"I Come and Stand at Every Door"

I was thinking about "I Come and Stand at Every Door" yester-day and had a small realization about the title line.  The phrase "ev'ry door" is sung to notes of all different pitches (B D# C#), giving a sense of number.

"I Come and Stand at Every Door"

During the last month or so of 2023, I listened to all of the Byrds albums from Fifth Dimension to (Untitled) and noticed some features I plan to write about in a series of weekly posts.

The first half of the fourth verse of "I Come and Stand at Every Door" exhibits anaphora (the repeated "I need no..."):  "I need no fruit; I need no rice / I need no sweets nor even bread."  I think its function here is simply to emphasize that the narrator "ask[s] for nothing for myself."

In the last verse ("All that I ask is that for peace / You fight today..."), there's a second vocal part (initially just doubling the lead vocal but then harmonizing with it).  This extra voice highlights the earnestness of the narrator's request ("All that I ask...").