Donovan's "To Susan on the West Coast Waiting"

A couple days ago, I listened to a live Donovan album (The Classics Live).  One part of "To Susan on the West Coast Waiting" sounded interesting to me, so I did some research on it, by which I mean I figured out the chords and a bit of the vocal melody.

I thought there was a strained modulation when he sings "draft" in "Had it not been for the draft."  In figuring out the chords, I learned that "draft" is sung to an E note above an E minor chord, but all of the other chords in the song (in C major) are major chords.  That section sounds weird because it's a minor chord surrounded by major chords.  I think the root note being sung above it helps to emphasize the otherness too.  The draft is what's keeping these two people apart, so it makes sense that - musically - it has an almost skewed tonality.

In looking into this again to-day so I could write this post, I also noticed that the "so" in the first line ("Dear Susan, I know you love me so") has a melisma, which seems to portray how much she loves the singer/speaker.

I also checked the studio version, and while the guitar part is more complex, I'm pretty sure that minor chord is still there.  That melisma on "so" is present only in the live version though.