Monday, August 15, 2016

"Say You Don't Mind"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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A couple days ago I listened to Colin Blunstone's One Year (on vinyl, even), and I noticed some things about "Say You Don't Mind."  I knew there are melismas during certain parts of the verses, but I found connections with the lyrics that I hadn't noticed before.  The two melismas in question are for "growin'" (E D# C# C#) and "goin'" (E D# C# C# B A, I think) in the lines "I've been doing some growin' / But I'm scared of you goin'."  The melisma for "growin'" sort of indicates the breadth of experience or knowledge that the singer/speaker claims he now has, and the melisma for "goin'" portrays the leaving of the titular "you."  Both encompass a distance in pitch rather than a single note, which would imply staying the same or staying of a stationary sort, respectively.
Here's a thing about "Say You Don't Mind" I noticed while doing my Collection Audit project.  An-other thing I noticed (which I think is just coincidental) is that "dying" and "whining" are in the lyrics of the first and last songs on the album.  They're both in the line "Crying, dying, sighing, whining, shining in the microphone" in "She Loves the Way They Love Her," and they're in the lines "I've been doing some whinin'" and "I've been doing some dyin'" in "Say You Don't Mind."

There doesn't seem to be a connection between them, but there is an interesting sort of book-ending going on there.