"Caroline, No"

An-other thing I noticed when I listened to the stack-o-vocals Pet Sounds tracks recently is the articulation of some words in "Caroline, No."  "Go" in the line "Where did your long hair go" and "away" in the line "Who took that look away" are both sung with melismas (A G F and D A G F respectively).  This gives a musical sense of movement or distance.

When I transcribed some of the lyrics to-day in order to write this post, I noticed something else.  The first verse has a rhyme scheme of AAAA:

Where did your long hair go
Where is the girl I used to know
How could you lose that happy glow
Oh, Caroline, no

But the other verses don't follow this.  In the other two verses, the first two lines rhyme, but the third breaks the pattern, and the content of the that third line is significant with regard to this structural change.  In the second verse, the rhyme scheme is broken with "You'd never change, but that's not true," and in the third with "Could we ever bring 'em back once they have gone."  The rhyme scheme has changed from the first verse and it's not brought back.

"Caroline, No"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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On Sunday, I listened to They Might Be Giants' Indestructible Object, including their cover of "Caroline, No."  While listening to it (and then later referencing the Beach Boys' original), I learned most of the bass part to "Caroline, No."  Yester-day, I learned the rest of it.

I discovered that I have to use the version on The Pet Sounds Sessions as my main referent because that version is at the original speed.  The version on Pet Sounds is sped up, so it's in-between F major and F# major.  At the original speed, it's in F major (which works well with what I mentioned about keys and unity here). Incidentally, They Might Be Giants' version is in F# major.

Some of the notes in the melody are Bs, which is an accidental in F major.  In the first verse, they're all on verbs too:

Where did your long hair go
Where is the girl I used to know
How could you lose that happy glow
Oh, Caroline, no

It's an interesting way to add emphasis.

I figured out the instrumental part near the end, which is pretty close to the melody in the vocals, and I continued the phrases to the end, instead of fading out.  I didn't really pay any attention to what instrument it's on though.  At this point, I'm concerned more with accurate notes.

In one phrase of that instrumental part, the melody is sort of an inversion of the bass part.  Much of the bass part is the repeating phrase G C A G F G, and that instrumental part has C G F G A (corresponding to "Oh, Caroline, no" in the lyrics).  So there's something of a trill between G and F either preceded or followed by an A.