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.