An attempt at musicology

Sometimes I get the feeling / That I won't be on this planet / For very long / I really like it here / I'm quite attached to it / I hope I'm wrong

All I really wanna say / Is you're the reason I wanna stay / I loved you before I met you / And I met you just in time / 'Cause there was nothing left

I sat here on my suitcase / In our empty new apartment / Until the sun went down / Then I walked back down the stairs / With all my bags and drove away / You must be freaking out

All I know is I've gotta be / Where my heart says I oughta be / It often makes no sense, in fact / I never understand these things I feel

Don't change your plans for me / I won't move to LA / The leaves are falling back east / That's where I'm gonna stay

You have made me smile again / In fact, I might be sore from it / It's been a while / I know we've been together many times before / I'll see you on the other side

Don't change your plans for me / I won't move to LA / The leaves are falling back east / That's where I'm going to stay

All I really wanna say / Is you're the reason I wanna stay / But destiny is calling and won't hold / And when my time is up I'm outta here

All I know is I gotta be / Where my heart says I oughta be / It often makes no sense, in fact / I never understand these things I feel

I love you, good bye / I love you, good bye...

--Ben Folds, "Don't Change Your Plans" ["http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Don't-Change-Your-Plans-lyrics-Ben-Folds-Five/4327B8E999513C28482568970008196F"]

I've considered this one of my favorite songs over the years for many reasons: subject matter, keys, harmonic progressions, that 12/8 rhythm disguised in a 4/4 time signature, and especially that interlude in the middle where Folds takes a page from pop songwriter Burt Bacharach ["http://bacharachonline.com/"] with the trumpet part.

"Don't Change Your Plans" ["http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFQ1HGau9j4"] is a sort of a parting love song to a woman who lives in a different part of the continent; however, each person's personal "plans" block the way, and neither party is willing to sacrifice for the good of their relationship. In typical Ben Folds fashion, each line has an irregular pattern and unique rhyme, preferring to focus on painting a scene ("I sat here on my suitcase in our empty new apartment until the sun went down") or a personal reflection ("All I know is I've gotta be where my heart says I oughta be; it often makes no sense; in fact, I never understand these things I feel").

The format deviates a bit from the standard rock song form (verse, refrain, verse, refrain, bridge, refrain). The first section of the song is comprised of three parts: the first a stepwise melody with a minor cadence; the second a melody composed of more skips (a couple of which almost sound like octave displacement), written in the major key; the third in the parallel minor, but with longer note values and more halts mid-phrase.

The major underlying harmonic progression for much of the song is the A-F#m7-G-Em7 progression, with a few occasional variations. The premise behind this particular harmonic organization seems to be a series of transposed echoes of the first two or three sequences. For example: G-Em7 is merely a transposition of A-F#m7, and in the chorus another such echo occurs (G/B-C) a major second below the original (A/C#-D). Most of the other common harmonies are higher tertian chords, most often in the bridge, specifically major 7th chords and an 11th chord for a cadence right before transitioning back to the last verse.

The keys that the music goes to in the bridge are the biggest variant from the predominantly A major/minor backdrop: C major (relative to A minor), and E-flat. The song rarely stays in these keys for very long, another common characteristic of Folds' style. The end of the bridge shows it with the following progression: AbM7-EbM7-Am11/C, suggesting that the harmonic progressions and keys are more determined by common pitches rather than a hierarchy of chords within a key.

The basic rhythmic idea in "Don't Change Your Plans," as author Todd Lowry suggests, is a slow shuffle beat, in which each quarter note in 4/4 time is divided into 3 instead of 2 like most music written in this time signature, thereby giving it a 12/8 feel on occasion, most poignantly in the bridge. During the verses the shuffle beat is only occasionally apparently, mostly in the melody over an accompaniment mostly plunking the quarter-note pulse. The rhythm slows quite a bit in the chorus, opting for half-notes and extremely slow syncopation (half note/whole note/half note over two measures). At the bridge the triplet subdivisions are the most apparent, with the piano playing triplets.

The biggest thing of note in the bridge is a lack of sung lyrics. Although the first half still includes sung vocal lines, they are more of an augmentation of the rhythmic buildup and harmonic change already in progess. The second half features a trumpet playing a pointillistic, diatonic trumpet part, as an homage to the writing/playing style of Bacharach. What stands out from this particular melody is that each note occurs on the third triplet of each beat, creating almost an anticipation of the next beat.

As I've said before, I've been familiar with this song for almost as long as I've been familiar with Folds' work. I suppose it was never my absolute favorite (mostly because songs like "Landed," "Jesusland," "Not the Same," "Emaline," "Smoke," "Evaporated," and "The Luckiest" have all had turns at the top), but it's been one of those things that have been on my mind the whole time. Aside from the intense harmonic and key progressions -- a style I particularly like -- it's a song I can relate to in more ways than one.