"Care of Cell 44"

A number of years ago, I wrote some posts about musical elements in "Care of Cell 44" that seem to undermine the apparent happiness and optimism.  Yester-day, I was thinking about the bass part during the bridge, and I realized that it's one of these elements too.

The lyrics there are:

We'll walk in a way we used to walk

And it could be so nice

We'll talk in a way we used to talk

And it could be so nice

I've noted before that for "a way we used to walk," the lead vocal is on the off-beats, illustrating perhaps that the two people in this relationship were at odds with each other.

For almost all of the bridge, the bass plays on the off-beats too.  It's something like:

Musically, this seems to illustrate that the "way we used to walk" was out of step.

All Together Now

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (21 April 1972), Argent's album All Together Now (Epic S EPC 64962) was released in the U.K.  The U.S. and Canada version (Epic KE 31556) was released on 26 June.

"Butcher's Tale"

I was thinking about "Butcher's Tale" last night, specifically:

And I can't stop shaking

My hands won't stop shaking

My arms won't stop shaking

My mind won't stop shaking

I realized that there are a couple features here that illustrate the incessant nature of this shaking.

Of course, there's the repetition of the word itself and even of the structure of the lines.  Different body parts are substituted, but each line ends with the phrase "won't stop shaking" (the rhetorical term for this structure is epistrophe).

The first line is a bit different, but the other three lines are all sung to the same melody, something like:

The repetition of this melody not only contributes to the incessant feeling, but it also emphasizes the lines' similarity.

"Hung up on a Dream"

Last night, I was thinking about "Hung up on a Dream," and I realized that the line "And turned me on to sounds unheard" bears some resemblance to part of John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn":  "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on."  Both comment on "unheard" sounds.

In Claes Johansen's Hung up on a Dream, Argent says that Shakespeare's "language spoke to me; it had an indefinable, spiritual quality."  This line in "Hung up on a Dream" may be an instance of Keats' language eliciting a similar response, or it could just be a coincidence.

"I've Always Had You"

Yester-day I listened to the 50th anniversary edition of One Year for the first time.  One of the bonus tracks is a demo of "I've Always Had You," which later appeared on Ennismore.  This is a minor point, but I noticed that "good and bad" in the line "I've travelled far, through good and bad" is a merism.