"Latitude 88 North"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Yester-day, I was thinking about the solo in "Latitude 88 North."  When I figured it out, I noticed that each phrase contains progressively smaller intervals of notes.  The first phrase has notes that span a fifth (B to F#); the second phrase has notes that span a diminished fifth (B to F); and the third phrase has notes that span only a major third (B to D#).  But yester-day I realized that those progressively smaller groups of intervals sort of represent - musically - the freezing that would take place at latitude 88 north.

But then I thought about it some more, and I realized that "Latitude 88 North" shares a theme (of sorts) with "Turn to Stone."  In both, unrequited love leads to immobility.  In "Latitude 88 North," the singer/speaker says, "Then I knew that you were gone / It came to me; I was alone / Now I'm left out in the cold" to freeze, as the progressively smaller intervals in the solo demonstrate.  In "Turn to Stone," the singer/speaker repeatedly says, "I turn to stone / When you are gone / I turn to stone."  The specific method of immobility is different (freezing in one and petrification in the other), but that unrequited love leads to the same result in both songs.