Success!

Because I listened to the last disc of Zombie Heaven this morning, I completed my Collection Audit project for an-other year.  Two years ago, I finished on 11 November.  I have more music in my collection now, but I finished almost a week earlier, so I guess I listened to more every day.

I plan on doing this again in 2018, but who knows how big my music collection will be by then or how busy I'll be.  Inevitably, there will be a year I won't complete this project.

For more of these same kinds of posts, I'd recommend my general music blog.  I try to have a new post there every Monday, and for the last few months, I've occasionally been posting some notation on Fridays.

The Zombies' "Soulville"

This morning I listened to the last disc of the Zombies' Zombie Heaven, subtitled "Live on the BBC," and I noticed a small thing about their version of "Soulville."  During a section about halfway through the song, the backing vocals consist of the phrase "Come on down to Soulville."  The "down" there is sung with two syllables; it's a G down to an E.  That descent sort of represents the whole "Come on down to Soulville" phrase itself.

The Zombies' "Smokey Day"

This morning I listened to the second disc of the Zombies' Zombie Heaven (which is the last album I have to listen to before completing Collection Audit this year).  I'm pretty sure I'd noticed before that the harpsichord in "Smokey Day" is panned through different channels about halfway through the song (starting at about 1:00), but this morning I realized that that effect is connected to the lyrics.  The harpsichord moves from the left channel to the right channel after the line "Soft, serene, she dances," and during the next line "Moving sweetly through my life," it moves back to the left channel.  Both of those lines deal with movement, and the harpsichord somewhat literally underscores that movement through that panning.

Sam Cooke's "For Sentimental Reasons"

I've been making my way through a three-disc set of Sam Cooke (titled You Send Me), and yester-day when I listened to the second disc, I noticed something about "For Sentimental Reasons," specifically the line "I dream of you every every every every night."  Those "every"s are sung with three syllables each (rather than the two they're usually pronounced with), and between that pronunciation and the repetition there, the frequency of "dream[ing] of you" is illustrated.

The Byrds' "Mind Gardens"

Yester-day I listened to the Byrds' Younger than Yesterday, and I noticed a small thing about "Mind Gardens."  The "walls all down" part of the line "I tore the walls all down" is sung to a descending phrase (E D C#), so there's a musical representation of the walls' coming down.

Just for the sake of making this post a bit more than just "hey, there's significance to this descending phrase," I was going to note the origin of the phrase "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," which occurs earlier in the song, but in doing so, I actually found something I hadn't realized before.  I've known for years that this is a phrase from Shakespeare's Hamlet.  It's actually in Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy.  He asks himself "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them." (III.i.65-68).  But I hadn't realized that both Hamlet and David Crosby's song are talking about minds.  Hamlet specifically mentions "in the mind," where Crosby seems to use a garden as a metaphor for a mind.

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown soundtrack

This morning I listened to the soundtrack of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and I noticed a lot of things.

"Snoopy"

The melody for "Sturdy roof beneath my head" also describes the relative positions of those things.  "Sturdy roof" is sung to the phrase D E D, and "beneath my head" to D D B A.  So "roof" (D) really is "beneath my head" (A).

"My Blanket and Me"

After not being able to leave his blanket on the floor, Linus rushes back to it, and there's the line "Got you back again" sung to a palindromic phrase (C D E D C).  (In a bonus track with a different performer, it's a half step lower: Bb C D C Bb).  The palindromic nature of that phrase represents the coming back.

"Dr. Lucy"

Near the end, when Lucy sings, "You have the distinction to be no one else but the singular, remarkable, unique Charlie Brown," there's a dissonant note (corresponding to "unique") on a chromatic percussion instrument (I can't quite tell what it is; vibraphone, maybe).  That dissonant note represents what - at the beginning of the song - Lucy calls "everything that's wrong with" Charlie Brown .

At the end, after Lucy's line "That'll be five cents, please," there's a Bb note played on piano followed by a rumbling descent to an Eb.  In a different version of the song (inexplicably with a different title: "The Doctor Is In") included as a bonus track, there're just single notes: a Bb followed by an Eb a fifth lower.  That interval (a fifth) and its descent musically represent Charlie Brown's putting down a nickel.

"The Red Baron"

Last time I did Collection Audit, I mentioned that part of the vocal melody from "Over There" is played in this.  I'm a bit more familiar with "Over There" now, so I noticed that "The Red Baron" also starts with the same four-note descending phrase that's in the bass register at the beginning of the chorus of "Over There" (the same pitches even: Bb A G F):

(notation found here)

"T-E-A-M (The Baseball Game)"

After the batter hit Charlie Brown's pitch, Lucy caught it "as easy as pie / Then dropped it."  The "Then dropped it" is sung to a descending melody C# A G, in the same way that Lucy drops the ball.

Jefferson Airplane's "Greasy Heart"

Yester-day I listened to The Worst of Jefferson Airplane, and I noticed a small thing about "Greasy Heart" (from Crown of Creation), which is a bonus track, although it's inserted into the middle to fit the roughly chronological track listing.

The "falls" in the line "Don't change before the empire falls" has a descending melisma (I'm not sure what specific notes are sung, but the phrase starts on an A and descends to a D), which is a musical representation of the empire falling.

The Beatles' "Devil in Her Heart"

Earlier to-day I listened to the Beatles' With the Beatles, and I noticed something about "Devil in Her Heart" that should have been glaringly obvious.  The "apart" in the recurring line "She's gonna tear your heart apart" is sung with a melisma (I think it's A A B G A, but I'm not sure).  Breaking up "apart" into multiple syllables and various pitches both emphasizes and demonstrates the "tear[ing]."

The White Stripes' "I Can Learn"

A few days ago, I listened to the White Stripes' White Blood Cells, and I noticed something about a melody in "I Can Learn."  Near the end of the song, there are the lines "Falling down / Is no longer around."  The "Falling down" is sung to a descending phrase (E B G#), so there's a musical representation of that descent.  The end of "Is no longer around" is sung to an ascending phrase (E G A A# B).  It's as if descending further is no longer possible (because "Falling down / Is no longer around"), so the melody has to rise at that point.

Wilco's "Deeper Down"

This morning I also listened to Wilco's Wilco (The Album), and I noticed a small thing about "Deeper Down."  The title phrase descends (it's sung to the melody C G E), so there's a musical representation of depth.

The Guess Who's "A Wednesday in Your Garden"

This morning I listened to the Guess Who's Wheatfield Soul, and I noticed a couple things about "A Wednesday in Your Garden."  First, there are some melismas that mirror the lyrics.  The "down" in the first line of the chorus ("It's a long way comin' down") is sung to the phrase F# E D.  By spreading "down" out across those three syllables, there's both a musical representation of the "downness" and an emphasis on the length of the "long way."  Furthermore, because F# E D doesn't skip over any notes in that section of the A major scale (I'm pretty sure the song's in A major), there's a sense of climbing down each rung of the ladder that's mentioned in the next line ("The ladders in your eye").  There's scale in the sense of musical intervals, and there's scale in the sense of climbing (albeit downward).

The "fall" in the second "You watch me fall" at the end of the second verse is sung to the phrase F# E, so there's a bit of a representation of that fall.

In the third verse, "garden" is rhymed with "harden" (the full lines are "I tried to fly in your garden" and "I watched the sky above me harden").  The first line of each verse ends with "garden," and the fourth line rhymes with it.  In the first verse, "garden" is rhymed with "pardon," and in the second, it's rhymed with "cards in" (a mosaic rhyme).  There's the least amount of orthographic change between "garden" and "harden" though, which sort of tacitly indicates that hardening.  There's less variation in how the words resemble each other visually.

Punch Brothers' Who's Feeling Young Now?

This morning I listened to Punch Brothers' Who's Feeling Young Now?, and I noticed two small things about some lyrics.

"Who's Feeling Young Now?"

There's something of a reference to Icarus in the line "She said, 'Hey, you look a lot like someone I liked who flew just far enough under the sun to never come down'" (I'm not even going to try figuring out where the line breaks go there).  In the story of Icarus and Daedalus, Daedalus makes wings for himself and his son in order to escape the labyrinth.  He warns his son not to fly too close to the sun, lest the heat melt the glue and the wings fall apart, but Icarus doesn't heed his advice.  He does fly too close to the sun; the glue melts; and he plummets into the ocean.  So, the "someone... who flew just far enough under the sun" isn't like Icarus.

"Patchwork Girlfriend"

There's some great parallelism in the phrase "No false start or dead end," and because of that book-ending of terms ("start" and "end"), there's sort of an implication that nothing in the middle will go wrong either.

She & Him's "I'm Gonna Make It Better"

This morning I listened to She & Him's Volume Two, and I noticed a small thing about "I'm Gonna Make It Better."  I can't seem to figure out the precise notes, but the "down on you" in the line "Yes, it all comes crashin' down on you" is sung to a descending phrase, evidently to portray that crashing.

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

This morning I listened to a compilation album of the Coasters.  A spoken line at the beginning of "Little Egypt" caught my attention:  "Just one thin dime, one tenth of a dollar."  I had to reference the recording to get the exact phrase, but word-for-word, this is almost the same exhortation that's in the Beach Boys' "Amusement Parks U.S.A." on the Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) album.  There, it's "One thin dime, just one tenth of a dollar."

Last time I did Collection Audit, I postulated that that phrase in "Amusement Parks U.S.A." came from the song "Broadway," specifically the line "One thin dime won't even shine your shoes."  This song by the Coasters seems much more likely to be the actual origin though.  While I don't know if the Beach Boys were familiar with this song, both it and "Amusement Parks U.S.A." have a carnival-esque atmosphere.

VeggieTales: Veggie Tunes

Two days ago, I listened to an album of the VeggieTales titled VeggieTales: Veggie Tunes.  I noticed a couple things.

"King Darius Suite"

This starts with a quotation of Mozart's Serenade No. 13 in G major, K. 525 (albeit in Eb major), commonly referred to as Eine kleine Nachtmusik (literally, a little night music).  Since "King Darius Suite" is about King Darius' dream (there are two in the Bible: in Daniel 2 and Daniel 4) and dreams usually occur at night, that quotation helps to set that nighttime context.

"We are the Grapes of Wrath"

I think I was dimly aware that this is a reference to John Steinbeck's book The Grapes of Wrath, and apparently Steinbeck's title alludes to Revelation 14:17-20 (so, it's an allusion upon an allusion).  Listening to it this time, however, I noticed this stanza:

I'm ma; I'm pa; this is our brood
We're grumpy, and we know it
That's Tom and Rosie; they're both rude
And not afraid to show it

The names here are the same names from Steinbeck's book!  I've read The Grapes of Wrath only once (and that was almost three years ago now), but - if I remember correctly - the parents are referred to only as "Ma" and "Pa."  The main character is Tom Joad, and his sister is named Rose of Sharon (although it's rendered as "Rosasharn" when it appears in dialogue).

Peter & Gordon's "Jokers"

An-other thing I noticed when I listened to a Peter & Gordon compilation album yester-day was some wordplay in "Jokers."  In the last verse, there are the lines "we know / That once they leave the pack / The jokers can't come back."  "Pack" has a dual meaning here.  There's pack in the sense of a group of people, but there's also pack in the sense of a pack of playing cards, which jokers are a part of.  The playing card sense seems to be the primary one here because a later line is "their place will be taken by the jack."

Peter & Gordon's "My First Day Alone"

Yester-day I listened to a compilation album of Peter & Gordon, and I noticed something about the harmonies in "My First Day Alone."  For much of the song, both Peter & Gordon are singing, but during the line "no one's to blame but me," one of them (I'm pretty sure it's Peter) drops out so that the other (Gordon) sings "but me" alone.  Because there's a single voice for that "but me," the exclusivity of the blame is represented musically.

The Who's "Long Live Rock"

To-day I listened to the second disc of a compilation album of The Who.  For the third time in about a month, I found an "every" that's sung as three syllables instead of the usual two.  Here, it's in the chorus of "Long Live Rock."  The first line is "Long live rock; I need it every night."  The emphatic three-syllable pronunciation of that "every" intensifies the singer/speaker's need.

The New Pornographers' Twin Cinema

Also this morning I listened to the New Pornographers' Twin Cinema, and I noticed a couple small things in a few tracks.

"Twin Cinema"

The line "They've shown this on both screens" is sung twice in succession and has a harmony each time, and both of those features represent the double in "Twin Cinema."

"Use It"

There's the phrase "the cup of human kindness," which is an allusion to Shakespeare's Macbeth.  In Act I, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth "is too full o' th' milk of human kindness" (I.v.16).

"Streets of Fire"

The "every" in the line "Let's sully every stage" is pronounced with three syllables rather than the usual two, which emphasizes the exhaustive nature of every.

The Who's "My Wife"

This morning I listened to the first disc of a compilation album of the Who, and I noticed a small thing about "My Wife" (from Who's Next).  The melody for the end of the line "And I'm oh so tired of runnin'; gonna lay down on the floor" descends ("lay down on the floor" goes from D# to G#), which sort of musically portrays the singer/speaker's laying down to rest.

The Apples in Stereo's "C.P.U."

This morning I listened to the Apples in Stereo's Travellers in Space and Time, and I realized something about "C.P.U."  I'm pretty sure it uses the non-Pythagorean musical scale (which Robert Schneider talks about here), and because that's used alongside more standard musical intervals, there are some dissonances.  Those dissonances seem to musically represent the feeling that's in the first two lines: "You know what it's like when you're out of range of your satellite / You know you feel blue when you're out of sync with your CPU."  There's an off-kilter feeling that's common to both.

The Buckinghams' "Have You Noticed You're Alive"

This morning I listened to two albums by the Buckinghams released on one disc: Time & Charges and Portraits.  I noticed a small grammatical thing in "Have You Noticed You're Alive" from Portraits.  One of the lines is "You feel your troubles deep."  "Deep" could be either a flat adverb (a shortened form of deeply so that it rhymes with "sleep" from an earlier line) or an adjective modifying "troubles" with the word order inverted ("troubles deep" instead of "deep troubles").  The meaning isn't changed too much between these two parsings, but one emphasizes the depth of the troubles where the other emphasizes the degree to which they're felt.

Carole King's "Way over Yonder"

Last night I listened to Carole King's Tapestry, and I think I discovered a Biblical allusion in "Way over Yonder" that I hadn't noticed before.  The lines "Maybe tomorrow I'll find my way / To the land where the honey runs in rivers each day" seem to reference the Promised Land.  In Exodus 3:8, God tells Moses, "I have come down to deliver them [the people of Israel] out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey."

For what it's worth, I'd previously noticed the "coat of many colors" in "Tapestry," which has some resemblance (at least nominally) to Joseph's robe in Genesis 37:3.

Arcade Fire's "Ready to Start"

A couple days ago I listened to Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, and I noticed that some lines in "Ready to Start" are a reference to "The Emperor's New Clothes."  It's "All the kids have always known / That the emperor wears no clothes."  I dug out a copy of "The Emperor's New Clothes" (the nearest to hand was actually a German version from one of my college textbooks), and in it some weavers (who work with the most marvelous material) tell the king that whoever does bad work, isn't fit for his office, or is dumb or lazy can't see their material, but whoever is clever and hard-working and is fit  for his office can see their material.  They make a show of creating clothes for the emperor, and the emperor's ministers (and later the emperor himself) act as if they can see the material because they don't want to be considered unfit for their positions.  The emperor parades through the town supposedly wearing his new clothes but in reality wearing nothing, and the same thing happens with the people: the act like they can see his wonderful new clothes just so that they'll be considered clever, hard-working people.  But then a child says, "The king isn't wearing any clothes!" and the truth spreads through the crowd.

The Foundations' "Build Me up Buttercup"

I listened to some songs from compilation albums to-day, and I noticed something about the Foundations' "Build Me up Buttercup."  The line "I need you more than anyone, darling" can be parsed two different ways.  "Anyone" can be either nominative ("I need you more than anyone [else needs you]") or accusative ("I need you more than [I need] anyone [else]").  Each parsing provides different details, but both still express a paramount need.

Unit 4+2's "I Will"

I've been making my way through a box set of Bach works, and this afternoon I listened to some of the partitas for solo violin.  A section in one of the movements (BWV 1006: III.) sounded familiar to me, and - while I had to restart it a couple times - I eventually placed it as a song by Unit 4+2 (although - obviously - the Bach partita is older).  I had to reference a few songs before I found which one specifically though.  It's the introductory guitar figure in "I Will" (after about four measures of drums).

The phrase starts at measure twenty five in Partita No. 3 for Violin in E major, BWV 1006: III. Gavotte en Rondeau:

(notation found here)

(click the image to enlarge it)

"I Will" is in F major where this partita is in E major, and while the quotation isn't exact, it's certainly close enough to recognize.

The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations: Gold Star 4/9/66" (from The SMiLE Sessions)

Lately I've been listening to The SMiLE Sessions box set.  I listened to the fifth disc this morning, and I noticed that in the second track ("Good Vibrations: Gold Star 4/9/66") at about 1:03 before the next take starts, a guitar plays part of the melody from George Gershwin's "Strike up the Band."  It's the melody to which is sung:

Let the drums roll out
Let the trumpet call
While the people shout
Strike up the band

The final note (for "band") either isn't played or isn't audible (there's some other noise that occurs at the same time that might obscure it), but I was still very excited to hear and recognize this.

Wilson's cited Gershwin as an influence, but I don't know if this quotation is anything more than just coincidence.

The Roulettes' "Stubborn Kind of Fellow"

I listened to the Roulettes' Stakes and Chips a couple days ago, but I was thinking about it again yester-day and realized a small thing about "Stubborn Kind of Fellow."  In what I guess is the bridge, the backing vocals have the repeated line "Gonna love you in every way."  The "every" there is pronounced with three syllables instead of the usual too.  That pronunciation emphasizes the multitude of ways in which the speaker/singer is going to love his girl.

After I thought all of that, I referenced the song and found some more things.  The three-syllable "every" there is contrasted with a couple two-syllable "every"s in the song ("ev'rybody" and "ev'ry time").

I realized a lot more about that bridge section too.  The lead vocals are "I wanna love you / In every way."  As in the backing vocals, that "every" is pronounced with three syllables, but the lead vocals also have various melismas on "way" (they differ when the line is repeated), which also hint at a multitude of ways.  Furthermore, while the lead vocals are "I wanna love you," the backing vocals are "Gonna love you."  The difference there hints at the speaker/singer's determination or, as the title has it, his stubbornness.

The Kinks' "Afternoon Tea"

Last night I listened to Something Else by the Kinks, and I think I found a couple allusions in "Afternoon Tea."

The first two lines are "Tea time won't be the same without my Donna / At night I lie awake and dream of Donna."  I hadn't realized this before, but I think these lines' mentioning an absent Donna is an allusion to Ritchie Valens' "Donna."  The first verse of Valens' "Donna" starts with the lines "I had a girl; Donna was her name / Since she left me, I never been the same."  While one song describes the effect on the speaker/singer and one describes the effect on tea time, neither is "the same" because Donna is gone.

The next two lines in "Afternoon Tea" are "I think about that small café / That’s where we used to meet each day," and I think this alludes to Buddy Holly's "That's My Desire," specifically the second verse:

To meet where gypsies play
Down in some small café
And dance 'til break of day
That's my desire

Both have a "small café" that's rhymed with "day."  The next line in "That's My Desire" (which is the first line of the bridge) is "We'll sip a little glass of wine," so there's drinking involved there too, except it's wine instead of tea.

Both "Donna" and "That's My Desire" pre-date "Afternoon Tea" by about a decade, so these allusions are possible from a chronological point of view, but I don't know enough about Ray Davies' influences to be certain that these are intentional references.

The Royal Guardsmen's "Airplane Song (My Airplane)"

Earlier I listened to two albums by the Royal Guardsmen (Snoopy vs. the Red Baron and Snoopy and His Friends) re-issued on a single disc.  I noticed something about the melody of a line in "Airplane Song (My Airplane)" on Snoopy and His Friends.  For "I can go up," the melody ascends (E E G# B E') with a melisma on "go" to further emphasize it, and for "I can get down," the melody descends (E' F# E' C# A).  There's a parallelism not only in the structure of the two clauses in that line but also in the ascending and descending melodies and the melismas on the verbs "go" and "get."

The Yardbirds' "Pounds and Stomps"

This morning I listened to the second disc of a two-disc compilation album of the Yardbirds (titled Smokestack Lightning), and "Pounds and Stomps" sounded very familiar to me.  I just figured out how to play part of it, and now I've confirmed that it's pretty much the same song as "He's Always There" from Roger the Engineer (which I wrote about three weeks ago).

Both songs start with a introductory drum figure that's almost a full two measures.  Then there's a descending chromatic phrase played eight times that constitutes a verse.  In "He's Always There," it's just single notes on guitar and bass (G F# F E), but in "Pounds and Stomps," the guitar plays chords based on those same notes (G major F# major F major E major).  In the second and fourth verses, after that E note, the bass adds a quick E B E phrase.

Then, there's the chorus section.  In "He's Always There," the bass doubles the vocal melody ("I'd like to get to know you, sure...") while the guitar doubles select notes.  The first phrase is A B E; the second is A B D; and the third is A B E again.  In "Pounds and Stomps," those three-note guitar phrases are in the bass, and the guitar plays major chords with those notes as the roots.  At the end, the bass plays a string of E notes that leads back into the verse.

The liner notes for this compilation aren't any help in trying to figure out the chronology.  For "Pounds and Stomps," it says only, "1983" with a P in a circle, which apparently means the song was first published only in 1983.  Its not being released at the time would seem to suggest it was a precursor to "He's Always There," which was released in 1966.  "Pounds and Stomps" is credited to Samwell-Smith and McCarty where all of the Roger the Engineer songs are credited to all of the Yardbirds, which would also suggest that "Pounds and Stomps" is a precursor to the more refined "He's Always There."  I should also note that "Pounds and Stomps" is instrumental where there are lyrics in "He's Always There."  Of course, this is all conjecture, but it seems unlikely that the two songs were meant to be distinct when they're so similar musically.

Unit 4+2's "A Place to Go"

This morning I listened to a collection of Unit 4+2 (Singles As & Bs).  I can't believe I hadn't noticed the significant key change near the end of "A Place to Go."  I didn't figure out any precise parts, but I'm pretty sure that it moves from D major to Eb major.  The chorus has the lines "I wanna move but I ain't got / A place to go," so while the singer/speaker can't physically move (in the sense of moving house), he can move musically via that key change.

Ron & Bill's "It"

Yester-day I listened to the second disc in a two-disc set of Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.  It includes their first two albums and some bonus tracks.  I noticed something about "It," one of the bonus tracks.  It's credited to Ron & Bill, whom the liner notes explain are Ronald White and Smokey Robinson.  The first verse seems to take a lot of inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven."  It starts:

I was home last night tryin' to read a book
There was a knock on my door, so I took a look
But when I reached the door, there was no one there
Not on the porch or anywhere

The narrator of Poe's poem is also "ponder[ing]... / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore" when "suddenly there came a tapping, / ... at my chamber door" (lines 1-4).  When he finally gets around to opening it, he finds "Darkness there, and nothing more" (line 23).

There aren't as many similarities in the rest of "It," but in the second verse the speaker/singer says that he "really wanted it for my pet," so it's clearly an animal and possibly a raven.  In the bridge, the "it" is rolled over and presumably killed by a train, yet in the third verse, it calls the speaker/singer on the telephone, and there's the same "Oh" phrase that marks its appearance in the first two verses.  There's some similarity between this and Poe's narrator's mentioning that the raven comes from "the Night's Plutonian shore" (lines 46 and 97).  Pluto is the god of the dead (in the Greek and Roman pantheons, as far as I can tell), so the raven's coming from the "Plutonian shore" seems to mean that it's come back from the dead, just like the "it" in Ron & Bill's song.

Sufjan Stevens' "All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands"

Yester-day I also listened to Sufjan Stevens' Seven Swans.  It's just a minor point, but I noticed an interesting melisma in "All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands."  The "away" in "And I am throwing all my thoughts away" is sung to the phrase G# F# E C#, so there's a musical representation of that throwing.

This morning when I drafted this post, the title sounded familiar to me, so I did some research and discovered that it's from Isaiah 55:12:  "For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

Johnny Rivers' "Last Train to Memphis"

Yester-day I listened to the second disc of a two-disc Johnny Rivers compilation album (Secret Agent Man: The Ultimate Johnny Rivers Anthology).  I noticed the lines "Guess I knew somewhere deep inside / That mystery train would take me for a ride someday" in "Last Train to Memphis," and I'm pretty sure this is a reference to Elvis Presley.  He lived in Memphis, and one of his songs is titled "Mystery Train" (although the phrase itself doesn't appear in the song and Rivers uses it in a different way).

The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"

Yester-day I listened to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and I noticed an interesting thing about the bass part in "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."  During the "Newspaper taxis appear on the shore..." section, the bass part is almost entirely quarter notes (and a pair of eighth notes), so the single half note (second measure of the second line) sticks out:

(click the image for a larger view)
(A few comments on this notation.  First, I did it myself, so there's the standard disclaimer that I might have something wrong.  Second, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is partially in 3 / 4 and partially in 4 / 4, and at the end of this section, there's a transition from 3 / 4 time to 4 / 4 time, so it might be that the last measure should be in 4 / 4 instead of 3 / 4.)

That half note corresponds to "take" in the line "Waiting to take you away," so musically there's a pause to reflect the taxis' standing by.

The Andrews Sisters' "Where Have We Met Before?"

This morning I listened to a compilation album of the Andrews Sisters, and I think I found some allusions in "Where Have We Met Before?"

The second verse begins with the lines: "It might have been way back in Nagasaki / Where women wicky wacky 'round your door."  I think this is a reference to the song "Nagasaki."  Apparently this is a jazz standard, but I have only Django Reinhardt's version, which has the lines "Back in Nagasaki where the fellas chew tobaccy / And the women wicky wacky woo."

The third verse of "Where Have We Met Before?" begins with "It might have been in Paris in the springtime," which I think is a reference to "April in Paris."  It's not as direct as the allusion to "Nagasaki," but April is in spring, so the temporal elements do match.

I lookt up the dates for these songs, and I think the chronology allows for the allusions.  The dates I found say that "Nagasaki" is from 1928; "April in Paris" is from 1932; and the Andrews Sisters' "Where Have We Met Before?" is from 1938.

I can't fully articulate it, but there's something fitting about referencing other songs in a song that asks, "Where have we met before?"

Wilco's "Born Alone"

Yester-day I listened to Wilco's Roadcase 002 - 2012-07-08 Geneva, IL.  It's a live recording of a Wilco concert I attended some years ago.  Anyway, I noticed the phrase "Mine eyes have seen" in "Born Alone" (from The Whole Love), and I realized that this same phrase is in the first line of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" - "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."  I lookt up the lyrics of "Born Alone" on Wilco's website, and I found "Mine eyes deceiving glory," which also bears some resemblance to that line in "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

I'd previously noticed the phrase "The finger, divine extremity," which I always thought was a reference to Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam."  I still find the song enigmatic, but I'm pretty sure these are meant as religious-inspired images.

The Yardbirds' "He's Always There"

This morning I listened to the Yardbirds' Roger the Engineer, and I noticed something about the melody in "He's Always There."  The first two lines of the "I'd like to get to know you, sure..." section have the same melody except for the last note.  They're both E G B A G A B, but the first (and third) line ends with an E note where the second line ends with a D.  For the second line, the melody goes higher, which musically represents the "one step more" mentioned in the line itself ("And take this thing just one step more").

The other instruments sort of underline this representation too.  For that section, the bass plays the same notes that are sung, and the guitar part plays the last three, adding further emphasis.  For the first (and third) line, it's A B E, but for the second, it's A B D.

Argent's "Celebration"

This morning I listened to Argent's Ring of Hands, and I noticed something about "Celebration," the first track.  The first couple lines ("Celebration / An invitation") are sung by just one voice, but then more voices join in for the next lines ("To come and join in / The ring of hands together"), so there's a musical representation of that "join[ing] in."

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas

This morning I listened to Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, and I noticed something about "Come away, fellow sailors" at the beginning of Act 3.  The text is:

Come away, fellow sailors, come away
Your anchors be weighing
Time and tide will admit no delaying
Take a bowsey short leave of your nymphs on the shore
And silence their mourning
With vows of returning
But never intending to visit them more

This continues with some variation on "But never intending to visit them more," but otherwise that's the entirety of the text.  I guessed at the line breaks, judging by what words receive capital letters in the notation I have (found here).

"Mourning" and "returning" don't rhyme perfectly.  At best, it's a slant rhyme.  That imperfection in rhyming seems to betray the sailors' "never intending to visit them more."  If there were a perfect rhyme there, it would imply the sailors' faithfulness to their "nymphs on the shore."

Bobby Darin's "Mighty Mighty Man"

Last night I listened to the first disc of a two-CD set of Bobby Darin titled Purely... Bobby Darin.  Last time I did Collection Audit, I postulated that "Mighty Mighty Man" took some lyrical inspiration from "Good Rockin' Tonight."  This time, I noticed that "Mighty Mighty Man" also has the exact same line that starts Little Richard's "Rip It Up."  The second line in the third verse is "It's Saturday night, and I just got paid."  I lookt up the release dates, and chronologically, this influence is possible.  Little Richard's "Rip It Up" is from 1956 (and apparently many other artists recorded it in the following years), and "Mighty Mighty Man" is from 1958.

Because I found that these two lines match more or less exactly (there might be a "well" or an "a-" differentiating them), I'm more confident in what I said in my post from two years ago.  It seems more likely that Darin took some lyrical phrases from "Good Rockin' Tonight" and "Rip It Up" rather than both of these similarities in the lyrics of "Mighty Mighty Man" being just coincidences.

The Decemberists' "Of Angels and Angles"

I just listened to the Decemberists' Picaresque and noticed a small thing about "Of Angels and Angles."  The "aways"s in the lines "Down we go away / Away" have melismas.  The first is just F# G F#, but the second is F# G F# E D G.  Both - but especially the second - give a sense of the movement (downward movement in particular, since the phrase descends) that's mentioned in the previous line: "And, darlin', we go a-drownin'."

Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang"

This morning I listened to a compilation album of Sam Cooke titled Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964, and I noticed something small about "Chain Gang."  There's a melisma for "down" in the line "Till the sun is goin' down" in the bridge.  Instead of a single syllable, it's sung to two (the notes are A and G), so there's a musical representation of the sun's descent.

Electric Light Orchestra's Out of the Blue

This morning I listened to Electric Light Orchestra's Out of the Blue.  Last March I started a project where I look into ELO's music specifically (which I started because of this project, actually), and I've already written a fair amount about Out of the Blue there, but I noticed some more things this morning.

"Starlight"

I've had this album for years (it was actually the first original ELO album I got), but it wasn't until this morning that I deciphered the line "You've gotta stop" in "Starlight."  Had I noticed that sooner, I probably would have understood long ago that there's a musical/lyrical connection there.  After "You've gotta stop," the music stops before the lyric continues with "Foolin' around."

"Big Wheels"

There's a musical connection between "Big Wheels" and "Steppin' Out."  After some measures of tied whole notes, the bass part in "Steppin' Out" has this figure:

(click here for a larger image)

I use the MIDI component of my digital audio workstation to make these examples of notation, and where I would have tied a half note and a dotted quarter note, it put two dots on a half note.  I guess it ends up with the same value, but I haven't seen double-dotted notes anywhere else.

When the bass part finally starts in "Big Wheels," every other measure has the same rhythm as that in the bass part in "Steppin' Out."  The phrase also alternates between fourths, although here it's a semi-tone higher:

(click here for a larger image)

"Birmingham Blues"

Near the beginning, there's the line "Yeah, I've been rollin' like a stone," which recalls "Like a rollin' stone" in "Steppin' Out."

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Both of those last two things make the album more coherent.

Simon & Garfunkel's "A Most Peculiar Man"

From August 11th to the 13th, I listened to Simon & Garfunkel's three-disc Old Friends set (I listened to a disc a day).  Yester-day I was thinking about "A Most Peculiar Man," and I realized something about the melody.  It ascends for the first part of the line "She lived upstairs from him."  The live version on Old Friends is in a different key (D major, although it sounds a bit out-of-tune) from the studio version on Sounds of Silence (Db major), so in the live version, "She lived upstairs" is sung to the phrase E F# G A where it's Eb F Gb Ab in the studio version (those are Paul Simon's parts at least; I think Garfunkel's harmony is a third lower, so C# D E F# in D major and C Db Eb F in Db major).  At first, I assumed that the live version on Old Friends is the same recording from Live from New York City, 1967, but closer listening reveals that they're different recordings, although the Live from New York City, 1967 version is in D major too.  In any case (and in any key), that melody ascends as if to show Mrs. Reardon (the spelling of which I'm guessing on) going up the stairs, while the titular man (the "from him," sung to F notes in Db major or F# notes in D major) remains below.

Colin Blunstone's "Say You Don't Mind"

A couple days ago I listened to Colin Blunstone's One Year (on vinyl, even), and I noticed some things about "Say You Don't Mind."  I knew there are melismas during certain parts of the verses, but I found connections with the lyrics that I hadn't noticed before.  The two melismas in question are for "growin'" (E D# C# C#) and "goin'" (E D# C# C# B A, I think) in the lines "I've been doing some growin' / But I'm scared of you goin'."  The melisma for "growin'" sort of indicates the breadth of experience or knowledge that the singer/speaker claims he now has, and the melisma for "goin'" portrays the leaving of the titular "you."  Both encompass a distance in pitch rather than a single note, which would imply staying the same or staying of a stationary sort, respectively.

Andrew Bird's "Are You Serious"

This morning I listened to Andrew Bird's Bowl of Fire's Oh! The Grandeur, and I think I found an-other instance of Bird's borrowing from his past work (when I listened to Oh! The Grandeur last Collection Audit, I discovered that he reworkt "The Confession" into "The Privateers" on Noble Beast).  The pizzicato part that starts "Feetlips" sounds a lot like the pizzicato part that starts the title track of Are You Serious.  I spent a bit of time trying to figure out the parts, and while I'm not super confident in what I came up with, I think they're something like this:

"Feetlips":

"Are You Serious":

In the same rhythm, there's a two-octave jump, then down a sixth, up a third, and down a fifth.  Aside from the initial note, that phrase is repeated in "Feetlips," but the "Are You Serious" part continues descending in a skipping manner.

I should mention that I don't actually have Are You Serious yet.  I listened to it when it was on NPR's First Listen, but I've become familiar with the songs via Bird's radio appearances.  I figured out (or tried to figure out) the part in "Are You Serious" based on this performance on KFUV.

Simon & Garfunkel's "Richard Cory"

This morning I listened to the first disc of Simon & Garfunkel's Old Friends three-disc set, and (probably because I was working on transcribing it) I noticed a couple things about "Richard Cory," from the Sounds of Silence album.

The contrast between Richard Cory and the singer/speaker is one of the critical points of the lyrics, but I noticed that the contrast is also illustrated in the length of the lines.  Each of the lines in the sections that describe Richard Cory is at least fourteen syllables, but the lines that describe the narrator are all under ten syllables each.

I also noticed that there's a contrast in the vocabulary.  The sections that describe Richard Cory have hardly any repetition.  Really, there's only "Richard Cory at the opera, Richard Cory at a show," and that doesn't illustrate a scarcity; instead it portrays Richard Cory as someone who - because he's wealthy - can attend various spectacles of entertainment.  The sections that describe the narrator have a paucity of words.  Nearly all of the lines start with "But I," "And I," or "Oh, I."  Cursing is repeated in sequential lines:  "And I curse the life I'm livin' / And I curse my poverty," and wishing in three more:  "And I wish that I could be / Oh, I wish that I could be / Oh, I wish that I could be."  While this repetition demonstrates the caliber of the singer/speaker's dissatisfaction with his lot and the earnestness of his wishing that he could be like Richard Cory, it also shows that he's limited in what he has and what he can acquire because he's merely a worker in Richard Cory's factory.

I feel it's worth mentioning that while this song is based on Edwin Arlington Robinson's poem "Richard Cory," Robinson's poem doesn't have these features.  In the poem, each line is ten syllables, and there aren't distinct sections focusing on either Richard Cory or the speaker.

The Zombies' "Hung up on a Dream"

This afternoon I listened to the 30th anniversary edition of the Zombies' Odessey and Oracle, and I noticed something about "Hung up on a Dream."  There's an interval of a fourth between "sights" and "above" in the line "And showed me strangest clouded sights above."  "Sights" is sung to an A, and the two syllables of "above" are sung to D notes.  The distance between the pitches of those notes helps to give a sense of the spatial distance mentioned in the lyric.

Buddy Holly's "You Are My One Desire"

This morning I listened to a compilation album of Buddy Holly titled Oh Boy, and I noticed something about "You Are My One Desire."  The "love" in the line "You'll never know how much I love you" has a melisma (the notes are B A G).  At first I just thought that because there are multiple notes instead of the single syllable with which "love" is pronounced when spoken, there's a musical representation of the greatness of the singer/speaker's love.  But then I realized that there's more to it than that.  When I was looking at the lyrics I'd transcribed, there was no indication that the "love" in that line has a melisma, and that itself mirrors the lyric.  "You'll never know how much I love you" when the words are written, but there's some indication of it (although that might not be an adequate representation either) when those words are sung.

Badfinger's No Dice

I recently listened to Badfinger's No Dice twice (on Sunday and again this morning).  I have two copies, and the bonus tracks are different, so I listened to both.  The first time I listened to it, I noticed that a number of the songs mention giving and taking in the same line, so when I listened to the album a second time, I made notes of these.  There are three.  "Blodwyn" has the line "And say you'll take from me what I will give to you;" "Better Days" has the line "You give all you want, but you take away what's mine;" and "We're for the Dark" has the line "If you're gonna take, then you have to give."  Each of these instances doesn't seem to have any connection to the others, but giving and taking are certainly recurring actions on the album.

The Zombies' Odessey & Oracle {Revisited} The 40th Anniversary Concert

Over the last two days, I listened to the two discs of the Zombies' Odessey & Oracle {Revisited}: The 40th Anniversary Concert.  I noticed some things (with melismas, naturally) on two songs on the first disc.

"Maybe after He's Gone"

The "breathe" in the line "I feel I'll never breathe again" is sung to two syllables instead of just one.  There's a deliberateness in how it's sung, almost as if the speaker/singer wants to draw out the breaths he has now because he feels there will soon be a time he can't breathe at all (the next line is "I feel life's gone from me").

"Tell Her No"

The "charms" in the line "And if she tempts you with her charms" has a melisma.  Instead of the one syllable it's spoken with, there are multiple syllables, as if to make the "charms" musically alluring.

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Both of these features are on the original recordings that the Zombies did in the '60s.  However, on this live album, the melisma'd "breathe" in "Maybe after He's Gone" is more prominent, and the melisma to which the "charms" in "Tell Her No" is sung actually has more notes than the original recording.  (It's G# E F# in the original; G# F# E F# in this live version.)

The Zombies' New World

A couple days ago I listened to the Zombies' New World album, and I noticed two things.

"Nights on Fire"

I'm not fully convinced of this myself, but I think the line "Only believe and the door will open wide" might be a reference to the Bible, specifically "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8).  A couple of the other songs mention Heaven (although perhaps not in a religious sense), which seems to strengthen the possibility of this being an intentional Biblical reference.

"Knowing You"

In the line "Facing up to every day now, I will never be alone" there's a harmony part for "be alone," so the musical arrangement mirrors the lyric.  The speaker/singer says that he won't be alone, and there's an-other voice there to demonstrate that.

The Beatles' Revolver

Apparently, 5 August was the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' Revolver, so I skipped ahead in my listening (I'm currently in the midst of the albums that start with N) to listen to it on its release date.  I hadn't listened to it for over two years, and I found a lot of things to write about.

"I'm Only Sleeping"

The phrase "float upstream" is sung to an ascending phrase (Bb, Db, Gb), so there's a musical/lyrical mirroring there.  This might seem like a small point, but I'll get back to it.

"Love You To"

The first two verses end with a melisma'd "me" (the lines are "You don't get time to hang a sign on me" and "But what you've got means such a lot to me").  I'm not sure if this was intentional on George Harrison's part, but it recalls the melisma'd and line-ending "me" in "What You're Doing" from Beatles for Sale ("And should you need a love that's true / It's me").

"Here, There, and Everywhere"

The line "Running my hands through her hair" sounded familiar to me, and it wasn't too long before I placed it.  There's an identical line near the end of Colin Blunstone's "She Loves the Way They Love Her" (on One Year).  Both Blunstone and his former Zombies band mate Rod Argent (who wrote "She Loves the Way They Love Her") have listed the Beatles as an influence, and between that and both songs' rhyming "hair" with "there" ("There / Running my hands through her hair" in "Here, There, and Everywhere" and "Running my hands through her hair / And knowing she'll always be there" in "She Loves the Way They Love Her"), I think this is more than just a coincidence.  At best, it might be an instance of subconscious influence.

"And Your Bird Can Sing"

I was either only dimly aware of this or had forgotten, but it was very obvious to me as I listened to "And Your Bird Can Sing" this time that the line "You say you've seen seven wonders" is a reference to the Seven Wonders of the World.

"For No One"

I don't know how to play "For No One" (yet), so this isn't as precise as it could be, but I don't think the song resolves at the end.  There isn't a sense of completion, which (somewhat literally) underscores the disconnected feeling in lines such as "You stay home / She goes out" and "And in her eyes, you see nothing."

"I Want to Tell You"

I was working on transcribing this song as I listened to it, so the pleonasm in the line "All those words they seem to slip away" was especially evident.  Instead of the more fluid and more grammatically correct "All those words seem to slip away," there's a redundant "they" in the line.  The song itself is about problems in communicating, so that pleonastic "they" actually emphasizes that sentiment.

"Tomorrow Never Knows"

The phrase "float downstream" is sung to a descending phrase (E, C, G), so there's a musical/lyrical mirroring there.  Furthermore, there's a parallelism between the descending "float downstream" here and the ascending "float upstream" in "I'm Only Sleeping."  So while it's a rather simple feature, it's used to a greater effect because there's that parallelism.

Electric Light Orchestra's A New World Record

Yester-day I listened to Electric Light Orchestra's A New World Record, and I noticed something about the string parts in a couple songs.  Aside from the key, the same string part is in "So Fine" and "Livin' Thing."  I guessed on the keys based on the notes in the parts themselves, but here they are in notation (with the disclaimer that I might be wrong; notation still isn't my strong point).

"So Fine"

"Livin' Thing"

Having what is virtually the same part in two songs (which are back-to-back in the track listing) helps give the album a greater consistency.

Britten: Noye's Fludde, Op. 59

I'm listening to the soundtrack from Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom.  It includes some selections from Britten's Noye's Fludde, Op. 59.  I hadn't noticed before that "The Spacious Firmament on High" uses the tune "Tallis' Canon," and that some of it is actually sung as a canon.

Buddy Holly's "Fool's Paradise"

Between Saturday and Sunday, I listened to Buddy Holly's three-disc Memorial Collection.  This morning I got thinking about "Fool's Paradise," and I realized that there are some melodic phrases that mirror the lyrics.  The "up to Heaven" in the first line is sung to an ascending phrase (F, G, A, C), and the "love came tumblin' down" in the bridge is sung to a descending phrase (D, C, Bb, Bb, A, G).

In figuring out the vocal melody and the guitar chords, I found two other things about the bridge.  First, the interval between the two syllables of "The whole" in the line "The whole world was my kingdom" is a sixth (F to D), which suggests the vastness of the singer/speaker's "kingdom."  Second, there's a G major chord under the line "Then I saw you glance at a new romance."  The song is in F major, so the B note in that G major is an accidental (normally, it would be a Bb, making it a G minor chord), which musically represents the novelty of the "new romance."

The Smiths' "Meat Is Murder"

Earlier I listened to the Smiths' Meat Is Murder, and I noticed a small thing about the title track.  There's some alliteration in the phrase "the flesh you so fancifully fry."  The use of alliteration emphasizes the fancifulness that's mentioned in the line itself.

Fly These Wings' "Maybe I'm"

A couple days ago, I listened to Fly These Wings' "Maybe I'm."  Like I mentioned a couple months ago, Fly These Wings was a band my cousin was in a year or two ago, so this post is mostly just for my own reference (although there is a video for the song).

I'd previously noticed the phrase "daily bread," and I was pretty sure that this was a reference to the Lord's Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount: "Give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11).  Listening to it a couple days ago, I noticed the phrase, "for the least of these," which I also found in Ivan & Alyosha's "Drifting Away" a month ago (and wrote about for this project).  Matthew 25 talks about when the King will come again.  He will say to the blessed, "As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40), but He will say to the cursed, "As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me" (Matthew 25:45).

When I first noticed the "daily bread" phrase, I was wondering if it was intended as a Biblical reference because it seems that "daily bread" has also just become a common phrase.  But since I found "the least of these," which is also from the Bible, I'm more confident that both are intentional Biblical references.

Stephen Stills' "Feed the People"

This morning I listened to Stephen Stills' Man Alive!, and I noticed a Biblical reference in "Feed the People."  There's the recurring line "Turn your swords to plowshares everywhere and feed the people."  Coincidentally, two days before I listened to the album, I read Isaiah 2, where Isaiah writes, "He [God] shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore" (Isaiah 2:4).  While Stills' song is primarily concerned with feeding people, through that Biblical reference, which - in its original context - is more about turning away from war, it also advocates pacifism.

The New Pornographers' "Centre for Holy Wars"

This morning I listened to the New Pornographers' Mass Romantic, and I noticed a small thing about "Centre for Holy Wars."  During the "Hope grows greener than grass stains" tag at the end, the "grows" in the harmony part has a melisma.  It's sung to the phrase G# A# B.  Because it's sung to more syllables than it's usually spoken, there's a sense of that growing.

The Kinks' Low Budget

This morning I listened to the Kinks' Low Budget (I think for only the second time), and I noticed some things.

"Catch Me Now I'm Falling"

In order to musically represent the falling, there are some "down"s and "falling"s sung with descending melismatic phrases.

There's also a lyrical mirroring in the song's structure.  Twice, after the line "you've gone out of town," there's a guitar solo instead of more lyrics right away, which helps to demonstrate that absence and lack of communication.

"Public Health"

Instead being pronounced with the single syllable, the "strain" in the line "Cos' it [exercise] relieves the strain" is sung to four (with the notes B, A, F#, E).  There's a looseness with which it's sung (as opposed to spoken), which recalls and emphasizes the earlier lines "Loosen up your muscles / And feel the knots in your body untie."

"Moving Pictures"

After four measures of drums, there's a guitar figure that repeats, lasting nine measures.  After the line "Nothin' in life is a permanent fixture," that figure is raised a whole step (instead of C, G, A, C, it's D, A. C. D).  To some degree, that recurring figure's changing reflects the line it follows.  While it's just a transposition rather than a melodic alteration (so it retains some semblance of what it was), it does also seem to represent the "moving" in "Moving Pictures."

The Mamas & the Papas' "No Salt on Her Tail"

Last night I listened to the Mamas & the Papas eponymous second album, and I noticed a couple things about "No Salt on Her Tail."  During the first instance of the "This little bird..." section, the "away" in the line "She can fly away" has a melisma.  It's sung to an F, F, D, C phrase.  That's more than the two syllables with which "away" is normally pronounced, so it gives a sense of the movement in the bird's flight.

In that section "away" is rhymed with "stay" (the lines are "She can fly away" and "No cage to make her stay").  The "make her stay" is all sung to the same note (an F), so again there's a mirroring of the lyrics in the music.  Where "away" is sung to multiple notes and suggests movement, the phrase in this line about being stationary is sung to a single note.

This section is repeated near the end of the song (raised a half-step, which I hadn't realized until figuring out the vocal melody), but not all of these features are still in place there.

Colin Blunstone & Rod Argent's Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London

To-day I listened to Colin Blunstone & Rod Argent's Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London, and I noticed a couple things.

"In My Mind a Miracle"

This is the first track on As Far As I Can See (which was the first album for which Blunstone and Argent used the Zombies moniker again).  I'd previously noticed the importance of sight in the lyrics, with lines like "No longer blind, I see because of you" and the hint at the classical blind seer, like Tiresias, (and the Zombies' Odessey and Oracle) with "In you I found my Odyssey and Oracle" (in the liner notes, they've finally fixed the spelling).  I'd noticed all of those visual things, but I'd neglected to notice the Latin root of "retrospect" in the line "The things that I've done in / Retrospect have caused me pain."  In Latin, spectare is the verb to look at.

"Hold Your Head Up"

This is something that should have been obvious, but in the "Hold your head up" chant after the organ solo, "Hold your head" is all sung to one note (a D), but the "up" is sung to a higher note (an F), so there's an ascent in the music and the lyrics.  This feature is also in Argent's original (from All Together Now).

The Beach Boys' "Hushabye"

I just listened to the Beach Boys' All Summer Long (the 1990s re-issue packaged together with Little Deuce Coupe and some bonus tracks).  I transcribed some of the songs (because my transcriptions of Beach Boys songs are frightfully scarce), and I noticed a couple things about the lyrics in "Hushabye," written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman.

The last two lines in the first verse are: "Guardian angels up above / Take care of the one I love."  I'd always understood the "Guardian angels up above" line as a vocative because there's a vocative in the preceding line: "Oh, my darlin', don't you cry."  The line break seems to further that reading too.  Consequently, the next line - "Take care of the one I love" - is an imperative.

Listening to and transcribing the song now, I realized that it could just be a statement interrupted by a line break.  Instead of "Guardian angels up above, take care of the one I love," it's just "Guardian angels up above take care of the one I love."  Rather than the singer/speaker commanding the angels to guard his loved one, he's reassuring his love that she's being watched over.

I'm most familiar with "Hushabye" via the Beach Boys' version, and I'm fairly familiar with Jay & the Americans' version, but the liner notes for the Little Deuce Coupe/All Summer Long re-issue mention that the original was by the Mystics.  I happened to have the notation for the Mystics' version (from 1959) in Hal Leonard's Essential Songs: The 1950s.  In those lyrics, there's a comma between "Guardian angels up above" and "Take care of the one I love," indicating that those lines are a vocative and an imperative:

Both readings are grammatically viable though.

(For what it's worth, while the notation here is in F major [and I'm assuming the Mystics' version is in F major too, since the notation is based on their version], the Beach Boys' version is in E major, and Jay & the Americans' is in G major.)

The second thing I noticed is the phrase "dawn's early light" in the bridge:  "Lullaby and goodnight / Till the dawn's early light."  I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but that same phrase is in the first line of "The Star Spangled Banner" - "Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light / What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?"

B.B. King's "Understand"

This morning I listened to an album of B.B. King that combines two original albums with some bonus tracks, and I noticed a small thing about "Understand" from the album My Kind of Blues.  I'm not sure if it's technically a line break or a caesura, but in either case, there's a pause between "Good things come" and "To those who wait."  That pause in the delivery mirrors the sentiment in the lyric.

Wilco's Kicking Television: Live in Chicago

Last night I listened to Wilco's Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, and I noticed something about the lyrics in two songs.

"Misunderstood"

This song is also on Being There, but when I listened to it earlier this year I guess I didn't pay attention to the line "Short on long-term goals."  Because of the opposition between "short" and "long," there's a sense of incongruity that emphasizes the aimlessness and confusion of not having goals.

"Airline to Heaven"

Originally, this is a song from Mermaid Avenue Vol. II (which I have but haven't listened to yet) with lyrics by Woody Guthrie.  I haven't listened to this version that often, but I hadn't noticed until now that "Them's got ears let them hear / Them's got eyes let them see" is a quote from the Bible.  I had to look up where it is specifically and actually found two instances: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" - Matthew 11:15 and "And he [Jesus] said, 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear'" - Mark 4:9.  I think it's interesting that Guthrie pluralized it ("them" instead of "he").  It seems that he also extended the Biblical "ears to hear" to "eyes to see."

Colin Blunstone's "Beginning"

Last night I listened to Colin Blunstone's Journey and noticed a small thing about "Beginning."  The choral background doubles the "surrounds you in the night" in the line "Oh, self-doubt surrounds you in the night."  The choral background surrounds Blunstone's lead vocal just like the self-doubt in the lyric.

Mel Tormé's "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling"

I just wrote about this in "The Four Winds and the Seven Seas," but Mel Tormé's "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling" also features Wagner's wedding march from Lohengrin (popularly known as "Here Comes the Bride") on - I think - celesta.  Here, when the "Say, mister parson, stand by" verse is repeated, it starts halfway through the first line, and variations on it continue through the next line: "'Cause I've got a feelin' I'm fallin'."  It's not directly stated in the lyrics, but that musical quotation indicates that the singer/speaker is thinking about marriage.

Mel Tormé's "The Four Winds and the Seven Seas"

I just started listening to the last disc in a four-disc set of Mel Tormé titled Jazz and Velvet.  I noticed that after the lines "We vowed and said someday we'd wed / In the church in the vale" in "The Four Winds and the Seven Seas," the first four notes of the "Here Comes the Bride" wedding march (from Wagner's Lohengrin) are played on what I think is a celesta.

Additionally, there's an-other hint of wedding accoutrements with the vale/veil homophone.  It actually took a bit of thinking before I sussed out the line.  It's "vale" as in "valley."

Jefferson Airplane's Jefferson Airplane Takes Off

This morning I listened to Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, the first Jefferson Airplane album.  This was only the second time I've listened to it, so while I noticed some obvious things, they're novel because I'm not very familiar with the album yet, not because I haven't been paying attention.

"Bringing Me Down"

The "down, down, down" in the backing vocals at the end is sung to a descending phrase (F, E, D in octaves, I think), so there's a descent in the words and the music.

"Don't Slip Away"

The last "away" in the line "Don't slip away, oh, no, don't slip away" have melismas.  The first two syllables are sung to C# notes, but then there's an extra third syllable sung to a B.  So the "away" slips from one pitch to an-other.

Ivan & Alyosha's It's All Just Pretend

Last night I listened to Ivan & Alyosha's It's All Just Pretend and found a couple Biblical references.

"Bury Me Deep"

Here, there's the line "I'm learning that the sins of the father will trickle down," which I think is just a rephrased version of a phrase in Exodus 20:5-6:  "You shall not bow down to them [carved images] or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."  I don't think the contexts for these two phrases are the same, but the phrases themselves have a certain similarity.

"Drifting Away"

The phrase "the least of these" in the line "I guess that I'm the least of these with my empty cup" comes from Matthew 25.  The whole section (verses 31-46) is too long to quote in full, but either caring or not caring for "the least of these" is an important distinction between the blessed and the cursed.  Again, the contexts are different, but here the phrase matches exactly.

The Kinks' "Where Have All the Good Times Gone"

I'm currently listening to a compilation album of the Kinks (and transcribing some of them), and I noticed something about "Where Have All the Good Times Gone."  The first line in the last verse is "Well, yesterday was such an easy game for you to play."  I'm pretty sure this is a reference to the Beatles' "Yesterday" and its lines "Yesterday / Love was such an easy game to play."

The chronology works out.  The index of release dates in Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions lists the release date of the Help! album (with "Yesterday") as 6 August 1965, and the liner notes to the deluxe edition of The Kink Kontroversy list the release date of the "Till the End of the Day" b/w "Where Have All the Good Times Gone" single as 19 November 1965.

Kooks' "Seaside"

This afternoon I listened to the Kooks' Inside In/Inside Out.  I noticed something about the bridge of "Seaside" that should have been obvious.  The "away" in the line "But I find it hard to love you, girl, when you're far away" has a melisma (as does the single "away" after that line).  They're both sung to a Bb Bb Ab Gb Eb phrase, which helps to portray distance.

Argent's In Deep

Last night I listened to Argent's In Deep, and I noticed two small things about two songs.

"God Gave Rock and Roll to You"

The first line of the first verse is "Love your friend and love your neighbor," and the "Love your neighbor" part is a quote from the Bible.  I think it's actually in a couple places, but this is the first one I thought of:

But when the Pharisees heard that he [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"  And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40)

For what it's worth, last year, I wrote about what I think are some more Biblical references (to the Sermon on the Mount) in "It's Only Money, Pt. 1" and "It's Only Money, Pt. 2" (a lot of the lyrics are the same in both songs).

"Losing Hold"

I'm surprised I hadn't noticed this before, but "slide" in the line "Let my fingers slide" has a melisma.  Instead of being sung as just one syllable, it's sung as two, and the note changes from an A to a B, so the word "slide" is itself sliding between those two pitches.

The Moody Blues' "House of Four Doors (Part 1)"

Yester-day I listened to the Moody Blues' In Search of the Lost Chord, and I discovered two things about "House of Four Doors (Part 1)."

I'm not sure to what degree, but it seems that the inscription on the last door bears some resemblance to the Gate of Hell in Dante's Inferno.  In "House of Four Doors (Part 1)," there are the lines "Enter in, all ye who seek to find within / As the plaque said on the last door."  It seems to be the opposite of "All hope abandon, ye who enter in!" (Canto III, line 9).

The other thing I noticed is the melody to which the middle section ("House of Four Doors / I could live there forever...") is sung.  When I first listened to this album two years ago, I wrote about a piano part later in this song that I thought took a phrase from George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.  This "House of Four Doors / I could live there forever..." section uses the same melody, and it has more of a resemblance to Gershwin's.  The piano part has just the three note diatonic ascent and octave fall, but the vocal melody - like the phrase in the Rhapsody in Blue - has a diatonic ascent after that octave fall.  While they're in different keys and the note values are different, the intervals are the same.  I still haven't been able to find the Rhapsody in Blue score (I've found a lot pieces that quote it but have been unable to look at the original notation to see how they all compare), but here's some notation I made for this particular section of "House of Four Doors (Part One)":

(click here for a larger image)

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's "Promise"

I just listened to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Howl, and I noticed the line "But tread softly, you tread on my dreams" in "Promise."  I knew this was a reference to a poem, but I had to look up which specific one.  It's Yeats' "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," specifically the last two lines: "I have spread my dreams under your feet; / Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

On Christmas Music

This is more of a general thing, but I probably wouldn't have been thinking about this were it not for this project, so it makes sense to post it here.

This morning I listened to an album of Herbert Howells' church music and then an album of some music from the Home Alone movies (I don't think it really qualifies as a soundtrack, but it's pretty close), and I knew that later to-day I was going to listen to a Bach cantata and an album of Hildegard von Binden canticles.  All of this made me think about sacred music, and it occurred to me that Christmas music occupies a sort of liminal space with regard to that.  At its core, Christmas music is kind of religious because it's about a religious observance, but on the other hand, there's often not very much about that religious observance in Christmas songs.  Take "White Christmas" or "Blue Christmas" as examples.  Both are (literally) nominally about Christmas, but there's nothing about Christmas in them.

The Rip Chords' "Here I Stand"

I listened to an album of the Rip Chords a couple days ago, but this afternoon I was thinking about "Here I Stand" and realized something about the bridge.  The "so" in the first line ("I love you so") has a melisma, which emphasizes the degree of the loving.  The "so" is drawn out to various pitches to represent the greatness of singer/speaker's love.

In the first and third iteration of the bridge, the "I love you" is all sung to an F, and the "so" is sung to a G F G F Eb phrase.  In the second iteration, the "I love you" is sung to a Db, and the "so" to Eb F Eb Db Eb.  The specific melismas are different, but the idea behind both is the same.

The Fratellis' "Stragglers Moon"

I just listened to the Fratellis' Here We Stand.  At the beginning of "Stragglers Moon," there's a sort of chant of "She can't help it; the girl can't help it."  I think this might be a reference to Little Richard's "The Girl Can't Help It," which also has this recurring line.

I don't know much about the Fratellis, so I couldn't say if Little Richard had any influence on them, but the lyric matches exactly and the music is sort of similar.  I think the notation for it is still above my skill level (and I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out), but - musically - the phrases are based on the root, fifth, and seventh (either dominant seventh or major seventh).  Little Richard's "The Girl Can't Help It" is in C major, and the phrase "She can't help it; the girl can't help it" sung to G C B C; G C C B C.  If I have "Stragglers Moon" right, it's in E major (at the beginning, it alternates between E major and F major, which doesn't really establish a key).  There, "She can't help it; the girl can't help it" is sung to B E E D; B E E E F.

Like I said, I don't know much about the Fratellis, so I don't know if Little Richard's "The Girl Can't Help It" influenced their "Stragglers Moon," but the phrases are pretty similar.

The Decemberists' Her Majesty

I just listened to the Decemberists' Her Majesty and noticed a couple things.

"The Gymnast, High above the Ground"

The "light brigade" in the line "Waiting out this long light brigade" is a phrase from Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (I'm not sure if he coined the phrase, but his poem is probably the reason it's well-known).  I don't think it's used the same way in the song though.

About a year ago, I found an-other instance of the same phrase in "Cavalry Captain" from What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World.  There, it's "we'll away on the light brigade."  Again, I don't think it's used in the same sense in which Tennyson used it, but it is the same phrase.

"Song for Myra Goldberg"

This is just a minor point, but the line "Listen in as shin-kicked Jim relates his story sad" could be parsed two different ways, hinging on the "sad" in "Jim relates his story sad."  It could be either inversion ("his story sad" instead of "his sad story") or a flat adverb ("Jim relates his story sad" instead of "Jim relates his story sadly").  Either it's a sad story or Jim tells it in a sad manner; it's grammatical hair-splitting, but there is a slight difference.

The Monkees' "I'll Spend My Life with You"

To-day I listened to the first disc of the deluxe edition of the Monkees' Headquarters album, and I noticed an ambiguous word in the chorus of "I'll Spend My Life with You."  The last two lines could be rendered as "And if you want me to / I'll spend my life with you" or "And if you want me too / I'll spend my life with you."

The first rendering is an example of elliptical phrasing.  Because the same phrase is repeated in the second line, it's omitted from the first, lest there's the lengthy "And if you want me to [spend my life with you] / I'll spend my life with you."

The second rendering indicates a reciprocity with the "too."  The "if you want me too" implies that the singer/speaker also wants the girl he's addressing.

Because the chorus is repeated (the first chorus has some different lyrics, but the iteration with these "And if you want me to(o) / I'll spend my life with you" lines is sung twice), both renderings could be understood in turn.

The Small Faces' "Lazy Sunday"

This morning I listened to the second disc of a two-disc set of the Small Faces.  I'm pretty sure I hadn't previously noticed that at about 0:50 in "Lazy Sunday," a phrase from "Colonel Bogey March" is whistled in the background, and I'm certain I hadn't previously noticed that at about 1:45, the riff from the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is whistled too.

Grieg: Norwegian Folk Tunes and Dances, Op. 17

Last night I listened to some excerpts from Grieg's Norwegian Folk Tunes and Dances, Op. 17, and I found some melodies that sounded familiar to me.  The melodies in pieces XXIII and XXIV are also in the fourth of Grieg's Symphonic Dances on Norwegian Themes, Op. 64.

The melody for Op. 17: XXIII is worth picturing in its entirety since all of it is used on Op. 64: IV.

(notation found here)

I've actually found the melody from measures three to six in two different Grieg pieces, and I've written about them before.  It's in the Symphonic Dances on Norwegian Themes, but it's also in Nineteen Norwegian Folk Tunes, Op. 66: VI. Cow-call and Lullaby:

(click here for a larger image)
(notation found here [Op. 64] and here [Op. 66])

Of course, there are some differences, but the melodies are all very similar.

There's more of a resemblance between Op. 17: XXIII and Op. 64: IV than with Op. 66: VI though because the melody in measures eleven to fifteen is similar to the melody in measures eleven to twenty in the section marked B of Op. 64: IV:

(click here for a larger image)

I haven't thoroughly studied the fourth Symphonic Dance, but I've listened to it enough to become fairly familiar with it.  I'm pretty sure it's in sonata form, and - as occurs with sonata form - these two melodies come back for the second A section.

The B section of the Symphonic Dance shares a melody with Op. 17: XXIV:

In the Symphonic Dance, a very similar melody is in the clarinet and oboe beginning at the Più tranquillo:

(click here for a larger image)

When I originally found the melody that Op. 66: VI. and Op. 64: IV have in common, I was reading a book of Grieg's letters.  I referenced the index of works in the back and found that, as the opus numbers would suggest, they were written around the same time.  The book says the Symphonic Dances, Op. 64 are from 1896, and that the Folk Songs, Op. 66 are from 1896-1898.  Again, as the opus number would suggest, the Folk Tunes and Dances, Op. 17 are much earlier; the book says they're from 1870.  I think Grieg is pretty well-known for using folk tunes in his music, so I find it interesting that he used the same ones almost thirty years apart.

Grieg: Lyric Pieces X, Op. 71: VII. Remembrances

This morning I listened to some more of Grieg's Lyric Pieces for piano.  The seventh piece (Remembrances) in Book X, Op. 71 sounded a bit familiar, and I realized that it's very similar to the first piece (Arietta) in Book I, Op. 12.

I intended to look up the notation for both and compare them, but when I lookt up the notation for Op. 71: VII, I noticed an asterisk after the title:

which lead to a footnote at the bottom of the page:

It's in German:  "Vergl[eich] Lyrische Stücke Heft 1 No. 1 (Arietta)."  Translated, this is "Compare Lyric Pieces Book 1 No. 1 (Arietta)."

I'm glad that footnote was there because the notation is still above my skill level.  I did notice though that Arietta and Remembrances are both in the same key: Eb major.

Most of the books of Grieg's Lyric Pieces that I have are incomplete; I have only excerpts.  This is the case with Book X.  I lookt up the complete book and discovered that Remembrances is the last piece in the book.  Since Book X is also the last book of Grieg's Lyric Pieces, there's a sort of bookending going on.  He starts and ends his Lyric Pieces with a similar-sounding tune.

The Turtles' "She's My Girl"

This morning I listened to a compilation album of the Turtles (Happy Together: The Very Best of the Turtles).  I used to listen to this a lot seven or eight years ago, so I'm fairly familiar with the songs already.  I'd noticed before that one part of "She's My Girl" sounded different, but it wasn't until listening to it this morning that I realized why it sounds different.

The song is in 4/4 time, but at about 1:23, it switched to 3/4 for the "She's my girl; took her away last night" section.  The 3/4 section lasts only briefly before the song switches back to 4/4 time at about 1:38.  To some degree, that brief 3/4 section illustrates the transcendence of the singer/speaker's relationship with his girl (it's different from everything else) or perhaps even her incomparability, which - like the 3/4 section - can be comprehended only fleetingly.