"Brief Candles"

I had an-other small realization while reading The "Odessey": The Zombies in Words and Images.  As it's formatted in the book, the first verse of "Brief Candles" is:

There she sits, her hands are held

Tight around her glass

She only needs to be alone

She knows this mood will pass

To realise that she was strong

And he too weak to stay

And to realise that she is better off this way

I would have done it differently, but this formatting highlights a structural contrast between "she was strong" and "he too weak."  By itself, "he too weak" is just a phrase.  The preceding "she was strong" sets up an instance of ellipsis, and the verb is merely implied ("he [was] too weak").  "He too weak" needs "she was strong" in order to make sense (formally speaking, at least).  It can't stand on its own, and in a way, this dependence matches the person it describes.

"Beechwood Park"

I recently read about "Beechwood Park" in The "Odessey": The Zombies in Words and Images and realized that it's in the same category as the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" in that it deals with a specific place from the writer's childhood.  In the book, Chris White says, "I had written that song when we were touring in the Philippines," and the Zombie Heaven liner notes explain that the Philippines tour was in March 1967.  "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" were the Beatles' current release at the time (they were released as a double A-sided single in February 1967), so chronologically, it's possible that they inspired the basic subject matter of "Beechwood Park" (a look back at a childhood location).

"Maybe after He's Gone"

Yester-day, I read the lyrics for "Maybe after He's Gone" in The "Odessey": The Zombies in Words and Images and noticed a couple features in it.

From verse to verse, there's progressively less of "she," which illustrates her leaving.  She's there at the beginning ("She told me she loved me"); by the second verse, she herself is gone, and there are just vestiges of her left ("Her smile, her tears are part of me"); and by the third verse, the narrator is by himself ("I'm on my own... I'm alone").

I also realized that "Maybe after He's Gone" starts very similarly to the second and third verses of "Tell Her No."  The first line of "Maybe after He's Gone" is "She told me she loved me," which is only slightly different from "And if she should tell you, 'I love you'" and "If she tells you, 'I love you'" in "Tell Her No."

"A Rose for Emily"

In The "Odessey": The Zombies in Words and Images, I recently read about "A Rose for Emily."  Hugh comments that "Rod was quite right in his arrangement of this very beautiful song."  This made me realize that, instrumentally, "A Rose for Emily" is the sparsest song on Odessey and Oracle (the only instrument on it is piano).  I also realized that, in a way, this relative lack of instrumentation (compared to the rest of the album or even just to the preceding and following songs) matches some of the lyrics, particularly "not a rose for Emily" and "none for you."

"I Love You"

I'm currently re-reading The "Odessey": The Zombies in Words and Images.  Recently, I read about "I Love You," and I realized that in one spot, the construction of the lyrics matches the meaning.

As it's formatted in the book, one section is:

If I could find the words in my mind

The words should explain, but the words won't come

If you could see what you mean to me

My words should explain, but the words won't come

Semantically, the line "If you could see what you mean to me" seems isolated.  ("My words should explain" follows it sequentially but not logically since the explaining words would precede the knowledge of "what you mean to me.")  The line is a protasis without an accompanying apodosis, so even in the construction here, there's a lack of words ("the words won't come").

"Trapeze"

I listened to Argent's Circus this morning and noticed a small feature in "Trapeze."  After the line "Freefall vision dragging me down," there's a descending phrase played on Moog (taking special advantage of the pitch glide), giving a sense of that "dragging... down."