Monday, January 27, 2025

"Papa Gene's Blues"

I recently read about the original broadcast of "Hillbilly Honeymoon," so I watched the episode this morning.  The only song in it is "Papa Gene's Blues," and I noticed that the sort of chiastic structure in the line "For I love you, and I know you love me" (I | you || you | me) is mirrored to some degree by the melodic arc, something like this:


"I love you" is sung to an ascending group of notes (B C# D), and "you love me" is sung to a descending group of notes (C# C# A).