"Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James"

A couple days ago, I ran across my note on "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James" that I wrote about in this post about a year ago:  there's a contrast between the fixedness of "Hanging things upon the line" and the movement of "your life slip[ping] away."  I added the concession that "one is literal, and the other is metaphorical," but I realized recently that in a way, this difference between the tangible and intangible actually matches the contrast between being static and passing away.

"Happy Families"

Yester-day, I was thinking about the lines "Look around at the things God created / Look around at the things He has made" in "Happy Families (with Edwin O'Garvey and His Showband)," and I realized that they exhibit the same sort of parallelism that's common in some parts of the Bible, especially the Psalms and Proverbs.  (For example, Proverbs 16:18:  "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.")  This borrowing of a Biblical style is appropriate for the quasi-religious tone of the song.

In "Happy Families (with Eddie 'Fingers' Garvey)," the couplet is slightly different but has the same feature:  "Look around at the things that God created / Look around at the things that He hath made."

"Harry the One-Man-Band"

In "Harry the One-Man-Band," the lines "Give him a penny / He don't get many / Give him a shilling if you can" are sung to a melody something like:

The paucity of "He don't get many" and the small value of the penny itself are both reflected by the few pitches in the first half of the phrase (only F, A, and Bb).  Similarly, the greater number of pitches in the second half corresponds to the greater value of the shilling.  The inclusion of an accidental (B natural) in the second half of the phrase further highlights this contrast.

Some of these features are present even in the lyrics alone since "Give him a penny" and "He don't get many" are both short lines and "Give him a shilling if you can" is longer.

"Happy Families (with Eddie 'Fingers' Garvey)"

I listened to Mighty Garvey! a few days ago, and yester-day, I had a number of realizations about some of the songs.

In "Happy Families (with Eddie 'Fingers' Garvey)," the repeated line "Just look around" in the backing vocals is sung to a phrase of all different pitches (I think it's C D Eb F), and this musical span matches the breadth of "look[ing] around."

"That's All I Ever Want from You Baby"

This morning, I transcribed a couple more lines of the bass part in "That's All I Ever Want from You Baby" (I've been slowly writing it out since I learned it a few months ago), and I realized something about the choruses.  The bass part is different every time, but the first two iterations are something like this:

The lyrics also vary, but they're something like:

That is all I ever want

That is all I ever want

That is all I ever want from you, baby

In the first two iterations of the chorus, the bass plays diatonically ascending phrases spanning an octave (F to F), and these phrases highlight (and even literally underline) the "all"s in the lyrics because every note in the song's key is included.

"That's All I Ever Want from You Baby"

I listened to the As Was EP yester-day and noticed a small feature in "That's All I Ever Want from You Baby."  Under the phrases "all the years" in the first verse and "every night" in the second, the bass plays a chromatic phrase (Bb A Ab G), musically giving a sense of the entirety of "all" and "every."  It's a bit more noticeable in the second verse because there it's played an octave higher than in the first verse.

"Groovin'"

I listened to a couple Elvis Presley albums yester-day because it was his birthday, and I found a similarity between his "My Baby Left Me" (written by Arthur Crudup) and Manfred Mann's "Groovin'" (which the Groovin' with Manfred Mann EP credits to King and Bathea, apparently Ben E. King and James Bathea.)

To me, it sounds like the third verse of "My Baby Left Me" starts with the lines:

Baby, one of these mornin's, Lord, it won't be long

You'll look for me, baby, and daddy will not know

although some internet sources I referenced transcribe the lyrics (with odd line breaks) as

Baby, one of the mornings

Lord, it won't be long

You'll look for me

Baby, and daddy, he'll be gone

In any case, the second verse of "Groovin'" starts with nearly identical lines:

One of these mornin's and it won't be long

You'll look for me, and I'll be gone

Because the lines resemble each other so closely, I think this is an intentional similarity, but I'm not certain.

"Each and Every Day"

Last night, I figured out some more parts for "Each and Every Day."  I wrote about the song a couple years ago, and I had a few more realizations to add to those comments.

I'm not completely sure of my voicings, but I think the Mellotron (brass + strings) part in the bridges is something like:

In my original post, I noted that since the Mellotron plays on offbeats coinciding with "girl" and "world" in the lines "I could never leave her for another girl / Always miles away, we're in another world," it highlights that sense of being "other."  I realized yester-day that the note values contribute to this, too.  In contrast to the steady quarter notes that precede those spots, there are irregularities and notes of longer values.

If the voicings I have are correct, the intervals also demonstrate this feeling of being "other"; instead of thirds, as in the rest of the section, there are fourths under "girl" and "world."

"She Needs Company"

I listened to the Machines EP yester-day and noticed that, aside from the last two iterations, the choruses of "She Needs Company" have a chiastic structure:

She needs comp'ny; he needs a helping hand

He needs money; she needs a man

This structure mirrors the reciprocity of the relationship.

The objects that the two characters need sort of rhyme with each other ("comp'ny" with "money" and "hand" with "man"), and to some degree, this also illustrates that parity.

"Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James"

I recently found a note I made last year about "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James."  I first heard the song via this live version on Beat! Beat! Beat!:

Videos from this performance were uploaded to Manfred Mann's YouTube channel in October 2019 but were taken down on copyright grounds.  In August 2021, however, they were uploaded to Beat-Club, which apparently owns the rights.  An exact date (18 November 1966) was given when the videos were on Mann's channel, but Beat-Club provides just the year.

In any case, I think that even from the first time I heard the song, I noticed that "away" in the line "As your life slips away, yeah" is sung with a melisma (D D C# E G), providing something of a sense of movement.

Last year, I realized that there's a contrast between the fixedness of "Hanging things upon the line" and the movement of "your life slip[ping] away," although, obviously, one is literal, and the other is metaphorical.

"Each Other's Company"

Recently, I figured out and notated the guitar part in "Each Other's Company."  As always, the notation comes with the disclaimer that I may have something wrong.  I think there are a few flubbed notes in the recording, but I ignored those.

While learning the part, I remembered something about the song that I'd realized before but didn't think worth mentioning:  this may be coincidental, but it expresses the same sentiment as "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," written by Irving Berling.  ("Each Other's Company" was written by Mike Hugg.)

The first two lines of the bridge of "Each Other's Company" are "It can rain; it can storm / But her love will keep me warm," and these are similar to a recurring couplet in Berlin's song:  "What do I care how much it may storm / I've got my love to keep me warm."

"Mighty Quinn"

Yester-day, I listened to The Best of the Fontana Years (which I got a few months ago), and I noticed a small feature in "Mighty Quinn."  The "without" and "within" in the line "Come on without; come on within" form a merism.