"Jericho"

In the impromptu version of "Jericho" from the Headquarters sessions (listed as "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" on the super deluxe edition), there are the lines:

You can talk about your men of Gideon

You can talk about your men of Saul

But there's none like good old Joshua

At the battle of Jericho

The contrast between the nearly identical first two lines and the line about Joshua highlights his uniqueness ("there's none like... Joshua").

I neglected to note this before, but the Biblical event that the song relates is recounted in Joshua 6.  "Your men of Saul" seems to be just a general allusion, but "your men of Gideon" refers to Judges 7, in which Gideon and three hundred men attack the Midianites.  Like Joshua's attack on Jericho, Gideon's attack was also preceded by the blowing of trumpets.

"Mr. Webster"

I listened to the deluxe edition of Headquarters last month and noticed a few small features.

Halfway through the line "Said, 'Sorry stop.  Cannot attend'" in "Mr. Webster," there's a rest in the vocal and instrumental parts, mirroring that "stop" in the telegram.

In the first recorded version (available as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of More of the Monkees), there's a rest in the vocal but not in the instrumental parts.

"Little Girl"

When I listened to Good Times! recently, I noticed a lyrical ambiguity in "Little Girl," specifically in the lines "Cheer up; I'll turn your frown sunnyside up / Come fill your cup."  "Come" could be either a continuation of "I'll" ("I'll turn your frown sunnyside up / [And I'll] come fill your cup") or an imperative that's separate from the preceding line.  The structure of the following verse (with its lines "Stand up; we'll go to town / Go for a ride") suggests the former, but I think the latter is also viable.

"Me & Magdalena"

A few weeks ago, I happened to read some of the lyrics in Bob Dylan's "Romance in Durango" (from the Desire album), and I noticed the phrase "me and Magdalena" in the first verse:

Hot chili peppers in the blistering sun

Dust on my face and my cape

Me and Magdalena on the run

I think this time we shall escape

Of course, this reminded me of the Monkees song "Me & Magdalena."  The phrase stood out to me because, unless I'm mistaken, it's rather ungrammatical since the pronoun should come last ("Magdalena and me").  I listened to both songs recently, but I don't think there's really any connection between the two aside from this phrase.  While it might be just a coincidental similarity, I thought I'd note it all the same.

"Last Train to Clarksville"

I watched "Monkees at the Movies" this morning and noticed a feature in "Last Train to Clarksville" that I've already noted in a couple other songs:  the phrase "all alone" in the line "I can't hear you in this noisy railroad station all alone" alliterates, and because the two words begin with the same sound, there's a sense of that singularity.

"Monkees Get Out More Dirt"

I watched "Monkees Get Out More Dirt" last night and noticed a trivial detail.  The music that Peter plays (accompanied by some string players) in order to impress April seems to be based on the adagio from Bach's Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052.

"Since You Went Away"

In the line "Things are much better since you went away" at ~2:08 in "Since You Went Away," "better" is sung with a melisma (F# E D), giving a sense either of the comparative degree of the adverb itself (more notes for a higher degree) or of the degree of the modifying adverb "much."

"Long Way Home"

I listened to Pool It! yester-day and noticed a handful of small features.

I've noted this with other songs, but "Long Way Home" also contains the phrase "all alone" (in the line "But don't leave me here all alone") and since the two words alliterate, there's a sense of the singularity of being alone.  In its occurrence at ~3:01, "alone" is also sung with a melisma (C E D), giving a sense of the degree of "all."

"(Theme from) The Monkees"

Yester-day, I figured out the chords for "(Theme from) The Monkees," although I'd already figured out a section while writing this post a couple years ago.  The album version contains a couple key changes; it starts in C major, and while the song fades out rather than resolving, the coda cycles through a progression in D major (D major | G major | A major).  The version that was actually used in the television show goes even further; it starts in C major and resolves in E major.  To some degree, this key change (in either version) demonstrates the lines "But we're too busy singin' / To put anybody down" since the song ends in a higher key than where it started.

"Monkees a la Mode"

This morning, I watched "Monkees a la Mode" and noticed a detail in the set dressing.  In a few shots in Madame Quagmeyer's studio, there's a painting in the background.

The style is reminiscent of Piet Mondrian, who is perhaps best known for his painting "Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow":

[source]

"No Time"

I was thinking about "No Time" yester-day, and I realized that since the line "Andy, you're a dandy; you don't seem to make no sense" contains a double negative, the line itself doesn't make sense (from a strict grammatical point of view, at least), so the semantics of the line match the intended meaning.

"99 Pounds"

A number of years ago, I noticed that the phrase "powder and paint" in the line "There's a little devil livin' under all that powder and paint" in "99 Pounds" alliterates and that this feature helps portray that artifice.  A couple weeks ago, I realized that there's more to it than that:  the words "little devil livin'" also exhibit assonance (the short i) and consonance (the repeated l).  In the same way that these rhetorical features make the line sound good although it's describing a "devil," the girl in the song looks nice when she's adorned in her makeup, but really, "she's a heartbreaker."