You Can Get It If You Really Want - Desmond Dekker and the Aces

Background

• Early reggae or rock steady
• Jamaican, with Latin-American influences e.g. in the high trumpet parts

Rhythm and Metre

• Quadruple 4/4
• Rock steady 'on-beat' bass
• Backbeat
• Syncopations in upper parts
• Triplets in vocal parts
• Drum fills

Melody and word-setting

• Word setting is syllabic, except for melismas at ends of phrases
• Use of title hook
• Melody is mainly conjunct and narrow in range
• But near the end it moves by 3rds into a higher register
• Major pentatonic scale

Harmony

• Alternating Chord I (Db) and IV (Gb) with occasional V7 (Ab7) except for...
• Unrelated chords such as E at bar 37
• Parallel chords at bar 40

Tonality

• Db throughout

Structure

• Verse and chorus:
• Intro - Chorus - Verse 1 - Chorus - Verse 2 - Chorus - Instrumental - Chorus and Outro

Resources/Texture

• Melody-dominated homophony with
• Lead vocal (sometimes using falsetto for high notes)
• Backing vocals in two parts
• Guitars and bass ,reeds and brass, including trumpets (sometimes in 3rds), organ, drums