Which Absolute Beginners?

[Diamond Dog]

There's nothing contentious about saying Bowie's work (or this track in particular) is 'over wrought' 'bombastic' 'histrionic' etc etc and because of that it's over reaching. No issue with that at all.

The issue is the 'over reaching' comes entirely from the vocal performance and/or the arrangement - it has simply nothing to do with the 'chord changes' which, whilst not basic, are certainly not in any way structurally complex.

That's the only reason I asked the original question - which was, just for info :

What exactly is an 'over reaching chord change'?

And then, when presented with the actual chord sequence :

So which particular change are you saying is over reaching John?

Was because I genuinely thought I must be missing something here.... maybe there is some wondrously complicated chord change I'm not aware of, resulting in the song (from John's point of view) failing because of it.

Clearly though, that can't be the case - as no one has suggested there is a complex chord change, least of all John himself.

So now we all know what was said - and without all the vitriol for a perfectly sensible and genuine question- we hopefully can agree to move on ; fully in the knowledge there is no 'over reaching chord change' but there is (in John's view) an over reaching arrangement and/or vocal melody.

Thank you.

[clive gash]

Very well. We shall resume in an hour.

[WG Kaspar]

And it's not even a goid song

[clive gash]

The complexities of the overreaching chords are far too advanced for a mere pop song.

[bobzilla77]

I don't mind that song as far as 80s Bowie goes, but AB was the first Jam song I heard, after reading for years about how hip they were. It makes my day.