"Her Song"

I was thinking about "Her Song" yester-day and noticed a couple features in the lyrics.

The lines "And in the light there I can see / A sleepyhead so close to me" could be understood in two different ways.  "So close to me" seems to be meant primarily literally (in physical proximity), but it could also be taken more metaphorically (in the sense of a deep emotional attachment).

In the line "And ev'rything I have is nothing if it can't belong to you," there's a copulative clause that can be simplified to "ev'rything is nothing."  Because the subject and the predicate nominative have similar forms (both end in "-thing"), there's a sense of balance between the two halves (despite the opposite meanings of "ev'rything" and "nothing"), and consequently, there's a sense of precision in the sentiment.

"Her Song"

When I watched the Odessey & Oracle {Revisited} concert, I noticed a similarity between "Her Song" and the Beatles' "Because."  "Her Song" has the recurring clause "You are love to me," which is the same sentiment as "love is you" in "Because," simply inverted.  "Because" predates "Her Song" by only a couple years, but I suspect that this similarity is just a coincidence, not a conscious echo.  Still, I thought I'd note it.

One Year

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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To-day's Colin Blunstone's birthday, so I listened to One Year this morning.  I don't think I've listened to it since I started doing transcriptions of all of the lyrics, so I noticed a couple things.

The line "I'm sittin' here goin' out of my head" in "Mary Won't You Warm My Bed" recalls the Zombies' version of "Goin' out of My Head."  However, neither song was written by a Zombie.  My vinyl record of One Year credits "Mary Won't You Warm My Bed" to "M. d'Abo," and some internet searching seems to suggest that it's Michael d'Abo.  "Goin' out of My Head" is by Teddy Randazzo and Bobby Weinstein, according to various liner notes of Zombies albums I have.  So while neither song was written by a Zombie, it's interesting that there's that lyric connection.

"Though You Are Far Away" and "Her Song" both have "sleepyhead" in a line.  "Though You Are Far Away" has "Sleepy head, lay close to mine,"* and "Her Song" has "And in the light there I can see / A sleepyhead so close to me."  It's weird how the lines are so similar but they weren't written by the same people.  "Though You Are Far Away" is by Blunstone, and "Her Song" is credited to Argent/White.

Russo's Collector's Guide (which I reference all the time for release dates) claims that "Rod Argent wrote 'Her Song.'"  I'm sort of dubious about this sole authorship, not only because it's credited to both Argent and White but because there's a lyrical resemblance between it and White's "Don't Go Away" from the Zombies' Decca era.  The first line of "Don't Go Away" is "Day comes, sun comes, climbs the other side of the hill," which is fairly similar to "Another day begins to climb" in "Her Song."  (Incidentally, "Don't Go Away" was recorded on Blunstone's birthday in 1965.)

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*I wasn't sure if it was "lay" or "laid," so I referenced the lyrics in the liner notes of On the Air Tonight (which features a re-recorded version).  In doing so, I discovered that the new version changes that line to "Sleepy head, rest next to mine."  The next line is "And I'll whisper quietly in your ear," which seems to suggest that it's "lay."