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.
