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I play cowbell
mother yes I shocked radio head fans I
was not expecting this when I said this
was one of my favorite songs on Okay
computer well I guess it is a weird
choice to say it's one of my favorites
because it's a lot more straightforward
as a as a song it has cowbell I just
want to warn you that my cats are trying
to hunt and demolish a fly that's in my
bedroom right now so there may be some
Antics but it's okay I know you come for
the music theory and stay for the cats
it's fine anyway I happen to think that
this song is really beautiful it's just
packaged in a cowbell Laden playful kind
of rock
song outfit you might like it better if
it
were I don't
know I will
stop I will stop nothing
I know a lot of you like synth
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wve on
your I go
forward you go
backwards
somewhere we will
live this song other than having cowbell
did I mention it has cowbell uh I think
it has kind of a psychedelic Vibe
there's some reversed guitar samples and
stuff that come through um especially at
the
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beginning I can't wait to talk about
um so you get this like power chord this
just D power chord sounds like to me and
then you get this who which
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is and it resolves trone
sound very bluesy and then also very
bluesy
goes
again
then so you got this flat seven you got
the flat five
it's kind of creepy almost um and then
the Reversed sound the shaky tambourine
you have no idea what's about to happen
it could be climbing up the walls but
it's not so the main riff that one of
the Rhythm guitarists is playing is it
Tom might be might be Ed I'm not sure is
this really clangy tone he's like
playing kind of a clustered chord but
you can hear sort of like a melody that
is sort of sitting on top of it which is
okay so that's kind of what we're
dealing
with okay Johnny comes in he's doing
kind of that lead um very expressive and
bendy kind of almost yelping I think
guitar tone and that's a very important
thing because I tried and I will play it
for you um on the piano and it sounds
pretty lame without being able to bend
and Yelp which a piano is not super good
at but he just picks out the top
notes and then he goes
down so syncopated all on those offbeats
D D D D D D du oh and by the way this
swings so you could say it's four4 that
swings or if you really wanted to I
think you could say it's
128 yes
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there's a trone in it and it makes it
sound super funky now um if you know
music theory then you might have already
figured out that this song has a Dorian
sound and on piano that's super
convenient all white keys
um so what's happening is he's got this
little uh Trill sounds amazing on a
guitar doesn't S bad on piano
honestly and then there's this note this
is the special Dorian note um Dorian is
just like a minor scale but it has this
six note that's a little higher and it's
a major interval that it creates with
the bottom of the scale so it's got this
um kind of curious open almost like
warmer sound but what's cool is that
when you go from that note to the minor
third in the scale which is this one
then you create this trone
interval you don't have this in in a
minor
scale sorry you have it
there but in Dorian it's like that so
that's kind of cool um I think it just
sounds really playful doing that
also listen there's no bass at
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first so there are drums um that come in
before the base comes in and Phil is got
this great
um and he's got the tambourine hitting
at the same time as the snare which I
feel like is kind of a retro move I feel
like that was in a lot of music in the '
50s genre I can't tell you I'm really
bad with genres anyway I don't know a
lot about 50s music but that's what I'm
hearing um and then of course the
cowbell which is on every um eighth
note beat it's on every beat yeah wow
they really like that cowbell and then
halfway through the phrase the bass
comes in and um I've watched a live
performance to get a little bit more
Clarity on the Basse cuz you know
baselines can be hard to figure out yes
I should just use a stem
splitter no I haven't done that yet I'm
guessing forgive me um but you know it
can get buried and some of the details
you know his baselines
are I don't know they move a lot he's
got a lot of nice uh stepwise motion
which is definitely been a trend I've
noticed an okay computer probably
extends to other albums as well but it's
for sure in this one and he kind of has
what I think you can correct me if
you're a basist I think it goes
like approximately but there's some nice
little action and listen to how great it
is when it comes
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in and he does something I can't quite
figure out but like
as sort of a pickup right before he
lands on that
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D it could just
be maybe maybe it's that I
don't
I I maybe it's that
nasty okay so so you can hear here you
can hear when it changes chords for the
first time to a c
chord that uh he kind of abandons this
rolling kind of playful riff and he just
hits c c c c but then he does his
famous he does kind of does a stepwise
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thing and then he goes up to the a what
it changes to the a chord
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and he definitely does
like but it's it's just fun and it's
cool I love the way he sort of connects
um chords with these stepwise walk ups
and walk downs and it just gives
everything a little bit more of a
buoyant sound it's already quite buoyant
but he helps it out now let's look at
Tom's Melody for this so um I will stop
uh what I like about this is that he has
a lyric it's only for the first time but
I will stop I will stop at nothing and
the fragment I will stop the notes that
he's singing he sings them exactly the
same way for the second I will stop so
there's just this nice like uh it's like
he didn't complete his sentence the
first time then he tried again and he
finally got it out so I will stop I will
stop at nothing he just added on that at
nothing I think that's just cool um and
then he kind of follows the
chords I will stop I will stop
he defines this as a major chord with
his
voice
nothing meanwhile you can hear a rhythm
guitarist giving us some nice
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like there's a lot of emphasis on those
beats with the cowbell the guitar and
the bass dum dum dum which leaves all
this great room for syncopation with the
and his Melody say the right thing I
love that note it's tense
right
eling and then I trust I can rely on I
love this line it's all very syncopated
I think these
are 16th note offbeats I'm pretty sure I
trust that can that's just so fun
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um I love that because he could have
just gone just can rely I can't do it
wrong just I can rely on like really hit
the chord but he kind of goes above it R
on so he has somewhere to rest and then
your vote and that sounds very bluy to
me
V and then we get to the chorus
which is just so freaking pretty to me
he um Tom is singing starting in his
faletto on the 7th which is kind of this
strange place to start a Melody at least
the way the direction that he goes with
it I really like it um
I I used to sing it I jump forwards when
I was like younger and I can't get that
out of my head I go
forwards I so
forward listen to this on the piano
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right this is just an unusual path to
take melodically most people wouldn't
come up with this I
go both both of these notes are sort of
uh kind of sound like in between notes
they don't sound notes like notes of
station in the chord which I
love and
then what I love about this is that he
ends it on another tense note so that
all of these notes create some
tension
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um and then um when he finally lands in
a place of rest which is this note
somewhere we will meet and it feels very
definitive right then the chord changes
to a and then the note he's singing
actually creates a little bit of
instability in that chord so there's
just never any actual somewhere we will
meet it's like always a little off
somewhere we will meet
the chord
is now if we Addle those notes together
there's the fly where are my
cats now while Tom moves and he's moving
on the beat which is very different from
I will stop you know um now
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he's well actually these are on the
halftime beat some guitarist might be
Johnny is moving at the same time his
whole line it took me a second to figure
out because he starts up here and he
goes It
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goes and he doesn't just go du du du du
along with Tom he's going da da da
da very playful like
ready you go
back
way I your
for you
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I'm not 100% sure I got that right
honestly but um that's the gist of
what's going on is that he's going all
the way down here he's coming all the
way back up and he kind of follows a
pattern on the way down that's sort of
uh feels a little bit pentatonic he
keeps skipping the sixth note which is
that special Dorian note um right
here he skipped it it's the
B not pentatonic here but
still skipping that b
until right there he finally hits it and
it does sound exciting it's really great
and then it ends up
here which is great because you've got
this chord and you got Tom singing this
11 and
going
pretty agree with me
and this one
goes oh yeah I already played that one
for you that's the ice cream truck then
um also I really like Phil's Phils I
always like Phil's Phils honestly but
he's got
this and then sometimes there's this big
crash or emphasis on the second beat I
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think there it
is one two
listen to Johnny's
chromatic that's fun all right now we're
on to the second uh
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part Baseline now it's
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going that's
different it's great these little
touches we perceive them but we may not
be conscious of them I've never heard
that before
oh
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yeah it's just
[Applause]
Christmas TR
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can't I don't know what is creating that
effect in the background I'm assuming
it's a guitar but it just it sounds kind
of like a like a ghostly synth from the
70s or something
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I go
forward you go
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backwards now Johnny's uh kind of going
down and up situation is a little
different this time on the way up he's
literally up it's on the left which is
thought really
interesting and then the song kind of
falls apart for a moment
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feel like we're about
to
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baruda now why does that sound kind of
Eastern to my ears like
um so weing the key D so it
goes
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g and then I hear it
flat
six and
then if I had to give this chords we'd
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have uh also it's the tremolo
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this just sounds like like a 70s
psychedelic Jam to me it's great so
Johnny goes up
here he starts out all
Dorian I love that like going down going
up a bit coming back down nice pattern
then he kind of settles on
this nasty note the
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trone I think that's what he's doing and
it's kind of this like spasmodic
like um it does feel like it's in time
maybe in some sort of poly rythm but
it's cool
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the solo uh this part oh my God wish you
could see my kitties
hunting again this this emphasis that
was on beat 2 before the they're doing
it again they have all of these on the
Off beats D D D D D D D do if you're
thinking of this as the tempo which I do
the twos and the fours so
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and then you get a Harmony in parallel
thirds above it which is so
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great and then it just kind of all
explodes into do this triumphant kind of
D minor chord
just it's just you
know D Minor D Minor D Minor D Minor yay
the end right there's nothing that makes
you feel more like the end of a song
then hitting What's called the tonic
chord or the home chord this case it's D
minor and it's really exciting to hit
that on the beat too every
time yes it does have
cowbell it does and I and tambourine I
agree it doesn't have the same Vibe
maybe as the rest of the songs on Okay
computer which I just had never really
considered so I respect those of you
that are not into the song um I just
hope that now you can agree with me that
it's real pretty that's the end of this
video thank you so much for watching if
you like to do the things and I've got a
patreon which is my main support as well
as teaching private lessons so feel free
to reach out if you're interested in
either of those I don't do sponsorships
but I do have to do this part I guess I
don't have to but it feels like I have
to I hope to see you at some listening
party soon we're listening to songs from
every year so that's happening on
Sundays next up is climbing up the
walls which is for sure in my top three
I don't know what it is about that song
we're going to find out but I love it
it's one of those songs where if
someone's like I don't like it I'd be
like but
I don't
understand oh my chewy order has arrived
not sponsored okay
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