The Mills Brothers' "Too Many Irons in the Fire"

This morning I listened to the first disc of the Mills Brothers' The Anthology (1931-1968).  Even though I wasn't transcribing the lyrics, I noticed a small grammatical thing about the lines "Oh, it’s too bad your one fault will keep us apart / This fault is breaking my heart" in “Too Many Irons in the Fire.”

The second of those lines can be parsed two different ways; the key difference is "is breaking," which could be either a linking verb and a gerund or a present progressive verb.  The different grammatical structures create different meanings for the line.  Parsed as a linking verb and a gerund, "breaking my heart" is the "fault."  That line could be rendered as "This fault = breaking my heart."  Parsed as a present progressive verb though, the fault itself isn't named*; the significance is only that it's affecting the speaker/singer.  As a simple present tense (instead of progressive), it could be rendered as "This fault breaks my heart."

I think the second parsing (as a present progressive) has a slight advantage in that it doesn't specifically name the fault, almost as if the singer/speaker doesn't want to deal with it.  Instead of naming the fault, a few positive qualities are mentioned in the immediately-preceding lines:

You have two beautiful eyes
Eyes that I idolize 

You have such charms in your tresses
Two perfect arms for caresses

I also mention this so I can point out the almost-palindromic assonance with "eyes"/"-ize" and "I"/"i-" in "Eyes that I idolize."

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*I should note that it isn't named in that section.  The fault itself seems to be in the title and the first lines: "Too many irons in the fire / And there's too many loves you desire."

"Dinah"

About a month ago, I listened to a two-disc compilation album of Bill Haley & His Comets.  One of the songs was "Dinah," written by Harry Akst, Samuel Lewis, and Joe Young.  I have a few other versions of it and was slightly familiar with it, but listening to Haley's version, I noticed - for the first time - the play on words with "Dinah might."  It sounds the same as "dynamite."

I listened to a few of the other versions I have (the versions I have with words, not the instrumental versions), and I kept finding other interesting things about the song.

The next version I listened to was by Charlie & His Orchestra.  It's from a set of World War II-era music, specifically the CD of the German propaganda pieces.  It's also the first version of "Dinah" that I ever heard.  In their version, they actually emphasize that "Dinah might"/"dynamite" feature.  After going through the verses normally, there's the propaganda section, which mentions Churchill's fear of naval attacks:  "Every night / Why does he / Shake with fright / Because some dynamite / Might sink us all in a day" (the Germans were singing as if they were the British, hence that "us").  It was fascinating to see that Germans in the 1940s noticed - and made use of - the same sonic feature that I did.

After that, I listened to Bing Crosby's version (which I later learned also features the Mills Brothers).  While listening to his version, I noticed that there's a line break during the word "into."  Instead of "How I love to sit and gaze into the eyes of Dinah Lee," it's "How I love to sit and gaze in / To the eyes of Dinah Lee."  Later I realized that the line break's occurring within a word indicates how enchanting her eyes are:  it's as if the speaker/singer can't pay attention to the structure anymore.

Listening to Crosby's version also got me thinking about "my Dinah might / Change her mind about me."  The "Dinah might"/"dynamite" suggests that Dinah's "chang[ing] her mind" would be as devastating to the speaker/singer as a literal explosion.

Yester-day, I learned (I think correctly) the chords to Crosby's version.  During that bridge, there are descending chromatic phrases within the chords.  It's D minor, F augmented, F major, in which is the chromatic phrase D, C#, C.  Then there's D minor, F augmented, C major, with the same chromatic phrase.  Traditionally, descending chromatic lines are indicative of despair, and that's the case here too, since the bridge is the only section that's sad or fearful.  The verses are about Dinah's peerlessness:

Dinah, is there anyone finer
In the state of Carolina
If there is and you know her, show her to me

her enchanting beauty:

Dinah, got those Dixie eyes blazin’
How I love to sit and gaze in
To the eyes of Dinah Lee

and the speaker/singer's dedication to her:

Oh, Dinah, should you wander to China
I would hop an ocean liner
Just to be with Dinah Lee

The Mills Brothers' "Be My Life's Companion"

Last month, I listened to a compilation album of the Mills Brothers and worked on transcribing the lyrics (because I've become more or less obsessed with doing that).  I noticed something interesting about the rhymes in "Be My Life's Companion."  I feel it's worth quoting the complete lyrics:

Want no silver threads among the gold
Want no silver threads among the gold
Want no silver threads, want some action instead
Want no silver threads among the gold

Be my life’s companion, and you’ll never grow old
I’ll love you so much that you’ll never grow old
When there’s joy in living you just never grow old
You’ve got to stay young, ‘cause you’ll never grow old

People who are lonely can be old at thirty-three
Don’t let it happen to you, don’t let it happen to me

Be my life’s companion, and you’ll never grow old
You’ll never grow old, no, you’ll never grow old
Love and youth and happiness are yours to have and hold
Be my life’s companion, and you’ll never grow old

I know a man who’s lonely, and he’s old at thirty-three
No one wants to be old at thirty-three
Your disposition sours like a lemon on a tree
Don’t let it happen to you, and don’t let it happen to me

Be my life’s companion, and you’ll never grow old
Yes, I’ll love you so much that you’ll never grow old
Love and youth and happiness are yours to have and hold
Be my life’s companion, be my life’s companion, and you’ll never grow old

"You'll never grow old" is a recurring phrase in the song, and as if to reflect the stasis in age, the words that constitute the rhyme scheme don't change.  Or at least they don't change that much.  The first verse (after the introductory "Want no silver threads among the gold...") is exemplary in this stasis; the words that rhyme are all the same: "old," "old," "old," and "old."  In fact, each line ends with the phrase "never grow old."

The rhyming words at the ends of the other verses have more variance but not much.  A couplet in a later verse has both lines ending in "old at thirty-three."

Listening to the song, that stasis of rhyming words is somewhat noticeable, but it becomes especially obvious once you actually look at the lyrics.