What are the Gloria chords?

I am probably wrong here technically but that G note is quite prominent in the mix now that I hear it. The more I listen to it the more it sounds somewhat like a root movement in fourths. E-G to D a fourth and A-E a fourth.
The inversion of how I hear the E minor chord is close to a G 6th chord as well. However, I am not sure I hear a D note so technically it is not a G 6th. It can also be called E/G Minor. Playing an open G chord after the E major sounds fine and is not unlike the classic blues riff of the E chord to an open G.

 

I can't say I agree with the comparison to Adams Apple by Aerosmith. I can see what you are getting at but the song is in A but regardless of that, the first note C is actually bent to a C # and is not really the same as how the G natural is used in Gloria.

I agree with you that it sounds like a double plagal cadence. I just recently realized that.

 

Can you explain that? I am not doubting you but I am having trouble understanding how the way it is used could be considered a #9.

 

Somewhat off topic...
Compared to the members of Them, the post war suburban Chicago kids that made up Shadows of Knight had a lot of dough.

They've got a Gibson 335, a new Rickenbacker, and the bass player has an expensive Gretsch Bass...I think this is the only time I've seen one of these played. I've checked one out in the store. It's got a longer scale than a Fender and has a thick neck very similar to a double bass.

Here's an excerpt from an interview with singer Jimmy Sohns from 2005 ish. He mentions the "4th chord".

"Van Morrison. It was the "B" side of his English hit "Baby Please Don't Go". We changed it somewhat. It's three chords, E, D, A and we added the open strum, which is actually a forth chord, to not make the opening as hesitated as theirs was. That was one of the reasons ours was a hit and theirs was a "B" side. It became super rhythmic, danceable. So, that's how that came about."

 

an E9 would include the 9th note of the scale, in this case an F#. A #9 would bump that up to G (technically F##).

I also have strongly considered voicing the chord in question as a G as opposed to an E minor, as you mentioned above.

 

Fits perfect right? In fact you can do a quick open string G after every chord and it fits right in. I am not sure if in fact that is what we are hearing there.....a G chord and not an E Minor. It is so quick though it is hard to tell.

 

Is that clip from "Where the Action Is" with Steve Alaimo?

 

I didn't post it, but it looka like Where The Action Is.

 

That doesn't matter. There are no chords that would function as a major 7 chord, so this can't be analyzed with classical theory where if the key is major, it would have an implied Major 7th on it. That's not the case with a lot of commercial music. If we analyzed blues with a classical method, there would be no key.

 

A #9 is a minor 3rd. They're the same. Since the chord starts with a major 3rd, and then that tonality changes for a few beats, the logical way to analyze it in a scholastic sense would tell me that it's a #9. In terms of jazz music theory, that's what would make sense harmonically. A chord wouldn't change from major to minor unless there was a key change, or modal shift taking place, and that's not the case with the song being discussed. So, it's all about context, and I can't explain all the details as it took me years to grasp myself.

 

Thanks.
Interesting. Similar maybe to what the chord changes are in All Blues? But I guess in that case Miles just used #9 in a major instead of minor blues.
I realize the term tonicization is ambiguous but I thought that might apply but since it is going major to minor it guess does not apply.

 

Just listened with headphones. It definitely drops from E to E minor for quick moment. I never noticed that before, and now I’ll never be able to unhear it. How weird.

 

All Blues is a modal jazz tune. It uses the mixolydian mode (scale) over most of the chords. That mode is usually reserved for V7 chords, but he uses it on every chord in that song. That makes it impossible to analyze in a classical way. The #9 chords also make it "not work" or "against the rules" in classical terms.

 

I read through this thread earlier and - not knowing the song - sat down with my guitar just now to try. A lot of the discussion seems to have been whether the thing that sounds like an Em could really be “something else”: most recently a G on the open top four strings. I was completely convinced it's an Em but I've played it with the open G and for me it's equally persuasive. Clearly the G is “implied” (it's what the ear is expecting) but I think I'd rather play it Em.

What we can surely agree definitively is that the original recording is not E E D A, making most responders to the poll flat wrong.

 

And why can't you go from Em to D directly, if you don't mind me asking? I think Black Sabbath's War Pigs goes from Em to D.

 

I think you are hearing picked notes on the guitar. Physically you can't strum a chord and pick a single note simultaneously.

Didn't you just answer your own question? OK, just a little levity. To me it's a "blue note" and not an Em chord. I also hear rests in the cadence, where there is no chord at all. It would sound different if it was a strummed Em chord. Then I would be able to give an answer to this. It would sound either bad or ok. Actually I did this already, in April, and I don't hear it as good.

 

Iommi, tuned down to Eb, used to hit the Eb open string and then take the root and the fifth on the Ab and Db strings. You can also hit the root of a chord and then hit the remaining notes simultaneously.

If you're hearing E E D A I do wonder why so many people are hearing the E minor chord. If it's the same chord strummed again it would sound the same as the previous one.

 

Is it possible that what is being heard is a poor transition from the E to D via a brief moment in open strings which would give Em on the top three strings.

 

I think "poor transition" might be a little judgmental but yes, essentially this.

 

That is true as well, it is rock n' roll after all lol very possible


I think that no matter what the explanation would be, be it an embellishment, a true chord change to E minor, or poor transition - honestly it goes by so fast that in terms of how you would play the song it wouldn't really make any difference so I just say pick one and its all good lol

 

Probably a little! I couldn’t think of a better word!

 

I agree, play it however you want!

 

I just answered this (my answer anyway). They are notes and not chords. People hear a minor 3rd note and they want it to be an Em chord, even though the guitar is not playing it. The note is not only used for the minor 3rd function. It is also a blue note.

 

This works well for me.