Showing posts with label The Monkees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Monkees. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

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.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

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.