Composition
According to Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, "Dear Jessie" sounds more like a children's lullaby than a pop song. It begins with the sound of strings, ushering a joyous melody, with Madonna singing in a full voice. The verses are sung without any background vocals to accompany Madonna's voice. However, in the chorus, when the she sings the lines, "Pink elephants and lemonades, Dear Jessie hear the laughter raining on your love-parade", a different set of vocals are interwoven with hers, continuously chanting the words "La-la". Synthesizer and strummed acoustics are added during the second verse, followed by the repetition of the chorus, when a change in tempo and time signature occurs, followed by the sound of a child's laughter.
As Madonna finishes singing the intermediate lines, "Close your eyes, sleepy-head, It is time for your bed, Never forget what I said, Hang on...", a trumpet starts playing alongside the main rhythm. The breakdown has the feel of Spanish music, with the glissando evoking the string arrangements. This is followed by the bridge and the chorus being repeated twice. "Dear Jessie" ends with all instrumentation and vocals fading out, except the orchestra, which is equalized to make it sound very thin and trebly, as if coming out from a distorted radio.
According to the sheet music published by Alfred Publishing Co. Inc., "Dear Jessie" is written in the time signature of common time, with a tempo of 120 beats per minute. Normally written in 4⁄4, the song has a change in time signature after the second chorus, changing it to 3⁄4. It is composed in the key of D major, with Madonna's voice ranging from C3 to D5. The song's chord progression follows a sequence of Bm–A–Bm–D–A in the verses and changes to D–Bm–G–A–D in the chorus. The lyrics of the song summon up a psychedelic landscape, where pink elephants roam with dancing moons and mermaids. It has references to fairy-tale characters and creates an image of children playing with each other.
Read more about this topic: Dear Jessie
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“Boswell, when he speaks of his Life of Johnson, calls it my magnum opus, but it may more properly be called his opera, for it is truly a composition founded on a true story, in which there is a hero with a number of subordinate characters, and an alternate succession of recitative and airs of various tone and effect, all however in delightful animation.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)
“When I think of God, when I think of him as existent, and when I believe him to be existent, my idea of him neither increases nor diminishes. But as it is certain there is a great difference betwixt the simple conception of the existence of an object, and the belief of it, and as this difference lies not in the parts or composition of the idea which we conceive; it follows, that it must lie in the manner in which we conceive it.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“The proposed Constitution ... is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal constitution; but a composition of both.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)