"Lovely Rita"

I recently listened to the 2 CD Anniversary Edition of Sgt. Pepper again and noticed a small thing about "Lovely Rita."  The two notes of "away" in the line "When it gets dark, I tow your heart away" are sung with a fairly wide interval (a fourth: C to F).  Musically, this gives a sense of the movement in "tow[ing]... away."

In comparing the take on the second disc and the final version on the album, I discovered that the final version is a half-step lower.  I referenced the liner notes, which confirm this:  the tape machine was run slower, dropping everything in pitch.

"Please Mister Postman"

I listened to the second disc of the Carpenters' Gold album to-day and noticed a few things about their version of "Please Mister Postman."  Of course, after noting those features, I referenced the Beatles' version to see if they're present there too.

I'd forgotten that I already wrote about a melisma'd "so" two years ago, so the only new thing I have to note is a melisma'd "by" (sung to the phrase C# B C# B A, I think) in the line "So many days you passed me by."  This gives a musical sense of movement, specifically, the postman passing by the singer/speaker without delivering "a card or a letter."

"Here, There, and Everywhere"

I learned a guitar phrase in "Here, There, and Everywhere" to-night, and I discovered that I'd neglected to mention something about the song on this blog.  Four years ago, after listening to Revolver, I realized that the line "But to love her is to need her" (sung over the guitar phrase I learned to-night, which starts at ~1:03) borrows the structure of the title line of "To Know Her is to Love Her," which was in the Beatles' repertoire.  It's included on Live at the BBC (recorded 16 July 1963, transmitted 6 August 1963).

"All My Loving"

A couple days ago (31 March), I was thinking about the guitar strumming in "All My Loving."  The guitar is strummed in triplets, and I think this has significance with regard to the title line.  Triplets are "a group of three musical notes or tones performed in the time of two of the same value," so it's as if the totality of "all my loving" is crammed into each beat.

"Strawberry Fields Forever"

The last thing I noticed while listening to the 2 CD Anniversary Edition of Sgt. Pepper a few days ago is in "Strawberry Fields Forever" (apparently included - along with "Penny Lane" - because it was recorded during the Sgt. Pepper sessions).  The "low" in the line "I mean it must high or low" is sung with a descending melisma.  Because the final version of "Strawberry Fields Forever" was creating by combining two performances in different keys (speeding up one and slowing down the other), there's always a question of tonality, but I think the notes to which "low" is sung end up as something like C Bb G.  As it's sung, the word itself descends, giving a musical impression of "low."