"A Sign from Me to You"

I'm not sure of the specific notes, but "signs" in the line "I could give you many, many signs, my love" in "A Sign from Me to You" is sung to a number of pitches, musically giving a sense of the multitude of "many, many."

"I Don't Believe in Miracles"

The day after I listened to Journey, I listened to Ennismore and noticed a few small things about songs on that album.

In the second verse of "I Don't Believe in Miracles," there's the line "And so you've won again, you win them all."  "All" is sung with a glissando (from G to F), and that musical range gives something of a sense of the word's meaning.

"Brother Lover"

In the second half of the chorus of "Brother Lover," there's the line "I just can't take anymore."  "Anymore" is sung with a melisma (F# G F# E D), and since there are extra notes, there's something of a musical sense of the "-more."

"Something Happens When You Touch Me"

In "Something Happens When You Touch Me," both "ev'rything"s in the line "Just say the word, and I'll drop ev'rything, ev'rything" are sung to descending groups of notes (I think they're F E C and A G E, with a harmony above that singing A G E and C Bb G).  Musically, then, "ev'rything" is being "drop[t]" in terms of pitch.

"Beware"

When I listened to Journey yester-day, I noticed a couple things in specific songs.

In "Beware," "ev'rything" in the line "Beware, for I wish you ev'rything" is sung with a melisma (E A B C B A, I think), which musically gives a sense of the number of things.

Journey

Last week, the phrase "a month of Sundays" was in a Jeopardy! clue (which I got right), and this got me thinking about Colin Blunstone's Journey (because "Shadow of a Doubt" uses that phrase: "It would take a month of Sundays to understand you now").  I just listened to the album, and I had two general thoughts about it.

1. A number of songs (or song titles) either reference or use common sayings:

• "It may sound Greek to you" in "Weak for You" references "it's Greek to me"
• "See the forest for the trees" in "Weak for You"
• "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" in "Smooth Operation"
• The title "Shadow of a Doubt"
• "A month of Sundays" in "Shadow of a Doubt"

I don't really have anything to add to that; I just thought it interesting and wanted to note it.

2. The title Journey doesn't seem too far off from the title Odessey and Oracle, since journey is a synonym for odyssey, but I don't know if that's an intentional reference or just coincidence.

"Gotta Get a Hold of Myself"

Years ago, I noticed that in "Gotta Get a Hold of Myself," after the line "Late at night I hear footsteps sound down the hall," there's a descending bass part, apparently to represent those footsteps musically.  This morning, I was thinking about this feature again and realized that there's more to it than that.

Here's the bass part for that line:

Although there are a number of accidentals, the notes in the last two measures are fairly conjunct.  The intervals are mostly half steps or whole steps, so there are musical "steps" in the bass part to represent the footsteps in the lyrics.

Looking at this again now, it strikes me that those accidentals could hold some significance.  For those two measures, all of the flats in C minor are made natural, resulting in a section of a C major scale.  This turn from minor to major is the same sentiment expressed in that verse: the singer/speaker is "kid[ding] myself that you're coming back after all," and so there's a glimmer of happiness.

"In Memory"

Last night, I figured out two parts for the first section of "In Memory" from Rod Argent's Red House.  I was surprised to discovered that - apparently - these are the first parts I've figured out from Argent's solo material.  I was also surprised to discover that this is the first recording I've made for this project since last May.

I figured out what I think are two synthesizer parts: one sounds like a clarinet, and one sounds like an upright bass.  I used the clarinet voice on my keyboard and electric bass.

I thought I'd mentioned this before, but apparently not: "In Memory" seems to be just a different arrangement of Argent's "A 4th Gymnopedie."