"Chained"

I found two significant melismas in "Chained."

"Free" in the line "Free like an old man that dies" is sung to the notes G E.  Because the word isn't sung to just a single syllable, there's a sense of that freedom.

"Go" in the line "God, why don't you let them go?" is sung to the notes A G, musically giving a sense of movement (although "go" might be used more metaphorically).

As a more general comment, when I listened to Ring of Hands recently, I noticed that some of the songs ("Sweet Mary," "Chained," and "Sleep Won't Help Me") seem to feature Fender Rhodes rather than Rod Argent's typical Hohner Pianet.  I think it's most evident at the end of "Chained," where a bunch of notes are sustained and then all cut off suddenly with a damper.  I'm pretty sure the Pianet doesn't have a damper pedal, so it couldn't accommodate that style of playing.  The Rhodes' characteristic bell sound can also be clearly heard at the beginning of "Sweet Mary."

"Chained"

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Last week when I listened to Ring of Hands, I forgot to mention that I discovered that the guitar solo in "Chained" is double-tracked.  Because I was still thinking about this (because I forgot to write about it), I realized that it's kind of a play on words with the title.  As a feature, double-tracking requires the second part to be exactly the same as the first, so in a sense the two guitar tracks have to be "chained" together.

"Chained"

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[link to original on tumblr]

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This is just the first few seconds.  Usually, I record these while listening to the original recording, so the tempi are the same, but I can't play this that fast yet.