welcome back to my series of me breaking
down my favorite tracks from the Joshua
Tree which is honestly most of them This
Is The Love Ballad it has almost a
different feeling at first than the
other the the tracks that came before it
it's even more minimal in its production
and Bono is singing in a very low
register of his voice but that gives
them the room to basically build up to
this incredible climax which I would say
the other two tracks don't really have
that level of a
like right that kind of energetic Arc
for for the other tracks is a little bit
more like this and then fading
away so tender
[Music]
okay stop it already because um oh and
if you haven't watched my other videos I
know these songs very well I grew up
with this album so this is not my first
lesson um this drum beat is super heavy
on the kicks excuse me but that sounds
like that was the fifth so now I know
where the RO uh tonic of the song is
that's cool it's D
[Music]
again
D and it feels a little bit heartbeat
like even though a heartbeat doesn't do
three in a row that's still I don't know
it just reminds me of that feeling so
already evoking something very like emot
emotionally tender and vulnerable and
Primal like love the track just starts
right there's no fade in here um sounds
to me like maybe a keyboard or some kind
of synth doing a arpegio of a major
chord going
down actually I think maybe it's is it
here so that establishes the key Center
as D major and but if you pay
attention The Edge is putting in these
little weeping guitar
[Music]
I think the guitars actually I don't
know for sure but that's the third sorry
up here maybe it is up here actually I'm
not sure um which is just so it's like
the gooey Heart Center of the
chord and uh there's also some other
little maybe there's little harmonics or
something but there's just all these
little like details that create this
sparse but
very um ornate texture already with this
like bell- likee s
[Music]
Sy oh
good good job buddy you hit the right
note and everything I scared him I'm
sorry sweet boy I'm
sorry
wow then the bass comes in and the base
is once again sort of following the lead
of the kick drum so this is like uh this
really works to have the drums and the
bass so in tune with each other it also
can work really nicely for them to play
off of each other but in this case they
are one they are the Rhythm Section um
and then the bass of course also
establishes in this case the roots of
all of the chords um so
[Music]
um actually I think it's all the way
down here cuz it sounds really
[Music]
rich and then that Gorge so that's got
to be a slide right is that why it
sounds so much like a human voice
just except sounds it sounds an octave
higher honestly
actually
oh ah there's a
synth how God so pretty also sounds like
Angels so I think it's a synth doing
octaves above that guitar all right this
chord progression is the the uh the pop
progression the 1 five 6
4 um
so many great songs written with that
progression so let's look at how this
melody interacts with the chords the
third of this
[Music]
chord not a part of the chord really
it's a
sixth H the fifth of this chord then it
creates this gorgeous I think it's maybe
aeven with this one
yes so there's some tension that needs
to be relieved here and it gets
relieved and then they take it a step
further by resolving it to this chord
too and then it stays
there so it's the fifth of this chord
the root of this
chord the seventh of this chord and my
favorite the ninth of this chord um I
love the upward motion of
it just so pretty stepwise very singable
so
memorable oh I did want to also point
out that you know how talking about how
the edge he will repeat like a riff over
every chord he won't change the Riff at
all to like match the chord he just you
know
there's something so beautiful about
that um whoever's playing the keyboard
here is doing the same thing this
um D major chord is just going over all
of
these and they create chords with the
with the Basse it's like if you just
combine them
all this is D
[Music]
major this is like it's got an
11th and a sixth in
it and then this one is really
pretty minor 7eventh chord and then a n
nine oh no it's actually just a ho on ho
on fullon major 9th chord
7th
9th okay let's keep going eyes see the
Thor twist in your
side I'll
wait for
you the choice to have this melody so
high Twist of fade on a bed of nails she
makes me wait
and I
wait without without
you we fall without
[Music]
you we fall
without
you the
[Music]
claps that might be the most tasteful
clap in all of the80s I know you want
things to happen
[Music]
okay oops oops oops
oops see the
St lot of space before he even comes
[Music]
in push
[Music]
pull what works so well about this chord
progression why maybe it's so popular is
that there's a excuse me there's a lot
of notes in common between the chords in
the progression um this
one um this one shares two notes with
this one which shares two notes with
this one and the only the odd man out is
th this one which is the cadc in chord
that's the one that usually brings you
home in this case they actually don't do
it that way but that's part of why it
works um for songs with that kind of
order like heart
and okay in this case they put it right
at the
[Music]
beginning which makes this move almost
deceptive you think it might go back
[Music]
home but
now that beautiful sixth chord it's
minor so
great so much
[Music]
dissonance I love that it's so different
than which is going up and down you know
stepwise very flowy runs and then and th
wait and he
wait on that note um even though that
note doesn't have any dissonance or
anything it still feels kind of um
emotionally
suspended and
wa I can't sing this next note for in
the range she does for you and I love
that which is very similar D so
D root
fifth root fifth of that chord but
notice how he delays the timing
and I
wait for you it's so
good and on top of that Lee guitar just
singing
[Music]
away we fall without
[Music]
you we fall
[Music]
without I love the four chord so much
that
one just good so still his vocal
delivery is really
restrained lower than he's you know and
later on he's going to sing up an octave
right so this gives him so much runway
to take off from then we get the claps
and then
the
[Music]
snare oh maybe those aren't claps maybe
they're snare
hits well that that's the snare
so what is that actually maybe he's
hitting the two Toms at once or
something I think it's still going on
oh I love that Harmony okay hang
on so now the singing synths and guitars
are harmonizing with each other um
instead of being in
octaves
without
you through the storm we reach the shore
right here you give it all but I want
more
[Music]
so it's a
fifth there's these two parallel fifths
that I really like hang
on oh my
God this I got to figure out what this
is so all of these singing layers except
not Bano but the instrumental layers
that are singing all culminate into a
major chord but the way they sound
against the other chord at at that
moment is exquisite I must
[Music]
know okay so it's just another D major
chord they're all making but it's
against
the this
one that sound now it sounds kind of
lame the way I'm playing it so
okay there if I just play it an octave
lower it already sounds
better o what does that remind me of all
right those layers are with all without
you I can
live with all without you
okay now the drums are really heating
up and you give yourself
away and you give yourself
away and you
give and you
give and you give yourself
away oh sorry so this guitar
um starts uh it goes uh some
[Music]
delay hits the major
third all the way down here and up to
the
G so we get
um I love that so on the a chord this
note in the guitar is like a
seventh creating some tension but see
it's just a whole step lots of whole
[Music]
steps and now this note which was the
third of this chord is now the kind of
Stark fifth of this one and that's the
third of it and
then finally that note fits in with that
chord so beautiful
just how much space or the the range
that that covers is really interesting I
wonder how he came up with something so
big like that it seems as though their
Harmony relies a lot on the power of the
suspended chord and the ad nine and the
ninth chord this makes sense to me I
have always loved this sound or maybe
this is why I love the sound
and you know only in recent years
learned the Francy names for them but
that's what that sound is is the the
interval of the
ninth uh interacting with these chords
in different ways just and and also just
the shapes of suspended chords
like you have this whole step and a
fourth and a
fifth feel like that's a lot there's a
lot those shapes I'm not hearing so far
a whole lot of
trones um certainly no minor ninths or
anything like that um I have heard
seventh and
fourths I guess I've heard
everything but there's no like
diminished chords no augmented chords
um no weird no weird six chords like
like
a nothing like that like the half
very few half steps that's not true I'm
getting
hungry and you yourself
away this whole part is so beautiful you
can feel the rest of the song starting
to heat up you know because the
drums I love those in between um but now
but you and listen it's a ninth but you
k give
yourself but you
give give yourself
away so many of these like Push Pull or
maybe it's pull push I don't
know and you
give that's tense as well give yourself
[Music]
away there's the night I love the way
they do they just recontextualize and
reharmonize The Melodies with different
chords I mean that's not like an
uncommon thing but um You' be surprised
how many times a musician will like
instinctively think that they have to
like change the melody to match the
chords no no no you don't only when it
feels
right another one of those like reverse
like ad nine things you know it's
like like it's resolved and then it
becomes tense to the the
ninth and then they and you give and
stay on the T note and you give now it's
resolved and you give and this listen to
the Rhythm and you give so the give is
anticipating the beat it's before the
beat and and you
give and you give but this time and you
give yourself very intent right finally
just hitting that right on the beat and
[Music]
you and then this big breath it's almost
like a like a aching like the way he
inhales after this and
you and you give yourself
away my hands are tight
the body bruise she got me with nothing
to win
and to
lose and feel the pressure building
again and you give yourself away the
guitars and
you and
you and you give yourself away with or
without he's up an octave and he's not
going back
[Music]
down okay it's about to it's about to go
down but before all right so the kind of
the Arc of this song I feel like has
been you know starts really
small and very slowly it gets a little
bigger and bigger more and more guitar
layers get added then then the drums
start to amp up and then this sort of
give yourself away and he starts singing
higher for one give yourself away and
that starts to build and just when you
think it's going to like actually kind
of fully realize itself they pull it
back a little bit because Bono goes my H
are tired and he starts to sing that low
restrained way again and it's perfect
cuz of the delivery right body
bruised and then you know she got me
with nothing to win and nothing left to
lose and now you feel like it's going to
grow again so there's sort of
this and then give you and then he does
a second time and it's even bigger this
time right just the way he's singing it
um give yourself away right into with or
without you and he's singing it with a
lot more I think it's called a mick or
something instead of the first time he's
like with or without you this time he's
like with or without you it's so much
more resonant and then he changes the
melody to you know with oh without
you um all on those off
beats with all without
you I can live and that beautiful long
note in contrast to all this movement is
so
pure
live all without you and now
[Music]
it feels like the whole song's been
building to this moment now he's not
even singing words he's just it's just
pure emotion here's a great example of a
tasteful time to change the melody a
little bit to match the chord it's
exactly the same up until that last
[Music]
note that note instead
of um and it's also hard harmonized so I
think there's a lower Harmony on
it not exactly sure
but would be a good assumption to
[Music]
make um
but then the third time is in unison I
love that choice um in some ways you
would think it would almost go the other
way you'd have like Unison and then the
last one which is the most intense one
would be in harmony because Harmony
usually makes things feel bigger and
this time it's just this again this like
Focus um of double tracking Bono h
and it's his biggest one yet it's so
pained and desperate and he has that
flip which is so it feels kind of Primal
or something like he's crying
[Music]
out the
base oh my god there was a high hat we
have not really heard high hats but
there is a really tasteful open high hat
hat that kind of is a transition element
into the beginning of the groove
again I love this bridge and this bridge
actually is like leads into the end of
the song which I thought was always
interesting because you don't expect
that you think you're going to get
another chorus or something but I love
this kind of stripped back bridge and
the Bono and his
[Music]
falsetto the Bas
[Music]
just hitting that
D and he's singing with
the this guitar he comes
in so they're kind of like in
[Music]
unison I love that no
[Music]
I think the Bas is actually very
underrated in this
song You Know Nothing Fancy at all just
the roots of the chords just on the
eighth note but the tone of
it so rich and it that low
[Music]
D I always always thought that
the so so now um The Edge starts
improvising a little bit and he
has and he has this du and it always
reminded me of give yourself away I
don't know if that was intentional or
not
[Music]
but all right I think it's time to call
it a night and feed this poor starving
cat again thank you so much for watching
this video if you want to support what
I'm doing you can check out my patreon
all right y'all until next
time this has been Nixie
Goodbye Oh man