense...

toejam said:

Ok, I love that chord change!

And you've got it all wrong. It's just straight major chords, no "maj7". You may want to add a 9th, but not a maj7, it doesn't sound good and it isn't the way Prince plays it. This it how it goes:

Aadd9-Bbadd9-Badd9-Badd9
F#-F#-B-B
E-----

Gomp said:

I totally agree I always found this most a bizarre and unflattering change of direction for what in theory should be a great song!

AWJ

The fuck are you people talking about?


smart people. shit.

How could anyone not love that chord at that time?


And purpledoveuk, I'm not sure you're confusing off-key singing and a little raspy sound his voice has now and then?

I see both sides of that chord change: It's done for effect, but I don't always think it works.

I know, this is a musician's thread, I'm jealous.

purpledoveuk said:

Yeah i know what you mean. Another example is the chorus of "Shoo-Bed-Ooh" Sounds strange.

i think that's the greatness of Prince sometimes that he uses chords that go polar opposite of the key of the song.

i'm glad he kept it.

Milty said:

Yeah me too, it really has a certain charm to it.

the best part of the song. period.

Well, to each his own.

I talked about this chord on another post a few months back. I actually love the heck out of it.

FunkJam: I happen to think the chorus of "Shoo-Bed-Ooh" sounds really neat! It's not really in any key at all, kind of F minor-ish.

CaptainJack: Actually, the version that I have (from "One Nite Alone...Live!") DOES have some maj7 and maj9 chords with extensions. I mean, if the first chord in the chorus is A, and he's singing a G# for the first note, how could it not be an Amaj7 or higher chord?

I think that's what makes Prince so unique: he can just put these seemingly strange chord combinations together and make them sound really cool.

Sometimes it's really difficult to point out the key of a song. For example, I dare anyone to try and label "3121" as Bb major or Bb minor. Bass leads you to think one thing, synth and guitar another, and the voices sound like they're right in the middle.

I started a thread last year about what the best Prince songs are in each key, and a lot of discussion came up about this Bb chord in "Sometimes It Snows In April". Yes, it sounds odd when u first listen 2 it, but once u play the song on the piano and realize what the chord progression is (A maj, Bb maj, B maj), it makes perfect sense because all Prince is doing is going straight up the ladder at that point in the song without worrying about if they fit the E major scale or not. Simple, yet genius.

I do want 2 add something though 2 the topic of "odd" chords Prince seems 2 add. At 6:24 into "The Holy River", which is clearly a song in the key of A, Prince suddenly throws a F maj-G maj progression and holds a G maj 4 a few measures before going back 2 E maj (which leads back into A). This throws me off everytime I hear it because it's just out of the A major scale, but again, all Prince is doing is going up a few notes (from E, which is in the scale of A, he goes up 2 F, then G).

Another example of a chord that throws me off is in the chorus of "Another Lonely Christmas" (written in B) when he sings the line "u are the one that makes my love shout". It's another unexpected G major chord with the bassline going up a few notes, just like the F# chord did in the previous line ("all the ones I dream about").

Where do u draw the line between thinking a chord in a Prince song is "bad" and realizing that the man is simply a musical visionary who conventionally uses unconventional chord progressions when he writes? It's all relative.
[Edited 4/8/06 11:46am]

That is a genius chord... I can't believe people can say anything bad about it!

sounded odd at the time when i first heard it (in 86). sounds forced now and out of place (for a block semitone shift in harmony).

i would have thought F#/A# as the passing chord suits better (the F in Bb sounds disonant in a song written in E major and has kept the tonality thoughout). maybe the chord was to hard to fret on that creaky acoustic.

Prince definitely knows his shit. He keeps the chord progressions interesting. Personally, I like it. I think it works with the song. There's very few chord prog choices he makes I don't like. Sometimes the modes he chooses to solo in leave me a little cold.

Perfection in rock is stupid. Sometimes sloppy is genius.

I think that's his JONI Mitchell chord..

The folk tradition lives. We all know that he stole that one from Joni.

the worst chords Prince used are in "I like it there" and "Cinnammon girl". The two most predictable "rockers" he's ever spat out.

Nobody on this thread mentioned the chord progression in "Scandalous"?
I don't know what it is but for a "moment" I coulda swore someone played
the wrong note.

Ice9sFine said:

Ok, you've got a point there, but unfortunately, I don't have "One Nite Alone... Live!," so I haven't listened to that version of the song. Wish I had though. But on the Parade album, he plays straight major chords, no maj7's.

: )

CaptainJack said:

I really want to listen to the version off of Parade to see how it differs.

It's weird: I had ONALive before I had heard original versions of many songs, so even now, I still prefer the live version of "Take Me With U" to the studio version. The same goes for "Strange Relationship" and a couple others.

I do, however, appreciate the original version of "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?" as being distinctly different from the live one, and I love both of them to death.

I've always found "Dreamin' About U" to be harmonically fascinating...sort of a poly-tonal minor blues that's constantly unresolved!

I haven't had time to analyze it, but I think Prince is using his old trick of having a synth background that goes "against" the actual chord changes (you can find it on songs like "It" and "U got the look", for instance).

Another Lonely Xmas...


"You are the only one I CARE for..." Goes kinda warpy, like a stretched cassette tape...