"Lonely Days"

An-other thing I noticed when I listened to 1967: Sunshine tomorrow is the phrase "all alone" in "Lonely Days" ("Still I somehow get the feelin' I'm all alone").  I've noted before that because the two words start with the same sound, there's a sense of the singularity of being alone.

"I'd Love Just Once to See You"

Yester-day, I listened to the first disc of 1967: Sunshine tomorrow, and I noticed a couple small features to note.  In the line "It's not too late" in "I'd Love Just Once to See You," "late" is sung with a melisma (C# B A#), so while it's negated, there's a sense of degree (for "too").

While transcribing the lyrics, I also noticed the line "But this feelin's buildin' up inside again" at the end of the first verse.  This may be just coincidental, but it bears some resemblance to the first line of "Don't Worry Baby":  "Well, it's been building up inside me for I don't know how long."

"Our Sweet Love"

In the third verse of "Our Sweet Love," there are the lines "A precious love like this can flower / There's nothing in this world like our sweet love."  "Flower" at the end of the first line rhymes with "our," so that "sweet love" sort of stands by itself, and structurally, this mirrors the sense:  the "sweet love" has no rhyme and no complement because there is "nothing in this world like [it]."

"Deirdre"

A few years ago, I noted that in "Deirdre," the word "more" in the line "Well, we don't have to talk about much more" is sung with a melisma, musically giving a sense of the word's meaning.  At the time, I thought the song was a bit sharp, but now I think it's a bit flat and that the pitches there are F# G F# E.

Recently, I found a few more significant melismas.

"Bad" in the line "It wasn't so bad" is sung with a melisma (D A B), so while it's negated, there's a sense of degree (for that "so").  "Friends" in the line "You still have all your friends" is sung with the same melisma, but here it gives a sense of the entirety of that "all."  "Away" in the lines "What could I say / That you ran away" is sung with a similar melisma (D D A B), and here it gives a sense of movement or distance.

"Add Some Music to Your Day"

The rhyme scheme for the verses in "Add Some Music to Your Day" seems to be ABCCD, with the first two lines (AB) often forming something of a slant rhyme ("home" with "phone" and "heart" with "cars") and the last line (D) being some variation of the title phrase, linking the verses together.  In contrast to this, the section

Music

When you're alone

Is like a companion

For your lonely soul

is completely devoid of rhymes, and this lack of complements mirrors the singularity of being "alone."

In the line "There's blues, folk, and country, and rock like a rollin' stone," "stone" is sung with a melisma (B A B A G#), musically giving something of a sense of the movement of "rollin'."

"Slip on Through"

A couple months ago, I finally got Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions - 1969-1971.  I've listened to it twice so far, and I noticed a handful of features to note, but for now, I'm sticking to the songs from the original albums.  I'd like to become more familiar with the extra tracks before I write about them.

In the chorus of "Slip on Through," the line "All my life" is sung to notes that span more than an octave.  "All" is sung to a B, and "my life" is sung to D notes an octave a part.  This span gives a musical sense of the entirety of "all."

Near the end of the song (at ~1:56), "life" is held at a single pitch for a measure and a half and then trails off with a descending melisma, and these features (the long note value and the extra pitches) also give a sense of the breadth of "all."

"Kokomo"

Last night, I figured out the chords for "Kokomo."  The song is in C major, but there's a D major chord at the end of the line "That's where ya wanna go to get away from it all."  The F# in the D major is an accidental, and so there's a musical sense of foreignness that matches the notion of "get[ting] away from it all."

I also noticed that "go" in the line "That's where we wanna go" is sung with a melisma (C G A), musically giving a sense of movement.

"That Same Song"

I was thinking about "That Same Song" yester-day, and I realized that, in a way, the structure mirrors some of the lyrics.

The two verses don't have the same rhyme scheme.  The first is ABCB (although it's more of a slant rhyme between "thing" and "meaning"), and the second is AABB.  In each verse, there's at least one pair of rhymes.  The chorus, on the other hand, starts with three sequential rhyming lines:

I know, I know it took us a long while

To go, to go and find us a rock style

I know, I know that we could take it one more mile

The chorus moves beyond this structure of pairs, and the particular line that breaks this structure deals with expansion:  "we could take it one more mile."

"I Went to Sleep"

Last night, I learned the bass part for "I Went to Sleep."  While doing so, I noticed a detail:  during "and the sprinklers went off," there's the sound of a tambourine kind of in the background, apparently meant to represent those sprinklers.

"Airplane"

When I listened to 15 Big Ones and Love You a couple days ago, I also noticed a small feature in "Airplane."  In the line "The clouds in the sky caress my mind so tenderly," "tenderly" is sung with a melisma (F# E B A G), musically giving a sense of the degree of that "so."

"Just Once in My Life"

I listened to the two-albums-on-one-CD re-issue of 15 Big Ones and Love You yester-day, and I noticed an interesting feature in the synth bass part in "Just Once in My Life."  About halfway through the first verse, there's a chromatic phrase (Eb D Db):

This is the only spot where this happens.  In the other phrases in this verse and in the entirety of the second verse, that Eb is a quarter note.  This instance immediately follows the line "I've given up on schemes 'cause ev'ry one fell through," and so in a way, this chromatic descent mirrors that "falling through," even if music takes this falling a bit more literally than the lyrics do.

"Devoted to You"

A couple days ago, I figured out and notated the vocal melody (and harmony) for the bridges in the Everly Brothers' "Devoted to You" (I'd done the verses a few years ago).  Yester-day, I was still thinking about the song and noticed a feature that's also present in the Beach Boys' version (on Beach Boys' Party!).  In the lines "It can't die because I'm so / Devoted to you," "devoted" is held for more than a full measure, illustrating the degree of "so."

"In the Back of My Mind"

I figured out some of the oboe part in "In the Back of My Mind" to-night (so, with the exception of "Bull Session with 'Big Daddy,'" I now know at least a bit of every song on Today!), and while doing so, I noticed that "ev'rything" in the line "I'm blessed with ev'rything" is sung with a melisma (A G G D, I think), musically giving a sense of entirety.