In "I'm Waiting for the Day," "free" in the line "To set your broken heart free" is sung with a melisma (B A G#). Since the word isn't constrained to a single syllable, there's a sense of its meaning.
"So" in the line "And that you still loved him so" is sung with this same melisma, but in this instance it gives a sense of degree. (I'd noted this before, but I didn't include the specific pitches in that post, which was so badly written that I removed it.)
I just figured out some flute parts in "I'm Waiting for the Day," and I discovered that a couple sections in the flute part have the same rhythm as some sections of the timpani. Here's the flute part at the beginning (~0:05), which is also repeated over and over again in the coda:
Here's the flute part at ~1:09:
I might be missing some sections, but the timpani follow this same rhythm at the very beginning, throughout the second verse, and in the coda.
Between yester-day and to-day, I listened to the third and fourth discs of The Pet Sounds Sessions (because otherwise I would have ended the year in the middle of the four discs), and I discovered a few things:
"You Still Believe in Me"
There's a slight ambiguity in "I try hard to be more what you want me to be." It's either straight-forward like that ("I try hard to be more [of] what you want me to be," or it could be two different descriptions ("I try hard to be more, what you want me to be" or even "I try hard to be more [and] what you want me to be"). It's a question of whether "more" is just a regular adjective (modifying the relative clause "what you want me to be") or a substantive adjective.
"I'm Waiting for the Day"
The "blue" in "I know you cried, and you felt blue" has a melisma. Where it would normally have only one syllable, here it has three (at least I think it's three; the double-tracked vocal there isn't spot-on). The later syllables are at lower pitches, so as the word goes on, it falls. Musically it adds a "down in the depths" kind of feeling to the blue sentiment that's already there in the lyric.
"God Only Knows"
This is probably a bit trivial, but - as far as pitches - the "stars" really are "above you" in "But long as there are stars above you." "Stars" is sung to an F#, and "you" to a C#.
I hadn't done anything on this project for awhile, so I decided to start listening to the albums regularly in the hopes that I'd become more familiar with the songs, which would then help in learning them. In listening to Pet Sounds two days ago, I found a similarity between "I'm Waiting for the Day" and the Beatles' "When I'm Sixty-Four," which I wrote about here.
Then I decided to learn the little piano part in "I'm Waiting for the Day" (figuring that it would be pretty easy), but I ended up learning the chords. I'm not sure if I have the right voicings in the organ part though.
My version ends just before the string section, because I have no way of duplicating it (and haven't learned the notes anyway). I just resolved it on E major.
I figured out a bit of the bass part, but most of what I figured out is the part after that string section (it's just a descending E major scale), so I didn't include that either.
I tried doing the vocals too, but they're not the best. Some of the backing vocals might sound a bit weird because I don't usually sing that high. I'm also missing the "He hurt you then, but that's all done" because I can't sing that high (or at least not that high and in key).
