"Rocky Raccoon"

After the line "But Daniel was hot; he drew first and shot" in "Rocky Raccoon," the drums are struck more forcefully, apparently meant to represent the shot.  I didn't write about this previously (probably because it's pretty obvious), but when I heard it again recently, I realized that this specific sort of musical representation has precedent in a couple Buddy Holly songs (which may have influenced the Beatles).

Holly's version of Chuck Berry's "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" contains a similar stronger drum hit after the line "Well, two-three the count, and nobody on; he hit a high-fly into the stand" (representing the bat striking the ball), and Holly's own "I'm Looking for Someone to Love" features a programmatic drum beat after "Foot slip" (apparently the drunk man falling down).  While the drums in "Rocky Raccoon" portray a different element, the idea is the same.

"Blackbird"

I listened to The Beatles a couple days ago and noticed a few small points.

In "Blackbird," the line "All your life" is sung to notes of all different pitches (A B G), giving a slight sense of this extent.  "Life" is held for nearly a full measure (moreso in the first verse than in the second), and this duration also lends a sense of breadth.

"Hey Jude"

Recently, I remembered a small feature I noticed in "Hey Jude" a number of years ago (via Wilson Pickett's version, actually) but neglected to write about:  in the line "Take a sad song and make it better," "better" is sung with a melisma (D C Bb A), and although the pitches descend, this articulation provides some sense of the comparative nature of the adjective (more notes for a greater degree).

I also had a new realization:  during the line "Then you begin to make it better, better, better, better, better, better, ah" at ~2:57, the repeated "better"s and final "ah" are sung to a steadily ascending phrase that spans just over two octaves (E F | G A | Bb C | E F | G A | Bb C | F).  This ascent - particularly its scope - also gives a sense of the increase of "better."

"Sure to Fall (In Love with You)"

Yester-day, I started listening to a three-disc set of Carl Perkins, and I noticed a small feature in "Sure to Fall" that's also in the versions that the Beatles did live on the BBC.  The repetition involved in the alliterative "so sweet" ("You are so sweet") lends a slight sense of degree.

"If I Needed Someone"

I was thinking about "If I Needed Someone" yester-day and realized that it may indicate some of Chuck Berry's influence.  The lines "Carve your number on my wall / And maybe you will get a call from me" bear some resemblance to the lines "She could not leave her number, but I know who placed the call / 'Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall" in Berry's "Memphis" (which the Beatles were obviously familiar with since they covered it on the BBC).  Both pairs of lines involve a telephone call and writing or carving on the wall.

"Carol"

This morning, I listened to a compilation album of Chuck Berry (in the 20th Century Masters series) and noticed a small feature in "Carol" that's also present in the version that the Beatles did on the BBC.

In Berry's original, the repetition involved in the alliteration in the line "Ev'ry time you make the scene, you find the joint is jammed" provides a slight sense of this fullness.  In the Beatles' version, Lennon gets the words wrong, but since he substitutes an-other word that also starts with a J, the effect is actually heightened:  "Well, ev'ry time you go to jive, you find the joint is jammed."

"Chains"

I recently ran across my note on "Chains" that I wrote about back in March, and reading the lyrics again made me realize that the structure of the song matches its theme in a way.

The first part of the song establishes that the verses start with just the word "Chains," but later, the bridges elide into the verses:  "But, darling, I'm imprisoned by these // Chains" and "But I can't break away from all of these // Chains."  The sections of the song are now bound together semantically, just as the narrator is bound metaphorically.

"Love Me Do"

Years ago, I noted that the first "Love" in the recurring line "Love, love me do" in "Love Me Do" could be understood as a vocative instead of an imperative verb.  I was thinking about this again recently and realized that if it's taken this way (where this vocative "love" and the later "you" refer to the same person, the object of the narrator's affections), there's a sort of chiasm in the lines "Love, love me do / You know I love you":

Love,

love

me...

I

love

you

This type of structure illustrates the reciprocal nature of the relationship that the narrator wants to have.

It also occurred to me that the first syllable of "always" in the line "I'll always be true" is sung with a longer value than the surrounding notes, lending a sense of this duration.  The whole line is sung a melody something like this:

"Blue Jay Way"

Last week, I was thinking about the lines "Ask a p'liceman on the street / There's so many there to meet" in "Blue Jay Way" and had a small realization about the melody to which they're sung, something like this:

(I'm not sure what key the song is in, so I just left the notation in C major.)

The first syllable of "many" is sung with a shorter note value (a sixteenth note) than the surrounding notes, so temporally (if not spatially in the notation), there's a denser concentration of notes here, lending a sense of this abundance.

"Savoy Truffle"

I was thinking about "Savoy Truffle" yester-day and realized that in a small way, the alliteration in the line "But what is sweet now turns so sour" lends a sense of degree.

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"

I recently found a note from last year about "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" that I finally got around to looking into.  This is just a small point, but in the line "Ev'ryone smiles as you drift past the flowers," "ev'ryone" is sung to notes of all different pitches (C# D E), giving a sense of number.

"Thank You Girl"

I transcribed some of "Thank You Girl" yester-day in order to compare it to an-other song (for a different project), and I noticed a small feature in "Thank You Girl" itself.  The line "And eternally I'll always be in love with you" has extra internal rhyme ("eternally" and "be"), and because this sound is sustained, there's almost a sense of the ongoing duration of "eternally."