The melodic arc on "Bwana"

[David]

I think the melodic arc on the "Bwana" verses is one of the best things Lindsey has ever composed. The way it launches up an octave, as if being flung skyward, against a dominant 7th backdrop, & then transverses into the subdominant, only to plummet back down -- not to the initial tone but, stroke of genius, to the root of the subdominant &, even greater stroke of genius, with what is to become the major 7th of that subdominant still ringing in our heads; & then to rise again, like a phoenix from the ashes, to the dominant itself, providing paradoxically both tension & resolution; thence to the tonic (which we now understand to be a dominant 7th).

People yap & yap about Stevie's ear for just the "right" melody, but in the verses to "Bwana," Lindsey easily matches any melodic arc Stevie has ever composed.