Originally Posted By: Noel96
Hey floyd,

This is excellent.... really excellent... (as always).

As I listened, images of the 60s started appearing in my head. By the end of the song, I even found myself wondering what it would sound like if 'Jay and The Americans' sang it. The arrangement, Janice and you, and the production are stellar. That got me thinking... If I could select just one aspect of this song, what single feature makes it identify as 60s to me?

  • Is it the guitar sounds?
  • Is it the more analogue and less digital sounding mix?
  • Is it the chord progression?
  • Is it the song's AABA format that was very prevalent in the 60s?
  • Is it the singing?
  • Is it song tempo?
  • Is it the lyric?
  • Is it song length?

Because all of the above thoughts are a choir of characteristics that work in harmony to create the overall, it's quite a challenge to isolate a single signature signpost.

Sometimes, perhaps twice a year, I like to place a bet on a horse. It's been around 4 decades since I last won anything but that doesn't stop me being occasionally reckless with $5. I mention this because it's with this reckless frame of mind that I say that I put my money on the lyrics as the single most important time-period identifier.

I'll explain...

Below are the lyrics to the first A-section. I've divided lines for easy reference and made a note of the rhyme scheme and meter. (For the meter, I have used the poet's concept of 'feet' as determined by strongly accented syllables.)



Properly identifying the meter was a challenge because a number of the lines have multiple possibilities. With such lines, when they're set to melody, meter can be used to stretch or compress them (much like zplane's élastique engine that PG Music uses with Realtracks and Realdrums). The above deconstruction is just one possibility. For the purposes of the below, though, it should be ok.

As I read the above lyrics out loud, what I noticed was...

  • In each A-section, phrases 1 and 3 are not perfect rhymes. This is consistent in all A-sections.
  • Phrases 3 and 5 are perfect rhymes that alternate with phrases 4 and 6, which are also perfect rhymes. Again, your song crafting skills have maintained this consistency in all A-sections.
  • After the alternating perfect rhymes in phrases 3 to 6, the lyrics move into non-rhyming territory.
  • Phrase 9 acts as a bookend so that the song title sandwiches the song section's content.

Once music is removed from the analysis, it's easy to feel the effect that the above lyric sequence creates. This is how it worked for me...

  • Because the first phrase only had a meter of 3 feet, there's a natural pause at the end of the line. This helps spotlight this opening phrase and give it the aural strength required to isolate it as the song's title.
  • The second phrase, because it is 2 feet longer than the first phrase, made me feel like the lyric slowed down, decelerated.
  • Phrase 3 was only a single foot less than phrase 2 and this felt comfortable. The rhythmic pattern of phrases 2 and 3 is a variation of the pattern found in the first two lines of “Mary Had A Little Lamb”. This created a feeling within me that relaxed story-telling had begun.
  • The fourth phrase is where surprise kicked in. I was expecting a 5 foot line to match line 3 but you only gave me a 3 foot line; shorter than either of the two previous lines. I could definitely feel the acceleration this created. And with acceleration, anticipation always rides along in the passenger seat. I was reminded of the Mazda ad that we had here a few years ago that was based on the phrase Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!
  • The next three lines travel along with uniform meter. To maintain the feeling of lyric acceleration, you have strategically used the force that perfect rhyme produces to push the words forward. The cdcd perfect rhymes maintain the thrust of acceleration and the anticipation and sense of excitement that accompany it.

Quote:
As an aside, it's an interesting experiment to read through the lyrics with phrases 4 and 5 interchanged so that the rhyme scheme of lines 3 to 6 becomes ccdd as in the below.

Quote:
hey, little girl
not sure that i can ever find the words
to tell you every thing in my heart
right from the start
exactly how i feel
i knew this thing was real
i want to kiss ya
hey, hey, hey
hey little girl

I find that the above sequence impacts on the feeling of acceleration and the sense of anticipation that resonates in the original version of the lyrics. The ccdd pattern has a stop/start feel about it that's created by the rhyming couplets. It's not as effective to my ears.

The ability of rhyme to control the movement of lyric content and to create a sense of excitement when accompanied by rhythmic acceleration is often not well understood. The A-Sections in “Hey Little Girl” are textbook examples of how to use these tools effectively.


  • After the momentum created by phrases 4 to 6, when the line “I want to kiss ya” arrives, spotlights are ablaze. As if that's not enough, you add extra energy to this line by accelerating it even more with an even shorter meter of only 2 feet. This is followed by a pause which ramps the power even higher. With the finesse of a master craftsman, you have isolated this single line (phrase 7) as the focus of the whole section. The listener is probably not even aware of how their thinking has been manipulated! If lyric intensity could be gauged by a VU meter, the meter's needle would be vigorously oscillating in the red when it reached phrase 7.
  • Also, by choosing not to rhyme after phrase 6, the lyric content assumes greater gravitas. Because phrases 1 to 6 are heavily rhymed, a continuation with rhyme after six rhymed lines could potentially introduce an unnecessary element of comedy.
  • The above phrase considerations are paralleled in each of the three A-sections. This ultimately gives the focus of each section as: (a) I want to kiss ya; (b) I love ya; (c) I mean forever. What great development! (I'm not wearing a hat right now but, if I were, I'd be lifting it and nodding my head.)

Quote:
It's easy to double-check that phrase 7 in each A-section is the focus by contracting the sections into a couple of lines. That is...

[A1]
Hey Little Girl
I want to kiss you

[A2]
Hey Little Girl
I love you

[A3]
Hey Little Girl
I mean forever

  • The last last two lines are interesting. The “hey, hey, hey” of phrase 8 serves to prepare the title. Since “Hey little girl” could easily follow the “I want to kiss ya” line with the lyrics meaning unaltered, the effect of delaying the repetition of the title adds octane to the last line.
  • The repetition of the title in the final line of the song neatly reinforces the hook and its meaning.

So.... back to my original thought. I think that it's the lyric that's the single most important contributor to this song's having a 60s flavour. The themes of young love and teenage romance (and all the excitement, joy and angst that accompanied them) threaded their way through many songs in this period. Such lyrics were often written in AABA format and were bright and bouncy and resonated with youthful innocence and enthusiasm. You've skilfully captured all these characteristics through your lyric's structure, rhyme, content and meter. That's what I call 10th dan black-belt songwriting.

Congratulations on your 100th song post. To make the century is such an awesome achievement!

All the best,
Noel


Noel! - I would not normally copy a post this large, but this is such an INCREDIBLE analysis of those elements that make up a song from the era - why it "ticks", why it works... that I hope people will take a look at it - either your original post or this re-post.

Thanks you for all the wonderful support you have given me over the years!!! I am pleased to call you "friend".

fj

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