Tonic, It Will Come Back to You

[DianeB]

Just one more: this might take the prize. It’s been staring at me for weeks in, of all places, Steely Dan’s “Peg” — what appears to be a quinary dominant.

   Peg         it will come back to you

   CM7 G/B                    A7sus   Esus      

G:  IV      I                           II        VI

    Then       the shutter falls           you see it all       in three D        it’s your fav'rite foreign movie

     A/C#  C                      G       F#7                 Bm7  E7#9            Am7             D7                     CM7  Gadd9

G:     II     IV                      I   V/V/V/V/V      V/V/V/V   V/V/V            V/V               V                         IV         I

                                                 (VII)              (iii)         (VI)               (ii)

I'm puzzled about how to analyze the A-E-A; it doesn't seem to qualify as a tonicization as the chords (notwithstanding the C#) are diatonic. The boys used a “Hendrix chord” (E7#9) to create an extension of Michael McDonald’s tonsils. More augmented trivia: Jay Graydon, who played the solo, was the inspiration behind “Wah Wah” in Doonesbury — not that I’m old enough to remember. Go forth, grok those dominants and mu majors.