"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.

"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").

"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."

"What Am I to Do"

I noticed two small things in "What Am I to Do," both in the line "That we must live each night and day apart."  "Night and day" is a merism.  "Apart" is sung with a melisma (C D C A), and since the syllables of the word are sung in something of a disjointed manner, there's a sense of the word's meaning.

"Groovin'"

In "Groovin'," "long" in the line "One of these mornin's and it won't be long" is sung with a melisma (Eb C), so while it's negated, there's a sense of the word's meaning.

"Without You"

In the line "So sad all the time" in "Without You," both "sad" and "time" are sung with melismas (C D and G F D, respectively), giving a sense of degree (for "so") and entirety (for "all").

"5-4-3-2-1"

I found two literary allusions in "5-4-3-2-1."

The first verse:

Onwards, onwards rode the six hundred

Down the valley on their horses they thundered

Ah, but was is them who really blundered

Uh huh, it was the Manfreds

This refers to Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade."  The Manfreds even borrow some specific words:  "Half a league onward, / All in the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred" (lines 2-4) and "Some one has blunder'd" (line 12).  "Thundered" also appears in Tennyson's poem, but it doesn't describe the brigade:  "Cannon in front of them / Volley'd and thunder'd" (lines 20-21).

I'm not very confident in one line (the third) of my transcription of the second verse, but it's something like:

The Trojans waited at the gate for weeks

In a wooden horse into the city they sneaked

Pulled out and then, who was it?  The Greeks?

Uh huh, it was the Manfreds

In Book II of Virgil's Aeneid, Aeneas explains that the Greeks built a wooden horse, hid their soldiers inside, and left it by the city, ostensibly as an offering.  The Trojans brought the horse into the city, and when night fell, the Greeks emerged and opened the gates for their fellow soldiers.  In Book IV of The Odyssey, Menelaus briefly recounts this story too.

"Since I Don't Have You"

I plan on posting notes from the first seven EPs once the new year starts, and because I don't want to interrupt those with a recording of what I know of "Since I Don't Have You," I did that to-day.  I have two guitar parts (although my tone doesn't match very well, and I don't think I have the right rhythm for the chords during the bridge) and the bass part.

Here are the parts written out (with the disclaimer that I may have something wrong).

Lead guitar:

At beginning:

E|-----5-6-8-8-6-5---|

B|-8-8-------------6-|

In verses:

G|---------|:-------2-3-:|

D|---------|:-----3-----:|

A|-3-3-3-3-|:-3-5-------:|

The string of C notes (just by itself) also occurs before the bridge, but it's omitted when this phrase is played at the end of the song.

Chords

Introduction

G minor | C major | F major

Verses

|: F major | Bb minor :|

G minor | C major [F major in transition to bridge]

Bridge

|: G minor | F major :|

G minor | C major

Bass:

The bass plays mostly roots and fifths, so the notation may help elucidate the chord progression.

"Another Kind of Music"

I listened to As Is this morning and noticed a couple small features in "Another Kind of Music."

In addition to the line-ending rhyme in the song, there's internal rhyme in the line "His records sell extremely well, but does he really want it," and this poetic excess gives some indication of the character's success.  (The internal rhyme is part of the structure, however, and not unique to this particular line; it's also in the line "It's not the way he wants to play; he does it for a living" in the first verse.)

There's alliteration in the line "But no one knows just how he feels as he cuts his comical capers," and the artifice of this device mirrors the character in the song, who is putting on a façade and doing something other than what he actually wants.

"Look Away"

I listened to the first disc of a two-CD set of the Spencer Davis Group this morning because Spencer Davis recently died.  I noticed a couple features in the Spencer Davis Group's version of "Look Away" that are also present in Manfred Mann's version.

"All alone" at the very beginning alliterates, and because there's only one initial sound, there's an illustration of that singularity.

In the line "With the eyes and the lips and the skin that I know so well," "and" and "the" are unnecessarily repeated, and this helps to give a sense of degree (for "so well").  Polysyndeton is the rhetorical term for the repetition of conjunctions; I don't know if there's a term for the repetition of articles.

Hohner Pianet

A couple months ago on my blog devoted to the Hohner Pianet, I wrote a post about Manfred Mann's Pianets and what songs they were used on.  I felt I should link to it here.

"Stormy Monday Blues"

I listened to Mann Made this morning and noticed an ambiguity in "Stormy Monday Blues."  One line could be written as "And Thursday's also sad" or "And Thursday's all so sad."