Last week I listened to the Little Deuce Coupe/All Summer Long re-issue (for the first time in about two years!) and noticed some small things.
In "Ballad of Ole' Betsy," the melody for the line "Betsy's seen more places than I'll ever hope to see" starts out as a conjunct melody, with intervals of whole steps, but there's a skip in the melody for "places." I think the song's in a flat key, so the melody there is Ab Ab Ab Bb C Eb. After repeated notes and whole steps, that leap of a minor third (C to Eb) stands out and almost represents the breadth or variety of places that Betsy's seen.
The "go" in the line "Betsy's seen them all; she's seen them come and go" in the next verse is sung with a melisma (C Db C Bb, I think), which provides a musical representation of that movement.
