Monday, December 2, 2019

"Since I Don't Have You"

"Since I Don't Have You" exhibits the rhetorical effect of anaphora - the repeated "I don't have."  This gives a sense of the singer/speaker's utter lack.  In the verses, the backing vocals double only "I don't have," so the lack of the various things that the lead vocal mentions ("plans and schemes... hopes and dreams...") is also represented by their absence.

The three syllables of "anything" in the repeated line "I don't have anything" are all sung to different pitches (G F Db), musically giving a sense of breadth.

While it's probably intended to be causal (in the same way that the title phrase is), the line "Since you walked out on me, oh, in walked old misery" in the bridge could also be understood as temporal.

"Share" in the line "And I don't have love to share" is sung with a melisma (F Db); since the word is sung to two different pitches, there's a musical sense of that "shar[ing]."