Composition and Music
Harrison commented about this song: "I started the chord sequences on the piano, which I don't really play, and then began writing ideas for the words from various opposites... Again, it's the duality of things – yes no, up down, left right, right wrong, etc." This idea was also prevalent in their earlier single, "Hello, Goodbye". Pollack notes that though the song is mostly in the key of C Major it often veers towards the relative minor (Am). Everett states this "A/C duality" fits well "with the composer's main concern in the poetic text" ("I want a love that's right but right is only half of what's wrong"). Pollack also emphasizes the song's interesting flat VI (Ab) chord in the verse, the V-IV (G-F chord) alternation in the bridge and the 'bluesy' effect of the flat 3rds and 7ths with the frequent dissonant I7 (C7) chords. Everett considers that the voice leading and harmony on 'Old Brown Shoe' are "far more subtle and interesting" than such qualities in the song ('Ballad of John and Yoko') on the A side of the single.
Read more about this topic: Old Brown Shoe
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