"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.

"Bluebird"

I listened to Secret Messages yester-day and found a number of small features to note.

In the line "It makes me feel so sad" in "Bluebird," "sad" is sung with a melisma (F D G), musically giving a sense of degree (for "so").  In the lines "The places that I go / Don't feel good anymore," "go" and the "-more" of "anymore" are both sung with the same melisma, giving a sense of movement for "go" and, while negated, continuation for "anymore."

In the coda, "away" is sung with a variety of melismas (in the line "Bluebird, fly away," it's sung to the notes A A B G, and in the line "Fly away, away, away" to the notes F# F# E, E E D, D D C), musically giving a sense of movement or distance.

I'm surprised I hadn't noted this before, but this is also an-other instances of Jeff Lynne's use of the word "blue."