"Mighty Quinn"

Yester-day, I listened to The Best of the Fontana Years (which I got a few months ago), and I noticed a small feature in "Mighty Quinn."  The "without" and "within" in the line "Come on without; come on within" form a merism.

"Harry the One-Man-Band"

I listened to Mighty Garvey! yester-day and noticed a small feature in "Harry the One-Man-Band," specifically in the structure of the line "Anywhere the people are, Harry's sure to go."  The structure seems partly dictated by the rhyme scheme:  "go" comes at the end of the line in order to rhyme with "snow" in the previous line.  This specific structure, however, with "Anywhere the people are" placed at the beginning of the line rather than at the end ("Harry's sure to go anywhere the people are"), results in a closer proximity between "the people" and "Harry," and this mirrors the meaning.

"Tennessee Waltz"

Yester-day, I figured out the chords for "Tennessee Waltz."  I think I'd noticed before that while it's called the "Tennessee Waltz," it's not actually a waltz; it's in 4/4.  Yester-day, I realized that this may have significance.  It seems that because the narrator's friend stole his darling while the Tennessee Waltz was playing, the narrator is now trying to avoid waltzes, so although he's relating this story, he's doing it in a different meter.

"Hubble Bubble (Toil and Trouble)"

Recently, I ran across the phrase "toil and trouble," which reminded me of some lines in Shakespeare's Macbeth, where the witches say:

Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire burn and caldron bubble.  (IV.i.10-11) 

This, in turn, reminded me of the Manfred Mann song "Hubble Bubble (Toil and Trouble)," which I have only on a vinyl re-print of the American version of The Five Faces of Manfred Mann.  I listened to the record again and paid close attention to that song, and while it seems obvious enough that the title line was inspired by Shakespeare, there's not really anything else that connects the song to the play.

Mike Vickers' Moog Tune

This is a bit tangential to the focus of this blog, but I'm putting it here anyway.  I recently got a Moog (the Subsequent 37), and for the first recording I did with it, I tried to replicate a little piece that Mike Vickers played in this BBC segment from 1969.

I tried to match the tone as closely as I could, but I still don't really know what I'm doing.

"It's So Easy Falling"

About a month ago, I was thinking about the vocal melodies in the chorus of "It's So Easy Falling."  I think they're something like this (lead vocal on the top line, backing vocals on the bottom line):

These lines are repeated with little musical variation.

Like I mentioned before, that the melodies descend gives a sense of the (metaphorical) "falling."  Recently, though, I realized that the shapes here also illustrate the inevitability expressed in the line "I can't help it falling."  That the lead vocal briefly ascends (at the end of the first measure) and then holds the note for a longer value can be thought of as hesitancy or resistance.  This is when the backing vocals come in and reassert the descent (the "falling in love"), after which the lead vocal complies or is coerced and then descends again.

"My Name Is Jack"

Earlier this week, I watched this video of Manfred Mann miming to "My Name Is Jack" on German television:

The following day, I realized that the verses (particularly the last) are something of a rhetorical catalogue, listing the inhabitants of the Greta Garbo Home:  Fred (with his hands on his head), Superman, Carl (with his funny old hair), my friend Paul, Melody Menn, and Ma with brother Tom.  I'm not sure if this rhetorical catalogue really has a function though, unless it's simply to illustrate that these are "friends I will remember wherever I may roam."

"Everyday Another Hair Turns Grey"

I did some musical detective work regarding the Mellotron part in "Everyday Another Hair Turns Grey."

"That's All I Ever Want from You Baby"

A couple weeks ago, I figured out the chords for "That's All I Ever Want from You Baby" and noticed a handful of things.

With the disclaimer that I may have something wrong, here's the chord progression:

Chorus

|: F major | Bb major :|

F major | C major | Bb major

[resolves with F major]

Verses

|: F major | F augmented | Bb major | C major :|

F major | F major 7 | Bb major | G major

The song is in F major, but there are a couple accidentals in these chords (C# in F augmented and B natural in G major).  Because these pitches venture outside of the song's key, there's something of a musical sense of the encompassing nature of the "all"s in the first verse ("Let me kiss away all your tears / And let me chase away all your fears / Baby, love me though all the years") and the "every" in the second verse ("When you're kissin' me, hold me tight / And when you're holding me, oh, baby, do it right / Oh, let me be with you, girl, every night").  This "every" is also sung with three syllables, an articulation that gives a sense of number.

I also noticed that "fears" (A G) in the line "And let me chase away all your fears" and "night" (A G F) in the line "Oh, let me be with you, girl, every night" are sung with melismas, giving a sense of entirety (for "all") and number (for "every").

"Happy Families (with Edwin O'Garvey and His Showband)"

In "Happy Families (with Edwin O'Garvey and His Showband)," the parts about "one big happy family" are sung with multiple voices, illustrating the "big" size.  Additionally, the syllables of "family" are each sung to a different pitch (first A F# D and later Bb G Eb), also giving a sense of breadth.

"Harry the One-Man-Band"

In the line "Anywhere the people are, Harry's sure to go" in "Harry the One-Man-Band," "go" is sung with a melisma (A G F), musically giving a sense of movement.

"Ha! Ha! Said the Clown"

In "Ha! Ha! Said the Clown," there's a particular sound under "this" in the line "In a while, run a mile, I'm regrettin' all this."  I'm pretty sure this is a Mellotron cello.  It seems that Mann pressed a key so that the note started, and then he turned the pitch knob so that the note goes up in pitch.  Whatever it is, this glissando-type effect illustrates the entirety of the "all" in "all this."