"King Apathy III"

I listened to Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde yester-day and noticed that there's a contrast between sections of "King Apathy III."  Compared to the verses of the song, the "So I'm leavin' for the country..." sections are slower, and the instrumentation is less intense.  This musical reprieve illustrates that departure and the narrator's "rest[ing] my head."

"Pretty Polly"

I realized to-day that there are some features in the title phrase of "Pretty Polly" that illustrate this prettiness from a linguistic point of view.  The two words alliterate; they have the same number of syllables, so there's a balance; and they rhyme.

"Way beyond the Sun"

In the repeated line "You better go out and find one of them fancy men" in "Way beyond the Sun," "fancy" is sung with a melisma (Bb G G the first time, Bb C Bb C G the second).  This articulation acts as musical decoration and gives a sense of the word's meaning.

In the first and fourth verses, "beyond" in the title line is sung with a few different melismas, giving a sense of degree (for "way").

"Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins"

In "Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins," the line "Millions of hearts were lifted" is sung to an ascending melody (D D D G G A B), and "lifted" is sung with an ascending melisma (although only an interval of a second:  A B).  Both of these features illustrate the word's meaning.

As if to parallel the subject of three astronauts, the song is in 3/4, with three beats in each measure.

"There Must Be Someone (I Can Turn To)"

In the recurring title line of "There Must Be Someone (I Can Turn To)," the "turn" is often sung with a melisma (the specific notes vary), giving a sense of movement.

"Whole" in the line "Must I live my whole life through" is also sung with a melisma (D C D, I think), musically giving a sense of entirety.

"Jack Tarr the Sailor"

In the line "And when me money was all gone, it was then that I wanted more" in "Jack Tarr the Sailor," "more" is sung with a melisma (A G F), giving a sense of amount.

I can't make out the entirety of one of the lines, but in the fourth verse, "ashore" is rhymed with itself ("Alas, I had no luck... for I'd left all me money ashore / It was then that I wished that I was dead or safe with the girls ashore").  To some degree, this gives the impression of remaining static and contrasts with the other verses, most of which end with "go to sea once more."

"Tulsa County"

I'm not sure of the notes, but "go" in the harmony part for the line "Just where I'll go" in the choruses of "Tulsa County" is sung with a melisma, musically giving a sense of movement.

"Then" in the lines "Got your note in Charleston, said you needed my assistance / But when I got there, you didn't need me then" is redundant, but this mirrors the narrator's not being needed.

"Oil in My Lamp"

Although there's not too much in the lyrics to indicate this, "Oil in My Lamp" is based on the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.

"Ballad of Easy Rider"

The first "flow" in the repeated line "Flow, river, flow" in "Ballad of Easy Rider" is sung with a melisma (F# E D), musically giving a sense of movement.  Because this is a descending melisma, it also connects to the direction in the following line:  "Let your waters wash down."

"Medley: My Back Pages/B.J. Blues/Baby What You Want Me to Do"

I noticed a couple of small things in the "Baby What You Want Me to Do" section of "Medley: My Back Pages/B.J. Blues/Baby What You Want Me to Do."  "Down" in the line "I'm goin' down" is sung with a descending melisma in one of the voices (E D B), musically giving a sense either of the meaning of the word or of the movement of "goin'."  "Roll" is sung with a variety of melismas, also for a sense of movement.

In the alternate take included as a bonus track on the CD re-issue of the album, the line "I'm goin' up" is sung to an ascending melody (I think it's E E E G#), giving a sense of that "up."

"Bad Night at the Whiskey"

In the line "Bringin' my soul brothers down" in "Bad Night at the Whiskey," "down" is sung with a descending melisma (G F#), so while it's used more metaphorically, there's a sense of the word's meaning.

"Pretty Polly"

In the first "There used to be a gambler who courted all around" in "Pretty Polly" (an-other bonus track on the CD re-issue of Sweetheart of the Rodeo), the three syllables of "all around" are each sung to a different pitch (C Bb G), musically giving a sense of breadth.

"Down into the valley" and "Down into the grave" are both sung to descending phrases (D D C Bb G F and D D C Bb G respectively), musically giving a sense of the "down into"s.

"You Got a Reputation"

In some of the "tearin' your own reputation down" phrases in "You Got a Reputation" (a bonus track on the CD re-issue of Sweetheart of the Rodeo), the "down" is sung with a descending melisma (B A G#), musically giving a sense of the word's meaning.

"One Hundred Years from Now"

In "One Hundred Years from Now," there are the lines "But people are always talkin' / You know they're always talkin'."  That "always talkin'" is rhymed with itself illustrates the constancy of "always."

"Hickory Wind"

In the line "I'd started out younger at most ev'rything" in "Hickory Wind," the "-thing" of "ev'rything" is sung with a melisma (B A G), giving a sense of the breadth of "ev'ry-."

"You're Still on My Mind"

Some of the "heart"s in the recurring line "An empty bottle, a broken heart, and you're still on my mind" in "You're Still on My Mind" are sung with a melisma (C# B), musically giving a sense of being "broken."

The song is in A major, and there are some places in the chord progression where returning to the tonic chord or moving away from it mirrors the lyrics.  At the end of the line "'One more,' I keep sayin', 'and then I'll go home,'" the chord progression returns to A major, and since this is the tonic chord, there's a musical sense of "go[ing] home."  In the second verse, the chord progression starts on A major but then moves to D major in the same way that the narrator's attention seems to shift from his own problems to watching the "people [who] are dancin' and havin' their fun."  In the following line, however ("And I sit here thinkin' about what you have done"), the narrator returns his focus to his own situation, and the chord progression moves back to A major to match.  During the next line ("To try and forget you, I turn to the wine"), the chord progression moves from A major to D major, in the same way that the narrator once again tries to shift his focus, but at the end of the last line ("An empty bottle, a broken heart, and you're still on my mind"), the narrator returns to thinking about his troubles and the chord progression moves back to A major.

Because the line "An empty bottle, a broken heart, and you're still on my mind" occurs at the end of every verse, there's a sense of the constancy of being "still on my mind."

"The Christian Life"

There are some significant numbers in the musical structure of "The Christian Life."  The song is in 3/4, and aside from one E major, the chord progression consists of three chords (D major, G major, and A major).  The song is based on musical threes in the same way that the narrator's Christian life is based on the Trinity.

Most of the lines are four measures long, and with three beats in each measure, this adds up to twelve, which is also a significant number in Christianity (the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles, for example).  This doesn't seem to be as important as the threes, however.

That one E major chord coincides with "a whole world of" in the line "They say I'm missing a whole world of fun."  Because of the accidental in E major (G#) and because the chord's root is something other than the tonic (D), subdominant (G), or dominant (A), there's a musical illustration of the incongruity between this world of sin (the "things I despise") and the Christian life.

Appropriately, the phrase "walk in the light" comes from 1 John 1:7:  "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."

"I Am a Pilgrim"

"I Am a Pilgrim" contains a number of Biblical references.

"I'm going down to the River of Jordan / Just to bathe my wearisome soul" is a reference to Naaman in the Old Testament.  In 2 Kings 5, the prophet Elisha tells Naaman to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times to be cured of his leprosy.

Although the focus is a bit different, the lines "If I can just touch the hem of His garment, good Lord / Then I'd know He'd take me home" seem to refer to healings that Jesus performed after the fringe of His garment was touched, first by a woman with a discharge of blood (Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, and Luke 8:43-48) and then by the sick people of Gennesaret (Matthew 14:34-36 and Mark 6:53-56).

The lines "I've got a home in that yonder city, good Lord / And it's not, not made by hand" are a reference to 2 Corinthians 5:1:  "For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

"Old John Robertson"

In "Old John Robertson," the three syllables of "ev'rywhere" in the line "People ev'rywhere would laugh behind his back" are each sung to a different pitch (E D C#), musically giving a sense of breadth.

"Draft Morning"

This is a small and probably obvious point, but I'll note it anyway:  at the end of "Draft Morning," there's a quotation of "Taps."

"Don't Make Waves"

One of the lines in "Don't Make Waves" (a track that the Byrds wrote for a movie of the same name and which is included as a bonus track on the CD re-issue of Younger than Yesterday) is "Malibu is calling you, her days and nights so warm."  The internal (sort of slant) rhyme of "Malibu" and "calling you" illustrates something of the allure that Malibu has.

"My Back Pages"

This is just a small point, but "from stern to bow" in "My Back Pages" is a merism.

"Mind Gardens"

The phrase "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" in "Mind Gardens" comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet.  The title character asks himself, "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them." (III.i.65-68)

The particular alliteration of "killin' cold" (the hard K sound) gives a sense of the piercing nature of the cold.

The "walls all down" in "I tore the walls all down" is sung to a descending phrase (E D C#), so there's a musical representation of the walls' coming down.

"She Don't Care about Time"

The guitar solo in "She Don't Care about Time" is based on a melody from Bach's cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147.  In Bach's piece, it appears in the sixth and tenth movements, played by oboes and violin:

[source]

The subject-verb disagreement in the title line ("she don't") illustrates and emphasizes the lack of care.

"The Times They Are A-Changin'"

In the titular line of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" "changin'" is sung with a melisma (A G G), musically giving a sense of the word's meaning.

"If You're Gone"

I can't decipher the whole first line of "If You're Gone," but "ev'rything" in the phrase "to me you're ev'rything" is sung with a melisma (A C B A G, I think), musically giving a sense of that entirety.  "Fall" in the line "If you're here, the night is rightly going to fall" is sung with a melisma (B A G), so while it's used more metaphorically here, there's a sense of its meaning.  "Care" in the line "If I love you, if I know how much I care" is sung with this same melisma for a sense of degree ("how much").  "Anywhere" in the line "If I find the things you want then, anywhere" is also sung with a melisma (G G F# E D), musically giving a sense of that breadth of possibility.

"Lay Down Your Weary Tune"

In "Lay Down Your Weary Tune," the end of the line "Lay down your weary tune, lay down" is sung to a descending phrase (the whole line is sung to the phrase E A B C# B A A F# E E), musically giving a sense of that "lay[ing] down."  Similarly, "And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings" descends (something like D D C# A A B C# A D), musically giving an impression of "lay[ing] down" to "rest."