"I Want Some More"

I was thinking about "I Want Some More" this morning and realized that the melody gives some sense of the lyrics in the first two lines:  "I'm sittin' all alone on a sunny summer afternoon / Just sittin' alone with nothing to do."  The phrases "sittin' all alone" and "sittin' alone" (and even the following "on a" and "with") are sung to a single pitch (F#), musically illustrating this solitude.  The sense is heightened by the contrast with the extensive melismas with which the "-noon" of "afternoon" and "do" are sung; both include a multitude of notes and span a sixth (from A to F#).

I'm sure I noticed before (but apparently neglected to note here) that the alliteration involved in "all alone" also gives a sense of this singularity.

"I Can't Make up My Mind"

I run an-other blog where I collect performances by and interviews with the Zombies, and for the last two years or so, I've been working on transcribing the interviews.  I recently started Chris White's appearance on the Ace Records Podcast.  In the introduction, the presenter refers to "I Can't Make up My Mind" but calls it "I Can't Make My Mind up" instead.  When I verified that I'd remembered it correctly, I had a small realization about the title line.

It's sung to a melody something like this:

The words are all sung on down-beats until "my mind," which are both sung on up-beats.  Up-beats are weaker than down-beats, so even musically, there's a sense of this lack of solidity.

"Work 'n' Play"

I was thinking about "Work 'n' Play" a couple days ago and realized that, in a very loose way, the guitar part illustrates the title.  If I'm not mistaken, the initial phrases in the "verse" are just a two-note ascent (B E) and then a two-note descent (B E).  The two E notes are an octave apart, so these two phrases are more-or-less exact opposites, and this contrast matches the difference between "work" and "play" in the title.

"Hung up on a Dream"

A couple weeks ago, I was thinking again about the lines from Shakespeare's The Tempest that are quoted on the back of Odessey and Oracle.  Only a portion is given there, but in full, Caliban says:

Be not afeard.  The isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometimes voices

That, if I then had waked after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,

The clouds methought would open and show riches

Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked

I cried to dream again.  (III.ii.131-139)

When I read these lines again, I realized that many of these sentiments are also expressed in "Hung up on a Dream."

The sounds in both are expansive ("The isle is full of noises" "A sweet vibration seemed to fill the air").  Both narrators experience a dream that directs their attention upward ("then, in dreaming, / The clouds methought would open and show riches" "Until I woke up only finding ev'rything was just a dream... [of men who] showed me strangest, clouded sights above"), and they later desire to experience this dream again ("when I waked / I cried to dream again" "now I'm hung up on a dream").  More generally, both pieces also describe the calming effects of sound ("Sounds and sweet airs that give delight" "sounds unheard... which gently touched my aching mind / And soothed the wanderings of my troubled brain").

In Claes Johansen's Hung up on a Dream (p. 30), Argent explains that Shakespeare's "language spoke to me; it had an indefinable, spiritual quality."  In this instance, it seems to have influenced Argent's own words.

Odessey and Oracle

I was thinking about Odessey and Oracle yester-day and had a realization about the album as a whole.  The title itself exhibits a balance since the words odessey and oracle each have three syllables, and this balance also carries over to the sequencing:  on the original vinyl, each side had six songs.

"Girl Help Me"

At the end of "Girl Help Me," "you" in the final "Help me; I, I can't think of nothin' but you" is held while the instruments naturally fade out, and in a way, this situation demonstrates the exclusivity of "nothin' but."

"Don't Cry for Me"

I've been listening to Zombie Heaven again.  Yester-day, it was the second disc, and I noticed a couple small features.

In the line "And I'm better off with you far away from me" in "Don't Cry for Me," there's a fairly large interval (a fifth) between "you" (sung to an A) and "me" (sung to an E), so even musically, there's something of a representation of this "far away."

"I Want to Fly"

I listened to Different Game yester-day and noticed a feature in "I Want to Fly" that's also present in the version on As Far As I Can See.  The line "And the days go so slow" exhibits assonance ("go so slow") and alliteration ("so slow"), and these features provide a sense of the line's meaning:  the retention of sounds from word to word illustrates a relative lack of change, and the multitude of similar sounds lends a sense of degree (for "so").

"Care of Cell 44"

Last night, I realized that the beginning of "Care of Cell 44" ("Good morning to you...") makes it an appropriate first song for Odessey and Oracle.  The beginning of the day and the start of the album coincide.

Odessey and Oracle

Last night, I was thinking about how - as The "Odessey" explains (p. 17) - "Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet appear in the 'O' of Odessey" on the cover of Odessey and Oracle.  On the back, Rod cites some lines from The Tempest.  Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy while The Tempest is a comedy, so - probably just coincidentally - this sort of dramatic dichotomy (tragedy or comedy) is mirrored by the two sides of the album sleeve (front and back).

"Friends of Mine"

Yester-day, I was looking into "Friends of Mine," and while my initial notion didn't pan out, I noticed something much more interesting.

The opening guitar phrases are something like this:

They bear a strong resemblance to the opening Pianet phrases in "Whenever You're Ready," which are something like this:

(They continue for an-other two measures, but I felt this was enough for comparison.)

The exact intervals differ slightly, but both phrases trace the same general four-note arc.  The rhythms are basically the same, too, although they start in different places in the measure.

"Celebration"

I listened to Ring of Hands a couple days ago and noticed a small feature in "Celebration."  In the line "Lift the veil of your joy to my eye," the words "lift the veil" are sung to an ascending group of notes (E F# G#), musically illustrating this "lift[ing]."  (It wasn't until hearing the version by Sparrow on The Chris White Experience Volume Three that I understood this line.)

When I found the specific pitches, I also noticed that "joy" later in the line is sung with a melisma (G# F# E), and since the word isn't constrained to a single note, there's a sense of this exuberance.