"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."

"You Told Me"

When I listened to the super deluxe edition of Headquarters a couple months ago, I felt that there was something ambiguous in the line "All these things you said you said sincerely" in "You Told Me."  I finally sorted out what it is.

The major difference is whether the first "you said" is part of a relative clause or not.  Rephrased in different ways, the line could mean either "All these things, which you said, you said sincerely" or "All these things you claimed that you said sincerely" (uninverted:  "You claimed that you said all these things sincerely").  In the first, the narrator affirms that the things were said sincerely; in the second, he seems dubious of the sincerity.

"I'll Spend My Life with You"

Yester-day, I was thinking about "I'll Spend My Life with You," and I realized that the structure of the verses highlights the meaning of some of the lines.  The verses have an AABCCB rhyme scheme (although there's a slant rhyme between "alone" and "home" in the first verse), so every third line stands apart from the two that come before it, and this distinction mirrors the lyrics in various ways.

Here's the first verse:

People come, and people go

Movin' fast and movin' slow

I'm in a crowd, yet I'm all alone

The road is long, the road is rough

I do believe I've had enough

I'm gonna turn around, head for home

The first two lines rhyme, but the third doesn't continue this; just like being "alone," it stands apart from the other two.  Similarly, the fourth and fifth lines rhyme, but the sixth doesn't follow suit, and this diversion matches the "turn[ing] around" in the lyrics there.

There's an-other instance of this significant structure in the second half of the second verse:

I've played a game that couldn't last

And now some mem'ries from the past

Have turned my thoughts around a different way

The first two lines establish a pattern that the third breaks from, and this matches the meaning of "turn[ing] my thoughts around a different way."

"Salesman"

I listened to the deluxe edition of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. recently, and yester-day, I noticed a small feature in "Salesman."  I'm not completely sure of my transcription, but the second line of the second verse is something like "It's salesman, well, you real hard till every part is sold."  "Every" is sung with three syllables, and this provides a sense of number.

"Too Many Girls (Davy and Fern)"

When I watched "Too Many Girls (Davy and Fern)" a few months ago, one of the musical cues sounded familiar, but I couldn't identify it.  Yester-day, I watched an episode of The Addams Family ("Cousin Itt Visits the Addams Family") in which the same piece was quoted.  I referenced the IMDb page for that episode and discovered that the piece is Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5.  In "Too Many Girls (Davy and Fern)," it's background music as the Monkees are getting their tea leaves read.

"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.

"Zor and Zam"

This is just a minor point, but the phrase "to one and to all" in the line "Out went the call to one and to all" at the beginning of the second verse of "Zor and Zam" contains a merism.

"Magnolia Simms"

In the line "After rain has fallen" in "Magnolia Simms," "fallen" is sung to a descending pair of notes spanning a fourth (C G), musically giving a sense of the word's meaning.

In the line "When she's walking so close by my side," "close" is sung with a melisma (C G), musically giving a sense of degree (for "so").

"P.O. Box 9847"

In the line "I'm not liking what I'm typing; throw it all away," in "P.O. Box 9847," "away" is sung with a melisma (Bb G), musically giving something of a sense of movement.

I think the song is in G major (for the most part, the chord progression just alternates between G major and C major), but under the lines "I've described me very poorly, better try again," "I've been writing advertising; that's not really me," and "I'm not liking what I'm typing; throw it all away," there's an Eb major.  This foreign tonality mirrors the narrator's dissatisfaction with what he's writing.

It's also significant that after the second verse, the narrator refers to what he's "been writing" (as if with pen and paper) but after the third verse, he talks about what he's "typing."  In the same way that each verse accentuates different aspects of his personality, he uses different methods of composition.

"The Poster"

I'm finally getting around to writing about some features I noticed in songs on The Birds, The Bees, & the Monkees.

In the line "A dancing bear and a circus clown; it's so funny" in "The Poster," the word "funny" is held for more than a full measure (five beats), and this length provides a sense of degree (for "so").

In the line "Oh, I can't wait to see ev'rything there," the three syllables of "ev'rything" are each sung to a different pitch (C# D E), musically giving a sense of breadth.