"Yer Blues"

A few years ago, I noted a temporal merism (morning and evening) in the lines "In the morning wanna die / In the evening wanna die" in "Yer Blues" (that's how they're formatted in the liner notes).  I was thinking about the song again this morning, and I realized that the repeated "wanna die" at the end of the lines is an instance of epistrophe and that, furthermore, since there are two rhetorical devices here, their effect is compounded, resulting in a greater emphasis.

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"

I was thinking about "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" yester-day, specifically how the choruses (the repeated title line) are sung in a higher register than the verses, and I realized that to some degree, this higher register provides a sense of being up "in the sky."

"Blackbird"

Yester-day, I finished reading the introduction to 1964: Eyes of the Storm.  Near the end, there's a quotation from "Blackbird," and I noticed an ambiguity in the line "You were only waiting for this moment to arise."  I don't know the proper grammatical terms necessary to explain this ambiguity precisely, but the main difference is whether it's "you" that's arising (where the arrival of "this moment" is a sort of prerequisite) or it's "this moment" that's arising (where "this moment to arise" is the direct object of the verb "waiting for").  Comparison with the later line "You were only waiting for this moment to be free," which has the same structure, suggests the former, but I think the latter is also grammatically viable.

"From Me to You"

I've been reading Paul McCartney's 1964: Eyes of the Storm, although I'm still only in the introduction.  Yester-day, I read a part that quoted the bridge in "From Me to You":

I got arms that long to hold you

And keep you by my side

I got lips that long to kiss you

And keep you satisfied, ooh

(That's my transcription.)

I think that reading this rather than hearing it made me realize that it's somewhat similar to Buddy Holly's "You've Got Love" (credited to Johnny Wilson, Roy Orbison, and Norman Petty).  Much of Holly's song is just a list of body parts, including arms and lips, and what they can do:  "You got two lips that look so fine," "You got two arms that you could use / To make me lose my blues," and "You got two eyes so you can see / Your love was meant for me."

The narrator in Holly's song is talking to his lover where the narrator in the Beatles' song is talking about himself, but the structure is the same:  "You/I got [body part] that...."

While the Beatles have listed Holly as an influence and there's definitely a similarity here, I'm not certain that this is an instance of the Beatles' drawing from his song.

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I also wrote about a similarity between "You've Got Love" and "Every Little Thing," although I think that's more coincidental.

"Within You Without You"

I was thinking about "Within You Without You" yester-day, specifically the melody to which the first line is sung.  It's something like:

The lyric here is "We were talking about the space between us all."  The beginning and ending of the phrase are conjunct, but there are larger intervals (mostly fourths) in the middle, as if to illustrate that "space."

"Drive My Car"

I was thinking about "Drive My Car" this morning, and I realized that under the line "But you can do something in between," the drums start lending some emphasis to the off-beats, something like:

This change in the rhythm is especially conspicuous since the cowbell, which had been playing on each downbeat, drops out.

I may be making too much of this, but this emphasis on the off-beats sort of complements the "in between" in the lyric above.

"It's Only Love"

I listened to Help! yester-day and noticed a small feature in "It's Only Love."  In the first instance of the line "But it's so hard lovin' you," "hard" is sung with a melisma (D C), musically giving a sense of degree (for "so").

"Dizzy Miss Lizzy"

Yester-day, I listened to Live at the Hollywood Bowl and noticed some significant melismas in "Dizzy Miss Lizzy."  In order to write this post, though, I referenced the studio recording.

In the lines "The way you rock and roll" and "When you do the stroll," "roll" and "stroll" are both sung with melismas (I think they're E D C# and E C# A, respectively), musically giving a sense of movement.

In the line "Love me 'fore I grow too old," "old" is sung with a melisma (B A), giving a sense of degree (for "too"), and similarly, in the line "Ooh, girl, you look so fine," "fine" is sung with a melisma (E C# A, I think), giving a sense of degree (for "so").

"I'll Cry Instead"

I listened to A Hard Day's Night yester-day and noticed an interesting feature in "I'll Cry Instead."  The first line of the first verse ("I've got ev'ry reason on earth to be mad") has twelve syllables ("earth" is sung with two), and the first line of the third and fourth verses ("And when I do, you better hide all the girls") has eleven syllables, but the first line of the second verse ("I've got a chip on my shoulder that's bigger than my feet") has fourteen.  To some degree, this larger number of syllables mirrors the "bigger" size of that "chip on my shoulder."

"Don't Bother Me"

I listened to With the Beatles yester-day and noticed a small feature in "Don't Bother Me" that I think I've commented about before with other songs.  In the line "It's just not right when ev'ry night I'm all alone," the phrase "all alone" alliterates, and since the two words start with the same sound, there's a sense of the singularity of being alone.

"I Am the Walrus"

I'm sure this has been noted before, but I thought I'd write a post about it, if only for my own reference.  I've been reading Shakespeare's King Lear for the first time, and last week, I got to the parts in Act IV, Scene VI that are included near the end of "I Am the Walrus."

At ~2:25, fragments of this exchange (lines 223-224) can be heard:

Gloucester:  Now, good sir, what are you?

Edgar:  A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows

At ~3:56, a good chunk of Oswald's dialogue (lines 249-254) is audible:

Villain, take my purse;

If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body,

And give the letters which thou find'st about me

To Edmund Earl of Gloucester; seek him out

Upon the English party.  O, untimely death!

And at ~4:22, there's an-other exchange between Edgar and Gloucester (lines 256-259):

Edgar:  I know thee well.  A serviceable villain,

As duteous to the vices of thy mistress

As badness would desire.

Gloucester:  What, is he dead?

Edgar:  Sit you down, father; rest you.

I'm not sure I have the line numbers exactly right.  I've noticed that sometimes they vary between editions, anyway.

According to Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, this audio was taken from a BBC radio broadcast and mixed live into the song on 29 September 1967 (p. 128).

"There's a Place"

Yester-day, I figured out the chords for "There's a Place" and noticed some interesting ones in the bridge.  The song is in E major, but the chord progression for the bridge is:

|: C# minor | F# major

E major | G# major :| C# minor

(This is basically what The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook lists, too.)

The F# major and G# major are a bit out of place, since both contain accidentals (the A# in F# major and the B# in G# major).  Normally in E major, the chords built on F# and G# are minors, but I think it's significant that these two chords are major.

The lyrics for this section are:

In my mind, there's no sorrow

Don't you know that it's so

There'll be no sad tomorrow

Don't you know that it's so

Minor chords are often perceived as sad, but since "there's no sorrow" and "there'll be no sad tomorrow," these normally minor chords are transformed here into major chords.