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.

Fats Domino's "Blueberry Hill"

Last month, I listened to a Fats Domino compilation album and worked on transcribing the lyrics (I've become kind of obsessed with lyric transcription).  I noticed something interesting about the rhyme scheme in "Blueberry Hill."

At first, the verses have an AAAB scheme:

I found my thrill
On Blueberry Hill
On Blueberry Hill
When I found you 

The moon stood still
On Blueberry Hill
It lingered until
My dream came true

It's significant that the mood hasn't yet been spoiled by the bridge.  The song is still optimistic, with the singer/speaker mentioning a "thrill" and a "dream."  But then the bridge provides a turn (like a sonnet's volta) with the lines "But all of those vows you made / Were never to be."  After the bridge, the rhyme scheme of the verses changes from AAAB to (with reference to just individual verses) ABBB.  Instead of the last line's not fitting into the rhyme scheme that the other lines share; the first line is the different one:

So we’re apart
You thought of me still
For you were my thrill
On Blueberry Hill

At first, the third verse continues with the sadness about separation with "So we're apart," but then it cycles back to the idyllic nature of Blueberry Hill:  "For you were my thrill / On Blueberry Hill."

So the bridge acts as a sort of mirror not only to the rhyme scheme but also to the mood.  The first two verses start off optimistically; the bridge shatters the "dream;" and then the third verse, while initially melancholic, achieves some nostalgia by mentioning the "thrill" again, ending the song with a shadow of the optimism present in the first verses.

For years, I knew "Blueberry Hill" only as a Fats Domino song, but it was actually written by Lewis, Stock, and Rose.  Among others, Glenn Miller did a version in 1940, which I became familiar with a few years ago.  I referenced Miller's version to see how Domino's version compares to it, lyrically at least.  Aside from a few word changes*, Fats Domino's version follows pretty closely.  The only thing I might take issue with is that Domino repeats the bridge and the third verse, which slightly distorts the mirrored structure that Miller's has.

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*Miller's version has "But all of those vows we made" in the bridge where Domino's has "you made" - a significant change about where the blame is laid.  The rest of the changes are minor: in the third verse Miller has "Though we're apart" and "You're part of me still" where Domino has "So we're apart" and "You thought of me still."  Domino's repetition of the third verse ends with "But all of those vows you made / Were only to be," which I can make sense of; I'm wondering if it might just be a mistake - either his singing or my hearing.

Carole King's "It's Too Late"

A couple months ago, I happened to hear Carole King's "It's Too Late" on the radio.  I hadn't heard it for about five months, and I don't think I'd listened to it that much, but in any case, I noticed an interesting poetic thing about the chorus:

But it's too late, baby, it's too late
Though we really did try to make it
Something inside has died, and I can't hide
And I just can't fake it

There's internal rhyme in the third line ("inside," "died," and "hide") which I hadn't noticed, but it doesn't end there.  The "I" in "I can't hide" has the same vowel sound as those "-ide"s.  So there's that internal rhyme, but with the "I" there's also assonance, resulting in four mellifluous elements in the line:  "inside," "died," "I," and "hide."

Listening to the Tapestry album so I could write this post, I also noticed that there are backing vocals ("We can't make it") after the line "Though we really did try to make it."  I don't think I'd really paid attention to those either, but that's the sort of thing I'm always excited to find: instances where the backing vocals are sort of duplicitous when compared to the main vocals.  I'm not sure I would describe the relationship between the main and backing vocals here as duplicitous, but they do have slightly different perspectives.  The main vocals seem sort of regretful that a relationship is ending, but the backing vocals seem more adamant that it can't work.

The Moody Blues' "Ride My See-Saw" and "The Voice"

Last month, I realized that two Moody Blues songs have rather similar lines.  There's "School talk one and one is two / But by now that answer just ain’t true" from "Ride My See-Saw" and "Won’t you take me back to school / I need to learn the golden rule" from "The Voice."  Both deal with almost elementary education (simple addition and the golden rule), but - interestingly - the songs are by different writers.  "Ride My See-Saw" is by John Lodge, and "The Voice" by Justin Hayward.  I'm not sure if there's really anything else comparable between the two songs, but those similar lines at least illustrate the consistency of the Moody Blues' writing, especially since "Ride My See-Saw" is from In Search of the Lost Chord from 1968 and "The Voice" is from Long Distance Voyager from 1981.

Incidentally, while transcribing the lyrics to "The Voice" (and then checking them against the ones in the CD booklet once I remembered that they were printed in the liner notes), I found two instances of structural parallelism: "Make a promise, take a vow" at the beginning of the third verse and "With your arms around the future / And your back up against the past" - the last lines of the second bridge.

It also occurred to me that the last two lines of the first bridge ("Can you hear the spirit calling / As it’s carried across the waves") are probably a reference to the second half of Genesis 1:2 - "The earth was without form and voice, and darkness was over the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters."

The Kinks' "Get Back in Line"

For Christmas, I got a bunch of the early Kinks albums, and after listening to them, I listened to the other Kinks albums I had.  Even before I got around to listening to Lola vs. the Powerman & the Money-Go-Round, Pt. 1, I started thinking about "Get Back in Line."  In particular the line "He's the man who decides if I live or I die, if I starve or I eat."

The order of the last part of that line is interesting - "if I live or I die, if I starve or I eat."  In the first pair, the optimistic option (living) is first, but in the second pair, it's second (eating).  And it's reversed for the other pair - the negative outcome is second in the first pair (dying), and first in the second pair (starving).

I think that shift in the order is a subtle indication of the unpredictability of the union man; neither is consistent.

Monsters University Soundtrack

I got the soundtrack to Monsters University for Christmas, and when I first listened to it, I found a phrase in "Did You Do This?" that sounded very familiar.  I eventually placed it; it's from the soundtrack to A Bug's Life, specifically "A Bug's Life Suite."

In "A Bug's Life Suite," that phrase is in the flutes at the beginning, and - with a slightly different rhythm - it's also present at ~1:00.  The brass phrase at the very beginning of "Did You Do This?" starts out the same, although it differs near the end (click on the image to enlarge it):

[I should note here that I did the notation myself, so it's likely that I might have some of the note values wrong.  I also have suspicions that the phrase from "A Bug's Life Suite" actually begins on a downbeat.  I'm fairly certain of the pitches though.]

Before writing this post, I listened to both soundtracks again (to confirm the track titles), and I found an-other similar phrase:

[Of course, the same disclaimer as above applies to this too.]

The menacing figure in the strings in "Hopper and His Gang" from A Bug's Life appears (again in the strings) in "Field Trip" from Monsters University.

Randy Newman composed the scores for both A Bug's Life and Monsters University, so it's not a huge surprise that there are similar phrases.  Pixar is well-known for hiding visual references to their films in other films, so I'm wondering if these are instances of Newman's doing the same thing in his scores or even if these phrases in the score indicate a corresponding visual reference in the film.

The Steve Miller Band's "The Joker"

A few months ago, I listened to the only Steve Miller Band album I have - Greatest Hits 1974-1978.  A line in "The Joker" sounded familiar to me:  "I really love your peaches; wanna shake your tree."  It took me months to actually place it, but I'm fairly certain that it comes from Jerry Lee Lewis' version of Carl Perkins' "Matchbox."

I listened to and transcribed Carl Perkins' version (from 1956), but I didn't find that phrase in it.  However, it is in Lewis' (from 1958):

Well, if you don’t like my peaches, honey, please don’t shake my tree
If you don’t like Jerry’s peaches, don’t pull around on his tree

Incidentally, it's also in the Beatles' version (from 1964):

Well, if you don't want my peaches, honey, please don't shake my tree
If you don't want Ringo's peaches, honey, please don't mess around my tree

I don't know much about the Steve Miller Band (after all, I have only one album by them), but that phrase in "The Joker" is so similar to that in "Matchbox" that I don't think it's just a coincidence.

Simon & Garfunkel's "Go Tell It on the Mountain"

During the last six weeks of 2014, I listened to Simon & Garfunkel's Wednesday Morning, 3 AM every Wednesday.  The album includes "Go Tell It on the Mountain," and since I was listening to this during Christmastime and heard "Go Tell It on the Mountain" in church, I started comparing the two versions.  According to the liner notes in Wednesday Morning, 3 AM, Simon & Garfunkel arranged their own version, and according to my hymnal (The Lutheran Service Book), the other version of "Go Tell It on the Mountain" with which I'm familiar was arranged by Hugh Porter.

The part that I noticed specifically is the music that accompanies the word "everywhere" in the lines "Go tell it on the mountain / Over the hills and everywhere."  I think the Simon & Garfunkel version treats this much better in relation to the text.

As far as I can tell, this is the music for everywhere, given as the individual parts and together:

There are two things here that I think are significant as far as the text.  First, Paul Simon's part sort of looks like the titular mountain.  Second, the parts are moving in opposite directions.  Garfunkel's moves down and then ascends; Simon's rises and then falls.  So, between the last two notes, there's an expansion in the parts, which helps to reflect the lyric - "Go tell it on the mountain / Over the hills and everywhere."  Garfunkel goes to the higher registers, and Simon to the lower.

The notation for the music as it appears in both Lutheran Worship and The Lutheran Service Book looks like this:

To some degree, this too reflects "Go tell it on the mountain / Over the hills and everywhere."  The first four notes could be seen as a sort of gesticulation.  It's the same sort of motion a farmer would make in casting seeds out into his field.  But I think Simon & Garfunkel's version is superior in mirroring the text to the music.  The shape of their phrase reflects the mountain itself, and the convergence and expansion of the harmony illustrates the telling mentioned in the title.

Additionally, the phrase in Porter's arrangement (in G major) ends on a G, so there's a feeling of completion.  But if the invocation is to "tell it... everywhere," it seems as if that phrase shouldn't resolve so soon.  Simon & Garfunkel's (which I'm pretty sure is in F major), ends that phrase with a C and an E.  There isn't any resolution there, implying that the telling still continues.

Driftless Pony Club's "Maps of Low Fidelity"

Last time I listened to Driftless Pony Club's Expert, a line in "Maps of Low Fidelity" sounded sort of familiar to me:  "Streets and signs have abandoned their roles."

While it doesn't bear much resemblance lyrically, the same sort of idea is in the Byrds' "Eight Miles High" - "Signs in the street that say where you’re going / Are somewhere just being their own."

However, I don't know if this similarity was intentional.  There really isn't anything else in "Maps of Low Fidelity" - lyrically or musically - that would indicate any influence by the Byrds.  The first line is "You swallow birds," but if anything, that's a very tenuous connection, so I think the mention of birds (and the part about street signs) is just coincidental.

Cold War Kids' "We Used to Vacation"

A few months ago, I happened to hear most of Cold War Kids' Robbers & Cowards in my sister's car, and the phrase "tax-deductible charity organization" in "We Used to Vacation" sounded familiar to me.

I’m just an honest man
Provide for me and mine
I give a check to tax-deductible charity organization
Two weeks paid vacation won’t heal the damage done
I need another one

I eventually placed it; it's from Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man" from Highway 61 Revisited.

You have many contacts
Among the lumberjacks
To get you facts when someone attacks your imagination
But nobody has any respect
Anyway, they already expect you
To all give a check
To tax-deductible charity organization 

It's not a phrase that's particularly lyrical, so I don't think it's just coincidental that it appears in both songs.  It might just be my mishearing it in both cases, but I didn't hear an S in either song ("tax-deductible charity organization" not "organizations").

Dylan's song is not very readily coherent, so I can't really tell if the songs have anything more in common beyond that phrase.  The figures in each seem to exhibit some kind of desperation, but I can't be much more specific than that.  Still, I felt the common phrase worth mentioning.

The Beatles' Sunday Driving

A few months ago, I realized that the Beatles' "Day Tripper" and "Two of Us" both contain the phrase "Sunday driver" (or, as it appears in "Two of Us," "Sunday driving").  Recently, I transcribed and compared the lyrics.  There isn't much that would indicate that "Two of Us" is supposed to a sequel of sorts to "Day Tripper," but they are rather like two sides of a coin.

The lyrics of "Day Tripper" aren't super clear, but it seems to be about a relationship that the speaker/singer isn't going to continue, as the girl is flighty.  One repeated section starts with "She was a day tripper."  The third repetition includes the "Sunday driver" phrase:

She was a day tripper
Sunday driver, yeah
It took me so long
To find out
And I found out

On the other hand, the speaker/singer of "Two of Us" seems to mention only himself and his companion (each verse and chorus contains either "Two of us," "You and me," or "You and I") and their impending domestic return ("We're on our way home").  "Sunday driving" occurs in the first verse:

Two of us riding nowhere
Spending someone’s hard-earned pay
You and me Sunday driving
Not arriving
On our way back home
We’re on our way home
We’re on our way home
We’re goin’ home

"Day Tripper" is all about how there isn't a relationship, and "Two of Us" is about how there is.  Both contain "Sunday driving," but I think it's more significant that the girl in "Day Tripper" goes alone where the couple in "Two of Us" is together.

Apparently, "Day Tripper" is mostly a John Lennon song, and "Two of Us" was written entirely by Paul McCartney, but I don't know how/if that affects that common phrase.

Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd"

A few months ago, I got to thinking about Woody Guthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd."  I should add a disclaimer that I don't know Guthrie's version (I think I heard it once, but that was years ago); I know only the Byrds' version from Sweetheart of the Rodeo.  I have Guthrie's version on CD, but I can't get the disc to work.

In transcribing the lyrics of the Byrds' version, I found multiple instances of parallel structure:

• "Then Pretty Boy grabbed a log chain; the deputy grabbed a gun"
• "And he ran through the trees and bushes; he lived a life of shame" parallels with "He ran through the trees and bushes on the Canadian river shore"
• "Was in Oklahoma city; it was on a Christmas day,"
• "'You say that I’m an outlaw; you say that I’m a thief'"
• three instances between "As through this life you travel, you’ll meet some funny men" and "As through this life you ramble, as through this life you roam" (along with alliteration between "ramble" and "roam")
• "Some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen."

The first line also struck me as significant.  In the Byrds' version, it's "Well, gather ‘round near, children, a story I will tell."  I think it's pretty likely that this is where Bob Dylan got the idea for the first line of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" - "Come, gather 'round, people."  Both directly address the audience.

Those two lines by themselves aren't very convincing, but Dylan mentions Guthrie in two other songs, both on his debut album Bob Dylan.  One is obvious - "Song to Woody."  The other is more subtle.  In "Talkin' New York," there're the lines "Now, a very great man once said / That some people rob you with a fountain pen."  The "very great man" is Woody Guthrie, and "Pretty Boy Floyd" is the song Dylan is referencing.  The first two lines of the last verse (in the Byrds' version, at least) are "As through this life you travel, you’ll meet some funny men / Some will rob you with a six-gun and some with a fountain pen."  Granted Bob Dylan and The Times They Are A-Changin' are two years apart, but I think Guthrie's influence on Dylan was great enough that the connection between "Pretty Boy Floyd" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" is valid.

Incidentally, I've covered both "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "Pretty Boy Floyd," although both are based on other versions - Peter, Paul, & Mary's version of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and the Byrds' version of "Pretty Boy Floyd."