Evermore. 4. Dorothea

And now…on to our #taytay review of the week for “Dorothea”. The 4th song that stood out to me on #evermore. 

The first thing that stood out to me was the opening melody. “Hey Dorothea” reminded me of a Beatles song. I don’t know if it’s because the words remind me of “Hey Jude” (the melodies are not similar at all) or what, but it kept me listening. 

I figured out why the form for these songs is so confusing to me. Because the melodies she uses for the verses sound so chorus-like to me and vice versa. I would think the line “Hey Dorothea do you ever stop and think about me?” would be a chorus melody.

And the melody of the chorus sounds very verse-like to me.

“But it's never too late to come back to my side
The stars in your eyes shined brighter in Tupelo”
And if you're ever tired of being known for who you know
You know, you'll always know me, Dorothea (Uh-uh)
Dorothea (Ah-ah)” 

If you think about Willow, for example, those melodies are typically how songs are written. The verse is usually lower, has more words in the phrases, and then the chorus typically soars and has more space. 

In this case, the chorus (as genius.com categorizes it anyway) is lower and doesn’t have that much of a soaring melody.

The oooohhhs after the Dorothea sound like the chorus to me. A bunch of oooooh’s is the best way to have a fun chorus that everyone can sing along to and enjoy. I also like how she sings it low and then goes up a 5th and sings it higher, and then eventually the oh’s end up an octave higher.  

Also, using a name in a song is not the easiest thing to do and she does it quite often. If you want an exercise to practice writing songs, try using a name in your song, as the title, or both. 

Favorite line: And if you're ever tired of being known for who you know
You know, you'll always know me, 

What say you? Favorite line? Song? Let’s discuss!

Xo,
D