Gfyuki

Simple question here but want to know what the better option would be. In the chorus to Elton John's "Rocket Man" (in B-flat major), there is a C major chord.

Would it be best to analyze the C major chord as V/V, or as a borrowed chord from B-flat lydian, or something else?

I don't know if it is a good option to analyze a chord as a secondary chord unless it resolves to that chord (or as a deceptive resolution, ex. V/V to vi/V).

I'd appreciate any thoughts on this. Thanks.

To answer the question of whether the C chord is "really" V of V, you need to remember one simple fact about music.

When you listen to music, you hear it progressing in time.

Therefore, analysing any chord in terms of "what comes after it" by looking at the score is just an intellectual exercise, if it has no relationship to what the music actually sounds like. A description like "V of V" only makes sense if the listener expects to be hearing common practice functional harmony, but that's not what the song is about.

The chorus starts with a Bb chord, followed by an Eb chord over the same Bb bass note. The cumulative effect of the Bb and Eb/Bb chords in fact destablilizes Bb as the "tonic" - we are used to hearing harmonic progressions that progress somewhere!

So when the C chord arrives, at last we have a progression! We don't know where we are progressing to yet, because we haven't heard what comes next, but at least we are going somewhere.

… except that actually we don't go anywhere, because the next chord is right back to Eb and then Bb again. But hey, that C was a nice surprise while it lasted.

You can replace the C with virtually any major chord get a similar effect. Try Db major, D major, Gb major, or G major, for example.

Bottom line: this isn't functional, common-practice harmony. Good luck trying to invent a functional-harmony name for a Db or Gb chord here, but they work as music. Elton John just happened to pick C instead. Maybe his backing band haven't learned Db or Gb chords yet … (just joking, of course).

Somedays ago I've read somewhere that the Beatles had written many songs in modal harmony and not in major/minor. Looking at the chord progression my first association here has also been: Beatles. Yes, like others saying: Eight days a week!

So as there are certainly modal elements here ... it doesn't make sense to analyse it in RNA.

Except you could understand this solution: I-II-IV-I

my argumentation:

When I studied at Swiss Jazz School in the late sixties they didn't use the signs ii,iii, iv for minor chords. The notation was IIm, VIm etc. And the secondary dominant progression C-A7-D7-G7 was written as I-VI-II-V as a variant of I-VIm-IIm-V7 (I-vi-ii-V7). I know there are still different systems of writing chord progressions in Jazz.

The other answers make the important points about analysis.

Not a secondary dominant V/V, because it isn't functioning as a dominant. The upper case II will provide a Roman numeral analysis symbol to show it is a major triad.

Some people call I II IV I a Lydian II progression and it's fairly common in pop/rock.

But, I want add one other point: notice the symbolism of that chord in relation to the lyrics. We have a root progression up by step from Bb to C and the normally minor ii has the third raised to make a major triad II. The C chord doesn't resolve in a typical functional way. You could say the goes up but doesn't come back down! That musical symbolism at the moment the lyrics say "...rocket man!" Explain a lot about the emtional meaning of the chord when they don't fulfill the standard expectations.