I listened to Revolver this evening and noticed a couple things in "Got to Get You into My Life."
At first, I noticed just that "day" in the line "Say we'll be together ev'ry day" is sung with a melisma (D A B), musically giving a sense of number (for "ev'ry").
When I read through the lyrics again, I discovered some ambiguities. In "Ooh, did I tell you I need you / Ev'ry single day of my life" at the end of the first/third verse, the time element ("Ev'ry single day") could modify "tell" or "need." At the end of the second verse, the lines "Ooh, and I want you to hear me / Say we'll be together ev'ry day" could be taken together or separately: "We'll be together ev'ry day" could be what "me" is saying (in which reading, I think "say" would be a participle) or "Say we'll be together..." could be a stand-alone clause (where "say" is an imperative verb).
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Friday, May 15, 2020
"Back in the U.S.S.R."
Yester-day, I was thinking about how the first verse of the Beach Boys' "California Girls" is an example of a rhetorical catalogue, and that - in turn - got me thinking about the bridge of "Back in the U.S.S.R." which is a nod to the Beach Boys both lyrically and musically (I think I read somewhere that Mike Love suggested the pastiche to them while in India). In "California Girls," there are four types of girls, but there are only two in "Back in the U.S.S.R.": "the Ukraine girls" and "Moscow girls." I'm not sure if two really constitutes a catalogue, but I thought I'd mention it at least.
This also gives me the opportunity to note two other allusions in the song. The title seems inspired by Chuck Berry's "Back in the U.S.A." and the line "That Georgia's always on my my my my my my my my my mind" seems to be a reference to "Georgia on My Mind," probably most famously performed by Ray Charles. Because Georgia is also a country that was once in the U.S.S.R., there might also be something of a pun there.
This also gives me the opportunity to note two other allusions in the song. The title seems inspired by Chuck Berry's "Back in the U.S.A." and the line "That Georgia's always on my my my my my my my my my mind" seems to be a reference to "Georgia on My Mind," probably most famously performed by Ray Charles. Because Georgia is also a country that was once in the U.S.S.R., there might also be something of a pun there.
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Back in the U.S.S.R.
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