"Liar"

I watched Argent's appearance on Set of 6 yester-day (it's dated 29 May 1972, although Jim Rodford writes in his book Sideman [p. 177] that it was recorded in April), and I noticed some small features in the articulation of the vocal part in "Liar."  In referencing the studio recording to write this post, I found some more.

"Away" in the lines "Nothing you could do / That could turn me away" and "I won't move away" is sung with a melisma (Bb C Bb and Bb C Bb G, respectively), giving something of a sense of movement, although both are sort of negated.

The three syllables of "ev'ry word" in the line "Hanging on ev'ry word" are sung to all different pitches (F E D), lending a sense of number.

"All" in the lines "That's what you said / And I believed it all" is also sung with a melisma (C Bb G), here giving a sense of entirety, especially since these notes are all different pitches, too.

Finally, "go" in the line "I won't let you go" is sung with the same melisma (C Bb G), lending a sense of movement, although it seems to be used more metaphorically.

"Smokey Day"

Recently, I was thinking about "Smokey Day" and noticed some features in two of the lines.  In comparing the two versions (one sung by Rod Argent with backing by the band that would become Argent and one sung by Colin Blunstone on his One Year album), I discovered that there are slight differences in the two lines I was considering.  In the pre-Argent version, the lines are "Dulcet vesper voices / Calling gently for the night," sung to a melody something like:

but in the Colin Blunstone version, the lines are "Dulcet vesper voices / Calling gently through the night," sung to a melody something like:

These are small differences, but I'd never noticed them.

All of the words in the line "Dulcet vesper voices" come from Latin (dulcis, vespere, and vox [gen. vocis]), so there's a sort of linguistic coherence to the line.  Additionally, each word is two syllables (although Blunstone sings "vesper" with a melisma, so it has three syllables), and the first syllable of each word falls on a downbeat, so there's a sense of balance.

The line "Calling gently for/through the night" is sung to a melody that, despite some accidentals, is entirely conjunct (just three pitches: D#, C#, and C), and these small intervals match the adverb "gently."  (It's the same feature that I recently noted in "Hung up on a Dream.")

"Hung up on a Dream"

A few months ago, I was thinking about the shape of the vocal melody in "Hung up on a Dream," specifically for the lines "They spoke with soft, persuading words" and "Which gently touched my aching mind."  Each is sung to a melody something like this:

It's an entirely conjunct phrase, and the small intervals match the "soft" and "gently" in the lyrics.

"The Fakir"

I should preface this post with some background.  As far as I know, Argent played "The Fakir" only in live performances and never recorded a studio version.  I have three live recordings:  John Peel's Sunday Concert (14 February 1971), The Paris Theatre, London (14 December 1972), and The Palace Theatre (7 November 1973).  In introducing the piece, Peel comments, "This is, uh, actually not a group composition; it's a Don Ellis thing, arranged by Jim Rodford.  Uh, it's called 'Fakir.'"  At the Paris Theatre concert, Russ Ballard introduces it and remarks that "it's a thing that features our drummer; it's the one and only number that features him," and in his book Banging On!, Robert Henrit explains that "The Fakir" was basically his drum solo (pages 76 and 84).

There's a section in the Paris Theatre version where Henrit beats out a rhythm on the bass drum and simultaneously yells some indistinct words off-mic.  Recently, I discovered what he's quoting here.  A couple weeks ago, I watched the Marx Brothers movie A Night in Casablanca, in which Chico plays the tune on piano and introduces it as "Beer Barrel Polka."  According to this site, it's originally a Czech song called "Škoda lásky," which has many titles and lyrics in different countries.  In English-speaking countries, it's also known as "Roll out the Barrel," and these seem to be the words that Henrit is shouting.

(For what it's worth:  I'm most familiar with the tune as "Böhmische Polka" by Albert Vossen und Seine Solisten.)