Lilac Wine (Song Analysis)
The tune Lilac Wine opens with one low minor chord on piano and Nina Simone’s chilling voice. Almost immediately we are surrounded by her words “I lost myself on a cool, damp night” and suddenly we are looking down at the weathered hands of Nina playing the piano and describing this heart-string-pulling ballad. We begin the mostly rubato opening verse in F#m, and I’ve split up the verse into sections A and B to differentiate their harmony. Section A of the verse uses the i,VI,V7,and iv chords, creating a minor diatonic opening chord progression. Section B of the opening uses only three chords, the viiº, the IV and the iv, creating a powerful four, four minor, one resolution that happens twice since this section repeats. The first time, it resolves a little unsatisfyingly to the minor one, and the second time it resolves to the major one, which propels us into the next section of the tune. The four, four minor resolution is so powerful in this song, and sits really nicely under the words “because it brings me back you” and gives us the feeling that we, the listener, are under the spell of the lilac wine and seeing our lost lover as the chorus begins. This resolution also has the 6th note of the key or LA, resolving down to the 5th by half step, (LA, LE, SO-which is the 5th of the one chord) and half steps are the most satisfying resolution you can get!
We then delve into the chorus section, whose chord progression is also repeated. We have now drawn our ears to the F# major chord, and it feels as though we are in that key (or Gb). we hear two measures of F#, and then we are lead astray by F#7 over the words “Lilac wine is sweet and heady” making us feel as though we are getting more tipsy as this new section draws us in. The F#7 takes us to B major, a key that's tonicized about half the time in this tune. We then hear a C#7 which takes us to F#, and with another F#7 we are back in B all in two lines of chords. In this small area in between these keys we hear the words “Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, like my love” which flow nicely along this lazy river of secondary dominant chords. Because these keys are closely related and it doesn't take us many roundabouts to get there, it all feels like one chord progression; like they’ve created an inbetween key. This feels really nice under the words “I feel unsteady” as well as “I cannot see clearly” because we keep feeling a resolution to a different place over and over until we break out of the back and forth and suddenly we are met with the brightness and openness of a D major chord. This would be the bIII chord in B, and feels very reminiscent of when we heard this chord in the opening verse during the lyrics “gave myself in that misty light”. We hear the words “Listen to me, why is everything so hazy” over this D major in a familiar rubato way which makes us feel like we are breaking through the veil of intoxication presented by Nina Simone’s lower range and the drifting root of the key throughout the beginnings of this section.
This part feels familiar because the D chord is followed by a C#7 just like in the first section, which should take us to F#, as we’ve been doing for the past minute, but instead it takes us to a G#m chord, which we haven't heard before, and it feels like a platform to stand on, albeit an unsteady, minor one. We hear the words “Isn't that he, coming to me, nearly here?” which is a lyrical set-up and phrase that we also haven't heard before. The words “nearly here” are sung over a ii, V, I common resolution back to F# so we can repeat that section. With each coming chorus, the lyrics are changed slightly from the original first chorus to reveal the changing of the emotions of the singer. This is sometimes referred to as the songwriting technique “development boxes” which is a technique often used in story-like settings where you want to reveal more and more as the sections go on, and build on what you said earlier so as to create a sort of song wedding cake of ideas. We end this tune on what isn't necessarily a resolution to the earlier lyrics, but instead what feels like an emotional cliffhanger, like the writer didn’t resolve this issue and this makes us feel like they are still dealing with it. After hearing this song we feel like we too have this ongoing unsteady feeling about love, and that it hasn't gone away, but maybe we’ve thought through it and we now understand some of our heart’s intentions. I think this is just as powerful of an ending, if not more so, than a perfectly tied up romance.
I’ll leave you with the ending lyrics:
Lilac wine
I feel unready for my love
Feel unready,
For my love