Formal Structure in Beatles Music: [96] "A Day in the Life"

Formal structure of "A Day in the Life"
          Trans/Intro    0:00-0:12    G major
          Verse 1              0:12-0:44    G major
          Verse 2              0:44-1:11    G major
          Verse 3              1:11-1:40      G major
          Transition        1:40-2:15      -
          Middle 8            2:15-3:18      E major*
                    intro                  2:15-2:21
                    verse 1             2:21-2:36
                    verse 2             2:36-2:49
                    retransition   2:49-3:18*
          Verse 4              3:18-3:46    G major
          Transition        3:46-4:20      -
          Coda                   4:20-5:06   E major*
          Dog pitch         5:06-5:10       -
          Run-out groove    5:10-5:37   -

Comments: With later Beatles tracks (and especially those off the White Album and afterwards), analyzing formal structure becomes more challenging because of the fragmentary nature of the songs. "A Day in the Life" is the first of many fragment-based Beatles tunes. In this case, Lennon wrote the verses, while McCartney chipped in the middle 8. Or at least, what I'm calling the middle 8. But it's certainly quite different from any middle 8 in the Beatles' output so far! Nevertheless, its functions as a contrast to the verses and thus functions structurally like a middle 8. Furthermore, its position is in the middle of the song, although at 39 measures in length its duration is far longer than 8. In addition, this middle 8 contains four distinct sub-sections - including two verses (!) for lack of a better term. Lastly, at the end of the middle 8, I've borrowed the term "retransition" from classical sonata form, which refers to the transition from the development section to the recapitulation.

Verses 1-3 are contiguous. Beatles songs often use the first two verses contiguously (examples: [1] "Love Me Do", [6] “I Saw Her Standing There”, [7] "Do You Want to Know a Secret", [8] "Misery", [9b] "Anna (Go To Him)", [9c] "Boys", [9d] "Chains", [9f] Twist and Shout, [10] "From Me To You", [13e] "Till There Was You", [17] "Little Child", [19] "Not a Second Time", [23] "Can't Buy Me Love", [25] "And I Love Her", [26] "I Should Have Known Better", [28] "If I Fell'', [29] "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You", [31] "A Hard Day's Night", [31b] "Matchbox", [32] "I'll Cry Instead", [35] "Things We Said Today", [40] "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party", [41] "What You're Doing", [42] "No Reply", [43] "Eight Days a Week", [44] "She's a Woman", [44b] "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey", [46d] "Words of Love", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [49] "I Need You", [50] "Yes It Is", [51] "The Night Before", [52] "You Like Me Too Much", [54] "Tell Me What You See", 56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", [56c] "Bad Boy", [57] "I've Just Seen a Face", [59] "Yesterday", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [68] "We Can Work it Out", [71] "Michelle", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [80] "Paperback Writer", [82] "Doctor Robert", [84] "Taxman", [88] "Yellow Submarine", [89] "I Want To Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", and [95] "Penny Lane"), but it is quite rare to find contiguous verses other than 1-2. In fact, "A Day in the Life" is just the seventh behind [19] "Not a Second Time" (in which verses 1 and 2 are contiguous, as are verses 3 and 4), [31b] "Matchbox" (in which the first three and last two verses are contiguous), [56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 4-5), [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows" (in which verses 1-3 are contiguous, as are verses 4-7), [80] "Paperback Writer" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 3-4), [84] "Taxman" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 3-4), and [95] "Penny Lane" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 4-5). The four verses are nearly identical until the last few measures. This point is most easily understood visually, and for that reason I have created a chart to illustrate (click to enlarge). Melodically, all verses are identical through the seventh measure of each verse (the first measure of the example below); and the chord progressions are identical through the first half of the ninth measure of each verse (the third measure of the example below). But after that, verse 1 repeats the melodic and chordal patterns from two bars earlier - something that does not occur in any other verse; verse 2 adds a trill-like oscillation between B and A-sharp on the words "Nobody was really sure if he was from the"; verse 3 adds the "I'd love to turn you on" tag - clearly related to the trill of the previous verse; and verse 4 combines bits from the previous two verses. In this way, Lennon is able to vary the verses enough to avoid monotonous repetition while still allowing for three contiguous verses.

The coda is both one of the Beatles' longest and shortest because it consists of but one chord (an E major chord, tonally reprising Paul's middle 8), but that chord resonates for 40-some seconds before finally fading into silence.

But of course, that's not actually the end. After that cataclysmic chord are two more events: the dog pitch and run out groove. However, these will be discussed in other blogs as this one is about structural format and both the dog pitch and run out groove are insignificant in terms of the macro-scale formal structure of the song.