"Just Once in My Life"

A few years ago, I noted that under the line "I've given up on schemes 'cause ev'ry one fell through" in "Just Once in My Life," the synth bass plays a chromatically descending phrase (Eb D Db):

At the time, I wrote that this descent matches the "falling through," even if the music takes it a bit more literally.

When I listened to the song again recently, I realized that in a very small way, the breadth of this chromaticism also matches the entirety of "ev'ry one."

"Blueberry Hill"

Yester-day, I listened to the two-albums-on-one-CD re-issue of 15 Big Ones and Love You (because I've been reading about Love You in The Beach Boys lately), and I noticed a few features.

In the lines "But all of those vows you made / Were never to be" in "Blueberry Hill," the phrase "all of those vows" is sung to notes of all different pitches (E# F# G# A#), giving a sense of the entirety of "all."  That this E# is an accidental (the song is in B major) lends a further sense of breadth.

When I was thinking about the song later, I also realized that there's some significance in the placement of one of the line breaks in the second verse:

The moon stood still

On blueberry hill

It lingered until

My dream came true

The semantic sense is spread across the line break between "It lingered until" and "My dream came true."  The second line is necessary to complete the meaning, and in a way, the pause that comes before it matches this "linger[ing]."

"Drive-In"

Yester-day, I was thinking about "Drive-In," specifically the line "A big, buttered popcorn and a extra large coke."  To some degree, the abundance of plosive sounds in the phrase "big, buttered popcorn" indicates this large size.

"Riot in Cell Block No. 9"

I listened to The Very Best of the Coasters yester-day, specifically to hear "Riot in Cell Block #9" because 2 July is the date mentioned in it.  I noticed some small significance in the structure of the song that also appears in one of the versions that the Beach Boys did during the sessions for Beach Boys' Party! (listed as "Riot in Cell Block No. 9" #2 on Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged).

The fourth verse is shorter than the others (it's only two lines instead of four), and to some degree, this demonstrates the constraint of being "back in our cells."

When I referenced the CD, it also occurred to me that the difference between Beach Boys' Party! and Beach Boys' Party! Uncovered and Unplugged is comparable to that between the Beatles' Let It Be and Let It Be... Naked.  The revisited version of each album has roughly the same visual design as the original but with different pictures that are in black and white instead of color, and the music of each has had a layer of overdubs stripped away.