"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.

"Hold on Tight"

Last night, I figured out the chords for "Hold on Tight" and noticed some significance in the tonality.

The verses contain only major chords:

G major | D major | G major

|: C major | G major :|

G major | D major | G major

while the bridges consist mostly of minor chords:

|: E minor | B minor :|

|: A minor | D major :|

|: E minor | B minor :|

A minor | B minor | C major | D major

The perceived sadness of minor chords matches the sentiments in the lyrics in the bridge ("When you get so down that you can't get up" and "When you're so down-hearted and misunderstood"), especially when contrasted with the major chords and the more hopeful encouragement in the verses (the repeated "Hold on tight to your dream").

"Can't Get It out of My Head"

Last week, I listened to the 1976 concert at the Guildhall and noticed that under the line "Can't move" in "Can't Get It out of My Head," the bass plays a static pitch (a C), musically illustrating the lyric.  The chord there (a C major) is also held for two full measures, providing a similar effect.

When I referenced the studio version to confirm these, I also realized that the persistence mentioned in the title line is demonstrated by various repetitions in the chorus:  most of the lyrics in the first, second, and fourth lines are the same; the melody differs only slightly from line to line; and the chord progression for each line is identical (C major | G major | F major | G major).

"Julie Don't Live Here"

The alliteration in the line "A town I knew so well, but it seemed so strange" in "Julie Don't Live Here" provides a small sense of degree.

"Rain Is Falling"

Near the beginning of "Rain Is Falling," there are pizzicati in the string part.  This is a technique that's often used to portray raindrops musically, which obviously fits the theme of the song.

Additionally, the first two notes establish a pattern of descending pairs, so there's even a picture of the "falling."  The part is something like this:

"Ticket to the Moon"

"Ticket to the Moon" starts with the lines "Remember the good old 1980s / When things were so uncomplicated."  Time is from 1981, though, so this remark is obviously a sort of ironic nostalgia.  That the lines have only a slant rhyme (and a strained one at that) seems to hint that the sentiment isn't genuine.

In a small way, the alliterative "so soon" in the line "I'll be rising high above the Earth so soon" gives a sense of degree.

"Twilight"

I listened to Time again last week and noticed a handful of features.

In the repeated line "I only meant to stay a while" at ~2:53 in "Twilight," "while" has an echo effect applied to it, and because the word has this sort of elongation, there's a sense of duration.

"Ticket to the Moon"

I'd forgotten about this until recently, but a few weeks ago, I was thinking about "Ticket to the Moon" again and noticed an-other small feature in the lines "I paid the fare; what more can I say / It's just one-way."  The backing vocals there are "Only one way," and these words are sung to a melody that almost exclusively ascends (C# C# D E), so even musically, there's a singleness of direction.

"Ticket to the Moon"

I was thinking about "Ticket to the Moon" again this morning and had a realization about the line "It's just one-way."  It's sung to a single pitch (A), and this limited tonality matches the "one-way" nature of the ticket.  There's a singularity or exclusivity to both.