"Walking in the Sun" and "I Don't Want to Know"

Before I wrote a post about "Walking in the Sun" a couple days ago, I read the older posts I'd written about the song, in order to make sure that I hadn't already written about the significance of that conjunct phrase.

In this post from December 2018, I wrote out the guitar part and noted that a short phrase in between a C major and an A minor (first at ~0:50) is the same (albeit an octave lower) as a short phrase in between a C major and an A major (at ~1:43) in "I Don't Want to Know" (I wrote out that guitar part in September 2016).  The two phrases have the same rhythm and fall in the same place in the measure:

Yester-day, I was thinking about this similarity again, and I realized that these two songs were recorded at the same session, on 25 November 1964.  This similarity is still a rather trivial point, but now I know that the songs are closely connected chronologically.

"Walking in the Sun"

Last night, I figured out the violin in the choruses of the orchestral version of "Walking in the Sun" (although, provided I've figured out the parts correctly, the violin arpeggiates different chords compared to what the guitar plays).

In any case, while figuring out the part, I realized something about the melody to which the title phrase ("We'll be walking in the sun") is sung.  Here's the notation from an old post (it's actually the French horn part from the orchestral version, but that just doubles the vocal part):

This is a conjunct phrase (it moves step-wise through the scale), so musically, there's a sense of that "walking."

Argent Live at the Paris Theatre

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (14 December 1972), Argent performed at the Paris Theatre.  Earlier this year, I found a complete recording of the concert.  The date given at the link is 6 January 1973, but the set list matches what Russo details.  Maybe 6 January 1973 was the date the recording was broadcast.

Here's the set list:

• "Be My Lover, Be My Friend"
• "Sweet Mary"
• "Tragedy"
• "I Am the Dance of Ages"
• "The Fakir"
• "Hold Your Head Up"
• "He's a Dynamo"

"It's Magical"

Part of a line in "It's Magical" is "I bless the day you came along."  I think this may be inspired by the Everly Brothers and their song "Let It Be Me," which starts with a similar line:  "I bless the day I found you."  It's worth noting that "It's Magical" was written by Russ Ballard.

For what it's worth:  in Claes Johansen's The Zombies: Hung up on a Dream, Chris White calls the Everly Brothers "the most underrated influence on modern music" (page 58).

"Setting Yourself Up"

In the lines "No one's going to laugh / If you walk out on her" in "Setting Yourself Up," "walk" is sung with a melisma (I think it's B C B A G), musically giving a sense of movement.

"Keep the Curtains Closed Today"

I listened to Colin Blunstone's Journey yester-day and noticed a couple small features.

In "Keep the Curtains Closed Today," "while" in the line "This is our first day for quite a while" is sung with a melisma (D C# A), musically giving a sense either of duration or of degree (for "quite").

"Away" in the line "The future always seems so far away" is sung with the same melisma.  Here, it provides a sense of distance.

I also referenced the version on The Ghost of You and Me (slightly retitled to "Let's Keep the Curtains Closed Today") and discovered that it's a whole tone lower (G major rather than A major).  These words are sung with melismas there too, but they're slightly different, notwithstanding the lower key.  "While" is sung to the notes A G, and "away" is sung to the notes B A G.

"Together"

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post about the bridge in "Together":

And I've come to

Need you like flowers need the rain

Have to love you

As much as seasons have to change in time

I'd noticed that in contrast to the quick note values of most of the section, each word in the phrase "change in time" is held for a full measure and that this prolonging of note values mirrors the "change" there.

Yester-day, I realized that the words themselves illustrate this change too.  In both rhyme and syllable count, the line "Need you like flowers need the rain" complements the line "As much as seasons have to change in time" up until the first half of "change."  The second half of "change" and the phrase "in time" create structural differences between these two lines.  Instead of a pure rhyme, there's merely assonance between "rain" and "change," and the lines have unequal numbers of syllables.  These structural differences illustrate that "change" in a poetic manner.

"Woman"

I recently re-learned the bass part for "Woman" (I'm in the midst of notating it) and found an old post on this blog where I'd written down the guitar and organ phrases (albeit just with note letters and I misidentified the organ as electric piano).  A couple days ago, I realized that since the guitar and organ play the same two-bar phrase, just starting at different points, they form a very simple canon:

My notation shows just four measures, but obviously, these phrases continue.

"You Make Me Feel Good"

I've been reviewing some of the early Decca era songs recently, and this evening I played through "You Make Me Feel Good."  I realized that the song contains only major chords:  E major, G# major, A major, and B major.  Because there isn't any of the "sadness" of minor chords, there's something of a sense of that "feel[ing] good."

Ennismore

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (20 October 1972), Colin Blunstone's Ennismore (Epic S EPC 65278) was released in the U.K.  The release in the U.S. and Canada (Epic KE 31994) was 26 February 1973.

The same day, "I Don't Believe in Miracles" b/w "I've Always Had You" (Epic S EPC 8434) was released in the U.K.  The release in the U.S. and Canada (Epic 5-10948) was 22 January 1973.

"Tragedy" b/w "He's a Dynamo"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (16 October 1972), Argent's "Tragedy" b/w "He's a Dynamo" (both edited versions) (Epic 5-10919) was released in the U.S. and Canada.

"Never My Love"

A couple days ago, I was thinking about the Association's "Never My Love" and realized that in the lines "When I've asked you to spend your whole life / With me," "life" is held for almost two measures in the lead vocals and sung with a melisma in the backing vocals and that both of these articulations provide a sense of the entirety of that "whole."  I also referenced the version by "Neil MacArthur" (Colin Blunstone's pseudonym from the late 1960s) and found that while it's a bit different, these elements are present there too.  The backing vocals in this section don't have words, just "ah"s, but "life" is sung with a melisma in the lead vocal (C# B) and held for almost a whole measure.