Monday, November 7, 2016

Herman's Hermits" "I'm Henry VII, I Am"

Last month, I challenged myself to learn at least thirty-two parts to songs (I ended up with thirty-six).  One of the parts I learned was the bass part to Herman's Hermits' "I'm Henry VIII, I Am."  Shortly after I learned it (within an hour or two), I realized that it consists of only eight notes.  In order of appearance: A D B E C# D F# B (there are D and B notes in two different octaves):


In the same way that there are eight Henrys in the song, there are eight notes in the bass part.  Furthermore, almost all of the "I am"s or "I'm"s in the song correspond to the bass's playing A notes, which is the tonic note because the song is in A major.  So there's a connection between the singer/speaker's affirming his identity as Henry VIII and the most important note in this key.

Here's the full notation:


To my own frustration yet also amusement, when I'd filled this sheet, I discovered I needed one more measure than my paper afforded me.  Rather than use an-other sheet of paper, scan both, and then edit them together into a single image, I just squeezed the last three measures into the space where I had written the penultimate two.  Initially I'd miscounted the beginning measures (and I'm still not sure whether the first measure, which is just drums, is a full four beats or whether it begins with an upbeat), so I ended up with a coincidental book-ending of three measures squeezed into the space of two.