Wednesday, February 12, 2025

"Satisfied Mind"

I also noticed a small feature in "Satisfied Mind" when I listened to Turn! Turn! Turn! recently:  in the line "How many times have you heard someone say," "times" is sung with a melisma (C# B), giving a sense of the amount of "how many."

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

"The World Turns All Around Her"

I listened to Turn! Turn! Turn! recently.  I think I'd been dimly aware of this before, but I realized that part of the drum pattern in the bridge of "The World Turns All Around Her" (roughly every other pair of measures, starting with the second pair) seems to be based on that in the Beatles' "What You're Doing," particularly the introduction (which is only drums for the first four measures).

The two parts are something like this, where the bottom line is the bass drum and the top line is the snare:


(I should note that I am not a drummer, so I don't know how to notate the parts properly or even if I have these correctly identified.)

There's also a cymbal crash on the first beat of the first bar of these measures in "The World Turns All Around Here" (and on the first beat of the second bar in the third instance, at ~1:24), but the corresponding pattern in the Beatles' song doesn't have any cymbals.

There are minor differences, but the two parts are so similar that it seems more than just coincidence.

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

"My Back Pages"

I listened to The Byrds' Greatest Hits yester-day and noticed a small feature in "My Back Pages."  Most of each verse is sung by Roger McGuinn alone, but more voices join in for the final line "Ah, but I was so much older then; I'm younger than that now."  In a way, these extra voices match the greater degree of the adverbial phrase "so much" and the comparative adjectives "older" and "younger."

I was thinking about the song again this morning and realized that the alliteration in the phrase "quite clear" in the fourth verse also provides a degree of emphasis.

Thursday, November 28, 2024

"Old John Robertson"

I listened to the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour recently and discovered a similarity between "Penny Lane" and the Byrds' "Old John Robertson."  In "Penny Lane," there are the lines "On the corner is a banker with a motorcar / The little children laugh at him behind his back," and the same sort of situation is described in "Old John Robertson," albeit spread across different verses.  In the first verse (repeated as the fourth), there's the line "People ev'rywhere would laugh behind his back," and the second verse specifically mentions children laughing (I think the line is "Children laughing, playing didn't know his name," but I'm not sure).

The liner notes of the CD re-issue of The Notorious Byrd Brothers briefly comment on the musical influence that the Beatles had on the album, saying that it's "dated by a handful of period-production touches that place it squarely in the immediate post-Sgt. Pepper era of future-baroque studio whimsy," but this similarity between "Penny Lane" and "Old John Robertson" seems to indicate a lyrical or thematic influence, too.  The liner notes also explain that "Old John Robertson" is based on a real-life figure from Chris Hillman's childhood, and this is similar to how "Penny Lane" is based on a location from Paul McCartney's childhood.

Saturday, October 5, 2024

"Candy"

In the line "Very profound" in "Candy," "profound" is held for more than a full measure, and this long duration gives a sense of degree (for "very").

Friday, October 4, 2024

"Old Blue"

I listened to Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde yester-day and noticed a couple small features.

In the repeated line "Blue chased a possum up a hollow limb" (with "hollow" sung more as "holler") in "Old Blue," the phrase "up a hollow limb" is usually sung to an ascending phrase (D E F# A B the first time and D E F# A D the third time), giving a sense of that "up."

Thursday, September 26, 2024

"She Has a Way"

I noted some melismas in "She Has a Way" in my initial series of posts, but I found an-other one:  "Apart" in the line "The way she took me all apart" is sung with a melisma (B A B A), and this sort of disjointed articulation gives a sense of the word's meaning.

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

"Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe"

Parts of "Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe" (roughly the second half of each verse) exhibit something that's at least close to the Bo Diddley beat.  I've been unable to find anything that defines it in precise musical terms, however, so I can't be very detailed about it.

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

"It's No Use"

In the clause "And she will be ev'rything" in "It's No Use," "ev'rything" is sung with a melisma (F# C# C# B A#), musically giving something of a sense of its meaning.

Monday, September 23, 2024

"I Knew I'd Want You"

In the lines "I'd like to love you / With all of my heart" in "I Knew I'd Want You," the phrase "all of my heart" is sung to notes of all different pitches (C B A G), giving a sense of the breadth of "all."

Sunday, September 22, 2024

"You Won't Have to Cry"

I listened to Mr. Tambourine Man yester-day and noticed a handful of small features.

In the lines "Then, girl, you will see / That you won't have to cry / Anymore" in "You Won't Have to Cry," the "-more" of "Anymore" is sung with a melisma (E D#), giving a sense of its meaning.

Specific to the alternate version that's included as a bonus track on the CD, "strong" in the line "'Cause my love for you's too strong" is also sung with a melisma (in the harmony part:  B A), giving a sense of degree (for "too").

Sunday, July 14, 2024

"Jack Tarr the Sailor"

I listened to Ballad of Easy Rider yester-day (because it was Roger McGuinn's birthday), and I noticed a small ambiguity in "Jack Tarr the Sailor."  "Poor" in the line "'There goes Jack Tarr that poor sailor; he must go to sea once more'" could have the sense of "lacking money" (because as Jack himself says in the previous verse "me money was all gone") or the sense of "to be pitied" (because going to sea is something to be avoided; in the first verse, Jack says, "But a man must be blind to make up his mind to go to sea once more," and his advice in the last verse is "get married, lads, and have all night in, and go to sea no more").