One of Elton's masterpieces, Philadelphia
Freedom was released during Elton's golden era when everything
he touched turned to gold. It was originally released as
a single. Although it was recorded about the same time as
Captain Fantastic, it didn't fit into the autobiographical
concept album. However it was later included on the 1995
re-release of the album.
The original recording of Philadelphia featured the orchestra
arrangements of Gene
Page (d. 1998), one of the great Motown
arrangers who gave 100s of songs their classic R&B /
soul sound. This solo arrangement leaves out many of the
characteristic riffs which are played by the orchestra. This
includes the famous opening riff with its single-note string
pulse and descending horns followed by a flute flourish.
When he plays in the band, Elton typically reproduces the
original orchestral arrangement with Guy Babylon covering
the orchestra parts with his keyboards.
This particular version, like many I've featured lately,
comes from Elton's 1999 solo tour, with the performance recorded
on October 15/16, 1999 at Madison Square Gardens.
OVERVIEW
Of course its normal to make changes or leave certain things out in a solo
piano arrangement. With this arrangement, Elton decides to transform Philadelphia
into a little more bluesy sounding tune. The following figure shows the basic
blues figure that Elton uses throughout the song when he's not singing. It
features a pulsing left hand and a right hand pattern built on the Bb blues
scale.
In this particular performance, Elton doesn't cut loose
much during the blues sections. I've heard other performances
from the 1999 solo tour in which he adds more riffs and improvised
flourishes. Maybe you can find your own blues licks to add
into this version.
Elton maintains a rocking left hand pulse throughout the
song, as shown in the following figure. But don't feel like
you have to rigidly follow what's written down on the sheet
music all the time. Depending on what's going on in the right
hand, sometimes I find myself playing just straight quarter
notes. Elton switches it up all the time too. After all, IT'S
ROCK AND ROLL, not classical music! Do whatever
feels good to you.
SONG STRUCTURE
Philadelphia Freedom is a fairly lengthy song, even without the extended blues
sections Elton adds into this live version. The basic song structure incorporates
an A-section (verse), a B-section (pre-chorus) and a C-section (chorus).
Each of these sections is approximately the same in length. The A and B sections
are 16 bars, the C section is 18 bars.
HARMONY
There are plenty of interesting things going on in Philadelphia. The song stays
within the framework of the root key of Bb, but each of the 3 sections are
fairly independent of each other. Each of them uses a different harmonic
logic. Look at the following overview of the harmony.
| |
Harmonic
Transition
|
|
A Section
|
Bb
|
to
|
Bb |
Static; very
little chord movement |
| |
|
|
|
|
B Section
|
Eb
|
to
|
Bb |
Shift
to the subdominant key of Eb; 1st half works on the
I, IV, V chords of Eb, Ab, and Bb; the 2nd half features
chromatic descending chords that eventually return
to the Eb. |
| |
Ab
|
to
|
Eb |
| |
|
|
|
|
C Section
|
Bb
|
to
|
D |
Back
to the root chord; 1st half ends with a secondary
dominant, the III (D chord); 2nd half uses circle-of-fourths and
diatonic progressions through various minor and major
chords. |
| |
Gm
|
to
|
Cm7 |
HAVE WE MENTIONED THAT ELTON JOHN IS A SONGWRITING
GENIUS?
What gives Philadelphia Freedom a lot of its unique sound
are chord structures and chord progressions that Elton doesn't
use too often. Take a look at these chromatic chord progressions.
In most of his music, when Elton moves the bass chromatically,
the chords themselves are not chromatic, but rather inversions
built from the circle-of-fourths.
In this song, he uses straight major and minor chromatic
chords to move from point A to point B. The first example
is from the A section.
This example is from the B section where Elton travels chromatically
from Ab to Eb.
|
