Sweet Sue
Playing Approaches
Form
Melody
Lyrics
Harmony
Harmonic-Melodic Relations
Melodic-Lyric Relations
Playlists
Playing Approaches
A Section: Repeat figures of 5,6,2 and 3,6
A Section: Double Stops
7-5, 1-6, 2-2 and 3-3, 1-6. Like the alternation between sixths and octaves
Form
Melody
Sounds kind of floaty and pastel — a bit Gregorian perhaps — , a lovelorn barbershop quartet cooing to a waning crescent moon. I attribute this to the absence of thirds and sevenths in the melody of the A section. The harmony in the first 4 bars can be boiled down to a dominant 7 so the melody from that perspective uses the notes 1,2 and 5 (C,D, and G over C7). No 3 to come in and clarify whether this is day ( major ) or night ( minor ). The second 4 bars of the A section does repeat the 3rd of the underlying I major ( A in F ) but the melody resolves to the major sixth ( D ), which suggests a 5 to 1 ( A to D ) over the relative minor (D) instead of 3 to 6 over the I Major (F). Again, ambiguity — Sweet Sue’s got you so hot and bothered you don’t know whether it’s day or night.