Rich here with a final post in my series about songs that stray from the standard 4-beats-to-a-measure found in well over 95 percent of rock songs. This time I'm featuring a song by Brian Protheroe.
Brian who? I hear you asking. Yeah, I know. But there are a few of you out there who may remember "Pinball," a Number 60 obscurity on the charts in 1975 that featured droning Dylanesque poetry lyrics and a cat that meowed mid-production. Almost no one in the U.S. ever heard of the UK actor/musician again after that minor blip on the charts.
But I was one of the handful who fell in love with Brian Protheroe and his three albums because of their wit and sophistication and the musical games he played. One song that always caught me in its web of McCartneyesque hooks and melodies was "Goodbye Surprise," a tune that started out with a piano and horns playing in straight 4-beat time. But, damn, as soon as Brian started singing, it was a wild free-for-all of changing time signatures.
The first line of singing had 7 beats, followed by horns that played for 5 beats -- all of which is repeated before veering into two measures of 3 beats and concluding the verse with two measures of 4 beats.
You wanna dance?
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