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Wednesday, July 31, 2024
"Little Deuce Coupe"
A couple days ago, I listened to the two-albums-on-one-CD re-issue of Little Deuce Coupe and All Summer Long, and later I realized that there's a somewhat significant contrast in "Little Deuce Coupe," specifically in the line "But she'll walk a Thunderbird like it's standin' still." The narrator's affection towards his car is such that he's anthropomorphized it to some degree, using a feminine pronoun to refer to it throughout the song ("She's my little deuce coupe," "She'll do a hundred and forty...," "She's got a competition clutch...," and so on), but a competitor's Thunderbird is still just an object and is referred to with the neuter "it."
David Brauer
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
"When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)"
I was thinking about "When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)" a couple days ago, specifically about the recurring harpsichord phrase in the verses, which is something like:
The rhythm here seemed familiar to me, and eventually, I realized that it's the same as the rhythm of the guitar part in the first "verse" of "Shut Down, Part II," which is something like this:
While the melodies are different, the rhythm is the same, but I don't know whether this was an intentional re-use or just a coincidence.
David Brauer
Saturday, July 6, 2024
"Let's Put Our Hearts Together"
In the line "Take your time; don't worry how you feel because you know we've got forever" in "Let's Put Our Hearts Together," "forever" is sung with a melisma (F# A# C# B A#) and lasts for nearly a full measure. Both of these features lend a sense of duration.
David Brauer
Friday, July 5, 2024
"A Casual Look"
Yester-day, I listened to the two-albums-on-one-CD re-issue of 15 Big Ones and Love You. I noticed that, perhaps just coincidentally, some lines in "A Casual Look" are identical to some lines in "I'm So Young" (from Today!). Here's the second verse of "A Casual Look":
A soldier boy when he proposedShe said no; his face just frozeYou know she loved himBut was so youngCan't marry no oneCan't marry no one
And here's the first verse of "I'm So Young":
I have a girlfriend; she says I'm her only oneWe wanna get married, but we're so youngSo youngCan't marry no one
Both end with "So young / Can't marry no one." Furthermore, as I've noted before, in both, "young" is sung with a melisma, providing a sense of degree (for "so").
According to the liner notes of the respective albums, "A Casual Look" was written by Ed Wells, and "I'm So Young" by William Tyus.
David Brauer