"This Is Your Captain Calling"

I was thinking about Colin Blunstone's "This Is Your Captain Calling" recently and noticed a handful of features, all in the first iteration of the chorus:

This is your captain calling

This is your captain calling

To tell you I'm out of my brain again

This is your captain calling

And if you think we're falling

You're perfectly right

And I'd be delighted if any of you

Could give us a hand and land the plane

In the line "And if you think we're falling," "falling" is sung to a descending pair of notes, providing a sense of its meaning.  It's only a small interval (a whole step:  F# to E), but it's somewhat conspicuous because up to that point, the melody ascends and holds steady ("And if you think we're" is sung to the notes C# D E F# F#)

In the line "And I'd be delighted if any of you," the phrase "any of you" is sung to notes of all different pitches (A G# F# E), giving a sense of the breadth of "any."

The line "Could give us a hand and land the plane" exhibits internal rhyme ("hand" and "land"), hinting at the stability that would result from "land[ing] the plane."

"Sanctuary"

When I watched the Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London DVD a couple days ago, I also noticed an ambiguity in the lyrics of "Sanctuary," specifically in the line "When all around seems to be trouble."  It could be parsed in two different ways:  either "all" as the subject and "trouble" as a predicate adjective or "all around" as an adverbial phrase (modifying "seems to be") and "trouble" as the subject (with the structure inverted, rather than the more prosaic "When trouble seems to be all around").

"I Love You"

When I listened to The Decca Stereo Anthology back in September, I thought there was an ambiguity in the lines "I shouldn't hide / My love deep inside" in "I Love You."  Yester-day, I watched the Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London DVD (because according to Russo's Collector's Guide, the concert was recorded on 6 June 2003), and I finally sussed it out:  "deep inside" could function adverbially (modifying "hide," describing where to hide this love) or as a post-positive adjectival phrase (modifying "love," indicating the degree to which the narrator feels this emotion).  Admittedly, the first seems more likely.

"A Man for All Reasons"

I listened to Argent's Nexus a couple days ago to mark the U.S. release of the "A Man for All Reasons" b/w "Music of the Spheres" single, and I remembered something that I noticed about "A Man for All Reasons" when I listened to the album back in April, although I think I'd been dimly aware of this even before then.  There are changes in the dynamics to represent the lines "And again, there's the man of war" (played forte for bellicosity) and "And again, there's the man of peace" (played piano for tranquility), and of course, these opposite dynamics also mirror the difference between "war" and "peace."

"Trapeze"

I was thinking about "Trapeze" yester-day, and I realized that in the section

Flying, sighing headlong into dread
Hoping, praying I'll find the path to tread

the phrase "headlong into dread" is sung to a descending melody (Bb A G F# D), musically illustrating this sensation.  In other words, it mirrors that "sinking feeling."

"A Man for All Reasons" b/w "Music from the Spheres"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (3 June 1974), Argent's "A Man for All Reasons" (edited) b/w "Music from the Spheres" (Epic 5-11137) was released in the U.S. and Canada.  The U.K. release (Epic S EPC 2448) was on 14 June, coincidentally Rod Argent's birthday.