"To Julia (For When She Smiles)"

When I listened to Into the Afterlife a couple days ago, I also had a small realization about "To Julia (For When She Smiles)."  The reason that Julia was the name chosen for the song may be that it's related to July.  In any case, it's an appropriate name for the song's summertime setting. 

"I Could Spend the Day"

I listened to Into the Afterlife yester-day and noticed a couple things.  I'd previously noted the internal rhyme in one line of "I Could Spend the Day" ("deeper sleep"), but I realized the significance:  this extra rhyme (in addition to the normal line-ending rhymes) provides a sense of that greater degree, highlighting the comparative adjective.

"She Loves the Way They Love Her"

I was reviewing the bass part in the Into the Afterlife version of "She Loves the Way They Love Her" recently, and two days ago, I was thinking specifically about the line "Dreaming dreams of future time when she and me are all alone."  This may be just coincidental (the contexts are quite different), but a similar cognate accusative construction occurs in Joel 2:28, later cited in Acts 2:17:  "your old men shall dream dreams."

While verifying the lyrics yester-day, I also realized that since "lie" in the line "She loves ev'ry sweet-talkin' lie" is sung with a melisma (A E), there's a sense of number (for "ev'ry").

"Conversation off Floral Street"

Last week, I wrote out the bass part for "Conversation off Floral Street" and discovered that it's quite unusual.  It starts out simply enough, with this repeated figure in 4/4:

But then at ~0:24, the song changes meter.  I think it's 7/4, something like this:

In the BBC Mastertapes program (the A side), Rod Argent (who wrote "Conversation off Floral Street") comments on the off-beat hand claps in "Time of the Season" and explains that "I've always loved the idea of broken rhythms in verses and then it developing into something that was more straight ahead and building to some sort of climax."  This change in meter in "Conversation off Floral Street" seems to be an extreme example of this, especially since the second half of each 7/4 measure has notes that occur on the upbeats rather than the downbeats.

"In My Mind a Miracle"

I listened to As Far As I Can See... yester-day and noticed a significant contrast in "In My Mind a Miracle."  At the beginning of the first verse, the organ drops out completely, and the other instruments (electric piano, guitar, bass, and drums) play with softer dynamics or fewer notes compared to what they played in the preceding chorus.  This change highlights the paucity in the lyrics there:  "When I was young, I didn't notice much."

"Hung up on a Dream"

A couple weeks ago, I realized that the line "I stood astounded staring hard" in "Hung up on a Dream" exhibits consonance.  I thought there was some significance to this, but it took me a while to sort it out.  Because that particular sound doesn't change from word to word, there's almost a sense of the narrator's being frozen in wonder while looking at the "men with flowers resting in their hair."

"Keep the Curtains Closed Today"

Recently, I listened to The BBC Radio Sessions, and I noticed that the line "Could this be just the start of so many nights like this" in "The Look of Love" is similar to the line "Could this be just the start of coming home" in Colin Blunstone's later "Keep the Curtains Closed Today" (or "Let's Keep the Curtains Closed Today," as it's titled on The Ghost of You and Me).  When I lookt up the lyrics of "The Look of Love," though, all of the sources I referenced listed the line as "Let this be just the start of so many nights like this."  Initially, I suspected that this similarity indicated that Blunstone borrowed from Bacharach's song while writing his own, but because of the lyrical discrepancy with other versions, I'm not sure.  Still, I thought I'd note it here.

"Dance in the Smoke"

I was thinking about Argent's "Dance in the Smoke" yester-day, and I realized that the line "But on tiptoe, the flames would grow" generally ascends, giving senses of the height of standing "on tiptoe" and of the increase of "grow[ing]."  It's a bit difficult to distinguish the vocal parts, but I think the line is sung to the notes G A B C | C A B C.

Odessey and Oracle

A couple days ago, I wrote out the bass part for "Brief Candles."  When I lookt at it again yester-day, I realized that the rhythm in the bridge is similar to the rhythm of the bass part in the bridge of "Care of Cell 44."

Here's the bridge in "Brief Candles":

I'm not sure what key the song is in, but I put the notation in A major.

Here's the bridge in "Care of Cell 44" (excepting the last measure):

In the bridge of "Care of Cell 44," some of the notes are tied across the bar lines, but otherwise, the two parts have mostly the same rhythm.  This similarity lends a bit of cohesion to Odessey and Oracle even though "Care of Cell 44" was written by Rod Argent and "Brief Candles" was written by Chris White.

"I'll Call You Mine"

I'd previously noted the sort of parallelism in the line "Walk in the light of day and talk the night away" in "I'll Call You Mine," but early last month, I was thinking about this again and started wondering if these phrases were also parallel musically.  I'd forgotten about this until recently, but yester-day, I figured out the vocal melody for the first two verses in order to investigate this.

The two halves of the line begin the same way (G# A B), and the last few notes of each, while not exactly the same, trace a diatonic descent (F E D and E D C), so there is a bit of musical parallelism that matches the sort of parallelism in the lyrics.

I was also struck by how much of the melody occurs on the off-beats, and I think this may be significant in light of the lyrics.  The second verse (repeated as the third verse) ends with the line "I was afraid to try to call you mine," and this delivery that comes just after the beat seems to indicate the narrator's hesitancy and reluctance.

"Wonderful" b/w "Beginning"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (21 September 1973), Colin Blunstone's "Wonderful" [edited] b/w "Beginning" (Epic S EPC 1775) was released in the U.K.

Last year, I found this video from a Dutch television station where Colin mimes to "Wonderful."

The video description provides two different dates, but apparently the video was originally broadcast on either 10 or 11 November 1973.

"Butcher's Tale"

Last month, I was thinking about one of the sound effects in "Butcher's Tale."  In the liner notes to the fiftieth anniversary edition of Odessey and Oracle, Andrew Sandoval describes it as "added intrigue from Rod on electronic oscillator."  Chris White confirms this in Claes Johansen's book The Zombies: Hung up on a Dream:  "There were no synthesizers in those days... the thing at the end is just an oscillator which Rod played on another track" (p. 171).  I think it's basically a glissando from A to D an octave higher.

Last night, I made a recording of the harmonium and oscillator parts.  I used my Hammond SKX for the harmonium (specifically Reed Organ 2 with Hall 2 reverb set at 26) and my Moog Subsequent 37 for the oscillator.  I'm still way out of my depth with the Moog, but I tried to use a simple setting.

I played the harmonium part from memory, and I didn't use a click track, so it may vary in accuracy and tempo.