Maggie May

Maggie May, written by Rod Stewart, is a classic rock song that tells the story of a young man who was convinced to skip town with the girl of his dreams named Maggie. Now that he’s left, he realized what he is missing out on back home and he blames her for making him leave but he loves her too much to abandon her. This story is told through the different music conventions that help tell the story, not through words, but through sound. For example, the form of the song is split up into four repeating stanzas and a coda at the end of the song. Each stanza tells a different part of the story with the coda finishing off with how he feels about Maggie now. The medium of the piece is a standard band, guitar, bass guitar, drums, and vocals. But, what is unique about this piece is the dynamics of the instruments. Usually, the bass guitar is the background instrument while the guitar leads with the loudest volume; in this song the roles are reversed with the bass guitar having the loudest dynamic. This is used in the song to show the deeper feelings the writer has for Maggie because as the song has a fast tempo, duple meter it would seem that the man is happy which is how he portrays himself around Maggie, but the amplification of the bass guitar show his underlying feelings. The climax of the song is during the coda when he exclaims, “Maggie, I wish I’d never seen your face,” because he had been beating around the bush with trying to tell her how he really feels but finally he had enough and told her the truth. The musical elements such as the medium and the dynamics of the song are the most important in communicating Mr. Stewart’s message because the bass has a sadder tone that would have been ignored if the bass played the role that it normally does in most songs. Because of this, the song is better communicated to Rod Stewart’s audience.