"What Am I Doing Here?"

When I listened to In Search of the Lost Chord a few days ago, I also noticed something about "What Am I Doing Here?" which is included as a bonus track.  "Free" in the lines "Ev'ryone's dream is deep within / Find it, and you'll be free" is sung with a melisma (E D).  Because it's not limited to a single pitch, there's a musical sense of that "free[dom]."

"House of Four Doors (Part 2)"

In the phrase "Nowhere at all" in "House of Four Doors (Part 2)," "all" is sung with a melisma (C D in one voice).  Because it's in a grammatical construction with "at," however, the melisma provides a sense of degree rather than entirety.

"Anymore" in the phrase "not there anymore" is also sung with a melisma, specifically the "-more" is sung to two G notes an octave apart.  The musical sense here, although negated ("not... anymore"), is one of continuation.

"House of Four Doors (Part 1)"

I noticed a small thing in "House of Four Doors (Part 1)" when I listened to In Search of the Lost Chord yester-day.  In the line "We'd lost our way," "way" is sung with an ascending melisma in one voice (C D) and a descending melisma in an-other (G F#).  Musically, "way" is being pulled in two different directions, and this illustrates the confusion of being "lost" and not knowing whether to go up or down.

"Time to Get Away"

When I listened to Days of Future Passed last week, I noticed a small thing in "Time to Get Away." "Tears" in the line "Toiling has bought too many tears" is sung with a melisma (D E), musically giving a sense of amount for that "too many."

"The Day Begins"

I listened to Days of Future Passed on Tuesday.  I considered listening to the vinyl copy I have, so I dug it out on Tuesday morning, but I ended up listening to the 2008 CD re-issue so I could also listen to the bonus tracks.

But when I was looking at the record sleeve, I noticed something about "The Day Begins," if only tangentially.

For years, the only copy of Days of Future Passed I had was a CD re-issue, and judging by what information is available on discogs.com, it's from 1991.  The two poems at the beginning and end of the album are printed in the liner notes.  When I listened to it, I thought one line in "The Day Begins" was "Let insipid figures of light pass by," but since the booklet had "Let inspired figures of light pass by," I just assumed I heard it wrong.

"The Day Begins" from the CD booklet

When I lookt at the vinyl record sleeve on Tuesday morning, I was surprised to find that it reads, "Let insipid figures of light pass by."

"The Day Begins" from the record sleeve

(For what it's worth, the vinyl copy I have is a reprint from 1972.)

I feel justified now in hearing "Let insipid figures of light pass by," but I'm still in the dark as to how "insipid" was changed to "inspired" in the CD booklet.

"And My Baby's Gone"

"Anymore" in "And My Baby's Gone" ("Without your heart / Anymore / I'm like a room / With no door") is sung with a melisma (Gb Ab Ab Gb Eb Gb Eb B Db C, I think), so there's a musical sense of that "-more" even though there's something of a negation:  "Without [it] anymore."

"People Gotta Go"

I'm not sure of the specific notes, but some of the "Go"s in "People Gotta Go" are sung with melismas, musically giving a sense of movement.

"Away" in the line "All those people have got to go away" is sung with a melisma (C# C# D, I think), also giving a sense of movement.

"Ev'rything" in the line "Till I've learned most ev'rything" is also sung with a melisma (C D G F, I think), musically giving a sense of entirety.

"Come Back (I Don't Want to Go on without You)"

In the line "It's so bad to be alone" in "Come Back (I Don't Want to Go on without You)," the "bad" is sung with a melisma (D C), musically giving a sense of degree, almost emphasizing the preceding "so."  (I'm not certain, but "so" in the line "My room is so blue" might have a similar effect.)

I previously noted that the "every" in the lines "I keep seeing your face / Whoa, every place" is sung with three syllables, but I noticed last week that those three syllables are each sung to a different pitch (Eb D C), which also gives a musical sense of number.  "Place" is sung with a melisma (C Bb), which extends this sense (because of both the extra syllable and the greater range of the phrase - a fourth from Eb to Bb).

"True Story"

In "True Story," the "day" in the phrase "Ev'ry single day" is sung with a melisma (I think it's D C B).  Musically, this gives a sense of number, to illustrate "ev'ry single."

"Thank You Baby"

In "Thank You Baby," two of the "grow"s in the lines "I saw my troubles grow / Grow and grow" are sung with melismas (the first to E D; the third to D C Bb), musically giving a sense of that increase.

The line "And ev'ry day, even ev'ry night" near the end of the song contains a merism ("ev'ry day, ev'ry night").

"Stop!"

I can't be sure about this because I haven't yet learned any parts for it, but I don't think "Stop!" resolves.  Musically, this provides the same feeling as the lyrics at the end:  "Make your mind up / What you're gonna do about us."  The singer/speaker is left waiting for an answer in the same way that the listener is waiting for a musically satisfying conclusion.

In thinking about the song again to-day before writing this post, I also started wondering whether the title is meant to be similar to the Beatles' "Help!"  They're both single-syllable imperatives followed by an exclamation mark.  I'm not sure if the chronology allows for this though.

"Let Me Go"

I found a handful of things in "Let Me Go" when I listened to The Magnificent Moodies last week, and in writing this post, I found a few more.

First, here are the things I noticed last week.

There's a grammatical ambiguity in the line "When I call you dear."  "Dear" could be either a vocative or part of a double accusative construction (with "you").

I'm not sure of the notes, but "go" in the line "I find it hard to go" is sung with a melisma, giving a sense of movement.

I'm not sure of the lyrics in the whole line, but "ways" in "see a change in your ways" is sung with a melisma (A A G F, I think), musically illustrating that "chang[ing]."

"Go" in the coda ("You'd better let me go") is also sung with a melisma (E D C, I think) for a sense of movement.

In looking at the song again, I found a few more things.

"If I stay around, then you're gonna see my heartbreak" also has a grammatical ambiguity.  "Heartbreak" could be either one word functioning as a noun or two forming a clause  ("you're gonna see my heart break").

"Heartache" in the line "I can't stand all this heartache" is sung with a melisma (B B A G), musically giving a sense of that "all."

"So" in the line "'Cause I love you so" is sung with a melisma (Eb D C), musically giving a sense of degree.

"I've Got a Dream"

In "I've Got a Dream," "heart" in the line "And I got a heart full of love" is sung with a melisma (B C B A), musically illustrating the amount of that "full[ness]."

"Can't Nobody Love You"

I should have noted this earlier (because I discovered it in the Zombies' version last month), but when I listened to The Magnificent Moodies recently, I realized that the lines "I'm gonna love you in the morning / I'm gonna love you through the night" in "Can't Nobody Love You" contain a merism ("in the morning... through the night").

"Something You Got"

I'm unsure of the specific notes, but in the lines "Something you got, baby / Oh, makes ev'rything alright" in "Something You Got," the "al-" of "alright" is sung with a melisma, musically giving a sense of entirety.

"I'll Go Crazy"

I listened to The Magnificent Moodies yester-day and noticed a plethora of things about which I'll have posts for the next week or so (although almost all of them are just small points).

In the third "You know I feel alright" at the beginning of "I'll Go Crazy," the "al-" of "alright" is sung with a melisma spanning an octave:  F Eb C Bb Ab F.  Musically, this gives a sense of entirety.

I'm not sure of the specific notes, but "much" in the line "Oh, love you too much" is also sung with a melisma, musically giving a sense of amount or degree.  This is also present in James Brown's original (although Brown's melismas are just two notes [C Bb] where the Moodies have many more).

"Is This Heaven?"

After I listened to Keys of the Kingdom last Tuesday, I learned the muted guitar part and the chords for the verses in "Is This Heaven?"  To these, I could add the pizzicati part, which I learned a couple months ago.  This is just a section of the song, roughly from ~1:30 to ~2:45: