Del Shannon's "Two Silhouettes"

Last month, I learned the chords for Del Shannon's "Two Silhouettes" and noticed a feature with an accidental.

First of all, here are the chords (with the disclaimer that, as always, I might have something wrong):

Intro
|: C major | Bb major :|

First verse
C major | A minor
F major | C major | G major
C major
F major | D major
|: C major | A minor :|
C major | G major | C major

Link
|: C major | Bb major :|

Second verse
C major | A minor
F major | C major | G major
C major
F major | D major
|: C major | A minor :|
C major | G major | C major
F major | C major

Bridge
F major | C major
F major | G major | C major
F major
G major

Third verse
C major | A minor
F major | C major | G major
C major
F major | D major
|: C major | A minor :|
C major | G major | C major

Tag
|: C major | Bb major :|

The song is in C major, and - aside from the Bb major in the instrumental sections - the only chord with an accidental note is D major (with an F#).  In two of the verses, the lyrics above this chord describe a change.  In the first verse, the line there is "And all the rain seemed to turn to tears" and in the third verse, "I know things will never be the same."  That F# accidental helps to musically portray the "turn" and not being "the same."  One of the voices in the backing vocals even goes from an F natural to an F# during that line, emphasizing the accidental.

Del Shannon's "I Won't Be There"

Last month I figured out the chords for Del Shannon's "I Won't Be There," and earlier this month I wrote about some connections between the chords and the lyrics.  I had the opportunity to record some songs a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd do a version of it.

I had to put some notes in a lower octave, and my double-tracking isn't exactly spot-on, but I still think it turned out pretty well.

Cliff Richard's "The Snake and the Bookworm"

Last month I figured out the bass part for Cliff Richard's "The Snake and the Bookworm," and I noticed a couple things about it.  First of all, I discovered that the two copies of "The Snake and the Bookworm" in my music collection are different recordings.  I have two compilation albums of Cliff Richard, and while there's a lot of overlap as far as songs, I've been discovering that some are different recordings.  I referenced the version of "The Snake on the Bookworm" on a compilation titled The Early Years, which looks like this:

The bass part isn't very unusual for its era, but there are two features that I found interesting.

For most of the song, the bass arpeggiates the chords it's played beneath.  There's the root, third, and fifth, and then it adds a sixth and a flatted seventh before descending, playing the same notes in reverse order.  This is a standard feature in early rock and roll bass parts.  However, underneath the Bb major, the bass forgoes the flatted seventh and instead plays the root an octave higher.  Instead of

which would match the figures played underneath the F major and C major chords, it's

Musically, it makes the song more interesting, but it also demonstrates the character of the snake.  This musical figure doesn't match the others in the same way that the snake seems to challenge authority and do whatever he likes.  For three of its four occurrences, the lines above this figure describe the snake:  "He tracks her down on the way to school," "And he wants to go and have some fun," and "And he's thinkin' 'bout his recreation."  The only line above this figure that doesn't mention the snake still has a sort of rebellious element in that it features grammatical errors and mentions the possibility of failing a test:  "Well, she got a test, and she don't wanna fail."

At the end of the instrumental section, the song changes keys from F major to F# major.  This is a musical illustration of what happens in the third verse:

The snake got the bookworm one fine day
And he wouldn't let her get away
Mm, and then he kissed her just one time
And then something happened to his mind
Well, now he sings a different song
He's a-been studyin' all night long
The snake is a bookworm

After he kisses the bookworm, the snake becomes a bookworm himself, and in order to match this change in his character, the song changes keys.  I think there might even be a bit of a musical joke here.  The key changes from one flat to six sharps.  It becomes "very sharp" in terms of note accidentals, but "very sharp" could also describe an intelligent person, like a bookworm.

Similarly, the bass figure underneath the B major chords (formerly Bb major chords) now matches those underneath the F# major and C# major chords.  They're all root, third, fifth, sixth, and flatted seventh.  Because of the snake's change, the earlier "rebellion" of replacing that flatted seventh with the root played an octave higher has disappeared.

Here's the bass part in full, with the disclaimer that - as always - I might have something wrong:

 

The other recording of "The Snake and the Bookworm" in my collection (from a compilation titled Essential Early Recordings in The Primo Collection) has the same structure, but it doesn't replace flatted sevenths with roots played an octave higher in the first two verses and, instead of the string of F# notes near the end, continues the arpeggios.

The chords are the same for both versions.  It's almost a three-chord song, but in some spots, there are rapid changes to the chord a fourth higher.  Each line here represents two measures.  The middle chord in each group of three is played for only one beat: the second beat of the second measure.

Introduction:

|: F major | Bb major | F major :|

Verses and Instrumental:

|: F major | Bb major | F major :|

|: Bb major | Eb major | Bb major :|
|: F major | Bb major | F major :|
C major
Bb major
|: F major | Bb major | F major :|

Verse after key change:
|: F# major | B major | F# major :|
|: B major | E major | B major :|
|: F# major | B major | F# major :|
C# major
B major
|: F# major | B major | F# major :|

Badfinger's Magic Christian Music

I've been listening to Badfinger's Magic Christian Music with some regularity this year.  After listening to it twice last month, I found a number of things to write about.  Most are just probable Beatle connections.  The liner notes to the edition I have even say that "this is the most Beatles-sounding of the Badfinger releases."

Aside from the artistic resemblances (detailed below), the album has a number of Beatle connections:  Badfinger were signed to Apple Corp; Paul McCartney wrote and produced "Come and Get It" and - according to the liner notes - arranged for three Badfinger songs ("Come and Get It," "Carry on Till Tomorrow," and "Rock of All Ages") to be used in the film The Magic Christian, starring Ringo Starr; and about half of the album's tracks were produced by the Beatles' roadie Mal Evans.

"Come and Get It"

I learned most of the bass part for "Come and Get It" in February, and I discovered that it has some similarity with the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There," although more in tonality than melody (if that makes sense).  For the first half of the verses, the bass plays just tonic (Eb), subdominant (Ab), and dominant (Bb) notes, but at the beginning of the line "Did I hear you say that there must be a catch," it goes up a half-step to B natural, an accidental in Eb major.  "I Saw Her Standing There" does the same thing with the same accidental (a half-step above the dominant).  The bass part there consists of phrases that more or less arpeggiate the tonic (E major), subdominant (A major), and dominant (B major) chords (more on that here), but there's a C natural (an accidental in E major) to accompany the "woo"s.  Paul McCartney wrote "Come and Get It" and co-wrote "I Saw Her Standing There," so this tonal similarity seems more than coincidental.  McCartney's demo version of "Come and Get It" on the Beatles' Anthology 3 is even in E major, the same key as "I Saw Her Standing There."

"Dear Angie"

I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but "Dear Angie" seems cast in the same mold as the Beatles' "P.S. I Love You."  They're both epistolary songs (both refer to themselves as "this letter"), and both end with "I love you."  The phrase "P.S. I love you" shows up more than once in that song, but the "I love you" in "Dear Angie" shows up only at the end.  The last section is

Dear Angie
The writing's on the wall
Dear Angie
I love you; you're my all
Guess that's all

Incidentally, the phrase "the writing's on the wall" originally referred to Daniel 5 in the Bible, although it's since acquired a more widespread use.

"I'm in Love"

Again with the probable Beatle connections, I think "I'm in Love" took some inspiration from "When I'm Sixty-Four."  The second verse has the lines "Say you will / Love me still / When I'm gray and ninety-three," which bear some resemblance to "Will you still need me / Will you still feed me / When I'm sixty-four."  There's a rhyming couplet followed by a line that mentions a specific age.

"Angelique"

The verses of "Angelique" have a steadily strummed guitar and (in later verses) harpsichord arpeggios with notes of equal value.  Musically, this is contrasted with an-other section (which I suppose is a bridge) in which the guitar is pluckt, the harpsichord breaks out of its supporting rôle a bit, and there are a number of accidentals.  This musical contrast mirrors the contrast in the lyrics.  Each verse praises the titular Angelique, ending with "And you're mine / Angelique," but this odd section reveals that the speaker/singer actually isn't in a relationship with Angelique at all:

I'll never be with you
Never, ever touch your hand
So I'll just dream of you
Lonely in my wonderland

Each of the verses represents part of the "wonderland."  Because the speaker/singer is imagining a relationship with the incomparable Angelique, those sections have a musical stability, almost a perfection.  When the daydream is revealed for what it really is, the music breaks down into accidentals and more erratic rhythms.

I wrote out the notation for the harpsichord part, which might illustrate this better than text alone.  I also wrote in the guitar chords.  As I mentioned above, the chords aren't strummed during the bridge, so what I have there is extrapolated from the pluckt parts.  And - as always - there's the disclaimer I might have something wrong (I'm suspicious that some of the harpsichord part is doubled an octave higher or lower).

"Knocking Down Our Home"

The first line after the introductory section is "I heard the news today," which is the same line (with an "oh boy" at the end) that starts the Beatles' "A Day in the Life."  This by itself doesn't seem that strong of a connection, but I think it's likely considering the album's other Beatle connections.

Del Shannon's "I Won't Be There"

Last month, I learned the chords for Del Shannon's "I Won't Be There," and I found some connections between the chords and the lyrics.

First off, here are the chords (although, as always, there's the disclaimer that I might have something wrong):

Introduction:
|: Eb major | C minor | Ab major | Bb major :|

Following this, there's a chromatic descent with just the root (doubled at the octave) and fifth, so:

D|-8-8-7-7-6-6-
A|-8-8-7-7-6-6-
E|-6-6-5-5-4-4-

First verse

G major | E minor | A minor | D major

G major | E minor | C major | D major

G major | G7 | C major | C minor

G major | E minor | A minor | D major

Second verse

G major | E minor | A minor | D major

G major | E minor | C major | D major

G major | G7 | C major | C minor

G major | D major | G major

Bridge

C minor | G major

E minor | F# major

B minor | C# major

Third verse

F# major | D# minor | G# minor | C# major

F# major | D# minor | B major | C# major

F# major | F#7 | B major | B minor

|: F# major | C# major :|

In the second verse, the C major to C minor modulation occurs immediately after the line "He's only gonna break your heart in two."  Since major chords are often perceived as happy and minor chords as sad, this modulation musically represents the emotional result of the impending heartbreak.

The song is in three different keys: it starts in Eb major, moves to G major for the first two verses and half of the bridge, and then goes to F# major.  To some degree, this peripatetic tonality represents the confusion described in the line "What is my destiny if he's your guy?"