"Caroline Goodbye"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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I listened to Colin Blunstone's One Year album to-day because according to Russo's Collector's Guide it came out in the U.K. to-day in 1971, but last night I figured out the rest of the chords to "Caroline Goodbye."  I've known the first part (which just alternates between two chords) for a fairly long time, but I was stuck on all the rest of it.

Two days ago, NPR posted the audio of a concert that the Zombies did about a month ago, and they performed "Caroline Goodbye."  I guess I was subconsciously thinking about it, and just in playing around, I happened across about half of the chorus.  So I spent a bit of time on it and figured out the connecting part.

I'm not sure if I have all of the rhythms right, but I'm pretty sure I have the chords right.

There are a couple of interesting features I want to point out.  During "No use pretending / I've known for a long time / Your love is ending," there's a descending chromatic phrase in the chords.  It starts with a major-to-major-7th transition, and while "Caroline Goodbye" was written by Blunstone, starting a descending phrase via a major-to-major-7th transition also seems to be a fairly common feature of Argent's writing (although Blunstone's "How We Were Before" has it too).  Here, it's A major (A, C#, E), A major 7th (A, C#, E, G#), A7 (A, C#, E, G), D major (D, F#, A).

In the choruses, there are cymbal hits on "better" and "sooner" in "But I should have known better" and "And I should have seen sooner."  They act as a type of emphasis.

In copying out those two lines just now, I've realized that "I should have known better" is also the title line in the Beatles' "I Should Have Known Better," so there might be a bit of Beatle influence there.

I also figured out some of the piano part, and the part immediately before "No use pretending" - while in a different key - is the same as a guitar riff in "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)," provided I have it (the part in "Caroline Goodbye") right.  I've actually written two other posts about this phrase because I found it in the Moody Blues' "So Deep within You" and the Tremeloes' "Hello World."