Song: April Sun in Cuba
Artist: Dragon
Songwriters: Marc Hunter, Paul Hewson
Album: Running Free
Release date: 1977
Genre: Rock
Key: D Major/ A Mixolydian
Chords in Key:
|
I |
ii |
iii |
IV |
V |
vi |
vii |
|
A |
Bm |
C#° |
D |
Em |
F#m |
G |
April Sun in Cuba is primarily written for vocals, guitar, bass and drums.
Verse:
The verse sits on one chord with two variations, switching between the tonic sus4 and tonic major triads of the chord.
Pre-Chorus
The pre-chorus chords are used in the last two bars of the verse. It acts as a series of pivot chords between the keys of A Mixolydian and D Major, carefully using chords from both keys to seamlessly introduce the new key. It descends diatonically through the chords in A Mixolydian, beginning on the subdominant and ending on the tonic. The second chord is an inversion (Ib); while this sounds complicated, it simply means the bass guitar is not playing the root note of the chord, but the 3rd instead.
Chords
The chorus is in the key of D Major, which uses the same notes and chords as A Mixolydian. While it sticks to the major chords of the key (I, IV, V) it is unusual that the tonic (I) of either D major or A Mixolydian is not the first chord in the chorus, which is usually used to give the chorus a feeling of coming home. As the lyrics are about being taken away to a tropical island, it’s possible this was done (intentionally or unintentionally) to feel like it has gone harmonically to a different physical place. It then uses a plagal cadence to smoothly go back to A Mixolydian for the following verses and the bridge.
Bridge
The bridge cycles between two chords, while using the tonic A note in the bass. The bass guitar has some small lead breaks during this section.
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