"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."

"Questions"

A couple months ago, I figured out and wrote down the bass part for "Questions."  Of course, there's the disclaimer that I may have something wrong:

"L.S.D."

About two months ago, I got a box set of the first seven Manfred Mann EPs.  On the back cover of the seventh EP (As Was), there's a description of how the band formed.  One of the sentences is "And it happened that they came one day upon the house of John the Burgess [their producer] who with soft words converted them to the cult of Elessdee."  At first, I thought this referred to the drug (L.S.D.), but then I remembered Brian Matthew's comment about the song "L.S.D." on the first Live at the BBC album:  "a cynical song about love of money, or as we call it, 'L.S.D.'"

Because of that added context (and because I happened to have read about British money around that time), I realized what "L.S.D." means.  Those letters are the abbreviations for "pounds," "shillings," and "pence."  They come from the Latin words libra, solidus, and denarius.

"Just Like a Woman"

In the lines "Ev'rybody knows that baby's got new clothes" in "Just Like a Woman," each of the four syllables of "Ev'rybody" is sung to a different pitch (C B A G), musically giving a sense of breadth.

While referencing the song in order to find those specific pitches, I also noticed that "fallen" in the lines "But lately I see her ribbons and her bows / Have fallen from her curls" is sung to two notes that form a fairly large descending interval (a fourth: E B), musically giving a sense of the word's meaning.

Both of these features are also present in Bob Dylan's version.

"You're My Girl"

In the line "When our hearts beat, they beat so close" in "You're My Girl," "so" is sung with a melisma (G A), musically giving a sense of degree.

"Superstitious Guy"

I noticed a couple significant melismas in the bridge of "Superstitious Guy."  "Spell" in the line "Tries to break the spell" is sung to the notes F# E, so there's a sense of "break[ing]" (into more than one syllable).  "Well" in the next line ("But he knows only too well") is sung to the notes B A B D (I think), musically giving a sense of degree (for "too").

While referencing the song to transcribe the lyrics and find those specific pitches, I also noticed that in the line "Believes that when he wears it, he can't come to any harm," "harm" is sung with a melisma (B C# B A in the lead vocal, D E F# E in the harmony vocal), giving a sense of the breadth of possibility (for that "any").

"Autumn Leaves"

I don't know if this was the intent, but the title "Autumn Leaves" is something of a pun.  It could be understood either as an adjective ("autumn") modifying a plural noun ("leaves") or a noun ("autumn") and a verb ("leaves").

"As Long as I Have Lovin'"

In the line "And you can keep a-searchin', searchin' ev'rywhere" in "As Long as I Have Lovin'," "ev'rywhere" is sung with a melisma (F# F# E D E F#), musically giving a sense of breadth.

"Ev'ry day, ev'ry night" in the last line is an example of a merism.