Imagine this song as performed by a freakbeat group ca. '67-'68 and it works perfectly. Two-chord intro could easily be executed with more of a rock arrangement and the first couple of lines of the verse really have the character of, say, the Move.
After those first two lines, the exposition expands into a gorgeous structure where the verse blends into the chorus as one ongoing segment. The whole thing looks like this:
A1 - Thirteen-syllable line
A2 - Thirteen-syllable rhyming line for A1
B1 - Five-syllable line
B2 - Six-syllable rhyming line for B1
B3 - Nine-syllable non-rhyming line
C1 - Seven-syllable line with internal rhyme
C2 - Six-syllable line
C3 - Eight-syllable line
C4 - Five-syllable rhyming line for C2*
The harmonic language in this structure is expansive and creative and yet still fairly simple. The violin, especially, leads one to imagine the last line with a buildup akin to something like "With Love from 1 to 5" by the State of Micky and Tommy.
With its own arrangement style, the song naturally ends up as a very different entity, most comparable perhaps to Klaatu, and in what is surely about the nicest way imaginable.
* Notice how the two sets of lines in this last section are unequal yet both add up to a total of thirteen syllables.
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