"New York"

In "New York," the "away" in the line "And Patti and her Bluebelles simply stole my heart away" is sung with a melisma (C# C# B A), musically demonstrating (metaphorical) movement or distance.

"Soul" in the line "She took me to Aretha Franklin, showed me so much soul" is also sung with a melisma (C# B A), musically illustrating the amount of "so much."

"Moving On"

I listened to Still Got That Hunger yester-day and noticed a handful of small points.

In "Moving On," one of the "on"s in the title line (at ~3:00) is sung with a melisma (E G), musically giving a sense of continuation or of movement.

"Sleep Won't Help Me"

In "Sleep Won't Help Me," "pain" in the line "All the pain" is sung with an extensive melisma (I think it's C D Eb F G C' Bb, although some notes near the end might be glissandi rather than melismas).  This articulation gives a sense of the entirety of "all," especially because it spans an octave.

"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."

"Celebration"

I listened to Ring of Hands yester-day and noticed a few small things.

In the line "Dancing ev'rywhere" in "Celebration," "ev'rywhere" is sung with four syllables and to three different pitches (C# D# E E), musically giving a sense of breadth.

"She Does Everything for Me"

I was thinking about "She Does Everything for Me" recently and noticed a small thing about the chorus.  The three syllables of the first "ev'rything" ("She does ev'rything for me to make me feel alright") are sung to three different pitches (C# E G).  Musically, this gives an impression of the breadth of that "ev'rything."

"Kind of Girl"

When I listened to Begin Here a couple days ago, I also noticed something in "Kind of Girl," which is included as a bonus track.  The three syllables of "ev'rything" in the line "You think you've got everything" are all sung to different pitches (E D B), musically giving a sense of breadth.  The three syllables of "anyone" in the lines "Don't you understand that she / Runs away with anyone who happens / In her sight" are also sung to different pitches (also E D B), for a similar effect.

"Can't Nobody Love You"

I listened to Begin Here yester-day, and I noticed a merism in "Can't Nobody Love You," specifically in the lines "Oh, I'm gonna love you in the morning / Love you late at night."

"Mystified"

I watched the Live at Metropolis Studios DVD this morning and noticed a small thing in "Mystified."  "From the first to the last" in the line "Well, I try to remember from the first to the last" is a merism.

Argent

On page 67 of his autobiography Banging On!, Bob Henrit writes, "The very first Argent album finished with a forty-eight hour session [at Sound Techniques Studio] on 10 July 1969, the day Apollo 9 landed on the moon."  There are some factual errors here:  it was Apollo 11 that landed on the moon, and it happened on 20 July 1969.  If Henrit's recollection is correct, however, and the recording of the Argent album finished with a forty-eight-hour session that was completed on the day of the moon landing, to-day and to-morrow mark the fiftieth anniversary.

"Brother Lover"

Shortly after Colin Blunstone's birthday, the Zombies Fan Club posted a concert he did in Holland in 1974:

The day after I listened to it, I realized something about "Brother Lover."

In the coda, the vocal alternates between "Brother lover" and "Lover brother," both sung to this phrase:

The first word is sung on the off-beats, and the second word is sung on the beat (save for an added syllable).  The alternating of the order of the words and the words' falling on or off the beat illustrates the singer/speaker's confusion as to whether "the man sitting next to the beautiful young lady was her brother or her lover."

"Caroline Goodbye"

I was out of town recently, so I was unable to write about it, but I listened to Colin Blunstone's One Year on 24 June and noticed a few small things in "Caroline Goodbye."

"Way" in the line "Looks like you're gonna make it in a big way" is sung with a melisma (D C D E), which gives something of a sense of that "big."  I don't find this a very convincing argument myself, but I thought I'd mention it.

"Last" in the line "Here's your song to make them last" is also sung with a melisma (A G E, I think), and this gives a musical sense of duration or continuation.