"I Got a Woman"

I've been listening to Ray Charles lately, and to-day I noticed something in "I Got a Woman" that's also present in the live versions the Beatles did for the BBC.  "All day and night" in the first line of the bridge ("She's there to love me all day and night") is a merism.

"Getting Better"

"Getting Better" and "Within You Without You" were mentioned in a Jeopardy! clue yester-day (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the answer), so I listened to the album and - coincidentally - noticed something about "Getting Better."  In the line "It's getting better all the time," "time" is sung with a melisma (F E F).  I think this gives something of an impression of that "all," but I'm not sure if it's used in quite that sense.

"All My Loving"

I listened to the second disc of Live at the BBC yester-day and noticed a small thing in "All My Loving."  "Day" in the line "I'll write home ev'ry day" is sung with a melisma (C# G#), giving a sense of number, almost as if it's emphasizing that "ev'ry."

"A Hard Day's Night"

Shortly after writing about "A Hard Day's Night" at the end of May, I thought I realized something else about the song just in playing it over in my head.  When I listened to the second disc of Live at the BBC a couple days ago, I was reminded of this and was finally able to confirm it.

In the lines "I find the things that you do / Will make me feel alright" and the first "You know I feel alright" at the end, the "al-" of "alright" is sung with a melisma (Bb C), musically giving something of a sense of the completeness of the feeling.

"I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)"

I listened to the first disc of Live at the BBC yester-day and noticed a few small things in "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)," specifically about the first two lines of second verse:

I'm gonna love you more and more ev'ry day
I'm gonna love you more and more ev'ry way

The second "more" in each line is sung with a melisma (G E), musically giving a sense of amount.

Similarly, "way" in the second line is sung with a melisma (F D), musically giving a sense of the variety of "ev'ry."

"In My Life"

Twice recently I heard a little bit of "In My Life," and I realized that "life" in the lines "There are places I remember / All my life though some have changed" is sung with a melisma (B C# B A), musically giving a sense of that "all."

"Misery"

I listened to the first disc of On Air - Live at the BBC, Volume 2 yester-day and noticed a small thing about "Misery" (which is also present in the studio version).  "More" in the line "I won't see her no more" is sung with a melisma (A C).  Because it's sung to more than one pitch, there's something of a sense of the word's meaning (although it's negated).

"A Hard Day's Night"

A couple days ago, the Beatles' various social media accounts posted about Paul's singing the bridge of "A Hard Day's Night" because John couldn't reach those higher notes.

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“The only reason Paul sang on ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ was because I couldn’t reach the notes - ‘When I’m home, everything seems to be right. When I’m home…’ - which is what we’d do sometimes: one of us couldn’t reach a note but he wanted a different sound, so he’d get the other to do the harmony.” - John ➿ #TheBeatles #1960s ➿ Photo © Apple Corps Ltd.

A post shared by The Beatles (@thebeatles) on May 24, 2019 at 7:06am PDT

Just by reading the lyrics there ("When I'm home, ev'rything seems to be right..."), I realized a small feature:  the three syllables of "ev'rything" are sung to different notes (G F# E), musically giving something of a sense of breadth.

"Blue Jay Way"

This morning I was thinking about something I noticed in "Blue Jay Way" about a year ago but which I never wrote about (I was reminded of it because I recently found a similar feature in Badfinger's "Suitcase," which George Harrison produced).  The specific technical explanation is beyond my skill level, but I think some change in the meter or in the syllabic stress causes the repeated "Don't be long" at the end to morph into "Don't belong."

"Tell Me What You See"

I got a pair of claves for Christmas, and yester-day, I finally got around to updating my recording of "Tell Me What You See."

Since the last time I recorded this, I figured out that turning on the velocity filter on my Nord Electro 5D makes the Hohner Pianet sample sound a bit better.  While recording this, I actually discovered a few notes I'd missed last time:  at the end of the first two phrases, there's a B, and at the very end, there's a G in the bass register.

The parts sound a little bit out of sync for the first twelve seconds or so, but this is better than my last version.

"Carol"

Yester-day, I listened to the first disc of Live at the BBC and noticed a couple things about "Carol," specifically about the line "Well, I've a-gotta learn to dance if it takes me all night and day."

First, "day" is sung with a melisma (B A), musically giving something of a sense of duration (for "all").  Second, "night and day" is a merism.

I referenced Chuck Berry's original and found that the Beatles changed the lyrics slightly (from Berry's "I'm gonna learn to dance if it takes me all night and day") and that they added the melisma to "day."

"I'll Get You"

I listened to the second disc of On Air - Live at the BBC, Volume 2 this morning and noticed a small thing in "I'll Get You" (which is also in the studio version).  The first line of the second verse is "I think about you night and day," and "night and day" is an example of a rhetorical device called a merism in which two points of a range are named as a way to refer to the entirety.  While the description here is "night and day," the sense is really "all the time."