Tuesday, May 28, 2019

"Darlin'"

At ~1:41 in "Darlin'," there's the stand-alone line "Every night, oh, darlin'."  The "every" here is sung with three syllables, giving a sense of number.

Monday, May 27, 2019

"Wild Honey"

I listened to 1967: Sunshine tomorrow yester-day and noticed a few things.

In the line "The girl's got my heart, and my love's comin' down on me" in "Wild Honey," the "comin' down on me" descends (G G E D C), so while it's used more metaphorically (I think), there's a musical sense of that "comin' down."

Sunday, May 26, 2019

"Wouldn't It Be Nice"

I was thinking about "Wouldn't It Be Nice" this morning, and I realized a small thing about the line "Hold each other close the whole night through."  "Through" is sung with a melisma (D C Bb), musically giving a sense of duration.

Thursday, May 23, 2019

"Heads You Win - Tails I Lose"

This morning I was thinking about "Heads You Win - Tails I Lose" and realized something about the chorus.  For the repeated "Heads you win / Tails I lose" (or the later "Heads I win / Tails you lose"), there are only two chords, and each line is sung with only a single pitch (in the lead vocal, anyway).  "Heads you win" is sung entirely to F# notes above an F# minor, and "Tails I lose" is sung entirely to E notes above an E major.  That there are only two notes and two chords for these two lines musically illustrates the two possible outcomes of the coin flip (although, as the lyrics explain, the outcome of the coin flip really has no bearing on what actually happens).

Monday, April 29, 2019

"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.

Sunday, April 28, 2019

"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.

Saturday, April 27, 2019

"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).

Friday, April 26, 2019

"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.

Thursday, April 25, 2019

"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.

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

"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.

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

"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.

Monday, April 22, 2019

"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."