Hello,

I have a little analysis question on the intro of the theme music for Rocky.

I've always thought the second chord of the intro was really cool, but now that I try to analyze what it is, I'm kind of lost.

If you look at this score:

http://d29ci68ykuu27r.cloudfront.net/product/Look-Inside/lar ge/16347375_01.jpg

It starts C major, and then the second chord I'm talking about is a Esus4, which lands on a D minor.

You can listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioE_O7Lm0I4

Well, now that I know what chords they are, I can be happy and leave it, but I'd like to have a better understanding of this.

Why does this work? Have you seen anything like this in another song?

If you had to write up a harmonic analysis of this intro, what would you have written?

Where did you get that from?

lol, I don't know why I read E A B E.

But then, E B D E? I don't know what to call it, nor what degree it is!

well, it is E sus later, here in the intro he omits the a, but it still as some form of v of A.
You finally get the resolution to A at the very end.

The fact he delays it by going to iv is why it still sounds 'fresh' I suppose.

I would analyze it as follows:
- C (I) at the beginning obviously
- E7 (V/vi) at m. 5, omitting the G#.
- Instead of going to Am (vi, the relative minor) at m. 9, it's a deceptive cadence and the Dm chord can be labelled as iv/vi = ii. That is, the Dm chord is iv in Am and ii in C.

This actually happens in Imagine as well during the second chorus, where it goes F - G - C - E7 - F, but instead of E7 to Dm, it goes E7 - F. So it would be VI/vi = IV. This has roots going back to Schubert at least.

And as a final point, another reason why this works is the stepwise motion of the bass: F - E - D - C, etc.

Interesting, thank you.