Tuesday, July 23, 2019

"Mystified"

I watched the Live at Metropolis Studios DVD this morning and noticed a small thing in "Mystified."  "From the first to the last" in the line "Well, I try to remember from the first to the last" is a merism.

Friday, July 19, 2019

Argent

On page 67 of his autobiography Banging On!, Bob Henrit writes, "The very first Argent album finished with a forty-eight hour session [at Sound Techniques Studio] on 10 July 1969, the day Apollo 9 landed on the moon."  There are some factual errors here:  it was Apollo 11 that landed on the moon, and it happened on 20 July 1969.  If Henrit's recollection is correct, however, and the recording of the Argent album finished with a forty-eight-hour session that was completed on the day of the moon landing, to-day and to-morrow mark the fiftieth anniversary.

Sunday, July 7, 2019

"Brother Lover"

Shortly after Colin Blunstone's birthday, the Zombies Fan Club posted a concert he did in Holland in 1974:


The day after I listened to it, I realized something about "Brother Lover."

In the coda, the vocal alternates between "Brother lover" and "Lover brother," both sung to this phrase:


The first word is sung on the off-beats, and the second word is sung on the beat (save for an added syllable).  The alternating of the order of the words and the words' falling on or off the beat illustrates the singer/speaker's confusion as to whether "the man sitting next to the beautiful young lady was her brother or her lover."

Saturday, July 6, 2019

"Caroline Goodbye"

I was out of town recently, so I was unable to write about it, but I listened to Colin Blunstone's One Year on 24 June and noticed a few small things in "Caroline Goodbye."

"Way" in the line "Looks like you're gonna make it in a big way" is sung with a melisma (D C D E), which gives something of a sense of that "big."  I don't find this a very convincing argument myself, but I thought I'd mention it.

"Last" in the line "Here's your song to make them last" is also sung with a melisma (A G E, I think), and this gives a musical sense of duration or continuation.