"I Wanna Be Rich"

This morning, I found a note from three years ago about "I Wanna Be Rich" that I finally got around to looking into.  In the choruses, the word "Money" is sung by the backing vocals for almost two full measures at a time (four times total), and this long duration illustrates the prominence that money has for the narrator.

I also had a couple related realizations:  the word is sung to only a single pitch (a G), showing money's primacy in the narrator's thoughts, and its repetition and duration match the great amount of money that the narrator desires ("Money, money, I want a lot").

"Without You"

When I listened to My Little Red Book of Winners! a couple days ago, I also noticed something about "Without You."  The phrase "so sad" in the lines "But you know I'm so sad, baby / So sad all the time" alliterates, and in a small way, the repetition of the initial sound emphasizes this degree.

"Oh No, Not My Baby"

Last month, I had a small realization about the structure of "Oh No, Not My Baby."  I'm more familiar with the live versions on Live at the BBC 64-66, and I wanted to listen to the studio version again to confirm my suspicion before writing about it, so yester-day, I listened to My Little Red Book of Winners!

The couplet "Oh no, not my baby / Oh no, not my sweet baby" recurs throughout the song, and its being repeated so often evinces what the narrator himself says at the end of each verse:  that he "kept on sayin'" this.  Basically, the structure matches the meaning.

When I transcribed some of the lyrics, I also noticed an ambiguity in the line "She's not like these other girls you see."  "You see" could function as a sort of interjection or as a headless relative clause describing the girls ("these other girls [whom] you see").

"Each and Every Day"

I recently listened to Live at the BBC 66-69 again, and I noticed that - perhaps just coincidentally - there's some lyrical resemblance between "Each and Every Day" and the Beatles' "Good Day Sunshine."  Here's the second verse of "Each and Every Day":

She looks good, feels good

Walkin' down the street, ev'ryone we meet says we should

Go a long, long way and should always stay in love

Each and ev'ry day

(I'm still not sure if I have the line breaks in the right places.)

The Beatles' song contains the similar line "She feels good; she knows she's looking fine."  It also describes a walk:  "We take a walk; the sun is shining down / Burns my feet as they touch the ground."  (I think that in a strict grammatical reading, however, the participial "walkin' down the street" in "Each and Every Day" actually modifies "ev'ryone.")

"5-4-3-2-1"

Last night, I figured out the chords for "5-4-3-2-1," and while I was thinking about the song again to-day, I discovered a small feature in it:  the line "Down the valley on their horses they thundered" is sung to a descending melody (the pitches are F Eb C Bb Ab), musically illustrating this "down."

"Machines"

I recently listened to Live at the BBC 64-66 and noticed some elements in "Machines" that match the lyrics.  Throughout the song, there's a ratcheting noise (I think this is approximated by a percussive sound on muted guitar strings in the live version).  The constancy of this sound matches the "keep right on" in the initial lines of most of the verses:  "Machines, machines, they keep right on movin'," "Machines, machines, they keep right on goin'," and "Machines, machines, they keep right on winning."

Additionally, this persistency contrasts with the human limitations of the narrator, who must take breaks, not only in physical labor ("I've got to find a place to rest my head") but also in simply creating a sound ("But I am weak... Too tired to speak..."), demonstrated by the pauses between lines that are necessary in order to breathe.

In comparing the live and studio versions, I also discovered that some of the lyrics in the second verse differ considerably.  Where the studio version has

I've got to find a place to rest my head

Machine, he smile at me and say, "I'm gonna be your bed"

the live version has

But I'm flesh and blood, and hard as I may try

If I got to keep workin' them machines, I know I'm gonna die

"So Long, Dad"

I was thinking about "So Long, Dad" yester-day and discovered an ambiguity in the lyrics.  One line could be written as either "Just drop by when it's convenient to" or "Just drop by when it's convenient, too."  The meaning isn't affected very much because in either rendering, "to[o]" isn't essential and really just sets up the rhyme for the following line, which Manfred draws particular attention to in an interview on Live at the BBC 66-69:  "Be sure to call before you do."

"To" is actually sort of redundant since it merely indicates an ellipsis of the repeated verb:  "Just drop by when it's convenient to [drop by]."

"Ha! Ha! Said the Clown"

In the line "Is it bringing you down that you've lost your chance" in "Ha! Ha! Said the Clown," the phrase "bringing you down" is sung to a descending group of notes (spanning nearly an octave:  D C# B E), musically illustrating the meaning.

"Each and Every Day"

I listened to Mighty Garvey! recently and noticed some small features.

In the title line of "Each and Every Day," the phrase "ev'ry day" is sung to notes of all different pitches (A C D), giving a sense of number.

I have some more significant comments about the line "There's no doubt about; she can't do without my love" (although maybe it should be formatted as two lines:  "There's no doubt about / She can't do without my love").  Poetically, "there's no doubt about" and "she can't do without" complement each other since they have the same number of syllables and they rhyme.  (There are even short rests after each line as if to point out this balance.)  Semantically, though, "she can't do without" is incomplete.  It needs "my love" to finish the sense, and this grammatical sort of dependence matches the meaning.  In a way, this is the opposite of what I noted years ago in the lines "Got a feelin' goin' for each other, yeah / I could never leave her for another girl," where "girl" isn't necessary in terms of syllable count or semantic completion.

"My Name Is Jack"

Yester-day, I listened to the first disc of Live at the BBC 66-69, and I noticed a small feature in "My Name Is Jack" (also true of the studio recording):  multiple voices sing the second half of the chorus ("We all love Jack..."), so there's an audible representation of that "all."