Breathe Out, Breathe In

Last night I watched the four videos of songs from Breathe Out, Breathe In, and I realized something about the title track:

The piano solo has a baroque feel, and while that might be the influence of actual baroque music (as Argent says in the liner notes for Classically Speaking, "I've always loved Bach!"), it might also be the Beatles' influence, specifically the baroque-inspired keyboard solo played by George Martin in "In My Life."

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This morning I listened to the entire album, and I noticed something about "A Moment in Time":

As rendered in the liner notes, the first few lines are:

All my beginnings

That preciously I find

Lead me to sorrow

Or happiness incline

I'd write these as two lines rather than four, but regardless, there's a syntactical inversion.  Instead of "beginnings that lead me to sorrow or incline me to happiness," the second of those verb phrases is inverted, and that inversion mirrors how sorrow and happiness are opposites.

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As a general point, I also noticed that a number of the songs mention breath or breathing.  I lookt through the lyrics, and six of the ten songs have one or the other.  Obviously, there's "breathe out, breathe in" in the title track, but there's also "I'd take my last breath whispering your name" in "Any Other Way," "She reminds me of / The breath of summer sun" in "Shine on Sunshine," "Feeling for the breath of angels" in "A Moment in Time," "You take my breath away" in "Another Day," and "Like a baby I'm learning to breathe" in "I Do Believe."  So Breathe Out, Breathe In is appropriately titled.

Journey and The Ghost of You and Me

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Yester-day I listened to Colin Blunstone's Journey, and this morning I listened to The Ghost of You and Me.  Here's some stuff I noticed:

"Weak for You"

One of the lines in "Weak for You" is "It may sound Greek to you," which refers to the common saying ("It's Greek to me") for something that's incomprehensible.  That expression comes from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (I.ii.286).  My CD copy of the album doesn't have any credits, but according to Wikipedia, "Weak for You" was written by Pete Wingfield (who apparently also played keyboards on some of Blunstone's solo albums).  So it's interesting that even though it wasn't written by Argent or White, there's still a Shakespearean connection like Argent's quotation of The Tempest in the Odessey and Oracle liner notes or White's "brief candles" (from Macbeth, albeit via Huxley).

I also noticed that the "falling" in "I feel myself falling" is accompanied by a descending melody.

"Smooth Operation"

In the bridge, there're the lines "We two got along / Like an A with middle C / Simple harmony."  An A with a C forms the interval of a minor third, and since minor intervals are often perceived as sad, it seems as if the two don't get along that well.

"Any Other Way"

This mentions "a rain summer's day," which seems to have some connection with the first line of "Beechwood Park" - "Do you remember summer days just after summer rain."  Rainy summer days seem to be the normal weather for Zombie songs.

"Now I Know I'll Never Get over You"

In "Now I Know I'll Never Get over You" I found (what I think are) some references to earlier Zombie songs.  Two years ago, I noticed that the line "It's alright if the words won't come" mirrors "but the words won't come" in "I Love You."  This morning I noticed "Seasons come and go / But this feeling never changes," which seems to be a very slight Odessey and Oracle reference (naming "Time of the Season" and "Changes").  There's also "We can work it out," which seems to be a more optimistic spin on "If It Don't Work Out."  Actually, there might be a Beatle connection behind that too.

Of those four, I think "I Love You" is the most likely to have been intentional.  The others are probably just coincidences.

"Love Left a Long Time Ago"

"Love Left a Long Time Ago" references (indirectly at least) "You Always Hurt the One You Love," which is a song from - I think - the '40s.  Apparently it's a standard, but I'm most familiar with the Mills Brothers' version, which is from 1944.  "Love Left a Long Time Ago" has the lines "Why do we always hurt the ones we love / The ones we shouldn't really hurt at all," which differs only slightly from "You always hurt the one you love / The one you shouldn't hurt at all."

"The Sun Will Rise Again"

At the end, there are rising figures in each of the instruments to reflect the titular line.