"Friends of Mine"

Since 2014, I've recorded a version of Odessey and Oracle every year, but when I started doing it this year, I kept finding parts that I wasn't playing very accurately.  Rather than rush through it all and end up with a knowingly flawed version, I decided just to skip it altogether.

But, of course, because to-day's the 49th anniversary of the album's release, I listened to Odessey and Oracle (specifically, the 30th anniversary edition, which has both the stereo and mono versions of the album).  Because it sounded easy, I thought I'd figure out the vocal parts for the chant of couples in "Friends of Mine," and while writing out the notation, I discovered something interesting.

First, here's the notation:

I should note while the whole chant of couples lasts eight measures, the second four measures are musically identical to the first four.

What I noticed while writing this out is that each couple has its own complete measure.  For each couple (aside from Jean and Jim), there's a one-syllable name, "and," and a two-syllable name.  That's four syllables, one for each beat in a measure, so each couple is musically represented as complete unit.