JDB's melisma

[CaerphillyCheese]

Originally Posted by blackflower

I'm just running through the first few songs on my playlist of fave Manics tunes to see how often the mordent occurs.

I Am Just A Patsy: in 'love' and 'above' in the chorus
Prologue to History: not as often but pops up in the second chorus on 'mission'
I Live To Fall Asleep: he actually kinds of extends it here in 'kill' (first verse) and 'asleep' (end of chorus)
The Girl Who Wanted to Be God: 'high' in second verse, 'am' in last line of last chorus
Die in the Summertime: on last 'die' in the chorus

... this could be a very dangerous drinking game.

I also listened to Kylie's Some Kind of Bliss and she does it in the chorus of that too on 'bliss'. I don't think it's her normal style so I can only guess she picked it up from James!

I'm really enjoying this thread by the way, thank you for starting it CaerphillyCheese. We should have more musicological Manics discussions!

Ah! Die in the Summertime was going to be one of my examples when I was trying to find an early appearance. Great spot with the Kylie song as I don't think I've actually listened to that since it's release.

I think as a drinking game it could work as the first 2 albums would result in a fairly leisurely session. However, when you hit EMG it's going to start getting messy.

I imagine any unique vocal traits were born from the unorthodox method of fitting Richey's lyrics to music. When he then started writing solely to Nicky's less wordy material perhaps he was like.. "I've got all these spare notes left over - better throw in some mordents!"

That's my completely incorrect take on it.

Thank YOU all for replying and contributing your thoughts. I've been wondering about this for a long time!