"I Want Some More"

I was thinking about "I Want Some More" this morning and realized that the melody gives some sense of the lyrics in the first two lines:  "I'm sittin' all alone on a sunny summer afternoon / Just sittin' alone with nothing to do."  The phrases "sittin' all alone" and "sittin' alone" (and even the following "on a" and "with") are sung to a single pitch (F#), musically illustrating this solitude.  The sense is heightened by the contrast with the extensive melismas with which the "-noon" of "afternoon" and "do" are sung; both include a multitude of notes and span a sixth (from A to F#).

I'm sure I noticed before (but apparently neglected to note here) that the alliteration involved in "all alone" also gives a sense of this singularity.

"I Want Some More" b/w "Pay Me Later"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (20 April 1973) Colin Blunstone's "I Want Some More" (edit) b/w "Pay Me Later" (Dut. Epic EPC 1513) was released (I'm assuming the "Dut." abbreviation means it was a Dutch release).  The U.S. and Canada release (Epic 5-10981) was on 23 April.

"I Want Some More"

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I updated what I know of "I Want Some More"!  When I listened to Ennismore recently, I discovered that I had a few notes wrong in the bass part.  I had the wrong rhythm for one part, I was completely missing an A note, and an-other A note I had in the wrong octave.  I also discovered that the acoustic and electric guitars are double-tracked for each channel.  So there's acoustic and electric panned left and acoustic and electric panned right.

Like last time, I recorded only the first verse, but these same elements are repeated later in the song.

"I Want Some More"

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It bothered me that I was missing just a tiny bit of the bass part to "I Want Some More," so this afternoon I sat down and figured out the rest.

This is just the first verse, but the parts are the same for the other verses.

"I Want Some More"

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Yester-day afternoon I was thinking about the bass part for "I Want Some More" from Colin Blunstone's Ennismore album, so last night - after I figured out and notated the bass part for the soundtrack version of "Remember You" - I figured out part of it.  I have only the first half of the verses so far.  It changes after this, and I'm stuck for now.

"I Want Some More"

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Two days ago (which was actually the day after I listened to Ennismore), I figured out the guitar chords for "I Want Some More."  There are only four, which was a surprise.  I figured out the vocal melody too, and I played that on guitar.  Some of the phrases don't match up exactly with the original recording, but it's close enough to give an idea.  The melody is really great, and I think having it makes my recording a lot more interesting.  It would be been pretty boring if I had just the chords.

The guitar part (in some places at least) is doubled on acoustic.  I doubled the whole thing, which might not be strictly accurate.  And I might be playing the rhythm wrong too.  I'm really bad at copying rhythms exactly.

Still, with all that said, I'm really pleased with how this turned out.

Ennismore

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I just listened to Colin Blunstone's Ennismore while working on transcribing the lyrics, and - as usual - I noticed some things.

To go along with the conjectured influences I've been writing about lately, "A Sign from Me to You" might have some connection with the Beatles' "From Me to You."  In the phrase "from me to you" if nothing else.  I haven't looked into that very much.  More tenuously, the phrase "oh boy" in "Pay Me Later" might come from Buddy Holly's "Oh Boy!"  Since it's also just a phrase that people say, I'm not that confident in that connection.

There's an interesting progression of verb tenses in "A Sign from Me to You."  The first chorus has the line "I try so hard to prove that I have changed my ways," and the second chorus changes it to "I tried so hard to prove that I have changed my ways."  I haven't really looked into this yet either.

It struck me that many of the songs on the album contain similar sort of themes (if "themes" is the right word to describe it).  Basically, a lot of the songs talk about songs (sometimes breaking the fourth wall, or whatever the sonic equivalent is) and wine.

As far as songs, you have "This is a song written exclusively for me" in "Exclusively for Me," "Funny how the only song I could ever write for you / Is when you said you finally had enough" in "How Wrong Can One Man Be," and "Now that we've written this song / How could we dare to be wrong" in "How Could We Dare to Be Wrong."

And as for wine: "So don't you worry, I'm here for the day / With a bottle of wine on my knee" in "I Want Some More," "Hey, I said, 'Darling, it seems a waste of time / Hey, all we do is sit and drink our Spanish wine'" in "Andorra," and "Take me up, fill my cup with your wine" in "How Could We Dare to Be Wrong."

I think there's also a not insignificant number of references to remembering and summer, which seems a natural extension of Zombies themes, but I'll save that for later.