Monday, February 22, 2021

"Tired of Trying, Bored with Lying, Scared of Dying"

"What's in a name?" in "Tired of Trying, Bored with Lying, Scared of Dying" seems to be an allusion to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, where this same question appears (II.ii.43).

The subject-verb disagreement in the line "It don't occur to you you never built enough schools" is an-other indication of insufficient education.

Monday, February 15, 2021

"Let's Go Get Stoned"

In "Let's Go Get Stoned," "long" in the line "Now when you work so hard all the day long" is sung with a melisma (D C A), giving a sense of the word's meaning.

Monday, February 8, 2021

"There's No Living without Your Loving"

In the line "Baby, I love you too much" in "There's No Living without Your Loving," "much" is sung with a melisma (C Bb), giving either a sense of its meaning (i.e. amount) or a sense of degree (for "too").

Monday, February 1, 2021

"With God on Our Side"

In the line "The cavalries charged; the Indians fell" in "With God on Our Side," "fell" is sung with a descending melisma (G F), musically giving a sense of its meaning.

Obviously, the line "That Jesus Christ was betrayed by a kiss" is drawn from the Bible, probably either Matthew 26:48-49:  "48 Now the betrayer [Judas] had given them a sign, saying, 'The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.'  49 And he came up to Jesus at once and said, 'Greetings, Rabbi!'  And he kissed him." or Mark 14:44-45:  "44 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, 'The one I will kiss is the man.  Seize him and lead him away under guard.'  45 And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, 'Rabbi!"  And he kissed him."