"Thunder and Lightning"

I listened to Nexus a couple days ago and noticed some significance in the structure of "Thunder and Lightning."

Obviously, the chorus repeats, and this repetition emphasizes the "Again and again and again and again..." in the last line.  The polysyndeton there (the repeated "and") highlights this recurrence, too.

"Thunder and Lightning" b/w "The Coming of Kohoutek"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (2 September 1974), Argent's "Thunder and Lightning" (edited) b/w "The Coming of Kohoutek" (Epic 8-50025) was released in the U.S. and Canada.  This seems to be the last single Argent released in these countries; Russo doesn't list any more.

"Thunder and Lightning"

I listened to Argent's Encore this morning and noticed a number of things, although I have to go back and make sure I haven't already written about some of them.

About four years ago, I noticed that in "Thunder and Lightning" after the lines "There are times when you feel so good / That the only way to move is down" there's a descending phrase in the bass part to representing that "mov[ing]... down" musically.  Listening to the song this time, I noticed that the "down" in the lines "Thunder and lightning / Striking me down" is sung with a descending melisma (C Bb Ab F) for the same effect.  This is present in the live version on Encore and in the studio version on Nexus.

Nexus

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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I just listened to Argent's Nexus as the first album in my new listening schedule, and I noticed two things:

There's extensive alliteration in the second chorus of "Music from the Spheres":

Music from the spheres assails my ears 
It stills a season's song

I mention this only because that effect seems to provide extra emphasis to a song that's about music itself.

In "Thunder and Lightning," there are bass parts that mirror the lyrics that they follow.  After "There are times when you feel so good / That the only way to move is down" in the first verse, there's a downward phrase, and after "You play the game, and you just can't lose / And you're walking with your feet off the ground" in the second and third verses, there are upward phrases.