"Nellie Takes Her Bow"

Because to-day's Jeff Lynne's birthday, I listened to No Answer this morning.  I noticed a small feature in "Nellie Takes Her Bow."  In the title line (but only in its first occurrence, at ~1:08), "bow" is sung with a melisma (A G).  Because of that descent, there's a musical sense of the word's meaning.

"Alone in the Universe"

Back in October, I figured out some of the bass part in "Alone in the Universe."  I noticed something about it, but I kept forgetting to write about it (plus I had to verify it).

A good portion of the bass part has this rhythm:

This is also the rhythm for much of the bass part in "Without Someone" from Balance of Power.

"Blue"

On the 1st, I learned some parts for "Blue," a bonus track on the deluxe edition of Alone in the Universe.  There are still a few chords that I'm missing, but I have most of them, along with the slide guitar/piano instrumental section, which is what my recording focuses on:

There's an almost incredible amount of sustain in the slide guitar part in the original.  I triple-tracked mine, but it still falls short.

While I was learning the parts, I also noticed something to write about: "shore" in the line "A million miles from the shore" has an echo effect applied to it.  Musically, this gives a sense of space, those "million miles" specifically.

"Dreaming of 4000"

I listened to On the Third Day this morning (for a few reasons: 1) I've been thinking about writing a post about "In the Hall of the Mountain King" comparing it to Grieg's original, 2) I figured out a violin part at the beginning of "Oh No Not Susan" yester-day but haven't actually listened to the song for quite some time, and 3) I think On the Third Day is the ELO album I'm least familiar with [of the ones I have, anyway]).

This might be a bit trivial, but I noticed a somewhat interesting feature in "Dreaming of 4000."  At ~2:02 (and again at ~3:43), the cellos play:

which is an example of the Alberti bass.

"When I Was a Boy"

Last night I saw a couple posts about how the "When I Was a Boy" single was released three years ago yester-day:

View this post on Instagram

On this day: 3 years ago, “When I Was A Boy”, the first single from Alone In The Universe was released.

A post shared by Jeff Lynne's ELO (@jefflynneselo) on Sep 25, 2018 at 2:23am PDT

Of course, this got me thinking about the song, and I realized a small thing about it:  "away" in the line "Far into the night and drift away" is sung with a melisma (D A G, I think).  Musically, this gives something of an impression of the movement of "drift[ing] away." 

"The Quick and the Daft"

This morning I was looking at the texts in Cherubini's Solemn Mass in G major for the Coronation of Louis XVIII, and I remembered something I'd long ago realized about "The Quick and the Daft" (an instrumental bonus track on the re-issue of Out of the Blue).  The title seems to come from either the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed.  Cherubini's Mass includes the Nicene Creed, where one of the lines is: Jesus "shall come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead," but there's a similar line in the Apostles' Creed, which is older.  The title of the ELO song simply changes "dead" to "daft."

"Send It"

I forgot about this (more than once, even), but the reason I've been thinking about Balance of Power recently is that way back on 6 July I realized that the "way up above" in the line "The sun still shines way up above" at the beginning of "Send It" ascends (C# C# E F#, I think), musically representing that "up above."

In looking at the song now, I realized something else.  Each of the verses ends with the lines "If you see my dream / Send it back home to me."  The "me" is sung to an A note, and the chord progression there moves to an A major.  The song itself it in A major, so there's both the tonic note (A) and the tonic chord (A major) to represent that "home" musically.

"Heaven Only Knows"

Because I had been thinking about "Is It Alright" a couple days ago, I was thinking about the Balance of Power album yester-day and realized that some phrases in the vocal melody in "Heaven Only Knows" bear some resemblance to the vocal melody in the Beatles' "You Won't See Me."

The melody for the verses of "Heaven Only Knows" is something like:

(I used the first verse as a reference, but I'm missing some nuances.)

And the first half of the melody for the verses of "You Won't See Me" is something like:

(I guessed on the keys for both.)

The melodies are fairly similar, but the more recognizable resemblance is one of rhythm.  In simple terms, both songs have three syllables, some rests, two syllables, some rests, and then either a second line or the rest of the first line:

I don't know if Jeff Lynne intended the melody of "Heaven Only Knows" to be similar to that of "You Won't See Me," but there are a number of other Beatle references in the ELO catalogue, and the two melodies certainly are alike.  It seems to be at least a subconscious borrowing.

I also noticed that "change" in the line "But I think that it's about to change" is sung with a glissando (E to D, I think), which musically represents that shift.

"Is It Alright"

Yester-day, I was thinking about "Is It Alright" and realized something about the title line, specifically those in this section:

Is it alright
Now that you got what you want
And is it alright
Now that you're back where you belong

The "al-" part of the "alright"s is sung with a glissando from G to C, and the encompassing nature of this musical span helps to portray the "all."

"Waterfall"

I recently discovered that - after much practice - I can now play both hands of the piano part at the beginning of "Waterfall" simultaneously (although I'm unsure of specific chord voicings), which I couldn't do back when I learned that part.

A couple days ago (the 20th), I was thinking about the song and realized that the "waterfall" in that section descends to illustrate the "-fall" part musically.  The whole line "It's like a waterfall" is sung to a descending phrase (F# F# E D C# B).

"All My Life"

I figured out some parts for "All My Life" to-day, so now I can be more specific in writing about some features I noticed.

The two "All my life"s in the backing vocals in the choruses are sung to phrases that span large intervals (sixths) and include large note values (three whole notes each).  Between those features and the fact that "life" is sung with a melisma both times, there's a musical sense of the encompassing nature of "all."  Here's the notation for the first "All my life":

The second "All my life" has a peculiar rhythm at the beginning that I can't seem to suss out (so the dotted half note at the end of this first phrase might be wrong), but aside from that, it's fairly similar.

The other thing I noticed (and confirmed to-day) is that the guitar solo (~2:07) starts with a recurring phrase from the guitar solos in Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed," just adjusted for key and with some changes in tempo.  The phrase in "All My Life" also doubles a note.

In "All My Life," the guitar solo begins with:

E|---5-7-5-7~9-9-7-5-----| 

B|-7-----------------7-5-|

The recurring phrase in "Maybe I'm Amazed" is:

E|---1-3-1-3~5-3-1----- 
B|-3---------------3-1-

These phrases seem too similar for this resemblance to have been coincidental.  Because Jeff Lynne workt with Paul McCartney (although long after "Maybe I'm Amazed"), I think this might be an intentional similarity.

"Turn to Stone"

Last week I learned some parts for "Turn to Stone."  Here are the guitar phrases and some string parts for two iterations of the chorus (starting ~2:32).  I'm not sure of the accuracy of the very end of the last guitar phrase.

"Latitude 88 North"

The first two lines of each verse of "Latitude 88 North" are sung to a paucity of pitches.  The first line of each verse ("The ice man came to me tonight" [1], "Then I knew that you were gone" [2], and "Frozen shadows in doorways" [3]) are sung completely to B notes.  There's a bit more variety in the second lines, but each is sung to only two pitches.  "So very near but out of sight" (1) and "It came to me; I was alone" (2) are each sung to a string of C notes with a single G note at the end, and "They will linger there always" (3) is sung mainly to a string a C notes, rises to a single D note, and then ends with an-other C note.

While it's especially appropriate for "Frozen shadows..." articulating these lines with only one or two pitches each musically demonstrates the "frozen" conditions of Latitude 88 North.  It's as if even the music can no longer move.

"Mr. Blue Sky"

In the chorus of "Mr. Blue Sky," the "so long" in "Please tell us why / You had to hide away for so long" is sung with two glissandi: the "so" stretches from F to D, and the "long" from D to C."  The echoing "so long" in the backing vocals has a similar feature: the "so" has a glissando from C and A.  The breadth of pitches that these glissandi encompass gives a musical sense of just how long Mr. Blue Sky has hidden.

"Steppin' Out"

In the section of "Steppin' Out" where the line "I'm steppin' out; I'm steppin' out" is repeated, that second "out" is sung alternately with a glissando (B to G) and a melisma (alternating between B and C#, I think).  When "I'm steppin' out; I'm steppin' out" is sung through a vocoder, that second "out" is sung with a different melisma (G B D).  All of these give something of a sense of movement.

"Starlight"

I noticed a couple different things about how the vocals are articulated in "Starlight."

"Run" in the line "And then you run" is sung with a melisma, although it's not always the same.  At ~0:47 and ~2:52, it's C Ab F, but at ~1:47, it's Ab G F G.  For both, there's a musical sense of the movement of "run[ning]."

"Away" in the line "Your eyes are lookin' out so far away" (at the beginning of the second verse) is sung with a melisma (C D F), musically giving a sense of distance.

At the end, in the repeated line "Starlight, your eyes are lookin' down on me, so far away," "down on me" is sung to a descending phrase (D C Ab, I think), giving a sense of that "down," and "away" is sung with a melisma (Eb D C Bb A), giving a sense of distance again.

"Turn to Stone"

I listened to Out of the Blue this morning and found a number of things to write about (some more significant than others).  First, here's a small point about "Turn to Stone."  I'm still a bit skeptical of my own transcriptions, but I think the second line in the first verse is "And so the suns are way down low."  This line descends (F# F# E E D# D# C# A), so - if I have my transcription correct - there's a musical representation of that "way down low."

"Ain't It a Drag"

After listening to Alone in the Universe periodically over the last couple years, I noticed some things about the songs, but I haven't been very good at writing posts about them here.  From now on if I have any comments, I'm going to try to write a post corresponding to whatever song I'm trying to learn in a particular month (one of my 2018 musical projects is to learn at least one part for every song on Alone in the Universe, and since I have the edition with two bonus tracks, there's one song for each month).  Here are a couple things I noticed about "Ain't It a Drag."

In the line "Just when you think it's cool, the s--- hits the fan," there's some sort of effect applied to the vocal for "the fan," giving a sense of that proximity, not unlike the slightly robotic-sounding effect one gets when speaking into a moving fan.

In the first "Ain't it a drag, babe" in the choruses, the "drag" is sung with a glissando.  It starts on a C and descends, but I'm not sure what the terminal note is.  For what it's worth, the following "babe" is sung to an F.  In any case, "drag" moves smoothly through a multitude of pitches, so there's something of a musical portrayal of the word's meaning.

Face the Music

Last night, I remembered that (back in November) I'd noticed some similarity between the opening orchestral sections of "Waterfall" and "Strange Magic."  I finally got around to looking into that, and I discovered that I was right.  While the orchestrations are different, there's one phrase that's the same, just adjusted for key.

Here it is at the beginning of "Waterfall":

And here it is at the beginning of "Strange Magic":

I'm pretty sure these are played on cello, but the phrase in "Waterfall" sounds like it's also doubled on upright bass.  In any case, while the specific pitches are different and the last note in the phrase in "Strange Magic" lasts longer, the intervals are the same.  Using this phrase in two songs gives the Face the Music album a bit of cohesion.

"It's Over"

Last night, I figured out some of the chords and some of the bass part for "It's Over," and I realized something that should have been obvious a long time ago: the "down"s of the "Gettin' down" parts (at ~1:35 and ~2:46) are sung to descending melodies to illustrate that "down" musically.  The first "Gettin' down, down" is sung to the phrase A C D C, and the second "Gettin' down, down, down" to the phrase A C D C A.

"Sweet Talkin' Woman"

I figured out the chords for "Sweet Talkin' Woman" this evening, and I noticed a couple things.

In the first verse, there are the lines "I was waitin' for the operator / On the line" (there's a breath there, so I put in a line break).  Although there's not that much of a resemblance, this recalls the situation in "Telephone Line."

The other thing I noticed is about the chords themselves.  Every verse ends with the line "I gotta get back to you," and the chord progression moves to a C major under the "you."  The song is in C major, so that's the tonic chord.  Musically, there's a feeling of resolution and coming home, which is the same type of emotional response that "get[ting] back to you" would have.

"Showdown"

I've been playing clavinet recently (the clavinet voice on my keyboard, at least).  I wanted to figure out a clavinet part in an ELO song, and the first one I thought of was "Showdown."  I didn't actually make any progress on that, but I did figure out almost all of the chords (I'm missing only the end of the chorus).  Since I'd figured out the cello part for the first two verses last August, I had enough to warrant a recording.  This is just the first two verses, without the introduction.

I had to use two different keyboard settings to get the cello part: one for the bowed parts and an-other for the pizzicati notes.  Compared to the original recording, I think I may have some notes in the wrong octave, and I think there might be a second cello part playing different notes.  In any case, what I have is a start.  This is also the first recording I've made of a song from On the Third Day.

"Look at Me Now"

A couple days ago, I was looking at what parts I've learned for No Answer (as of yester-day, I know at least a little bit of each song), and I discovered that I know two parts for "Look at Me Now."  Last August, I learned some of the oboe phrases, and last month, I learned the first two verses of cello (the left-panned cello specifically).  In order to make a recording worth it, my requirements are two simultaneous parts that last more than just a few seconds, so this qualified.  I don't (yet!) play (or even own) cello or oboe, so I used electric bass in place of cello and an oboe voice on my keyboard.

"Mr. Radio"

I listened to No Answer to-day (because I'm close to knowing at least a little bit of each song and wanted to suss out some easy parts to figure out), and I realized something about "Mr. Radio."  One of the lines is "The weatherman has lied," and I think this might take something from Buddy Holly's "Raining in My Heart," specifically the second verse:

The weatherman says clear today
He doesn't know you've gone away
And it's raining
Raining in my heart

This verse of "Raining in My Heart" also mentions a weatherman, and the situation as a whole is the same as what's in "Mr. Radio."  As the second section of "Mr. Radio" explains: "My wife, she ran away / She left her home."  In both songs, a man's lover has left him, which has affected his mood so much that he's a bit indignant at the weatherman's forecast of clear weather.

"Getting to the Point"

I listened to Balance of Power a couple weeks ago (3 April) and noticed something about "Getting to the Point" that I neglected to write about here.  In my initial notes on Balance of Power, I noted that "long" in the line "Forever / Is a long way" is sung as a whole note, which musically emphasizes that length of time.  When I listened to Balance of Power recently, I noticed that there's an effect applied to the vocal there (I'm not sure if it's technically echo or delay) so that the "for-" of "forever" and "Is a long way" continue even after they're sung in the lead vocals.  Like "long" being sung to a whole note, this too provides a musical sense of that length of time.

"When the Night Comes"

After I figured out the chords for "When the Night Comes" a few days ago, I had the feeling that "Is It Alright" from Balance of Power had a similar chord progression, so I figured out the chords for that too.

The chords progressions aren't exactly the same, but there are sections that are identical.  The entirety of the verses in both alternate between D minor and A minor.  "Is It Alright" has four measures of D minor, two measures of A minor, four measures of D minor, and then two measures of A minor; "When the Night Comes" has four measures of each: four measures of D minor, four measures of A minor, four measures of D minor, and then four measures of A minor.

(According to how the lyrics are formatted in the liner notes in Alone in the Universe, the "But what can I say when the night comes to stay" and "But where will I be when the night comes to me" sections of "When the Night Comes" are distinct from the verses and choruses.)

The beginning of the choruses in both also have the same chord progression and even the same values, but "When the Night Comes" holds each chords for twice as long as "Is It Alright."  In "Is It Alright," the chorus starts with one measure of E minor, followed by one measure that's half F major and half G major (each lasting for two beats).  Then that's repeated.  In "When the Night Comes," the E minor lasts for two measures, then there's a full measure of F major and a full measure of G major.  Then that's repeated.  From there, the chord progressions of the choruses diverge.

Alone in the Universe

In order to write about "When the Night Comes" yester-day, I referenced the lyrics in the liner notes of Alone in the Universe.  In doing so, I discovered something about the gatefold picture.  In the lower right corner of the left half (just above the Les Paul guitar), there's the golden record carried on the Voyager space probes:

Here's a picture of the golden record from NASA's website:

After I saw this and confirmed what it was, I remembered the EPK video for Alone in the Universe in which Jeff Lynne explains that Voyager 1 inspired the title track:

I feel it's also worth mentioning that one of the pieces of music on the golden record is Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode."

While writing about the gatefold, I might as well note that the cover of Jeff Lynne's Long Wave album is one of the pictures taped on the wall:

The radio on the floor in the Alone in the Universe gatefold also resembles the radio in the inside picture of Long Wave:

"When the Night Comes"

Yester-day I figured out the chords for "When the Night Comes" from Alone in the Universe.  I'm sure I noticed this before, but I don't think I've written about it:  in the first verse, there's the line "When the night comes I get midnight blue."  There's a similar expression in "Midnight Blue" from Discovery:  "I'm feelin' midnight blue."

"Dirty to the Bone"

I don't think I mentioned this here, but one of my musical projects for 2018 is to figured out at least one part for every song on Alone in the Universe.  Yester-day I figured out some parts for "Dirty to the Bone" and discovered an interesting feature.

There's a repeating guitar phrase that's something like:

And so on.

The title phrase ("dirty to the bone") is sung to this musical phrase:

These two parts consist of the same three pitches (G, B, and C), which gives the song some cohesion.

That the title phrase descends also gives a musical impression of going to the very core or - as the song puts it - "to the bone."

"Look at Me Now"

Lately, I've been listening to a ten-CD box set of works by the Danish composer Carl Nielsen.  I found a melody in his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 33 that sounded familiar.  Near the end of the Allegro cavallerésco in the first movement, there's this phrase in the solo violin:

[notation found here]

I knew this was similar to a phrase from one of the songs on No Answer, but I had to do a bit of searching before I found which one.  It's the vocal melody at the beginning of the bridge in "Look at Me Now," which is something like:

(I guessed on the key.  I'm still having trouble understanding the lyrics on a lot of the early ELO songs, but I think the lines here are "Now she's a sallow face / Got a ring of lace.")

The exact pitches (and even the intervals) aren't the same, and the rhythms are a little different, but the two melodies do have the same general shape.

"Look at Me Now" was written by Roy Wood.  I don't know if he was familiar with this particular piece by Nielsen, but there is a certain similarity between these two phrases.

"Mr. Blue Sky"

A couple days ago, I watched a video of Jeff Lynne's ELO performing "Mr. Blue Sky."

It's not in this performance, but in the original recording, there's some panting after the line "Runnin' down the avenue."  Like I mentioned when I first started this project, this seems to be a nod to the panting in the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" (after the line "And looking up, I noticed I was late").

When I watched this live performance, I realized that the structure of "Mr. Blue Sky" might take something from "A Day in the Life" too.  The end of each song doesn't bear much relation to what came before.  "A Day in the Life" has an aleatoric ascent (admittedly the second one in the song) and then simultaneous crashing piano chords followed by a loop of gibberish; "Mr. Blue Sky" has a choral section and then a part with just strings and piano.

Both break free from the traditional structure of verses, choruses, and a bridge or two.  At the end, both songs have singular structural elements.

"The Lights Go Down"

Last night I went through my files because I need to combine parts I have physically written down with parts I have typed in various Google Documents (in doing so, I discovered that since last October I've known at least a bit of each song on ELO II, although I don't think I've recorded them all).  In any case, I realized something just by reading the title of "The Lights Go Down."  That line in the song descends (it's sung to the phrase C C B A), so there's a musical element to represent the "go[ing] down."