Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
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"Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" is the opening song on the two-part album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John. The first part, "Funeral for a Friend", is an instrumental created by John while thinking of what kind of music he would like at his funeral. This first half segues into "Love Lies Bleeding".
"Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" was too long for a single release, but got plenty of airplay on FM stations that were predisposed toward rock epics, and remains a favorite whenever John performs it in concert. The whole song together is just over eleven minutes long.
The song was covered by Dream Theater, and appears on the EP A Change of Seasons.
Although not officially a cover, Fuel's "Hemmorrage (In My Hands)" contains an obvious reference to the song: "In my hands/ Love lies bleeding."
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[edit] Analysis of the Music
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- Funeral For A Friend Is Also The Name Of A Welsh Alternative Music Group
[edit] Instrumental Half - Funeral For a Friend
Before any music begins, there is the soft sound of wind blowing, with a distant bell toll on the note of A. It is assumed that John intended this to communicate the idea of a funeral.
The introduction begins with a soft synth pad in the key of C Minor, reflecting much of John's classical influence and inspiration. In the steady but slow tempo of andante (approx. 95 BPM), this soft beginning ends in a deceptively simple Piccardy 3rd, using the tone of E rather than E-Flat.
The intro soon passes into a heavy synth brass pad echo of the first plaintive statement of melody, immediately returning to the use of E-Flat. This time, however, more complex tall tertian chords are hinted at, such as a largely voiced B-Flat Major chord with an A-Flat bass (this hints at an A-Flat 13 chord). The Intro ends with a powerful E Dominant 7-9 Chord, which strongly pushes the song into the tonality of A.
Thus begins the true melody of the piece. In its first statement, it is with Elton alone, on piano with light accompaniment by bass, guitar, and drums. The synth brass pad has fallen in volume to way in the background, although it is still present. This section makes use of the piece's signature E dominant 7-9 chord as well, but puts it in first inversion to make it seem more like a G-Sharp fully-diminished 7 chord. Elton emphasises this deception by making the melody outline the upper parts of this chord (F-E-E-D-C). This could easily be described as one of the most tear-jerking motifs of this piece as a whole. Throughout the entire melody, Elton commonly goes back and forth between A-Major and Minor, using a variety of chord structures, including D-Minor, B-Flat Major, and G-Major (in first inversion).
The second half of this melody is taken over by the electric guitar, while the tonality seems to remain indefinite. Elton seems to make heavy use of the Flat-7 chord, common only in early baroque and some Jewish music. Once again, interplay of the keys of A-Major and Minor cause much dissonance and tear in the melodic structure. The synthesizer begins a long octave-and-a-half arpeggiation over the chord structure, and the "rock" portion of the band (bass, drums, and guitar) take a more prominent place in the voicing.
Ending on a strong A-Minor chord, the arpeggiation in the synth continues on over a fading block chord. Then the piano fades in with a new tempo that is much faster than the first section, somewhere in the vicinity of Allegro Molto (approx. 144 BPM). A dark yet energetic piano solo begins, with a structure very strongly in A-Minor. Use of the E-Augmented chord (could also be analyzed as a 6-5 suspension) adds energy and dissonance to this new melody. Quickly changing back and forth between A-Minor and E-Major, followed by G-Major and C-Major, then A-Major and D-Minor, ending on the piece's signature E-Dominant 7-9, this section also includes synth brass calls and a seemingly out-of-place castinet roll every 8 beats. This makes the energy level of this portion of the piece astoundingly high.
Then, at the highest point of the energy during a dominant prolongation, the piece suddenly drops in tempo again to approximately 108 BPM and states the first melody again in the electric guitar, with a heavy emphasis on beats 2 and 4. This appears to round out the first section and allow a transition into the second half of the piece to begin.
Immediately following this restatement, the transition material begins. With a bass ostinato on A, the chord structure moves upward chromatically on major chords starting with A-Major. These are played once, four beats each until D-Major. Suddenly at E-Flat Major, each one is played for only one beat. At that point there is a large crescendo up to the return to A-Major. With the bass and guitar both playing fast scales for four beats every eight beats, the chord alternates between A-Major and B-Flat Major. After a few repetitions of this, the piece segues into the second half.
Elton often used this song to open concerts. The band would start to play in the dark and spotlighted Elton when he started playing his piano solo and Davey Johnstone during his guitar solo.
[edit] Song Half - Love Lies Bleeding
The song begins with an introduction in the key of A Major that shows a quick fade out of the pad from the previous section, allowing the piano to solo the new melody. The guitar, bass, and drums join after a single repetition.
After playing twice more through the 4-bar melody, the lyrics begin.
The majority of this section uses standard rock harmonies in the key of A-Major, following the I, IV, V, vi, and ii chords. In the repetition of the intro material, the bVII (G-Major) is borrowed from A-Minor, but for the most part, the standard rock harmonies are used.
There is a short bridge section after the second time through the verse, which has a duet between the piano and the synth, which has been changed to a flute patch. The staccato flute in two notes with a variation solo on the piano uses the chord progression from the introduction material. This is followed by a piercing guitar solo that follows the same chord structure.
Then the piece begins to wrap up with another repetition of the chorus, and variations on previous material, including a vocalization solo. The piece ends with a repeat and fade.
[edit] Conclusions
This piece was very popular among fans of Elton John when it first came out, and is today as well. This song is studied by music scholars today and it was unique for its time in that Elton used both rock and instrumental elements in his composition. The "classical" section, and the notably separate "rock" section employed an eclectic range of genres and influences. This formula allowed it to transcend the commonplace styles of the time . Already, Elton John had been different from the rest of the music at the time, having chosen piano as his primary instrument, but then choosing to create rock music. With the notable exception of Billy Joel, few other rock artists were primarily pianists.
