‘God Only Knows’

In my recent blog post I said that “the half-diminished chord in ‘God Only Knows’ is probably not the active ingredient in music therapy”. This got me thinking. Brian Wilson had a complex relationship with his father and, viewed in this light, the words of the song take on an interesting meaning. “God only knows what I’d be without you”. It sounds like a love song at first, but then when you listen to the words in detail it becomes apparent that they don’t quite fit this narrative. The ‘what’ in particular is a surprise. I’ve wondered about this, whether the song is really addressed to a lover, or a parent. Since the lyrics were written by Tony Asher, the idea that this is Brian Wilson addressing his father seems fanciful, but on the other hand, the idea that there could be a love song where there is ambiguity, not only about who is being addressed, but about the nature of the relationship, is an intriguing one. Taken as a work of art removed of context, ‘God Only Knows’ could fit this model. It may be that the ambiguities running through the lyrics, alongside the harmonic ambiguities underpinning it, are what make the song so moving.

The half-diminished chord comes with the line “I'll make you so sure about it". In fact the function of the chord isn’t the usual II-7b5 as it’s a chromatic transitional chord on the #4 of E major, which leads to an A major chord in the next bar. It’s a moment of intensified harmonic ambiguity within a harmonically ambiguous piece of music. If it’s not an example of the “active ingredient” in music therapy, it’s certainly an active ingredient in some sort of process. It has a harmonic and emotional function, albeit one which might be hard to pin down.

I also said in my recent post that “music therapy doesn’t operate within a performer to audience dynamic”. I was thinking of the analogy of therapist with performer and client with audience which often seems to be an assumption made about music therapy. There might be an idea that the therapist is doing something to the client using music. This is not normally what happens in music therapy, but to say that this is ‘incorrect’ would be to oversimplify. Since the therapeutic process is two-way, the therapist’s music does have certain effects on the client. If we flip the analogy around, however, it becomes even more interesting. What if the client is the performer and the therapist is the audience? This actually works quite well a lot of the time. The half diminished chord in ‘God Only Knows’ becomes the active ingredient in music therapy when it is played by the client. Since actually doing this requires a level of musical sophistication we don’t routinely encounter the analogy might seem a bit absurd. But if we extend the analogy to include any moment of musical intensity then it begins to make more sense. Furthermore, as musical performers we all understand this. Music can be therapeutic when you go to a gig or listen to a recording, but this NEVER approaches the intensity of a meaningful performance in which you are an active participant. Not all performances are as meaningful or rewarding as they could be, but those that are; it’s a reason to be alive, to be frank.

So, ‘music isn’t medicine’? It’s misleading to say that it is, but it might also be misleading to say that it isn’t. That newly qualified colleague I mentioned before who has ‘been doing music therapy for years’. Well, the next question might be – ‘who on?’ The peak experiences that we sometimes have during performances are hard to pin down, but certainly have some quality of sharedness about them, of connection to others. Unfortunately audiences, and fellow musicians, make unreliable therapists. Sometimes they’re right there for us, but sometimes they’re not. Maybe the music therapist is partly analogous to the reliably attentive audience, partly to the sensitive fellow performer. This is still a therapy about making links, and when the links aren’t there in any musical experience, we’re unlikely to shout out ‘music is therapy!’ Maybe all music is really about making links. God only knows… ;)