"What You're Doing"

I was thinking about "What You're Doing" this morning and noticed an interesting feature in the structure of the first two lines:  "Look what you're doin' / I'm feeling blue and lonely."  There's a mosaic rhyme between "doin'" and "blue and," so in terms of completing the rhyme, the word "lonely" is unnecessary.  Even in the structure, then, it's left by itself, and there's something of an impression of its meaning.

"Piggies"

Recently, I learned (or re-learned) some parts for "Piggies."  While there are some spots where all I know is one instrument part, I still felt I had enough to make it worth recording.  This is up until the bridge:

Along with electric bass, I used French harpsichord E and the Mellotron cello sound on my Nord Electro 5.  I'd learned just the beginning phrase of the harpsichord part in November 2017, but I never wrote it down.  I recently re-learned it and then got a bit more too.  I noticed what is probably a trivial feature in the second phrase (at ~0:21):

The last four notes of the first measure have the same intervals as the third phrase of "Westminster Quarters."

This is probably just coincidental, but I thought I'd point it out all the same.  (For what it's worth, Paul McCartney also quotes "Westminster Quarters" at the beginning of his "Let 'Em In.")

"The Fool on the Hill"

I listened to Magical Mystery Tour recently and then figured out the bass harmonica for a section of "The Fool on the Hill."  To this, I could add the recorder part, which I learned back in April 2017.  This is the second instance of this section; the first doesn't have a trill in the recorder part.  I double-tracked the recorder, although I don't know if that's the case in the original recording.  I don't have a bass harmonica, so instead I used the lower register of a Mellotron accordion sound.

"I Don't Want to Spoil the Party"

I listened to a compilation album of the Shirelles earlier this week and noticed a similarity between "Foolish Little Girl" and "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party."  In one section of "Foolish Little Girl," the lyrics are "But I love him / I still love him," sung to this melody (with an-other vocal part in between the two phrases):

Lyrically, melodically, and rhythmically, there's a strong resemblance between this and the line "I still love her" in "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" (specifically Lennon's part, which is the lower of the two):

Of course, the only difference lyrically is the pronoun.  As far as melody, both phrases begin with a falling fifth, go back up (a fifth in "Foolish Little Girl" but only a fourth in "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party"), and then ascend a whole step.  In terms of rhythm, both parts have long, drawn-out notes (especially compared to the surrounding vocal parts), and the last note has half the value of (most of) the others.

The Beatles were clearly familiar with the Shirelles (they covered "Baby It's You" and "Boys" on Please Please Me), so "Foolish Little Girl" may have had some influence on this part in "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party," even if only subconsciously.

"Honey Pie"

While thinking about "Act Naturally" recently, the lines "Then I know that you will plainly see / The biggest fool that ever hit the big time" stuck out to me, and I realized that there's some resemblance between them and the line "Now she's hit the big time" in "Honey Pie."  The situations described in each song are similar (movie stars finding success), although the use of this specific phrase in both may just be coincidental.

"Act Naturally"

I was thinking about "Act Naturally" recently and realized that the end of the line "And beggin' down upon his bended knee" descends ("bended knee" is sung to the notes D B A) and that this gives a sense of that "down."  This feature is also present in Buck Owens' original.

"Revolution"

I listened to LOVE yester-day and noticed a small feature in "Revolution."  In the second instance of the line "We all wanna change the world," "world" is sung with a melisma (C# G# F#, I think).  Musically, this gives a sense of that "chang[ing]."

"You Won't See Me"

I was thinking about "You Won't See Me" yester-day and realized that "hard" in the lines "We have lost the time / That was so hard to find" is sung with a melisma (E D C#, I think) and that this gives a sense of degree (for "so").

"Good Day Sunshine"

I listened to Revolver this morning and noticed a couple features in "Good Day Sunshine."  After "We take a walk," there's a descending piano phrase (A G# G F#).  This phrase is step-wise chromatically, so there's something of a sense of the steps involved in "tak[ing] a walk."

The clause "She feels good" is a bit ambiguous.  This could be either a description of the girl's disposition (which the rest of the line ["she knows she's looking fine"] seems to suggest) or a comment by the narrator about her body.

"The Night Before"

I listened to Help! yester-day and noticed a small feature in "The Night Before."  In the line "Was I so unwise," "unwise" is sung with a melisma (F G F E D), musically giving a sense of degree (for "so").

"You Never Give Me Your Money"

This morning I was thinking about "You Never Give Me Your Money," specifically this section:

Out of college, money spent,

See no future, pay no rent,

All the money's gone, nowhere to go.

Any jobber got the sack,

Monday morning turning back,

Yellow lorry slow, nowhere to go.

But oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go!

Oh, that magic feeling, nowhere to go!

Nowhere to go!

(This is how it appears in The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook.)

Most of this exhibits asyndeton.  There are no conjunctions (aside from one "But"), just phrases and clauses crammed together.  This lack of any conjunctions mirrors the absences in the lyrics themselves:  "no future," "no rent," "the money's gone," "nowhere to go."

"Any Time at All"

I listened to A Hard Day's Night last week and noticed a couple things about the title line of "Any Time at All."  First Lennon sings the line, and then McCartney sings it, and then Lennon sings it again.  Because more than one voice sings this line, there's a sense of the breadth of possibility of "any."

The "all" is sung with a melisma (I think it's E D B in Lennon's part and A F# E in McCartney's).  This too gives a sense of the breadth of possibility (note, though, that since "all" is in the construction "at all," it functions adverbially).