#Phonepunk#
Banned
1. First off all, what is "chopped & screwed"?
Chopped and screwed (also called screwed and chopped or slowed and throwed) is a technique of remixing hip hop music which developed in the Houston hip hop scene in the early 1990s by DJ Screw. The screwed technique is accomplished by slowing the tempo down to 60 and 70 quarter-note beats per minute and applying techniques such as skipping beats, record scratching, stop-time, and affecting portions of the original composition to create a "chopped-up" version of the song.
en.wikipedia.org
2. The chords to the verses in "Help!" are A, C#, F#m, D, G.
3. The chords to the verses in "A Day in the Life" are G, Bm, Em, C, F.
4. If you transpose the verses of "Help!" down one full step*, the chords are also G, Bm, Em, C, F.
Isn't that cool? Two of John Lennon's best songs have similar chord progressions. Granted they are not exactly the same, but it's close!
5. John Lennon experimented with tape loops at home around this period.
There is a lot of bootleg material of John Lennon experimenting with tape loops, ambient recordings, and comedy sound collages with Ringo while playing around with his home recording equipment. He owned several tape machines as well as one of the first mellotrons. The mellotron was an early analog sampling keyboard. This instrument was famously used in Strawberry Fields Forever as recorded in late 1966, the month before recording "A Day in the Life".
6. IMO this suggests that John Lennon may have:
I guess it is possible he was just jamming around on a guitar playing his other chord progressions trying to come up with something and did a little jazzy version of "Help!". But that doesn't explain why it is a full step lower. Which is why I bring up the tape manipulation theory.
Anyways, it's a theory I've been kicking around for a little while. Maybe someone else has thought of this before, I haven't been able to find it through search. So I wanted to get it down while it was on my mind. IMO in many ways the Beatles were pioneers in inventing sample based electronic pop music.
FWIW i might eventually include some other Beatles tracks from this era in the theory ("Blue Jay Way", "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Flying"). There is something very futuristic about their psychedelic period, the incorporation of tape loops and samples, it makes their music still sound fresh even in the 21st century.
Chopped and screwed (also called screwed and chopped or slowed and throwed) is a technique of remixing hip hop music which developed in the Houston hip hop scene in the early 1990s by DJ Screw. The screwed technique is accomplished by slowing the tempo down to 60 and 70 quarter-note beats per minute and applying techniques such as skipping beats, record scratching, stop-time, and affecting portions of the original composition to create a "chopped-up" version of the song.
Chopped and screwed - Wikipedia
2. The chords to the verses in "Help!" are A, C#, F#m, D, G.
3. The chords to the verses in "A Day in the Life" are G, Bm, Em, C, F.
4. If you transpose the verses of "Help!" down one full step*, the chords are also G, Bm, Em, C, F.
Isn't that cool? Two of John Lennon's best songs have similar chord progressions. Granted they are not exactly the same, but it's close!
5. John Lennon experimented with tape loops at home around this period.
There is a lot of bootleg material of John Lennon experimenting with tape loops, ambient recordings, and comedy sound collages with Ringo while playing around with his home recording equipment. He owned several tape machines as well as one of the first mellotrons. The mellotron was an early analog sampling keyboard. This instrument was famously used in Strawberry Fields Forever as recorded in late 1966, the month before recording "A Day in the Life".
6. IMO this suggests that John Lennon may have:
- recorded himself playing "Help!" on guitar
- played it back but in a lower key, by slowing down the tape itself, or by sampling with the Mellotron
- taken an old song, slowed it down, skipped beats, and written new lyrics on top
- the song even stops in the middle and Paul McCartney does a guest verse
I guess it is possible he was just jamming around on a guitar playing his other chord progressions trying to come up with something and did a little jazzy version of "Help!". But that doesn't explain why it is a full step lower. Which is why I bring up the tape manipulation theory.
Anyways, it's a theory I've been kicking around for a little while. Maybe someone else has thought of this before, I haven't been able to find it through search. So I wanted to get it down while it was on my mind. IMO in many ways the Beatles were pioneers in inventing sample based electronic pop music.
FWIW i might eventually include some other Beatles tracks from this era in the theory ("Blue Jay Way", "Tomorrow Never Knows", "Flying"). There is something very futuristic about their psychedelic period, the incorporation of tape loops and samples, it makes their music still sound fresh even in the 21st century.
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