"It's Alright with Me"

The Zombies' social media accounts have been posting about "It's Alright with Me" quite a bit lately, and as I was thinking about the song yester-day, I had a few realizations about it.

The recurring line "But if you want to stay around and love me" is sung to far fewer pitches than the surrounding lines (it simply alternates between Eb and F), and in a way, this narrow scope reflects the "stay[ing] around."

That the first verse and the third verse use the same sound for their rhymes ("door" with "floor" and "poor" with "door," respectively) poetically represents the narrator's limited means.

The phrase "mess around" in the first line may indicate Ray Charles' influence, specifically his "Mess Around," in which this phrase frequently recurs.  "It's Alright with Me" is in C minor, and if I'm not mistaken, "Mess Around" is in Eb major, so the two songs are in relative keys.

"Brief Candles"

I listened to Odessey and Oracle yester-day and noticed some significance in the structure of the line "Finds he needs her more because she's no more need for him" in "Brief Candles."  The words "needs," "more," "more," and "need" form a chiasm (since they're different parts of speech, however, it's not an exact correspondence).  That the order of the words is inverted from one half of the line to the next illustrates the complete opposites here.

"It's Alright with Me"

In "It's Alright with Me," the tempo slows for the bridge, and in a way, this slower tempo represents being "tired," although perhaps in a more literal sense than it's used in the lyrics ("I'm sick and tired of being on my own").

When I watched the new lyric video yester-day, I also noticed that the repetition involved in the alliterative "big black" ("I got no money, can't afford no big black car") provides a slight sense of this large size.

"Can't Nobody Love You"

I've noted before that the lines "Oh, I'm gonna love you in the morning / Love you late at night" in "Can't Nobody Love You" contain a temporal merism, but when I listened to Begin Here again recently, I noticed that the extent here is also illustrated by the melody.  "Morning" is sung to Fs, but "night" is sung to lower pitches (and with a melisma:  E A).  At the greatest distance, there's a sixth between "morning" and "night."

"She's Not There"

I listened to Begin Here last week and noticed a few small features.

In "She's Not There," the line "Though they all knew" is doubled by the backing vocals, and these extra voices lend a slight sense of the entirety of "all."

"17 Over You"

Yester-day, I listened to On the Air Tonight and noticed a very small feature in "17 Over You."  In the line "But year after year it's the same situation that's always on my mind," the initial S is maintained in the phrase "same situation," matching this constancy.

"Beyond the Borderline"

I listened to Still Got That Hunger yester-day and noticed two small features in the lines "The heartache and the sacrifice / All worth it just to feel the changing atmosphere / It's very clear" in "Beyond the Borderline."

In the phrase "the changing atmosphere," the note values shift from even quarter notes (for "the changing") to mostly eighth notes (for "atmosphere").  Even musically, then, this "changing" is represented, albeit in a small way.

Rod and Colin both sing the line "It's very clear," and the doubled voices add a sense of degree (for "very").

"Another Day"

Years ago, I noted that in the lines "I don't want to waste my time / Watching ev'ry crime" in "Another Day," "crime" is sung with a melisma (F E D), giving a sense of number (for the modifying "ev'ry").  Last week, I listened to Breathe Out, Breathe In again and noticed that an-other musical element also contributes to this sense of amount:  under that phrase, the bass plays notes of all different pitches, spanning nearly an octave:  E A D.

When I referenced the song again in order to find those pitches, I noticed that in the line "Just a shadow over me," "shadow" really is "over me" in terms of pitch:  "shadow" is sung to the notes F E, and "me" is sung to an A.

"Feels Like Rain"

I listened to The Ghost of You and Me earlier this week and noticed a musical feature that mirrors the lyrics in "Feels Like Rain."  During the line "And life's been good, and life's been hard," the violins play first an ascending phrase (for "life's been good") and then a descending phrase (for "life's been hard").

"I Want Her She Wants Me"

I recently listened to Odessey and Oracle {Revisited} and noticed a small point in "I Want Her She Wants Me."  I also remembered a similar point I found in November but forgot to write about.

In the line "I sleep so easy," "so" is sung with a longer value than the surrounding notes, giving a sense of degree.

In the line "All around me," "all" is likewise sung with a longer value than the surrounding notes, here lending a sense of breadth or entirety.

"Love Conquers All"

I listened to New World again yester-day and noticed a small feature in "Love Conquers All."  Throughout the choruses, there's a recurring three-note guitar phrase (E D A) that emphasizes or represents some of the lyrics.  The span of these pitches (a fifth) provides a slight sense of the entirety of the "all" in the title line, and the descent that the pitches outline matches the "fall" and "breaking down" in lines "Each time you fall" and "Breaking down the walls."

"Unhappy Girl"

The phrase "so strong" in "Unhappy Girl" alliterates, and the repetition involved lends a slight sense of degree, especially since these two words are sung on downbeats, which provide a corresponding musical emphasis.