Crazy Chord Changes In Come And Get It

Come and Get It was written by Paul McCartney for the film The Magic Christian. He recorded a demo of the song in one take that was passed on Badfinger to record. Badfinger had previously been known as The Iveys before being signed to The Beatles’ Apple label in January 1968. The name change preceded their release of Come and Get It in December 1969.

Demo Recording

It didn’t take long for McCartney to record Come And Get It. The piano and vocals were laid down in one take, then adding a second vocal overdub and maracas, before finally adding drums and bass guitar. The demo was completed in an hour.

Different Versions

McCartney’s recording had been circulating among collectors for some time, most notably on the 1980s Sessions bootleg. It was finally given an official release in 1996 on Anthology 3

The version released on the recent re-mix of Abbey Road by Giles Martin sees the greatest improvement in sound quality and includes some additional studio banter.

Structure

The song does not have a separate chorus, as such. The refrain of “come and get it” occurs near the beginning of the first verse and then at the end of the second verse.

It could have feasibly been titled If You Want It, as that phrase occurs right at the beginning of each verse and is repeated no fewer than six times, whereas Come And Get It occurs four times.

A song’s title is, of course, down to the discretion of the songwriter. For example, The Bob Dylan song All Around The Watchtower (also recorded by Jimi Hendrix) is often mistakenly called There Must Be Some Way Out of Here.

Song’s Opening

The song begins with strident block chords of Eb major and alternating octaves in the left hand of the piano at the moderate tempo of 90 bpm. At 0:09 there is a pronounced change in texture as the maracas, bass guitar and drums make their entry:

First Eight Bars of Verse

McCartney employs the middle range of his vocal, from G3 to Eb4 to ascend an Eb arpeggio over the first phrase of “If you want it, here it is”. In bar three we hear the chord of Ab major (chord IV) and in the subsequent bar, Bb major from the word “fast”.

The chord progression is repeated for the next four bars. The melody differs slightly on the phrase, “but you better hurry”. The words “but you” are delivered as sixteenth-notes (semiquavers) and “hurry ‘cos it” are eighth-notes (quavers) – this is an example of word-painting – the rapid delivery of melody conveys the idea of hurrying.

Bars Nine to Twelve

Nothing musically spectacular has happened in the first eight bars. The chord progression is that of a straightforward I – IV – V and the melody is mainly based on chord tones with a few passing notes.

The crux of the musical interest is based on bars nine to twelve (from 0:34). On the phrase, “did I hear you say”, McCartney moves to the flattened-sixth chord of Cb major. The Beatles had employed this surprising move in a number of songs, beginning with I Saw Her Standing There in 1963.

In the following section, we need to take a dive into the arcane world of music theory to understand how the section “works”. As a non-reading musician, McCartney probably had little understanding of the theory behind this magical chord progression – but if you want to know more, please read on:

Modulation to Eb minor

A move to Cb major from Eb major can be seen as a borrowing from the parallel minor key of Eb minor which has six flats, so it’s hardly surprising that the move sounds radical. However, it doesn’t sound wrong to our ears, partly because the vocal melody clings to Eb4 for “did i hear you say”.

At bar eleven (0:40) we move a perfect fifth from Cb major to the chord of Fb major. But it makes sense to spell that “theoretical” chord as plain-old E major and to think in terms of sharps rather than double-flats.

How can we understand the chord of Fb major/E major in the context of Eb minor? It is formed from the flattened second degree of the scale and could thus be viewed as Neapolitan chord. The Beatles made use of the Neapolitan chord in Do You Want to Know A Secret. Alternatively, Fb can be viewed as a “flat five” tritone substitution for the dominant chord of Bb major. It does seem to have a dominant function, as it leads to the tonic chord of Eb minor on the word “fool” at 0:42 .

Pivot Chord

The keys of Eb major and Eb minor both share the same dominant of Bb major, so the chord of Bb major is used at 0:44 on the word money to modulate back to the original tonic of Eb major. But we are left hanging in anticipation at this point, by means of a brief tacet.

End of Verse

The verse reassuringly ends in Eb major. The first eight bars of the verse are based on two four-bar phrases that end on an imperfect cadence. That is, they end on chord V (Bb major).

In contrast, the end of the verse sounds more final as the final phrase is based on a V-I perfect cadence:

But at 1:00 McCartney hammers out the chord of Bb major once more (accompanied by strident cymbal eighths/quavers) to lead into verse two.

Verse Two

The most notable difference occurs at the end of the verse, where McCartney exclaims “sonny” at 1:35. “Sonny” is based on an accented passing note of G4, descending to F4 over the chord of Bb major. It is the highest pitch in the song so far and is a striking moment.

Interrupted Cadence

Another point of interest occurs at 1:50. McCartney varies the vocal of “you’d better hurry ‘cos it’s going fast” by ascending up to Gb4 over the chord of Ab7. The words “going fast” are accompanied by the chord of Bb major, so we logically expect to hear the tonic chord of Eb major on the word “fast”. Instead, McCartney uses an unexpected chord/interrupted cadence and lands on the chord of bVI again (Cb major). This sets in motion another modulation to Eb minor.

The final refrain of “going fast” at 2:25 involves another move to Cb major- but reassuringly, the song ends on the original tonic chord of Eb major

Comparision With I Will

It is interesting to note that McCartney uses the same V- bVI interrupted cadence in the final refrain of I Will (1:24) from the White Album (1968):

Badfinger’s Version

Badfinger’s recording of Come And Get It was released on the 5th December 1969. McCartney advised, “it’s got to be exactly like this demo”. However, there are differences – what differences do you note?

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