Thursday, November 25, 2021

"I Wanna Pick You Up"

The first line of "I Wanna Pick You Up" ("I love to pick you up") is sung to an ascending melody (F F G A Bb C), musically giving a sense of that "up."

During the section that begins "Pat, pat, pat, pat, pat her on her butt, butt," there are staccato notes played with what I'm pretty sure is the French accordion sound on a Mellotron.  This articulation gives a musical impression of those "pat"s.

Thursday, November 18, 2021

"I'll Bet He's Nice"

One of the lines in "I'll Bet He's Nice" is "'Cause I remember you and I."  I think this is actually just a grammatical error (similar to "Love was made for her and I" in "The Night Was So Young" and "And I tell her all about you and I" in "Airplane"), but it could also indicate something else.  Instead of direct objects (in which case they should be "you and me"), "you and I" could be the compound subject of a noun clause that's the direct object of "remember."  An explicit "that" makes it clearer:  "I remember [that] you and I...."  There's no verb here, but this fits with the sentiment of the song.  Part of the previous line is "it makes me cry," so it could be that while reflecting on the past, the narrator is overcome with emotion and interrupts himself here before he gets to the verb.

Thursday, November 11, 2021

"Good Time"

In the lines "She's always ready / To help me in any way" in "Good Time," "way" is sung with a melisma (E B C# B), musically giving a sense of the breadth of that "any."

Thursday, November 4, 2021

"Just Once in My Life"

In the line "Girl, don't let me down" in "Just Once in My Life," "down" is sung with a generally descending melisma (Eb D Eb D C), musically giving a sense of its meaning.