"A Love That Never Was"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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I've tried doing my own version of "A Love That Never Was" a few times, and I always got hung up on the first note of "Thinking of a love that never was."  Or, as it appears in other instances, "Memories of a love that never was."

I figured out yester-day why that note is so difficult:  it's a C and the rest of the song up to that point is in A major.  That C is an accidental.

I didn't realize it until writing this post, but that C kind of throws out the key that Rod Argent had been using.  In a way, that C transforms the song from A major to A minor - sort of the opposite of what Chris White does in "This Will Be Our Year."  But the rest of "A Love That Never Was" doesn't really even follow A minor.  Because, after that, the chord progression is weird.  It's something like D Dm A / B Bm / A Am / E.  And, to some degree, that constant key shifting musically illustrates the despair about the titular love that never was.