September 2020 - Don't Stand So Close To Me

“Nabakov/shake and cough” awkward rhyme aside, spending some time on this song has given me a few thoughts about how the lyrics and music work together.

Firstly, the melody is incredibly simple and repetitive. It is three descending notes (the minor third to the second to the flat 7th of a minor scale) three times in a row with the only variation being a two note addendum the last of the three times. Then that repeats! The melody is almost, but not quite, “Three Blind Mice”. The suggestion of a nursery rhyme, combined with the subject matter of the lyrics adds to the creepiness of the song.  Secondly, that incredibly repetitive melody underscores the perseverating thoughts that both the “young teacher” and the “school girl” are having.

The verse is all in G minor, but it doesn’t start on a G minor chord. It starts on Eb (the b vi chord in the key of G minor) and alternates between those two chords for the verse. This creates some ambiguity. Is it in G minor (with a chord progressions of vi - i) or is Eb major (with a chord progression of I - iii)? Ultimately, I think it’s G minor, but the ambiguity adds to the unsettling sense that the melodic repetition and the lyrics create.

The chorus is a big surprise. It goes to the key of D major and alternates between the I and V chord - D major and A major. This is a pretty wild change of key for a pop song. As I said, I think the verse is in G minor, so this is a modulation up a fifth to the key of D - the dominant of G minor. This move to a major key accompanies the narrator of the song doing the right thing and telling the girl to give him some space. Or maybe it’s the girl singing that. Either way, the strong declamatory move to a triumphal major key musically gives the message that staying away is the right thing to do just as the verse, with its foreboding musical setting, gives the message that the temptation that the teacher and student face will lead to nothing good.

And I have now spent way more time thinking about this song then I ever imagined I would. Next on my list of musical/lyrical analysis “DO, DO, DO DO, DE DA DA DA” and its unmentioned, but clear reference to Duchamp.