"This Whole World"

I didn't notice this when I listened to Sunflower last week, but later I noticed in "This Whole World" that "free" in the line "Happy 'cause you're livin', and you're free" is sung with a melisma (E D C#, I think).  Musically, this gives a sense of the word's meaning, since it isn't constrained to a single pitch.

"Come and Go with Me"

Last week, I was thinking about "Come and Go with Me" (which I have only on the Sounds of Summer compilation album), and I realized a small thing about it:  "part" in the line "We will never part" is sung with a melisma (D B), so - although negated - there's a musical sense of that separation.

I referenced the version by the Del Vikings (which I believe is in the original), and while it's in a different key, it too has this feature.

"At My Window"

In "At My Window," the lines "A little brown sparrow came fluttering down" and "I ran out of breath, and I fell to the ground" are sung to generally descending melodies spanning almost an octave (D# to E).  Musically, this gives a sense of the "fluttering down" and "fell to the ground."  After "A little brown sparrow came fluttering down," there's also a descending line played on what I think is a sort of flute (for the same musical picture) and something like a bird call (to represent the sparrow).

"All I Wanna Do"

In "All I Wanna Do," "every" in the line "You can be sure that in my heart and soul I love you in every way" is sung with three syllables, giving a sense of number.

"It's About Time"

I'd noticed this before, but in "It's About Time," there's a fairly large interval between "I used to blow my mind" and "sky high," musically illustrating that (metaphorical) height.  "My mind" is sung to the notes Bb D, and "sky high" to Gs - a fourth higher.

"Deirdre"

In "Deirdre," "more" in the line "Well, we don't have to talk about much more" is sung with a melisma (I think it's E# F# E# D#, but the song as a whole seems a bit sharp, so it's hard to tell), musically giving a sense of the word's meaning.

"Walk on By"

I have the two-albums-on-one-CD re-issue of Friends and 20/20, and one of the bonus tracks is "Walk on By."  "By" in the title line is sung with a melisma (Ab Gb Eb), musically giving a sense of movement.

"Break Away"

In "Break Away," the end of the line "Where the shackles never hold me down" is sung to a descending phrase, musically giving a sense of that "hold[ing] down."  When I figured out the specific notes, I discovered that it's an arpeggiation of an A minor chord (E C A), so there's also a musical feeling of sadness linked with "the shackles" and their "hold[ing] me down."

I think it's also important to note that compared to the earlier iteration of the chorus ("I can break away from that lonely life / And I can do what I wanna do..."), the melody here is different, apparently to accommodate that descending melody for "hold me down."

"Cotton Fields (The Cotton Song)"

In "Cotton Fields (The Cotton Song)," "way" in the line "I had to walk a long, long way to town" is sung with a melisma (Eb C), musically giving a sense of that "long, long" distance.

"Be Here in the Morning"

I noticed a number of things about the chorus of "Be Here in the Morning":

Be here in the morning
Be here in the evening
Be here and make my life full
Be here in the morning
Be here in the evening
Be here and make my life

"Be here in the morning / Be here in the evening" uses a rhetorical device called a merism in which two extremes are named in order to represent a whole range.  Although "morning" and "evening" are the two specific times mentioned, the sense is really "Be here all the time."

That each line starts with "Be here..." is an instance of anaphora, an-other rhetorical device in which a word of phrase is repeated.  The effect emphasizes the request and also represents the constancy wished for ("Be here in the morning / Be here in the evening").

I think I'd noticed this before, but the "full" in the line "Be here and make my life full" is sung by a number of additional voices, musically giving a sense of that "full"-ness.

There's a semantic shift in the meaning of "make" between "Be here and make my life full" and "Be here and make my life."  Because the first half of the chorus is repeated except for that "full," the listener is left waiting in expectation of the missing word.  To some degree, this is the same sentiment that the line itself expresses:  the singer/speaker's life is incomplete, and he needs "you" to "make my life" (that is:  to complete it).

"Friends"

Yester-day I listened to Friends, 20/20, and Sunflower, and I found a number of mostly small points to write about.

In "Friends," the first line is "We've been friends now for so many years."  The "many" is sung with a melisma (F# E F# E), musically giving a sense of number.  When this line is repeated later, however, I don't think it has this feature.