"Mama Says"

Yester-day, I was thinking about "Mama Says" and noticed some significant points just in the lyrics.

Most of the lines have the same structure, with "a lot" occurring at the end ("Eat a lot / Sleep a lot... Run a lot / Do a lot"), and this repetition (technically called "epistrophe") matches the great quantity that the phrase itself indicates.  The song contains repetition on a broader scale, too, since the same verse recurs throughout, just with melodic differences.

In "Eat a lot," however, "a lot" could function as either a direct object ("eat an abundance") or an adverb ("eat frequently"), and this duality of possible meanings also hints at a large amount.  Similarly, with "Sleep a lot," "a lot" could indicate duration ("sleep for a long time") or frequency ("sleep often").

"Their Hearts Were Full of Spring"

I'm unsure of the specific pitches, but in the title line of "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring," "spring" is sung with various melismas, providing a sense of the abundance of being "full."  In the last instance of the line, "full" itself is also sung with a melisma, illustrating this plenty.

"Here Comes the Night"

As with "so sweet" in "Aren't You Glad," the repetition involved in the alliterative "so strong" in "Here Comes the Night" ("It's never ever felt so strong") lends some sense of degree.

"Aren't You Glad"

The repetition involved in the alliterative "so sweet" in "Aren't You Glad" ("You're so sweet") provides a slight sense of degree.

"Vegetables"

I listened to the two-albums-on-one-CD combination of Smiley Smile and Wild Honey yester-day and noticed a handful of features.

In the line "If you brought a big, brown bag of them home" in "Vegetables," the repeated initial plosives in "big, brown bag" lend a slight sense of this large size, and since each occurs on a downbeat, there's an additional musical emphasis.

"Palisades Park"

I listened to 15 Big Ones (and Love You) last week because it was the fiftieth anniversary of its release (on 5 July 1976), and I noticed a couple points in "Palisades Park."  I wanted to compare the Beach Boys' version to the original by Freddy Cannon before writing about it, though, and it took me a while to track down my copy of Cannon's recording.

The lines "You never know how great a kiss can feel / Until you stop at the top of a Ferris wheel" contain the highest pitches in the lead vocal (Es), giving a sense of the height of "at the top."

Cannon's version is a half step higher (Ab major), so the pitches there are Fs, but the feeling is the same.  Unless I'm mistaken, the lyric is a bit different, though:  "You'll never know how great a kiss can feel / When you stop at the top of a Ferris wheel."

In the line "And around like a merry-go-round," "around" is sung with a melisma (D E D), giving a slight sense of this movement.  This articulation isn't in Cannon's version.

"Drive-In"

A couple days ago, I was thinking about the line "A big, buttered popcorn and a extra large coke" in "Drive-In."  Last year, I noted that the numerous plosives in the phrase "big, buttered popcorn" give some sense of this large size, but I realized recently that the rhythm contributes, too:  the words' initial syllables all fall on down-beats, giving these plosives some extra emphasis.

"Take a Load off Your Feet"

I was thinking about "Take a Load off Your Feet" this morning and noticed a small ambiguity.  In the liner notes (at least in those of the CD re-issue where Sunflower and Surf's Up are combined), one line is rendered as "One, then the other too," but it could also be understood as "One and the other, two," with "two" as an appositive rather than "too" as an adverb.

"I Know There's an Answer"

I listened to Pet Sounds yester-day to mark the sixtieth anniversary of its release, and I noticed a small point in "I Know There's an Answer."  "Better" in the line "And tell them the way that they live could be better" is sung with a melisma (G Eb C Bb), and this articulation lends a sense of the comparative nature of the adjective (more notes for a greater degree).

Later, I noticed that "day" and "night" in the line "They trip through the day and waste all their thoughts at night" form something of a temporal merism.

"Salt Lake City"

I listened to Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) a few days ago, and yester-day, I had a small realization about "Salt Lake City."  The line "They've got the sun in the summer, and wintertime, the skiin' is great, yeah" has something of a chiastic structure, with the temporal elements in the middle:

They've got the sun

in the summer,

and wintertime,

the skiin' is great, yeah

That the order of the elements is inverted highlights the opposite times of these seasons.

"Please Let Me Wonder"

I figured out the organ part in the instrumental section of "Please Let Me Wonder" nearly ten years ago (4 October 2016).  Yester-day, I heard a clip of the song, started thinking about the part again, and then figured out how to notate it.  As always, there's the disclaimer that I may have something wrong:

"Time to Get Alone" [Alternate Early Version]

I recently listened to 1967: Sunshine tomorrow and had a few realizations about the alternate early version of "Time to Get Alone."

In the line "It's so quiet, we can hear for a country mile" (which isn't in the version on 20/20), the phrase "country mile" is sung to notes of all different pitches (F A C), giving a sense of this breadth.  The rather large interval (a fifth) also contributes to the sense of distance.

The instrumental section (also absent from the 20/20 version) seems to borrow a musical figure from the SMiLE sessions.  What I think is trombone plays something like this (the eighth notes are played more loosely than indicated):

(If I'm not mistaken, the song is in D major, but this whole section drops to C major.)

Excepting the A in the sixth measure, the intervals in the last four measures match those in the glockenspiel part in "Look (Song for Children)," which is something like this (again with the eighth notes played more loosely than indicated):

While the meters of the two songs are different, the rhythms of the two figures are also roughly the same:  a pair of eighth notes followed by a note with a longer value to fill out the remainder of the measure.