"I Get Around"

I haven't been very active on this blog recently, but I have been learning parts.  Earlier this week, I learned the rhythm guitar for "I Get Around," and then - in order to have enough to make it worth recording so I could write a new post here - I also learned almost all of the lead guitar (I'm missing just the solo) and the organ phrases.

The rhythm guitar is panned slightly left, and the lead guitar is panned slightly right.  Along with the organ phrases that are actually in the song, I also played some of the lead vocal phrases on organ, just to make my recording a little more interesting.

Until learning the chords, I'd never realized that there's a key change in the song.  At the end of the guitar solo, it raises a half step from G major to Ab major (although the specific chords there are E major to F major).  Musically, this helps give the impression of "get[ting] around."  Similarly, there are some accidentals that portray the wanderings.  The first half of the song is in G major, but the chord progression contains an E major (with a G# accidental) and an F major (with an F natural accidental).

In an opposite sort of musical picture, the guitar part is simple (only four pitches) and repetitive to represent the mundane sameness of "I'm gettin' bored drivin' up and down the same old strip."

"Cindy, Oh Cindy"

This afternoon, I figured out the chords for "Cindy, Oh Cindy" (a bonus track on the Surfin' Safari/Surfin' U.S.A. reissue) and noticed a couple things about it.

First, here are the chords (with the disclaimer that I might have something wrong):

Introduction
|: C# major | A# minor :|

Verses
|: C# major | A# minor | F# major | C# major :|
C# major | A# minor | F# major | A# minor

Choruses
C# major | G# major | C# major

Coda
C# major

I noticed three small features in the song:

The line "Cindy, don't let me down" in the chorus is sung to a descending phrase (G# G# E# F# E# D#), so while it's negated, there's a musical representation of "let[ting] me down."

At the end of the chorus, the chord progression goes to the tonic (C# major), and there's a tonic note (C#) at the end of the vocal melody for that section (the second syllable of the melisma'd "bound").  The tonic is the musical "home," so there's a musical representation of "And I'll be homeward bound."

The same feature is in the third verse.  The chord progression moves to the tonic, and there's a tonic note (the second syllable of the melisma'd "home"), both of which musically represent the home in the line "Soon I'll be headin' home."

"Heroes and Villains"

Specifically, this is "Heroes and Villains: Part 1 Tag" (disc 2, track 11 of The SMiLE Sessions [Deluxe Edition Box Set]).  I learned the clavinet part back in May, and yester-day I learned one of the two piano parts.  Here's the notation, with - as always - the disclaimer that I might have something wrong.

Clavinet (notated an octave higher than it's played):

Piano (the last half note is held longer; I just didn't want to have to include any more measures):

"Surf's Up"

I never got around to writing about it, but years ago (10 April 2015, according to my records), I noticed that the end of "domino" in "columnated ruins domino" in "Surf's Up" descends, musically illustrating that falling.  After I listened to The SMiLE Sessions box set recently, I started thinking about this again and realized that there's more to it than that.  "Domino" is sung to the notes A F E D, and I think "Surf's Up" is in D minor, so these last three notes are a diatonic descent (they fall downward in the scale without skipping any notes).  One note falls into the next in the same way that one domino falls into an-other, so it's not just the descent that's musically significant here; it's also the intervals.

I also noticed that there's painting imagery in the line "Canvas the town and brush the backdrop."  This might connect with the short quotation of "The Old Master Painter."

"Heroes and Villains"

When I listened to The SMiLE Sessions box set last month, I noticed a couple things about the way some vocals are articulated.  I wanted to wait to write about these until I'd listened to the whole box set, but then I never got around to doing it.

I noticed two small things about "Heroes and Villains."  The line "Once at night, cotillion squared the fight, and she was right in the rain of the bullets that eventually brought her down" is sung to a descending melody, starting at F# and descending diatonically (in C# major) for more than an octave to D#.  This descent seems to represent that bringing "down" in a musical way.

In the cantina section, "margaritas keep the spirit high" is sung to an ascending phrase (B# C# C# D# D# E# E# G# G#), so there's something of a musical representation of that "high."

"God Only Knows"

I recently found some notation I wrote out a couple years ago of the first half of the bass part for "God Only Knows."  This reminded me that I'd learned the chords and French horn for the introduction back in October.  I don't know why I didn't record it then; maybe I intended to look for the bass part but then forgot about it.

"I'm Waiting for the Day"

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.

"The Girl from New York City"

Yester-day I listened to Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!) and noticed a small thing about "The Girl from New York City."  The "every-" part of "everyday" in the line "They took a small apartment down on the beach where you find them everyday" is sung with three syllables rather than the usual two.  This pronunciation gives a sense of the frequency of how often the titular girl and her friend are on the beach.

"Wind Chimes"

I've been listening to The SMiLE Sessions box set again, and when I listened to disc four a couple days ago, the clarinet and saxophone parts in "Wind Chimes (Version 1)" (track 4) sounded (and were) easy to figure out.  When I referenced the recording on disc 1 (track 16), I discovered that the clarinet and saxophone parts are present there too, although the marimba in the first half of the track isn't present in disc 4, track 4.  Like I mentioned last time I recorded "Wind Chimes," I think there's an edit there.  It seems that disc 1, track 16 is comprised of disc 4, track 5 (first half) and disc 4, track 4 (second half) and maybe even some others.  In any case, I followed disc 1, track 16 for my recording.

Since I recorded this last time, I got a new keyboard, and the marimba voice on it sounds a lot better.  I also used keyboard voices for clarinet and saxophone because I don't (yet!) know how to play those.  Like last time, I used electric bass in place of upright bass (because I don't have one).

"California Girls"

Last week, I was thinking about "California Girls," and I realized something about the second verse.  The "girls" in the line "I've been all around this great big world, and I've seen all kind of girls" is sung with a melisma (A G# F#, I think).  Because "girls" is sung to more than one note, there's something of a musical representation of that wide variety.

"Little Pad"

After I learned the organ part for "Here Comes the Night," I remembered that (back in October) I'd learned the organ part and (I think) marimba for one section of "Little Pad."  So here's that.  It doesn't last very long.

"Here Comes the Night"

Last week, I learned the organ part for "Here Comes the Night" (it's only three notes and two chords).  I learned the bass part last August, and since I now have two parts, I thought it worth it to make a recording (although there's quite a bit of unaccompanied bass and the bottom register of the organ part simply doubles what the bass is playing [just with a different rhythm], so I'm not sure this is very interesting to listen to).  While I was recording this, I also discovered that the piano part at the beginning is the same as one section of the organ part, so I included that too.  I think I have the right notes for the bass riff, but something about it still sounds off to me, so I think I might have the wrong articulation.

"Can't Wait Too Long"

Recently, I was thinking about "Can't Wait Too Long," and then I listened to the version on 1967: Sunshine tomorrow.  I found two small things to write about.

"Forever" in the first line ("Baby, you know that I can't wait forever") is sung with a melisma (E D B C# B), giving a musical sense of that long period of time.  Similarly, the "long" in the backing vocal phrase ("Been way too long") is sung with a melisma (alternately G# F# E and F# E D), also giving a musical sense of duration.

Both of these features are also in the version that's included as a bonus track on the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey re-issue (although, as the liner notes mention, that version is "made up of several different takes").

"Wendy"

In the second line of "Wendy" ("We went together for so long"), the "long" is emphasized in two different ways.  I think it's sung with a melisma in all of the vocal parts, but the most prominent voice sings it to the phrase G C Bb A G.  All of the vocal parts hold the word for almost two full measures too.  Both of these features give a musical sense of that length of time.

"A Young Man Is Gone"

Because of the multi-part harmonies, I'm not sure of the notes, but both "lingers on" in the backing vocals of "A Young Man Is Gone" (one in the first verse and one in the third) are sung with melismas.  It's the "on" specifically, which is sung to two notes.  Musically, this seems to represent the "linger[ing]," since the word has an extra syllable.

"Our Car Club"

In "Our Car Club," "cruise" in the line "And you can bet that we'll have our jackets on wherever we cruise" is sung with a melisma (A G D F E).  Musically, this gives a sense of the movement of "cruis[ing]" and the breadth of the "wherever" mentioned earlier in the line.

"Shut Down"

In the second "Tach it up, tach it up, buddy, gonna shut you down" in "Shut Down" (at ~0:18)(and when this melody is repeated for "Shut it off, shut it off, buddy, now I shut you down," starting at ~1:18), the melody for Mike Love's vocal part steadily ascends and then suddenly drops.  Something like:

Musically, the falling fifth here (Eb to Ab) demonstrates something of the "shut you down."

"Ballad of Ole' Betsy"

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.

"Daybreak over the Ocean"

The last thing I noticed when I listened to That's Why God Made the Radio recently is that "Daybreak over the Ocean" is very similar to "Bluebirds over the Mountain" (written by Ersel Hickey) and that both have some resemblance to the folk song "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean."

For comparison's sake, here's a section from each.

The verse from "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean":

My Bonnie lies over the ocean
My Bonnie lies over the sea
My Bonnie lies over the ocean
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me

The chorus of "Bluebirds over the Mountain":

Bluebirds over the mountain
Seagulls over the sea
Bluebirds over the mountain
Bring my baby to me

The beginning of first section of "Daybreak over the Ocean" as they're rendered in the liner notes:

Daybreak over the ocean
Moonlight still on the sea
Will the waves gentle motion
Bring my babe my baby back to me

All of these mention something either "over the ocean" or "over the sea" (or both) and end with the command to "Bring my baby/my Bonnie (back) to me."  In both "Bluebirds over the Mountain" and "Daybreak over the Ocean," the structure of the first two lines is essentially the same: noun, preposition, article adjective, object of the preposition.  "Daybreak over the Ocean" just adds an adverb ("still") for the second line.  I feel it's also worth mentioning that Mike Love sings the lead vocals in both (and wrote "Daybreak over the Ocean").

Both "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean" and "Daybreak over the Ocean" also contain a whole section that's just variations on "Bring my baby/my Bonnie back to me."  In "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean," it's:

Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me, to me
Bring back, bring back
Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me

And in "Daybreak over the Ocean," it's:

Won't you bring back
Bring my baby back
Won't you bring back
Bring back my baby 

"The Private Life of Bill and Sue"

In the choruses "The Private Life of Bill and Sue," there's a catalogue of places:  "California to Mexico... Dallas, Texas to Monterey... Santa Barbara to Jersey Shore."  I'm not sure if this section of "The Private Life of Bill and Sue" is meant to be reminiscent of it, but the same technique is used in "Surfin' U.S.A." (and Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen," which "Surfin' U.S.A." is based on).  It's also used in "Kokomo," which I've written about before.

"Spring Vacation"

"Spring Vacation" has some pretty obvious allusions to old Beach Boys songs.  The first verse contains the line "We used to get around," referring to "I Get Around," and the chorus mentions "Good vibrations."

"Isn't It Time"

In the chorus of "Isn't It Time," there's the line "Every time I think of you" in which "every" is sung with three syllables rather than just two.  This gives a sense of enumeration, as if the speaker/singer is recounting the times one by one.

In the section after the second chorus, there's the line "We raise our glass to kindness," which is reminiscent of a line in "Auld Lang Syne."  In various versions, it's "We'll drink a cup of kindness yet" or "We'll take a cup of kindness yet."  This line in "Isn't It Time" is far from identical, but it's the same general idea.

"That's Why God Made the Radio"

I recently listened to That's Why God Made the Radio (I think for only the third time) and noticed a number of things, about which I'll have posts over the next couple days.  First, a small thing about the title track: the "afar" in the line "Capturing mem'ries from afar" has a harmony part in the backing vocals and is sung with a melisma (Bb A G F G, I think).  This articulation gives a musical sense of the distance that "afar" itself implies.

"Add Some Music to Your Day"

Yester-day I learned the chords for "Add Some Music to Your Day" and noticed something interesting about them.  For the first three verses, all of the chords are major chords, but the bridge starts with a C# minor.  After almost two whole minutes of major chords, that one minor chord completely changes the mood and (to some degree) provides a musical sense of the desolation and loneliness mentioned in the bridge ("Music... Is like a companion / For your lonely soul").

I feel it also worth mentioning that when I listened to the album a couple weeks ago, I realized I had part of my transcription wrong.  I'd thought a line in the third verse was "Your preacher adds it to his songs" (although I thought this didn't make much sense).  I realized recently that the line is actually "Your preacher adds it to his psalms" (rhyming with "calm" from the previous line).  Along with making a lot more sense, this is actually true.  In four of my hymnals, there are chant tones to which the Psalms can be sung.

"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"

I listened to the last disc of The Pet Sounds Sessions on Monday, and I discovered that my post about the melisma'd "sighs" in "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" was incomplete.  I neglected to notice that the following line has a similar feature.  The "eyes" in "And I can see so much in your eyes" is also sung with a melisma (Bb Ab Gb), so there's a musical sense of "so much" in the "eyes."

When I transcribed some of the song on Monday, I also discovered a couple things about the chorus.  In the first iteration, the last line is "Don't talk, take my hand, and let me hear your heart beat," but when the chorus is repeated, this becomes "Don't talk, take my hand, and listen to my heart beat."  There's a sort of parallelism between "let me hear your heart beat" and "listen to my heart beat."  Additionally, "heart beat" could be understood as two separate words (a noun with a verb) or a single word (a noun).

"This Whole World"

On Sunday I listened to Sunflower and noticed a small thing about "This Whole World." "Ev'rywhere" in the line "Lots of different people ev'rywhere" is sung with a melisma (D E F# E D C#, I think), giving a musical sense of breadth.

"Fun, Fun, Fun"

On Saturday, "Fun, Fun, Fun" popped into my head, and I realized something about the rhyme scheme.

Each verse has the rhyme scheme AAAB.  The first three lines all end with "now" too.  Here's the first verse:

Well, she got her daddy's car and she cruised through the hamburger stand now
Seems she forgot all about the library like she told her old man now
And with the radio blastin' goes cruisin' just as fast as she can now
And she'll have fun, fun, fun till her daddy takes the T-bird away

That the fourth line doesn't rhyme with the first three and doesn't end in "now" could demonstrate breaking away from a set pattern (like a daily routine) and "hav[ing] fun, fun, fun."  Alternatively, because the fourth line doesn't rhyme with the preceding three, there's the notion of something in the structure having been taken away, just like the T-bird in the lyrics.

"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.

"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"

An-other thing I noticed when I listened to the stack-o-vocals Pet Sounds tracks a couple days ago is that "sighs" in the line "I can hear so much in your sighs" in "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" is sung with a melisma (C Bb A).  Because "sighs" is sung to three notes, there's a musical sense of the one word's having "so much" in it.

Additional note:  I learned the bass part for "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)" two years ago, but - of course - I didn't write it down and forgot it.  On Friday night (when I wrote this post), I relearned it and made sure to write it down.  In my notation, I wrote the key as Eb minor (so the C# and G# notes I mentioned in my original post are actually Db and Ab notes), but I'm not very confident that that's right.  The song doesn't really resolve, and there are a slew of accidentals (the bass part has every pitch but G), both of which make it difficult to identify the key.

"Wouldn't It Be Nice"

When I listened to the stack-o-vocals version of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" yester-day, I noticed that "long" in the line "Then we wouldn't have to wait so long" is sung with a melisma (D C Bb), musically giving a sense of that length of time.  Similarly, "never-ending" in the line "I wish that ev'ry kiss was never-ending" is sung with an extra syllable (although only in the backing vocals), also giving a sense of elongated time (if not exactly "never-ending").

"You Still Believe in Me"

I've been listening to The Pet Sounds Sessions box set again, and I discovered a couple things about the vocal melodies.  While listening to the first disc a couple days ago, I noticed that the end of the line "I try hard to be strong, but sometimes I fail myself" in "You Still Believe in Me" descends.  The "myself" is sung to a melisma (D# D# C# C), so the speaker/singer is literally letting himself down ("fail[ing] myself") in terms of musical pitch.  Additionally, "You Still Believe in Me" is in B major, so that C natural is an accidental.  The foreign tonality there almost represents that "fail[ing]."

"Bluebirds over the Mountain"

I listened to the Friends/20/20 two-albums-re-issued-on-one-CD this morning because I'm not as familiar with either as I'd like to be (I think I've listened to this re-issue only a few times).  "Bluebirds over the Mountain" got stuck in my head, and because of that, I realized something about the title line.  The melody is such that "bluebirds" (sung to C# notes) really are "over the mountain" as far as musical pitch ("the mountain" is sung to the phrase B B A A).  Likewise, "seagulls" (sung to D notes) are "over the sea" ("the sea" is sung to the phrase C# C# B A B).

"Stoked"

I've been going through the parts I learned last year and making sure that I actually wrote them down.  In April, I learned one of the guitar parts and the bass part for "Stoked," but I notated only the guitar part.  I vaguely remembered that the bass part just doubles that guitar part (an octave lower), but I had to reference the recording to make sure.

In doing so, I discovered that my notation of the guitar part (which I did in June) is off by a half-step.  I don't understand how I messed this up, but I notated it in Bb major where it's actually in A major.  Like I mentioned in my post from June, the tuning in the recording seems off, so maybe that's how I got confused.

In any case, here's the updated notation.

Repeating guitar phrases:

Bass:

I'm a little unsure of the accuracy of the last measure in each of these.  Additionally, in one iteration of the bass part, it seems that the E quarter note in the second to last measure is replaced by two eighth notes (an E and an A, at about 0:40).  It's a bit difficult to distinguish the parts under the lead guitar though.

"Surfin' Safari"

Earlier this month (the 6th) I figured out the bass part for "Surfin' Safari."  Like the other parts I know from the Surfin' Safari album so far, it's actually pretty simple.  Over the last few weeks, I notated it piecemeal.  Of course, there's the usual disclaimer that I might have something wrong.  I extended the bar lines past the staff in a few places to distinguish some sections (the guitar solo, for example).

As with "County Fair" (the next track on Surfin' Safari), the bass part resembles waves when it's notated.  Because "Surfin' Safari" is about surfing (which involves waves), I'm wondering if this is something of a musical joke.

"Shut Down"

I was recently thinking about "Shut Down," and I realized something about the melody.  The end of the line "But the 413's really diggin' in" is sung to a descending melody, so there's a musical representation of that "diggin' in."  It's sung to the musical phrase Db C Ab, and since Ab is the lowest note in the lead vocal melody, there's a sense of reaching the lowest depth.  I'm pretty sure the song is in Ab major, so there's even a sense of Ab's being the musical foundation, the lowest one can reach in the metaphorical bedrock.