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:

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(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:

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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:

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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.

Argent's "Pleasure"

I just listened to a compilation album of Argent (Greatest: The Singles Collection).  I'd previously noticed the melisma'd "rain" in the line "Falling rain to cool my aching face" in "Pleasure," but I'd failed to realize that - because the notes are descending (F# E D# C# B, I think) - the melisma helps to convey that the rain is falling.

Rod Argent's Classically Speaking

This morning I listened to some excerpts of Grieg's lyric pieces for piano.  I'm most familiar with the first piece of the first book (Op. 12: I. Arietta) via Rod Argent's recording on Classically Speaking.  Although this was an album entirely of Grieg pieces, after the Arietta, I expected to hear Chopin's Etude in C minor, Op. 25, No. 12 because that's the second track on Argent's Classically Speaking.  I started wondering about the transition between the two pieces and thought there was something more to the relationship between them than just my familiarity with that particular sequencing.

I lookt up the notation for Grieg's Arietta and discovered that it's in Eb major.  As the title of the Chopin piece would suggest, it's in C minor.  C minor and Eb major are relative keys.  Their scales contain all the same notes; they just start in different places.  My expecting the Chopin piece after the Grieg piece revealed a clever bit of sequencing on Argent's part.  There's a relatively smooth transition between the two pieces because they have similar tonalities.

Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode"

I'm currently listening to a compilation album of Chuck Berry (The Great Twenty-Eight).  Some of these songs are ones that I've started transcribing, so I'm making some progress on those.  I discovered something about a line in "Johnny B. Goode."  I'd always understood the last line of the first verse as "But he could play a guitar just like a-ringin' a bell," meaning that Johnny B. Goode could play guitar with the same ease with which anyone can play a bell, an extremely easy instrument to play.  However, in looking over my transcription, I realized that it could also be "But he could play a guitar just like a ring in a bell," meaning that he has an inherent ability.  Both are grammatically viable, but I think I actually like the second parsing better, since that inherent ability seems to be what the rest of the song is getting at.

The Lemon Pipers' "Through with You"

I just listened to an-other compilation album of the Lemon Pipers.  Because I wrote about "Through with You" back in February, I thought I should transcribe the lyrics, and in doing so, I found something else:  the melody (of both the lead and harmony vocals) for "My yellow sun has gone down, has gone down" descends:

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