"You Don't Know Me" by Ray Charles

Just got finished watching Ray, which EVERYONE should go out and see, it's very very good.

This is such a beautiful song, full of sadness and melancholy. How he accomplishes this entirely within a major key is a credit to his genius. He accomplishes it with non-chord tones and elaboration beyond the basic chord structure. Like a lot blues/jazz songs we have verse,verse,bridge, etc. structure. We start with a 4 measure introduction, just extending out a dominant chord, building anticipation until the first tonic chord comes in. Like River of Dreams, which I analyzed earlier, we have a basic blues progression, I-IV-I-V structure. The verse is in two phrase groups. The first phrase group ends with deceptive motion extending it out, as Ray adds a small tag line ("you don't know me") as the progression ends in a half cadence, which leads right back into our second verse. This verse repeats the same progression as the first up to the deceptive cadence, instead we have an imperfect authentic figure, then repeat the dominant, before our perfect authentic cadence. This could be construed as a long period, but I feel that the separate feel of the verses seems to weaken the feel of consistancy. The perfect authentic cadence is short lived, as we quickly move into a new section, our bridge, with a modulation to the dominant key, transitioning easily by sequencing a two-handed scale pattern, adding a raised 4th as a leading tone to our dominant key. The bridge introduces new material, distinguishing it from the verses (our "B" section for form purposes) . This section cannot be conisidered a full phrase, since once again we modulate back to our original key and end on a half cadence. We only have one verse figure here (the second figure, ending on a PAC again). Once again the bridge is in the dominant key, modulating on the next-to last measure back to our original. Now we have a "Manilow-esque" key change, simply modulating up a half step as we take the half-cadence back to a final verse. Once again we repeat the second verse form, ending on a PAC and fading away.

Wow, this song just brings up so emotion in me, it's like walking through a smoke-filled dance floor to see the person of your dreams dancing with your worst enemy. But it's not a jealousy thing, it's more of you love them so much you just want them to be happy, even at your own expense. This song just reminds me of a lot of things I've gone through in my life...