My Best Work (In My Dreams)
My Best Work (In My Dreams) by Mid-Century Modern The line “I do my best work in my dreams!” had been kicking around on scraps of paper, with various rejoinders scribbled in the moment, waiting for inspiration to strike. Although life’s too short to wait for inspiration, a couple of things happened that prompted me to get started seriously on this. The first thing was, a wonderful old 1960s pop song came on the radio: “Bend Me Shape Me” by the American Breed. The chorus is, of course for a sixties chart hit, sing-along catchy, but the verses are as well, and the chord changes are interesting. The verse chords are all major, a block of four repeating C, Eb, F to Bb. This sequence in itself is really catchy, but then the the vocal melody hits an E flat over the C major chord just before it changes to the E flat major chord - a beautiful major-minor dissonance that acts as a leading tone, and to my ear this is very hooky. I decided I was going to use those chords (in a different sequence...