"Surfers Rule"

I listened to The Very Best of Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons yester-day and was finally able to investigate and confirm something I'd suspected about "Surfers Rule" after listening to Surfer Girl in July last year.

In the coda, over the repeated line "Four Seasons, you'd better believe it," Brian sings a wordless falsetto part, something like this:

This is taken almost directly from the Four Seasons' "Walk Like a Man."  At the beginning, Frankie Valli sings his own falsetto part, something like this:

(With some small variation, these phrases also appear in the middle of the song and again in the coda.)

There's a slight difference in the rhythm in the second measure, but the intervals are exactly the same (in the top line, at least).

"Riot in Cell Block No. 9"

A couple days ago, I was thinking about songs that deal with prison and realized that to some degree, the regularity of a recurring rhyme scheme represents the constraining nature of a prison itself.  This is true of the Beach Boys' version of "Riot in Cell Block No. 9" (recorded during the sessions for Beach Boys' Party!).  Although the lyrics recount a riot, the verses have a uniform poetic structure (AABB), demonstrating a sort of captivity.  The narrator is bound by this form.  Of course, the last verse departs from this (with just AA), but - as I wrote last month - this shortening also illustrates a type of constraint.

"Walk on By"

During my nightly keyboard practice yester-day, I happened to play an E minor chord with an electric piano sound, was reminded of the "Walk on By" section of the Carpenters' Bacharach/David Medley (which starts with this chord), and discovered a feature in it that's also in the Beach Boys' version:  the phrase "walkin' down the street" in the line "If you see me walkin' down the street" is sung to a conjunct melody (F Eb Db Eb F), giving a sense of the steps involved in this walking.

"Airplane"

In the line "I can see ev'rything below" in "Airplane," the three syllables of "ev'rything" are sung to different pitches (B A G), lending a sense of this entirety.

"Just Once in My Life"

A few years ago, I noted that under the line "I've given up on schemes 'cause ev'ry one fell through" in "Just Once in My Life," the synth bass plays a chromatically descending phrase (Eb D Db):

At the time, I wrote that this descent matches the "falling through," even if the music takes it a bit more literally.

When I listened to the song again recently, I realized that in a very small way, the breadth of this chromaticism also matches the entirety of "ev'ry one."

"Blueberry Hill"

Yester-day, I listened to the two-albums-on-one-CD re-issue of 15 Big Ones and Love You (because I've been reading about Love You in The Beach Boys lately), and I noticed a few features.

In the lines "But all of those vows you made / Were never to be" in "Blueberry Hill," the phrase "all of those vows" is sung to notes of all different pitches (E# F# G# A#), giving a sense of the entirety of "all."  That this E# is an accidental (the song is in B major) lends a further sense of breadth.

When I was thinking about the song later, I also realized that there's some significance in the placement of one of the line breaks in the second verse:

The moon stood still

On blueberry hill

It lingered until

My dream came true

The semantic sense is spread across the line break between "It lingered until" and "My dream came true."  The second line is necessary to complete the meaning, and in a way, the pause that comes before it matches this "linger[ing]."

"Drive-In"

Yester-day, I was thinking about "Drive-In," specifically the line "A big, buttered popcorn and a extra large coke."  To some degree, the abundance of plosive sounds in the phrase "big, buttered popcorn" indicates this large size.

"Riot in Cell Block No. 9"

I listened to The Very Best of the Coasters yester-day, specifically to hear "Riot in Cell Block #9" because 2 July is the date mentioned in it.  I noticed some small significance in the structure of the song that also appears in one of the versions that the Beach Boys did during the sessions for Beach Boys' Party! (listed as "Riot in Cell Block No. 9" #2 on Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged).

The fourth verse is shorter than the others (it's only two lines instead of four), and to some degree, this demonstrates the constraint of being "back in our cells."

When I referenced the CD, it also occurred to me that the difference between Beach Boys' Party! and Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged is comparable to that between the Beatles' Let It Be and Let It Be... Naked.  The revisited version of each album has roughly the same visual design as the original but with different pictures that are in black and white instead of color, and the music of each has had a layer of overdubs stripped away.

"Take a Load off Your Feet"

Last week, I figured out the chords for "Take a Load off Your Feet" and noticed some significance in the progression under the line "One, then the other, too" at the end of the third verse.  I'm pretty sure the chords there are B major | F# major | B major (although I think the recording is slightly out of tune).

There are only two chords here, and to some degree, this number matches the "one" and "the other" in the lyrics, especially since "one" (above B major) and "other" (above F# major) both occur on the same beat as the chord change.

The tonality is more significant, though.  It seems that alternating between the root and fifth of a given chord is a common technique to portray footsteps musically (like the guitar in Fats Domino's "Walking to New Orleans" and the bass in the Beatles' "Don't Pass Me By," specifically for the lines "I listen for your footsteps comin' up the drive / Listen for your footsteps, but they don't arrive").  The chords here take this notion further; instead of just the root and fifth of a single chord, they're the tonic (I) and dominant (V) of the song's key, so there's a broader sense of these footsteps.

"Wind Chimes"

I recently listened to the two-albums-on-one-CD re-issue of Smiley Smile and Wild Honey and noticed in "Wind Chimes" what might be a reference to the Christmas song "Silver Bells."  In the section starting at ~1:32, the phrase "ting-a-ling" is repeated a number of times.  In Mike's part, it's sung to an ascending group of notes (F# G A).  In the chorus of "Silver Bells," the similar phrase "ring-a-ling" occurs, sung to the same intervals (in Bing Crosby's version, the notes are A Bb C).

"Ding Dang"

Yester-day, I read Roger McGuinn's account in The Beach Boys (p. 337) of his writing "Ding Dang" with Brian Wilson.  He quotes part of the song, and I realized that there's some significance in the melodic shape of the line "I treat her so fine, but she treats me so badly," which is something like this:

Although it's only slight, the first half ("I treat her so fine") ascends (Bb to C), but the second half ("but she treats me so badly") descends (C to A).  These opposite musical directions highlight the contrast in the lyrics (especially since the verbal structure of each half is so similar).  Additionally, the descent for "she treats me so badly" even matches the narrator's disappointment.

"From There to Back Again"

Yester-day was the anniversary of the release of That's Why God Made the Radio, so I listened to the album again, and I noticed a small feature in "From There to Back Again."  In the line "We had a lot to live; we gave it all," "all" is sung with a melisma (G F), giving a slight sense of this entirety.