"What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?"

Recently, I listened to a two-disc set of four Johnny Cash albums, one of which is Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar, which includes "Folsom Prison Blues."  I'm more familiar with a live version that's on both of the Johnny Cash compilation albums I have, but while listening to the studio version, I noticed that there are some similarities between it and the Monkees' "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?"

The first verse of "Folsom Prison Blues" ends with the line "But that train keeps a-rollin' on down to San Antone," and the choruses of "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?" include the line "I should be ridin' on that train to San Antone."  The second verse of "Folsom Prison Blues" ends with the line "When I hear that whistle blowin', I hang my head and cry," and "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?" also mentions a train whistle and the effect that it has on the narrator:  "And still I can't stop thinkin' when I hear some whistle cryin' // What am I doin' hangin' 'round?"

I don't know if these similarities are intentional or coincidental, but there is a resemblance between the two songs.  For what it's worth, "Folsom Prison Blues" was written by Johnny Cash and recorded on 30 July 1955 (the live version was recorded at Folsom Prison on 13 January 1968), and "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?" was written by Michael Martin Murphey and Owen Castleman and, according to the liner notes of the deluxe edition of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., was recorded on 20 June, 5 September, "& other dates" in 1967.

"Love to Love"

Recently, I listened to the super deluxe edition of Headquarters and noticed a small feature in "Love to Love."  In the lines "And I've heard if warm lips don't touch you / Love won't grow no matter how much you try," "try" is sung with a melisma (G F Eb), giving a sense of degree (for "much").

"One Man Shy"

Yester-day, I read in The Monkees: The Day-by-Day Story that "One Man Shy" was broadcast on BBC-1 at 6:15 p.m. on 28 January 1967, and I realized that the title of the episode is a play on words.  By itself, the phrase means "lacking one man" or "missing one man," but in light of the episode's plot (Peter's difficulties in talking to Miss Cartwright), "shy" takes on the meaning of bashful or reserved and functions as a post-positive adjective.