Miss Gradenko mp3 (original 1983 studio recording)

On June 1, 1983, the Synchronicity album was released by The Police. It contained a vast majority of tracks that appeared on their greatest hits albums released since then. Although, there are some rather Avant-garde deep cuts like; "O My God", "Mother" and "Murder by Numbers", there is one particular track written by Stewart Copeland entitled "Miss Gradenko" which is my personal favorite. The song is about a Russian woman holding a precarious position in a highly bureaucratic and dangerous legislative department. Miss Gradenko, apparently, must maintain absolute equanimity and express no personal feelings or opinions regarding policy. To do so would have led to severe punishment or even execution. This was the way things were in Russia in the early 80's - very Orwellian. The song writer shows concern for Miss Gradenko, as she begins to show cracks in her emotional facade. She's becoming more and more impulsive with her feelings toward Russian policy and goes so far as to write a "dangerous" note to legislative leaders criticizing their recent policy making. Apparently, the song writer in part of this world and intercepts the letter and warns her. While the song writer simply warns her, he seems to empathize and relates to her feelings in the matter. He may even consider her a personal hero. As the song writer is unwilling to show anything but compliance, he notes how in meetings his superiors on the policy council simply "Think of new ways of cheating." The song writer asks, in the song's chorus, "Is any body alive in here?" This, most likely, relates to his own frustrations about communist policy makers. Does anyone have any human responses to ridiculous and politically destructive directives? They respond with "[There is] Nobody but us in here." A clear indication of the oblivion most Russian policy makers lived in.

But, enough about lyrical interpretation. This rather short, 2-minute song is moderately minimalistic. While most of the song is dissonant, there are hopeful and uplifting musical phrases. Only a bass-line and Steward's Guitar arpeggios (which are the most prevalent tonal instruments in the mix) give us a theoretical disadvantage when it comes to transcribing "Miss Gradenko" as a whole. In addition, the song has a rather whimsical, non-symmetrical and rapidly changing feel.

I have searched endlessly on the internet to find accurate tablature and chords sheets. No luck. Most of them are sloppy and oversimplified. Even at www.scribd.com (which has become a great resource for accurate and complete documentation) there is an article that claims to have an "excellent" transcription. It falls way below the mark. However, Yamaha has an amazing (not-free) collection of accurate midi files that you can use to "break apart" into inidual tracks and better understand the illusive "Miss Gradenko" song construction.

This song is approximately 110 Beats per Minute. It fluctuates in tempo slightly across certain parts. This maybe due to the fact that the song was not recorded to a metronome. To do so, in 1983, was considered to be very "un-punk". In fact, The Ramones were known to intentionally record songs in a drifting or "Sloppy" tempo, just to be as hip as possible for the time. Punk was about not giving a shit. A click track was something akin to sacrilege. I digress; 110 BPM is pretty accurate.

I will break the phrases into sections her to illustrate the proper execution of this piece. Keep in mind, this song relys on a subtractive approach. Filling in certain tones within a chord structure will destroy the songs subtle feel and minimalistic drive which, in my opinion, makes the song most original.

Chord Phrase one:

This phrase is the first one we hear and it has some very unique properties. Note: please excuse the mixture of flats and sharps in the same measure in relation to in "implied" key signature. I kept it in reference to C major for illustration purposes.

Listen to this particular passage here.

If you play the 16th note groups in the G Clef, you'll surely hear the feel of the original piece. Although, I've added chords to show how to understand what's going on, and possibly give you the ability to play the song without being obligated to pay it as arpeggios as shown above. I'll break done the set of four chords in this first phrase below.

E7 (no 5th)	D7/A	E7 (no 5th)	Am (no 5th) (add 4th)
The notes (from lowest voice to highest) E-D-E-G#. Leave out the fifth interval of the chord [B] in this instance. if you leave it in, it changes the feel dramatically.	The notes (from lowest voice to highest) A-C-D-F#-A. Although the high "A" in the G Clef is optional, it doesn't have a negative effect.	The notes (from lowest voice to highest) E-D-E-G#. Leave out the fifth interval of the chord [B] in this instance. if you leave it in, it changes the feel dramatically.	The notes (from lowest voice to highest) A-C-D-A. Leave out the fifth interval of the chord [E] in this instance. if you leave it in, it changes the feel dramatically. Note that Sting's bass line gets very playful during this chord, This chord still holds up despite that

 

 

 

 

 

 

This progression is repeated 2 and 1/2 times before a new phrase comes along. This can be confusing. But, if you listen to the song, it's gives it a very strange, but interesting feel.

The progression plays like this:
Listen to this particular passage here.

 

You'll notice there's an INTRO MEASURE with four quarter note beats. It's important to keep in mind as Stewart Copeland leads with a fill lasting an 8th note in the very last part of the INTRO MEASURE. THE LYRICS don't start until one full PROGRESSION LOOP is played or, after 2 measures. One more PROGRESSION LOOP is played in full. However, as you can see, the 3rd PROGRESSION LOOP is only half executed. The E7 (no 5th) and the Am (no 5th) (add4) chords are not played the 3rd time. After this unconventional half-progression, the next and 2nd chord phase enters. THE LYRIC "Gradenko" overlaps into the new (2nd) chord progression measure on the syllable "dank"

Chord Phrase 2
Listen to this particular passage here.

 

A (add9)	G5 (add6)
The notes (from lowest voice to highest) A-A-B-C#-E. Playing this chord just an "A" chord is fine. But, I recommend you add the 9th interval or the "B". Remember: don't play this chord as an A9 chord. This will add the 7th interval along with the 9th. Just ad the 9th (or you can call it the 2nd interval of the chord. In this case, the "B" natural just above the "A" in the G Clef.	The notes (from lowest voice to highest) G-G-D-E. Don't play the 3rd interval in this chord (or the "B".

As you can see, the 2nd chord phrase, that starts at measure 8, is much less intimidating than the 1st. And, This two-chord phrase repeats 4 times.

Listen to this particular passage here.

You can see that we're given a two measure, 8 quarter-note beat to absorb this dramitic change in tone. The 2nd chord phrase of the song has vocals in it only within the 3rd and 4th loop of the 2nd progression. And, As you can see too, after the 2nd chord group, we go back into our 1st chord phrase again. Interestingly enough, vocals continue, without respite, as if this change never happened. This is another one of those strange executions that make this song very original.

After this, we go back to our 1st chord progression phrase of the song. We go back to it with the same amount of phrase loops. That's right; 2 and 1/2 times.

 

 

 

 

 

Listen to this particular passage here.

So, again we have a strange 2 and 1/2 soundings of our 1st chord progression in the song coming back again after 4 loops of our 2nd Progression in the song. You might also notice, something that further contributes to the songs unsymmetrical and nontraditional template, we have no vocals in the 2nd loop of our progression. A pretty wide gap, but the vocals are picked up in the last 1/2 progression loop. This leads us now into another set of our 2nd progression in the song.That plays just as it had before in two-chords sets repeated 4 times.

Listen to this particular passage here.

At measure 16, starts the 4-bar prechorus. With our A (add9) and G5 (add6) chords.

And so, at measure 20, starts the first chorus of "Miss Gradenko". As you can see, I've added two more clefs. A G and F Clef, between the arpeggio staff and the base staff. This is to show you're able to use straight chords easily in the chorus with our detracting from the overall feel. The chorus and the next last 7 measures.

Listen to this particular passage here.

The only chord in here we should pay particular attention to is A7 (no 3rd)

A7 (no 3rd)

The notes (from lowest voice to highest) A-C-E-G-A. Do not play the 3rd interval of the chord. This will change the feel. But only leave it out when this specific chord is shown.

All the other chords in the 3rd progression phrase of our song are very straight forward. The chorus spans 7 bars.


Listen to this particular passage here.

 

With no break or segue after the first chorus, Copeland takes us right back in to our first chord phrase. However this time for no apparent reason, only let's us play this progression 1 and 1/2 times starting at measure 27. But, then gives us 4 sets of our 2nd chord phrase. This time we play it just like we did before; 4 times. below is the 7-bar "after chorus" after which, starts the guitar solo.

Listen to this particular passage here.

The guitar solo starts at measure 34. For the first five measure, the solo is played, rather disjointedly, over our 1st chord phrase. Once again this 1st phrase is played, like in the beginning, 2 and 1/2 times. But then, at measure 40, the solo continues over our 2nd chord phrase which plays 4 times. The solo leaves behind it's dissident feel and becomes more tonally "obedient" while also conveying a more hopeful and uplifting side to this song.

Listen to this particular passage here.

After the Solo, we're brought right back into the 2nd chorus (at measure 43) with the same chord (or 3rd) pattern that exists in the song. This solo/outro the same chord voicing shown here. You'll notice that the second to last measure (54) of the whole song changes to 2/4 time. This change only lasts for 1 measure. This is appears to be so that the song doesn't end halfway through measure (54).

The last chorus shown here has two sets of the chorus progression but in 5 measures instead of 7. He leaves of the last 2 measure of the previous chorus out, which contains the words, "Is anybody alive in here. Nobody but us". After which, measure 53 breaks the 10 measure chorus loop. with 3 measures. the last measure ending the song, along with the last vocal part with an A7 chord.