Music Monday: Boom Bang-a-Bang
This odd-titled song was the UK entry in the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest. Sung by young Scottish sensation Lulu, it ended up joint winner along with three other songs–the first (and, I believe, last) time this has happened in Eurovision history. While Eurovision songs often go on to become chart hits, and can lead to bigger and greater things for the artists (e.g., ABBA), they aren’t usually great songs. They tend toward being catchy and toe-tapping rather than deep, complex, and significant. I’m not making any claim that “Boom Bang-a-Bang” is an exception to this rule. The words are very simplistic, and, yes, you are likely to be humming it for the rest of your life. In defense of simple lyrics, Eurovision is an international competition, so overly profound lyrics might not go over as well. Granted, not many go to the extreme of naming the song “Boom Bang-a-Bang,” but you get my point.
The reason I wanted to feature this song, however, is because it’s a great example of a song that caught me off-guard musically. If you’re an avid reader or film buff, you’re aware of the various twists and turns a plot can take, so nothing really catches you off-guard. This isn’t a bad thing, because even if you saw the “surprise” ending coming, you can appreciate if it was well done. Similarly, as a musician, I’ve listen to and played enough music over the years that I can usually anticipate the direction a song will go harmonically, or at least have a good idea of the various options available, so I’m rarely surprised.
Since “Boom Bang-a-Bang” was a Eurovision win for the UK, the song got plenty of radio play in England when I was a child, so I was aware of it, though I never really paid it much musical attention. Not long ago I heard the song for the first time in many years, only this time I was paying attention. The song starts very simply with a basic three chord verse (A, E, and D). Nothing startling, so I thought I could anticipate the chord structure to come. As I guessed, the chorus begins:
Okay, so the Bm6 was a bit of a twist, and the F#7 was a nice choice, but nothing too startling. My years of experience then informed me that I should expect a repeat of this chord structure for the next line. What I got was a musical slap upside the head. I did not expect this!:
Woah! Where did that half-diminished come from (the F#m/D# is the same as a D# half-diminished)? Then to a what? A G#7?? What were these people smoking?! The following line returned to something a little more straight-forward (D, A, F#m, E, A). For the next line I thought maybe they’ll keep it simple, or perhaps use the same funky harmonies as before. In fact, it throws in another twist. It starts with the F#m/D#, but then goes to a D7!:
I have to admit, I was impressed. Having been a musician for 30+ years, it’s not often I’m taken by surprise like that, so big props to Alan Moorhouse–the guy who wrote the music. In the sheet music samples above I’ve only given you the piano chords, but hopefully you can see there are some clever things going on to give us these odd changes. In the F#m/D#-G#7 change, notice the bass pattern: D# to G#, then C# to F#–both pairs of notes are the same distance apart. Also the F#m/D# and the G#7 have the note Lulu is singing (an F#) in common, so the chords pivot on that note. In the F#m/D# – D7 change, look at the chord harmonies–do you see the descending pattern? In the chord you have a C# to C-natural to B to A# (okay, on my arrangement I went back up to the C#, but the A# is in the F# chord). Then in the bass you have a similar chromatic descent: D# to D-natural to C#, then drop to the F#. This kind of thing is musical chocolate to my ears–simply wonderful!
Click HERE to download a pdf of the complete chorus. And here’s a lead sheet for the whole song (click to enlarge):
Finally, here’s 20-year-old Lulu singing the song at the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest in Madrid:
As a footnote, “Boom Bang-a-Bang” was banned by the BBC in 1991 during the Gulf War. I’m not kidding. Something about the title…?
