"Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)"

In "Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)," "around" in the line "He never has the time to turn around" is sung with a melisma (C D C A) for a sense of movement, and "so" in the lines "We can only see so far" and "We can only go so far" is sung with a melisma (D E D, I think) for a sense of degree.

"Let's Talk about Me"

I listened to Vulture Culture a couple weeks ago and noticed a handful of things.  In what the APP website credits as "oral rendition" in "Let's Talk about Me," the television station WGN and Wrigley Field are mentioned (in the right channel) in the section starting at ~2:46.  Both of these are in Chicago.

"Dancing on a High Wire"

I'm getting behind in writing about things I'm noticing as I continue to make my way through The Complete Albums Collection box set for a second time.  I listened to Ammonia Avenue on 29 November and noticed a small thing in "Dancing on a High Wire."  In the line "You need to be so sure" at ~3:55, the "sure" is sung with a melisma (G F D), musically giving a sense of degree (for that "so").

In referencing the recording again now, I noticed that some of the "so"s in that recurring line are also sung with a melisma (C D), also for a sense of degree.

"Old and Wise"

After I listened to Eye in the Sky a couple days ago, I learned what I think is a cello part in the introduction of "Old and Wise."  To this, I could add what I think is a flute part, which I learned a couple years ago.  I used mellotron voices for both.

"Children of the Moon"

In the lines "Children, children of the moon watch the world go by" and "Children, children of the moon watch it all go by" in "Children of the Moon," the "by"s are sung with a melisma (F C), musically giving a sense of movement.

"Eye in the Sky"

I listened to Eye in the Sky yester-day and noticed two small things.  In the line "Don't cry; I ain't changing my mind" in "Eye in the Sky," "mind" is sung with a melisma (C# B), so while it's negated, musically there's a sense of that "changing" (from one pitch to an-other).

"No Answers Only Questions"

For some reason, "No Answers Only Questions" popped into my head yester-day.  I remembered only the line "And I carry the burden of the proof" though, so I had to reference the lyrics on the APP website to find out what song it was (at least I remembered it was a song from Vulture Culture [or at least a bonus track on it]).

In looking at the lyrics, I noticed that the verses exhibit anaphora:

Some of us laugh
Some of us cry
Some of us lay back, watch the world go by
Some of us fear
Some of us hate
Some of us won't wake up till it's too late

Why do we fight?
Why do we fall?
Why do we stand there, backs against the wall?
Why don't we change?
Why don't we try?
Why don't we turn round, help the other guy?

The first verse has the repeated "Some of us," and the second verse has the repeated "Why do(n't) we."

I also noticed that the structure of the second verse mirrors the sentiment.  The "Why do we"s all ask about negative behaviors, but then there's a change to the "Why don't we"s, which ask about positive behaviors.

"I Don't Wanna Go Home"

I listened to The Turn of a Friendly Card yester-day and noticed a small thing in "I Don't Wanna Go Home."  The "Lookin' up" in the backing vocals at ~1:52 is sung to an ascending melody (E F# G), musically giving a sense of that "up."

"Don't Hold Back"

The last thing I noticed when I listened to Eve recently is in "Don't Hold Back."  In the line "And don't you let a shadow be your guide anymore," the "-more" of "anymore" is sung with a melisma (A B, I think), so while it's negated ("not... anymore"), there's something of a musical sense of continuation.

"Winding Me Up"

When I listened to Eve a couple days ago, I noticed what I think is a recorder part in "Winding Me Up" (from ~2:12 to ~2:41) that I guess I hadn't been fully aware of before.  Recorder isn't listed among the instruments in the "credits" section for Eve on the APP website, but it sure sounds like one in the song.

Here's my recording, with just guitar chords for accompaniment (I doubled-tracked recorder and guitar):

Here's the notation of the recorder part (with - of course - the disclaimer that I might have something wrong):

The day after I listened to the album, I was still thinking about this song, and I realized that in the title line, the "up" is sung to a higher note than the others ("Winding me up" is sung to the phrase E E E G), musically giving something of a sense of its meaning.

In looking at the song again in order to write this post, I also noticed that "too long" is sung with melismas (G E for "too" and E D for "long"), musically giving a sense of degree and of duration, respectively.

"You Won't Be There"

Near the end of "You Won't Be There," in the line "Why are you going anywhere," the three syllables of "anywhere" are each sung to a different pitch (G F# D).  To some degree, this represents musically the breadth of possibility.

"You Lie Down with Dogs"

I listened to Eve last night and noticed a few small things.  In "You Lie Down with Dogs," the repeated "You're fallin'" starting at ~3:19 is sung to descending phrases, musically reflecting that "fallin'."  I'm not sure of the exact notes, but it starts on Ab and the first half is a diatonic descent in F minor (down to Eb, at least).  I think altogether it descends more than an octave down to F.

"Shadow of a Lonely Man"

I listened to Pyramid yester-day and noticed a small thing in "Shadow of a Lonely Man," specifically in the line "But I'll cling to a hope till I can't hold on anymore, anymore."  The "-more" of that second "anymore" is sung with a melisma (E D; the whole word is sung to the notes E F E D), so although it's negated, there's something of a sense of continuation.

"Heaven Knows"

I recorded some parts from Keats' "Heaven Knows" three years ago, but I never wrote them down and forgot how to play them.  Recently, I've been relearning those parts and figuring out some new ones (and writing them down).

I remembered the piano part (although I'm still missing some of it), and I relearned the bass part (and discovered that I'd had some notes in the wrong octave).  I also figured out one of the saxophone parts (which I played using a mellotron sound) and some of one of the guitar parts:

When the piano comes back in, the timing is a bit off, but I didn't feel like redoing it.

"Turn Your Heart Around"

When I listened to Keats a couple days ago, I also noticed a small thing in "Turn Your Heart Around."  "On" in the line "This can't go on" is sung with a melisma (E F#), giving a sense of continuation.

"How Can You Walk Away"

I listened to Keats yester-day and noticed a few things in "How Can You Walk Away," specifically in the chorus:

How can you walk away
How can you leave
How can you turn away
When our love was incomplete

Both "away"s (Bb G F) and "leave" (F D) are sung with melismas, which all give a musical sense of movement.  There's also a slant rhyme between "leave" and "incomplete," so the nature of being "incomplete" is demonstrated poetically.

"The Ace of Swords"

Last week, I learned the clavinet part in the introduction in "The Ace of Swords," so I made an updated recording:

Since I last recorded this, I got a new keyboard (a Nord Electro 5D), and some of the sounds are a lot better (for what it's worth, I used French harpsichord D and clavinet C).  I included the bass part in the audio but not the video.

"Nothing Left to Lose"

Yester-day I was thinking about "Nothing Left to Lose" and realized a small thing:  "Ways" in the line "You change your life in a thousand ways" is sung with a melisma (D C Bb), musically giving a sense of that "thousand."

"Since the Last Goodbye"

I listened to Ammonia Avenue (with bonus tracks) yester-day and discovered something about "Since the Last Goodbye."  In the version with Eric Woolfson's guide vocal, "fly" in the line "The hours, the minutes seem to fly" is sung with a melisma (D# C# A#), musically giving a sense of the passage of time.  In the final version, however, this feature isn't present.

"Damned If I Do"

I figured out a couple parts from "Damned If I Do" this afternoon.  One of them was a guitar part from ~0:29 to ~0:37, which I don't think I'd even realized was there before.  In any case, the first three notes are the same as the famous phrase from Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra (albeit adjusted for key).

Here's the guitar phrase (which I believe is played with harmonics and which I might have notated in the wrong octave):

The phrase from Also Sprach Zarathustra is C G C' in C major; this is G D G' in G minor.

"You Lie Down with Dogs"

On Jeopardy! yester-day there was a clue stating that "He that lies down with dogs shall rise up with fleas" is among "Ben Franklin's wisdom" in Poor Richard's Almanac.  The clue made it seem that Franklin coined this phrase, but according to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, it's a proverb dating from the late sixteenth century.  In any case, it got me thinking about "You Lie Down with Dogs" from Eve, and this morning I realized something about the line "You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas," which occurs at the end of each chorus.

Generally, the melody to which "you lie down with dogs" is sung descends (aside from regularly dropping down to an F, it's a conjunct descent from Eb to Bb), and there's ascending interval of an octave at the end to represent the "get[ting] up with fleas."  I think it's something like:

(I'm not very confident in my accuracy of the rhythm, but I am pretty sure about the notes, which is what's relevant here.)

"Nothing Left to Lose"

I recently loaded the French accordion mellotron sound on my Nord Electro 5D.  It reminded me that when I listened to The Turn of a Friendly Card back in December, I thought that the accordion solo in "Nothing Left to Lose" didn't sound too difficult to figure out.  It took a bit of effort, but I think I have it:

One of the notes in the mellotron sample (the high F) sounds a bit off, which gives a bit of credence to what Alan Parsons said about the mellotron in this interview from a couple years ago:  "I always thought that the sound was compromised by the use of mellotron over orchestration."  Still, were it not for the mellotron sounds, I probably wouldn't have learnt this part now and I certainly couldn't have recorded it because I don't know how to play accordion.  I was going to record it using melodica (which doesn't sound too different), but my melodica doesn't have the range necessary to play this part.

Along with this solo, there's also an accompaniment part (which I haven't figured out), played either with the lower register or as a second part.  I know very little about accordions, so I don't know if it's even possible to play those two parts on a single instrument simultaneously.