Episode 2 - 'You Are The Flower'
This weeks episode features a classic Toto track, 'You Are The Flower' from their debut album 'Toto' released in 1978.
This song is beautifully crafted from a harmonic perspective and effortlessly modulates between (modal) keys with multiple changes. The verse is based on a G Dorian chord vamp while the bridge section uses a direct modulation to move up a tone (A Dorian) before moving to A minor (Aeolian) to utilise a backcycle (an anti-clockwise movement around the circle of fifths, in this case from B>E>A>D) to setup a return to the original G Dorian vamp. The first return also adds a symmetrical chord movement that descends the G Minor Pentatonic Scale 5 - 4 - b3 - 1 (C/D > Bb/C >Ab/Bb> Gm), which is also syncopated for added pizzazz. And that's not all..
The guitar solo follows the bridge form only firstly up a tone from the original, then up a tone again. So it moves through A Dorian>B Dorian>B Aeolian the first time then B Dorian> C# Dorian> C# Aeolian the second. Needless to say, this gives the solo a great sense of movement. The solo concludes not with a functional movement but rather just a surprise modulation as the bass slides up a semi-tone from F# to G while the underlying triads, E to Bb, are a tritone apart! It's something a 'fall of the edge of the cliff' moment but it works because the G Dorian verse vamp is so well established in the listeners mind already.
Here is the songscheme. Alternatively download a hi-res PDF here.
Here is an abridged video of the track featuring all the sections.
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Episode 3 will feature a track by Beth Hart.
Steve