George Gershwin's "Liza"

I'm still making my way through the Gershwin albums.  This morning I listened to the seventh disc of the ten-disc set.  This one is subtitled The Later Broadway Musicals.

In "Liza" (performed here by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra), I noticed the line "we should make a date with Parson Brown."  It reminded me of the lines in "Winter Wonderland":

In the meadow we can build a snowman
And pretend that he is Parson Brown
He'll say, "Are you married?"  We'll say, "No man.
But you can do the job while you're in town."

I had to look up the dates though because I wasn't sure of the chronology.  "Liza" is from 1929, and "Winter Wonderland" is from 1934.  So either the writers of "Winter Wonderland" (Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith) took an idea from "Liza," or the writers of both songs choose "Brown" for the surname of their parson.

George Gershwin's "You've Got What Gets Me"

I recently started reading a book about George Gershwin, so I went back to listen to what Gershwin music I have.  I'd skipped over it about a month ago with the aim of returning to it while reading this book, like I did with Bach earlier this year.

Yester-day, I listened to the third disc of a ten-CD set of Gershwin music.  The disc is subtitled Gershwin on Screen I: "Girl Crazy" & "Rhapsody in Blue."  The first track is "You've Got What Gets Me," performed by Eddie Quillan, Dixie Lee, Mitzi Green and the RKO Studio Orchestra.  I didn't notice this at first, but the lyrics are really clever, specifically the lines "You've got what gets me / What gets me you've got."  What's great about them is that they could be taken in two different ways.  It could indicate physical attractiveness ("You have looks that attract me"), or it could be an expression of a deeper connection ("You have the mental capacity/empathy to understand how I feel, what I think, &c").  Of course, it could also be both.

I've always liked Ira Gershwin's lyrics because of the rhymes and phrases he uses, but finding this has got me thinking about them in different ways.

The Zombies' "It Never Fails to Please Me"

I'm listening to the Zombies' Into the Afterlife, and it's occurred to me that "It Never Fails to Please Me" is very much in the same vein as their earlier song "Care of Cell 44."  They both have a piano-driven beat (which, granted, isn't too unusual for some of the Zombies' songs) and "bum bum bum" vocals (although they're more "baum, baum, baum" in "It Never Fails to Please Me").  Furthermore, the diatonicism in the guitar part isn't too dissimilar from the diatonic bass part in "Care of Cell 44."

Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long"

I just listened to a compilation album of Otis Redding (it's probably only the second or third time I've listened to it).  In any case, I noticed the line "My love is growing stronger / As you become a habit to me" in "I've Been Loving You Too Long."  I think it's a reference to "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me."  Likening love to a habit is in the title itself and the lines:

Oh I can't break away; I must have you everyday
As regularly as coffee or tea
You've got me in your clutches and I can't get free
You're getting to be a habit with me

Still, with the number of love songs that exist and the various similes and metaphors in them, it might just be a coincidence that both of these songs make the same comparison.

The Beach Boys' "Amusement Parks U.S.A."

I skipped ahead to listen to the Beach Boys' Summer Days (and Summer Nights!!) because to-day is Brian Wilson's birthday.

I think "Amusement Parks U.S.A." references "On Broadway."  In the spoken part, the carnival barker says that the attractions cost only "one thin dime," which is also a line in "On Broadway."  "One thin dime won't even shine your shoes."

So either that line is a reference to "On Broadway" or "one thin dime" is a more common phrase than I'd thought.

Palisades Park is also mentioned in the song ("At Palisades and Salisbury Parks the roller coasters are flyin'").  It might be a reference to Freddy Cannon's "Palisades Park," which is also about an amusement park, but Palisades Park is apparently also a real place, so it might not be a viable connection.

Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring

I'm in the midst of listening to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.  At the very beginning of the Dance of the Youths section, there are sudden chords from the brass instruments on top of a foundation of rapid notes in the strings:

(notation found here)

This sounded vaguely familiar to me, and before too long I realized that John Williams used this same sort of effect in the Star Wars soundtrack, specifically while the main group of heroes are being chased around the Death Star by the stormtroopers in A New Hope.

I have the soundtrack for A New Hope, so I skipped around in it a bit before I found the sort of thing that Stravinsky did.  It might be in other places, but it's certainly in "Tractor Beam/Chasm Crossfire."  However, where Stravinsky places chords from the brass instruments above the string part, I think Williams has mostly just timpani parts.  There are other brass parts in Williams' piece, but they don't really have an equivalent in The Rite of Spring; it's just the rhythm of the string part and the suddenness of the brass chord/timpani that they have in common.

Jack White's "Entitlement"

I’m currently listening to Jack White’s Lazaretto for the first time.  I noticed an interesting poetic/lyrical device he uses in the first verse of “Entitlement”:

Every time that I’m doing what I want to,
Somebody comes and tells me it’s wrong.
Whenever I’m doing just as I please,
Somebody cuts me down to my knees.

He uses structural parallelism between the two lines, so that the first part of the first sentence (“Every time that I’m doing what I want to”) is similar to the first part of the second sentence (“Whenever I’m doing just as I please”) and the second part of the first sentence (“Somebody comes and tells me it’s wrong”) is similar to the second part of the second sentence (“Somebody cuts me down to my knees”).

M. Ward's "Hold Time"

This morning, I listened to M. Ward's Hold Time.  At the very end of the title track, the vocals are just "do do do"s.  They sounded really familiar, and I was able to place them as similar to the "do do do"s in the middle of Graham Nash's "Lady of the Island" from Crosby, Stills, and Nash's eponymous debut album.  There are a few phrases consisting of "do do do"s in the middle of "Lady of the Island," but the third one (at about 1:29) is the one that's similar.  (Or, rather, as "Hold Time" is more recent, its "do do do"s are similar to the third phrase in "Lady of the Island.")

I just listened to those two sections back-to-back, and while the rhythms and number of notes are different, the notes themselves are the same.  It's a descending arpeggio on G minor (D to Bb to G), and then an ascending phrase (F to G to Ab).

Like most of these instances where two songs use a similar phrase, I'm not sure if it was intentional.  However, a lot of M. Ward's songs have the same sort of feeling that I get from "Lady of the Island" (although I don't find them quite as melancholic), so I wouldn't discount it.

Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas

I just listened to Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas for the first time.  I noticed that the repeated bass part in "Ah! Belinda, I am prest with torment" is a variation of the first musical phrase of "Dies Irae."

(notation found here)

This quotation makes sense, as "Dies Irae" is about Judgement Day and the end of the world.  To some degree, it matches the emotional tone in "Ah! Belinda, I am prest with torment."

The Rip Chords' "Shut Down"

I'm listening to a compilation album of the Rip Chords.  It's interesting that their version of the Beach Boys' "Shut Down" has the same problem of not getting the articulation exactly the same on the double-tracked vocal.

On the Beach Boys' version, this is most apparent on the line "and now the four thirteen's lead is starting to shrink."  The Rip Chords' version is bit shaky earlier in the song, on the line "but the four thirteen's really digging in."

Also, I think the Rip Chords may have changed the lyrics slightly.  I'd always understood the Beach Boys' version as "two cool shorts standing side-by-side," but I think the Rip Chords version has it as "two cool sharks."

The Decemberists' "Rox in the Box"

I listened to some Decemberists albums this morning, including The King Is Dead.  I've always liked the lines "and you won't make a dime / on this gray granite mountain mine" in "Rox in the Box," but listening to the song this time, I realized why I like it.

First, there's the alliteration between gray and granite and between mountain and mine, which somehow I had never noticed.  Apparently, I'm really bad at recognizing alliteration if it isn't written.

Second, the rhythm of the line is engaging.  Despite having been an English major, I know virtually nothing about meter and stressed syllables and all that, so I can't actually explain the rhythm of this line, but I like it nonetheless.

Neil Young's Harvest

This morning I listened to Neil Young's Harvest.  I'm fairly certain it's only the second time I've listened to it.  In any case, I found a Bob Dylan reference in "Out on the Weekend."  One of the later verses start with the lines. "She got pictures on the wall - / They make me look up / From her big brass bed," which has the same phrase as Bob Dylan's "Lay lady lay / Lay across my big brass bed" from "Lay Lady Lay" on Nashville Skyline.

I'm less sure on this, but I think "Are You Ready for the Country?" starts with a slight reference to Little Richard's "Slippin' and Slidin'."  The first line of both songs is "Slippin' and a-slidin'," and the melodies are faintly similar (although the tempo on "Are You Ready for the Country?" is much slower).  I'm not as convinced on this reference as I am the Bob Dylan one though.  Although I hadn't really thought of Bob Dylan and Neil Young in the same sphere, they do have some similarities (like country influences and harmonica playing), whereas there seems to be a greater distance between Neil Young and Little Richard.  It's certainly possible that it is a reference to "Slippin' and Slidin'," but I'm hesitant to assert it, especially since I haven't listened to this album very much and don't know much about Neil Young's solo career.

Argent's "Tragedy"

This morning, I listened to Argent's Greatest: The Singles Collection.  I started paying a lot of attention to the Hammond organ in "Tragedy," and I realized that about halfway through the choruses (between "tragedy before your eyes" and "tragedy for every man"), Rod Argent turns his Leslie speaker from the slow rotation to the fast rotation.  At the same time, the chord progression moves up to include higher notes, which the increased oscillation of the Leslie helps to intensify.

The version of "Tragedy" on Greatest: The Singles Collection is the single version (as the title of the album would suggest), but the changing speed of the Leslie speaker is also included in the album version (on All Together Now).  I haven't listened to the two versions back-to-back, but I think the only difference is a few guitar lines that aren't included in the single version.

The Beach Boys' "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (W. Woodpecker Symphony)"

After listening to the SMiLE Sessions LPs, I decided to listen to Smiley Smile, which I have on CD packaged together with Wild Honey.  I knew that some of the songs from SMiLE were released in simpler forms on Smiley Smile (such as "Heroes and Villains," "Vega-Tables," "Wind Chimes," and "Wonderful"), but listening to it this time, I also discovered that the vocal parts from "The Elements: Fire" (also known as "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow") are re-purposed for "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (W. Woodpecker Symphony)."

The Beach Boys' SMiLE Sessions

I recently got the Beach Boys’ SMiLE Sessions box set, and I’ve been listening to it for the past few days. It’s been really interesting, especially comparing the 1966 version with the 2004 version. So instead of writing a bunch of individual posts about specific things, I’m writing a single post with many elements. I’ll try to go in order of the track listing.

There’s an interesting connection between the lead and backing vocals in “Heroes and Villains.” The lyrics for one part are “Heroes and Villains just see what you’ve done, done,” after which, the backing vocals are just “do, do, do, do, do.” It’s a fairly common word/syllable choice for backing vocals, but here, it’s also a different tense of the repeated “done” from the main lyric. It’s worth noting that the “do, do, do, do” is also the backing vocal for the part before “Heroes and Villains just see what you’ve done, done.”

I also found it interesting that in the 1966 version of “Heroes and Villains,” the line is “Margaritas keep the spirit high,” but the 2004 version has it as “Margarita keeps the spirit high.” One is the drink; one is a person named Margarita. However, the lyrics that follow that line could be interpreted as applying to either the drink or a person.

The backing vocals during the “my children were raised” part are also flipped in the 2004 version. The words (“Boys and girls and boys and girls” etc.) are alternated, panned left and right. In the 1966 stereo version, the left side is first and then the right, but on the 2004 version, the right side is first, followed by the left.

The rhythm in some of the keyboard parts of “Heroes and Villains” also appears in other songs on the album, particularly “Wonderful” and parts of “Look” (also known as “Song for Children”), which helps to give the album more cohesiveness.

I can’t tell if the 2004 version includes it, but hearing the backing track for the 1966 version of “Cabin Essence” revealed that the ascending and descending vocal parts (which resemble the inexorable motion of a train) are doubled with strings. The 1966 version also includes a dobro, which – via plucking – resembles the sound of hammering railroad spikes. So trains (and the railroad in general) are portrayed in the song in two ways. (See an earlier post I wrote about this.)

Through the album, there are also instances of the percussion matching the lyrics. On “Child Is Father of the Man,” there’s a trumpet with some type of mute resulting in a “wah” type sound. In the session highlights (about half-way through the second version), you can hear Brian Wilson say that it sounds like a baby, evidently to reflect the theme and the title. The session highlights for “Surf’s Up” have him commenting on the percussion sounding like jewelry, recalling “the diamond necklace” mentioned in the first line. And, obviously, he uses vegetables as percussion on “Vega-Tables.” I may be wrong, but near the end, it even sounds like he’s figured out how to play two different vegetables to alternate between the tonic and the fifth.

Listening to the 1966 version of the album also reminded me of the Poe reference in “Surf’s Up,” which I’d forgotten about. Namely, the line “the pit and the pendulum.” There are also some other literary references in the song. There’s the obvious reference to Robert Burns’ “Auld Lang Syne,” but I believe there’s also a reference to Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” The line “adieu or die” from “Surf’s Up” isn’t too far from the “do or die” from Tennyson’s poem. (Additionally, the line “the child is father of the man” is from a Wordsworth poem.)

There are also references in the lyrics of “Surf’s Up” to other songs on the album. The line “I heard the word. Wonderful thing! A children’s song” references “Wonderful” (and “Song for Children” on the 2004 version). After this line, the backing vocals are similar to those from “The Child Is Father of the Man.”

Finally, listening to “Good Vibrations” at the end of the album, I started wondering if the line “softly smile, I know she must be kind” is where they got the title for SMiLE.

The Turtles' "Elenore" and "You Showed Me"

I also listened to Happy Together: The Very Best of the Turtles this morning.  Along with a bunch of instruments that I hadn't noticed on a lot of the tracks before, I found either a theremin or a tannerin on both "Elenore" and "You Showed Me."  This started me thinking about the time period that these songs were released in.  Just recently (last night, in fact) I read about the tannerin used on Brian Wilson's "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times" from the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album, which was the first time one was used in a song.  It seems the Turtles weren't too far behind.  Pet Sounds was released in May 1966, and these two Turtles songs were released in 1968 ("Elenore" in September and "You Showed Me" in December).

The Beatles' "If I Fell"

I listened to the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night this morning, and I noticed some interesting things going on with the vocals on "If I Fell," but I'm not sure I can accurately describe what's going on.  After the introductory part by John - when Ringo's drums and Paul's harmony come in, it's difficult to tell which vocal part is the lead and which is the harmony.  It's much more balanced than a lot of the other Beatles lead vocal/harmony pairings are.

At a few instances ("I must be sure," "Don't run and hide," etc.), they either break the lead/harmony distinction and sing the same part, or the harmonies come really close together like the Everly Brothers.  I can't tell which.  But the great thing about it is that it doesn't seem jolting or obvious.  I'm fairly familiar with this album, and I didn't notice it until now.

Duane Eddy's "Trambone"

I've been listening to Duane Eddy's Greatest Hits.  The first 30 seconds or so of "Trambone" sounded familiar, and I finally placed it as the opening piano figure from the Sopwith Camel's "Hello, Hello."

I think it's actually the other way around though, as I'm fairly certain that Duane Eddy's song is older.  So the piano part in "Hello, Hello" would be referencing the guitar part in "Trambone."  It's backwards for me though, as I'm more familiar with "Hello, Hello," and I think this is only the second time I've listened to Duane Eddy's Greatest Hits.

The Lovin' Spoonful's "You're a Big Boy Now"

I'm still making my way through the Greatest Hits albums.  Currently, it's the Lovin' Spoonful.  In "You're a Big Boy Now," I discovered the riff from Buster Brown's "Fannie Mae."  It comes in after the first chorus, played on guitar and harmonica.

I hadn't realized that that riff was so important.  Along with the reference in "You're a Big Boy Now," it informed the melody of the Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda," and on the earlier version on Today! (titled "Help Me, Ronda"), the riff is played on harmonica near the end.

EDIT: I just realized that that same phrase is also used for the melody in the Silhouettes' "Get a Job" - the first "sha na na."

The Monkees' "Last Train to Clarksville"

I listened to the Monkees' Greatest Hits earlier this morning.  Even though I've heard "Last Train to Clarksville" dozens of times, I just finally noticed that the backing vocals (both the "train" and "aah") sound a bit like a train whistle.