"Maybe after He's Gone" and "Beechwood Park"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

A few days ago, I remembered something about "Maybe after He's Gone" and "Beechwood Park" that I'd neglected to write about.

After I figured out the vocal melody in "Maybe after He's Gone," I realized that - combined with the chromatic phrase in the backing vocals - it sort of forms a Bsus4.  The "gone" in the lead vocals is on a B, and the backing vocals go from an E to a Db, so it's like going from Bsus4 to B major, just without the F#.  (Since Blunstone has such a high voice, that B might be above the E and Db, in which case it's just an inversion.)

That same chord change - Bsus4 to B major - is in the guitar part in "Beechwood Park."  It roughly corresponds to the "lanes" in the line "When all the air was damp and warm in the green of country lanes."

It's a pretty minor element to be comparing, but both "Maybe after He's Gone" and "Beechwood Park" are Chris White songs (incidentally to-day's his birthday) and they're sequential songs on the album, so while it might be minor, I don't think it's insignificant.