"Down Home Town"

I noted before (albeit with fewer details) that at ~3:23 in "Down Home Town," the line "She loves you, no, no, no" is sung to the same pitches (D E G G F# E) and with the same rhythm as "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah" in the Beatles' "She Loves You."  A couple days ago, I realized that there may be an-other level to this reference.

I listened to the Magical Mystery Tour and particularly noticed the Beatles' own quotation of "She Loves You" in "All You Need Is Love" (which also maintains the pitches and rhythm of the original).  I subsequently realized that ELO's singing the line in "Down Home Town" may actually be a sort of imitation of "All You Need Is Love" and its quotation of "She Loves You" rather than just a simple nod to "She Loves You" itself.

"Latitude 88 North"

I was thinking about "Latitude 88 North" yester-day and realized that some elements in the song's structure illustrate its theme.

The rhyme scheme of the verses is AABBC, with each verse ending with the line "It's such a lonely world."  Unlike the preceding pairs of lines, this final line lacks a complement, structurally mirroring this "lonel[iness]."

The rhyme scheme of the second verse differs slightly in that the first two lines exhibit a slant rhyme:  "Then I knew that you were gone / It came to me:  I was alone."  In a way, the absence of a perfect rhyme here indicates the narrator's lack of companionship.

"So Serious"

I happened to see the phrase "so serious" this morning, was reminded of the ELO song with this title, and realized that the phrase exhibits a feature that I've been noting a lot lately:  the repetition involved in the consonance lends a slight sense of degree.

"Time after Time"

In the line "The beauty of the earth from way up high" in "Time after Time," "high" is sung with a melisma (G# F# E), giving a sense of degree (for "way up").

"Bluebird"

I listened to Secret Messages last week and noticed a couple small points.

In the line "It makes me feel so sad" in "Bluebird," the phrase "so sad" alliterates, and the repetition involved lends a slight sense of degree.