9/8

Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen both covered this 1996 Sting song, but unaccountably changed its interesting 9/8 time signature to a standard 4/4.  The beat is odd, one-two-THREE-four/one-two-three-FOUR-five with some other variations like ONE-two-three/ONE-two-THREE-four-FIVE-six, and the tune is syncopated on top of that.  The lyrics, in contrast, are a simple old-fashioned cowboy morality play, along the lines of "Long Black Veil."

4 comments:

Grim said...

Interesting. I only knew the Johnny Cash version.

douglas said...

It's difficult to figure out why go to the trouble of doing the timing this way. It's certainly not easy to remember, and must be terribly difficult to play. I'm not sure it adds anything to the music or the story. Maybe the sense that something's off kilter, out of whack?

Texan99 said...

It took me forever to get into the rhythm so I could beat along with it, but once I did, I couldn't stand to hear it in regular 4/4--it took all the interest away. Sting likes odd syncopation. His backup band, the original guys are anyone he tours with to this day, does this kind of thing without effort.

The "Mission Impossible" theme is the same way. There's a weird extra beat in the original music, which they removed for the later movies.

9/8 doesn't necessarily have to be challenging; it can amount to no more than 3/4, depending on where the stresses are laid. But the stresses are laid in unexpected spots in this tune.

Grim said...

I agree that it's interesting, and that can be the point in and of itself -- it often is in jazz, for example. I know some (insufferably smug) jazz fans who can barely stand to listen to something that is played straight, rather than requiring you to 'listen to the notes they're not playing.' This kind of beat would be highly appealing to them.