"Saturday's Child"

Yester-day I figured out a handful of parts for songs on The Monkees, including a couple guitar phrases and the chords for "Saturday's Child" (although I think I might have learned one of the guitar phrases a few years ago).  I think I now know at least a little bit of each song on the album, but I'm hesitant to make that claim because 1) what I know of "Papa Gene's Blues" is just a simplified version of the opening guitar phrase and 2) I can't find the notation I wrote for the bass part in "Sweet Young Thing."  When I went looking for it, I found the first minute or so of the bass part for "Saturday's Child," which I had forgotten I'd figured out.  My audio example stops just before the bridge.

When I listened to The Monkees recently, one of the things I noticed is that many of the tracks have multiple guitar parts, so I'm not sure I've divided mine up accurately.  I think there are at least three in "Saturday's Child," of which I have two (the third echoes some phrases from the vocal, but I haven't tried figuring that out yet).  I played single notes in the right-panned guitar phrase, but I think they might actually be double-stops.  For what it's worth, the left-panned guitar phrase is in drop D tuning.

There's a bit of static in my recording that I couldn't seem to get rid of, and the rapid strumming doesn't seem to be in sync all the time, but this is enough to give an idea of the parts I know.

"I Wanna Be Free"

This morning I finally got around to listening to the second disc of the deluxe edition of The Monkees, and I noticed a small thing about "I Wanna Be Free."

"By" in the line "I wanna be free like the bluebirds flying by me" is sung with a melisma (B G), musically giving a sense of movement.

When I referenced the song in order to write this post, I also noticed that "things" in the line "Doing all those things" is sung with a melisma (D B), musically giving a sense of the number of "all those things."

Almost by accident, I figured out the chords (what chords are implied, at least), and in playing them over a few times, I noticed a third thing:  at the end of the line "Without any strings to tie me down," the chord progression moves to an F major (coinciding with "down").  The song is in G major, so this F major chord is a bit out of place (G major has F# notes), but musically it illustrates the freedom that the speaker/singer yearns for.

"This Just Doesn't Seem to Be My Day"

I follow Your Daily Dose of the Monkees on Instagram, and in recognition of the 52nd anniversary of the first episode's broadcast, there were some clips of the show.  I was catching up on things this morning, and while watching this one, I realized something else about "This Just Doesn't Seem to Be My Day."

The "stayed" in "Wish she would have stayed" in the backing vocals in the bridge is sung with a melisma (E D C#).  Because the word's drawn out, there's something of a sense of its meaning.

"Last Train to Clarksville"

A couple days ago, I figured out a few more parts for "Last Train to Clarksville" (the wordless vocal melody and chords in the bridge) and noticed something: the line "I'm feelin' low" descends (A G F E), musically reflecting that "low."

"Gonna Buy Me a Dog"

An-other small thing I noticed when I listened to The Monkees yester-day is in "Gonna Buy Me a Dog."  The "so" in the line "She used to keep me so contented" is sung with a melisma (E D), which emphasizes that adverb and gives a sense of the degree of contentedness.

"This Just Doesn't Seem to Be My Day"

Because to-day's the 52nd anniversary of the premier of The Monkees television show, I started listening to all of the Monkees albums I have (although I'm not going to set a schedule for listening to them).  When I listened to The Monkees this morning, I noticed a small thing about "This Just Doesn't Seem to Be My Day."

"Wakin' up" in the lines "'Stead of wakin' up to find / A nightmare of a different kind" is sung to an ascending phrase (B C# E).  To some degree, this ascent musically illustrates the "wakin' up."  It could be a literal portrayal of the "up" or merely the impression of getting up out of bed.