"The Voice"

This morning, I started transcribing the lyrics in the booklet from Long Distance Voyager for easier reference, and I noticed some significant variations in the syllable counts in lines in "The Voice."

The first verse starts with the lines

Won't you take me back to school

I need to learn the golden rule

Won't you lay it on the line

I need to hear it just one more time

The first two lines establish a pattern (seven syllables then eight syllables), but the next two lines don't completely follow it (seven syllables but then nine syllables).  In a way, this extra syllable in the fourth line represents the addition that the lyrics themselves mention ("one more time").

The beginning of the third verse exhibits a similar expansion:

Make a promise, take a vow,

And trust your feelings; it's easy now

Understand the voice within

And feel a change* already beginning

Once again, the first two lines establish a pattern (seven syllables then nine syllables), and the subsequent lines initially follow this (seven syllables in the third line) but then break away (ten syllables in the fourth).  Here, the alteration in the number of syllables matches the "change" in the lyrics.  Additionally, the rhyme scheme shifts:  instead of line-ending rhymes (like the preceding "vow" and "now"), the final syllable of "within" rhymes with an internal sound in "beginning."

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*I think it's "a change" in the recording, but the booklet has "the changes."

"Veteran Cosmic Rocker"

I listened to Long Distance Voyager yester-day.  I'm not sure this is really worth noting, but I noticed for the first time that the middle section of "Veteran Cosmic Rocker" (roughly from ~1:11 to ~2:08) exhibits something that's at least close to the Bo Diddley beat.

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

Last week, I figured out the chords for "Come Back (I Don't Want to Go on without You)."  A few days later, I was thinking about the song again and had a number of realizations about it, mostly about the bridge:

Here in the gloom

Of my lonely room

I hold her handkerchief

And smell her sweet perfume

In the first verse, the narrator explains that he's alone.  Here, he "hold[s] her handkerchief" almost as a substitute for holding her hand.  The two phrases start the same way.

The lines "I hold her handkerchief / And smell her sweet perfume" exhibit alliteration, and the euphony of this effect gives some indication of the pleasantness of either the situation the narrator imagines or his actual memories of the past.

The initial sounds of this pleasant alliteration contrast with the line-ending rhymes in the previous couplet, where the narrator's sadness and isolation are highlighted.  Their opposite positions emphasize this difference.

In the first verse, there's a slant rhyme between "alone" and "home" ("It's so bad to be alone / Oh, baby, come home"), and this imperfection indicates the narrator's lack of sufficient companionship.