The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul 0195141059, 9780195302608, 9780195141054

Citation preview

THE

BEATLES AS MUSICIANS

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1 BEATLES MUSICIANS

THE AS

The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul

WA LT E R E V E R E T T

1 2001

1 Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan

Copyright © 2001 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Everett, Walter, 1954 – The Beatles as musicians : the Quarry Men through Rubber soul / Walter Everett. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-514104-0; ISBN 0-19-514105-9 (pbk.) 1. Beatles. 2. Rock music —1951–1960 —Analysis, appreciation. 3. Rock music —1961–1970 —Analysis, appreciation. MT146 .E95 2001 782.42166'092'2— dc21 2001021263

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

For Barbara, John, and Tim

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PREFACE

What constitutes the sounds of a Beatles record, how did they get there, and what makes them so interesting to listen to? These are the questions that get to the heart of the Beatles as musicians, and are therefore the motivation for this book and its companion volume, The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology. Together the two books are a chronologically ordered examination of the compositional, performing, and recording activities of the most important force in twentieth-century popular music.

Goals and Critical Stance The Beatles’ music is incredibly rich. Their melodic shapes, contrapuntal relationships, harmonic functions, rhythmic articulations, formal designs, timbral colors, and textures draw from many different tonal languages and appear in countless recombinations to bring individual tonal meanings to their poetry. The purpose of this book is to examine and celebrate the details of such practices from the music’s earliest incarnations through finished product, during the first half of the Beatles’ career as a group. I’ll chart the musical techniques and patterns that emerge at various points and adapt to changing needs as the Beatles’ styles and goals continuously evolve. I will pick up and put aside various methodological tools as the material demands. This material consists not only of the “canon”— the Beatles’ LPs, singles, and CDs recorded in London and officially released by EMI— but of every avail-

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able document of a Beatle’s musical activity during the period covered. This book results from the study of many thousands of audio, video, print, and multimedia sources, including the close consultation of uncounted audio recordings of the Beatles’ compositional process, traced through tapes that are treated as the equivalents of compositional sketches and drafts. All available concert, broadcast, and demo recordings in both audio and video formats have been scoured for the broadest possible understanding of what the Beatles did musically. The study of thousands of recordings by other entertainers whose music was covered by the Beatles, or existed contemporaneously with them, also contributes to the understanding created here of the Beatles and their musical context. The reader will find particularly useful both the thoroughness with which every known recording is contextualized, both historically and musically, and the fact that aspects of the Beatles’ choices of instruments, vocal production techniques, recording equipment, and studio procedures — the essence of their performance practice — are exposed here as in no other source. It may seem incongruous, or at least unusual, to approach a body of popular music that was composed and performed by young men who did not read musical notation (and was intently followed by millions with no musical indoctrination whatsoever) with analytical methods that only a musician with some degree of training could appreciate. Two years’ study of college-level music theory would be essential to following much of this book’s theoretical discussion, and some of the points raised are more advanced still. The appended table of chord functions (describing the most characteristic functions of all chords mentioned in this book) and the glossary (with its succinct definitions to some fifty-five terms used in this book) should help the less initiated stay on course.1 Of the thousands of books and articles related to the Beatles, only a small proportion deals seriously with their music, and only a few rare writers have done so from a perspective molded by formal musical study; seldom has an analysis of a Beatle song appeared that can be called in any way thorough. Yet this book suggests that there are many musical reasons worthy of considered speculation that place the Beatles’ work among the most listened-to music of all time. The fact is that even though these recording artists and their millions of listeners are rarely — if ever — consciously aware of the structural reasons for the dynamic energy in “I Saw Her Standing There,” the poignant nostalgia in “Yesterday,” the organized confusion of “A Day In the Life,” or the exuberant joy in “Here Comes the Sun,” it is the musical structures themselves, more than the visual cues in performance or the loudness of the given amplification system, that call forth most of the audience’s intellectual, emotional, and physical responses.2 This book traverses the complete history of the Beatles’ composition, performance, and recording practices in the first half of their career. As it would be impossible to do justice to the Beatles’ work within a single book, I present the entire chronology in two volumes, divided between the end of 1965 and the beginning of 1966. The second volume, entitled The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology, was published by Oxford in 1999. While the present book stops short of the group’s most experimental middle years, most read-

Preface

ers will be surprised to see just how early its members began consciously searching out new sounds, both stylistically and timbrally. Naturally, a full appreciation of their most transcendent late works is only possible with an understanding of the core of their musicianship, formed with a backbone of skiffle and early rock and roll and evolving through a mature melodic bass line, full use of the entire fingerboards of a full variety of six- and twelve-string electric, acoustic, and nylon-string guitars, the gradual mastery of styles on various keyboard instruments, an expressive mastery of electronic imaging, and a desire to express their musical ideas in the clearest, most direct possible way. Ringo’s drumming will at last be given the close attention it has always been due. Each chapter is presented in sections that alternate a chronological summary of the musical events over a given period with a detailed track-by-track discussion of every song composed by a Beatle through the group’s duration. The musical detail, aspects of which are frequently related to similar patterns in other songs by the Beatles or by their peers, and which is occasionally summarized for a global perspective on the group’s musical interests, remains the book’s central concern, while the accompanying historical information should be viewed as a contextual backdrop. The approach to each song covers its compositional inspiration, heavily documented from the most unimpeachable sources; its recording history, including the identification of every part and its performer and instrument; and its most salient musical features, presented in an analysis of the text that often features comparisons of the dominant musical and poetic goals. Innovations are carefully noted as they appear, and some important compositions require several pages for full appreciation. The book’s various analytical approaches are suggested by the musical materials themselves, and they cover as wide a range as do the Beatles’ eclectic interests. Therefore, as coverage of the Beatles’ evolving compositional interests proceeds chronologically, the Beatles’ least challenging harmonies, forms, colors and structures — twelve-bar blues forms, four-square phrases, simple guitar arrangements, diatonic and pentatonic components, live recording — are encountered first, and so analytical discussion begins with rudimentary materials and ideas but builds progressively as the Beatles’ music begins to adopt more interesting and complex features — innovative forms and colors, irregular phrase rhythms, chromatic ornaments and key shifts, multilayered and electronically altered studio productions. At some times, harmony and voice leading are the main focus; at others the interplay of rhythm and meter is center stage; and at still others the recording process itself is primary. But from the simplest to the most advanced discussion, techniques are always based on the piece-specific characteristics of the works themselves. While this book is historically oriented and aims to be comprehensive in its way, it must remain light in its extramusical references, all of which have been extensively covered elsewhere. Except for the most important matters, facts of biography appear only to set the musical context. The interested reader will learn much more about the Beatles’ lives and careers in such document studies as those by Mark Lewisohn (particularly 1988) and Allen J. Wiener (especially

ix

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regarding activities of the ex-Beatles). Many useful interviews and biographical studies, several by those very close to the principals, and hundreds of valuable audio and video sources will help the interested reader fill these gaps. Those seeking the most compact annotated checklist of every known audio recording by the Beatles in circulation are directed to the catalog being prepared by John C. Winn, which started life in periodic postings to the newsgroup rec.music. beatles and is currently in progress as a regular feature in Beatlology magazine. This listing is particularly strong on mix variants and interview material. There are those who say that the Beatles’ music is numinous, that an appreciation of it is not enhanced by any intellectual understanding. Others say that any example of popular music is to be evaluated not in relation to its internal musical issues but solely in terms of its social reception, or that popular music cannot be analyzed to useful ends with tools “created” for the appreciation of classical music, even when exactly the same, or interestingly related, compositional techniques are employed in both arenas. Any discussion of musical issues, these folks might say, should be restricted to the ideas of which the composers, performers, arrangers, and consumers are conscious as they interact with it, even if these people have no vocabulary for, or cognitive understanding of, most musical characteristics. While those with such beliefs are certainly free to limit their own investigations in any desired way, I would hope that the present study, which delves as deeply into the realm of the musical imagination as it does into the technical, would suggest to them that their own endeavors might be enhanced by an objective hearing of the music that they endow with such spiritual and cultural significance. Some critics would have it that sustained reflection on nontraditional sources must represent a “hidden-agenda” promotion of the canonization of such documents by the academic community — that, for instance, the uncovering of a complex yet satisfyingly voice leading is necessarily an argument toward high valuation as an expressive work of art.3 To them, I can only say that this study tells the story of why this listener enjoys the Beatles’ music with an ear turned toward compositional method, performance practice, and recording procedure. Whether such matters find acceptance in the curriculum is of less import than is having a reader, or a group of readers — yes, perhaps in a seminar setting — find one or more of my observations or interpretations to be rewarding or even cool. And, along these lines, it should be noted that for every Beatle example noted in these pages for its “classically” molded harmonic and voice-leading patterns, two others pursuing very different means toward coherent expression, perhaps even lacking a tonal center entirely, are presented without a thought of apology. Neither let it be said that this book’s use of the musical text itself as the primary source is a means to devalue work by others in cultural, social and media studies, critical theory, and reception history; rather, I view all of these approaches, as well as other less scholarly approaches, as complementary and informative to the well-read, well-balanced listener. This book contains a wealth of fully documented factual information weighed from thousands of materials and identifies in every possible instance the earliest or most authoritative sources, which the reader may wish to pursue

Preface

for more detailed coverage of a particular topic. These two volumes, then, constitute the first referenced guide to all important literature about the Beatles, as well as the only complete study of their musical history from the group’s inception to its end. But the book also presents both many original interpretations and new means for deriving interpretations. In many cases, my own explanation as to the “meaning” of a given passage or song — often based on combined elements of the musical and poetic texts, along with knowledge of the composers’ biography and intent — is offered, but all listeners must solve the Beatles’ many mysteries for themselves. My conjecture and fantasies are intended not as edicts but in the hope that the presented facts and proposed methods can aid reader-listeners in delving through the many ambiguities and selecting factors that create their own unified hearings that are in isomorphic harmony with the subject. A great amount of detail is provided on the Beatles’ instruments, which are identified here — by ear as well as by reliable documents whenever possible — in far greater detail than in any other source. Much of this information, gathered in thirty-five entries in the appendix, would be useful in evaluating the varied qualities of tone production, but many of the visual descriptions would also be helpful in dating photographs that often appear elsewhere with incorrect dates. Much other detail — on the Beatles’ listening tastes, circumstances of composition, singing and playing techniques, studio method, facts relating to British and American record releases and success — is included in the hope of making this volume a thorough reference tool, yet I have striven to present the information in a readable fashion. It is recommended in the strongest way that the reader listen with care to the recordings discussed in the text — for example, you would be able thus to determine who is playing each of the four or five guitars in some given texture. These descriptions, while consistent with all available reliable documentation, were produced by ear. Savor, if you will, the information on recording procedure and musical structure as a guide to thoughtful listening; the speed-reader will be sorely disappointed. Some will wish to learn more about their favorite Beatle songs, others to learn of songs they never knew existed. The voracious reader, especially one with a theoretical bent, may read from cover to cover, but the book is organized and labeled so that many passages of historical and historiographical study are separate from the more analytical prose, allowing readers to navigate their preferred channels. It is hoped that in the end the reader not only will learn the stages in the evolution of the composers’ harmonic vocabulary (which are clearly marked in these pages), the artists’ means of studio experimentation (which are all documented here), or my own particular hearing of any given work but also will learn something about how an appropriate interpretive approach may be devised for deriving the manifold meanings of all such factors in a song by the Beatles or, for that matter, by others.

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Terminology and Mechanics Some notes on terminology may be useful at this point. The text refers to chords in two ways; if function within a key is not immediately relevant, chords are identified by root, quality, and figured-bass symbol. Triad and seventh qualities are designated by upper- or lowercase m: uppercase signifies a major quality; lowercase, a minor. Thus, AfMm 56 refers to the chord built with major triad and minor seventh above the root Af, presented with C in the bass. If a chord’s tonal function is a point of discussion, the key will be established, and the chord will be designated by roman numeral, always uppercase, and any necessary figuredbass. Any figured-bass and roman designations may be altered by accidentals if deviations from the diatonic scale occur. Normal usages are listed in the Table of Chord Functions. On rare occasions, nontriadic chords or other note groupings are referred to by their numeric pitch-class description, which accounts for the intervals among the members of the grouping reduced to an octaveequivalent prime form. Thus, the [025] designation refers to a three-note group, a “trichord,” whose members may be arrayed within a single octave in such a way that they form two unordered intervals from reference point “zero,” at distances of two and five half-steps, respectively — for example, A– C – D, Bf– C – Ef, C – D – F, C – Ef– F, G –A– C, or G – Bf– C, to name all [025] collections including C. An important distinction must be drawn here between this book’s usage and that found elsewhere involving terminology for formal sections. Rock musicians use the terms “verse,” “chorus,” “refrain,” and “bridge” differently from those who work with the traditional pre-1950s popular song. The rock usages are adhered to, and they are defined in the text as they are introduced and again in the glossary of terms. Phrase groups and periods are designated as in basic form texts by Wallace Berry and Douglass Green. The expression of musical ideas in this book would have been very difficult were it not for the appearance of The Beatles: Complete Scores (London: Wise, 1989; distributed in the United States by Hal Leonard, 1993), an 1,100-page compendium of practically full scores of every song appearing on an EMI single or LP during the years 1962– 70. The scores are not without faults, but they will certainly not be replaced in the near future.4 The reader will wish to consult the Wise edition in reading the analytical commentary in this volume. This book refers to Wise rehearsal letters in a consistent font and method: A refers to the entire section appearing between rehearsal letters A and B; B+5 – 8 refers to the fifth through eighth measures following the double bar at B; C-2 refers to the second bar before the double bar at C. But timings programmed into compact discs are also given whenever they are considered relevant, and these cues would be of particular value to those without recourse to the scores.5 All chart information for singles and LPs is drawn from Billboard (for the United States) and Melody Maker (for the United Kingdom) unless stated otherwise. These and other contemporaneous periodicals are also worth seeking out. The musical examples in this book are chiefly of two kinds: (1) transcrip-

Preface

tions of sound recordings, intended as supplements to the Wise scores — their exclusion there necessitates their appearance here to clarify points of discussion; and (2) voice-leading graphs and other analytical constructions that present my arguments in musical notation. I have striven to ensure that all quotations of text and music, for which permission has not been secured, conform to all criteria of “fair use” law by their insubstantial length, their scholarly purpose, their never before having been printed, and their unperformable nature. Hopefully their appearance here along with the discussion will encourage readers to seek out the Wise scores for full versions of the songs quoted here. In this book’s musical quotations, all of which I have transcribed myself, all instruments are notated as they sound. Specific pitch designation will conform to the following system: c1 refers to Middle C, g1 is a fifth above, and c2 is an octave above; f lies a fifth below Middle C, c an octave below, and C two octaves below. Singers’ pitches notated with the transposing treble clef are referred to as notated, as representations of their functional registers, rather than as sounding. Careted arabic numerals refer to scale degrees.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the many who have contributed to and supported this work. Oxford editors Maribeth Anderson Payne, Jonathan Wiener, Jessica Ryan, and Soo Mee Kwon and their perceptive and helpful staff, anonymous readers, and consultants have provided expert assistance whenever and wherever needed. Grants from the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and the School of Music, all at the University of Michigan, have made possible the travel, purchase of materials, use of equipment, and compensation for clerical help necessary to complete this project. Devoted department chairs Ralph Lewis and Andy Mead were generous in providing assistance from Joe Braun, Ben Broening, Glenn Palmer, Nancy Rao, Erik Santos, and Laura Sherman. Calvin Elliker and Charles Reynolds made Music Library resources available; networking and software help came from Mike Gould, Robert Newcomb, John Schaffer, and Charles Rand. Additional administrative assistance was provided by Paul Boylan, Morris Risenhoover, Diana Cubberly, Diane Schlemmer, and Julie Smigielski at the University of Michigan School of Music, Warren George at the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, Peter Silvestri and Lynnae Crawford at MPL Communications, Jeff Rosen and Libby Rohman at Special Rider Music, and Rosemarie Gawelko at Warner Bros. Publications. Thanks to James Kendrick of Thacher Proffitt & Wood for legal advice. Rick Everett supplied the beautiful guitars that were essential for this study. The author is grateful for the ideas and support from many theorists, composers, musicologists, and technicians over many years, some not credited in the

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Acknowledgments

body of the text: Jim Borders, Matthew Brown, Lori Burns, John Covach, David Damschroder, Jim Dapogny, Dai Griffiths, Bob Grijalva, Henry Gwiazda, Dave Headlam, Yrjö Heinonen, Rick Hermann, Arthur Komar, Tim Koozin, Jonathan Kramer, Steve Larson, Betsy Marvin, bruce mcclung, Allan Moore, John Rothgeb, Bill Rothstein, Lewis Rowell, Frank Samarotto, Deborah Stein, Marty Sweidel, and Gordon Thompson. Special thanks to Ian Hammond, who read most of the manuscript and provided many helpful comments. Postings at rec.music.beatles and other correspondence from Tom Hartman, Alan Pollack, Andrew Lubman, John C. Winn, and Danny Caccavo contributed significantly to this project, and I’m also indebted to Joe Bichud, Jennifer DeBernardis, Tim Fletcher, D. J. Mangin, Steve Russell, Jim Skrydlak, Don Rife, saki, Ehtue, nowhereman, na, dnorthcut, mahvelous Jennifer, and BigStar for inspiration as well as information. Thanks also to Morris, Pam, and Meredith Everett and to Bill and Angeline Sturgis; to Jack’s in Red Bank, the entire group under Jack Raia in Eatontown’s Sam Goody, the House of Oldies, Downstairs Records, Farfel’s, Darius and Darlene, Abbey Road/Appleland, John A. Guisinger II, Mazuma, David Cohen, Schoolkids, Steve Merzon, Larry Wishard, Very English and Rolling Stone, Mark Lapidos and Beatlefest, Robert Wolk, M. Glen, Gary Hein, the Princeton Record Exchange, Scene of the Crime, Sea of Timeless, Dave Stein, CD Wherehouse, Shaved Fish, Robert W. Barnes, Jim Dean, Rock Dreams, Angela Manfredonia, Fast Hits, Hello Goodbye, Michael Voss, Bill Walsh, Brian Donohue, and Nick Balaam; to Judy Liao, Jody Forsberg, Karin Laine, Belinda Ficher, and Kanchna Ramchandran; and to John Golden, Bill Keane, Myron Allen, Kevin Addis, Ronnie Mann, Joe Petrillo, Howard Maymon, Mark Bogosian, Bob Thompson, William Marx, Don Whittaker, Amy Dunn, Robin Mountenay, Jeff Wood, Bob Murphy, Michael Piret, Tom Caldwell, Monica Roberts, Natalie Matovinovic, Roger Vogel, and Emily Boyd. Ann Arbor and Interlochen April 2001

W. E.

CONTENTS

Maps: Europe 2; Britain 3; Liverpool America 8; Asia and Oceania 9

4;

London

6;

PRELUDE

Thinking of Linking

11

ONE

And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960) Historical Narrative

19

20

Musical Beginnings: The Quarry Men

20

The First Compositions by Lennon and McCartney The Quarry Men with George Harrison

35

British Revolutionaries: The Liverpool Scene Bass and Drums

24

37

41

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears 48 Formal, Harmonic, and Melodic Characteristics Rhythmic, Textural, Instrumental, and Vocal Articulation of Structure 62

48

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Contents

TWO

Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960 –1963) The Beatles with Pete Best

82

Apprenticeship in Hamburg Enter Brian Epstein

81

82

102

The First EMI Recordings

119

New Drummer Ringo Starr

119

Introductory Singles: “Love Me Do” / “P.S. I Love You” and “Please Please Me” / “Ask Me Why” 122 The First LP: Please Please Me Composers at Work

142

159

Spring 1963—The Third Single

159

Composing for the Epstein Stable

166

The Fourth Single: “She Loves You” / “I’ll Get You” The Final Two-Track Recordings

173

180

Beatlemania: The Second Half of 1963 The Second LP: With the Beatles

180

182

INTERLUDE

I Want to Hold Your Hand

197

Initial Reception in America

205

THREE

I’m Not What I Appear to Be (1964)

211

The Beatles Conquer America

212

History through May 1964

212

Peter & Gordon; Other Friends

218

“Can’t Buy Me Love” / “You Can’t Do That” A Hard Day’s Night: Film Soundtrack

221

225

June – July 1964: World Tour, Additional LP and EP Tracks The Australian Tour and Surrounding Events Final Recordings for the EP and LP Late 1964: U.S. Tour and Fourth LP Events of August–December 1964

238

238

240 250 250

Beatles for Sale and “I Feel Fine” / “She’s a Woman”

253

The Beatles’ Musical Growth in Their First Two Years with EMI

269

Contents

FOUR

I’m Here to Show Everybody the Light (1965) Popular Music, 1964 –1966 British Beat Music

273

273

Pop Music in America

275

A Second Feature Film

280

Help!: Recordings for the Film The Spring of 1965

280

295

The Second Half of 1965 Summer Tours

273

305

305

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper” November–December 1965

335

POSTLUDE

The Act You’ve Known for All These Years (1957– 2000)

339

APPENDIX

Instruments Played by the Early-Period Beatles

345

Table of Chord Functions 357 Glossary of Terms 363 Notes 367 References 413 Index of Names, Songs, Albums, Videos, and Artworks 433

308

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THE

BEATLES AS MUSICIANS

Athens GREECE Rome 5 Nice 5

TUNISIA

Genoa 5

Milan 5

AUSTRIA

Versailles 4

Barcelona 5

Lyon 5

Paris 45

SWITZERLAND

Essen 6 Cologne

Carboneras

Tenerife

(Canary Is.)

THE BEATLES IN EUROPE

Gibraltar

SPAIN

Almeria

Madrid 5

Guernsey 3

Jersey 3

Blokker 4

Arnhem

London

Liverpool

Hillegom

Amsterdam

Celle

Munich 6

Berlin

Hamburg 0126

Vienna

Copenhagen 4

Stockholm 34 Eskilstuna 3 SWEDEN Boras 3 Goteborg 3

Karlstad 3

On all maps, numbers following city and place names indicate the dates of Quarry Men / Beatles performances for audiences. (Each such digit signifies the last digit of the year of a performance from 1957 through 1966; thus, the designation “8901” would indicate performances in the years 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1961.) Following are keys to the numbered designations of landmarks on the maps of Liverpool and London. 2

John o' Groats

Elgin 3

Fraserburgh 0

Dingwall 3 Keith 0

Inverness 0

Peterhead 0

Forres 0 Nairn 0

THE BEATLES IN BRITAIN

Aberdeen 3

Dundee 34

Bridge of Allan 3

Alloa 0

Kirkcaldy 3 Edinburgh 4

Glasgow 345

Campbelltown Mull of Kintyre Newcastle-upon-Tyne 35 Carlisle 3

Sunderland 3

Stockton-on-Tees 34 Belfast 34

Middlesbrough 3 Scarborough 34

Fleetwood 2

Nelson 3

Blackpool 34

Bradford 34

Blackburn 3

Dublin 3

Harrogate 3 York 3

Morecambe 23

Leeds 34

Hull 234

Wakefield 3 Huddersfield 3 Doncaster 23 LIVERPOOL 789012345 Llandudno 3 Manchester 912345 Sheffield 345 Prestatyn 2 Buxton 3 Rhyl 23 Lincoln 3 Chester 23 Bangor Mansfield 3 Hanley 3 Mold 3 Crewe 2 Stoke-on-Trent 3 Pwllheli Nottingham 34 Whitchurch 3 Trentham 3

Cardigan Bay

Shrewsbury 23 W Bromwich 2 Tamworth 3 Leicester 34 Wolverhampton 3 Sutton Coldfield 3 Birmingham 345 Old Hill 3 Coventry 23 Tenbury 3 Smethwick 2 Worcester 3 Abergavenny 3

Cheltenham 3

Skegness

Norwich 3 Peterborough 23

Cambridge 3

Northampton 3 Stowe School 3

Great Yarmouth 3

Ipswich 34 Bedford 23

Luton 34 ESSEX Gloucester 3 Oxford 3 Stroud 2 Romford 3 Henley-onSouthend-on-Sea 3 Wembley 3456 Bristol 34 Swindon 2 Margate 3 Caversham 0 Slough 3 LONDON Bath 3 12345 Weybridge Chatham 3 Weston-super-Mare 3 Aldershot 1 SURREY Guildford 3 Sevenoaks Andover KENT Salisbury 3 Taunton 3 Southampton 34 Brighton 34 Portsmouth 3 Bournemouth 34 Exeter 34

Lydney 2 Swansea Cardiff 345

Southsea 3 Plymouth 34

Isle of Wight

Torquay 3

Land's End

3

To: Mossway Hall, Croxteth 1 St Luke's, Crosby 0 Alexander Hall, Crosby 0 Lathom Memorial Hall, Seaforth 01

City

14

Centre Wirral

37

R VE RI

2

To: Ford 8? Litherland Town Hall 01 lub, W Albany Cinema, Maghull 1 lands C To: Low Club, West Aintree Institute 1 sbah Conserv a C Walton Hosp (PM b. 1942) ay Broadw 's Colleg Blair Hall, Walton 1 3 St EdwardHall, Tue Anfield, Everton n's h Jo t S L 4 on Finch To: Huytton Hall, P 13 5 Hamble Skiffle Ce e 12 Morgu 7 6 11 a ley Abb 9 8 16 To: StanHall, Kno 17 Village 10 18 43 15 19 29 21 22 20 28 30 23 24 25 27 W 36 26 35 32 31 33 34

39 38

Sefton Park

Dingle

a sul nin Pe

41 40

M E R S E

19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

1. Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight. 2 2. Majestic Ballroom, Conway Street, Birkenhead. 23 3. Grafton and Locarno Ballrooms, West Derby Road. 723 4. Percy Phillips’ home studio, 38 Kensington Street. 5. Cassanova Club, London Road. 1 6. Odeon Cinema, London Road. 34 7. Empire Theatre, Lime Street. 792345 8. Rushworth’s Music House, Whitechapel. 9. NEMS, 12/14 Whitechapel. 10. Hessy’s Music Store, 62 Stanley Street. 11. The Cavern, 10a Mathew Street. 7123 12. Jazz Society / Storyville, 13 Temple Street. 12 13. Cassanova Club, Dale Street. 0 14. Royal Iris Cruiseship. 12 15. Merseyside Civil Service Club, Lower Castle Street. 1 16. Lewis’s Dept. Store, Renshaw Street. 2 17. Mersey Beat office, 81 Renshaw Street. 18. Odd Spot Club, 89 Bold Street. 2

24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37.

4

Y

THE BEATLES IN LIVERPOOL

1

Jacaranda Club, 23 Slater Street. 90 Cabaret Club, 28 Duke Street. 0 Blue Angel Club, 108 Seel Street. 0 Ye Cracke Pub, Rice Street. Liverpool Institute. (PM 1953 – 60, GH 1954 – 59) David Lewis Club, Great George Place. 1 Liverpool College of Art (JL 1957– 60). 0 Liverpool Cathedral, St. James Road. 3 Gambier Terrace. (JL flat 1960) 36 Falkner Street. (BE flat) Oxford St. Maternity Hospital. (JL b. 1940) Smithdown Lane. 8? New Colony Club, 80 Berkley Street. 0 New Cabaret Artistes Club, 174a Upper Parliament Street. 0 Rialto Ballroom, Upper Parliament Street. 72 Starline Club, Windsor Street. 1 Roseberry Street. 7 Pavilion Theatre, Lodge Lane. 72 10 Admiral Grove. (RS home 1946 – 63)

age 8 erby Vill West DVillage 9012 en 7 y rb e rris Gre tD lub, No vative Cdfield Park 1 n a S , ge 1 e Brook epot 9 sd Lane buoss 12 Page M ad Green 8 ellar, Bro wan 7 b, Old S cial Clu atoir So 12 otty Ash

Blackburn 3

Preston 23

Irish Sea

Darwen 3 Southport 123

LA N C A S H I R E Oldham 3 Wigan 4 Litherland 01

2

Aintree 712

23

Warrington 2 Widnes 23

e

2

IR R

0

AL

ee rD ve Ri 2

Prescot 9

M

2

44

r

2

Middleton 3 Manchester 912345

St Helens 23 Newton le Willows 2

Bootle 912

01 123 W

2

3

Leigh 3

Urmston 3 Stockport 3

Runcorn 2 Frodsham 3

s e y 3

Northwich 23

Macclesfield 3

CHESHIRE Chester 23

Wavertree 45

46

42

Childwall 47 50

48 49

To: Le Childwe Park Golf Gatea all Labour CCourse, Ch ildwall Halew cre Labour lub 8? 8? C ood Vill age Hlub 8? all 1

51 52 Calderstone 53

Woolton 54 Village 58

55 Allerton Park Golf Course

mile S

57 59

C

56

1/2

A

60

62

61

Allerton

L E

63 64 65 Garston

66

70 Speke

68

69

67

54. Strawberry Field orphanage, Beaconsfield Road. 55. “Mendips,” 251 Menlove Avenue. (JL home c. 1945 – 63) 56. Red sandstone quarry. 57. St. Peter’s Church, Church Road. 7 58. St. Peter’s Church Hall, Church Road. 7 59. Woolton Village Club, Allerton Road. 9 60. Woolton Wood. 61. 174 Mackets Lane. (GH home 1962– 63) 62. 20 Forthlin Road. (PM home 1955 – 63) 63. 1 Blomfield Road. (Julia Lennon home through 1958) 64. Winter Gardens Ballroom, Heald Street. 7 65. Wilson Hall, St. Mary’s Road. 78 66. Stevedores’ and Dockers’ Club, Window Lane. 8 67. Stockton Wood Primary School. (PM 1948+) 68. 72 Western Avenue. (PM home 1946+) 69. 25 Upton Green. (GH home 1950-62) 70. 12 Ardwick Road. (PM home to 1955)

38. St. Silas Primary School. (RS 1945 – 47) 39. 9 Madryn Street. (RS b. 1940) 40. Dingle Vale Secondary Modern School. (RS 1951– 53) 41. 37 Aigburth Drive. (Sutcliffe home) 42. Holyoake Hall, Smithdown Road. 7 43. Picton Road Bus Depot Social Club. 9 44. 12 Arnold Grove. (GH b. 1943; home 1943 – 50) 45. 197 Queens Drive. (BE home 1934 – 63) 46. Mosspits Lane Infants School. (JL 1945 – 46) 47. 9 Newcastle Road. (JL home 1940 – c. 1945) 48. Penny Lane roundabout. 49. St. Barnabus Church, Smithdown Road. 50. Dovedale Towers, Penny Lane. 7 51. Dovedale Road Infants School. (JL 1946 – 52, GH 1948 – 54) 52. Quarry Bank Grammar School. (JL 1952– 57). 7 53. Calderstones.

5

THE BEATLES IN LONDON

To: Wembley 3456, Willesden

1 3 St John's W 4 6

7

Acton To: Henley-on-Thames (GH home 1969+), Heathrow

57

56

55

54

58 59

To: Twickenham, Richmond, Ascot (JL home, "Tittenhurst," 1969-71), Weybridge

(JL home, "Kenwood," 1964

17. Scala Theatre, Charlotte Street. 18. Regent Sound, 164 – 6 Tottenham Court Road. 19. Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Gower Street. (BE 1956 – 57) 20. British Library and Museum, Great Russell Street. 21. Indica Books / International Times, Southampton Row. 22. Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Rosebery Street. 23. Guildhall School of Music. (GM 1947– 50) 24. Kingsway / DeLane Lea Recording Studios, 129 Kingsway. 25. Lyceum Ballroom, Wellington Street. 26. NEMS (1963 – 66), 13 Monmouth Street. 27. Old Vic Theatre, 103 The Cut. 28. Saville Theatre, 135 – 49 Shaftesbury Avenue. 29. Northern Songs / Dick James Music (1963 – 64), Charing Cross Road.

1. Decca Studios, 165 Broadhurst Gardens. 2. The Roundhouse, 100 Chalk Farm Road. 3. Gaumont State Cinema, 195 – 9 Kilburn High Road. 34 4. EMI Studios, 3 Abbey Road. 5. 7 Cavendish Avenue. (PM home 1966+) 6. BBC Maida Vale Studios, Delaware Road. 7. Paddington Station, Praed Street. 8. Lisson Gallery, 66 – 8 Bell Street. 9. Marylebone Magistrate, 181 Marylebone Road. 10. Montagu Square. (RS flat 1964 – 69) 11. Apple boutique, 94 Baker Street. 12. 57 Wimpole Street. (Asher home) 13. EMI House, 20 Manchester Square. 14. Apple offices (1968 – 69), 95 Wigmore Street. 15. BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place. 16. Associated Independent Recording, Oxford Circus.

6

To: Walthamstow 34, Leyton 3, Tottenham, Finsbury Park 345

2

Wood Regent's Park

5 8

9

7 10 Hyde Park

22 17 18

19 20 21 15 11 12 34 30 35 13 29 14 48 45 24 16 28 25 26 36 38 49 37 39 47 46 40 32 44 43 50 31 41 42 53 33 51 52

23

To: East Ham

27

To: Tooting 3, Croydon, Lewisham 3

To: Woolwich 3

S CALE 0

4-8, RS home, "Sunny

1/

mile

Heights," 1965-8), Esher (GH home, "Kinfauns," 1964-9)

30. Northern Songs / Dick James Music (1964 – 69), 71– 75 New Oxford Road. 31. Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue. 34 32. Trafalgar Square. 33. Institute of Contemporary Arts, 12 Carlton House Terrace. 34. MPL Communications, 1 Soho Square. 35. Radha Krishna Temple, Soho Street. 36. Trident Studios, 17 St. Anne’s Court. 37. Blue Gardenia Club, St. Anne’s Court. 1 38. Piccadilly Theatre, Denman Street. 39. Prince of Wales Theatre, 31 Coventry Street. 34 40. BBC Paris Studio, Regent Street. 41. Indica Gallery, 6 Mason’s Yard. 42. Pigalle Club, Piccadilly. 3 43. Apple Offices and Studios (1968 – 95), 3 Saville Row. 44. London Arts Gallery, 22 New Bond Street.

45. London Palladium, 8 Argyll Street. 4 46. BBC Aeolian Hall, 135 – 7 New Bond Street. 3 47. Chappell Recording Studios, 52 Maddox Street. 48. HMV Record Store, 363 Oxford Street. 49. Fraser Gallery, 69 Duke Street. 50. Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane. 3 51. Buckingham Palace. 52. 13 Chapel Street. (BE home 1964 – 67) 53. William Mews. (GH, RS homes 1963 – 64) 54. Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore. 3 55. 13 Emperor’s Gate. (JL home 1963 – 64) 56. Hammersmith Odeon Cinema. 45 57. Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital, Goldhawk Road. 58. Chiswick House conservatory, Burlington Lane. 59. Olympic Studios, Church Road, Barnes.

7

Vancouver 4

THE BEATLES IN AMERICA

Seattle 6 Portland 5

Montreal 4 Minneapolis 5

San Francisco 456 Las Vegas 4 8

Los Angeles 456 San Diego 5

Toronto 456

Boston 46

Detroit 46 Woodstock Cleveland 46 New York 456 Philadelphia 46 Pittsburgh 4 Atlantic City 4 Indianapolis 4 Baltimore 4 Denver 4 Washington, D.C. 46 Kansas City 4 Cincinnati 4 Tidewater St. Louis 6 Nashville Memphis 6 Muscle Shoals Atlanta 5 Birmingham Dallas 4 Longview Jacksonville 4 Houston 5 New Orleans 4 Nassau Miami Milwaukee 4 Chicago 456

BAHAMAS

Tokyo 6 Dehra Dun Rishikesh New Delhi Hong Kong 4 Bombay Manila 6

THE BEATLES IN ASIA AND OCEANIA Brisbane 4

Adelaide 4

Sydney 4

Melbourne 4

Auckland 4 Wellington 4 Christchurch 4 Dunedin 4

9

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1 PRELUDE

THINKING OF LINKING

Five miles southeast of the city center of Liverpool rises a ridge of red sandstone; atop the crest sits Woolton Village. From a vantage point in Woolton Wood, one can look south beyond the industrial flatlands of Speke, across the Mersey estuary to the Wirral peninsula. On a clear day, the northern ranges of the Welsh Cambrian mountains are visible twenty miles to the southwest. Every Sunday evening for as long as they can remember, Woolton residents have heard the changing of the bells of St. Peter’s Church, a fifteenminute performance of every permutation of the first six degrees of a major scale. The ringing of the bells echoes majestically from the sheer 200-foot walls of the red quarry dug directly beneath the bell tower. This is a district of considerable historical interest. A mile from the ridge, neolithic Druids marked the five Calderstones with concentric rings and other prehistoric symbols, then placed them in an eighteen-foot circle. Eleventh-century scribes recorded the names of the neighboring manors of Woolton, Allerton, Calderstone, Speke, and Wavertree in the Domesday Book. The population of greater Liverpool expanded in the eighteenth century from 2,000 to 6,000, its growth based on new wealth from the slave trade. Rock quarried in Allerton and Woolton was worked into the locally famous Quarry Bank house in 1866 and — from 1904 to 1978 — into the world’s largest Anglican cathedral.1 Of greater present interest is the garden fête hosted by St. Peter’s (Woolton) on the afternoon of July 6, 1957, which saw the meeting of two local teenage guitarists. At this affair, John Lennon of Woolton led his amateur band through skiffle and rock-and-roll numbers. Among the listeners was Paul McCartney of Allerton, who there met Lennon and afterward impressed him with his own guitar technique and an ability to recall song lyrics that Lennon could not be bothered to memorize. Paul was to make his debut with John’s Quarry Men the following October, marking the beginning of a twelve-year partnership. James Paul McCartney was born to James and Mary (née Mohin) McCartney on June 18, 1942, in the north-Liverpool neighborhood of Walton. Their father a cotton salesman and mother a midwife, Paul and his brother Michael (b. 1944) moved from rooms to rooms in the districts of Anfield, Wallasey, Knowsley, and Everton before finding one and then another small council terrace house in Speke, in which the family lived from 1946 to 1955.2 From there, the McCartneys moved to a larger council home, a three-bedroom terraced house on Forthlin Road, in the more established residential neighborhood of Allerton, which was Paul’s residence until moving to London in 1963.3 Paul’s mother died at 11

12

Thinking of Linking

forty-six of breast cancer in October 1956, a mere month after symptoms were recognized. The McCartney home always had a piano of World War I vintage because Paul’s father Jim (1902– 76), the son of a brass band’s tubist, had been a musician, playing trumpet and piano in leading semiprofessional local bands such as the Masked Melody Makers (in 1919) and the Jim Mac Jazz Band (active in the 1920s). While none of the Beatles received any sort of formal instruction in an instrument, theory, or composition, Paul’s home was musically richer than that of the others; he has said, “I had a little bit more knowledge of harmony through my dad. I actually knew what the word harmony meant.”4 Paul sang in a church choir as a boy, was given a trumpet when about thirteen, and learned enough chords, six, on his cousin Bett Robbins’s banjolele to play “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue.”5 In November 1987 he said: “[when] people of my generation . . . were growing up, rock and roll hadn’t been invented yet! Blues had started, but that was nowhere near as popular; you had to be a real folkie to be into blues. Anything up to the 1950s was the old traditions, and in Britain that was the music hall. . . . My dad [would be] sitting around the house tapping out things like ‘Chicago’ on the ivories. . . . There was a lot of that music-hall around our house on the radio and the telly.”6 The cheery, superficially bubbly sounds of the British music hall, chromaticized by winking applied dominants and gaudy diminished sevenths, expressed in bouncing dotted rhythms by reed sections and jolly root-fifth oom-pah figures in the bass, and telling the colorful tales of characters such as Champagne Charlie, Lucy Jaggs, Jim O’Shea, Lily of Laguna, Cushie Butterfield, Billie Bates, and ‘En’ry Hawkins, took a firm hold on McCartney’s imagination. Not only was the vaudevillian “When I’m SixtyFour” one of his earliest written tunes and not only was he to produce many dance band numbers and fluffy story-line characterizations with the Beatles and afterward, but his lifelong, often dominating motivation to entertain — to give the public a rollicking good time, however light — is utterly consonant with what we know of his father’s musical interests.7 McCartney’s stage humor with the Beatles, manifested in his running gags in the patter between numbers on BBC broadcasts and in the annual Christmas messages recorded for fan club members, in the vaudevillian skits for British television in 1963 and 1964, in his jokey misattributions of songs’ origins in concerts, and in his hammy part in the conclusion to the 1968 film Yellow Submarine, all of it begging rim shots and unappreciative groans, is similarly offered as endearingly light entertainment. McCartney has given us a clearer hearing of his father’s music: “Did my dad ever write anything? Well, he used to have this one song, which he’d play over and over on the piano. It was just a tune; there were no words to it. I actually remember him, when I was a real little kid, saying, ‘Can anyone think of any words to this?’ We all did try for a while; it was like a challenge. Well, years later, I recorded it with Chet Atkins and Floyd Cramer in Nashville.”8 The cadence to the first chorus of Jim Mac’s instrumental ditty “Walking in the Park With Eloise” is represented in example 1.1, which reproduces the cornet, clarinet, trombone, and electric bass parts (this last played by the composer’s ex-Beatle 12

Thinking of Linking

Example 1.1 “Walking in the Park with Eloise” (James McCartney). © 1974 Kidney Punch Music, Inc.


♯ Cornet   12



♯

 

Clarinet





Trombone



Elec. Bass



    


♯   ♯        ♮  ♮      ♯    ♯   ♭       ♯   ♯    



 

 



14

 ♮

  ♭ 



  ♭  ♯

♮ ♯

♯ ♯ 









  ♭    

 



 

    

son; rhythm parts are omitted) as produced by McCartney in June – July 1974.9 The instrumentation of this chorus lends the tune a Dixieland quality, and a Nashville spirit breaks out later in Atkins’s and Cramer’s characteristic solos on rockabilly guitar and countrified piano, respectively. But the composition’s heritage in the British stage of the 1920s and 1930s is always at the forefront with its applied dominants, fully diminished seventh applied chord (m. 13 [0:32 – 0:34]), many offhand chromatic passing tones, and a jaunty inverted-dotted rhythm. A less-than-flattering view of McCartney’s inclination toward the whimsical is given in this 1987 portrait by radio personality Timothy White: “His seems an existence played out in an English music hall, evoking that sentimental mid-nineteenth-century tradition — featuring pantomime, sketch comedy, and the song-and-dance man — that developed from entertainment in inns and taverns. In his music, misfortune is a pratfall, tragedy is dirgeful melodrama, happiness is a comic fluke, and fulfillment is an illustrated postcard captioned ‘Ardor.’ ”10 While McCartney’s parentage is not always obvious in his product — not quite to the degree suggested by White — the son certainly did learn from the father that popularity could be gained through a crafty manipulation of the art and its audience. As Paul once said, “my dad was the fella at the family parties who played the piano and knew all the tunes. . . . And I remember him saying to me when I was quite young, learn the piano, you’ll always get invited to parties.”11 John Winston Lennon was born October 9, 1940, to Alfred Lennon (1912– 76) and his wife Julia (née Stanley, 1914 – 58). The bright, artistic, playful, and impulsive Julia rarely saw the charming but irresponsible Alf after their 1938 wedding; he left home permanently shortly after John was born. During John’s first years, Julia eked out an existence with John in a small terraced house on 13

13

14

Thinking of Linking

Newcastle Road (two blocks from the Penny Lane bus terminal). Newcastle Road neighbors maintain that Julia took to prostitution, an allegation not otherwise documented. John certainly had a half-sister born in June 1945, the father unidentified and the infant placed for adoption with a Norwegian couple within weeks of birth. When Julia — never divorced — began a romance with John Dykins and set up a household with him, Julia’s oldest sister, “Mimi” (Mary Elizabeth, 1906 – 91), sought the aid of Liverpool Social Services, which ruled that John, then about five years old, was to be raised by his aunt and her husband, George Smith, who were themselves without children.12 John’s new home with Mimi and George was a middle-class semidetatched house with a good-sized garden on Menlove Avenue in Woolton. Aside from spells in citycenter quarters during college years, the Menlove house called Mendips was to be John’s home for nearly two decades into 1963. In her liner notes for John’s posthumous album, Menlove Avenue, Yoko Ono says that John “grew up in Liverpool, listening to Greensleeves, BBC Radio and Tessie O’Shea.” This is consistent with McCartney’s memory, which has it that Mimi “much preferred classical music and the traditional dance orchestras of the Fifties she heard on the BBC, like Victor Sylvester” to the rock and roll that was a delight to John’s mother, who with Dykins and their two daughters lived a fifteen-minute walk from Mendips.13 The short distance allowed more and more frequent visits between son and mother as John entered his teen years, especially after the sudden death of George Smith in June 1955. From October 1952 to July 1957, John attended Quarry Bank Grammar School, which occupied the aforementioned Quarry Bank house. Practical Mimi could not keep John interested in his schoolwork, and she lost ground to fun-loving Julia in music as well, despite the fact that her husband George Smith had given the boy (at about ten years of age) his first musical instrument, a harmonica. The Mendips gramophone simply did not play the music he enjoyed. Instead John became quite taken with Julia’s performance on the banjolele, an instrument (along with piano) that she had learned from her paternal grandfather, and on which she would perform at pubs and local parties.14 John’s own paternal musical heritage is in some dispute. Alf maintained that his own father, Jack Lennon (b. 1855), had emigrated from Dublin to America and found success performing with the Kentucky Minstrels, settling in Liverpool at the turn of the century to start a family. Mimi (contemptuous of Alf and of any sort of claimed connection between himself and John) dismissed the entire story, having been assured by Alf ’s brother that although John’s grandfather had been of Irish descent, he had been born in Liverpool and was never a member of the minstrel troupe.15 Another story about John’s musical background, while possibly apochryphal, is certainly in character; it says that as “a choirboy at St. Peter’s Church, he was eleven years old when he was permanently barred from Sunday services” for misbehavior.16 Impossible to discipline as a teen, John as a Beatle could publicly defy convention only through his cruel juvenile humor. When Paul yukked it up on stage by announcing one song or another as having been recorded by “our favorite American group, Sophie Tucker,” one would not think that insult was the

Thinking of Linking

intent. John, on the other hand, made it abundantly clear when he was ridiculing even the afflicted — particularly with his exaggerated imitations of those with spastic paralysis and harelips. More acceptable was his usual stage reference to Peggy Lee as “Peggy Leg” in his introduction to “the song from the musical, The Muscle Man,” “Till There Was You,” which she had recorded.17 To the world at large, John was cheeky but sophisticated when he was heard to have announced “Twist and Shout” to the queen mother and the entire audience at the Royal Variety performance (November 4, 1963) thus: “For our last number I’d like to ask your help. For the people in the cheaper seats, clap your hands, and the rest of you, if you’d just rattle your jewelry.” Only a handful knew that for manager Brian Epstein, this was a private and very cruel joke, for Lennon had informed Brian prior to the performance that he was considering hurling an obscene insult at the royal family at this point in the show; Brian could not have been sure what to expect. While McCartney may be said to have constantly developed — as a means to entertain — a focused musical talent with an ear for counterpoint and other aspects of craft in the demonstration of a popular common language that he did much to enrich, Lennon’s mature music is best appreciated as the daring product of a more general, largely unconscious, searching but undisciplined artistic sensibility, a less-than-“perfect” vehicle for expressing deeply held personal truths. Lennon had little regard for the mastery of the niceties of received compositional dictates or for the dull expectations of the bulk of his audience. Not that McCartney’s music is without import, but his pronouncements of hopes for the world (such as his wish for a more humble respect for the natural environment and the animal kingdom) often come across as overstated public relations billboards. All too rarely do they have the subtle-but-vital poetic impact of “Blackbird” (1968), his simply elegant apotheosis for the civil rights struggle. Not that Lennon always resisted being heavy-handed; but even the blunt nature of his dire agitprop work (see Some Time in New York City) was itself the display of an artistic stance promoting the direct expression of utilitarian ideals. And not that Lennon’s frequent disregard for technical precision, in realms of craft that lay beyond his interest and patience, hampered his ability to reach others. On the contrary, his sometimes strange music would commonly set in motion deep and strong sympathetic vibrations among the many millions of his devoted listeners. These sorts of differences between Lennon and McCartney are sometimes explained as a manifestation of class distinction between the two. Lennon is seen as the intellectually inquisitive middle-class boy with the leisure to read all of his auntie’s books on struggling artists and while away his childhood in word play, daydreaming, and picture drawing: at about seven, he illustrated a cartoon book he called “Sport and Speed Illustrated,” and at age eleven he painted the pictures used on the cover of Walls and Bridges.18 This is the boy whose most difficult-to-express artistic outpourings were first to find a limited audience in his hilarious and cruel books of vignettes, poetry, and cartoons, In His Own Write (containing many materials written as a teen under the rubric The Daily Howl and published as a book in 1964) and its sequel A Spaniard in the

15

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Works (1965); then were to suddenly burst forth — to a seemingly private reception — in the aforementioned media plus nontonal music, film, lithography, and “happenings,” upon collaboration with Yoko Ono beginning in 1968; and were to find perhaps their most productive voice in the cathartic album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Conversely, McCartney is seen as the sentimental, nonintellectual working-class craftsman who counts his pay in smiles and then moves on to the next project, toiling to get every note just right. There is some truth in these caricatures, but it must be remembered that Lennon was genuine in his lifelong adulation for the most simplistic and visceral rock and roll (even the basic Bo Diddley could move him strongly) and that relatively complex tonal relationships came to be second nature for McCartney early on, requiring less toil and allowing for more imagination by 1965. Also important is the understanding that it was McCartney (a hip London bachelor in 1966) who introduced Lennon (then a suburban family man) to the proprietors of the Indica Gallery where John met Yoko, and that it was McCartney who introduced the Beatles to the worlds of Stockhausen and Bach, leading to a revolution in the expressive capacity of mainstream rock music. Following his ex-partner, McCartney even published a book featuring his own drawings (Paul McCartney, Composer/Artist, 1981) and was to mount an exhibition in Siegen, Germany, of seventy-three of his own paintings in May – July 1999, which exhibition formed the core of the book Paintings (2000). The horrible shock of Lennon’s death in 1980 pushed McCartney to create one of his most inspired, personal, and (nearly) unaffected works, “Here Today” (recorded in 1981 for Tug of War), a haunting tribute to the partnership as it began in the fields behind St. Peter’s Woolton Parish Church. McCartney has said that blues and folk music were fairly unknown in his circle, but he was to attempt covering the ambitious “Guitar Boogie” (a protorock-and-roll number made popular in 1948 by Arthur Smith) in his October 1957 debut with the Quarry Men. Lennon’s schoolmate Pete Shotton recalls that John used to play harmonica to such popular tunes as Vaughn Monroe’s “Cool Water” (1948) and Johnnie Ray’s “The Little White Cloud That Cried” (1951) and “Walking My Baby Home” (1952). Famous for his unrestrained vocal delivery, Johnnie Ray probably appealed to Lennon for what was heard as his “black” sound, effectively the product of a much wider and more imaginative range of vocal expression than normally shown by other popular white singers. Bob Wooler, who might be called the father of the Liverpool beat scene, describes Ray as “the harbinger of the hiccupers.”19 Lennon has maintained that the American C&W repertoire was as well known as Irish folk music in prerock Liverpool; by 1957 the Quarry Men were performing numbers that were made popular in the prerock era by Hank Williams, and by 1960 they were playing others by Les Paul and Mary Ford.20 For the young Beatles, much more important sources from this repertoire were the songs of Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran, and Johnny Burnette, whose recordings of 1954 – 55 were direct followers of Williams’s and Jimmie Rodgers’s style of hillbilly yodeling. But Perkins, Cochran, and Burnette, all of whose records the young Beatles were to

Thinking of Linking

cover, added a backbeat and changed their styles dramatically when hillbilly turned rockabilly, with the first record releases in 1954 – 55 of Memphis recording artist Elvis Presley. Elvis’s sound, with its unbridled array of vocal nuances accompanied by his hard-swinging rhythm-guitar backbeat and by Scotty Moore’s electrified bluesy bent strings, reached deep into Liverpool in mid-1956 and, in tandem with the British skiffle boom, convinced both Lennon and McCartney that they needed to have guitars. The primary focus of chapter 1 will be to illustrate the growth as performers and the emergence as composers of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, alongside the 1958 introduction of George Harrison as Quarry Men guitarist. While the Beatles did not crystallize as a quartet until Ringo Starr joined as drummer in 1962, the years prior to that time are rich in musical development and therefore demand the attention of anyone who would understand how the Beatles came to be what they were.

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ONE

1 AND THE BAND BEGINS TO PLAY (1956–1960)

The lively new skiffle beat and then the all-out-wild rock and roll of the mid-1950s invited all teenagers to drop everything and dance, all shaking to a vibration that didn’t seem to excite parents the same way. Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent: all seemed to speak directly to adolescents in a code that only they could understand. Some listeners shook right through to the soul, enough so that they too needed guitars to fully express their joy. This is the story of a few such souls who shook so joyously, the world was happily caught in their wake. This chapter is organized in two parts, the first recounting the early history of the musicians who would enter Hamburg in August 1960 as the Beatles, the second analyzing the group’s musical interests and talents during this formative period. Propelled by British skiffle, American rock and roll, and a joy in discovering new sounds, John Lennon leads the Quarry Men to semiprofessional ability as he picks up an interest in composing from guitarist Paul McCartney. The addition of George Harrison, a guitarist intent on blues and modal scales, gives the young group a local identity that stands out against the predominantly bland backdrop of British pop music of the late 1950s. Table 1.1 provides a time line summarizing the major events of the Beatles’ career through the summer of 1960.

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Table 1.1 Time Line of Major Events for the Beatles, 1940 – July 1960 1940 July 7: Oct. 9:

Ringo Starr born as Richard Starkey, Liverpool John Lennon born, Liverpool

1942 June 18:

Paul McCartney born, Liverpool

Feb. 25:

George Harrison born, Liverpool

1943

1956 Sept.?:

John Lennon picks up guitar and begins to form skiffle band, the Quarry Men

Mar.?: July 6:

First public performance of Quarry Men Paul McCartney meets John Lennon; Quarry Men recorded playing “Putting on the Style” and “Baby Let’s Play House” Paul McCartney first performs with the Quarry Men, as guitarist

1957

Oct. 18:

1958 Feb. or Mar.: Summer: July 15: Aug. 29: Nov. 15?:

George Harrison joins Quarry Men as guitarist Quarry Men record “That’ll Be the Day” / “In Spite of All the Danger” John’s mother killed Quarry Men open the Casbah Club Johnny & the Moondogs audition for TV show “Discoveries” in Manchester

1959 ?: Oct.:

Lennon and McCartney commit to songwriting partnership Group begins rehearsing at Jacaranda

Jan.: Mid– Apr.?: Apr. 23 – 24: May 20 – 28:

Stu Sutcliffe joins group as bassist Silver Beetles make Forthlin Road recordings John and Paul play as Nerk Twins in Caversham Silver Beetles, with Tommy Moore on drums, tour northern Scotland with Johnny Gentle Name “The Beatles” first appears in print Norman Chapman drums with Beatles on three July gigs; Beatles play one week at New Cabaret Artistes Club, Liverpool

1960

June 2: July:

Historical Narrative Musical Beginnings: The Quarry Men The skiffle craze, spearheaded by Scotsman Lonnie Donegan (once a trad jazz guitarist), dominated Britain in 1956 – 57.1 Playing mostly Leadbelly’s postplantation blues and other American folk tunes, often tinged by bluegrass in

Historical Narrative

numbers such as “Rock Island Line,” “Alabammy Bound,” “Cumberland Gap,” and “John Henry,” skiffle groups, including the Vipers and those led by Donegan, Johnny Duncan, and Chas McDevitt, encouraged all young Brits so inclined to take up guitars, tea-chest basses, and washboards.2 All this was standard equipment for creating the sound carried by a lead singer (vocal technique was not an issue), a guitarist who could handle three open chords (I, IV, and V, with optional sevenths welcome on any of the three — mastery not required) in a small handful of sharp keys, and a homemade rhythm section that could manage to place a heavy accent on the backbeat. Backing singers were required by only the most polished recording groups. John Lennon bought a 78-rpm copy of “Rock Island Line,” got hold of a guitar, and gathered his willing Woolton mates into such a group.3 The provenance of John’s first guitar(s) has become confused over the years. As best as the memories and legends can be conflated, it seems that John begged Mimi for a guitar and she refused; he ordered one through a newspaper ad and had it shipped to Julia’s, telling Mimi that his mother had bought it for him. John’s musical cohort Rod Davis has recalled this being a Dutch-made Egmond, just like the first guitar owned by George Harrison. Mimi apparently replaced this unsuitable guitar (March 1957 being the accepted date), with a secondhand Spanish-style Gallatone Champion, a steel-stringed instrument purchased at Hessy’s, a music shop on the city center’s Whitechapel Street, across the intersection from the more upscale Rushworth’s Music House. Mimi only allowed him to play it on her tiny enclosed front porch.4 By 1956 Julia had shown John a good bit on the banjolele, a hybrid instrument joining a banjo head and bridge with a small-scale ukulele neck. Unschooled in the guitar’s proper tuning, John and Julia removed two strings and tuned the other four to her uke configuration, probably an octave below the soprano ukulele’s G tuning: G – B – fs– a. Mother and son worked out all John’s chords with unorthodox positions — it certainly made no difference for a skiffle player. Julia’s musical interests encouraged John’s. They started with Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame,” a 1955 hit.5 Beginning with the May 1956 release in Britain of “Heartbreak Hotel,” she would regularly play Presley’s threechord, twelve-bar-based hits, “Hound Dog,” “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear,” and “Jailhouse Rock” on the banjolele while he worked them out on his guitar. “My mother taught me quite a bit, my first lessons really. Most of our stuff then in the early days was just twelve bar boogies, nothing fancy. Of course, Paul came along later and taught me a few things.”6 The guitar became John’s obsession, and Aunt Mimi saw it as an interference with his schoolwork. Although she did buy him a better instrument, she is well known for having told the boy, “the guitar’s all right as a hobby, John, but you’ll never make a living from it.” John and his friend Pete Shotton formed a duo they called the Black Jacks in the fall of 1956, John on guitar and vocals and Pete on washboard played with thimbles. When personnel were added over the succeeding month, they became the Quarry Men, named for their school song, “Quarry Men, Strong before Our Birth.” Perhaps the school’s motto echoed for Lennon the sweat-gleaming skiffle stories of poleaxes, pig iron, and shackles. New members included

21

22

And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Rod Davis on banjo; Eric Griffiths, guitar (duplicating John’s banjolele tuning); Colin Hanton, drums; and Bill Smith, Ivan Vaughan, or Nigel Whalley, and then Len Garry, appearing with a tea-chest bass. All participation other than Lennon’s was highly intermittent. Table 1.2 approximates the group’s evolving membership and assignments. The first numbers performed by the skifflers are said to include “Rock Island Line,” “John Henry,” “Worried Man Blues,” “Wabash Cannonball,” “Cumberland Gap,” “Don’t You Rock Me, Daddy-O,” “Railroad Bill,” “Freight Train,” “Last Train to San Fernando,” “Maggie May,” and “Putting On the Style.”7 John was an enthusiastic strummer and by all standards was tough on his instrument; fellow Quarry Man Davis says he frequently broke his strings.8 The photographic record from August 1960 through February 1964 shows three different sets of knobs, a cracked pickguard, a change of tailpiece/vibrato unit and a total refinishing of the body on his first Rickenbacker guitar, suggesting a battering beyond normal heavy use, so we can assume that the Gallatone was worked pretty hard as well. As John gained technique and repertoire, the band began to cover his favorite rock-and-roll records. Although the BBC played no such music, Julia was not John’s only source for this literature. Shotton says that he and John got their earliest exposure to records by Presley, Bill Haley, Gene Vincent, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly through late-night continental broadcasts: “Our salvation proved to be Radio Luxembourg, which boasted a late-night program, ‘The Jack Jackson Show,’ devoted primarily to original American rock and roll recordings.”9 Ray Coleman reports that the first rock-and-roll numbers to be added to the Quarry Men’s skiffle repertoire were “Jailhouse Rock,” Perkins’s “Blue Suede Shoes,” and Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day.” Other 1957– 58 additions included Presley’s “Baby Let’s Play House” and “All Shook Up,” the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love,” Holly’s “Peggy Sue,” and Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”10 McCartney Joins the Group After he saw Lonnie Donegan at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre on November 11, 1956, Paul McCartney traded the trumpet his dad had given him for his first guitar, a natural-finish flattop acoustic model of unknown make with eighteen frets, only twelve of which were clear of the body; dot inlays appeared on only the fifth, seventh and twelfth frets, marking this clearly as a beginner’s instrument. As was the case with Lennon’s, this first box must have been unsuitable, because 1957 photographs already show Paul playing the Zenith that he was to use through 1960.11 Building on an introduction to the banjolele courtesy of his cousin Bett, Paul learned a bit of guitar from his friend Ian James, and he often tells a story of taking the bus to find someone who supposedly could show him how to form a B7 chord. Paul’s brother Michael remembers that Paul worked hard at the instrument in a wide variety of styles but that he most often covered songs by Presley and Little Richard.12 Among the first songs that Paul learned to play were Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock” and Vincent’s “Be-Bop-A-Lula.” He says he and a schoolmate entertained at one end-of-term class party by standing on a desktop with guitars, Paul screaming through Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally.”13 It was Paul’s mate at the Liverpool Institute (the city’s best high school),

Table 1.2 Membership in John Lennon’s Groups, 1956 –1962 1956

1957

1958

1959

1960

1961

1962

John Lennon, principal baritone vocals Len Garry, principal tenor vocals Paul McCartney, principal tenor vocals George Harrison, secondary tenor vocals John Lennon, acoustic guitar

amp. ac. gtr.

electric guitar

Eric Griffiths, acoustic guitar Paul McCartney, acoustic guitar.

amplified ac. guitar

G. Harrison, amplified ac. guitar acoustic guitar,

electric guitar electric guitar


Ken Brown, ac. gtr.


P. M., Piano
Ken Brown, bass

Rod Davis, banjo

Roy Young, piano

J. Duff Lowe, piano Bill S., Ivan V.,
Nigel W., tea-chest

Stu Sutcliffe, electric bass
C. Newby, elec. bass

Len Garry, tea-chest bass

P. McCartney, electric bass
Tommy Moore, drums

Pete Shotton, washboard Colin Hanton, drums

Norman Chapman, drums

Pete Best, drums Johnny Hutchinson, drums Ringo Starr, drums

24

And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Quarry Man Ivan Vaughan, who suggested he come to St. Peter’s on July 6, 1957, to hear his group, which on that day played “Cumberland Gap,” “Railroad Bill,” “Maggie May,” “Putting On the Style,” “Baby Let’s Play House,” and the Dell-Vikings’ hit “Come Go with Me.” John says that this date was his first attempt to perform the last-named song “in public with a real band,” and he hadn’t quite learned the lyrics; reportedly he sang at least one chorus as “come love me darlin’, come and go with me / down, down, down to the penitentiary.”14 In a private jab in a very public forum, in the song “Too Many People” (Ram [McCartney 1971]), Paul once told John that their relationship had been Lennon’s lucky break. He might have been referring to their meeting on this July day, for it happens that “Come Go with Me” was the first record Paul had ever bought, and the correct lyrics to this song and to “Be-Bop-A-Lula” proved an immediate talking point between them when they met after the garden performance at the hall across Church Road from St. Peter’s. McCartney: “I knew all the words and they didn’t. That was big currency.” A far luckier break was that Paul was able to show John the correct tuning for his instrument, and he taught his new friend a few chords besides. To top it off, Paul demonstrated his own technique in “Twenty Flight Rock”; “then I did my Little Richard imitation, went through all the stuff I knew. John seemed quite impressed.”15 John was quite impressed. After a few weeks of wrestling with his ego, Lennon decided that the group’s musicality was more important to him than was his unrivaled musical leadership; on July 20 McCartney was invited to join the band. After a stay at scout camp and a family holiday, Paul finally joined and had his first gig with the Quarry Men on October 18, 1957 (“well, I suppose that you could say that we were playing hard to get,” Paul was to write in “Here Today,” Tug of War [1982]). From then on, the two met regularly for musical give-and-take. They practiced together on the tiny Mendips porch. With Paul’s dad at work, they would “sag off ” school to have the run of Paul’s front parlor and its piano. John having begun classes at the Liverpool College of Art in September 1957, Paul would bring his guitar from the Institute right next door, and they would entertain the art students through the lunch hour with Paul’s frenetic vocalizations of “We’re Gonna Move,” “Rip It Up,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly,” John’s “Peggy Sue” and “When You’re Smiling,” and both of them in soft harmony for “All I Have to Do Is Dream.”16 They would meet at Julia’s — her Blomfield Road home was just a few blocks from Paul’s — and work in the vibrant acoustics of the upstairs bath, with other Quarry Men often crammed in besides. Julia loved it. Paul recalls, “She was always teaching us new tunes. I remember two in particular, ‘Ramona’ and . . . ‘Wedding Bells are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine.’ Much later, during the Beatles years, John and I often tried to write songs with that same feeling to them. ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ was one we wrote along those lines.”17

The First Compositions by Lennon and McCartney Document Study Masterpieces such as “Here, There and Everywhere” were a long way off, but composition had begun. McCartney says, “when we started

Historical Narrative

the Beatles, John and I sat down and wrote about fifty songs, out of which I think ‘Love Me Do’ is the only one that got published.” An early 1962 article in Mersey Beat claims that “John and Paul of the Beatles have written over 70 original songs.”18 These estimates — fifty and seventy — can have significance only if they are taken to include both the many pieces begun at this time but only finished much later and the many abandoned fragments and unfinished works that never received titles or have simply never been documented in any useful way. Following is the the most thorough work-list possible of the Beatles’ composing activity preceding 1963. In the period before 1961, thirteen songs and instrumental pieces that were ever to reach some stage of completion are thought probable to have been begun: ten predominantly by McCartney (in conjectural order of germination: “I Lost My Little Girl,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “I’ll Follow the Sun,” “Hot as Sun,” “Love Me Do,” “Like Dreamers Do,” “In Spite of All the Danger,” “Catswalk,” “You’ll Be Mine,” and “Cayenne”) and three by Lennon (“Hello Little Girl,” “I Call Your Name,” and “The One after 909”). Two finished compositions (“Cry for a Shadow” by John and George and “Love of the Loved” by Paul) were added to the catalogue in 1961, as were five more in 1962 (Paul’s “Pinwheel Twist,” “P.S. I Love You,” and “I Saw Her Standing There” and John’s “Ask Me Why” and “Please Please Me,” at least the last four of which are thought to fully postdate the Mersey Beat claim for seventy compositions). Of the three remaining Lennon-McCartney works to be recorded in February 1963, only two (Lennon’s “Do You Want to Know a Secret” and “There’s a Place”) might have been conceived before that year. In addition to these, we have sometimes conjectural titles and in some cases further information but in no case evidence of completion for thirteen pre-1962 compositions accepted — for lack of more specific information — as joint Lennon-McCartney works. These are “I Fancy Me Chances,” “Too Bad about Sorrows,” “Just Fun,” “Wake Up in the Morning,” “If Tomorrow Ever Comes,” “I’ve Been Thinking That You Love Me,” “Won’t You Please Say Goodbye,” “Keep Looking That Way,” “That’s My Woman,” “Years Roll Along,” “Thinking of Linking,” “Looking Glass,” and “Winston’s Walk.” The origins of “What Goes On” are often supposed to precede 1963, but the song is undocumented prior to its 1965 recording. Four further compositions (Paul’s “A World without Love,” “Tip of My Tongue,” and “Nobody I Know” and John’s “I’m in Love”) have been mentioned as having started life in this period, but they are much more strongly associated with their time of completion for other recording artists in 1963 – 64.19 Further, Johnny Gentle has made the plausible yet unsubstantiated claim that John Lennon helped him complete the song “I’ve Just Fallen for Someone” on May 21 or 22, 1960, by adding the line “just as the song tells us, the best things in life are free.”20 The early Beatles’ other front-man, Tony Sheridan, has made a similar claim, that he cowrote a song entitled “Tell Me If You Can” with McCartney in June 1961. Sheridan has also dated this song to December 1962. He relates the text of the chorus as “Tell me if you can. Could there ever be another man who’d love you like I do? Tell me if you can.”21 Finally, six works-inprogress from 1960 have been handed down through tapes made at Forthlin

25

26

And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Road on a borrowed portable Grundig recorder. Given here are provisional titles, listed in order from highest to lowest degree of development: “Some Days,” “You Must Write Everyday,” “Well, Darling,” “I Don’t Know,” “Come On People,” and “I’ll Be Leaving”; these intermingle with even looser jams that do not justify consideration as even potential compositions. Counting generously, this classification of compositions and fragments possibly begun before 1963 totals fortyeight items (forty-two of which may have origins predating the March 1962 claim of “seventy”). Undoubtedly many other potential pieces, of which all trace seems to have been lost, were begun and developed during this period, but there was certainly no proliferation of finished Lennon-McCartney compositions before the first twelve weeks of 1963, when the well-trained team began to hit its stride and from which point documentation becomes very thorough.22 Recordings were made only sporadically before the Beatles’ debut in the EMI studios in June 1962, after which time “Love Me Do,” “P.S. I Love You, “Please Please Me,” “Ask Me Why,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” and “There’s a Place” from the preceding work-list were completed and recorded. Because the Beatles never required music notation, contemporaneous composition documents are few. “In Spite of All the Danger” was one of two songs, the other being Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day,” recorded by the Quarry Men in the summer of 1958 at Percy Phillips’s home studio on Kensington Street, Liverpool. On this day, John, Paul, and George, all with amplified acoustic guitars, John “Duff ” Lowe on piano, and Colin Hanton on drums recorded the two songs with a single suspended microphone, direct to a single two-sided shellac-on-metal 78-rpm disc.23 McCartney has said that he composed the Les Paul – like “In Spite of All the Danger” in imitation of Presley, and its cadence comes close to “Tryin’ to Get to You” (1956), but we hear Lennon singing lead with McCartney providing only a simple descant along with Harrison’s vocal “fills” and a simple guitar break.24 The second verse and bridge of this earliest-recorded Beatle composition, culminating in a stop-time retransition on a blue-note colored V, are reduced in example 1.2. Two songs, “Years Roll Along” and “Keep Looking That Way,” and two instrumentals, “Looking Glass” and “Winston’s Walk,” are apparently known only from their mention in a letter written by McCartney (probably in 1960) to a local journalist, except for McCartney’s later recollection of the lyric “It might have been winter when you told me” from “Years Roll Along.”25 The homemade 1960 tape referred to earlier contains performances of “You’ll Be Mine,” “Cayenne,” and the six pieces given provisional titles.26 “Cry for a Shadow” was written and recorded in Germany in 1961 and first released in France in April 1962. “Pinwheel Twist” is included in a list prepared by Brian Epstein of top prospects for the Beatles’ first EMI session on June 6, 1962, and must therefore be considered quite suitable for performance.27 Two late-1962 Beatle rehearsals of “Catswalk” have appeared, in addition to a commercially released 1967 recording by the Chris Barber Band. Complete versions of “Like Dreamers Do,” “Love of the Loved,” and “Hello Little Girl” are well known through the distribution of the Beatles’ Decca audition tape of January 1, 1962, and these three titles were also recorded and released by other artists in 1963 and 1964.28 Three

Historical Narrative

Example 1.2 “In Spite of All the Danger” (McCartney-Harrison); used by permission of MPL Communications, Inc.





B

♯♯♯♯





JL

♯♯♯♯

E

     

PM

In spite of all

 

the

 



   



heart - ache

   

that you may_

E7

A

    GH    ♮                          ♮  ♯           (aah_)

me,_

I’ll do a - ny- thing_ for_

E

A

E E7

you,

cause

   

PM

B



a- ny- thing you want me

A

(aah_) wah-wah, wah, wah-wah,wah,    ♯ ♯ ♯ ♯ ♯       

       

               
         to

if you’ll be true to

me.

E

look



wah,

E

  wah-wah, ♯ ♯ ♯ ♯    wah,         
 ne- ver_

♯♯♯♯   


I’ll

7

done_

wah,

   

o - thers

wah.

from_

you

A wah,



be fore,

  ♯     

af - ter

 

I’ll

B

 

at_ your_



keep

    ♮    ♯ ♮  knock - in’

wah,

like I’ve

  all

wah,

   the

         

door.

In spite of all the

works (“I Call Your Name,” “I’ll Follow the Sun,” and “When I’m Sixty-Four”) are familiar through their finished versions as fully produced Beatle songs appearing in 1964 – 67, and as mentioned earlier, four others (“A World without Love,” “Tip of My Tongue,” “Nobody I Know,” and “I’m in Love”) were popularized by other performers in 1963 – 64.29 Ten of the oldest numbers were recaptured, if only in the busking of a few seconds’ worth of each tune, during the January 1969 rehearsals for the “Get Back” project. These are “I Lost My Little Girl,” “Hot as Sun,” “I Fancy Me Chances,” “Too Bad about Sorrows,” “Just Fun,” “Thinking of Linking,” “Wake Up in the Morning,” “If Tomorrow Ever Comes,” “I’ve Been Thinking That You Love Me,” and “Won’t You Please Say Goodbye.” All were apparently captured on film that January, as each has been distributed in film-derived audio formats. “Hot as Sun” also appeared on McCartney (McCartney 1970); in addition, “Looking Glass” was mentioned in 1969 film outtakes, but it is not known whether any of its substance was performed at that time. That month’s work also produced the fully rehearsed and best known version of “The One after 909.” “Thinking of Linking” remains mysterious; when Mark Lewisohn asked McCartney about early compositions, this song was recalled. Paul: “’Thinking of Linking’ was terrible! . . . I could never really get past [singing]

27

28

And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Example 1.3 “Too Bad about Sorrows.”








♯♯♯

P                

♯♯♯

Too bad a- bout sor - rows_





A:








 

    

I

♯♯♯  ♯♯♯

     



too bad a - bout

   

life,_



III



                

There’ll be no_ to -mor - row_



IV

       

(gliss)



for all of your life._



  V

   

Thinking of Linking dah dah Thinking of Linking dah dah Thinking of Linking dah dah can only be done by two.”30

The 1969 performances of “Too Bad about Sorrows” and “Just Fun” are transcribed here as examples 1.3 and 1.4, respectively.31 The former recalls Presley’s emulation of Dean Martin, and the latter, sung a cappella, rings of Carl Perkins. Note the silly lyrics in both. Finally, three of the titles, “That’s My Woman,” “I’ve Just Fallen for Someone,”and “Tell Me If You Can,” are passed along here with faith in authoritative chroniclers who have not divulged their sources.32 From duetting on “Maggie May” in January 1969, guitarists Lennon and McCartney segue directly into “I Fancy Me Chances,” which performance is transcribed here as example 1.5.33 Note that as in skiffle style, only I, IV, and V7 chords are needed. Lennon says that he wrote “The One after 909” independently from McCartney. Glyn Johns asks Paul in January 1969: “John wrote it when he was about fifteen, didn’t he?” Paul: “Yeah, we used to sag off every school day, go back to my house and the two of us would write: Love Me Do, Too Bad about Example 1.4 “Just Fun.”

♯4
4 






They said

♯   gun.



 

our

love was just

  fun,

 the

           









 

day that our friend- ship be -

      

There’s no blue moon that I can see, there’s nev - er been in

hi- sto - ry

Historical Narrative

Example 1.5 “I Fancy Me Chances.”

♯4       
8          I fan - cy me chan - ces with G

D7

   

you,

       

G

   

I fan- cy me chan - ces with you.

I

♯                                
   fan- cy me chan -ces, I fan-cy me chan - ces, I fan-cy me chan - ces with you. C

G

D7

G

Sorrows. . . . we hated the words to 909.”34 McCartney did not think the “station” / “location” rhyme, along with other aspects of the text, were sophisticated enough to record and release, but this rhyme seems to be in the best Chuck Berry tradition. Although he “hated the words to 909,” Paul managed to borrow its line “c’mon, baby, don’t be cold as ice” in the April 1960 recording of an E-major blues heard on Beatles 1987d. The composition of “The One after 909” was essentially finished by the time two rehearsal performances were taped in the same April 1960 sessions. During one January 1969 rehearsal, several group run-throughs of “The One after 909” were interrupted by recollections of “Wake Up in the Morning” (begun by Lennon), “If Tomorrow Ever Comes” (which McCartney introduces by saying, “Pete Shotton was talking about that [song]” and then performs it straightaway) and “Won’t You Please Say Goodbye” (begun by Lennon), excerpts of which are given here as examples 1.6, 1.7, and 1.8, respectively.35 The first of the three, which features hiccuping C&W vocal melismas in measure 4 and later, has at these moments a neat stop-time arrangement, the effectiveness of which is reduced by the static harmonic design — a threefold repetition of I, IV, and V triads. Interestingly, the Beatles perform the same pattern contemporaneously, with the same harmonic rhythm but different downbeat placement, in Holly’s “Everyday” and “Words of Love.” “If Tomorrow Ever Comes” is probably a McCartney composition; this is given away by its reference to “setting suns” (note Paul’s apparent fixation in this period on the sun in “I’ll Follow the Sun” and “Hot as Sun” and his interest at the time in “Red Sails in the Sunset” and “You Are My Sunshine”). By 1969, Lennon has forgotten much of any proper lower harmony part to McCartney’s lead vocal. Again, only I, IV, and V chords are used. The irritating “Won’t You Please Say Goodbye” (Lennon’s song?) can be heard as the basis for the bridge of the 1964 composition “Baby’s in Black”: compare the rhythm, meter, harmony, and voice leading in measures 3 – 4 of example 1.8 with those of “Baby’s in Black,” B+3 – 4 (0:18 – 0:21). As opposed to the fully diatonic nature of the others from this group, an applied chord appears in measure 7 of “Won’t You Please Say Goodbye.” Again during the filming of Let It Be, Paul gave “Hot as Sun” a gentle run-through and then asked, “how did ‘Looking Glass’ go?” The distributed tape ends before the question can be answered.36

29

Example 1.6 “Wake Up in the Morning.”

 ♯
 ♯ 

D P J

G

          



Wakeup

in the morn -

Bass

 ♯ 
  ♯  

A



 ‘cause_

in’



I

know_









                

D

 





feel blue



 

 

     

  I don’t



 





 



I’ve





got you_

Example 1.7 “If Tomorrow Ever Comes.” E

 ♯ ♯ ♯ ♯ 12 8
 ♯ ♯ ♯ 12  ♯ 8

A

                 But I’ll wait_ ‘till to- mor-



 ♯ ♯ ♯ ♯  
  I’ll ♯♯♯♯  

 

             

row through a thou -sand_ set - ting suns,



A

E



 E

   

wait ‘till to - mor- row,





   



if to -



      

B7

mor - row_

e - ver comes





Example 1.8 “Won’t You Please Say Goodbye.”

♯♯♯♯ 6 P 8
J  ♯ ♯♯ 6  ♯ 8 ♯♯♯♯   
 cold, ♯♯♯♯   A

  

     E

Won’t you please_

   

  

say good

      E

 





 

- bye_

    

yeah, won’t you please say good-bye,



 

   

F

♯

 ♮        love_ has long since grown





 

 B

♯    ♯      how man-y timesmust_ you be told?_





 

♮   

Historical Narrative

Example 1.9a “I Lost My Little Girl” (Paul McCartney). © 1991, MPL Communications, Inc.

♯♯ 4
4 

ah_ P

J

     

   

I woke up late this morn- ing_

ah_




♯ ♯            was on - ly then I re - a - lized_

ah_

      



my head was in a whirl_ ah_

       





I lost my lit - tle girl_

Compositional Procedure The historical significance of “I Lost My Little Girl” as the Beatles’ first song of their own has not been lost on its composer. Paul recalls writing it “when I was fourteen just after I’d lost my mother.”37 The skifflebred ditty apparently had no contrasting section in its original state, for McCartney’s numerous exhibitions of this first songwriting attempt have featured a B-section that has been added as a journalistic aside to his audience. Example 1.9 represents two performances of the song: 1.9a captures the first verse of a recreation by Lennon with McCartney supplying the repeated sustained upper descent in January 1969, the song’s earliest known taping. Example 1.9b (as recorded on a crude home tape in the mid-1970s) is McCartney’s version, with probably the more historically accurate melodic line as compared with Lennon’s, except that the vocalizations in measures 8 –10 probably postdate the composer’s first hearing of Holly in late 1957. For a performance taped for an MTV audience on January 25, 1991, McCartney accurately introduced the song thus: “I’m gonna play a song which was the first song I ever wrote, when I was fourteen. . . . You see, you take a G [nut-position chord] and you take a G7 and a C, that’s all it is really; a bit of F, I must admit.”38 McCartney’s ability to compose was a revelation to the artistically creative Lennon, who took up the challenge and began to work on his own material for the group. The two were to continue to engage in mutual criticism, development, and composition, often in long nose-to-nose sessions, throughout the healthiest times in their shared writing career. Ray Coleman gives 1959 as the year in which the two decided that whatever either of them wrote would be represented as a joint Lennon – McCartney composition. This boyhood agreement was upheld through the Beatle years, as their publishing contracts were to stipulate, even when authorship was a totally unilateral process. The joint attribution was carried on by both even in 1969 solo work — after the partnership was through — out of their respect for their history together. John said in April 1969, “we inspired each other so much in the early days. We write how we write because of each other.”39 Because of their busy travel schedule, the pair worked fully together through 1963— in hotel rooms, vans, and buses, wherever there was a piano or whenever they had one or two guitars between them — much more often than in other years. A September 1962 photograph taken by Michael in the front room

31

32

And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Example 1.9b “I Lost My Little Girl” (Paul McCartney). © 1991, MPL Communications, Inc G8




-

7

2 4        Well I

G8-

7


     on -ly then I

woke up late this

C



  

real - ized I

C



  

morn- ing, my

G8-

   

head was in a

       lost my lit -tle girl,_

7

oh,

  

oh, oh,_

C



whirl_

  

and

  

oh._

on Forthlin Road shows John and Paul holding guitars and sitting astride a notebook opened to the lyrics of “I Saw Her Standing There,” several lines of which, in the bridge, have been crossed out. The two are devising the song’s musical structure, each with the same hand position: a chord barred at the seventh fret, sounding B – fs– a – ds1– a1– b1, an unusual voicing with a defiant emphasis on the seventh of this V harmony. They’re working on mirrored guitar fingerboards, Paul stringing and playing his instrument left-handed to John’s right.40 Even knowing that “I Saw Her Standing There” was predominantly a McCartney composition, one may interpret the photograph as a timely psychological study of a unified but two-sided creative force.41 A more common method of their collaboration was for one to present a song’s principal section, a verse or a chorus, and the other to suggest a contrasting bridge — the “middle eight” as they would usually refer to it, regardless of the passage’s metrical length or phrase construction. At some times the partner’s response would be worked out “on the spot,” and at others the problem would be solved as a “homework” project. So, later, McCartney would offer the verse for “Michelle” or “We Can Work It Out” and Lennon would come back with the bridge. “Wait” and “I’ve Got a Feeling,” on the other hand, were begun by Lennon and completed with bridges by McCartney. In a highly unusual case, the incongruous world of “A Day in the Life” was well served by the fact that the performance joined sections that had been composed fully independently. In an early 1960s discussion, McCartney told EMI’s publicity writer, Tony Barrow, “What John and I normally do is start off songs on our own. . . . I go away and write something or he does. It would be daft to sit around waiting for a partner to finish your song off with you. If you happen to be on your own, you might as well get it finished yourself. If I get stuck on the middle eight, if I can’t get a middle bit for a new number, I give up, knowing that when I see John he will finish it for me. He’ll bring a new approach to it and that particular song will finish up half and half, Lennon and McCartney. It really will be a fifty-fifty job.”42 This sort of cross-fertilization brought Paul’s “Love Me Do,” which probably had little other than the repetitive throwaway skiffle chorus in the “I Lost My Little Girl” vein when it was brought to Lennon, to the point of being a (barely) releasable composition in 1962.43 Consisting only of a repeated chorus relieved by the bridge, the song was never given any alternative verses, probably a com-

Historical Narrative

Example 1.10a “Hello Little Girl” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

♯7

♯♯♯ 4   ♯                 
4      

 ne -ver seem to see me stand-in’ there._ I simp-ly foundthat you don’t care,_

16

20




F

♯♯♯

B7

E7

E7

D

    

      

Won - der what you’re think- ing_ of_

[hope it’s me and]

   

love, love, love_

mon failure of the many pre-Hamburg drafts and certainly a rare feature in published products (but see also “Not a Second Time” from 1963). At least two compositions from this early period received substantial changes in their B-sections while in the Beatles’ repertoire. Example 1.10 shows earlier and later versions of the bridge passage of Lennon’s “Hello Little Girl,” 1.10a from April 1960 and 1.10b from January 1, 1962. Example 1.11 (early 1960) does the same for McCartney’s “I’ll Follow the Sun,” when compared to the recording of October 18, 1964.44 Note that in Lennon’s song, the early bridge (which in the smooth rhythm of mm. 22– 23 emulates Holly much more

Example 1.10b “Hello Little Girl” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

C






PM GH





♯♯♯

- lo,_



JL





PM bass





A





I simp



♯ ♯ ♯      think-in’_



E -

of;_

A











E



♯

        I hope it’s me



wo - wo



 ♯

and





F m

     

-





 

 

F m







A



wo - wo - wo,_





-

wo - wo - - wo,_

-

you nev - er seem to see me stand-in’_there,_



E wo

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33

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

than does the corresponding syncopated passage in the later recording) is supported by a single chain of applied V7s, VI 7s – II7s –V7, whereas the later version repeats a much faster – moving diatonic fifth-sequence, heard nearly four full times. The change might have been made to accomodate the added backing vocals devised by McCartney and Harrison. In McCartney’s song, note the transposition from G to C and the halving of measures due to the change from 44 to C; the harmonic rhythm remains constant. Here, the two versions share very similar structural harmony and voice leading, so John’s new backing vocal is not a compositional issue, as his line that descends chromatically through mode mixture is present in the original voice-leading structure in the guitars. The structures are similar, despite some obvious differences in vocal rhythm and contour and despite the substitution of II for IV on the opening accent of each half. A great remedy, however, is accorded the ending of the bridge: in 1960, this passage led to a customary retransitional V, which would have worked well had McCartney’s verses begun with I instead of V (which they do not!), and so the original retransition only fails to hide its functionless V7 under a goofy guitar solo. It is tempting to speculate on the processes leading to the solution of these issues, but it would probably never be remembered whether it had been the primary composer or his partner who wrought such changes. In comparison with the late-1964 commercial recording, the early version of “I’ll Follow the Sun” has a light, bright feel with a quick tempo and a harder edge from its strongly accented rhythm guitar chording. The spunky sound is much closer to the music hall than is the moody final version, especially with the 1960 codetta, which closes: “tomorrow may rain so, I’ll follow; tomorrow may rain so, I’ll follow; tomorrow may rain so, I’ll follow the sun.” This is a technique, known since playing “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue” and relearned by covering songs like Hoagy Carmichael’s “Lazy River,” that might be termed a “double bypass”— the “one more time!” performance of a performance that efficiently conjures up the milieu of the theatre. John parodies this technique in the 1960 close of “The One after 909.” This early codetta would have no place in the subdued 1964 setting of “I’ll Follow the Sun.” Note the substantially altered lyrics in comparing example 1.11 with the final version. It is common for McCartney to compose his tunes long before lyrics are decided on. At times, Paul would write his tune with nonsense lyrics that would be replaced later: “Yesterday” began as “Scrambled Eggs,” “I’ve Just Seen a Face” as “Auntie Gin’s Theme,” and “It’s Only Love” as “That’s a Nice Hat (Cap).” John would usually prod Paul to improve the worst of his wordings, but occasionally he would prevent McCartney from disturbing an odd unconsciously produced line that he liked. Thus the provisional line in “Hey Jude,” “The movement you need is on your shoulder,” remains despite the fact that Paul had hoped to find something more directly meaningful. Much of McCartney’s solo work has suffered for the lack of such trusted editing of his lyrics, which are rife with commonplace images, poorly chosen words, and grammatical errors. Beatles producer George Martin often said that McCartney usually began with music, Lennon with lyrics. “Now, Paul would help John musically, because

Historical Narrative

Example 1.11 “I’ll Follow the Sun” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.

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I think that he had a greater understanding of the theory of music, and harmony and so on, and he would be able to make a thing more well-rounded; John tended to drive the car without a clutch rather, he’d just go from one gear to another. On the other hand again, John would have perhaps more of a mastery of imagery and words and would make Paul work harder at his lyrics.”45 Other McCartney songs were conceived as instrumental numbers, such as “Michelle,” which tune the composer was to carry for at least two years before adding lyrics. The circumstances of “When I’m Sixty-Four” remind us of Jim McCartney’s dilemma with “Walking in the Park with Eloise” (“Can anyone think of any words to this?”). In the case of “When I’m Sixty-Four,” a vaudeville song closely associated by Paul with his father, the highly successful lyrics arrived about eight years after the tune.46 This apparent difficulty with lyrics, coupled with an occasional lack of sensitivity, would at times get under Lennon’s skin. In 1980 John related this story about “Eleanor Rigby” (1966): “Paul had the theme, the whole bit about Eleanor Rigby in the church where a wedding had been. He knew he had this song and he needed help, but rather than ask me to do the lyrics, he said, ‘Hey, you guys, finish up the lyrics.’ . . . I sat there with Mal Evans, a road manager who was a telephone installer, and Neil Aspinall, a student accountant who became a road manager, and it was the three of us he was talking to. . . . Actually, he meant for me to do it, but he wouldn’t ask. How dare he throw it out in the air like that?”47

The Quarry Men with George Harrison On his way to school from Allerton, Paul would take one of the morning buses that originated in Speke. He noticed that a younger fellow wearing the same Institute uniform would often be on the bus. McCartney soon found that the young man, George Harrison of Speke, was an avid guitarist. Harrison soon heard the Quarry Men and began tagging along with both Lennon and McCartney. Despite the fact that his youth and omnipresence often irritated Lennon (especially a year after their introduction, when John and his new college girlfriend, Cynthia, would come to prefer privacy), Harrison proved that he would be a great addition to the band. Lennon recalled in 1968, “George . . . knew more chords, a lot more than we knew. So we got a lot from him. Every

35

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

time we learned a new chord, we’d write a song ’round it.”48 He replaced Eric Griffiths in the Quarry Men in February or March 1958, and the three future Beatles were fast the core of the group. Born in his family’s small terraced house in the Wavertree district on February 25, 1943, George Harold Harrison lived there, a half-mile north of Penny Lane, until January 2, 1950. On that date, the family, including older siblings Louise, Harry, and Pete, moved to Upton Green in Speke, where they stayed until relocating to a semidetached home on Mackets Lane, not far east of Woolton, on October 1, 1962 — just four days before the Beatles’ first EMI release. George recalls hearing Hoagy Carmichael compositions such as “Hong Kong Blues,” one of a few Carmichael tunes he was to record on post-Beatles solo albums, and the dance-band sounds of Ted Heath and Victor Sylvester on his father’s gramophone. Harrison’s father, Harold (1909 – 78), once played the guitar, and so he and George’s mother, Louise (née French, 1911– 70), encouraged the twelve- or thirteen-year-old George when he expressed an interest in the instrument that had been piqued by having heard Jimmie Rodgers’s 1929 hit “Waiting for a Train.” Harold’s friend Len Houghton taught George the chords needed to play such songs as Paul Whiteman’s “Whispering” (a hit in 1920), Earl Burtnett’s “Sweet Sue” (1928), and Bing Crosby’s “Dinah” (1932).49 When George ultimately joined the band, the entire group was openly welcome to rehearse in Upton Green, which they did more often than in Forthlin Road. Harrison, who attended the Institute from 1954 until he failed to advance in 1959, says he bought his first guitar from another student for three and a half pounds. This would have been in early 1956, because Harrison remembers having the instrument, a beginner’s guitar with the “Egmond” imprint made by Rosetti, before Donegan had a hit. “My first guitar was this little cheap acoustic . . . and then I got what they call a cello-style, f-hole, single-cutaway called a Höfner —which is like the German version of a Gibson. Then I got a pickup and stuck it on that, and then I swapped that [with a member of the Swinging Blue Jeans] for a guitar called a Club 40.”50 Few helpful photographs exist of the first guitar (see Rosetti in the appendix), but the instrument surely would not have allowed a large range of technique. The first Höfner acoustic, the President acquired c. 1958, has a bridge/saddle arrangement similar to that on McCartney’s Zenith, a big improvement over that of Harrison’s previous guitar, allowing for surer intonation and better “action”— the ease or difficulty of depressing strings fully and cleanly, without buzzing, a function of the distance of the strings above the fingerboard, adjusted at the saddle. The Höfner Club 40, acquired in 1959, is one of the first electric guitars owned by a Beatle. It was probably handed down to John when George bought his Futurama in late 1959. Lennon would have liked the Höfner’s short scale, as it eased a number of lefthand barre and boogie patterns, his stock in trade. Harrison recalls that Fats Domino’s “I’m in Love Again” (April 1956) was the first rock and roll he’d heard. He has listed skiffle, Presley, Perkins, the Everlys, and Cochran as his “earliest influences,” and he recalls having seen Donegan at the Liverpool Empire in 1958.51 Among the first pieces Harrison learned to play was the instrumental “Raunchy,” popularized by both Bill Justis and Duane

Historical Narrative

Eddy, the latter having a recognizable effect on Harrison’s playing into 1963.52 “Raunchy,” a fully pentatonic tune, has as its hook a heavily bent lowered 3. George and his older brother Pete were playing occasionally in a Speke band called the Rebels when the younger met McCartney. Paul tells of working through Bert Weedon’s guitar method books (perhaps “Play in a Day,” very popular in 1957) with George; George recalls his early work with Paul in Upton Green: “Paul was very good with the harder chords, I must admit. After a time, though, we actually began playing real songs together, like ‘Don’t You Rock Me Daddy-O’ and ‘Besame Mucho.’ Paul knocked me out with his singing especially, although I remember him being a little embarrassed to really sing out, seeing we were stuck right in the middle of my parents’ place with the whole family walking about. He said he felt funny singing about love and such around my dad.”53 Following a big change in the group’s sonic texture resulting from the early1958 addition of both Harrison and pianist John “Duff ” Lowe, who was needed to reproduce Jerry Lee Lewis piano arrangements, the year 1958 was to bring both an exciting peak and a devastating low to the Quarry Men. The group made its first record, the single-copy shellac 78 rpm, that summer when Lennon led the band through “That’ll Be the Day” and “In Spite of All the Danger” in a home recording studio. But on July 15, John’s mother was run down and killed by an off-duty policeman just outside Mendips; Lennon fought to come to terms with this loss his whole life.54 The Quarry Men played fewer and fewer dates (it didn’t help that the skiffle fad had played out) and are said to have briefly disbanded in the autumn. But on November 15, 1958, Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Hanton —Len Garry and Duff Lowe by then having left permanently — traveled to Manchester to compete as Johnny & the Moondogs in a regional audition for an appearance on Carroll Levis’s ABC Television program “Discoveries.” Unfortunately, the group had to return to Liverpool before the judging took place, forfeiting their opportunity. By this time, McCartney had removed the scratchplate of his Zenith so he could attach a contact microphone to the upper part of his bass-side f-hole, and both he and Harrison shared a single primitive green Elpico amplifier; Lennon remained unamplified for a brief while longer. Harrison recalls of the audition: “There were just the three of us. And I remember we were on a Buddy Holly & the Crickets kick at the time. So, of course we sang ‘Think It Over’ and ‘It’s So Easy.’ ”55 The three guitarists, without their drummer, also gathered to perform at the December 1958 wedding of George’s oldest brother.56

British Revolutionaries: The Liverpool Scene The group was floundering, but its members had a common goal. They wanted to play tough American rock and roll and realized increasingly by 1959 that it was the soul-baring R&B repertoire that excited them most. They also agreed on what they did not wish to become — duplicates of Britain’s most popular entertainers, Cliff Richard, Adam Faith, and Craig Douglas. These were solo singers of innocuous material that found a huge audience, especially with

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Richard’s major hits of 1958, “Move It” and “High Class Baby.”57 Faith was particularly distasteful though very popular. His often plaintive tenor voice was light and unsupported and always seemed to be set with slick, cutesy pizzicato strings and glockenspiel, as in the British chart-topper of November 1959, “What Do You Want,” and most of his other hits through 1961. Faith adopted many of Holly’s vocal mannerisms, borrowing the trademark hiccuping melismas, as in “Someone Else’s Baby” and “How about That” (both 1960), and the affected singing focused at the front of the mouth (“Baby Take a Bow,” 1962). His records after mid-1963 are obviously modeled on the Beatles, who by then had established the preeminence of their brand of “beat” music. Faith conveniently changed his vocal style from that of Holly to that of Lennon, suddenly adopting Lennon-styled mordents and melismas as embellishments for sustaining tones in “The First Time” (September 1963) and afterward. Faith ditched his longtime hired composer to find one who could write mixture-based progressions like fVI – fVII – I (which ends the chorus of “The First Time,” taken directly from the Beatles’ “P.S. I Love You”) and I – fIII – fVI –V– I (which makes the coda of “We Are in Love,” December 1963, an obvious steal from that of “Please Please Me”). Faith’s borrowing from the early Beatles, although such practice was to become widespread, seems more opportunistic and inadequate than most examples. Beyond Cliff Richard’s voice and material, his backing group, the Shadows, demands consideration. Consisting of Hank Marvin (cherry-red Fender Stratocaster for lead guitar), Bruce Welch (matching Strat for rhythm, though he sometimes played an acoustic for recordings), Jet Harris (salmon pink electric Fender bass), and Tony Meehan (drums), the all-electric lineup with all-Vox amps (AC-30s for the Strats) is one of a very few models, also including Buddy Holly’s Crickets, for what the Beatles were to become in 1961. When not accompanying Richard, the Shadows had a stellar career of major instrumental hits in Britain, such as “The Stranger” (1960), “Kon Tiki” (1961), and “Wonderful Land” (1962). These feature Marvin’s Stratocaster, swamped with both a Meazzi/Vox tape-echo box and heavy pseudo-Hawaiian vibrato of all speeds. Guitarists can use wrist or arm motion on the stopped strings, or the bending of strings, to produce vibrato, but that referred to here is created by the temporary movement of the bridge — and therefore the tautness of the strings — controlled by the vibrato arm. Various vibrato mechanisms are widespread; that adopted for some time by Harrison in 1960 and Lennon a year later, the Bigsby system, turns a cylindrical bridge — effectively winding or unwinding the strings —when the arm is depressed or pulled up. Marvin said, “I developed a technique of having the tremolo arm in the palm of my hand while I was picking, and I’d slightly wave the arm, which gave a vibrato effect like a human voice. It made the guitar sing a little more. Or I’d do it more violently sometimes for a dramatic effect. If I couldn’t think of anything else to play, I’d just give it a shake.”58 The Beatles found the Shadows’ use of guitars intriguing and might have had more respect for the group were it not for the silly dance steps that made it impossible to take their music seriously. McCartney once said about an event that probably took place in 1958: “I watched the Shadows backing Cliff

Historical Narrative

Richard one night. I’d heard them play a very clever introduction to ‘Move It’ on the record, but could never work out how they did it. Then I saw them do it on TV. I rushed out of the house straight away, got on me bike, and raced up to John’s with me guitar. ‘I’ve got it,’ I shouted. And we all got down to learning it right away. It gave us a little bit of flash to start off our numbers.”59 (The guitar intro to “Move It,” featuring descending pentatonic minor lines in double stops, never does appear in any Beatle recordings.) Lennon and Harrison picked up some guitar technique from Welch and Marvin, respectively, but McCartney’s bass playing did not take after Harris’s simple root patterns. Prior to 1962, Meehan’s basic work on the traps, often featuring snare rudiments, was unrelated to most postswing rock drumming. Probably more than his mates, Lennon was set against “what he regarded as the bland, antiseptic music of new British stars like Cliff Richard, Adam Faith, and Craig Douglas.”60 But the Quarry Men were not alone in swimming against the British tide. While all of Britain had its skiffle groups, those in Liverpool — such as the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group and Al Caldwell’s Raving Texans (the latter of which was to be renamed Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, and both of which had as a drummer future Beatle Ringo Starr) — took on a harder edge than others, because of a strong regard for American R&B records. It was, as legend has it, easy to procure such discs in such a thriving seaport, but it should have been just as easy to do so in London or Southampton, and no beat movements took root there. More important than any other single influence, the city center of Liverpool was blessed with Bob Wooler, a self-described “dee-jay/compère” who would go from club to club playing requests from his extensive collection of American records between sets of live entertainment. This led to the Liverpool “beat scene,” the strongest early exponents of which became the Bluegenes (named for Gene Vincent; the one-time jazz group was to take the name “the Swinging Blue Jeans” in 1963), Derry & the Seniors, and the Hurricanes. Rory Storm’s Hurricanes were an all-electric group early in the game, featuring a Japanese Antoria guitar, an amplified Höfner Senator, and a Framus bass, all with Selmer amps. By 1960, the two other big Liverpool groups were Gerry [Marsden] & the Pacemakers, and Cass & the Cassanovas (later called the Big Three).61 A new musical culture was created by dozens of popular bands in the city center and, peaking in the early 1960s, hundreds of them in the outlying districts. Each competing band was careful to carve out its own niche, and so the different groups would not cover numbers highly identified with other local artists. Thus, many old standards such as “It Ain’t Necessarily So” would become part of the mix for Ian & the Zodiacs. Gerry Marsden remembers that groups would “trade” numbers —“If you let me play your ‘Jambalaya,’ I’ll give you my ‘Roll Over Beethoven.’ ”62 Looking ahead to the early 1960s, the Swinging Blue Jeans were permitted to “have” the Beatles’ arrangement of Chan Romero’s “Hippy Hippy Shake,” and the Beatles in turn are said to have “nicked” their version of the Isley Brothers’ “Twist and Shout” from King Size Taylor & the Dominoes. Thus the Beatles did well to expand their repertoire by seeking out unknown B-sides from often obscure records, the same motivating factor

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

that led them before long to achieve an even more focused identity by writing their own songs. The quest to be different is the reason that a number of cuts on their multimillion-selling early albums are based on model recordings that are long out of print. Liverpool’s beat culture grew to such an overwhelming degree that in July 1961 Bill Harry began editing the biweekly Mersey Beat, so fans and those in the business could keep track of local events. Partly because Harry happened to be an art college friend of Lennon, the Beatles were given a big boost in 1961 by wide and sympathetic coverage in Mersey Beat, including many front-page banners. Until that time, they struggled. The venue with the best business, the Cavern Club (on Mathew Street, right around the corner from Hessy’s), booked skiffle and jazz musicians only. There was no loud rock and roll, as the Cavern catered to a slightly older crowd than that gathered by Lennon’s men.63 The Quarry Men did play the Cavern Club once on August 7, 1957, just before McCartney was to join, but they were not well received because they ventured into the forbidden repertoire. Rock and roll was not to be sanctioned at the Cavern until the conversion became inevitable; Rory Storm & the Hurricanes took the honors with their debut there on May 25, 1960. The Quarry Men regrouped in mid-1959, less their last original sideman to Lennon, Colin Hanton, who had quit in the first weeks of the year. By mid-1959, Harrison had found more work playing with the Les Stewart Quartet. This group disbanded just before they were to open a new suburban club called the Casbah — in the huge cellar (seven adjoining rooms) of a home, northeast of the city in West Derby Village, owned by Mona Best — that was said to have attracted over 1,000 members prior to opening.64 Harrison and Stewart Quartet comember Ken Brown had to quickly assemble a group for the opening on August 29, 1959, and Lennon and McCartney were recruited. The new group, consisting now of four guitarists, played six straight Saturdays (“Long Tall Sally” and “Three Cool Cats” supposedly performed on the first night) and then quit, with Brown resigning over a pay dispute.65 Meanwhile, rock and roll was featured at a club called the Jacaranda, opened by Allan Williams in late 1958. Williams allowed Lennon and mates to rehearse in the Jac’s basement beginning in October 1959 and to have some performances there shortly thereafter.66 By this time, the group had added many songs to their set. At least 218 titles whose model recordings predate 1960 have been reported as having been covered by the Quarry Men in live performances; artists with multiple sources are listed here:67 Elvis Presley (28 songs) Chuck Berry (14) Buddy Holly (14) Little Richard (14) Gene Vincent (13) Carl Perkins (12) Jerry Lee Lewis (10) Lonnie Donegan (8) Larry Williams (7) Fats Domino (6) Duane Eddy (6)

The Coasters (5) Eddie Cochran (5) The Everly Brothers (5) Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee (5) The Vipers Skiffle Group (5) Johnny Burnette (2) Ray Charles (2) Les Paul and Mary Ford (2) Peggy Lee (2) Rick Nelson (2) Big Joe Turner (2)

Historical Narrative

But even with the most captivating singers, a lineup of only three guitarists could do no justice to any of these artists’ songs.

Bass and Drums Stuart Sutcliffe (June 23, 1940 –April 10, 1962) was a young painter with great promise and a James Dean air when he got to know Lennon, a fellow student at the art college. They became closest of friends, and John repeatedly pestered Stu to join his band. As Stu had no musical background whatsoever, this represented a deviation from John’s recent trend toward admitting only fine musicians. When Sutcliffe sold his first painting at the end of 1959 he was persuaded to buy a bass guitar, which he did in the third week of the following January.68 Perhaps guided by George’s good luck with guitars of this make, Stu purchased a Höfner. This instrument, the “President” bass, was made for serious playing, but Stu took no advantage. He was allowed into the group and to remain for over a year simply for having this guitar, for arranging for the college Student Union to spend about £55 for an amplifier, and for being John’s closest friend. The tube amp, seen in many 1960 – 61 photographs, was a small (22 inches high, 19 inches wide, and 10.25 inches deep) 14-watt Selmer Truvoice Stadium, model TV/19-T, with a single 15-inch Goodmans Audium 60 cone, covered with blood-red vinyl and cream-colored trim. It had speed- and depth-adjustable tremolo controls as well as volume and tone controls for three inputs, all on a panel affixed to a slanted rear face. John, Stu, and Rod Murray were to share a flat around the corner from the college, among their favorite pubs. Stu “would never buy himself a new bass string. He had a thing about this. He’d just measure up the length and cut himself a few feet off the piano bass strings, then fit it to the guitar.”69 Photographs seem to bear out the story that Stu usually played with his back to the audience so they couldn’t see how little he played. But the sonic record proves just how rank an amateur he probably remained throughout his tenure. April 1960 is the likely time of the recording of three tapes totaling about eighty-two minutes of the Quarry Men rehearsing at Forthlin Road.70 In this recording, Lennon is most likely playing the Höfner Club 40 borrowed from George and, on two tracks, an unamplified acoustic guitar, perhaps the Senator. Stu plays his President bass and George his fairly new Futurama III Resonet. He’d bought the Futurama at Hessy’s with the assistance of Jim Gretty, a shopkeeper who was able to show Harrison a number of jazz chordings, notably influencing the Beatles’ arrangement of “Till There Was You.” McCartney’s Zenith was still in service at this time, by then outfitted with the contact microphone seen in the top of the instrument’s bass f-hole in photographs from May 10, 1960.71 The Zenith and Resonet are run through the weak Elpico amp, the Club 40 through the much cleaner Truvoice, suggesting Lennon’s continuing musical leadership. Despite the fact that McCartney plays a great deal of lead guitar on these tapes, the Zenith’s poor action is evident in the recording; it hardly sustains a single note — the rapid decay of each sound unintention-

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

ally recreates the effect of an amplified banjo, and clams abound. Aside from destroying the tone quality, the problem leads to intense rhythmic inflexibility. It is thought that Mike McCartney provides drumming in a few instances. Table 1.3 lists the selections taped during the April 1960 sessions.72 (The given keys and timings are somewhat provisional because the sources have been mastered at incorrect speeds, but they reflect adjustments that result in a natural sound. The six cases of the keys of Af, Ef, and Fs are more likely due to mistuned guitars than to fingerings having been performed in these keys. The suggested personnel and specific instrumentation is sometimes open to question because of the extremely distorted content and the unfortunate manipulations performed on the multiple generations of tapes required to bring these to my ears, but the information certainly represents a plausible hearing. Parenthesized titles are derived from incomplete scatted vocals. These are recordings of performances that range from valuable, surprising, and interesting to immature, sloppy, and otherwise unpleasant to hear. One marvels at the patience Louise Harrison must have had two years before these tapes were made! The finished songs are not in bad shape, although the singing is very untrained. A good chord vocabulary is demonstrated in “Hallelujah!,” and a concluding tonic chord with added ninth, an important sound in the Beatles’ work of 1963, is already evident in the Domino cover and in “I’ll Follow the Sun.” The chord works well in the music-hall style found in this early version of the latter song, finishing its double-bypass close, but of course would not be proper in the song’s subdued 1964 context. Harrison has mastered the boogie style; his playing drives the B-major blues. McCartney demonstrates some competent guitar work, as in “I’ll Follow the Sun” and in the G-major blues (side A of Beatles 1987d), where he displays more rhythmic interest than shown by the others and many expressive fingerboard slides besides. “You’ll Be Mine” is a rough gem. Lennon can be heard working at barre chords in the longer A-major blues and bent notes and rudimentary two-part playing in the E-major blues. A strong Berry influence is heard in Lennon’s guitar work in “Some Days,” a McCartney composition excerpted in example 1.12 (from Beatles 1987e). The introduction is an open-chord styling of a Berry-like riff (note the If7 chord), and the guitar continues with its three chords beneath McCartney’s puerile lyrics: “Some days we were happy, and others were sad; some days we were good kids, some days we were bad.” One blues number is labeled “I Don’t Know” for John’s incantation; Paul is also heard mumbling a repeated “summertime”— the singers trade vocals frequently, and harmonize some, but don’t seem to be listening to each other. This begins incongruously with the introduction to Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day,” to which the rambling blues can make no further reference. Perhaps this is in line with Paul’s having said that the Beatles would begin their own numbers with the “flashy” introduction to “Move It.” In addition, it should be noted that Duane Eddy’s “Moovin’ and Groovin’ ” begins with an introduction taken from Berry’s “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man.”73 Example 1.13 is the opening of McCartney’s guitar part and Sutcliffe’s bass part, with indications of Lennon’s guitar chording, in “Cayenne” (Beatles 1987e; edited from 2'09" to 1'13" for Beatles 1995d).74 The piece is a semicom-

Historical Narrative

Table 1.3 April 1960 Recordings A. Original Lennon-McCartney songs (conjectural titles based on improvised scatting are parenthesized): “Hello Little Girl” (Af): Lennon lead vocal and Club 40; McCartney vocal and Zenith (1'50") “I’ll Follow the Sun” (Af): Paul McCartney vocal and Zenith; Mike McCartney drums (1'43") “The One after 909” (B): McCartney vocal and Zenith; Lennon vocal and Club 40 (2'21") “The One after 909” (B): Paul McCartney vocal and Zenith; Lennon vocal; Mike McCartney drums (1'25") “Cayenne” (E Dorian): McCartney lead on Zenith; Lennon Club 40; Sutcliffe bass (2'09") “Some Days” (Af): McCartney vocal and Zenith; Lennon lead on Club 40; Harrison on Futurama (1'34") “You Must Write Everyday” (Fs): McCartney vocal and Zenith; Lennon lead on Club 40; Sutcliffe bass (2'28") “Well, Darling” (E): McCartney vocal and lead on Zenith; Lennon vocal and Club 40; Sutcliffe bass (3'01") “You’ll Be Mine” (A): McCartney vocal and Zenith; Lennon vocal (1'41") (“I Don’t Know”) (Blues in G): McCartney vocal (“Summertime, Fall . . .”) and Zenith; Lennon second vocal (“I Don’t Know”) and lead on Club 40; Sutcliffe bass (5'24") (“Come on People”) (Blues in G): McCartney vocal and Zenith; Harrison lead on Futurama; Sutcliffe bass (7'09") (“I’ll Be Leaving”) (Blues in E): McCartney vocal and lead on Zenith; Lennon vocal and Club 40; Sutcliffe bass (5'23") (Blues in A): McCartney Zenith; Lennon lead on Club 40; Sutcliffe bass (restored to 5'04"; 2'00" removed at 4:41) (Blues in G): McCartney lead on Zenith; Lennon Club 40; Sutcliffe bass (restored to 6'06"; 4'08" removed at 4:59) (Blues in A): McCartney lead on Zenith; Lennon acoustic gtr; Sutcliffe bass (restored to 2'46"; 1'48" removed at 1:08) (Blues in B): Harrison lead on Futurama; Lennon Club 40; McCartney Zenith (restored to 6'18"; 4'28" removed at 5:17) (Blues in G): McCartney lead on Zenith; Lennon acoustic gtr; Sutcliffe bass (restored to 8'47"; 7'26" removed at 7:39) (continued)

posed slow twelve-bar blues with six choruses and part of a seventh, labeled here with roman numerals. The example demonstrates Stu’s poor playing. He attempts nothing beyond the plodding chord roots that are often rhythmically misplaced to a tragic degree. After losing the downbeat in measure 30 (0:30 in Beatles 1995d), he drops out for four whole bars in measures 33 – 36 (0:35 – 0:41), apparently thrown off by McCartney’s triplets in measure 29 (0:28 – 0:29). Paul tries to add some rhythm to the bass line with his Eddy-styled open E string in measure 14, but the prodding is lost on Stu. The bassist is not

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Table 1.3 (continued) B. Cover versions of songs made famous by other artists (named in parentheses): “Hallelujah! I Love Her So” (Eddie Cochran) (A; selection opens with unrelated 17" test fragment in C ♯): McCartney vocal and Zenith; Sutcliffe bass (2'35") “I’ll Always Be in Love with You” (Fats Domino) (A): Lennon vocal and lead on Club 40; McCartney Zenith (2'19") “Matchbox” (Carl Perkins) (A; opens with 7" test fragment): Lennon vocal and Club 40; McCartney Zenith (0'57") “Moovin’ and Groovin’ ” (Duane Eddy) (D): Harrison lead on Futurama; Lennon Club 40; McCartney Zenith. Spliced at 1:42 to “Ramrod” (Duane Eddy) (A): Harrison lead on Futurama; LennonClub 40 (total 3'44") “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin” (Elvis Presley) (C): Lennon lead vocal and lead on Club 40; McCartney backing vocal and Zenith; Harrison backing vocal and bass line on Futurama (1'13")

“Wild Cat” (Gene Vincent) (E ♭): McCartney vocal and bass line on Zenith; Lennon Club 40; Harrison lead on Futurama (2'25") “Wild Cat” (Vincent) (E ♭): McCartney vocal and bass line on Zenith; Lennon Club 40; Harrison lead on Futurama (1'22")

“The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise” (Les Paul and Mary Ford) (E): McCartney vocal and Zenith; Lennon lead on Club 40 (2'30")

the only one having problems; Lennon plays a wrong chord throughout measure 13 (0:21– 0:22), and McCartney is all over the place. Not only is the Dorian an exotic scale, but Paul often has trouble placing meter and harmony precisely together. The band does find a groove — a difficult assignment with no drummer and such a poor bassist — in the fourth chorus, but McCartney still goes nowhere. Despite the continuous samba-like Latin rhythm (q Ωç≤Ωç Ωç) played by Lennon, the jam takes on an uncertain rhythmic and textural character by virtue of McCartney’s aimless melody with its arbitrary changes of register and especially its attempted corroboration of apparent wrong note ds1 in measures 22 – 26 (unfortunately cut from Beatles 1995d, as this edit omits the weak second chorus entirely).

Example 1.12 “Some Days.”

♯♯♯

Guitar three times





♯♯♯

♮               ♮                     

Vocal ♮     Well,_



[some

D

♮



days we’ll





re - mem -

   -

ber



Example 1.13 “Cayenne” (Paul McCartney); used by permission of MPL Communications, Inc.

♯♯ 4 
4 

 7




   (J.L.   ♯ ♯ 44  ♯♯

♯  ♯

Am



 




♯♯




♯  ♯

♯   ♯ 33



♯  ♯





II 

♮  

 B7

  ♯ ♯











      



  



 

  ♯      ♮   





Em 7





Em



Am

Am


 ♯                    ♮   







B7





♮ 



Em 7 Em









Em

III

♯♯





♯  ♯ 

27



Em 7

             

         ♮ 

Em

♯  ♯ 

20

   )  

Em 7Em

P.M.

Em



♮

♯♯  
 14



I

Em





Am

Em

 ♯     ♯  ♮  ♯  



  ♯

Am

   ♮      ♮  

  







B Am Em   ♮         ♮                ♯ ♮     7











46

And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Contemporaneous Liverpudlian Howie Casey tells of Stu having once sat in with his band, Derry & the Seniors: “All we could do with Stu was to play twelve bar blues — he couldn’t venture out of that.”75 On the April 1960 tape, Stu is heard on few non-twelve-bar numbers. He is dominant in “Well, Darling,” an exceedingly slow number that allows him to hammer out roots —when he can find them — every two beats rather than simply every four. He plays similarly in “You Must Write Everyday,” “Cayenne,” and all untitled blues jams except that in B, which interestingly features better playing than do the others. These are all twelve-bar numbers. The more harmonically adventurous bass lines, as in “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin,” which features applied dominants to both VI and to V, are probably played by Harrison. In fairness, the twelve-bar jams should only be heard as raw practice sessions by novices — the boys are still learning their fingerboards, and so the aimless quality of their single-line leads can probably be put to recurring arbitrary desires to try to solve different types of technical problems in different areas of the neck. These portions of the tapes could never have been intended to showcase compositional or instrumental ability. Nevertheless, we have a remarkable record of where the group was in the spring of 1960, a truly crucial point in their career. Preparing to Leave Liverpool On April 23 – 24, John and Paul performed “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise” as a duo while out of town, billing themselves as the Nerk Twins in Caversham, Berkshire. Apparently the group was coming to a crisis with its name. Lennon had left Quarry Bank in mid-1957, so the Quarry tag had lingered far too long. For the sake of convenience, depending on the location of the gig, the group seems to have alternated between this name and “the Moondogs” in late 1959, at one time (sources put this event anywhere between 1956 and 1960) even taking the name “Johnny & the Rainbows” when all members showed for a job in differently colored shirts. Shortly after joining the group, Stu may have suggested “Beetles,” as a nod to Holly’s Crickets but also in the spirit in which the Bluegenes chose their name after Gene Vincent. Lennon was to revise the spelling for a pun on both the “beat” that set their sound apart and the “beat” generation led by Allen Ginsberg, the inspiration for Lennon’s journal The Daily Howl.76 Through the spring of 1960, the group experimented with variants such as “the Silver Beetles,” “the Silver Beats,” “the Beatals,” and “the Silver Beatles”; they finally became “the Beatles,” a name first appearing in print in connection with a performance at the Neston Institute on June 2, 1960. On May 10, 1960, John, Paul, George, Stu, and their new drummer, Tommy Moore (supplied by Jacaranda owner Williams, who had by now taken to trying to find work for the band), were to audition for Larry Parnes, who was looking for a backing group for a singer he managed, Billy Fury. Howie Casey describes the audition performance: “Quite frankly, I wasn’t too impressed, and can’t remember the group singing. I believe they played a lot of instrumentals and Shadows numbers.”77 Fury and Parnes are said to have offered the backing job to the Beatles on the condition that Sutcliffe not be included, and Lennon is said to have loyally vetoed the proposition.78 Parnes did, however, book the group to

Historical Narrative

back another of his singers, the unsuccessful Philips recording artist Johnny Gentle (born John Askew in 1936), on a tour, “The Beat Ballad Show,” along the northern coast of Scotland. Gentle and the Silver Beatles played dates in Alloa, Inverness, Fraserburgh, Keith, Forres, Nairn, and Peterhead, May 20 – 28. Probably enjoying their first gigs in theater settings as opposed to smaller clubs, the Beatles had their own hour-long set, consisting of Little Richard’s “TuttiFrutti” and “Long Tall Sally” (both from 1956); the same artist’s “Jenny, Jenny” and “Lucille,” the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love,” and Buddy Holly’s “That’ll Be the Day” (all from 1957); Gene Vincent’s “Wild Cat” and Ray Charles’s “What’d I Say” (1959); the Olympics’ “(Baby) Hully Gully” (1960); and Elvis Presley’s then #1 hit “Stuck on You.” In a later set, they accompanied Gentle for Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool” (1958) and Elvis Presley’s “I Need Your Love Tonight” and Jim Reeves’s “He’ll Have to Go” (1959), always ending with a rousing cover of Peggy Lee’s audience-participation number “Alright, Okay, You Win” (1959).79 On the strength of some success with the Scottish tour, Allan Williams arranged a promising series of dates for the Beatles upon their return to Liverpool in early June, procuring regular jobs on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday nights on the Wirral peninsula. Unfortunately, Tommy Moore left them drummerless on June 13 and so momentum was once again lost. Paul got even, though — somehow Moore’s simple kit (a bass drum with pedal, single-headed floor and mounted toms, and a suspended cymbal) became part of the McCartney household. A drummer named Norman Chapman filled in for a few gigs at the Grosvenor Ballroom in July, but this was not a satisfactory arrangement. We know a good bit of what the Beatles performed, or at least what Paul believed they should play, at the Grosvenor Ballroom during these weeks, as a page in Paul’s hand from June or July 1960 lists the songs in Paul’s vocal repertoire: “Hallelujah! I Love Her So,” “That’s All Right,” “Stuck on You,” “TuttiFrutti,” “Long Tall Sally,” “What’d I Say,” “Red Sails in the Sunset,” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On,” “Mean Woman Blues,” “I Don’t Care If the Sun Don’t Shine,” “Honey Don’t,” “Clarabella,” and “Little Queenie.” Also given are his duets with John: “Cathy’s Clown,” “One after 9.09,” “Words of Love,” “I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’),” “I Wonder If I Care as Much,” and “Sure to Fall (In Love with You).” The page goes on to note that John should try Gentle’s “Alright, Okay, You Win” and considers other songs for possible inclusion in Grosvenor gigs: “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” Charlie Gracie’s “Fabulous,” Gene Vincent’s “Lotta Lovin’,” and five Little Richard numbers. Paul also writes himself a reminder to bring the words, strings, and plectrums to the Ballroom.80 One of Williams’s ventures other than the Jacaranda was Liverpool’s only strip joint, the New Cabaret Artistes Club. Staggering, the Beatles had to accept work there or nowhere (they even had to justify, for the star attraction, their lack of a drummer: “the rhythm’s in the guitars”), and so they accompanied a dancer named Shirley for a week in July. McCartney recalled two years later that Shirley “brought sheets of music for us to play all her arrangements. She gave us a bit of Beethoven and the ‘Spanish Fire Dance.’ So in the end we said ‘We can’t read music, sorry, but instead of the “Spanish Fire Dance” we can

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play the “Harry Lime Cha-Cha,” which we’ve arranged ourselves, and instead of Beethoven you can have “Moonglow” or “September Song”— take your pick . . . and instead of the “Sabre Dance” we’ll give you “Ramrod.” ’ ”81 “Summertime,” “Begin the Beguine,” “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary,” and “Ain’t She Sweet” are also thought to have been part of the accompanists’ repertoire, which would have been dominated by instrumental numbers.82 One photograph by Michael McCartney shows Paul sitting on the keyboard of the upright piano in his front parlor. Around him are posed his first guitar and his Zenith, Michael’s four-string banjo, Jim’s trumpet, and in front is the drum set that mysteriously appeared around June 1960. To the outer bass drum head is attached a small, crudely hand-lettered sign reading “beatles.” 83 Paul is obviously proud of his musical accomplishments, and I see the photo as a possible memento for Michael of his older brother who is confidently poised for several months of professional work in Germany.

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears Formal, Harmonic, and Melodic Characteristics The following analysis is based on songs composed by others and covered by the Beatles into 1960, with some discussion of the Beatles’ earliest compositions and with some reference to their later work, all so as to provide a context for the structures basic to their entire corpus. Every song mentioned through the remainder of this chapter, even when identified with another artist, was part of the Beatles’ stage repertoire. While materials discussed here are most characteristic of the Beatles’ style through 1964, some elements pervade their entire career. Formal Patterns Aside from occasional large-scale variations in phrase rhythm and a few surprises in tonal direction, there are few deviations from normal formal designs in the Beatles’ early music. I have already had recourse to various terms naming structural sections of songs, without definition. Such terms to be employed in this book are “verse,” “refrain,” “chorus,” “bridge,” “solo,” “introduction,” and “coda.” They are used here as the musicians themselves used them, sometimes deviating from previously standard Tin Pan Alley definitions, and their natures and functions are described in turn in the following paragraphs. The verse is to be understood as a unit that usually prolongs the tonic (though it need not begin with a I chord), although it may lead into the chorus with a transitional dominant, as in “Rock and Roll Music” (0:32 – 0:33) and “Hold Me Tight” (1:10 –1:11). The musical structure of the verse nearly always recurs at least once with a different set of lyrics. Often, as in “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “I Feel Fine,” a verse section begins with one or more interchangeable lines of text, and this is followed,

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

before harmonic and grouping closure, by a recurring line or two of lyrics. This constant, recurring brief poetic text will carry the song’s main theme, sometimes in ironic or otherwise humorous juxtaposition to instances enumerated in the verses. In this event, I speak of a verse-refrain construction; the refrain consists of the repeated text. If a refrain is present, that is the usual source of the song’s title. Confusion will often result at the record store’s sales counter when this is not the case — teens probably asked for a copy of “Now Junior, Behave Yourself ” rather than “Bad Boy,” or “See How They Run” rather than “Lady Madonna.” Sometimes, as in “I Got a Woman,” “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You),” and “What You’re Doing,” the first verse begins with the same line that concludes it; in succeding verses, the first line will change while the conclusory refrain will be constant. Rarely will a song not have alternate verses, even if those that exist are hardly different, as in “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” “Hello Little Girl,” and “From Me to You.” This is due to the fact that the repeated passage usually serves an important purpose in exemplifying various different aspects of the recurring theme, as in “Words of Love,” “There’s a Place,” “I’ll Get You,” “And I Love Her,” “I’m Down,” and “Strawberry Fields Forever,” or it may recur so as to recount events as they unfold in a story, as in “Anna,” “Eleanor Rigby,” “She’s Leaving Home,” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” I have shown, however, that “Love Me Do” has no variable lyrics, and this is also true of Carl Perkins’s “Your True Love” as well as Lennon’s “Not a Second Time.” Following gospel-derived practices (“(When) The Saints Go Marching In,” “You Are My Sunshine”), many skiffle numbers (“Nobody’s Child,” “Midnight Special,” “Putting On the Style”) were purely strophic. Many early rock-androll numbers continued in this vein as well (“Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” “That’s All Right (Mama),” Ain’t That a Shame,” “Mystery Train,” “Thirty Days,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Jambalaya”), but the Beatles always added a contrasting section to their compositions (discounting the single-verse “Her Majesty”). The chorus, which gets its name from a usual thickening of texture from the addition of backing vocals, is always a discrete section that nearly always prolongs the tonic and carries an unvaried poetic text. Rarely, as in “Ain’t That a Shame,” “It’s Only Love,” and “Penny Lane,” the chorus will end on V— an applied V if need be, acting as retransition to the beginning of the following verse. When closing the song or when followed by a bridge, the chorus invariably ends on the tonic. If there is no refrain, the song’s main poetic theme and title are always present in the chorus. Either the refrain or chorus may be omitted; the Beatles wrote dozens of songs with a refrain but no chorus, including “I’ll Follow the Sun,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Yesterday,” and “Come Together,” and dozens with a chorus but no refrain, such as “It Won’t Be Long,” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” “Drive My Car,” “All You Need Is Love,” and “Get Back.” In such unusual cases as “She Loves You,” “All My Loving,” and “Across the Universe,” both chorus and refrain may be present. Occasionally, as in “Everyday,” “Maybe Baby,” “There’s a Place,” “I Should Have Known Better,” “If I Fell,” “No Reply,” and “Norwegian Wood,” neither a refrain nor a chorus is heard. In common (particularly British) academic parlance, the term “bridge” usu-

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ally refers to a transition, but this is not strictly its connotation in the parsing of popular music. In this domain the name is applied much more often to a section that contrasts with the verse, a middle section that the Beatles call a “bridge” or — regardless of length — a “middle eight.” The bridge usually ends on the dominant, but not in “There’s a Place” and a few other experimental 1963 structures. The bridge, then, often culminates in a strong retransitional V, often with an improvisatory vocal exclamation that leads into the return of a verse, a practice stemming primarily from both hillbilly sources (“Hey, Good Lookin’,” “Blue Moon of Kentucky”) and urban R&B (“Tryin’ to Get to You”), as exemplified by “This Boy” (1:21–1:27). At least forty-six of the pre-1960 titles covered by the Beatles have a contrasting bridge that leads to V. The bass 5 at this point is often approached by an intensifying half-step. This may decorate from below with an applied chord, as in “Nothin’ Shakin’ (But the Leaves on the Trees)” (at “baby, please, please, please”), “Lend Me Your Comb” (“it’s, uh, getting late”), or “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You),” the latter two marked by emotive C&W falsetto. Conversely, the half-step may come from above in the upper neighbor fVI— not usually outfitted with augmented sixth, as in “Young Blood” (at “you better leave my daughter alone”) and “Three Cool Cats” (“hey, man, save one chick for me!”), then found useful for the deflationist retransition in “I Call Your Name” (0:51– 0:53). The retransitional V is often ornamented by a sung added sixth, as in “All Shook Up” (“it scares me to death”) or ninth, as in “Great Balls of Fire” (“mine, mine, mine”). Seldom is the retransitional V approached by a very long string of applied chords: the eight-bar bridge that changes IIIs –VIs – IIs –V (two bars per chord), so typical of Tin Pan Alley standards taken as the basis for countless jazz improvisations (and the bridge pattern for “rhythm changes,” so named for their appearance in the Gershwins’ “I Got Rhythm”), is unknown in the Beatles’ work, although Lennon did come close in the 1960 draft of “Hello Little Girl” seen in example 1.10a. In the bridge, harmonic contrast with other sections is usually strong. If a verse and chorus are harmonically bland and diatonic, the bridge may be farranging and chromatic, as in “To Know Her Is to Love Her,” “A Picture of You,” and “It Won’t Be Long.” If (less often, but as in “Ain’t She Sweet”) a verse is more daring tonally, the bridge may bring the harmonic structure back to the ground. Other than in the most extravagantly rich structure, which occurs frequently in title songs from films, a bridge is not usual when both a refrain of more than a few bars and a chorus are also present. Very rarely — but this occurs in “I Forgot to Remember to Forget”— the contrasting section will merge into the refrain and will close on the tonic, perhaps even ending the song without a rounding verse. Larger units are often perceived to achieve closure when one or two verses proceed through a bridge to a sometimes truncated third verse that rounds the form. Here, the third verse often has a text implying some effect caused by the bridge, and the first word of such a third verse is sometimes a clearly consequential “so . . .” or a more vague “well.” An example of such a unit is presented with “Hello Little Girl” (see example 1.10b). Here, the bridge (C) continues

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

through V and is followed by a consequential (“so . . .”) half of a verse (0:49 – 0:55). In addition to “Hello Little Girl,” this effect is heard in “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “I Remember You,” “Love of the Loved,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “Misery.” Years later, a thwarted expectation of this procedure confuses the function of the return of a verse in “She’s a Woman,” especially confusing because the verse in question begins (at 1:20) with what might be termed “heightened pitch”— the melody begins higher than in a previous verse, as done in “I Remember You” and “I Saw Her Standing There,” a procedure that encourages such a larger grouping (corroborated by the apparent miscue in Lennon’s rhythm guitar at 1:25). Such a unit does not function in songs that begin with a chorus, as in “Tell Me Why,” “When I Get Home,” and “You’re Going to Lose That Girl.” The sometimes improvisatory instrumental solo usually follows a chorus and may either repeat the harmonic structure of the verse, as in “Don’t Bother Me,” or may be newly minted but related closely to the verse, as in “All My Loving.” The solos of “That’ll Be the Day,” “Little Child,” and “I Saw Her Standing There” all follow a twelve-bar blues format that does not appear elsewhere in those songs. If a song has a verse-refrain combination, a verse-based instrumental solo will often be interrupted before harmonic closure by a vocal rearticulation of the refrain, as happens in “From Me to You” (1:10 –1:16). So as to stir anticipation, the introduction — though it must be motivically tied to the piece as a whole — is likely to be the song’s most colorfully varied and harmonically unstable event (recall Paul on “Move It”), in the extreme in “If I Fell.” As in “I’m in Love,” “Michelle,” and “Here, There and Everywhere,” the Beatles often feature chromatic ideas here that will work beneath the surface of the later verse, chorus, or bridge. Codas are not necessary, but until 1966, when they appear they always prolong the tonic. They may be brief, and if so they are often based on the song’s introduction. Conversely, they may consist of long repetitions and, especially in the case of Little Richard (in “Long Tall Sally” and in “Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey,” which song both Little Richard and the Beatles perform as a coda to “Kansas City”), may raise the rock-and-roll spirit to a higher level of excitement than does the song proper. This is clearly the case in “I’m Down” and the ultimate coda of “Hey Jude.” Codas often consist of a repeated passage that either fades out or comes to a full close, often on a tonic embellished by added sixth, seventh, or ninth or a combination of these. By early 1963, the Beatles recognize the dynamic attraction of a strong coda, and they provide surprising yet conclusive reharmonizations of insistently repeated motives to close such songs as “From Me to You,” “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and “Yes It Is.” With “Ticket to Ride,” the Beatles were to experiment with codas of new but related material, a device that was to become a hallmark of later work. Harmony In 1964 Lennon said: “When Paul and I started writing stuff, we did it in A because we thought that was the key Buddy Holly did all his songs in. . . . Anyway, later on I found out he played in C and other keys, but it was too late and it didn’t worry us anyway. It sounded OK in A so that’s the way we

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played it.”84 This may explain why, even as late as 1964, Lennon and McCartney sing Holly’s “Words of Love” at the bottoms of their vocal ranges, with Lennon on his bass A. Indeed, in one medley performed in 1971 for his soundtrack to the film Clock, Lennon was to sing six Holly songs, five of them in A major.85 It is often difficult to be certain as to what keys the Quarry Men composed, performed, and even recorded in; in addition to the fact that bootleg records are often mastered at the wrong speeds, the Beatles often tuned “in the cracks.” Some confidence, however, can be had with regard to thirty-six Lennon-McCartney-Harrison songs composed through 1963; of these, fifteen are in E major, E minor, E Dorian, or E Aeolian, five are in G major, four in D major, four in C major, four in A major, two in Ef major, one in B major, and one in Fs minor. (The four in A are the very early “Hello Little Girl,” which has strong Holly characteristics; Paul’s “I’ll Be On My Way,” which also has strong Holly ties, especially in the duet refrain; Paul’s Presleian ballad “You’ll Be Mine”; and Paul’s “Like Dreamers Do,” which also seems more related to Presley than to Holly.) The Beatles transposed many songs they covered, some apparently for vocal convenience (as with “Please Mr. Postman,” shifted from the Marvelettes’ D to their own A) and some apparently more due to their distance from the source (none of the Beatles possessed perfect pitch, and model recordings were not always convenient). Judging by tastes in repertoire, it might be guessed that of the group, Harrison practiced along with recordings most often. He was probably the closest to Perkins, the Coasters, and Joe Brown, all of whose covered songs were apparently always played in original keys by the Beatles. No further significant conclusions as to keys are obvious, but this topic relates to the wisecracking side of Lennon’s musical personality. Lennon’s “I’m in Love” was given to Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas in 1963, via a composer’s “demo” (demonstration recording) in G major. As per standard practice, the group was to learn the song by ear. Having transposed the song to Ef to accommodate his voice, Kramer couldn’t play the song’s intro in such an inhospitable key in the taping on October 14, 1963 (with John in the studio), and it was suggested that it be performed a half-step lower, in D. At this difficulty, Lennon is heard cackling offmike; Billy admits, “I—I can’t get it, John,” and producer George Martin announces, “I give you full permission to come to the Beatles session on Thursday and challenge John whenever you like.”86 The song was abandoned by Kramer but eventually recorded (in E) and released by the Fourmost. (The capo was apparently not in widespread use among Liverpudlian guitarists; it is not seen in Beatle photographs taken before 1965.) It has been noted in the above pages that the earliest Lennon-McCartney songs are largely confined to the use of I, IV, and V triads, with minor sevenths potentially appearing on any of these degrees. This is also characteristic of most of the songs by others that they performed; a majority of the covers in their repertoire through 1959 fall into this restrictive category. Inherited from blues practice and the pentatonic minor scale (do-me-fa-sol-te-do), the tonic with added, nonresolving, minor seventh is itself an important sound in more than twenty covers, outside of its more conventional function as V7/IV. This

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

chord, with affects heavily tending toward the rebellious and sardonic, is a favorite of Berry; it supports the first eight bars of “Memphis” and the entire verses of “I’m Talking about You” and “Maybelline.” It will carry over from that guitarist into the Beatles’ “The One after 909,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “I Wanna Be Your Man.” Of the early works considered in this chapter, only “The Honeymoon Song (Bound by Love)” contains the tonic with an added major seventh; this is apparently a color sought by Paul in film music — it returns later in “Till There Was You” and not again until the Beatles’ own “It Won’t Be Long.” Of the 200-plus pre-1960 covers, the rock cliché I –VI – IV or II(6)–V, is heard only in “Come Go with Me,” and the repeated alternation of I and VI— so important in Lennon’s 1963 writing — is heard in this early period only in the Everlys’ “I Wonder If I Care as Much” and “Love of My Life,” Buddy Holly’s “Maybe Baby,” and the Isley Brothers’ “Shout.”87 The diatonic but often weak III triad is heard only in the poignant bridge of “The Honeymoon Song” before it becomes a favorite of the Lennon-McCartney team in mid-1963 and beyond. Applied V7s, which do appear in occasional early Lennon-McCartney compositions (we have seen a long chain of them in the original bridge of “Hello Little Girl”), are learned primarily from Carl Perkins’s bridge sections, as in “Sure to Fall” and “Lend Me Your Comb,” but are also played in at least twelve others. A chain as long as that in “Hello Little Girl” appears only in the bridges of the standard “Ain’t She Sweet” and Perkins’s “Your True Love.” The jugband number “San Francisco Bay Blues” ends its verse with the progression VI7s – II7s –V7; the same tune is covered in McCartney’s Unplugged (1991). He had tried to get this flavor, via the Lovin’ Spoonful, in his “Good Day Sunshine” in 1966 for Revolver — it reverberates much more strongly in John’s “Crippled Inside” (Imagine). In the Beatles’ own compositions, applied dominants will come to the fore in late 1961 in “Like Dreamers Do” and in 1963 with the coda of “Little Child.” By the following year, applied chords would be used for shock value, as in the V7/VI that paints jealousy bright green in “You Can’t Do That” (0:52 – 0:53). Applied °7 chords are rare in the group’s performances before 1961, when they are heard only in “Hallelujah! I Love Her So” and Presley’s “Just Because.” But even though the common-tone diminished seventh (CT°7) is heard in the verse of “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise,” the chorus of “Peggy Sue,” the bridges of “Tequila” and “Wooden Heart,” and the codas of “September in the Rain” and “Like Dreamers Do,” this function is rare in all Beatle compositions. The use of the CT°7 in the coda of “Like Dreamers Do,” along with the highly chromatic applied chords that also appear there, leads me to suspect that this coda was devised in 1961, long after the song’s genesis. Aside from a very local effect achieved by passing applied chords, tonicizations are nonexistent in the cover repertoire, although IV can gain force early in the bridge, most strongly in Holly’s “Raining in My Heart.” Flat-side scale degrees appear primarily within the minor key (as in the I –fVII –fVI –V verses of “Walk, Don’t Run” and “Runaway” and the bridge of “Three Cool Cats”) and through mode mixture in the major key (as in the unusual IV–fVII –fIII –fVI –V sequences within bridge passages in both “Every-

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

day” and “Young Blood”). The former, minor type resurfaces only in “I’ll Be Back” (1964) and later Beatle compositions, and the latter mixture-derived sequence simply does not visit Beatle compositions at all. Beginning in 1962 and continuing strongly through their career, the Beatles were to do much more on the flat side from modal systems, in a nearly totally original manner, but this tendency is only latent before 1961 in one “throwaway” passage in Carl Perkins’s “Lend Me Your Comb,” which I will discuss later in connection with “Please Please Me.” The descending line, f7– 6 –f6 – 5, which becomes abundant in McCartney’s writing in 1964, is already present in the mixture-produced progression If7– IV– IVf – I, heard in both “I’ll Always Be in Love with You” and “Love Me Tender.” The Tex-Mex Mixolydian I – fVII – I neighboring motion is heard only in “Tequila” and Buddy Holly’s version (but not the Berry original) of “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man” (and is heavily emphasized in McCartney’s cover of the latter for Run Devil Run). The Beatles’ favorite repertoire was “rhythm and blues,” a mixture of various African-American styles that had dominated the “race” records of the 1930s through the early 1950s: jazz, gospel, and — most important — blues styles coalesced in R&B, which was rechristened “soul” music in the mid1960s. Generally, R&B was so named because a strong rhythm of accented backbeats was often applied to the twelve-bar blues form. This simple form, standardized around the rural Mississippi delta by the 1920s and given a more sophisticated, urban treatment in Chicago by the 1930s, consists of verses of three four-bar phrases, with the first two phrases having the same or a rhyming text and the third a contrasting text. This a –a1–b form has a standard harmonic scheme that is usually treated simply but may be embellished, often chromatically, with the following harmonic rhythm: Bars 1– 4: Bars 5 – 8: Bars 9 –12:

I–I–I–I IV– IV– I – I V7–V7– I – I (or bar 12 has V for the “turnaround” into the succeding verse)

In blues-derived rock music, right from the earliest rock and roll, it is standard to pass through IV in bar 10, functioning, as already discussed, as an intensified doubling of the passing seventh of V7. The a –a1–b pattern of rhyming verse is not the norm in rock that it is in the classic blues literature; instead, many poetic systems appear. The Beatles played the blues in the rudimentary practice sessions taped in 1960 and doutless many later warm-up sessions, in addition to one extant jam from the Rubber Soul sessions of 1965 entitled “Twelve-Bar Original” (Beatles 1996a). But outside of the instrumental solo passages referred to previously, this scheme is rare in the Beatles’ music, surfacing only in the 1963 coda of “I Wanna Be Your Man,” both sides of the 1964 single “Can’t Buy Me Love” / “You Can’t Do That,” and four more published songs of 1967– 69. But, especially during the group’s apprentice years of 1956 – 60, at least fifty-nine songs in the group’s warm-up and performance repertoire contain twelve-bar blues structures, with harmony and rhythm standardized as described here, and at least fourteen others did so with revisions. The revisions

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

range from the exceedingly slight (Berry’s frequent continuation of V in bar 10, as in “Almost Grown,” “Little Queenie,” “Reelin’ and Rockin’,” and “Too Much Monkey Business”) through the chromatically embellished (as in Berry’s Chicago-based “I Got to Find My Baby”) to the metrically extended (as in the first lines in “Jailhouse Rock,” “You Can’t Catch Me,” or the chorus of “Honey Don’t,” the repeated lines in “Rip It Up” and “Bad Boy,” or the tag appending “Don’t Be Cruel”) or irregular (as in “Mystery Train,” the rhythm of which is extended to effect the great length of the train and grouped 6+4, 6+4, 4+4 to intensify the suspended neighbor chords that accompany vocal lines). A recommitment to their blues roots will inaugurate an early-1964 style shift for the Beatles. Melody The first synoptic study of the Beatles corpus, by British musicologist Wilfrid Mellers, maintains that the melodic and harmonic roots of their music lie fully in the primitive pentatonic scale and that these primal materials are closer to the Beatles’ center than are diatonic features. For Mellers, even the Beatles’ chromatic ventures are to be heard as departures from the core pentatonic world: The nostalgic chromatics of a Jerome Kern, the cynically witty harmonic surprises of a Cole Porter, give way to primitive drones and ostinati. Even the wide-eyed, open-eared effects created in Beatle songs by mediant relationships and side-stepping modulations are the empirical product of the movement of melody, modally conceived, and of the behaviour of the hands on guitar strings or keyboard. Similar accidents occur in medieval and early Renaissance music, with a comparable synthesis of innocence with sophistication.88

Mellers in 1973 could have known only a scant few, if any, of the Beatles’ extra-EMI performances, but the more recent availability of earlier work allows us to be more precise, and a very different picture emerges of the Beatles’ roots. In fact, most of the Beatles’ earliest compositions are thoroughly diatonic, grounded solidly in the major scale. These include “I Lost My Little Girl,” “Hello Little Girl,” “I Fancy Me Chances,” “I’ll Follow the Sun,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “In Spite of All the Danger,” “Just Fun,” “Too Bad about Sorrows,” “If Tomorrow Ever Comes,” “Wake Up in the Morning,” “Won’t You Please Say Goodbye,” “I Call Your Name,” “Like Dreamers Do,” and “I’ll Be On My Way.” The 1960 performance of “Hello Little Girl” has a Holly-styled major-mode guitar solo that also functions as the song’s introduction. This is scrapped in the January 1, 1962, performance (Beatles 1991g), which instead has a brief new solo, shown in example 1.14, replete with blue notes.89 While this early predilection for the major mode may be traced (contra Mellers) to such culturally indigenous sources as the music hall, Irish folk music, and the bells of St. Peter’s (Woolton), it is also characteristic of most of the songs written by the composer most emulated by the Beatles, Buddy Holly (in covered songs such as “Words of Love,” “Maybe Baby,” “Everyday,” “Crying, Waiting, Hoping,” and “Don’t Ever Change”), as well as “Bye Bye Love” and

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Example 1.14 “Hello Little Girl” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.




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(later) “Cathy’s Clown” by the Everlys. Even the vocal sections of Carl Perkins’s “Sure to Fall” are governed by the major scale (although this song, like the “Hello Little Girl” of 1962, features a bluesy guitar solo). It must be remembered further that Lennon and McCartney were to favor the diatonic “uptown” style of R&B (as promoted by Arthur Alexander, the Shirelles, Dr. Feelgood, the Teddy Bears, Ben E. King, and the Drifters) in 1961– 62 over grittier, more pentatnoic languages, and that Motown favorites “Please Mr. Postman” and “You Really Got a Hold on Me” involve primarily major scale degrees. Unknown to Mellers, the Beatles did have some Cole Porter examples, represented by “Begin the Beguine” and “True Love,” in their 1960 repertoire. Perhaps most telling, the group’s blues improvisations (as opposed to their diatonic playing), as recorded in April 1960, sound like virgin forays into unknown territory. “You Are My Sunshine” was at one time probably almost as much fun for the Beatles as was “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying.” The Pentatonic World Whereas the Beatles’ earliest compositions were nearly all diatonic, in the major mode after Buddy Holly, they soon began to incorporate more and more blues-based scale degrees in their vocal and instrumental performance and composition. This was a testament to their budding interests in the bluer manifestations of rockabilly, such as the recordings of Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins, and in R&B. As in the tradition of blues vocalists and guitarists, the underlying harmony drawn from the diatonic world of the major mode would often serve as a backdrop for highlighted solo blue notes. These blue notes usually describe the content of the pentatonic minor scale, all of its “steps” created by major seconds and minor thirds. McCartney says that “Love Me Do” “was us trying to do the blues.”90 In this early composition (see the Wise score), 7 is absent in the chorus (A), always replaced by f7, and 3 is articulated as bf rather than as the diatonic bn. The bridge (B) features the “Miss Ann”– like full pentatonic minor scale, presented in descent in B+3 – 4 (the last octave of B+3 should be shown as D, and the following Bf should be ornamented by grace-note C). Two pentatonic scales that have tonal function are given on G in example 1.15: 1.15a is the pentatonic minor scale and 1.15b is the pentatonic major scale. It can be seen that — as analogous to the major/minor system — both have the same ordering of whole steps and minor thirds but are differen-

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

Example 1.15 (a) Trichords in pentatonic minor scale; (b) Pentatonic major scale.

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b

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tiated by location of tonal center. G is relative pentatonic minor to Bf pentatonic major; E is relative pentatonic minor to G pentatonic major. It is the pentatonic minor scale, with its “blue” notes on 3 and 7, that is characteristic of blues performance by singers and solo instruments such as lead guitar. Typically in rock (as in many jazz styles), the chords played simultaneously by rhythm guitarists or in supportive registers by keyboardists will derive from the major scale; thus the “major” key signatures given in example 1.15, setting up a strong tension in the cross-relations on 3 and 7. Note that “2” and “6” of the gapped pentatonic minor scale are nonexistent, but for convenience, they will be counted as placeholders. These scale degrees are certainly featured often as passing tones within the system. Note also that the scale allows for both roots and corresponding minor sevenths of If7, IV f7, and V7, all highly characteristic sonorities in the pentatonic minor world. The brackets labeled a, b, c, and d in example 1.15a mark the four ubiquitous [025] trichords that distinguish the scale’s often realized potential for motivic construction. For instance, a blues tune might take the [025] motive of trichord d as heard over the tonic and transpose it to trichord b over the dominant. Among examples performed by the Quarry Men, the bare [025] trichord is the basis for melodies in “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” where the verse features the c-trichord; the chorus transposes an a motive over IV to c over I. Similarly, the verse of “I’m Talking about You” (d ), the chorus of “Dream Baby” (c over I transposed to a over IV), and both the verse (c) and refrain (d ) of “Heartbreak Hotel” are all based on melodic treatments of the [025] trichord.91 I will occasionally speak, in the chapters that follow, of the c- or d-trichord, and these designations refer to the positions of these motivic devices within their respective tonal contexts, as described within the scale in example 1.15a. Readers not theoretically disposed might be cool to this approach, perhaps initially finding it too cerebral and “abstract,” especially considering the vernacular and vivid nature of the literature. A rock musician, for example, might object that the “Hello Little Girl” solo transcribed in example 1.14 is inspired solely by instrumental technique — hand position — not by conscious, rational choice. After all, every note in the solo is played on either the fifth or seventh fret, using all strings but the sixth; a novice can pull it off quite well. This does not alter the fact that the passage is of interest for its pithy and substantial transpositions of two motives: (1) the passage is grounded in the aand c-trichords (which first appear in the anacrusis to m. 1 and in m. 3, respectively); and (2) the open fifth involving 1 and 5 in measure 1 is heard a

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

fourth higher in measures 2, 3, and 4— each against a different harmony, and allowing the 1 of measure 1 to achieve its higher register through motivically significant means. Regardless of the likely attitudes of the teenaged composerperformers, the factors enumerated here are probably those that create the strongest interest in all listeners to the solo in “Hello Little Girl,” even if by unconscious processes. (After all, most air-guitar players do not typically exhibit appropriate fingerings, even though they are surely moved by the pitch relationships!) Returning to “Love Me Do”: McCartney’s first nine bars of A, to which Lennon probably added his vocal line as a lower harmony part, consist solely of the delineation of trichord c. The third and fourth bars of the bridge feature a full descent of the pentatonic minor scale: John doubles Paul’s line in octaves with harmonica as well as with voice. This emphasized line would be Mellers’s pentatonic “tumbling strain.” By virtue of the chord change and the corresponding metric accents in these bars, the descending scale may also be heard as a transposition of c over IV (B+3) to a over I (B+4), a hearing that may lead to a fuller appreciation of the motivic relationship between the chorus and the bridge. Note the presence of the nonpentatonic 6 (A+7– 9), 2 (B+1), and s7 (B+2) borrowed from the major mode for purposes of contrast. In a similar fashion, the Quarry Men performed contrasts of diatonic and pentatonic scales in “Come Go with Me” and “Nothin’ Shakin’ (But the Leaves on the Trees),” both of which tend to diatonic verses and pentatonic bridges. Unlike the diatonic system, the pentatonic allows free treatment of nonharmonic tones. Therefore, the minor seventh above I is not pressured to resolve and is often the last note of a tune. In his performance of “Young Blood,” excerpted in example 1.16 (comprising the end of the verse and the first bar of the chorus), Harrison ends one phrase with such a seventh, the d-trichord’s gn in measure 2, and then concludes the verse an octave higher (m. 5).92 The tension of the second gn, in the upper register —while not likely initially perceived as the active seventh of an applied chord — sustains above the comic interjections of McCartney, Harrison, and Lennon in measures 5 – 6 to resolve in a rush to the major system with McCartney’s fs as the chorus opens in measure 8. Similarly, the pentatonic 7 featured in upper registers in the verses of “You Can’t Do That” and “A Hard Day’s Night” resolves neither up to 1 nor down to 6. Much of the Beatles’ music takes advantage of the potentially dramatic cross-relations on 3 and 7, which the group learned by performing “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” “Johnny B. Goode,” and “That’ll Be the Day,” and the blues-based Vs9 chord (in G major, it is spelled D – Fs–A– C – Fn). By 1963, the Beatles’ free and expressive manipulation of scale degrees leads to a new dialect juxtaposing the pentatonic system with major/minor mode mixture, becoming a defining characteristic of the early Beatles style. These and other blues-related topics will be addressed in due course. McCartney’s Voice Leading We know McCartney’s “You’ll Be Mine,” a ballad in shuffle rhythm, only from the April 1960 tapes. The first two verses (A–B) and bridge (C) are reduced in example 1.17a (from Beatles 1995d), indicating only

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

Example 1.16 “Young Blood” (Jerry Lieber – Mike Stoller – Doc Pomus). © 1957, Tiger.

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McCartney’s and Lennon’s vocal parts above a roman numeral labeling of the guitar chording. The vocal melody in the verse is sung in a corny overly supported, pseudodramatic style also practiced in “Besame Mucho” (itself based on a passage from Spanish opera), even though his partially written lyrics are neither dramatic nor even convincing. Lennon’s vocal enters at B (0:27), mocking his partner with a wordless falsetto “descant” that doubles the structure of Paul’s tune an octave higher. The tune, like many of McCartney’s melodies (compare “Some Days,” “Love of the Loved,” or “Hello Goodbye”), is based on a descending sequence (cs2– gs1, b1– fs1, a1– e1, at mm. 2 – 4). The low comedy peaks in the spoken bridge (0:47–1:08), with John in a ridiculous basso profundo range. This passage could be an imitation of the Ink Spots, a reference made stronger by Paul’s expert control of dynamics and melodic instincts in his wordless “harmony” vocal that ends in quite a dramatic baroque arpeggiation of an applied V of V, or perhaps of Elvis Presley’s spoken bridge in “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin,” a song the Beatles perform elsewhere on the 1960 source tape. The put-on lyrics in this bridge are typical of Lennon’s prose and poetry but would have been unthinkable to record as a Beatles song until “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” was taped in 1967.93 As an introduction to McCartney’s writing, the melodic and harmonic structures of the verse to “You’ll Be Mine” are worthy of further consideration. In example 1.17b, the structure of the vocal melody is given in the treble staff; the bass staff indicates the load-bearing chord members. 94 The sketch represents the voice leading in the verse and may be compared with the melody and roman numerals shown in example 1.17a. Previewing many Beatle tunes, this is a polyphonic melody with two “voices,” both performed by one singer who alternates between the pitches of one line and those of the other. The two voices are differentiated in the treble staff of example 1.17b, where the “upper voice” is presented stems-up, the “lower” stems-down. The first four bars prolong an

59

Example 1.17a “You’ll Be Mine” (Paul McCartney); used by permission of MPL Communications, Inc.

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

Example 1.17a (continued)

Example 1.17b Analysis of “You’ll Be Mine.” 2^

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arpeggiation of I: note the bass slur tying A to A and the stepwise upper-voice descent from the third of the tonic triad to its root (3–2–1), both outer parts exemplifying the control exerted here by the tonic harmony. The colorful chord progression within this expansion of tonic predicts those heard in the Beatles’ early hits: III (Csm) supports 7 in A+2 with a solid perfect fifth below so that it need not lead back up to 8 (as in “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and many others), and an Fsm triad (VI) substitutes for the V that would have been a more common and functional support for 2. Instead of enjoying support as the solid fifth of V, 2 is actually harmonized as an accented dissonant passing tone against the sounding VI, creating a strong desire for continued motion. The dominant is expanded in measures 5 – 6, and tonic returns in measure 7. The seventh of V7, D, is heard first in the voice in A+5 but is transferred to the bass in A+6 (note the arrow’s indication of such a transfer in the sketch), there heard as the root of a IV7 chord. The progression V– IV– I, very common in rock music, is usually considered a backward motion, as IV more normally prepares V, which then wishes very strongly to resolve to I. As commonly happens in the ninth and tenth bars of a twelve-bar blues, especially in blues-derived rock, the

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

“IV” merely doubles and intensifies the implied passing seventh of the V 7 for which it stands. So what might have served as an upper neighbor to the vocal cs2 (note the flag on d2 in the graph) becomes instead, in a blues convention, a passing tone down to Cs in the bass. All to clarify a commonly misunderstood harmonic function heard in countless thousands of blues tunes! In example 1.17a, the voice part of A+6 has one note spelled as cn in its first appearance (in agreement with D7) and then as bs. The bs is the functional spelling, as this note works as the upper note of an augmented sixth with the bass (clarified as a chromatic passing tone in the sketch), which resolves outwardly to a Cs octave. And so the tenor notes shown in A+4 and A+7 are manufactured in parallel fashion from voice-leading norms and are actually performed in the downward-stemmed vocal voice. Note that the classic overall descent from 3 to 1 is also replicated at a lower level in A+1– 4, and that, as if to consolidate his tune, McCartney returns to the opening structural Cs on the downbeat of A+7. The directed melodic motions derive much more from the music hall than from R&B. Had example 1.17b continued through the bridge, it would have emphasized McCartney’s soaring register, in which he highlights the structural upper voice in his highest tones, cs3 (C+4, 0:57) passing to b2 (m. 23, 1:05), whose descent to a final a2 —which would thus complete the 3–2–1 line in a closing perfect authentic cadence — is interrupted by the retransitional dominant. This is the typical manner in which the early music of the Beatles creates great tension in the bridge, demanding the return of the verse section as all four Beatles wildly shake their long-haired heads! In addition to covering a bit of ground in reading a voice-leading graph, I have been able to show from a rather silly song something of McCartney’s preferences for melodic construction, his sense of the interaction between melody and harmonic color, his dissonance treatment, and his borrowing from a blues voice-leading type into a different rock idiom.

Rhythmic, Textural, Instrumental, and Vocal Articulation of Structure Rhythm Originality in rhythmic structures, especially involving changing meters and free phrase lengths and phrase rhythm, marks the mature music of the Beatles as vastly different from that of their contemporaries. There are no rockand-roll precedents for the Beatles’ most adventurous play in this arena, but the group did learn in its early years to manipulate accent placement, in terms both of individual notes and of measures within a scheme of harmonic rhythm, and to vary a song’s rhythmically articulated textures from section to section and — for dramatic effect — at points within sections. The Beatles feature syncopation in the accompaniments to their hard-driving rock numbers, as when recreating the intense drive back to the verse of “Great Balls of Fire” with a full measure that articulates all offbeats, exclusively, contradicting the very strong downbeats heard in the nine previous bars. Listen also to the repeated three-note patterns conflicting with the beat in Harrison’s solos for “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Too Much Monkey Business.” But syncopation is

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

also heard in the gentle vocals of the Beatles’ tenderest ballads, as in “And I Love Her,” which is outdone in “I Will.” Lennon’s vocal in “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)” is much more syncopated than Presley’s “straight” model, moving the feel further from C&W and closer to R&B.95 Without a regular drummer in 1959 – 60, their crucial years of development, the group made sure there was “rhythm in the guitars.” The stressed backbeat ( q  q) of early rock and roll (think of the drums in “Maybelline,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Lucille,” or Perkins’s “Glad All Over”) is of course a staple, but another important rock rhythm is the shuffle, whereby each beat is divided into three, with the triplets in each bar normally articulated on the rhythm guitar as qe qe qe qe. Even when constant, very strong accents on the backbeat en4 sure that the shuffle is not normally heard as a meter of 12 8, but rather 4; in fact, most publishers stubbornly notate beat divisions with regular, even eighths, with a verbal indication to play in a “swing” or “shuffle” rhythm. A slow tempo, however, often leads to softer accents, balancing the two rhythmic levels of beat and beat division so as to encourage the perception of compound meter — this balance is achieved in “You’ll Be Mine.” The Quarry Men and Beatles performed the shuffle in such diverse styles as represented by “I’ll Always Be in Love with You,” “Matchbox,” “Don’t Ever Change,” and “Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby,” and incorporated it in the opening of their A-major blues of 1960 (on side D of Beatles 1987d). It is also heard on many later numbers. More interesting, the shuffle often appears as a beat division only in a song’s internal section, for a change in rhythmic texture — in either the bridge (as in “Why” and Take 1 only of “I Saw Her Standing There”), the chorus (“A Taste of Honey”— accommodated by a change from triple to quadruple meter), or the guitar solo (“That’ll Be the Day”— as taken from Holly’s model, “Your Feet’s Too Big,” and “I Call Your Name”).96 In a similar manner, constant ties in the rhythm guitar allow only the off-beat eighths to be articulated in the stilted bridge of “Red Sails in the Sunset.” Change of harmonic tempo (perhaps the most important aspect of harmonic rhythm) is another important means of contrasting rhythmic textures. The verses of three early Beatle covers, “Love Me Tender,” “Ain’t She Sweet,” and “Anna,” all begin with two (or, in the last case, three) identical lines and then reestablish momentum by doubling the speed of the harmonic rhythm for the remainder of the verse.97 The opposite effect occurs, for dramatic emphasis, on the third line of the verse of “Hallelujah! I Love Her So,” which halves the harmonic tempo of the first, second, and fourth lines. Even more common is the halving of the harmonic tempo for the onset of the bridge; this is heard in “Come Go with Me,” “Walk, Don’t Run,” “Cry for a Shadow,” “Anna,” “Hey! Baby,” “Thank You Girl,” “Don’t Bother Me,” “This Boy,” and “I’ll Be Back.” In a wonderful display of text-painting, the bridge of “I Saw Her Standing There” stops an already slow harmonic tempo, beginning with six bars of IV7 that freeze the narrator in time, not only standing but paralyzed by unexpected emotion. The effect, though unmoving, is full of remarkable tension, given the agitated bass ostinato and a syncopated rhythm guitar, both expressing the excitement no doubt common to both members of the story’s couple. Finally, the three 1963 A-sides abandon the harmonic rhythm established in their verses at

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

the onset of their refrains, to either double the tempo (in “From Me to You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand”) or halve it (“She Loves You”). It is subtle patterns such as these that constitute the Beatles’ secret #1-hit formulas of 1963. Very few post-1962 compositions are truly foursquare, but such symmetry characterizes “Misery,” “All My Loving,” and “I’ll Get You.” There is no difficulty in finding phrases and subphrases of three, five, six, six and a half, seven, or ten measures in the Beatles’ work after 1962, but very few appear before then. The chorus of “Love Me Do” is one example. It is divided into two parts, with durations of six and seven measures. By virtue of harmonic and motivic repetition, these parts may be subdivided into two-bar units except that an extra bar is added to the first such unit in the second part —A+7– 9 (0:24 – 0:28 on Beatles 1988c) form a single three-bar unit, forcing a change to triple meter at the hypermetric level just above that of the single bar. In other words, the entire thirteen-bar chorus may be heard to have a phrase-level meter of three bars of 2 , followed by one bar of 3 , followed by two bars of 2. The metric change helps 1 1 1 express the urgency of the “please.” The exact same grouping of thirteen bars is heard in the refrain of “Baby It’s You,” performed first in 1962. A similar effect was performed in 1961– 62 in the refrain of “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame.” A few skiffle-era numbers, including “Rock Island Line,” “Mystery Train,” and “Midnight Special,” have irregular meter at the phrase level. We know that “Love Me Do” has origins in the Quarry Men days, but we cannot know at what point before its first taping in June 1962 its chorus might have taken on the “extra” measure. The final rhythm topic of relevance for this period is the textural punctuation known as “stop time.” It has been defined as “a passage in which a clearly articulated rhythmic pattern ceases (‘stops’) in the percussion. The pulse continues as does the melody, but the drum (and perhaps other instruments as well) plays only a downbeat or syncopation here and there.”98 This definition could be amended to include those examples that begin not with a clearly articulated pattern but with a stop-time passage that functions as a textural anacrusis, as with “Ain’t That a Shame” (with its syncopated punctuations) and “Blue Suede Shoes” (with its first and fourth beats articulated). These and many other songs played by the Quarry Men feature stop time through the first four bars of a twelve-bar blues verse. Sometimes the effect is withheld until the crucial fourth bar of this structure, which launches into the song’s first change of chord, as in “Slow Down,” or — to vividly highlight a full line of lyrics — in both bars 3 and 4, as in “Baby Let’s Play House,” emphasizing, among others, the line “I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man.” The Coasters make great effect of this procedure, and the Beatles camp it up in “Young Blood” and “Searchin’.” The former was seen in example 1.16 and the latter is represented in example 1.18. In the very slow “Searchin’,” notated as part of a twenty-four-bar blues, all instruments but the quarter-note-arpeggiating bass drop out for structural bar “3” (equivalent to the first two full measures of example 1.18); Lennon’s comic falsetto and McCartney’s response are heard over the sustained bass in the example’s fourth and fifth bars, and the full ensemble reenters with the arrival of IV. The Quarry Men practiced stop time in at least twenty-nine of their pre-1960 covers.

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

Example 1.18 “Searchin’ ” (Jerry Lieber – Mike Stoller). © 1957, Tiger.

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IV

The most dramatic placement of stop time is at the end of the bridge and/or the return to the verse, and the Beatles performed this in “Come Go with Me” and at least ten others before writing their own examples in “In Spite of All the Danger,” “There’s a Place,” and “This Boy.” The entire bridge is subject to this texture in “I Got a Woman.” The procedure may also signal an impending conclusion to the verse, often signaling a brief refrain, or suggest that a chorus is likely to repeat through the coda. Examples concluding the verse include “Bad Boy”; those concluding the chorus include “You Really Got a Hold on Me” and “Please Mr. Postman.” In short, the effect can take on many seemingly consistently invoked meanings, depending on its place within the structure. Despite the great importance of stop time in the early Beatle stage act, it seems to inform only a very few of their own compositions prior to 1964, and two of them in the same way: both “Please Please Me” and “All My Loving” feature a reduction of texture between the verse and the chorus. Both verses end with a strong drum fill; that in “Please Please Me” is followed (C–1, 0:20 – 0:21) by drum rests with a single line in octaves on guitars, while “All My Loving” (C–1, 0:49 – 0:50) features rests by the entire ensemble. Both rests are pierced by the lead singer’s anacrusis to the chorus. Rhythm Guitar Except for the mediocre blues jams, Harrison did not emerge as the group’s lead guitarist until early 1961. Until then, the three guitarists were all fundamentally rhythm players, each of whom would occasionally add melodic licks. In 1964, Lennon discussed his role as rhythm guitarist: “The job of the normal group rhythm guitarist is to back the solo guitarist like the left hand does on a piano. . . . I’d play boogie and George would play lead. I’d vamp like Bruce Welch [of the Shadows] does, in that style of rhythm.”99 “Boogie” refers to a specific technique of ornamentation whereby the left hand positions itself for a chord and then adds with a free finger an upper neighbor tone that alternates with the principal chord tone.100 The basic chord is usually a major triad, voiced as a barre chord on I, IV, or V, but other scale degrees are also so embellished. The third or fourth finger will thus come on and off the fingerboard, creating a riff that is usually played in a triplet shuffle rhythm, two strums per finger position, but need not be. Berry and Holly are better-known exponents of the technique than is Bruce Welch. The following three examples from the Beatles’ repertoire will illustrate some of the possible contexts for the basic pattern. Example 1.19 is from Holly’s twelve-bar solo to “That’ll Be the Day.” Note that the shuffle rhythm articulates a simple boogie involving the

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Example 1.19 “That’ll Be the Day” (Jerry Allison – Buddy Holly – Norman Petty). © 1957, MPL Communications, Inc.



♯♯  ♯

 

A:

IV

 





 

 





       



Example 1.20 “Reminiscing” (Paul Fenoulhet). © 1959, Hereinafter Music.


♭
♭

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Example 1.21 “Good Rockin’ Tonight” (Roy Brown). © 1947, Ft. Knox Music.

♯♯♯♯

rhythm gtr



bass

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

upper neighbor to the chordal fifth. Example 1.20 is from another Holly tune, “Reminiscing,” which furnishes the same neighbor pattern with a different rhythm, as played by Harrison (from the December 30 or 31, 1962, performance on Beatles 1977b). Note the exact transposition for each chord — the same left-hand movable barre-chord technique is employed at three different positions on the fingerboard. Example 1.21 is from “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” as performed by McCartney’s band (McCartney 1991b). This figure was common in Little Richard recordings, with saxophone appearing over the electric bass. This is a common post-swing-era ostinato pattern, whereby the tenor-range instrument duplicates the upper-neighbor figure occuring within the boogiewoogie-derived bass motive. A common variation will be referred to as the “blues boogie,” because it features pentatonic minor sevenths above I and IV, most common in the blues repertoire. Example 1.22 is from Lennon’s performance in “Ain’t She Sweet.”101 Like the basic pattern seen in examples 1.19 – 21, movable barre chords are used. Here, both the third and fourth fingers are required for the sixth and seventh that embellish the triad fifths.102 A universal technique for rhythm players, the boogie procedure — along with the blues practice of adding minor sevenths, the rockabilly practice of adding sixths, and the jazz practice of adding ninths —was eventually to lead

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

Example 1.22 “Ain’t She Sweet” (Milton Ager – Jack Yellen). © 1927, Warner Bros. Inc./Edwin H. Morris & Company, A Division of MPL Communications, Inc.

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Example 1.23 John Lennon’s demonstrated vocal range through 1963.

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Example 1.24 Paul McCartney’s demonstrated vocal range through 1963.

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Example 1.25 George Harrison’s demonstrated vocal range through 1963.




 



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to the Beatles’ freedom in creating their own sonorities, often by adding nonresolving, nonchord tones to triads. Vocalization Examples 1.23 – 25 give representations of the vocal ranges in lead vocal performances as recorded before 1964, of Lennon (example 1.23), McCartney (example 1.24), and Harrison (example 1.25). (The strongest, most characteristic part of each singer’s range is given in open noteheads connected by a vertical line; this characteristic range is surrounded by several filled noteheads that represent occasional highest or lowest notes in songs with extreme ranges. Diamond-shaped noteheads are the highest falsetto pitches in specific songs.) Table 1.4 lists the pre-1964 songs known from recordings to have been per-

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Table 1.4 Pre-1964 Vocal Repertoires John Lennon: “I’ll Always Be in Love with You” (A– f s 1) [S] (widest) “To Know Her Is to Love Her” (B – c s 1) “If I Fell” [1963 draft] (B f – d1/b1) [S] “Bad to Me” (Bf– e f 1) [S] “Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)” (B – g1) “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin” (c – e1) “Where Have You Been All My Life” (c s – f s 1) “I Got a Woman” (c s – g1) [S] “Anna (Go to Him)” (c s – a1) “How Do You Do It” (d – f s 1) “Baby It’s You” (d – g1) “Not a Second Time” (d – g1) [S] “I’m in Love” (d – g1) [S] “Mr. Moonlight” (d – a1) [S] “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues” (d – a1) “Ask Me Why” (d s – f s 1/b1) “This Boy” (d s – a1) “That’ll Be the Day” (e – c1/b1) “Memphis” (e – c s 1) [S] “Ain’t She Sweet” (e – e1) [S] “Carol” (e – e1/a1) [S] “Misery” (e – f 1/e2) “I’ll Be On My Way” (e – f s 1) “All I’ve Got to Do” (e – f s 1) “You Really Got a Hold on Me” (e – f s 1) “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes” (e – f s 1) [S] “Honey Don’t” (e – g1) “I Just Don’t Understand” (e – g1) “Keep Your Hands off My Baby” (e – g1) “I’m Talking about You” (e – g1/g2) [S] “Sweet Little Sixteen” (e – g s 1) [S] “Money (That’s What I Want)” (e – a1/f s 2) “I Got to Find My Baby” (f – g1) [S] “Some Other Guy” (f – g1) “Hello Little Girl” (f s – f s 1) “Please Mr. Postman” (f s – f s 1) “Too Much Monkey Business” (g – f s 1/a1) [S] “Slow Down” (g – g1) [S] “Bad Boy” (g – g1/f s 2) [S] “It Won’t Be Long” (g – g s 1/b1)

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

Table 1.4 (continued ) “Please Please Me” (g s – e1/b1) “Putting on the Style” (fragment) (a f– g1) “Matchbox” (a – e1) “Johnny B. Goode” (a – e1/a1) [S] “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” (a – a1/e2) [S] “Twist and Shout” (b – a1) “Red Hot” (c1 – f1) (narrowest) Paul McCartney: “I’ll Follow the Sun” [1960] (Bf– f 1) [S] “A Taste of Honey” (c s – f s 1) “Your Feet’s Too Big” (c s – a1) (widest) “P.S. I Love You” (d – a1) “Searchin’ ” (d – a1) “Wild Cat” (e f – f 1) [S] “The Honeymoon Song (Bound by Love)” (e – e1) [S] “You’ll Be Mine” (e – e1/c s 1) “Love of the Loved” (e – e1/g s 1) “I Remember You” (e – e1/a1) “Dream Baby” (e – f s 1) “Falling in Love Again” (e – f s 1) “Hallelujah! I Love Her So” (e – f s 1) [S] “I Saw Her Standing There” (e – f s 1/g2) “Till There Was You” (e – g1) [S] “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)” (e – g1/d2) [S] “All My Loving” (e – gs1/cs2) “That’s All Right (Mama)” (e – a1) [S] “Like Dreamers Do” (e – a1) [S] “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise” (f s – g s 1/b1) [S] “Clarabella” (f s – a1/f s 2) [S] “Beautiful Dreamer” (f s – a1/g2) “September in the Rain” (f – a1) [S] “Love Me Do” bridge / coda (f – b f 1) “Lend Me Your Comb” (f s – g1) “Besame Mucho” (g – a1) “Little Queenie” (g – a1/a2) [S] “You Must Write Everyday” (f s – f s 1) [S] “Some Days” (g s – g s 1) [S] “Red Sails in the Sunset” (a – a1/f s 2) [S] “Hold Me Tight” (a – bf1) “Sure to Fall” (b – f s 1) (continued)

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Table 1.4 (continued ) “Kansas City / “Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey” (b – b1/g2) “Road Runner” (fragment) (c1– b f 1) “Lucille” (c1– b f 1/g2) [S] “Ooh! My Soul” (d1– b1/g2) [S] “Long Tall Sally” (d1 – d2/g2) [S] “Hippy Hippy Shake” (e f 1 – af1/g f 2) [S] “Shimmy Like Kate” (e1– a1) (narrowest) George Harrison: “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” (B – e1) [S] (widest) “Don’t Bother Me” (d – f s 1) [S] “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” (e – e1) “A Picture of You” (e – e1) [S] “Three Cool Cats” (e – e1/b1) “Take Good Care of My Baby” (e – f s 1) “Nothin’ Shakin’ (But the Leaves on the Trees)” (e – g1) [S] “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” (e – g1) [S] “Glad All Over” (e – g1/b1) [S] “Chains” (f – f1) “Reminiscing” (f – f1/c2) [S] “Sheila” (f s – d1) [S] (narrowest) “Do You Want to Know a Secret” (f s – e1/g s 1) “(There’s a) Devil in Her Heart” (g – e1) “Sheik of Araby” (g – f 1) “Young Blood” (g – g1) “Roll Over Beethoven” (a – f1/d2) [S]

formed by each of the singers, thus suggesting individual style preferences, arranged from lowest to highest ranges. The range contains only notes sung in full voice; any pitch shown after a slash represents the song’s highest note sung in falsetto. Not included are songs that have vocal parts by two or more singers throughout, as their individual ranges would be constrained against my purposes. Those solo songs that have no backing vocals whatsoever are marked “S.” The table shows that a large number of songs have only a single vocalist; many others have minimal backing vocal parts. This is exemplified by “I Remember You,” in which John interjects just five shouted words in each chorus. This fact reflects the necessary development of a solo repertoire for each singer, so as to conserve voices during long sets in Hamburg. The examples and table show that Lennon and McCartney have about the same characteristic range and that Lennon’s extremes are only a step or so lower than McCartney’s. This may be surprising in that Lennon seems so comfortable a third below McCartney in their duets. Also significant are the facts that two of Lennon’s widest ranges occur in Alexander songs discovered in 1962 (“Soldier” and “Anna”) and

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

that — except for “Red Hot”— his two narrowest are in Berry songs, one of which was performed as early as 1958. All four of McCartney’s earliest Little Richard covers are among his seven highest ranges. Solo rock singers of the 1950s split from the pop mainstream in more striking ways than in their choices of harmonies, forms, melodic structures, and even rhythmic shapings. Vocal expression in rock music is fundamentally different from that in pop: absent in rock and roll are the long bel canto legato lines and a dependence on unchanging vibrato and long-range dynamics as chief expressive devices, and in their places are a new wave of varied types of subtle vocal ornamentation including neighbor-related graces (such as appoggiaturas, mordents, and turns), longer melismas (particularly as practiced by Holly and Smokey Robinson), and rests that seem to break up individual notes, often suggestive of sexual energy. Just as important are many new shadings of timbre, including the variable placement of a tone’s focus within the vocal instrument, the interjection of a yodel-like falsetto into a line sung in full voice, multiphonic-laden shouting, and subito dynamics. Many of these solo effects are not practiced by 1950s duos and vocal groups, who aim instead at a blended sound, but the solo singers of that time, spearheaded by Presley, make their vocal expression as physical and individual as possible. What was at the time frequently condemned as the product of a lack of training (in a fiercely fought generation-defined battle of tastes) might conversely be appreciated as a new interest in expressive ornamentation, comparable to the situation created by the introduction of the Nuove Musiche at the turn of the seventeenth century. The Beatles’ early solo vocal styles were dependent primarily on those of Presley, Holly, Richard, Robinson, and Berry, whereas the Perkins brothers (Carl and Jay), the Everly Brothers (Phil and Don), and the double-tracked Holly first shaped the duets and trios of Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison. It’s a shame we don’t have a tape of Paul and John imitating the Sam Cooke – Lou Rawls duo in “Bring It On Home to Me,” covered by the Beatles in the second half of 1962. The Beatles developed other techniques of arranging solo and backing vocals through their covers of the Coasters and, by late 1960, Motown and other “uptown” acts. All of these approaches are discussed in the following paragraphs. Elvis Presley controlled a multitimbral voice that sometimes — especially in the lower baritone range — emerged from the throat or the front of the mouth, often with an affected or flippant tone, and sometimes — especially in the upper tenor register — emerged as a clear head tone. Both deliveries often appear in juxtaposition, as in “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” Articulation is often highly clipped, and such light notes are often intermingled with sustained tones, as in “Don’t Be Cruel.” The Jordanaires provided velvety long notes in their vocal backings for Presley, allowing him a range of expressive solo articulations. The Crickets were to give Holly similar support. Finally, improvisatory melismas, often appearing as retransitional lead-ins, boiled out of Presley, an effect apparently greatly enjoyed by Lennon.103 Both Lennon and McCartney display Presleian vocal characteristics early on. Example 1.26 is from Lennon’s cover of “I Got a Woman,” based on Presley’s rather than Charles’s original version.104 The passage, which appears twice in

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Example 1.26 "I Got a Woman" (Ray Charles – Renald Richards). © 1954, Unichappell Music, Inc.

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Example 1.27 “Like Dreamers Do” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.





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the song (thus parts a and b in the example), introduces rests and graces into a descending pentatonic line carrying a single syllable. Example 1.27 contains passages from McCartney’s “Like Dreamers Do,” taken from the Decca audition of January 1, 1962. The vocal begins with a scoop (example 1.27a) that could have been modeled on Presley’s singing. Then come three Elvish melismas ranging from the sublime (example 1.27b) to the ridiculous (1.27c), before the retransition from the bridge highlights a truly desperate return (1.27d). McCartney was immediately to abandon his awkward attempts at such roulades, but Lennon was to take them in stride, making them a hallmark of his own style; compare McCartney’s silly “I-yi-yi-yi” here with Lennon’s more soulful use of the same syllables in “Ask Me Why.” Similar Beatle illustrations of melismas appear in Lennon’s “I’ll Always Be in Love with You,” “Anna,” “Not a Second Time,” and “All I’ve Got to Do,” and in Harrison’s “Sheik of Araby.” Mordents and turns are common embellishments for Lennon and Harrison. McCartney, who generally prefers grace notes and appoggiaturas, as in the verses of “All My Loving” and “Can’t Buy Me Love,” performs a turn in “Ooh! My Soul.” One Lennon illustration (example 1.28; see also the intro to “Misery”) and two from Harrison (examples 1.29 – 30; see also the retransition to “Do You Want to Know a Secret”) follow.105 Such rearticulated consonants within melismas as heard in these examples (“I-yi-yi,” “you-you-you”), often preceded by rests, were also characteristic of Gene Vincent’s stutter, as in “she-he-he’s my baby now” in “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” and they are closely related to the hiccup made famous by Holly. Timothy

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

Example 1.28 “I Just Don’t Understand” (Marijohn Wilkin – Kent Westberry). © 1961, Universal Cedarwood Publishing.




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Example 1.29 “Crying, Waiting, Hoping,” words and music by Buddy Holly. © 1959 (Renewed) Peer International Corp. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014.




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Example 1.30 “Take Good Care of My Baby” (Gerry Goffin – Carole King). ©1961, Screen Gems – EMI Music, Inc.




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Example 1.31 “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes” (Dorsey Burnette – Johnny Burnette – David Paul Burlison –Al Mortimer). © 1956, Mitchell Music.




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IV

White has said of “Peggy Sue,” which features not only the hiccup but most of a verse sung in falsetto, “his trademark staggered-hiccup vocals alternate with a dignified expression of fondness and some remarkably uncloying baby-talk and nasal cooing.”106 Hiccups and the country yodels from which they derived show often in the work of the three Beatle singers, who incidentally equaled each other in their coverage of Holly material. Examples 1.31– 35 illustrate. Example 1.31 is by Lennon, 1.32 – 33 are McCartney’s, and 1.34 – 35 are Harrison’s.107 In addition to many such examples as these, related effects include Lennon’s rolling his lips (“brrrr”) in “Slow Down,” and, in a blurring of vocal and instrumental roles, Lennon’s Jerry Lee Lewis – inspired playing of the electric organ with his sliding elbow in “I’m Down.”108 Little Richard made famous the registral isolation of a single tone in falsetto or a scream in multiphonics, and these were also practiced by his Specialty Records stable-mate, Larry Williams. Richard would usually break his voice to

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Example 1.32 “Searchin’ ” (Jerry Lieber – Mike Stoller). © 1957, Tiger.




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Example 1.33 “Lucille” (Richard W. Penniman –Albert Collins). © 1957, Venice.

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Example 1.34 “Reminiscing” (Paul Fenoulhet). © 1959, Hereinafter Music.


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Example 1.35 “Glad All Over” (Roy Bennett – Sid Tepper –Aaron Schroeder). © 1957, Anne-Rachel Music Corp.




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arrive on a high 1, as he did in “Tutti – Frutti,” “She’s Got It,” “Miss Ann,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly,” or he would arpeggiate a triad in falsetto, as he did in “Long Tall Sally.” Such effects were probably first sung by Lennon in his Lonnie Donegan covers. While the Beatles’ falsetto “woo” was not perfected until 1963, their cover versions gave them, particularly Lennon and McCartney, ample training in the effect. A few further illustrations are offered in examples 1.36 – 39. Examples 1.36 – 37 are Lennon’s, 1.38 is McCartney’s, and 1.39 is Harrison’s.109 Falsetto is rare from Harrison, but he obliges again in “Sheila,” “Reminiscing,” and “Roll Over Beethoven.” Example 1.40 represents a shout from Lennon’s performance of “Slow Down”— unnotated are the many nonharmonic partials heard below the written pitches. McCartney copies such effects in many of his Richard covers. The Beatles could shout through most of a number; Lennon did so with “Rock and Roll Music,” “I’m Talking about You,” “Too Much Monkey Business,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Dizzy Miss Lizzie,” “Slow Down,” “Bad Boy,” “Money (That’s What I Want),” and “Some Other Guy,” as did McCartney with “Lucille,” “Ooh! My Soul,” “Little Queenie,” “Hippy Hippy Shake,” “Shimmy Like Kate,” and “Clarabella.” When Lennon’s voice is not expressive of love or anguish, he often sinks into

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

Example 1.36 “Money (That’s What I Want)” (Berry Gordy, Jr.– Janie Bradford). © 1959, Stone Agate Publishers.




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Example 1.39 “Do You Want to Know a Secret” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.




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Example 1.40 “Slow Down” (Lawrence Williams). © 1958, Venice. a)




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low comedy. In “You’ll Be Mine,” we have seen him shift from a mocking falsetto line to a ridiculous basso spoken bridge. Similarly, his full-vibrato falsetto for “Bulldog Drummond” in “Searchin’ ” (see example 1.18) is made the sillier for having directly followed McCartney’s would-be menacing low register. This arrangement is taken directly from the Coasters, but Lennon doesn’t adopt his usual basso lines from Coaster bass Bobby Nunn. McCartney’s humor lies more in comic recreations of ridiculously oversupported, heavy-with-vibrato high-

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And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

register Latin singing, as in “Besame Mucho.” Another factor that sets McCartney’s singing apart from Lennon’s is the fact that he attempts some sustained lines in ballad covers, such as “I Remember You” and “Till There Was You.” He does not achieve a true legato, as his phrases here are still interrupted by inopportune breaths. While Elvis’s melodies would sometimes repeat a single pitch over many syllables, as in “All Shook Up,” this technique is more characteristic of Berry’s “Little Queenie,” “Maybelline,” “Rock and Roll Music,” “Too Much Monkey Business,” and many others covered by the Beatles. A large number of Lennon’s vocal tunes, as in “Help!,” “Girl,” “I’m Only Sleeping,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “I Am the Walrus,” “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” and “Come Together,” are marked by strings of repeated pitches, whether for the soft emphasis of a narrative text or for the maintenance of a high emotional level in a rock-and-roll song. The composer once said, “There was a period when I thought I didn’t write melodies, that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock ’n’ roll. But, of course, when I think of some of my own songs — ‘In My Life’— or some of the early stuff —‘This Boy’—I was writing melody with the best of them. Paul [would] say, ‘Well, why don’t you change that there? You’ve done that note fifty times in the song.’ You know, I’d grab a note and ram it home.”110 Although repeated pitches are characteristic of Lennon, they also appear in McCartney’s “For No One” and in Harrison’s “Something.” And the hard-rocking single-note bridge to “I’ve Got a Feeling” (“well, all these years I been wandering around . . .”) is pure McCartney. (Could the many repeated pitches in “Here Today” be a reference to John’s voice?) As a related concern, it should be pointed out that the heavy echo that marks vocal recordings by Presley and Lewis becomes Lennon’s preference in live taping. Vocal Harmony In “Words of Love,” Lennon and McCartney recreate Holly’s two double-tracked vocal parts, with John on lead and Paul supplying the descant. Beginning with “Hello Little Girl,” this was to be the arrangement for nearly all Beatle duets through 1969. The two usually match timbres and sing in parallel thirds, with some passing fourths, (nonessential) fifths, and sixths in similar motion. But Holly was not the only, nor was he the primary, source of vocal duets. Tim Riley says that in “Love Me Do,” “John and Paul’s vocal harmony is patterned after the Everly Brothers, minus the refinement.”111 The Everly voicings (Don, lead; Phil, descant) are often rightly compared with those of the Beatles. The oblique opening of the “Cathy’s Clown” chorus, for instance, has been cited as a source for the verse of “Please Please Me.” But even before they sang “Bye Bye Love” and “I Wonder If I Care as Much,” the Quarry Men were recreating the vocal duets of Carl (lead) and Jay (descant) Perkins. Example 1.41 presents an excerpt of “Tennessee,” as sung by the Perkinses; examples 1.42– 43 are from Beatle performances of other Perkins songs.112 The chorus of “Tennessee” usually has the descant in parallel thirds, typical of rockabilly technique. “Lend Me Your Comb” is a very possible model for “Love Me Do.” In “Lend Me,” Paul’s descant part begins with a repeated [025] trichord — first in four syllables, then in five — in oblique motion against John’s lead. “Love Me

Example 1.41 “Tennessee” (Carl Perkins). © 1956, Unichappell Music, Inc.





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Example 1.42 “Lend Me Your Comb” (Kathleen Twomey, Benjamin Weisman, Fred Wise). © 1957, Hill & Range Songs, Inc.

          

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78

And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Do” does have contrary motion in the analogous passage but then highlights oblique motion in A+7– 9. The last bar of the tremolo guitar introduction and opening of the first verse of “Sure to Fall” are given in example 1.43. This has a much more open and primitive sound, because of the prevalence of parallel fourths. Note how Lennon and McCartney both recreate the hillbilly appoggiaturas and anticipations once sung in an early (pre-Presley) effort by the Perkinses. Later in the song, Lennon and McCartney mimic the pronunciation of “thang” for an authentic mountaineer’s accent. In connection with the Everlys, Charles Gower Price believes that “although the Beatles could mimic country-and-western records effectively, the sensibilities of pure country music were foreign to their urban souls,” resulting in few covers.113 The Jordanaires, the Crickets, and other early Beatle models sang sustained vowels behind their soloists. This sound is recreated by McCartney and Harrison in the bridge of “Hello Little Girl” and even more closely in the Beatles’ June 1961 backing vocals for Tony Sheridan in “My Bonnie” and “Why.” Both feature an uncharacteristically low range from Lennon, who sings down to A in “My Bonnie” and even to E in “Why,” while the lead singer, a baritone, imitates the various timbres created by Presley. I have also shown great registral and timbral contrasts in the very different vocal interplay within Beatle covers of Coasters songs, such as “Searchin’ ” (see example 1.18) and “Young Blood” (example 1.16). In at least one performance of the latter, Lennon abuses his moment in the stop-time spotlight (in the second verse, corresponding to m. 6 in example 1.16, following George’s “I just stuttered” with the line “what’s your name”) by imitating a harelip.114 Comic leering lines are the basis of “Three Cool Cats,” on which Harrison again sings lead. The chorus has a more psychologically interesting function in gospel-based Motown covers, such as “Money (That’s What I Want),” where the backing singers often predict the lyrics to be sung by the soloist. In this and in many later pieces from this literature, the solo singer and backing singers seem to represent different (sometimes conflicting, as in “Devil in Her Heart”) facets of the same characters. At other times, the chorus comments on an unaware singer in a manner reminiscent of the chorus in ancient Greek drama. The poetry of the Quarry Men repertoire, while often humorous, does not suggest great depth. It should suffice to say that, right in line with their forebears, these adolescents sang songs about love and its problems and about the fun that could be had after the long-awaited end of the school day, all spiced up with plenty of jubilant shouts and other appropriate preconscious nonsense syllables. “The One after 909” I shall close this chapter by focusing on a single example, a 1963 recording of “The One after 909,” excerpts of which are represented in example 1.44.115 This version may be considered the definitive recording of the song, which is also heard in two 1960 recordings and another two from 1962. The song was recreated in several filmed rehearsals in January 1969, culminating in a performance that was captured in the final edits of both the film and

Substance in the Music of the Beatles and Their Forebears

Example 1.44a “The One after 909” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1970, Northern Songs.

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LP entitled Let It Be. Already present in 1960 are the chugging boogie guitar figure decorating the chordal fifths (note the same inner voice in mm. 1– 2 as performed in 1963), the C&W-styled vocals, and the stop-time notes sustained below the vocals signaling the frozen-cold refrain at A+9 –10. The vocal parts —Lennon on lead and McCartney on descant — highlight the dn/ds crossrelation created by Lennon’s fix in the pentatonic sphere and McCartney’s foil in the diatonic. Entirely absent in 1960 and very different in 1962 is Harrison’s lead-guitar double-stopped bent-note train whistle in measures 3 – 4 that captures both the dn and the ds. The whistle is reminiscent of Berry’s double-stopped imitation of a Dopplerbent car horn in “Maybelline,” and Berry seems to be a principal inspiration for this song in other ways as well. As far as I know, “The One after 909” and

79

80

And the Band Begins to Play (1956 –1960)

Berry’s “Memphis” are the only songs the Beatles ever performed in B major. In Lennon’s vocal line, the repeated notes passing through the minor third from 1 to f3, and the phrase conclusion (A+7) on the pentatonic f7 (altogether outlining the d-trichord) descend from the verses of Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me,” “Maybelline,” and “Too Much Monkey Business.” The structure of Paul’s “909” descant part could have been added comfortably to any of these. While these melodic characteristics are also common to the products of Presley and Perkins, as I have already noted, the clever rhyme of “station” and “location” reminds one of many such unusual locutions presented by Berry and points forward to such unexpected Lennon rhymes as “reason” / “pleasin’ ” in “Please Please Me.” (The title of the B-side to Fats Domino’s “Blue Monday” must also be noted in that regard: “What’s the Reason I’m Not Pleasing You?”) Berry’s motor-driven songs are also well connected to the aggressive Lennon, who had sung “John Henry” and many other train-related skiffle numbers, as opposed to the sunshine-loving McCartney. (Unlike Berry, the Quarry Men did not drive cars.) Note that these opposed interests in poetic texts run against the grain of the commonly stated theory of Paul’s working-class ethic versus that of John’s leisure class. Lennon is not slumming it here — he’s simply having a blast. The bridge, which works as in the 1969 version, moves conventionally from IV to a retransitional V. This V (see C–1) supports a raised 2 sung by Lennon (cS2) and 5, by McCartney (fs2), suggesting an intensifying V+ chord, and this chromatic voice leading is already present in 1960. As happens in the structurally analogous place in “Glad All Over,” the augmented triad is suggested in the voices but not in the guitars, which carry a major triad. But in “From Me to You” and several other 1963 examples having the same vocal functions at the point of retransition, the instruments will vigorously emphasize the chromatic change of color.116 Not only do Lennon’s cS and McCartney’s fs function as the fifth and root of the altered V, they also form the enharmonic equivalent of the coming verse’s opening dyad (dn and fs), bridging the V– I gap with neat anticipations. Although the Beatles were to release progressively fewer songs from their preHamburg repertoire with each group EMI recording, they were able to document their roots in public and perform this music lovingly in private throughout their individual careers, with the many unreleased covers they insisted on performing for the BBC into 1964; with the incredibly thorough cataloguing received during the January 1969 “Get Back” project; with entire solo-era LPs (Lennon 1975b, McCartney 1988, 1991b, and 1999) devoted to the group’s earliest covered songs; with Starr’s and Harrison’s occasional recordings of standards they knew in their youngest days; and with Harrison’s “Got My Mind Set on You,” a remake of a 1961 recording that was the last Beatle record to reach #1 in the United States (January 1988). And with deep feelings for Vincent, Cochran, and Presley to his dying day, John prefaced one take of “(Just Like) Starting Over” (1980) by announcing, “This one’s for Gene and Eddie and Elvis.”

T WO

1

SOMEONE TO LOVE, SOMEBODY NEW (1960–1963)

Because chapter 1 ended with an examination of the Beatles’ burgeoning compositional skills, it must be emphasized that the group would be primarily a cover band for two more years before an EMI recording contract would bring prominence to their own songs. In fact, the Beatles added someone else’s hit to their playlist every eleven days, on average, from 1960 through 1962, and even began their breakthrough year, 1963, performing songs popularized by such artists as Bobby Comstock and the Rooftop Singers. The Beatles were still fans of the post-army Elvis, covering eight more of the King’s records in 1960 – 63. The next-most favored artists in this period were Joe Brown (who gave the Beatles five songs) and new soul artists the Shirelles (five songs) and Arthur Alexander (four). Except for mostly undocumented private warm-up duty, the Beatles retired from a practice of cover performances totaling 321 known songs when they recorded Buck Owens’s “Act Naturally” in 1965. It can hardly be emphasized enough how important these songs written by others are, not only for the Beatles’ popularity on stage and for providing six tracks on each of three of their first four LPs, but also for adding new facets to their own musical language and technique. One can easily imagine George Harrison, as he laid down his guitar part to “When I’m Sixty-Four” in December 1966, recalling his playing through “What a Crazy World We’re Living In” by Joe Brown & His Bruvvers four years before. Or Paul McCartney in 1968 thinking through the Drifters’ “Save the Last Dance for Me” from eight years earlier, its vocal melody shaping “Hey Jude” and its bass line making “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” infectious. 81

82

Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Perhaps they were merely a cover band, often simply a backing group to such singers as Davy Jones (not the Davy Jones), Tony Sheridan, and Gene Vincent, but the Beatles became knockout professionals as they prepared for their recording career. This was John Lennon’s favorite time as a musician; he recalled years later how the group’s tight live ensemble gradually drifted to pieces forever by early 1963 as their performance schedule became increasingly reserved for travel as opposed to stagework. Boldly declaring in late 1962 that — like Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly before them — they would release only their own compositions as singles, these novices began then to achieve an unparalleled record of dynamic innovations made in leaps and bounds, as their songwriting grew rapidly in ease and maturity through a breathless procession of five hits that returned tough rock and roll to the top of the British charts, and as their curiosity in electronic colorings and procedures impacted even With the Beatles, their first true studio project. Looking today at a photo inside Pearl Jam’s album Binaural (2000), showing that group at work in a room that holds forty assorted guitars at the ready, it’s hard to imagine that such an appreciation for timbral variety began in a group that first entered the studio with two guitars, a bass, a set of drums, and nearly worthless amplifiers. This chapter traces the events and repertoire of the Beatles’ training in Hamburg and Liverpool clubs, the appointments of Brian Epstein as manager and Ringo Starr as drummer, the establishment of instrumental roles and colors that would dominate the group’s sound into 1965, and the content and reception of the Beatles’ first four singles, two LPs, and attendant British appearances in concert and broadcast. The following Interlude documents the story of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” / “This Boy,” the saucer that flies the group to an “overnight” global domination of the worlds of music and popular culture. Table 2.1 provides a time line summarizing the major events of the Beatles’ career from August 1960 through 1963.

The Beatles with Pete Best (August 1960 –August 1962) Apprenticeship in Hamburg Allan Williams, owner of the Jacaranda and promoter of several groups including the Beatles, had met Hamburg club owner Bruno Koschmider in London and had arranged for Liverpool group Derry & the Seniors to work in Hamburg’s Kaiserkeller. This engagement’s success led Koschmider to seek more Liverpool talent. Gerry Marsden remembers: “Liverpool bands were really lucky to have the Hamburg link which never happened for those from Manchester (like the Hollies), Birmingham (like the Moody Blues) and London (like Brian Poole & the Tremeloes), however good they were. The Hamburg experience made us unique.”1 After the Seniors, the Beatles were next available, but the group was without a drummer. One good drummer known to the Beatles was obtainable: Randolph Peter Best (b. November 24, 1941, in Madras, India, son of Casbah owner Mona Best), free from his recently disbanded group the Black-

The Beatles with Pete Best

Table 2.1 Time Line of Major Events for the Beatles, August 1960 –1963 1960 Aug. 12: Aug. 17: Oct. 4: Oct. 15: Late Oct.: Nov. 21– Dec. 10: Dec. 27:

Pete Best, drummer, auditions for Beatles Beatles begin professional training with long sets in Hamburg clubs, at the Indra Beatles move to the Kaiserkeller, a larger club Beatles record “Summertime” for private discs Beatles begin Top Ten Club performances Beatles return to Liverpool individually Beatles perform at Litherland Town Hall

1961 Feb. 9: Mar. 27– July 2: Mid-April: June 22– 24: Summer: Oct.:

Dec. 10:

Beatles begin long series of lunchtime concerts in The Cavern, the last on August 3, 1963 Beatles’ residency at Top Ten Club, Hamburg Paul McCartney becomes the Beatles’ permanent bassist Beatles’ first commercial recordings, backing Tony Sheridan, made in Hamburg “Merseybeat,” personified in the music of the Beatles, recognized as a dominant style in Liverpool “My Bonnie (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur)” / “The Saints (When the Saints Go Marching In)” released in Germany as Beatles’ first commercial record Beatles accept Brian Epstein’s management offer

1962 Jan. 1: Jan. 4: Mar. 7:

Apr. 13 – May 31: June 6: Aug. 18: Aug. 22: Sept. 4, 11: Oct. 5: Nov. 1–14: Nov. 26: Dec. 18 – 31:

Beatles audition unsuccessfully for Decca Records, London Mersey Beat names Beatles Liverpool’s most popular group First BBC radio broadcast recorded; further radio and television appearances follow the group’s recording career, promoting discs but also documenting the group’s cover arrangements as performed in 1961– 62 Beatles’ first residency at the Star-Club, Hamburg First EMI recording session with George Martin, who signs the group to Parlophone (his label with EMI), in London Ringo Starr joins the Beatles as drummer, crystallizing the quartet First television filming, Cavern Club; not aired until 1963 Recordings for first single at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London “Love Me Do” / “P. S. I Love You” released as first Parlophone single in U. K. Two-week stint at the Star-Club, Hamburg Recordings for single at EMI, London Final performances at Star-Club, Hamburg

1963 Jan. 11: Feb. 11: Feb. 23 – Mar. 3: Late Feb.: Mar. 5: Mar. 22:

“Please Please Me” / “Ask Me Why” released in U. K. Recordings for first LP at EMI, London Beatles’ first British theatre tour, supporting Helen Shapiro “Please Please Me” becomes the Beatles’ first national #1 single Recordings for single at EMI, London Please Please Me released as the Beatles’ first LP in the U. K.; remains at #1 for thirty weeks into Nov. (continued)

83

84

Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Table 2.1 (continued) Apr. 11: May 18 – June 9: July 1: July 18 – Oct. 23: Aug. 23: Oct. 13: Oct. 17: Oct. 24 – 30: Nov. 4: Nov.: Nov. 22: Nov. 29: Dec. 24: Dec. 26:

“From Me to You” / “Thank You Girl” released in U. K. British tour, headlining alongside Roy Orbison Recordings for single at EMI, London Recordings for LP at EMI, London “She Loves You” / “I’ll Get You” released in U. K. Televised concert at London Palladium; “Beatlemania” is journalists’ term for mass hysteria surrounding the theatre Recordings for single at EMI, London Tour of Sweden Royal Variety Show, Prince of Wales Theater; John shows cheek with Queen Mother’s audience Capitol Records signs The Beatles for release of recordings in U. S. With the Beatles released in U. K. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” / “This Boy” released in U. K. London Christmas concerts begin; continue through Jan. 11, 1964 “I Want to Hold Your Hand” / “I Saw Her Standing There” released in U. S. to top the singles charts for seven weeks; onset of the “British Invasion” in America

jacks. An audition was arranged for August 12, 1960, and after successfully negotiating the drum part to “Shakin’ All Over” (a #2 hit in England that month for Johnny Kidd & the Pirates), Pete was invited to join the group for the Hamburg gig, which was to begin on the 17th. The group’s first two Hamburg stints, autumn 1960 and spring 1961, were to improve the course of its career immeasurably.2 One of Pete’s major qualifications was the ownership since Christmas 1961 of a fine drum set, a calfskin-covered blue mother-of-pearl British Premier kit consisting of 24-inch bass drum, hi-hat, snare, one tom-tom mounted on the bass drum, a deeper one standing on the floor, and a ride cymbal. His playing style was very simple: moderate and up-tempo numbers seem always to be grounded with all eighths tapped by the right hand on the ride cymbal and a ubiquitous repeated e ‰ Ωç Œ q snare pattern in the left hand, as combined on 1961 recordings of “My Bonnie,” “(When) The Saints Go Marching In,” “Cry for a Shadow,” “Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby,” and the 1962 tapings of “Like Dreamers Do” and “Sweet Georgia Brown.” On slow numbers, a simple snare backbeat (ŒqŒq) sufficed, as in the doleful “Nobody’s Child,” from 1961, and the subdued “To Know Her Is to Love Her,” 1962 (the latter, in 12 8 , has the eighths of every beat tapped lightly on the closed hi-hat as well). In late 1961, Best added to his repertoire a full-measure snare roll between phrases or sections; this is heard in 1962 tapings of “Like Dreamers Do,” “Hello Little Girl,” and “Crying, Waiting, Hoping.” Pete had a mediocre voice; it is not preserved on Beatle recordings but is heard in his own records made in 1964 – 65. In his twoyear tenure with the Beatles he sang only four numbers in live performances, only to spell the other singers: “Matchbox” (which requires the vocal range of

The Beatles with Pete Best

a fifth) — sung by Harrison before Best joined the group, “Pinwheel Twist” (sung upstage while composer McCartney drummed), “Wild in the Country,” and, added in his last days as a Beatle, “Roses Are Red” (which does extend to a minor ninth).3 So Williams’s van was loaded with Best’s kit, Sutcliffe’s President bass and small new Watkins Westminster amp (its approximately 12 watts powering a 10-inch Elac speaker, covered with two-tone Tolex and a brass grille cloth), Harrison’s Futurama, Lennon’s borrowed Höfner Club 40, the Truvoice amplifier that the latter two were to share, and McCartney’s Elpico amp. For the occasion, McCartney gave up his Zenith for a red electric Rosetti Solid 7. The group’s equipment was augmented by a harmonica that Lennon shoplifted in Arnhem on the drive from the Dutch coast to Hamburg.4 The Beatles were contracted for four and a half hours every weeknight and six hours a night on weekends (exclusive of breaks) for two months. They moved on October 4 from Koschmider’s Indra Club, which seated only sixty, to his larger Kaiserkeller, both situated on the Grosse Freiheit (off the Reeperbahn in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg), because British singer-guitarist Tony Sheridan was vacating the Kaiserkeller for rival Peter Eckhorn’s much larger Top Ten Club (cap. 1500) on the Reeperbahn. At the Kaiserkeller, the Beatles alternated sets with another group, initially Derry & the Seniors. The Beatles’ contract was extended into December, and it has been estimated that they logged 500 hours on stage in the three and a half months they were to stay.5 In addition to making vast improvements in the Beatles’ technique, stamina, and stage presentation, these long sessions required a doubling of repertoire. New material was taken largely from current hits and their B-sides, some discovered in a local pool-hall jukebox. The artists from whom the Beatles drew at this time continued to be American; the names that come up time and again in discussions of the Indra repertoire are Richard, Presley, Perkins, Berry, Domino, Cochran, and the Everlys.6 Like Vincent, the Beatles turned to standards as well. While the Beatles maintained their Holly favorites, they gradually dropped from their act the old skiffle numbers, some of their fragmentary compositions, and the instrumental tunes played through the summer of 1960. Table 2.2 provides a necessarily incomplete and speculative list of 191 covers that are thought to have been in the Beatles’ set lists for the Indra and Kaiserkeller in the fall of 1960, given in approximate chronological order of the appearances of models.7 (Asterisks indicate likely new additions to the repertoire for Hamburg, and daggers indicate songs that were probably retired after 1960.) In addition to these songs taken from others, the Beatles were most likely still performing their own “Like Dreamers Do,” “The One after 909,” “Hello Little Girl,” “I’ll Follow the Sun,” “Catswalk,” and “When I’m Sixty-Four.” It was at the Steinway shop early during the Beatles’ first Hamburg employment that Lennon bought the group’s first American guitar and the model that was to be most closely associated with him through the onset of Beatlemania, his short-arm 1958 Rickenbacker Capri. The guitar was initially played through a Fender narrow-panel Deluxe “Tweed” amp. Built around 1959, this Model 5E3, a 14-watt unit with a 12-inch Jensen Special Design cone, two vol-

85

86

Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Table 2.2 Fall 1960 Cover Repertoire Models popular before 1956: “(When) The Saints Go Marching In” “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise” †

“Ramona”

*†

“When You’re Smiling”

*†

“You Were Meant for Me”

†

“Home”

*†

“You Are My Sunshine”

*

“Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop”

*

“How High the Moon”

*

“Hey, Good Lookin’ ”

*†

“Honky Tonk Blues”

*

“Mailman Blues” “That’s All Right (Mama)” “Blue Moon of Kentucky” †

“Shake, Rattle and Roll” “Good Rockin’ Tonight”

*

“I Don’t Care if the Sun Don’t Shine”

*†

†

“Movie Magg” “Putting On the Style” “Milkcow Blues”

*

“Baby Let’s Play House”

*

“A Fool for You” “Ain’t That a Shame” “Maybelline”

*

“Mystery Train”

*

“I Forgot to Remember to Forget”

*

“Thirty Days”

*

“Tutti – Frutti”

1956: “Sure to Fall (In Love with You)” “Tennessee” “Heartbreak Hotel” *†

“You Can’t Catch Me”

*†

“Shake a Hand”

*

“I Got a Woman”

*

“I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’)”

*

“I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)”

*

“Just Because” “Blue Suede Shoes” “Long Tall Sally”

The Beatles with Pete Best

Table 2.2 (continued) *

“Brown-Eyed Handsome Man”

*

“Too Much Monkey Business”

*

“Hallelujah! I Love Her So” “Roll Over Beethoven” “Slippin’ and Slidin’ ”

*

“The Wayward Wind” “Boppin’ the Blues”

*

“Midnight Shift”

*

“I’m in Love Again” “Railroad Bill” “Ready Teddy” “Rip It Up” “Short Fat Fannie” “Be-Bop-A-Lula” “Hound Dog” “Ain’t She Sweet” †

“Don’t Be Cruel” “Lazy River”

*

“A House with Love in It”

*

“Love Me Tender” †

“Singing the Blues”

*†

“Bluejean Bop”

*

“Don’t Forbid Me”

*

“Love Is Strange”

1957: “Matchbox” †

“Come Go with Me” “Your True Love”

*

“Wedding Bells” †

“All Shook Up” “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin” “Lucille” “Send Me Some Lovin’ ”

*

“Fabulous” “Bye Bye Love” “I Wonder If I Care As Much” “Young Blood”

*†

“Jenny Jenny” “Words of Love” “I’m Gonna Love You Too” (continued)

87

88

Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Table 2.2 (continued) 1957: “Mean Woman Blues” *

“Miss Ann” “Searchin’ ” “Twenty Flight Rock”

*

“Better Luck Next Time”

*

“Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave”

*†

“(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”

†

“Loving You”

†

“That’ll Be the Day” “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”

*

“It’ll Be Me”

*

“Lotta Lovin’ ” †

“We’re Gonna Move”

†

“Jailhouse Rock”

†

“Lawdy Miss Clawdy” “Party” “Summertime” “Bony Maronie” “Peggy Sue” “Everyday”

*

“Great Balls of Fire” †

“Raunchy” “Rock and Roll Music” “Lend Me Your Comb”

*

“Glad All Over” “You Win Again”

1958: *

“Good Golly Miss Molly” “Maybe Baby” “Sweet Little Sixteen”

*

“Reelin’ and Rockin’ ” †

“Tequila”

†

“Moovin’ and Groovin’

*

“Dizzy Miss Lizzie”

*

“Slow Down”

*†

“All I Have to Do is Dream”

*

“Claudette” “Do You Want to Dance”

*

“Down the Line” “Johnny B. Goode”

The Beatles with Pete Best

Table 2.2 (continued) *

“Vacation Time”

*

“Baby Blue” “High School Confidential”

*

“Fools Like Me”

*

“Ooh! My Soul”

*

“Dance in the Streets” †

“Rebel-’Rouser”

*

“Poor Little Fool”

*

“Time Will Bring You Everything”

*

“Well . . . (Baby Please Don’t Go)”

*†

“Yakety Yak”

*†

“Fever” “Think It Over” “It’s So Easy” “Early in the Morning”

†

“Ramrod”

*

“Carol”

*

“I’m a Hog for You”

*

“Nothin’ Shakin’ (But the Leaves on the Trees)”

*

“All Over Again”

*

“Coquette”

*

“Love of My Life”

*

“To Know Her Is to Love Her”

*

“Lonesome Town” †

“I Got Stung” “C’mon Everybody”

1959: †

“Alright, Okay, You Win” “Three Cool Cats”

*

“Corrine, Corrina”

*

“San Francsico Bay Blues”

*

“Bad Boy”

*†

“She Said, ‘Yeah’ ”

*

“Teenage Heaven” “Raining in My Heart” †

“Almost Grown”

*†

“I Need Your Love Tonight”

*

“Little Queenie”

*

“(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care” “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” (continued)

89

90

Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Table 2.2 (continued) *

“Gone, Gone, Gone”

*

“The Honeymoon Song (Bound by Love)”

*

“I Remember” “I’ll Always Be in Love with You”

*

“Memphis”

*

“Over the Rainbow”

*

“Say Mama”

*

“Peaches and Cream”

*

“September Song”

*

“Three-Thirty Blues”

*

“Crackin’ Up”

*

“Heavenly”

*

“I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday”

*

“Shout!”

*†

“He’ll Have to Go”

*†

“What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?”

*

“Wild Cat”

*†

“Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying”

*†

“Honey Hush”

*

“(Baby) Hully Gully”

1960: *

“Dark Town Strutter’s Ball”

*

“I Got to Find My Baby”

*

“Money (That’s What I Want)”

*

“Cathy’s Clown”

*

“Three Steps to Heaven”

*

“Tonight Is So Right for Love”

*

“Weep No More My Baby”

*

“You Don’t Understand Me”

*

“Apache”

*

“Move It”

*

“Red Sails in the Sunset”

*

“Shakin’ All Over”

*

“It’s Now or Never”

*

“Walk, Don’t Run”

*

“Stay”

ume controls, and one tone control, was probably purchased along with the Capri. In the same visit, Harrison bought a Gibson GA-40T “Les Paul” amplifier, a 14-watt unit with a 12-inch cone, two volume controls, and one tone control.8 When the Hamburg contract was up for Derry & the Seniors (a few days

The Beatles with Pete Best

after the Beatles moved to the Kaiserkeller), they were replaced by the top Liverpool band, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. Their drummer was Ringo Starr, and the Beatles got to know him well at this time. On October 15, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison joined with Starr and Hurricane singer-bassist Lu Walters for a studio recording session, at which performances of Gershwin’s “Summertime” and Peggy Lee’s “Fever” were taped and pressed in a few (six? nine?) 10-inch 78-rpm shellac-on-steel acetates. Only one copy is known to be extant, and it has not seen circulation.9 It was probably also around this time that the Beatles learned Storm’s beat arrangement of Stephen Foster’s “Beautiful Dreamer” (with its cute reference to “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” in the manufactured bridge), although the Beatles are not thought to have taken it over themselves until 1962. The Beatles broke their contract with Koschmider by performing at the Top Ten Club on nights off in late October and November. Tony Sheridan was resident with his backing group the Jets at the Top Ten, and the Beatles got along well with him. Upon learning of this defection, Koschmider made an already tough life very difficult for the Beatles; Harrison was deported as underage and as not having correct working papers on November 21, and McCartney and Best were deported on the 30th for starting an inadvertent and harmless fire as they moved out of the dark, windowless room at the Bambi-Filmkunsttheater (Paul-Rooen-Strasse 33) in which Koschmider housed them. Lennon returned to Liverpool on December 10 and Sutcliffe remained, perhaps as late as February 1961.10 The Beatles regrouped for a date at Liverpool’s Casbah on December 17. For this and succeeding gigs (some arranged by Williams, some by Mona Best, and some by promoters Brian Kelly and Sam Leach), Chas Newby, an idle former member of Best’s Blackjacks, substituted for the absent Sutcliffe on bass. The group’s dilemma is detailed in a December 16 letter from Harrison to Sutcliffe: “I was at the ‘Jac’ last night . . . and found out we have bookings for Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Years Eve. . . . Can’t you or Won’t you come home sooner, as if we get a new bass player for the time being, it will be crumby, as he will have to learn everything, and it’s no good with Paul playing bass, we’ve decided, that is if he had some kind of bass and amp to play on!”11 Continuing, George also requests that Stuart help finance an echo box for vocals. This would have been a miniature tape player whose three or four play heads would create the reverberation effect heard on the vocal parts of such records as Buddy Holly’s “Midnight Shift,” Guy Mitchell’s “Singing the Blues,” Carl Perkins’s “Matchbox” and “Gone, Gone, Gone,” Little Richard’s “Lucille,” Jerry Lee Lewis’s “You Win Again,” and Johnny Burnette’s “Honey Hush” and thus would have been a very desirable item. We don’t know when the Beatles finally would have made such an acquisition; Harrison recalls using a Binson echo unit at the Top Ten Club in the spring of 1961. Their vocals in the tapes of January 1, 1962 sound quite “wet” with echo, but that was probably supplied by the Decca staff. The earliest live single-track recordings clear enough to show echo applied to the vocals but not guitars (and thus proof of the presence of an echo box) are from December 1962. But Lennon is on record saying the band never liked vocal echo, so those December 1962 tapes may be uncharacteristic of the Beatles’ typical live sound.12

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The Boxing Day (December 27, 1960) performance was at the Litherland Town Hall, a north-Liverpool ballroom new to the group. Posted fliers read: “direct from hamburg, the beatles!” Audience reception of the performance, right from the show-opening “Long Tall Sally,” was more enthusiastic than the Beatles had ever enjoyed. Repertoire and ensemble were now quite professional (despite a total compensation of only £6), and this unknown group —which, given the promotion, the audience assumed were German — dazzled the crowd, creating a following and a demand for ever bigger and farther-flung venues.13 Largely because of this great initial success, Bob Wooler booked the Beatles for their first regular appearance at the Cavern, once the jazz-folk club where the Beatles might have heard Sonny Terry and others perform such numbers as “Corrine Corrina,” “Digging My Potatoes,” “San Francisco Bay Blues,” and “Take This Hammer” but now rapidly evolving into a rock-and-roll venue. The Beatles had twenty bookings in January, thirty-three in February, and thirty more (with ten at the Cavern) through March 24, 1961, occasionally with two and sometimes with three appearances in a day, throughout the Liverpool area.14 The Beatles’ appearances at the Cavern, which had 650 members and accommodated some 200 per show, strengthened their bond with Wooler, who would lend the group many American records from his legendary collection and who also cemented their bond with the people of Liverpool, who came to know them here.15 Although the Cavern had been razed in 1973, McCartney returned to the rebuilt “Cavern Mecca” for a concert to close the century on December 14, 1999, rocking out with the oldies on his Run Devil Run CD. Sam Leach was owner of the Cassanova Club, which opened in February 1961 (see Liverpool map). Leach booked the Beatles for about fifty Liverpool performances at the Cassanova, the Iron Door, and elsewhere through 1961. He claims to have begun procedures in March 1961 to have the Beatles release “Twist and Shout” as a single on a start-up label he would finance, but apparently he could not impress any lenders.16 According to Leach, the band’s set list in these months went like this:17 “Hippy Hippy Shake” (Paul singing lead) “Twist and Shout” (John) “I’m Henry VIII, I Am” (George) “Moonglow” (instrumental) “Long Tall Sally” (Paul) “Slow Down” (John) “(Baby) Hully Gully” (John?) “Tutti-Frutti” (Paul) “Till There Was You” (Paul) “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody” (John) “Matchbox” (Pete) “Love Me Tender” (Stu) “Stand By Me” (John) “Good Golly Miss Molly” (Paul) “Memphis” (John) “Roll Over Beethoven” (Paul!) “Money (That’s What I Want)” (John)

The Beatles with Pete Best

While many of his facts have been challenged, Leach’s memoir certainly conveys the spirit of the times. McCartney Becomes Bassist Before their sudden departure in autumn 1960 from Hamburg, the Beatles had agreed with Top Ten owner Peter Eckhorn that if the legal entanglements could be set straight, the group would begin an engagement there the following spring. And so, Harrison having turned eighteen, the Beatles returned for a residency from March 27 through July 2, 1961. Because the musicians arranged this gig themselves, they refused to pay an agent’s commission to Williams, who in April refused to have any further dealings with the group. McCartney had added piano to his stage act at the Kaiserkeller, but it was more central to the group at the Top Ten, and two of his showpieces were Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and Ray Charles’s Wurlitzer masterpiece, “What’d I Say,” both of which would go on for chorus after chorus. McCartney on “What’d I Say”: “This was a huge record for us, we lived off that record in Hamburg, that was our show song. The joke in Hamburg was to see how long anyone could keep it going. One night we did it for over an hour. We used to disappear under tables with the hand mike, ‘Woooohhh!’ We used to work the hell out of it.”18 I must now attempt to recreate from the photographic record and from sparse and conflicting testimony the early-1961 chronology of Paul McCartney’s adoption of the bass. His low-quality Rosetti had fallen apart in Hamburg. Among other problems, it lost its pickup unit, requiring the attachment of a contact microphone. McCartney had occasionally played Sutcliffe’s instrument in the Kaiserkeller, especially when Stu would sing “Love Me Tender” or “C’mon Everybody.” For whatever reason (and bear in mind the objections cited from George Harrison’s letter earlier), McCartney seems to have replaced Newby on bass in the first days of 1961, playing his own Rosetti, now fitted with only three piano strings and a pickup poorly misaligned right next to the bridge, hardly promising a good bass tone. Sutcliffe returned to the group in February, and McCartney moved back to the piano, a rhythm position he considered a demotion from the front line.19 When the Beatles returned to Hamburg in late March, McCartney worked at the piano, but he is also pictured at the Top Ten with the old Club 40 passed down from George and John — strung for a lefthander, with Stu on the President Bass. This continued for some time, before consistent pressure on Sutcliffe forced the passage of his bass position to McCartney. Sutcliffe remained in Hamburg as an art student for another year until his tragic death at the age of twenty-two from a brain hemorrhage suffered on April 10, 1962.20 Recordings made in late June show McCartney to be quite a proficient bassist, and a recording contract signed with Bert Kaempfert on May 12 would not have been possible without Paul’s having developed a passable ability by that time, so it seems likely that a mid-April 1960 confrontation led to Stu’s irrevocable split with the group. McCartney’s seemingly inevitable position was made secure only with the purchase of his own bass guitar. “And so in Ham-

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burg in the shopping area in the centre of town there was a little shop near a big department store. . . . I couldn’t afford a Fender. . . . So for about £30 I found this Höfner violin bass. And to me, it seemed like, because I was left-handed, it looked less daft because it was symmetrical.”21 Thus McCartney discusses the spring 1961 purchase of the distinctive brown-shaded Höfner 500/1, the “Beatle Bass.” McCartney’s first recordings as bassist show only the dominant compositional traits that became the core of his playing style into 1964. His sharp stroke with a pick combines with the warmth of the hollow-body instrument for a round tone with a well-defined attack.22 When played by the thumb, the Höfner sounds flabby. Arpeggiation-based ostinati (with their basis in boogie-woogie) are taken from Presley recordings and from saxophone arrangements on Richard and Domino records. Otherwise, McCartney typically plays repeated roots or he alternates roots with fifths in dotted rhythm. These techniques are demonstrated in example 2.1, from “Like Dreamers Do” (January 1962; see Beatles 1995d). Note, in addition to the qualities just mentioned, the emphasis, through repeated syncopated notes in measures 19 – 22, of 1 and 3. Just as it functions here, this is the motion-slowing device later used to trigger the arpeggiating refrain in “I Saw Her Standing There.” Not shown is the syncopation on the bridge’s retransitional V5 –s5, heard also in “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues,” as broadcast in July 1963. More involved syncopation against the drummer’s backbeat, longer scale segments, and other new stylings would appear in 1963.23 The Beatles had a work schedule at the Top Ten similar to that at Koschmider’s clubs, playing about thirty-nine hours per week for thirteen weeks.24 The repertoire was infused with many new numbers, thought to include all of the forty-four titles listed in table 2.3 (again given in chronological order of appearance of the Beatles’ models). Dates suggest the increasing currency of the Beatles’ cover versions; the final fifteen titles were hits that peaked in popularity during the Beatles’ March – July 1961 stay in Hamburg. The First Sheridan Recordings Also performed were Harrison and Lennon’s “Cry for a Shadow” and Tony Sheridan’s “Why.”25 Sheridan was still a featured soloist at the Top Ten, and part of the Beatles’ job was to accompany his singing. Sheridan: “I was without a band at that time, and so we got together. They backed me in my solo numbers, and I played guitar when they did their spots. . . . The Beatles had quite a few rhythm ’n’ blues discs, mostly Chuck Berry and comparatively unknown singers. They had great talent for finding unusual records.”26 Sheridan had a great deal of performing experience, not only in Hamburg; he had toured Britain with Vincent, Cochran, and Joe Brown in 1959 – 60. His vocal intonation was very uncertain and his vibrato often dull, but he otherwise exercised a wide range of expressive vocal timbres and articulations. More important, he had mastered a wide assortment of guitar techniques and was happy to pass them on to others —Liverpool bands called him “the Teacher.”27 Harrison’s lead playing, even on the lousy Resonet, improved greatly under Sheridan’s tutelage.

The Beatles with Pete Best

Example 2.1a “Like Dreamers Do” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs. 3 11

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Example 2.1b “Like Dreamers Do” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.

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Sheridan had a recording contract with Polydor Records, whose A&R (Artists & Repertoire) director was Bert Kaempfert (1923 – 80), a well-known composer (“Strangers in the Night”) and conductor. Kaempfert called Sheridan in for a session. Sheridan wanted the Beatles to play behind him, and Kaempfert agreed on May 12 to produce their recordings, probably with fourtrack equipment, judging from the available stereo mixes. They took place on June 22– 23 at the Friedrich Ebert Halle (Alter Postweg 38), an orchestral hall adjoining a school, and on the 24th at Studio Rahlstedt (Rahlau 128). The numbers chosen by Kaempfert were “My Bonnie,” “(When) The Saints Go Marching In,” “Why,” “Cry for a Shadow,” “Nobody’s Child,” “Ain’t She Sweet,” and “Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby.” “My Bonnie,” recorded with a slow introduction sung in both German and English versions, was learned by Sheridan while playing a Gene Vincent tour of the United Kingdom.28 These were the Beatles’ first professional recordings, and all were to be commercially released — some in Germany in the following months, others not before the group’s popularity peaked in Britain in 1963, and all in America in 1964.29 But as a whole, these recordings are hardly representative of the future Beatles. Only two songs do not feature Sheridan as lead singer and lead guitarist. The march-like “Ain’t She Sweet,” based on Gene Vincent’s record, was cut with Lennon’s solo vocal. This recording features his very detached, slightly hiccuping (“I-hi- repeat”) singing style and the mordent he uses for emphasis (here, to call attention to the song’s most remote harmony, IIIs, at “I ask YOU very confidentially”). The lead guitar here is Harrison’s. “Cry for a Shadow” is an instrumental on which Sheridan did not play. Otherwise, the Beatles, credited on the early issues as “the Beat Brothers,” are a largely faceless — though now highly competent — support group.30 The Beatles’ Ink Spots – like backing vocals on these recordings, consisting only of sustained groans and a few shouts in “My Bonnie” and “Why,” are extremely out of character, especially with Lennon’s ultra-low range. Perhaps the group was attempting to emulate the Jordanaires behind Sheridan’s Presleian flippant throaty vocal, most obviously in “Take Out Some Insurance,” the melody of which seems to be based on Presley’s recording of “Baby Let’s Play House.” Other possible models for the backing vocals include the Crickets’ “That’ll Be

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Table 2.3 Spring 1961 Top-Ten Repertoire Additions Models popular 1930–1949: “Falling in Love Again” “Your Feet’s Too Big” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” “Nobody’s Child” 1955–1959: “I Know” “Clarabella” “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes” “Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues” “Sweet Georgia Brown” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” “My Bonnie” “Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby” “Kansas City” / “Hey - Hey - Hey - Hey” “Red Hot” “Leave My Kitten Alone” “Jambalaya” “What’d I Say” 1960: “Road Runner” “Mighty Man” “Shazam” “Besame Mucho” “More Than I Can Say” “Sticks and Stones” “Save the Last Dance for Me” “Shimmy Like Kate” “Are You Lonesome Tonight” “New Orleans” “So How Come (No One Loves Me)” “Angel Baby” 1961: “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” “Boys” “Wooden Heart” “Runaway” “Livin’ Lovin’ Wreck” “Buzz Buzz A-Diddle-It” “The Frightened City” “Time”

The Beatles with Pete Best

Table 2.3 (continued) “I Feel So Bad” “Wild in the Country” “Love, Love, Love” “Quarter to Three” “Sheik of Araby” “Thumbin’ a Ride” “Watch Your Step”

the Day” and “Think It Over” and the Coasters’ “Three Cool Cats.” Elsewhere Sheridan copies the scat vocals of Jerry Lee Lewis in his coda to “The Saints.” “Nobody’s Child” is a good showcase for Sheridan’s guitar work. This song, which features only Sheridan’s large hollow-body Gibson above McCartney’s active bass, opens with a strummed tremolo borrowed from Scotty Moore’s accompaniment to Presley’s “I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’)” (1955). The song proper displays a dynamically alive range of varied voicings and articulation, all in a very clean texture. Harrison could have learned much on these points. Outside of “Cry for a Shadow” (discussed hereafter), Harrison plays very little lead guitar. He is heard on the right channel of “The Saints” while Sheridan solos in the center, and he plays while Sheridan sings “Bonnie,” but not for the solo. Lennon’s rhythm guitar has a fully supportive role, as in the If7 chords articulated with the repeated syncopated rhythm, Œq‰e‰e, later heard in “I Saw Her Standing There.” The handclaps overdubbed onto “My Bonnie” and the bridge of “Why” sound like those on early Beatles recordings for EMI. These minor points aside, McCartney’s bass playing is the one aspect of the sessions other than Lennon’s single vocal that points to the Beatles’ future. In “The Saints” and “Why,” the bass alternates chordal roots and fifths, and phrase endings feature descending fifth-progressions. Some full arpeggiations are heard, and “My Bonnie” exhibits walking scales that predict the busy foundation of “All My Loving,” still two years away. “Nobody’s Child” has murky bass octaves, and “Ain’t She Sweet” discloses an easy familiarity with chromatic function, with s1 as an often-repeated rising passing tone that will play a larger role in 1964. “Cry for a Shadow,” which showcases John’s rhythm work and George’s lead playing, represents the Beatles’ only composition of the set. First, the title: a reference to the instrumental group, the Shadows. McCartney provides some insight in discussing a May 1961 number, Gary U.S. Bonds’s “Quarter to Three”: “John and I were obsessed with song titles. We hated songs that were just called ‘I Love You.’ We used to pore over the American Top Ten just to study the titles. There was this one song I remember called ‘Quarter to Three.’ It fascinated us. What could a song called ‘Quarter to Three’ be about, for God’s sake? So we rushed out and bought it.” Although the Beatles disliked the Shadows, Harri-

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son says, “in Hamburg we had to play so long, we actually used to play ‘Apache.’ . . . But John and I were just bullshitting one day, and he had this new little Rickenbacker with a funny kind of wobble bar on it. And he started playing that off, and I just came in, and we made it up right on the spot.”31 This session probably took place in the early fall of 1960, as the Shadows’ “Apache” was the top-selling European record that August and September and as John would have just purchased his Capri around September. In 1963, Harrison told the New Musical Express that “the result wasn’t a bit like ‘Apache,’ but we liked it and we used it in the act for a while.”32 Perhaps Lennon’s new whammy bar was the inspiration to mimic the Shadows —“Apache” features Hank Marvin’s vibrato bar as well as an echo box on the lead guitar. Example 2.2 presents excerpts from Marvin’s lead part and Bruce Welch’s rhythm chording for “Apache”; note the “bent” note in the introduction (example 2.2a, m. 3) and the tremolo indications for the bridge (2.2b, m. 36).33 The opening phrase of “Cry for a Shadow,” with its crying vibrato-arm bendings, is given in example 2.3. To emphasize the fact that the vibrato arm was not new to the Beatles with these songs, it should be mentioned that Harrison used the device in their own “Catswalk,” Berry’s “Carol,” Johnny Kidd & the Pirates’ “Shakin’ All Over” (in a most text-expressive way), the Ventures’ “Walk, Don’t Run,” “Sheik of Araby” (as taped on January 1, 1962, reverberating with Sheridan’s brief solo taped five months later for “Sweet Georgia Brown,” shown in its entirety in example 2.4), in almost every chord in the solo of “Lucille” (as recorded for BBC broadcast in September 1963), and others. Harrison also was to apply the effect to the final chord of his solo in “Till There Was You” in concerts and broadcasts until the record was released, after which he would replicate the close of that solo in concert. Also of interest is the apparent connection in Harrison’s mind between the whammy-arm bending and strummed tremolo — both often appear contiguously, as in solos for “Sure to Fall” and “I Just Don’t Understand.” Nevertheless, the Beatles were increasingly interested in guitar effects, a specialty of the Shadows but also related to Duane Eddy’s string bending technique, which would sharpen the ornamented note, as in “Three-Thirty Blues” and “Shazam.” Bigsby advertised that their device would sharpen or flatten a tone as much as a semitone, and a few months after Harrison bought a Bigsby with his Gretsch (in July 1961), Lennon upgraded his vibrato with a Bigsby.34 Not confined to the guitar, the tremolo was an important feature of Lennon’s harmonica playing, as in “Little Child.” Harrison got the most out of his difficult-to-play Futurama. Note the Cochran-like two-part playing and the sustained tones in example 2.3, which were hardly effortless with the guitar’s large string height from the fingerboard. Also notable is the song’s final chord, tonic with added sixth (above Paul’s C in the bass, George’s top notes are c3, e3, and a3). The chord, one that was to open up a whole new vocabulary in Harrison’s hands, was produced by simply stopping the guitar’s first three strings with a barre on the seventeenth fret. Harrison would have heard the guitar chord previously at the end of Hank Williams’s “Hey, Good Lookin’,” Carl Perkins’s “Movie Magg” and “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music,” Ronnie Hawkins’s “Red Hot,”

The Beatles with Pete Best

Example 2.2a – c “Apache” (Jeremiah Lordan). © 1960, Regent Music Corp.

Example 2.3 “Cry for a Shadow” (Lennon-Harrison). © 1961, Screen Gems-EMI Music, Inc.




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Example 2.4 “Sweet Georgia Brown” (Ben Bernie – Maceo Pinkard – Kenneth Casey). © 1925, Remick Music Corp.



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and Johnny Burnette’s “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes.” (Lennon does not play lead here, contra McCartney’s memory, but he does play the chord at the twelfth fret in his solo of July 10, 1963, on “Matchbox” for the BBC.) Conceivably, the chord could have been learned from these recordings or from Sheridan, but I believe it is a form of the “Gretty” chord, of which McCartney speaks in connection with “Michelle”: “there’s a very jazzy chord in it: ‘Michelle, ma belle.’ That second chord. That was a chord that was used twice in the Beatles: once to end George’s solo on ‘Till There Was You’ and again when I used it in this. It was a chord shown to us by a jazz guitarist called Jim Gretty who worked behind the counter at Frank Hessy’s.”35 In “Michelle,” the chord is heard barred straight

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across the top four strings on the eighth fret immediately after the word “belle.” At the close of the solo in “Till,” Lennon strums the top five strings, all stopped at the same eighth fret; Harrison arpeggiates this same stopped position at this point in some performances of “Till” (as in the BBC recording of June 11, 1963) but not in others (including that released on With the Beatles), where he plays various other forms of an F9 chord. I believe that by early 1961, Gretty must have shown the group the simple yet jazzy configuration, which can be strummed variously on the top three, four, or five strings (producing different additions to the basic triad), depending on what the bass has. As developed to its peak in the later “She Loves You,” the chord of the added sixth has motivic significance for the Beatles. Note in example 2.3 the opening alternation of 1 and 6 in the bass; these support C and Am chords, respectively. Following the alternation, the bass finally arpeggiates (1–6–4) all the way down to a precadential IV (which appears in the example’s fifth bar). The alternation of I and VI (which is summarized in George’s final Iadd6 chord) is reminiscent of one passage in “Apache” (see the Am and F chords in example 2.2c, mm. 44 – 47) and is perhaps a central factor in what drew Lennon’s attention to the song. This harmonic event (which, when not arpeggiating down to IV, simply prolongs I with upper neighbor decoration of 5) is featured in many of Lennon’s favorite pre-1964 songs by others and in several of his own.36 The contrast of the minor/Dorian mode of “Apache” with the major mode of “Cry for a Shadow” conceals much in common between the songs, particularly the colors of the borrowed I –VI alternation. A brief summary follows of the most significant records to come out of these June 1961 sessions, initially credited simply to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers: “My Bonnie (Mein Herz ist bei dir nur)” / “The Saints,” Polydor NH 24673, rel. in West Germany 11/61? (first Beatle release worldwide, reaching #32 in the German magazine Musikmarkt) “My Bonnie” / “The Saints,” Polydor NH 66833, rel. in U.K. 1/5/62 (first British Beatle record and first record to credit “The Beatles”) “My Bonnie” / “The Saints,” Decca 31382, rel. in U.S. 4/62 (first American Beatle release) Mister-Twist, EP, Polydor 21914, rel. in France 4/62 (first worldwide release of “Cry for a Shadow” and “Why [Can’t You Love Me Again]”) My Bonnie, LP, Polydor LPHM 46 612, rel. in W. Germany 6/62 (first LP release) Les Beatles, EP, Polydor 21965, rel. in France 2/64 (first worldwide release of “Nobody’s Child,” “Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby,” and “Ain’t She Sweet”)

For a few more months, the Beatles would occasionally perform behind other lead singers (and occasionally instrumentalists such as clarinetist Acker Bilk), especially in the Cavern. But they were soon to find their own voice.

The Beatles with Pete Best

Mersey Beat The Beatles were welcomed back to Liverpool on July 3, 1961, by a newly invigorated Mersey Sound. Bill Harry had begun the circular Mersey Beat, devoted to the activities of the hundreds of bands thriving in the city’s many clubs and halls. The Beatles were actively involved with the newspaper — Lennon contributed his fanciful version of the origins of the name “Beatles,” as well as several poems and humorous personal ads. In turn, Harry was to be a staunch supporter of the Beatles, and his paper was to give them important boosts in 1961 and 1962.37 Upon returning home, the group rested for two weeks; another such break in October 1961 was to be the last of this duration until late April 1963. (That October break was auspicious; in Paris, John and Paul got the earliest form of the “Beatle haircut.”) Pete Best replaced his 24-inch bass drum with a 26-inch one, decorated with an orange-red head emblazoned with “Beatles” in white. Also in July, Harrison bought his first Gretsch, a DuoJet bought secondhand from a sailor for £75.38 This was a great improvement over the thin-toned Futurama and the only electric guitar Harrison was to use in the following two years. From July 13 through December 30, the Beatles played some 169 gigs throughout Liverpool and in large ballrooms on the Wirral peninsula. Best, now arranging the Beatles’ bookings at a take of £15 – 20 per gig, recalls the stage atmosphere as Paul would sing “Over the Rainbow”: “John would play seriously for a while as Paul gave his emotional all to the song; then John would suddenly start to pull a grotesque face [or] produce a series of weird sounds from his guitar that intruded into the melody like sore thumbs. Again Paul would not be too pleased and John would gaze around the stage in all innocence.”39 The group’s first fan club was formed by August and the group was enjoying a success that made them, by the end of 1961, the city’s most popular musical entertainers.40 It ought to be noted that because the Beatles kept up an increasingly busy schedule at numerous venues, they now required and could pay a driver. So began the service of Neil Aspinall, Paul’s friend from Institute days who today remains the overseer of all Apple operations in the Beatles’ name. The following contemporaneous hits were added to the Beatles’ repertoire in the last months of 1961: “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame,” “I Just Don’t Understand,” “One Track Mind,” “I Really Love You,” “Take Good Care of My Baby,” “Hit the Road, Jack,” “Fool #1,” “Ya Ya,” “Please Mr. Postman,” and “September in the Rain.” Additionally, it is thought that the Beatles were performing early versions of three new compositions, “Love of the Loved,” “I’ll Be On My Way,” and “Hold Me Tight,” by this time.41 Tim Riley is perceptive as to the Beatles’ emerging identity during this period: The more they polished their imitations of songs, the closer they came to an individual sound. The more John sang Richie Barrett’s “Some Other Guy,” the more he invested his own jealous longing into it; the more Paul sang Little Richard’s “Lucille,” the more he flavored it with his giddy brand of camp. George couldn’t help sounding like George even when he mimicked Eddie Fontaine’s “Nothin’ Shakin’ (But the Leaves on the Trees).” What they learned

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

from the records they copied was not merely how to sound like someone else but how to play and sing, how to put a song forward. “Don’t copy the swimming teacher, learn how to swim!” is how John later put it.42

Enter Brian Epstein By late 1961, the Beatles were a featured attraction in both Liverpool/Manchester and Hamburg, but they knew their career would not blossom without recognition in London. Only as the Nerk Twins in two informal Caversham performances (April 23 – 24, 1960) had any members performed in the south of England. The challenge of national recognition was enticing to Sam Leach, one of the hometown promoters who had arranged some important jobs for the group after Williams’s exit, most notably for a house of 4,000 at the New Brighton Tower Ballroom on November 10, 1961. Leach, who hoped that the group would take him on as personal manager once he proved that he could expand their base, booked the Beatles for a dance in Aldershot, within what he mistakenly thought was easy distance of London critics, for December 9. Unfortunately, the crucial newspaper ads he had placed for the event did not run because of a misunderstanding over payment, and only eighteen listeners showed — a disaster the ambitious musicians had not known for many months. In the meantime, the Beatles were being courted by another would-be manager, one Brian Epstein, who had never had any dealings with them or with any other performing acts. Epstein (1934 – 67) managed one of the north’s largest record stores in the Whitechapel branch of his family business, North End Music Stores, and contributed a record review column to Mersey Beat. Brian was a well-dressed, well-spoken sophisticate living in the prosperous Childwall neighborhood just north of Woolton. Interests in design and theater that failed him in three terms at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art found an outlet in striking window displays for the store, which was run with notable efficiency.43 Epstein would have read about the Beatles in Mersey Beat and probably learned from Cavern-frequenting customers that they had recorded a single, “My Bonnie,” which would have turned out to be a German Polydor record credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. From first hearing the Beatles at the Cavern on November 9, Epstein knew they could mutually benefit from his efforts. His talk of contacts with record companies, even though only through the distribution end, impressed the Beatles, and when he was able to arrange both an audition for Decca Records (January 1, 1962) and the British Polydor release of their “My Bonnie” single (January 5), the group signed his management contract. Epstein vowed not to interfere with the Beatles’ music, but he managed to clean up their stage act (they had thought nothing of casually smoking, eating, and joking among themselves on stage), professionalize their dress (with matching tweed suits in March 1962 that were to evolve in March 1963 into the famous lapelless and collarless suits; the Cuban-heel boots came in January 1963), and eventually shorten their performances to an hour, and then in 1963 half an hour, allowing for one or two encores.44 The benefits to the Beatles’

The Beatles with Pete Best

Example 2.5 “Hello Little Girl” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

 

♯♯♯

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stage presence were enormous, and Epstein was a tireless worker on their behalf, eventually securing them the record contract that would bring them to the world. A lack of business acumen would eventually fail the group in substantial ways. While American merchandisers would reap many millions in Beatlelicensed products, Brian had signed a deal giving himself and the group a combined sliding royalty of only 10 –15%. And, typical for its time but of lasting and nearly tragic damage to the composing Beatles, the publishing agreements concerning ownership of, and royalties from, the Beatles’ compositions benefited others far more than Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison. But the Beatles’ 1964 invasion of America was a crucial and expertly planned victory of Epstein, and they remained loyal to him until his sudden death in 1967 precipitated the band’s slow dissolution.45 The Decca Tapes On New Year’s Day 1962 the Beatles auditioned for Decca in their studio in Hampstead, London. Fifteen songs were taped live, and a monophonic mix of the audition has enjoyed wide distribution in many unauthorized releases since the mid-1970s. Epstein selected his favorite arrangements from the Beatles’ live act: three original compositions that are not heard in any later group performances (“Hello Little Girl, “Like Dreamers Do,” and “Love of the Loved”), two covers that were to appear on the Beatles’ second LP (“Money [That’s What I Want]” and “Till There Was You”), five that were later recorded only in live concerts, broadcasts, or an EMI outtake (“To Know Her Is to Love Her,” “Memphis,” “Sure to Fall [In Love with You],” “Crying, Waiting, Hoping,” and “Besame Mucho”), and five not heard elsewhere (“Sheik of Araby,” “Take Good Care of My Baby,” “September in the Rain,” “Searchin’,” and “Three Cool Cats,” the last of which was later recorded twice for the BBC but was neither broadcast nor, apparently, preserved in those versions).46 The Decca performance of “Hello Little Girl” has been discussed earlier for its bridge and its guitar solo, both of which differ significantly from the 1960 version. Also of note is the song’s new ending, reduced in example 2.5, as it features the triplet close later heard in the endings of “Twist and Shout” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” McCartney’s “Like Dreamers Do” (thought to be the day’s opening number) has been discussed earlier as an example of the nervous composer’s vocal excesses and his bass technique.47 But the song also develops some chromatic ideas for the first time in the Beatles’ writing, perhaps a sign of Jim Mac’s influ-

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Example 2.6 “Like Dreamers Do” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.


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ence; when reviewing “Like Dreamers Do” for the Beatles’ Anthology project, Paul says, “George and I looked at each other and he said, ‘That’s your old man, that’s [Paul Whiteman’s #1 hit of 1922, “I’ll Build a] Stairway to Paradise.” ’ ”48 As if an exercise for “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the mediant is heard in both minor and major forms, the latter indicated in example 2.1b. The diatonic III will feature in many early Beatle compositions, but such unusual chromaticism is to become a hallmark of the Beatles’ middle period, as in the surprising “wrong mode” chords to be featured in “Here, There and Everywhere” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” (both 1966) and lampooned in “Only a Northern Song” (1967). The major mediant in the “Like Dreamers Do” performance for Decca creates a sense of unexpected urgency, as if the unprepared chord hopes to resolve as an applied V7 that underlines the text, “I waited for the kiss, waited for the bliss.” The chromatic tones that appear in the altered III7ß that prepares the refrain, and the applied V7ß and augmented triad that act as retransition, reverberate in the song’s intro and coda, a frame that was probably added to the song sometime in 1961 after Harrison’s purchase of the easy-action Duo-Jet. The two-bar intro is given in example 2.6. While highly chromatic, the passage is played with ease on a good instrument — it amounts to a sequence of four pairs of chords; the two of each pair are played with different barre positions on the same fret, and each pair is played a fret higher than the one before. The sequence prolongs a chromatic rise from n6 to 1, the last four notes of which (Fs, G, Gs, and A) function as goals of applied V– I progressions. Thus the progression can be heard as a filled-in nVI –V– I opening. In the coda, the same chromatic sequence is introduced by an alternation of I with its CT° 7 . While these chromatic structures are never heard in a similar way in another Beatle composition, they appear in songs covered by the group at this time: a chromatic “slide” of I – s I – II – s II – III – IV triads is played by Lennon and in syncopated broken octaves by Harrison in the solo to “Long Tall Sally” and again in “Kansas City.” Such chromatic lines “doubled” by triads are heard in “Boys” and “Your Feet’s Too Big” and in the ending of “I Got to Find My Baby.” All of these songs were in the Beatles’ act in both 1961 and 1962. As far as the CT°7 is concerned, the same I prolongation with this chord that ends “Like Dreamers Do” is also heard in the coda of the Decca performance of “September in the Rain,” which song was not part of the Beatles’ repertoire before 1961. The progression is also the basis of the bridge of “Tequila,” which the

The Beatles with Pete Best

Example 2.7a “Love of the Loved” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.



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Example 2.7b Analysis of “Love of the Loved.”


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Beatles had played for a few years. The CT°7 was also used by the Beatles in the similar intros to “Carol” and “Little Queenie,” in one chorus of “Peggy Sue,” and on the retransitional V of “Wooden Heart”; all of these were played by the Beatles in both 1961 and 1962. The function is heard again in Lennon’s “It Won’t Be Long” (1963) but is ultimately more closely tied to Harrison’s preferences. His favorites, “I Really Love You,” “True Love,” and “Hong Kong Blues,” all of which he was to record and release as a solo artist, feature the CT°7 basic to his own “Isn’t It a Pity.” Harrison and Lennon generally seem more interested in chromatically pithy chord colors than does McCartney —witness George’s heavy use of the fully diminished seventh chord throughout his solo work, right from “My Sweet Lord,” the large palette of “wrong mode” chords in much of his writing, and the modal interest in Dorian and, later, north Indian classical scales. Example 2.7a represents the vocal line in the verse of McCartney’s “Love of the Loved.” Note the tune’s polyphonic melody (a feature of “You’ll Be Mine”), as diagramed in example 2.7b, and the fact that a few chromatic passing tones (from minor-mode mixture) fill in two descending lines: a structural descent from 5 to 1, and (connected by downward stems) an upper “descant” part from

105

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Example 2.7c “Love of the Loved” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

 

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1 down to 5. Thus three of McCartney’s favorite melodic tendencies (scales, polyphonic tunes, and superficial chromatic descent) are all present in this early example. The minor IVn, later heard in many McCartney songs, including the revised bridge of “I’ll Follow the Sun” (1964), might have been taken from the Everly Brothers’ “Love of My Life” or “Till There Was You”; “September Song” should also be recalled as a particularly chromatic cover. Example 2.7c represents the ending of the vocal part, wherein the cadence in augmentation is followed by a corny falsetto ending in the style of Frank Ifield. This is later to be mimicked by Lennon in “It Won’t Be Long.” Not shown in this example is the bridge, which begins on nIII (having been prepared by its own applied V7) and moves to a nVI –V cadence. The bridge thus composes-out the cadence of the verse, giving the C major triad of measure 6, example 2.7a, a stronger reason for being, as in the wake of a tonicization of nIII. This mixture-related bridge structure is heard in only one other song performed by the Beatles, one also played in E, and one also done for the Decca audition: “To Know Her Is to Love Her,” which had been in the group’s repertoire since 1960. Example 2.8 represents the first half of that song’s bridge, sung by

Example 2.8 “To Know Her Is to Love Her” (Philip Spector). © 1958, Abkco Music, Inc.


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The Beatles with Pete Best

Lennon with vocal backing from McCartney and Harrison. It seems very likely that the bridge of “Love of the Loved” is modeled on that of “To Know Her Is to Love Her.” Turning to the other cover versions done for Decca, “Till There Was You” has an arrangement very much like that to be recorded for With the Beatles. As indicated in example 2.9, the verse-refrain portion of “Till” is a good example of an interrupted melodic structure, later heard in many Beatles melodies. The upper-voice descent from 5 in the first refrain is interrupted at 2 over V, whereas the second refrain continues on to 1 over I. While “Love of the Loved” does not have such an interruption, its structure is otherwise similar in striking ways to that of “Till,” as can be seen in comparing examples 2.7b and 2.9. Note that both descend from structural 5 to 3 with only neighbor motion in the bass as a weak support for 4, and that both have surface-level chromatic parallel fifths occurring between the structural 3 and 2. Both have a similar tempo. Thus while the bridge of “Love of the Loved” may come from Spector, its verse seems to have a model in The Music Man. McCartney’s cousin Bett Robbins, who’d given him a copy of Peggy Lee’s recording of “Fever” in 1958, provided him with her mildly jazzy Latin-styled version of “Till There Was You” (on the LP Latin ala Lee, released April 1960).49 The Beatles’ treatment of “Till” is most remarkable for Harrison’s bossa nova – style guitar arrangement, especially as perfected on the nylon-string instrument he used in recording the song in 1963. In the Lee recording, a flute section in block chords provides the instrumental break by paraphrasing the tune of the verse, but Harrison digresses far from all models with his melodic fluency. Except for subtleties of articulation, all but the last two bars of Harrison’s released solo is present in the Decca recording, but it is here colored by the vibrato bar. Outside of the solo, Harrison adds many lead licks to the song in 1962– 63, heard in comparing the Decca version with the end-of-year Star-Club recordings and three June – July 1963 BBC performances (heard on Beatles 1991e, 1991g, and 1993c). The colorful fVI and IM7 chords in the song’s final cadence come directly from the Lee styling. Harrison has some fine guitar work on the Decca tapes, notably in his solo for “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” (example 2.10), which is fluid and rhythmically inventive, has one choice bent note (m. 13), and also sports a polyphonic melody in its second half, with some chromaticism near its conclusion (mm. 13 –14). Harrison did not compose the solo — as with most covers, it has been learned note-for-note from Holly. Similarly, Harrison replicates Berry’s sliding two-part solo in “Memphis,” the opening of which is given in example 2.11. The original rockabilly solo for “Three Cool Cats,” unrelated to King Curtis’s bluesy alto sax break on the Coasters’ model, however, is so meager that it could have contributed to hurting the group’s chances for a recording contract. “Sure to Fall (In Love with You),” one of Perkins’s earliest (prerockabilly) recordings, is given a hillbilly sound very much like the original with Harrison’s strummed tremolo and with the heavy drawling appoggiaturas on almost every interval in the vocal duet. As already seen once in “Cry for a Shadow,” Harrison frequently adds tones

107

Example 2.9 Analysis of “Till There Was You.” A

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The Beatles with Pete Best

Example 2.10 “Crying, Waiting, Hoping,” words and music by Buddy Holly. © 1959 (Renewed) Peer International Corp. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014.



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Example 2.11 “Memphis” (Chuck Berry). © 1958, Arc Music Corp.

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to a song’s final tonic on his guitar. Among Decca recordings, “Memphis” ends with a chord of the added sixth; “Take Good Care of My Baby” ends with a ninth chord; and “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” ends with both sixth and ninth added. In a similar manner, the verse of “Memphis” features a If7 chord used not as V7/IV but as a tonic sonority with nonresolving neighbor. These chords with nonresolving neighbors point the way to the pandiatonic hearing that will eventually guide the vocal arrangement of “This Boy” and the opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night.” Harrison had heard the guitar triad with added sixth as a final chord in Hank Williams’s “Hey, Good Lookin’,” Perkins’s “Movie Magg” and “Blue Suede Shoes,” Ronnie Hawkins’s “Red Hot,” Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music” and Scotty Moore’s accompaniment to Presley’s “That’s All Right (Mama).” It is duplicated in “Carol,” “Little Queenie,” “Matchbox,” “Honey Don’t,” “Glad All Over,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues,” “Dizzy Miss Lizzie,”

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

“Lonesome Tears in My Eyes,” and the Beatles’ own “She Loves You,” “I’m in Love,” live performances of “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” and many others. Extending the technique, the Beatles will add a sixth to V in “I’ll Get You,” “You Can’t Do That,” “I Should Have Known Better,” and “She’s a Woman.” In “Take Good Care of My Baby,” the added ninth chord (played in the endings of model recordings of “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise,” “Mailman Blues,” “I’m in Love Again,” and “Miss Ann”) is heard with its usual voicing, which places the fifth above the ninth, with f7th below. Thus, ending in Af major, “Take Good Care” ends with c1, gf1, bf1, and ef2 as its highest guitar pitches. Better-known examples of the same chord end Beatle performances of both “Twist and Shout” and “Roll Over Beethoven,” both in D, with d, c1, e1, and a1 as the four highest notes in each case.50 The Gretty chord is produced simply by barring straight across a fret on the first three strings and varying the treatment of the fourth string as desired (it remains open, as the root, in the D major examples). It is also heard in “I Saw Her Standing There” and in many Beatle covers recorded through 1964 such as “You Really Got a Hold on Me” and “Long Tall Sally.” A few Beatle songs combine both the added sixth and ninth with the final tonic. “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” (in A) concludes with Harrison’s chord, spelled A– a – cs1– fs1– b1 (ninth on top) and “Devil in Her Heart” (in G) ends with Harrison’s chord spelled b – e1– a1– d2 (fifth above). Thus, similar effects are created with very different fingerings — perhaps putting to rest the commonly held notion that with untrained rock composers, interesting sounds are a purely technique-driven happenstance. Often, in the case of the Beatles, the ear seems to guide decisions more than does the hand. These chords with added tones are allied very closely to the boogie technique discussed in chapter 1. In fact, Lennon’s rhythm guitar part in “Chains” (see example 2.12), which is anything but hand-oriented, demonstrates neighboring sixths in the tonic Bf chord and ninths in both the Ef and F7 chords. The nonapplied If7 chord is common to blues-based rock and roll, as in “Bad Boy,” “Boys,” “Kansas City,” “Young Blood,” “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream),” “Ooh! My Soul,” “The One after 909,” “Love Me Do,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and many others. It is not heard as a song’s final chord in the Decca tapes, but it would have been performed so in “Matchbox,” “Boppin’ the Blues,” and “Twenty-Flight Rock” and in 1963 would be taped for the BBC in “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)” (voiced G – f – a1– d2 in the ending but G – f – b – d1– a1 within the body of the song). The Decca performance of “September in the Rain” opens with the unusual tonic chord with both 6th and f7th added; example 2.13 shows the first two bars. This chord is heard elsewhere only at the end of the solo in “Till There Was You” and in Lennon’s rhythm part at the retransitional “tight” (0:55 – 0:56) in “A Hard Day’s Night.” Three of the Decca songs were novelty numbers originally recorded by the Coasters: “Searchin’ ” (which the Beatles learned from a single owned by Quarry Man Colin Hanton), “Three Cool Cats” (which McCartney has identified as one of the B-sides borrowed from Bob Wooler), and “Besame Mucho.”51

The Beatles with Pete Best

Example 2.12 “Chains” (Gerry Goffin-Carole King). © 1962, Screen Gems-EMI Music, Inc.




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Example 2.13 “September in the Rain” (Al Dubin-Harry Warren). © 1937, Remick Music Corp.


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McCartney says “Besame” (a Mexican song based on Spanish conventions of Albéniz opera made popular by Jimmy Dorsey in 1944 and covered by the Coasters in 1960) was their own arrangement, but he learned the song from the Coasters’ record. 52 In the Coasters’ F-minor version, bass Bobby Nunn sang lead, whereas McCartney’s tenor dominates the Beatles’ G-minor performance. Right from the “cha-cha boom” intro, the Beatles’ arrangement is largely original, but the Coasters’ bridge is the source for Lennon’s vocal harmony there. The Beatles’ performance is much more compact at 2'38", avoiding the Coasters’ (4'11") multiple duplications of sections. The bridge of “Three Cool Cats” is based on the natural – minor progression I –fVII –fVI –V as well as the skeleton of the bridge of “To Know Her Is to Love Her” (there ornamented with inter-

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

mediary chords); the Beatles also played this progression in their covers of “Walk, Don’t Run,” “Runaway,” and “Hit the Road, Jack” (no, the progression does not always connote the idea of leaving); it entered their own composition first in the minor-mode intro to the major-mode “I’ll Keep You Satisfied” (1963) and in the verse of “I’ll Be Back” (1964). “Besame Mucho” (the intro, first verse, and bridge of which are reduced in example 2.14a) is interesting for its chromatic instrumental lines: see Lennon’s guitar in measures 5 – 6, McCartney’s bass in measures 7– 8, and Harrison’s guitar in measures 10 –11. But the melodic structure of the vocal part (the

Example 2.14a “Besame Mucho,” English lyric by Sunny Skylar, Music and Spanish lyric by Consuelo Velazquez. © 1941, 1943 Promotora Hispano Americana de Musica S.A. © Renewed and controlled in U.S.A. by Peer International Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014.




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I a - dore”_

The Beatles with Pete Best

Example 2.14b Analysis of “Besame Mucho.”


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verse of which is sketched in example 2.14b) also deserves attention, because an expressive technique used here is one that appears in later Beatle songs. According to this sketch, all of the structural “action” occurs in the motion from bf through the cadential a (m. 16) to g (m. 17); nearly all of the vocal part (in the bridge as well as in the verse), however, lies in the register above this structural line. The poetic text helps us to understand this apparent contradiction: once the singer is kissed, he hears “music divine” that lifts his spirit above the business-oriented fundamental line; his ecstasy is explored even more consistently in the bridge.53 McCartney in particular will come to use the same voiceleading device in many Beatle songs, such as “Yesterday.” Yet another novelty song appears in the Decca group: “Sheik of Araby.” Harrison learned the chestnut by way of guitarist Joe Brown’s recording. This song might have been added to the Beatles’ repertoire because of Epstein’s liking for Brown’s music; a similar reason is also possible in the case of “September in the Rain.” In his year-end column for Mersey Beat, Epstein had listed Dinah Washington’s recording of “September in the Rain” as one of his ten favorite records of 1961. Both Washington and the Beatles close with an over-the-top truck driver’s modulation (the model shifts from Af to A, the cover from G to Af) in the retransition to the last verse. Elsewhere in their vast repertoire, the Beatles would have copied this technique only in “Open Up Your Lovin’ Arms.” When Decca finally rejected the Beatles in March, Lennon complained of Epstein’s poor choice of material. The Beatle was probably correct in thinking that the corny novelty numbers, and perhaps too forced a show-biz demeanor overall, were not very helpful.54 Early 1962 With the distinction of having been voted the top band of their city in the first annual Mersey Beat poll, published January 4, 1962, the Beatles logged 109 appearances in the first fifteen weeks of the new year, all in Liverpool and Manchester clubs and ballrooms but for one more attempt in the south, made in Stroud. Songs probably added to the act in these months include those in table 2.4. One rare document, a set list for a February date in Manchester, indicates not only the band’s preferred repertoire, showing significant

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overlap with the Decca audition, but also the planning that went into an hourlong show (probably divided into two sets) of this period:55 “Hippy Hippy Shake” “Sweet Little Sixteen” “Sheik of Araby” “September in the Rain” “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” “Take Good Care of My Baby” “Till There Was You” “Memphis” “What a Crazy World We’re Living In” “Like Dreamers Do” “Money (That’s What I Want)” “Young Blood” “The Honeymoon Song” “Hello Little Girl” “So How Come” “Ooh! My Soul” “To Know Her Is to Love Her” or “Hully Gully” “Roll Over Beethoven” “Love of the Loved” “Dance in the Streets” “Theme for a Dream” “Searchin’ ”

Also notable in the early spring was the Beatles’ first performance on the BBC (in Manchester); they had won a February audition for the “Teenager’s Turn” broadcast partly on the strength of their own “Like Dreamers Do” and “Hello Little Girl.” But instead of taping these, they recorded (on March 7, for broadcast the following day) Roy Orbison’s hit “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream),” plus “Memphis” and “Please Mr. Postman.”56 This achievement helped boost the Beatles’ confidence in their new manager, who was still unsuccessful in his major brief, attracting interest from a record company. From April 13 through the end of May, the Beatles played Hamburg’s new and most prestigious club, the 2,000-seat Star-Club. They shared the bill for two weeks with Gene Vincent, who was also to appear once with the Beatles at the Cavern in July. On May 24, the Beatles recorded “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “Swanee River” behind Tony Sheridan at Studio Rahlstedt, with Kaempfert again producing in four-track. “Swanee River” went unreleased and probably no longer exists, despite claims that a December 1961 Sheridan recording of this title is actually the Beatles in May 1962. But “Sweet Georgia Brown” has enjoyed wide release following its October 1962 première in West Germany on the EP Ya-Ya (Polydor EPH 21485).57 Tony (lead vocal and Gibson guitar), John (Rickenbacker and girl-group “sha-la-la-la”s as a backing vocal), Paul (Höfner bass and backing vocal), George (Duo-Jet and backing vocal), and Pete (drums) are supported on piano by Roy Young, who was a full member of the group for several weeks in April and May.58 When it became clear years later that the Beatles were about to capture America, Sheridan capitalized by recutting the lead

The Beatles with Pete Best

Table 2.4 Early-1962 Repertoire Additions Songs made popular in the 1950s: “Beautiful Dreamer” “Honey Don’t” “Tryin’ to Get to You” “True Love” Early 1961: “Theme for a Dream” “Mama Said” “I’m Talking about You” Late 1961 and early 1962: “Tammy Tell Me True” “Bill and Ben” “Torchy” “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody” “The Peppermint Twist” “You Better Move On” “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues” “Baby It’s You” “Mr. Moonlight” “What’s Your Name” “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream)” “Hey! Baby” “Hey, Let’s Twist” “Love Is a Swingin’ Thing” “When My Little Girl Is Smiling”

vocal of “Sweet Georgia Brown” on January 3, 1964, with cute topical references to the Beatle haircut and fan club. This, first released on the French EP Ain’t She Sweet (Polydor 21965), is far better known than the original version, which after 1962 was only reissued in Sweden twenty years later (and in stereo, only in Sweden thirty-five years after recorded, on the Polydor disc PRE 240003 included with Gottfridsson 1997). Songs popular in April and May that were definitely covered by the Beatles in 1962, possibly first at the Star-Club, include “Don’t Ever Change,” “Some Other Guy,” and both sides of Arthur Alexander’s single “Where Have You Been All My Life” / “Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms).” “Some Other Guy” soon became the Beatles’ opening number at the Cavern. Pete Best says that “Love Me Do” was completed at this time.59 The period from June 9 through September 3 saw ninety-eight Beatle appearances in Merseyside and in clubs and ballrooms in the neighboring coun-

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ties of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Flintshire, plus more distant dates in Swindon, Doncaster, Lydney, and Stroud. Songs added to the act during these summer months are thought to be: “I Remember You” “Loco-Motion” “Nobody but You” “Open Up Your Lovin’ Arms” “A Picture of You” “Roses Are Red” “Sharing You” “What a Crazy World We’re Living In” “Bring It On Home to Me” “Twist and Shout” “Main Title Theme (Man with the Golden Arm)” “Sheila” “Devil in Her Heart” “Reminiscing”

Add to these the Beatles’ own “Ask Me Why” (given its première on the Beatles’ second BBC-Manchester appearance, recorded June 11 and broadcast on the 15th), “P.S. I Love You,” and “Tip of My Tongue.” During the month of July, the Beatles were recorded in performance at the Cavern by an audience member. McCartney was to buy the tape at auction on August 29, 1985, for £2,310, and it is not known to have circulated.60 The tape includes “Words of Love,” “What’s Your Name,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Ask Me Why,” “Hippy Hippy Shake,” “Till There Was You,” “Hey! Baby,” “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody,” “Please Mr. Postman,” “Sharing You,” “Your Feet’s Too Big,” “Dizzy Miss Lizzie,” “I Forgot to Remember to Forget,” “Matchbox,” “Shimmy Like Kate,” “Memphis,” “Young Blood,” and “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream).” We do, however, have a recording of Gene Vincent and the Beatles performing “What’d I Say” at the Cavern on July 1 (heard on Vincent 1985), heavy on guitars and Best’s continuously wild tom-toms but without keyboard of any sort. Gaining in stature as well as exposure, the Beatles were to support several acts that enjoyed national hits during the summer of 1962, including Bruce Channel, Joe Brown, and Johnny Kidd & the Pirates. Channel’s band featured the harmonica of Delbert McClinton (best known from his work on “Hey! Baby”). This impressed Lennon, who then began to feature the harmonica and the smaller blues harp to a larger degree in late 1962. The harmonica was to appear on one or both sides of each of the Beatles’ first four singles; on “There’s a Place,” “Little Child,” and many covers, including “Chains,” “I Remember You,” “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody,” “Clarabella,” and “I Got to Find My Baby,” the latter two sharing identical blues harp solos with “Little Child.” The Beatles Sign with EMI Decca’s rejection led Epstein on a continued trail through record labels major and minor, in hopes of securing a recording contract for the Beatles. Interest was finally shown by George Martin, head of Parlophone Records, the smallest subsidiary of the EMI group. Unknown to Mar-

The Beatles with Pete Best

tin, Brian Epstein had once before received a categorical rejection of the Beatles by EMI. Martin heard an acetate copy of the Decca tape at a meeting with Epstein on February 13 and approved of what he heard. George Martin maintains that he heard the Beatles audition in March and an initial agreement to record six titles was reached on May 9, with the first recording date set for June 6.61 The Beatles, in Hamburg at the time of the agreement, received the following cable from Epstein: “Congratulations, boys, EMI requests recording session. Please rehearse new material.” Harrison replied, “Please order four new guitars.”62 The request for new material is thought to have prompted McCartney’s composition of “P.S. I Love You,” and the request for new instruments prompted an order by Rushworth’s Music House for matching Gibson “Jumbo” amplified acoustic guitars for George and John that were delivered from Chicago in September.63 Epstein made ambitious plans for the group’s first proper recording session, which Martin considered a test rather than for record production. Brian listed the group’s proposed repertoire for the day, which was to begin with McCartney’s vocal on “Besame Mucho,” Lennon’s on “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” and Harrison’s on “Open Up Your Lovin’ Arms,” all covers. These were to be followed by selections from a list of twenty-seven others.64 In actuality, only “Besame Mucho,” “Love Me Do,” “P.S. I Love You,” and “Ask Me Why” were attempted on June 6. None were to be released, and even though all were pressed onto private 78-rpm acetate discs, only the first two are known to have survived.65 The recording of “Besame” is similar to the Decca arrangement, except that there are no backing vocals from Harrison and Lennon on the EMI version. The Rickenbacker and Duo-Jet are barely heard in “Love Me Do,” which is slower and bluesier than the September recording that would see release. Perhaps of greatest consequence to the group, the “Love Me Do” test is marred by an erratic acceleration before the bridge; Martin laid the blame at the drummer’s feet. The fate of Pete Best, with whom the three others had discovered personal differences anyway, was sealed when Martin told Epstein that his drumming was not of the quality needed for recording. Best was not to be informed of the next EMI session, and a Cavern gig on August 15, 1962, was his last as a Beatle. Our last recording of Best with the Beatles, other than the aforementioned July Cavern tapes, is from a wonderful BBC radio taping of June 11, 1962 (broadcast four days later), featuring “Ask Me Why,” “A Picture of You,” and “Besame Mucho” (all heard on Beatles 1993c). George Martin (b. 1926) had received training in piano and composition in three years’ study at the Guildhall School of Music, London, and had been a pit oboist at Sadler’s Wells before he joined Parlophone in 1950. His great admiration as a student for Ravel was to show most strongly in some of his orchestrations for the Yellow Submarine soundtrack (1968) and the unreleased “A Beginning” (Beatles 1996b) recorded for the White album. His earliest work for Parlophone, however, consisted largely of drumming up sound effects for comedy recordings by Peter Sellers and the other Goons (stars, in 1952 – 56, of a popular radio series) and by Beyond the Fringe. Martin was inventive in the studio: he arranged for Peter Ustinov to sing in four parts by himself in 1952, eleven years before he had the use of four-track tape machines. When skiffle be-

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came popular, Martin produced the Vipers, who had several records do well on the charts. He also recorded Johnny Dankworth’s “African Waltz” and numbers by Matt Monro, Rolf Harris, and Bernard Cribbins and attained his first national #1 hit in May 1961 with the vaudeville number “You’re Driving Me Crazy” by the Temperance Seven.66 In 1962, he released his own electronic numbers, “Time Beat” and “Waltz in Orbit,” under the obvious pseudonym of Ray Cathode. When the Beatles auditioned, Martin had difficulty deciding how to record them. Convention, dictated by the success of such artists as Cliff Richard and Adam Faith, tempted him to look to one or the other members as a potential lead singer, the rest to serve as a backing band. But he wisely realized that allowing for various vocal combinations would better present the group’s talents.67 Also difficult was the matter of material. Although three of the four selections played at the June session were original songs, the Beatles did not impress as composers. Martin heard them for what they were: a club or dance band with good technique and ensemble, a good ear for harmony and effect, an ability to copy and adapt others’ arrangements, and considerable interest in promoting their own distinct sound, which was, as of yet, still fully a combination of structures and devices taken from others. Martin, on his thoughts following the June session: “I felt that I was going to have to find suitable material for them, and was quite certain that their songwriting ability had no saleable future.”68 Beginning with their fall 1962 sessions, however, the Beatles were to persuade their producer that their recordings must promote their own compositions. (Having been burned once by having allowed Epstein to choose their material for the Decca audition, they were understandably guarded about the prospect of Martin, who barely knew them at all, making artistic decisions.) The open-minded producer was to see a new side of the group: “They amazed me with their fertility. To begin with, the material was fairly crude, but they developed their writing ability very quickly; the harmonies, and the songs themselves, became cleverer throughout 1963.”69 Martin could see the raw talent, and in July he scheduled a second recording session for September 4, which was to yield the first single for EMI. Given everything that was to happen afterward, it is difficult to imagine what August 1962 would have been like for the Beatles. But it was the single most crucial crossroads of their career. Virtually unheard-of outside of a pair of port cities, they were turning the corner rapidly toward inescapable fame. They were leaving behind a weak drummer for a great one. They began building an arsenal of the best available equipment. They were just entering a partnership with the rare producer who could steer them toward a number-one pop hit and artistic statement in the same gesture. Their expertly managed stage act was ready for world review, and they were ready to offer themselves through composition, broadcast, and travel anywhere and anytime. They would have to learn only ten more cover tunes for the remainder of their time together, so deep was their backlog of repertoire, so fertile was their imagination, and so robust was their energy for creating music. This group creativity would be a

The First EMI Recordings

source of profound joy for them for as many years as their companionship was to remain fresh and supportive. And their recordings have provided joy for many millions of others for quite some time, for reasons it is now time to explore.

The First EMI Recordings (September 1962– February 1963) New Drummer Ringo Starr Faced with the need for a new drummer, the Beatles turned first to Johnny Hutchinson of the Big Three, who had played with them once in 1960.70 Hutchinson rejected the offer, so Lennon and McCartney drove to Skegness to invite Ringo Starr (whose band was booked at the North Sea resort through the summer of 1962) to join, which he happily did. Best was fired on the morning of August 16, and Hutchinson filled in for two days before Ringo could join on the 18th, finally solidifying the Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starr lineup. The Beatles’ new drummer was born Richard Starkey on July 7, 1940. His earliest musical memories are of Gene Autry, Hank Snow, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Ernest Tubb, and other yodeling cowboys.71 When the teenager showed a strong interest in the drums around 1954, his stepfather bought him a “a huge one-sided bass drum” for 30 shillings. For Christmas 1956, Ritchie was given a patchwork kit including bass drum with pedal, snare, hi-hat, tom, and cymbal, and he joined the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group in February 1957. That kit was replaced in the summer of 1958 by a single-headed British-made Ajax set, purchased with a borrowed £46. This set gave way in late 1959 — when Starkey’s earnings as a member of Al Caldwell’s Texans, later the Raving Texans, later Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, had grown enough to justify it — by a standard mahogany Premier kit, with bass drum and pedal, a very shallow white snare, mounted tom, floor tom, two suspended cymbals (a thin crash and a thicker ride), and hi-hat.72 The Hurricanes were one of Liverpool’s most popular bands early in Ringo’s tenure, playing a supporting role in Gene Vincent’s Liverpool Stadium concert on May 3, 1960, but after having been overtaken in popularity by the Beatles, they were slipping fast by late 1961. Ritchie adopted the western-sounding stage name “Ringo Starr” in the summer of 1959 (“Ringo Kid” was John Wayne’s character in John Ford’s 1939 blockbuster Stagecoach). He proudly, if amateurishly, embossed the name onto his bass drum head with black tape. Ringo sang for one short set called “Ringo Starrtime” in each performance, covering such tunes as “Alley Oop,” “You’re Sixteen,” “Boys,” “Hit the Road Jack,” and “What’d I Say.”73 His vocal range in pre-1964 Beatle recordings is limited to the octave, e – e1, with occasional extensions to fs1 and g1. The Hurricanes’ 1962 gig at Skegness was at Butlin’s, a chain of British holiday camps, another of which was located at Pwllheli (on Cardigan Bay), home for the group through the summers of 1960 – 61. The Hurricanes also got work

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in Hamburg, meeting the Beatles there in autumn 1960. Ringo had played well with John, Paul, and George in Hamburg on several dates in October 1960 and April 1962, and so his great experience in the clubs, his easy friendship with the other Beatles, and the Hurricanes’ unpromising future all made Starr the natural replacement for Best.74 A two-hour rehearsal on the afternoon of August 18 prepared Ringo for his performance that night as a Beatle. Largely due to a distant microphone placement, the bass drum is often difficult to hear in many of the Beatles’ early recordings, except in rare solo and near-solo appearances, as with the measure of bass drum eighths married to McCartney’s repeated bass eighths that “whisper” in the refrain of “Do You Want to Know a Secret” and that “chug” in the refrain of “The One after 909” of 1963. Not that Ringo relied on “dropping the bomb” for effect. That factor necessarily aside, Starr’s drum technique is much more varied than his predecessor’s. Occasionally, Best’s ŒΩçŒq pattern is heard in his replacement’s playing, as in the original single version of “Love Me Do” and in “Twist and Shout,” “Please Mr. Postman,” and “Little Child.” Along with this or other backbeat patterns on the snare, Ringo’s right stick would tap all eighths on the closed hi-hat or ride cymbal, as in “Misery,” “Thank You Girl,” “I’ll Get You,” “It Won’t Be Long,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” the verse of “Hold Me Tight,” and many others. The ride pattern was heard in 12 8 for “To Know Her Is to Love Her” and “You Really Got a Hold on Me” and in a shuffle beat for “Chains” and “All My Loving.” In selected verses of other numbers, principally the “ravers”— numbers played particularly loudly so as to excite the crowd, the crash cymbal would be used extensively, sometimes hit on all eighths. This is heard in “Little Queenie,” “Shimmy Like Kate,” “Roll Over Beethoven” (in the final chorus of the December 31, 1962, recording and others), and “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You).” In some subdued numbers, as in “A Taste of Honey,” Ringo would use his brushes to sweep the snare or — in the bridge — brush a shuffle rhythm. In others, as in “The Honeymoon Song (Bound by Love)” and “Till There Was You,” the tom-tom or bongos would replace the snare. The toms are also featured in rowdier songs, including “Sheila” (rolled throughout, reminiscent of Jerry Allison’s accompaniment to Holly’s “Peggy Sue”) and many performances of “Memphis”; rolls on the tom-tom introduce “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You).” Both “Lend Me Your Comb” and “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes” feature many dotted and subdivided figures on both toms. Ringo’s cymbals usually help define a song’s structure. For instance, in “Twist and Shout,” eighths are tapped on the open ride cymbal for the verse but on the closed hi-hat for the solo. The hi-hat is also used for a different color in both “Anna (Go to Him)” and “All I’ve Got to Do,” in which it is closed right after the top cymbal is tapped, for a damping effect in a regularly recurring place (the second half of the third beat in 44 ) in each measure. Steven Baur has spoken of Ringo’s “subtle manipulations of the drum kit’s timbral properties,” including a later adoption of loose head tunings.75 These simple patterns form only the basis of Ringo’s technique. What sets him apart from Best, and truly from all rock drummers, are the expressive and idiosyncratic “fills” that often appear at structural points, defining endings of

The First EMI Recordings

phrases and sections, or providing transitional impetus when necessary. Ringo has said (1964) that his fills are “like a giant walking. My breaks are always slow; usually half the speed of the [other drumming on the] track.” He has elaborated in his inimitable prose: I used to get put down in the press a lot for my silly fills, as we liked to call them, and that mainly came about because I’m a left-handed right-handed drummer; that means I’m left-handed but the kit’s set up for a right-handed drummer, so if I come off the hi-hat and the snare . . . any ordinary drummer would come off with the right hand . . . so if I wanna come off, I have to come off with the left hand, which means I have to miss a . . . minuscule of a beat. . . . I can go around the kit from the floor tom to the top toms which are on the bass drum easy, but I can’t go the other way because the left hand has to keep coming in underneath the right one.76

Ringo’s joining the group in mid-1962 was good timing for covering the interesting fills in “Chains” and “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” both added to the repertoire in early 1963. Among early recordings, Ringo’s fills are evident following every verse of “Twist and Shout,” in the refrain and the entries to the bridge of “Please Please Me,” “Anna (Go to Him),” “There’s a Place,” “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You),” and “Don’t Ever Change,” in the retransitional hooks of “From Me to You” (using both toms and snare), and in his coda solos in “Thank You Girl.” Ringo’s fills become interesting — to the point of being essential to a song’s artistry — in the middle of the Beatles’ recording career, notably in “Day Tripper,” “Rain,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and “A Day in the Life.” Norman Smith, balance engineer for every Beatle studio recording and mixing session through 1965, said, “he’ll start off with one sort of rhythm, then be enlightened by John and Paul as to the particular way they ‘hear’ it in their original song. Usually, they make the point by referring to some American disc that I probably have never heard of. Ringo then comes up with it.” In 1980, McCartney added, “we always gave Ringo direction — on every single number. It was usually very controlled. Whoever had written the song, John for instance, would say, ‘I want this.’ Obviously a lot of the stuff came out of what Ringo was playing; but we would always control it.”77 It has frequently been said that unlike many rock drummers, Starr would play songs rather than simply beats. With Ringo, the Beatles made their first television appearance, performing “Some Other Guy” and “Kansas City”/“Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey” at the Cavern on August 22 (one day before John was to marry Cynthia Powell, his pregnant girlfriend from art college) for Manchester’s Granada TV. The sound film of “Some Other Guy” (seen in Beatles 1996c, vol. 1) has long been in distribution, and a rarely heard recording of the “Kansas City” medley resurfaced in 1993, to be auctioned that August in London.78 Not only did the Beatles get the new Gibson J-160 guitars for John and George on September 10, 1962, but they also replaced the ailing Gibson, Fender, and Truvoice amps with two state-of-the-art Vox AC-30s, first heard in the August 22 Cavern performance. This move might have been prompted by

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difficulties encountered in the June EMI session. Engineer Norman Smith recalls, “I had to use some of the speakers that were in the echo chambers to fix up Paul’s bass-amp sound.”79 Studio photos show Paul’s bass still miked from this EMI Tannoy cabinet through March 1963 sessions, but we see that Paul has acquired a Vox T-60 bass cabinet (with two 15-inch woofers) and amp by April 4, 1963. The 1962-model Vox AC-30s, manufactured in England by JMI, were designed in the mid-1950s. Noted for their all-tube design featuring a cathode bias arrangement in the output circuit, these units would amplify the full sine wave with minimal crossover distortion and without an elsewhere-common emphasis of odd partials, increasing the even partial content for a sweet, warm tone. The Woden transformers led to two blue 12-inch “bulldog” cones, Super Efficient Alnico speakers made by Celestion, providing excellent transient response. The amps had a brown grille cloth and the control panel was on top among the three leather handles. These amps also featured a tremolo circuit, for which JMI supplied a foot-pedal switch, for a sound color not known to have been previously used by the Beatles. Amplifier tremolo, which could alternate two gain levels with rapid regularity, was in wide use in models covered by the Beatles; they would have heard it on Mickey and Sylvia’s “Love Is Strange,” Duane Eddy’s “Raunchy” and “Rebel ‘Rouser,” the Everly Brothers’ “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” Buddy Holly’s “Crying, Waiting, Hoping,” the Crickets’ “Don’t Ever Change,” Bo Diddley’s “Crackin’ Up,” Freddy Cannon’s “Buzz Buzz-ADiddle-It,” James Ray’s “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody,” and the Cookies’ “Chains.” The 1962 model has only a single tone control; the well-known “top boost” (bass cut) control was not added until 1964. So the Beatles prepared to make a record. They weren’t Liverpool’s first rock group to make one —Derry & the Seniors had cut both a single and an album in February 1962.80 But unlike the luckless Seniors, the Beatles would be the first from Liverpool to make the charts.

Introductory Singles: “Love Me Do” / “P.S. I Love You” and “Please Please Me” / “Ask Me Why” Twin-track Procedure The EMI recording studios in London’s Abbey Road were installed in 1931 in an 1830s mansion in suburban St John’s Wood, a half-mile west of Regent’s Park and two blocks north of Lord’s cricket ground. By late 1962, the facilities were primitive in relation to those enjoyed in New York and Los Angeles.81 Studio One was a large (52' ⫻ 92') hall used for orchestral sessions, including recordings by Elgar, Barbirolli, Boult, Furtwängler, Karajan, and Beecham. Studio Two, to be the Beatles’ home for seven years, was smaller (28' ⫻ 60'). Smaller still (at 22' ⫻ 25') was Studio Three, intended for solo and chamber recording, as used by Schnabel, Rubenstein, and Casals; the Beatles often worked here in 1968. Studio Two contained a Hammond B-3 organ, a Hamburg Steinway B grand, and Challen, Steinway, and honky-tonk upright pianos, all of which were used in Beatle recordings. Although mixing would be done in any of the building’s available production rooms, every sound heard on

The First EMI Recordings

a Beatles record through Rubber Soul was created in Studio Two, with the exceptions of Martin’s keyboard overdubs for “Misery” and “Baby It’s You” (as the building’s only celesta resided in Studio One) and a few January 1964 tapings done while in Paris. The tube-based mixing boards and 15-ips BTR tape machines in the control rooms for each were designed for monophonic product; George Martin taped the Beatles in twin-track mono until October 1963. Stereo versions of the first two LPs were advertised and sold, but these consisted merely of a crude gain balance of the two raw tracks, which had been for the most part taped with vocals on one side, instruments on the other. Despite the overwhelming popularity of stereo recordings in the States by late 1962, the Beatles’ early work was primarily intended for monophonic reproduction; EMI was uncertain until 1963 as to whether 45-rpm singles would supplant 78s! In 1986, when Martin was called on to prepare remasterings of the Beatles’ corpus for compact disc, he elected to reissue the first four LPs in mono only.82 The first two LPs and four singles, all of which were twin-track recordings, were essentially recorded live. One microphone was placed directly in front of each guitar’s amplifier, and a fourth hung over the drums. The basic tracks would be taped live with instruments fed onto one track and voices onto the other, allowing a postrecording balancing of the two tracks, each of which could have been recorded at its own optimum output level.83 Norman Smith, engineer for nearly every EMI Beatle recording through 1965, says, “What I tried to do (in recording the Beatles) was to create a live sound that captured what they would do on stage, because I felt that if I didn’t do this, then I would lose the excitement. To me it was important to create their live sound as it happened and I did set them up in the studio exactly the way that they would perform on stage.”84 For added presence, echo would usually be added live, rather than in mixing, by patching a signal to the basement echo chamber, a room fitted with clay plumbing tile of various sizes. There were minimal overdubs in these recordings: unison handclaps, an occasional double-tracked voice from the lead singer, a harmonica riff added by Lennon, or a keyboard part played by Martin were the chief superimpositions. Because of the restriction to two tracks, these overdubs required a second generation of tape. The two basic tracks would be transferred to a second tape, recorded while the overdub was simultaneously performed and mixed live into one or both tracks on the second tape machine. Because of the degradation in signal-to-noise ratio with each tape generation, songs were performed live in one take whenever possible.85 Superimposition was often treated to added reverberation. Overdubbed parts ring heavily in “There’s a Place” (John’s harmonica), “A Taste of Honey” (Paul’s second vocal at “I will return, oh I will return”), “Do You Want to Know a Secret” (backing vocals; even more echo was added in the final mix) and “Misery” (George Martin’s piano). In “Not a Second Time,” Lennon made his own dubbing difficult by scatting a complicated ending for the fade-out; he could not match the improvised phrasing in his double-tracked vocal. Editing was frequently required. Intros or endings, most obviously in George’s final guitar chord for “Roll Over Beethoven,” would be spliced onto the basic take. In some cases, elements from two or more takes would alternate

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throughout with a number of splices. But live recording, which was not in and of itself difficult for the early Beatles, as they had performed live for thousands of hours, was the norm. Several tracks, particularly covers whose arrangements had been perfected in Hamburg and Cavern appearances, were singletake live performances. This is true of “Anna (Go to Him),” “Boys,” “Twist and Shout,” and “Till There Was You.” Often, particularly with songs composed shortly before the recording sessions, many takes would be required. Lennon would often confuse his own lyrics, as in Takes 1, 2, and 6 of “I Saw Her Standing There”; Take 4 of “Misery” is interrupted with John proclaiming, “It’s these damn words.” Martin would whistle from the control room, his signal to stop playing, if a wrong note was heard, or if intonation had strayed. In Take 1 of “From Me to You,” Harrison’s sweaty fingers produce a loud squeak in sliding on the fingerboard; McCartney stops and asks Martin why he whistled, to the confusion of all. McCartney interrupts Take 7 of “I Saw Her Standing There” because the tempo is too fast for him and Take 8 of the same song stops when the single microphone on the drums apparently drops out for a beat. There were many reasons for false starts: in “Misery,” Take 3 has a wrong chord from Harrison and Take 5 documents a wrong note from McCartney’s bass. In “The One after 909,” one false start features odd syncopation in Ringo’s bass drum, prompting Lennon to ask, “What are you doin’— you out of your mind?” The following take breaks down because McCartney, missing a pick, has trouble thumbing the repeated eighths. McCartney occasionally flubs the lyrics, as in Take 23 of “Hold Me Tight,” or the tape operator might begin playing the basic tracks at the wrong point during an overdub session, as in Takes 10 and 12 of “From Me to You.” Harrison describes the requirement for precision in rehearsing and recording these early discs: “We’d say, ‘these guitars are gonna come in on the second chorus playing these parts, at which time the piano will come in too, on top.’ And we’d have to get the individual sound of each instrument, and then the balance of those to each other, because they were all going to be locked together on one track. Then we had to do the performance, where everybody got their bit right.”86 In the early sessions, arrangements were usually worked out before the tapes began rolling, but sometimes there were changes between takes. For example, the instrumental solo was inserted into “From Me to You” (second time through B, just before the second bridge [1:03 –1:10]) after Take 2. Often a more elaborate original arrangement would be pared down; many Harrison licks especially were jettisoned between early and final versions, as in “Please Please Me,” “Misery,” and “From Me to You.” A brilliant but busy two-part set of backing vocals by Harrison and Lennon in “Can’t Buy Me Love” (Take 2) was sacrificed for a (double-tracked) solo vocal from McCartney, and “What You’re Doing” was similarly simplified. Even in fully worked-out arrangements, guitarists experimented with different instruments or pickup combinations from take to take, as do Harrison with “Misery” and Lennon with “There’s a Place,” or they were sometimes reprimanded for surreptitiously raising the gain of their own amplifiers between takes.

The First EMI Recordings

Editing is usually subtle. The splice before the ending of “Thank You Girl” is practically imperceptible, and three takes of “You Really Got a Hold on Me” are edited together in such a way that only the sudden midchord appearance of Martin’s sustained piano part calls attention to splices. In the final master of “I Saw Her Standing There,” one splice is awkward: hear the double-articulation of the word “there” just before the solo (at 1:32). Once the arrangement had been worked out and the basic tracks and overdubs recorded, the Beatles’ work was done. Martin and his engineer (usually Norman Smith through 1965, but Ron Richards, Stuart Eltham, Geoff Emerick, Richard Langham, A. B. Lincoln, and Ken Scott also assisted) would complete the editing and then the mixing of the tracks. During the mixing process, more bite could be added through the compression of the amplitude range, filters could redistribute amplitudes among various frequency bands, and echo could be applied. Any of these processes was possible for either or both tracks, and a fade-out might be added for an ending, as in “Boys” and “Chains.”87 The mix would be fed directly to the stereo or mono master tape, and, in the case of an LP, nonmagnetic leader would be spliced between tracks for the rills. The separate twin tracks for the singles “Love Me Do,” “She Loves You,” and their B-sides will never be heard because the working tapes were destroyed once the mono masters were completed (or perhaps they had been cannibalized during the editing process). As a final step in the recording process, amplitude peaks in the finished master tape would be limited to industry standards in cutting the “mother” used to press the vinyl, in order to keep the consumer’s stylus from jumping the groove. And there was room for judgment in choosing the overall amplitude for pressing; singles tended to have more space than LPs, allowing for a “hotter” pressing, and one can hear differences of one or two dBs in comparing various pressings of the same mix by different companies. With their lack of studio experience and their heavy concert schedule, the Beatles rarely attended mixing sessions, let alone disc cutting, for their early work. Four-track recording became available in October 1963 for “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and soon thereafter the Beatles would routinely isolate the recording of vocals from that of the basic instrumental tracks. Harrison was to use overdubs for particularly difficult lead guitar parts, as in “Help!” From then onward, one member would no longer retard the progress of the entire ensemble. Increasing attention to detail in overdubs is evident through the recording of Rubber Soul, during and after which point the group would often require multiple generations of four-track tapes. Eight-track equipment was used in a few cuts for the White album (1968) and in the entirety of Abbey Road (1969). “How Do You Do It” George Martin had asked the Beatles to prepare the song “How Do You Do It” (composed by Mitch Murray) for their first single, to be recorded at EMI on September 4, 1962. This was a song rejected by Adam Faith (who was recorded by Ron Richards, Martin’s assistant, hence the song coming next to the Beatles), a fact that did not encourage the Beatles’ interest in the material. The Beatles did work up an arrangement, based on a demo recording furnished by Martin, and played the song for him on the September date.

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McCartney recalls that they learned the song in deference to their new producer, whom they told, “well it may be a number one but we just don’t want this kind of song, we don’t want to go out with that kind of reputation. It’s a different thing we’re going for, it’s something new.”88 “How Do You Do It,” “Love Me Do,” “P.S. I Love You,” “Please Please Me,” and “Ask Me Why” were rehearsed in a three-hour afternoon session, and Martin decided that the group would record “How Do You Do It” and “Love Me Do” that evening.89 Tapings of both songs led to masters mixed that night, but further consideration led to the scheduling of another session a week later. Martin’s biggest concern was over the Beatles’ new drummer, whom he feared was unprofessional. Ringo: “when we were [rehearsing] ‘Please Please Me’ I was actually playing the kit and in one hand I had the tambourine and in the other hand I had a maraca, so I was trying to do all the percussion and play the drums at the same time ‘cause we were just a four-piece band.”90 So the more experienced Andy White was hired to play drums for the Beatles’ session on September 11. At this session, the Beatles cut “Love Me Do” (with Ringo on tambourine, playing the same rhythm he had tapped on the snare the week before: ŒqŒq « ŒΩçŒq), “P.S. I Love You” (with Ringo on maracas), and “Please Please Me,” all with White on drums. It was then decided that “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You” would be the two sides of the Beatles’ own first record.91 “How Do You Do It” would not have made a bad debut. Lennon sings lead, and McCartney has invented his own descant part a third above. Harrison has characteristic fills on his Duo-Jet and an acceptable solo, and handclaps were added as an overdub. Neither the song’s publisher, Dick James, nor Ron Richards cared for the Beatles’ treatment; Richards thought Lennon and McCartney sabotaged the recording so that only their own selections would be released. The song did reach #1, as recorded for Martin on January 22, 1963, by Liverpool’s Gerry & the Pacemakers, a group that Epstein had begun managing in May 1962.92 “Love Me Do” Both sides of the first single feature Gibson Jumbos played by both Lennon and Harrison. The bass part on “Love Me Do” is McCartney’s simplest ever, restricted entirely to 1, 4, and 5 (except for a pair of passing tones heard just before the bridge and again just before the harmonica solo, both passages also using 2 as the fifth of V). Martin had revised the song’s vocal arrangement during the June 6 session. Originally, Lennon sang the title line in stop time; McCartney recalls the reassignment: I’m singing harmony then it gets to the “pleeeaase.” STOP. John goes “Love me . . .” and then put his harmonica to his mouth: “Wah, wah, waahh.” George Martin went “Wait a minute, wait a minute, there’s a crossover there. Someone else has got to sing ‘Love Me Do’ because you can’t go ‘Love Me waahhh.’ You’re going to have a song called ‘Love me waahh!’ So, Paul, will you sing ‘Love Me Do’!” God, I got the screaming heebegeebies. I mean he suddenly changed this whole arrangement that we’d been doing forever. . . . We were doing it live, there was no real overdubbing, so I was suddenly given this massive moment, on our first record, no backing, where everything

The First EMI Recordings

stopped, the spotlight was on me. . . . And I can still hear the shake in my voice when I listen to that record! I was terrified. . . . John did sing it better than me, he had a lower voice and was a little more bluesy at singing that line.93

In fact, the vocal part of the song’s refrain (spanning from f to d1) does better fit Lennon’s range while McCartney’s improvised coda (f to bf1) reaches up to a point inaccessible to Lennon. It was probably the “Hippy Hippy Shake”– like pentatonic minor blue notes of “Love Me Do” that raised this simple song, in the ears of its composers, above the stature of the major-mode “How Do You Do It.”94 Like both “Bye Bye Love” and “Twist and Shout,” “Love Me Do” is based on two-bar phrases with lots of air between. Dai Griffiths, in an analysis of changing rates of syllabification in pop songs, refers to this air as “verbal space.”95 Another rhythmic aspect is noted by Alan Pollack: the quarter-note triplet rhythm in Lennon’s harmonica is heard again in vocal parts in the bridges of both “Ask Me Why,” there answered by Harrison’s Duo-Jet, and “There’s a Place.”96 “P.S. I Love You” Of this song, Lennon says, “That’s Paul’s song. He was trying to write a ‘Soldier Boy’ like the Shirelles. He wrote that in Germany or when we were going to and from Hamburg.”97 Like “P.S. I Love You” and Paul’s later “All My Loving,” “Soldier Boy” reads as a love letter to one far away; it was popular in the spring of 1962. Like “Besame Mucho,” aspects of “Till There Was You,” and “Ask Me Why,” “P.S. I Love You” has a strong Latin character. McCartney might have been thinking of their first two B-sides (“P.S.” and “Ask”) when he said the Beatles’ early songs “weren’t very good because we were trying to find the next beat —the next new sound. New Musical Express . . . was talking about calypso, and how latin rock was going to be the next big thing. The minute we stopped trying to find that new beat the newspapers started saying it was us; and we found we’d discovered the new sound without even trying.”98 In “P.S. I Love You,” the Latin quality is manifest in Ringo’s maracas and a cha-cha rhythm on woodblocks (often qqΩçq), supported by the soft regular offbeat syncopation of Lennon’s Jumbo (strumming every offbeat eighth). Latin patterns are not the only rhythmic devices of interest in “P.S. I Love You.” At a deeper level, contrasting phrase lengths yield an asymmetrical structure that allows for the introspective unfolding of chromatic harmonies suggesting that the singer’s persona is probing deep within his soul, contemplating the manifold nature of his inner thoughts and emotions as he decides how he should best declare his love. I believe this asymmetrical nature of the Beatles’ rhythmic/harmonic expression, a hallmark of their style and one not typical of other pop hits, helped them forge a more direct bond with their listeners.99 A central point of interest in “P.S. I Love You” is the modally inflected deceptive cadence that extends the refrain, and the corresponding rectification of the major I. The motion (0:25) from the refrain’s cadential V (B+6) up a halfstep to a major triad is appropriately, given the song’s Latin context, a hallmark of Flamenco playing. The chord change is normally heard in that style with 5 sustaining as a bass pedal and “fVI” resolving, as neighbors, directly back to V;

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the Beatles had played this in “España Cani” in 1960. In “P.S.,” the deceptively derived fVI moves instead through a dramatic passing modal fVII to a major I, approaching it by sliding the same barre chord pattern up the fingerboards of the amplified Jumbos. The Bf does resolve to 5, but only when Lennon’s vocal articulation of that modally borrowed note (it is taken from D minor) becomes the pivot on which McCartney’s vocal leaps an octave, after which Lennon may resolve to A (B+9 [0:29], not to D as shown in the score). The ensuing bridge repairs the nondiatonic damage by having Lennon revert to the normal 6 of D major as part of a neighboring IV. The Beatles did not create the timeless fVI – fVII – I cadence (it had been performed in “Exodus,” November 1960), but they brought it to rock music, and it would be repeated in Little Anthony and the Imperials’ “Goin’ Out of My Head” (1964), Stevie Wonder’s “I Was Made to Love Her” (1967), and Jimi Hendrix’s version of the “Star-Spangled Banner” (1969). McCartney himself repeated the cadence in “With a Little Help From My Friends” (1967) and “I’ll Give You a Ring” (1982).100 The coda repeats the fVI –fVII – I pattern. This modal coda will be inverted in “Hold Me Tight,” which ends with a repeated fIII – (II) – I “progression” in support of the similar text, “you-hoo-hoo, you-hoo-hoo.” McCartney’s final vocal rise in “P.S. I Love You” from 1 to 3 may have been heard as necessary to emphasize the major quality of D tonality, but it will also become a favorite McCartney ending for a melody (as in “Yesterday”) in the expression of a wistful or otherwise incomplete air. Note the descending octave-plus major scale (e2 down to d1) in the verse (B+2– 5 [0:16 – 0:22]), a favorite feature in McCartney’s melodic writing. This case is unusual in that McCartney’s vocal part crosses below that of Lennon, which maintains its register in articulating the downbeats, setting up the reverse switch in the coda, where Paul’s vocal register overtakes John’s. “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You,” both mixed for mono on their dates of recording, were published by the EMI-affiliated house Ardmore and Beechwood, and production of the single began immediately for its release on October 5.101 EMI bought airtime on Radio Luxembourg, the only agency scheduling regular radio broadcast of pop records in or into Britain, to program the record for a total of only six plays through October. EMI’s press office made lukewarm attempts at coverage with a three-page bio, listing the Beatles’ favorite performers (Lennon’s: Ben E. King, the Shirelles, the Miracles, Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, and Kay Starr; McCartney’s: Ray Charles, Peggy Lee, Dinah Washington, and Fats Waller; those listed by both: Perkins, Berry, Williams, and Richard; note the heavy leaning toward R&B). These small efforts resulted in few reviews and little attention.102 The Beatles made five television appearances to promote the record, broadcast on October 17, November 2, and December 3, 4, and 17. Only one was seen outside of the north and west of Britain. Despite little hype, the low-energy “Love Me Do” entered the national record charts and had a sustained but middling popularity for a number of weeks. The record peaked at #17 in December on the New Musical Express chart and at #21 in Melody Maker’s January charts. Although the record was no artistic or commercial breakthrough, hints of future success must have been detected shortly

The First EMI Recordings

after the record’s release, for Martin scheduled a November 26 recording session to produce a follow-up single. Late 1962 Other than the brief spate of television broadcasts, the Beatles’ new status as recording artists had no profound effect on their schedule through 1962. From September 5 to the end of the year, the Beatles played ninety-one club/ballroom/theatre dates in neighboring Lancashire, Cheshire, Flintshire, and Staffordshire, plus more adventurous one-nighters in Shrewsbury, Coventry, Bedford, Peterborough, and East Yorkshire. There were also two final stints in Hamburg, headlining with Little Richard at the Star-Club, November 1–14 and December 18 – January 1. Their busy schedule required the hiring of a second personal assistant, one-time Cavern bouncer Mal Evans.103 BBC radio appearances included a Manchester session recorded on October 25 and their first in London on November 27. For broadcasts and telecasts during this period, the Beatles performed both sides of their first single and covers of “Twist and Shout,” “A Taste of Honey,” “Some Other Guy,” and “Sheila.”104 The Beatles were the rage at home — for the second year running, they topped the annual Mersey Beat poll, results of which were announced on December 15. But they were still an unknown commodity in the midlands and the all-important south.105 Musical documents from these months include the Beatles’ second single, recorded in November, tapes of thirty-five songs performed at the Star-Club over the last week of the year, and a tape of part of a Cavern rehearsal. Of the several radio appearances from this period, only a single October 27 interview from Hulme Hall, Wirral, Liverpool, is known to survive. In the coming months and years, most such broadcasts will have been preserved by avid fans. Among paper documents, we have a set list from an October 6 concert at Humble Hall, Port Sunlight, with the following titles: “Some Other Guy,” “P.S. I Love You,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Hippy Hippy Shake,” “Sure to Fall,” “Hey, Good Lookin’,” “A Taste of Honey,” “Lend Me Your Comb,” “Reminiscing,” “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody,” “To Know Her Is to Love Her,” “Young Blood,” “Love Me Do,” “You Don’t Understand Me,” and “Red Hot.”106 The Cavern rehearsal tape includes two run-throughs of “The One after 909,” the only known recordings of the Beatles performing “Catswalk” (also in two takes), and the earliest-known tape of McCartney’s composition “I Saw Her Standing There.”107 This tape is thought by many to date from March 1962, but October 1962 is probably closer to the truth, given the drumming (the fills on “909” must be Ringo’s, not Best’s), given the fact that the same arrangement of “909” was to be recorded for EMI the following March, given that “I Saw Her Standing There” would seem to be a late-1962 (September – October?) composition and given the mature state of the “Standing There” performance. Despite a lyric flub in the second bridge, this recording differs from the LP version principally in that John plays the harmonica whenever he’s not singing, a technique probably adopted in the summer of 1962; that there is very little lead guitar — the song was probably new to Harrison; and that Lennon and McCartney sing “mine,” at the climax, in unison rather than in contrary motion. Harrison’s gui-

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Example 2.15 “Catcall” (Paul McCartney). © 1967, Northern Songs.

♯ ♯ 18  ♯ 8

PM bass


♯♯  ♯ 11

♯

♯♯  ♯

F m B

   ♮       

neck pick-up

 ♯

♯

      ♮    

JL gtr chording C GH gtrbridge pick-up


♯ ♯ 18  ♯ 8 8

Em

Am

B

B ♯ A ♮    G

   ♯     ♯

12  8

7

Em

12   8



Em

C

♮            ♯ ♯  





♯ 

♯



♯

F m bridge pick-up

 Bm 7 slow vibrato

          



tar solo for “909” is also much like a B-major version of that recorded in February 1963 for “I Saw Her Standing There.” A portion of one take of “Catswalk” is reduced as example 2.15. McCartney wrote this — probably on guitar, which part he would have taught to Harrison — years earlier, having since picked up the bass and added a line for that instrument. The vibrato given by Harrison to the song’s final chord (not shown here) reminds one of the Shadows, and of the Coasters as well. Lennon’s rhythm guitar (the broken chords are indicated above the staff ) is unobtrusive, and so there is the strong effect of a two-part composition, with the guitar texture building (at B+4) toward the retransition and in the song’s final chords. McCartney’s innocence in contrapuntal possibilities is obvious — his bass line duplicates the melody at several turns (as in the monophonic cadence at B–1), and the verse section seems overall too heavy a preoccupation with perfect consonances. Overall, the bridge passage (B) works a bit better as counterpoint (ignoring the overstated 7 in B+4). “Catswalk” does demonstrate an adventurous and sure sense of harmony, with the sequence-based modulation to fVII achieved in B+1. This is emphasized rhythmically, with a metric adjustment required at the same point (reminiscent of the bar of ∞ added to 44 structures in both the bridge of “Singing the Blues” and the chorus of “Midnight Special”), and the downbeat of B+1 elides the cadence in the new key with a subtle hint of hemiola as the new strain begins. McCartney’s compositional activity will soon increase dramatically, his contrapuntal sense developing accordingly. The Beatles’ insistence on recording their own material, especially on their first release, represented a strong confidence in their abilities to compose. Their first recording contract with EMI called for only six titles to be produced within a year (EMI, of course, would exercise an option to record more), and so Lennon and McCartney must have felt that they had plenty of original material, going

The First EMI Recordings

back years, to satisfy their agreement. Besides, new compositions were forthcoming — both “Please Please Me” and “I Saw Her Standing There” are likely to have evolved, start to finish, in the second half of 1962.108 What the group could not have foreseen was their soon-to-be-realized ability to turn out song after song, often specifically made to order for particular recording sessions. Both sides of their fourth single, “She Loves You,” for instance, would be composed on the road within just three days of recording, Harrison and Starr probably working out their parts for the song for the first time during the recording session. And such productivity was intensified for the film soundtracks of early 1964 and 1965. But in the last months of 1962, they had much to prove to George Martin, who hardly knew what to do with this entertaining but inexperienced quartet. Martin was prepared to issue “How Do You Do It” as the group’s second single, unless they could provide better.109 “Please Please Me” Like several other Lennon compositions, “Please Please Me” had its origins in his memories of his relationship with his mother. Julia used to sing Bing Crosby’s “Please” (the #3 U.S. hit of 1932) to her young son. This song featured the line, “Please lend your ears to my pleas,” a play on words that had captured young John’s imagination and would be characteristic of much of his adult writing.110 Lennon built a slow song around this memory, added a touch of falsetto taken from Orbison’s dramatic wide-ranging vocal style, possibly took an image from Holly’s “Raining in My Heart” (for the bridge lyrics), and taught “Please Please Me” to the other Beatles. The song was rehearsed at EMI on September 4, and a recording was attempted with several takes on the 11th. Martin did not feel that things were going well. McCartney recalls, “George Martin’s contribution was quite a big one, actually. The first time he really ever showed that he could see beyond what we were offering him was ‘Please Please Me.’ . . . George said, ‘Well, we’ll put the tempo up.’ He lifted the tempo, and we all thought that was much better, and that was a big hit.” The song’s slow tempo was not its only object of criticism. Ron Richards, who supervised the attempted September 11 recording: “I remember that we rehearsed ‘Please Please Me.’ . . . George was playing the opening phrase . . . over and over and over, throughout the song. I said ‘For Christ’s sake, George, just play it in the gaps!’ ”111 The group took these criticisms to heart, reworked the song, and brought it back to the studio on November 26 for Martin’s approval as the second A-side (thus finally scrapping “How Do You Do It”). The Beatles recorded eighteen takes, including harmonica overdubs, with the final version edited and mixed on November 30. (The mono mix heard on the single and LP is an edit of different takes from those chosen for the stereo master.) John’s Orbison-inspired falsetto work, a highlight in all Beatle A-sides through 1963, is preserved in the powerful refrains at C+5 (0:28 – 0:29) and in the bridge at D+7 (1:13). The result was a bit of dynamite, and Martin knew he had a good thing: “The whole session was a joy. At the end of it, I pressed the intercom button in the control room and said, ‘Gentlemen, you’ve just made your first number-one record.’ ”112 His ear was absolutely correct —“Please Please Me” was to top several impor-

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Example 2.16a Analysis of “Please Please Me.”


♯♯♯♯  

B+ 2 5ˆ

 

♯♯♯♯ E:



3

C

4

+ 2



 

  ♮  



4 4ˆ

  

 

8

8





(I

VI

5

3

5

 III





(

I)

7 1ˆ

2ˆ

 

 ( )

 

 )

 



5 3

6

V4

IV

I

6

5 3ˆ

I

Example 2.16b “Please Please Me” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1962, Dick James Music, Ltd.

♯♯ 4  ♯♯ 4

  



 

 

 

 

   

 





     

tant national surveys, including those published by Melody Maker and New Musical Express, soon after its release on January 11, 1963. Terhi Nurmesjärvi has performed a rigorous quantitative analysis of phrasebased formal relationships on all of the Beatles’ A- and B-sides. She discovered that in nearly all singles released in 1962 – 65, beginning with “Please Please Me,” the formal relationships of the A-side are far more often based on standard patterns than are the frequently more diversified patterns of the B-side.113 The verse-refrain structure in “Please Please Me” is the earliest of many characteristic Lennon-McCartney examples composed of phrases articulating motivic gestures in an aabc pattern that constitutes the functions of Statement (B+1– 4 [0:07– 0:14]), Restatement (B+5 – 8 [0:14 – 0:21]), Departure (C+1– 4 [0:21– 0:27]), and Conclusion (C+5 – 8 [0:28 – 0:34]), henceforth referred to as the SRDC pattern. As becomes typical, the C-gesture constitutes the refrain. Example 2.16a represents the voice-leading structure of the verse-refrain section of “Please Please Me.” The refrain begins at C (0:21). Two items of interest mark the verse. One is the upper-neighbor, b1– cs2– b1, heard in both Lennon’s opening lead vocal and the octave-doubled guitar intro modeled on that vocal (example 2.16b). The neighbor is supported by IV in B+3 (0:11) and B+7. The other is the modal arpeggiation of tonic, I –nIII – (IV) –V (B+4), borrowed from the pentatonic minor scale.114 The embellishment of 5 with its upper neighbor continues as a structural linchpin of some of Lennon’s more mature writing, as in “I Should Have Known Better” and “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party.” The refrain has two important functions: (1) the cadence, in C+5 – 7, includes an upper line that descends 3 – 2 – 1, descending from gs2 to e2; (2) because the verse begins in a lower register and because the upper-neighbor figure, B – Cs – B, imparts special importance to Lennon’s b1, a strong registral link is created between the low b1 (B+2) and the higher gs2 (C+5). This four-bar

The First EMI Recordings

Example 2.16c “Please Please Me” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1962, Dick James Music, Ltd.


♯ ♯ ♯ ♯ 4PM  4  GH  Please ♯ ♯ ♯ ♯ 4JL  4  

 

 

please

 



me, whoa





falsetto

Please


♯ ♯ ♯ ♯        yeah, like I please ♯ ♯ ♯ ♯      

Please



you,

yeah,



full voice

 

    like I please

you,

   

me!



 

  

whoa





me!

  

  

    

   

whoa yeah, like I please you.



   



falsetto









link, which rises to a2 in McCartney’s part in C+4 (0:27), allows the hearing of an overall descending line from 5 to 1, the five notes of which are joined in the upper beam in example 2.16a, with McCartney probably the true creator of the line. Paul’s important rise here is a welcome contrast against the static 1 pedal he supplies both in his voice and on the bass in previous measures. Whereas the oblique two-part descent at B is often said to be modeled on the Everly Brothers’ “Cathy’s Clown” and could also be said to have roots in Buddy Holly’s “I’m Gonna Love You Too,” the achievement of the high register in C+1– 4 has models both in Orbison and in the verse of Holly’s “Crying, Waiting, Hoping.” The text “come on, come on, come on” is later heard in “Little Child” without the tonal drama created here. The greatest tonal interest in C+1– 4 of “Please Please Me” is in the odd prolongation of IV (expanding on the neighbor function had by IV in B+3 and B+7) that emphasizes the perfect consonances 5 – 8 – 5 – 8 that support McCartney’s rising line.115 The prolongation is odd because the local progression, I –VI – III – I of A, is not perceived as a tonicization. However odd, it makes a very fitting preparation for an effective V (entering as a cadential 46 that is disguised as a I chord), just as it fulfills a registral obligation in cementing the structural line. “Please Please Me” actually marks the first in a long string of LennonMcCartney compositions in which the harmony functioning as a dominant preparation is expanded. Among compositions appearing before 1966, other expansions of a pre-dominant IV will be seen in “I Saw Her Standing There,” “This Boy,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” and “I Should Have Known Better.” The supertonic will be so emphasized in “It Won’t Be Long,” “All I’ve Got to Do,” and “I Call Your Name.” A pre-dominant VI will be prolonged in “There’s a Place,” “I Should Have Known Better,” “No Reply,” “Yesterday,” “Day Tripper,” “We Can Work It Out,” “Drive My Car,” and “I’m Looking Through You.”

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Example 2.17 “Lend Me Your Comb” (Kathleen Twomey – Benjamin Weisman – Fred Wise). © 1957, Hill & Range Songs, Inc.

 

♯♯♯♯

           

   ♮ ♮     ♯

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The modal progression I –fIII – IV–V that colors the verse of “Please Please Me” had been learned by Lennon in playing Carl Perkins’s “Lend Me Your Comb,” the intro of which is given as example 2.17. Note that both the model and the Lennon song are in E. While no other modal effects appear in the verse, refrain, or bridge of “Please Please Me,” the coda ends with the progression I –fIII –fVI –V7– I. This phrase combines the minor-scale borrowings of the verse riff with the upper-neighbor decoration of V so important to the body of the song. Not only is 6 – 5 an important motive in the verse-refrain section, as already discussed; it is the core of upper-voice movement in the bridge. John’s lead vocal resolves from cs2 to b1 in D+1– 3 (1:02 –1:07), and again from cs2 to b1 in D+5 – 9 (1:09 –1:16).116 The coda (see example 2.16b) also introduces a polyphonic vocal setting, overlapping the parts in a modest way that is later developed much more fully in 1966, as in “Good Day Sunshine” and “She Said She Said.” This contrasts the title’s adverbial and verbal forms of the word: “Please Please Me.” Adam Faith’s appropriation of the I –fIII –fVI –V progression has already been noted; this cadence in particular, and the Beatles’ growing interest in modal mixture in general, might also be heard to have infected Joe Brown’s “Sally Ann,” a modest British hit in October 1963, which ends as shown in example 2.18. Note that both nVII and nIII have been borrowed from E minor into E major. The strong lead lines on Harrison’s Duo-Jet are worth mentioning in connection with one other point. Guitar lines in octaves are a favorite Beatle timbre. “I Just Don’t Understand,” for instance, opens with a single pentatonicminor line played by both Lennon and Harrison on guitars, in two registers (see ex. 2.19). Similar arrangements are heard in George’s guitar and Paul’s bass in both “Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms)” and “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)” and in John’s guitar over the bass in “Boys.” Guitar lines in octaves are not heard in a single model recording ever covered by the Beatles; the closest analog is the clash of bent unison double-stops in such examples as

Example 2.18 “Sally Ann” (Alan Klein). © 1963, Pan Music.

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The First EMI Recordings

Example 2.19 “I Just Don’t Understand” (Marijohn Wilkin – Kent Westberry). © 1961, BMG Music.

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that heard in Scotty Moore’s solos in Presley’s “Just Because” and “Jailhouse Rock” and in Jerry Lee Lewis’s “Livin’ Lovin’ Wreck.” Possibly originating in the sax/bass octave doublings of ostinati from the 1950s, as in “Bony Moronie,” “Short Fat Fannie,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly” (but not in the sophisticated jazz colorings of guitarist Wes Montgomery, where octaves can be heard), this became a guitar trick of Harrison alone. He was to use it often, as in “I’ll Be On My Way,” his solo for which is given in example 2.20. Small wonder that in February 1964 Harrison was to become the world’s first owner of Rickenbacker’s electric twelve-string model —with four courses tuned in octaves that would produce the same jangly overtones heard in the “Please Please Me” lead — and that he would continue in 1965 to pursue increasingly rich timbres in the Stratocaster and the sitar. As already discussed in the bridge of “Love Me Do,” the octave doubling figures in other Beatle timbres, as heard later in the vocal parts in “I’ll Get You” at “oh, yeah,” as in Martin’s piano part in “Misery,” and as in the solo in “From Me to You,” which has John’s harmonica, George’s Duo-Jet lines, and Paul’s overdubbed bass line, all in octaves. “Please Please Me” became the Beatles’ ticket to success not only because of its tension-filled structure, its fresh mix of major and pentatonic materials, and its new guitar timbres but also because of Starr’s forceful drumming, which strategically places a few sixteenths before Harrison’s ringing chord in preparation for each verse (B+4 [0:14]), precedes each refrain in stop time (C–1 [0:20 – 0:21]), and introduces backbeat double-flam fills during the refrain (C+1 [0:21]) and as an around-the-kit solo before the bridge (D–1, moving to Example 2.20 “I’ll Be On My Way” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.


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135

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

the floor tom [1:00 –1:02]), marking the song’s structural points in ways both simple and effective. George Martin no longer had reason to question either this drummer’s professionalism or his integral role in what was to impress the world as a new type of chamber music. “Ask Me Why” Also taped on November 26 were “Ask Me Why” (which Martin had first heard in June and which was to become the B-side of “Please Please Me”) and McCartney’s song “Tip of My Tongue” (which recording apparently does not survive).117 Like the Beatles’ first B-side, “Ask Me Why” features a Latin rhythm. John’s Capri, which at times slightly overdrives the amp, often plays Ω√µΩç≤ΩçΩç; claves have qqΩçq. This is punctuated by triplets sung by McCartney (as in “Besame Mucho”) in the verse (see A+1 [0:04 – 0:05]) and recaptured by the entire ensemble in the bridge (B [0:48 –1:02]), where they take on a more defiant tone, probably because of the intensification of s5 (a function introduced in the verse, there in an applied chord to VI). The chorus (C [1:04 –1:14]) marks the first of many pandiatonic creations of the Beatles, as McCartney sings in nonresolving sevenths against his own bass. McCartney ends the song by singing an fs ninth above the final tonic with suppressed root; the final chord is articulated as a wistful gsm7 over B. (In our four recordings of “Ask Me Why,” McCartney appears to play B in the bass on June 11, 1962; November 26, 1962; and December 30 or 31, 1962; but he plays Gs on September 3, 1963.) Syncopation often helps create a Latin touch for the Beatles. In “Ask Me Why,” a soft syncopation in the rhythm guitar (qΩç≤ΩçΩç) is combined with the cha-cha rhythm on claves. In the vocal melody in the verse of “And I Love Her,” the second bar of every four softly articulates the offbeat; claves are used there also. Syncopation is important in other styles, as well: the vocal anticipations in the second verse of “Thank You Girl” will invoke C&W sounds, as will the fully syncopated accompaniment to “She’s a Woman,” while the louder offbeats in the second half of every other measure in “I Saw Her Standing There” (ŒqΩç≤Ωç«≤w) recalls Berry. Harrison’s solo in the Beatles’ cover of Berry’s “Too Much Monkey Business” begins with four syncopated measures repeating a figure of three eighth-notes (q≤Ωç≤qq«≤Ωç≤qq≤Ωç«≤q, etc.), a pattern heard in many of the improvised solos for “I Saw Her Standing There.” Dotted-rhythm syncopation is an important intensifier in retransitions, as in “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues,” where Ringo’s simple backbeat (ŒqŒq«ŒqŒq) is counterpointed by McCartney’s bass rhythm, q≤Ωç≤qq«q≤Ωç≤qq. A second rhythmic effect in “Ask Me Why,” the expanded anacrusis, is also to become a Beatle hallmark. The verse of “Ask Me Why” is grouped into 4+4+5-bar units. The five-bar subphrase (0:17– 0:26) leads each time into the following verse or chorus with an extra bar of anacrusis on V. Similar accommodations, often marked by a measure of stop time, appear in “There’s a Place” (in the opening of the five-bar verse), “Baby It’s You” (in the nine-bar refrain), “Devil in Her Heart” (in the 4+5 bridge), “All I’ve Got to Do” (in the seven-bar refrain), “I Wanna Be Your Man” (in the seventeen-bar verse), “I’m in Love” (in the nine-bar bridge), and others. The Beatles performed, but never recorded,

The First EMI Recordings

the unusual 9+6 structure with an expanded anacrusis, in their cover of Presley’s “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame,” and the 4+5+4+4 verse structure in their cover of Jerry Lee Lewis’s “It’ll Be Me.” The expanded anacrusis is to be one of several devices used by the Beatles to expand phrase lengths to irregular dimensions. Hamburg, December 1962 The Beatles’ year ended with a reluctant return to Hamburg; they would have preferred to stay at home and plug their first single but were obligated for two brief final stints at the Star-Club. If there were no other benefits to the group, these engagements gave their new drummer a chance to learn all of the band’s current repertoire. Four sets were taped on a Philips four-track recorder with a single microphone by stage manager Adrian Barber, the same guitarist-electrician who had built an amplifier for the Beatles the previous year.118 In the hands of Allan Williams and Ted “Kingsize” Taylor, whose Dominoes are also well represented on these tapes, these performances (omitting “Red Hot,” which is excerpted in Beatles 1996c, vol. 1) were edited, equalized, and otherwise “cleaned up” in 1977 for worldwide release in a number of formats. The Beatles immediately sued to halt distribution but did not win a judgment until 1998, and so the recordings are universally available.119 Table 2.5 lists the titles from each set and sources for each recording. Example 2.21a presents the three guitar parts from the bridge portion of the long instrumental passage from the Beatles’ arrangement of the Marlene Dietrich number “Falling in Love Again,” as performed at the Star-Club. This passage affords us a view of the Beatles’ still-weak but developing skill as contrapuntists. In measures 41– 48 (not shown), Lennon pretty much doubles McCartney’s bass line, which is a fine counterpoint to Harrison’s simple melody, which steps down from 5 to 1 (this motion is made clear in the sketch in example 2.21b). The bridge passage (example 2.21a) has some more sophisticated lines working together, in a chromatic sequence on a simple progression in fifths. The sophistication comes largely from the chromatic lines played by Lennon (gs – a, mm. 49 – 52, sequenced to fs – g, mm. 53 – 56, resulting in the d1 - ds1 that creates a passing V+, m. 56, a sound enjoyed in both “From Me to You” and “The One after 909”) and Harrison (whose double-stopped parallel sixths effectively counter the prevailing chromatic pitches with an ef1, m. 54, derived from mixture but predicting the chromatic ds1). All of these aspects are condensed in example 2.21b. As I have mentioned before, such a mix of chromatic raised tones and lowered tones borrowed from minor leads to the Beatles’ own tonal language when inflected by bluesy pentatonic scale degrees. McCartney’s passing from 6 through f6 to 5, and returning through s5 to 6 again, as he plays in measures 58 – 60, will be a favorite construction of his, appearing in songs as late as “Warm and Beautiful,” on Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976). Early 1963 The Beatles began 1963 with a tour of four Scottish ballrooms and played “Please Please Me” on a live telecast from Glasgow on January 8. Twenty more January concert performances throughout England and Wales, two English television appearances, and recordings for Radio Luxembourg and

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Table 2.5 December 1962 Star-Club Recordings Sets 1 and 2 (order unknown), from December 25: “Be-Bop-A-Lula” (vocal, complete with delayed anacruses: waiter Fred Fascher) (Beatles 1977b) “I Saw Her Standing There” (unknown drummer) (Beatles 1977b; solo removed) “Hallelujah! I Love Her So” (vocal: manager Horst Fascher) (Beatles 1977b) “Red Hot” (0’32” fragment on Beatles 1998) “Sheila” (Beatles 1979a) “I’m Talking about You” (Beatles 1977b) “Twist and Shout” (Beatles 1977b; unedited on Beatles 1998) “Mr. Moonlight” (unknown drummer) (Beatles 1977b) “Sweet Little Sixteen” (Beatles 1977b) “Besame Mucho” (Beatles 1977b) “Red Sails in the Sunset” (Beatles 1977b) “I Remember You” (Lennon on harmonica) (Beatles 1977b) “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)” (Beatles 1979b; unedited in Beatles 1998) “Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey” (Beatles 1977b) “Shimmy Like Kate” (Beatles 1977b) “Long Tall Sally” (Beatles 1977b) “Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It)” (Beatles 1977b) “Roll Over Beethoven” (Beatles 1977b) (continued)

Example 2.21a “Falling in Love Again” (Sammy Lerner – Friedrich Holländer). © 1930, BMG Songs, Inc.




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140

Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Table 2.5 (continued) “Ask Me Why” (unreleased) “I Saw Her Standing There” (unreleased) “A Taste of Honey” (unreleased) “To Know Her Is to Love Her” (unreleased) three unknown titles (unreleased) Set 3, from December 21 or 28: “A Taste of Honey” (Beatles 1977b, edited) “Till There Was You” (Beatles 1991e) “Where Have You Been All My Life?” (Beatles 1998) “Lend Me Your Comb” (Beatles 1977b) “Your Feet’s Too Big” (Beatles 1977b) “I’m Talking about You” (Beatles 1998) “To Know Her Is to Love Her (Beatles 1998) “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” (Beatles 1977b) “Matchbox” (Beatles 1977b) “Little Queenie” (Beatles 1977b) “Nothin’ Shakin’ (But the Leaves on the Trees)” (Beatles 1977b) “Roll Over Beethoven” (unreleased) Set 4, from December 30 or 31: “Road Runner” soundcheck (Beatles 1998) “Hippy Hippy Shake” (Beatles 1977b) “A Taste of Honey” (unreleased) “Money (That’s What I Want)” (lead vocal: Ted Taylor; unknown pianist) (Beatles 1998) “Reminiscing” (Beatles 1977b) “Ask Me Why” (Beatles 1977b) “I Saw Her Standing There” (Beatles 1998)

the BBC surrounded the January 11 release of the second single. The bassheavy BBC performance taped on January 22 and broadcast on the 26th, featuring “Some Other Guy,” “Keep Your Hands off My Baby,” and “Beautiful Dreamer” (heard on Beatles 1993c) is the only extant recording from this month. Suddenly, there was time for only twelve concerts in Liverpool over the span of the new year’s first three months, the last of these being the group’s first appearance in the city’s largest hall, the Empire Theatre. The Beatles would play their home town only eight more times through the remainder of the year. By the time “Please Please Me” had reached the top of the charts in late February – early March, the group had been claimed by their nation. The record would sell more than 300,000 copies by the end of the year. Whereas “Please Please Me” was a major hit in Britain, it made no impression on the States. EMI had made no push to release “Love Me Do” in the United States, but the record company approached Capitol Records, its American af-

The First EMI Recordings

filiate, in hopes of licensing “Please Please Me” for a U.S. release. Capitol showed no interest, but EMI had faith and found a company, Vee-Jay of Chicago, which bought rights on January 21, 1963, to release this single on February 25 and any subsequent Beatle recordings over a five-year period.120 Vee-Jay could not make a hit of “Please Please Me.” In the entirety of 1963, the Beatles are known to have added only seven songs composed by others to their stage repertoire. (This total does not count their December 1963 radio-only performance with Rolf Harris of his “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport,” with jokey lyrics rewritten to refer to the Beatles.) All seven, representing a very varied group, were probably learned by February: “Anna (Go to Him)” (the final Arthur Alexander song to be copied), “Keep Your Hands off My Baby” and “Chains” (both late-1962 hits composed by Gerry Goffin and Carole King for Little Eva and for her backing vocalists the Cookies), “Diamonds” (a British #1 hit for Jet Harris and Tony Meehan, ex-Shadows), “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” (written by Smokey Robinson for Motown Records), “Walk Right In” (a folk-based #1 hit in America for the Rooftop Singers covered in the United Kingdom by the Kestrels, with whom the Beatles toured in February – March 1963; the Beatles were undoubtedly taken by the banjo-like timbre of the Kestrels’ twelve-string acoustic guitars used in this onetime jugband number), and the last in a long string of twelve-bar blues covers, “Let’s Stomp.”121 One aspect of the Beatles’ last covers needs to be mentioned — the emphasis on “girl-group” material. Whereas the Beatles had covered several songs made popular by solo female singers such as Marlene Dietrich, Peggy Lee, Jo Stafford, Vera Lynn, Ann-Margret, Brenda Lee, and Dinah Washington, and also several songs with a female chorus behind male singers such as Arthur Alexander, Buddy Knox, Cliff Richard, Ray Charles, Bobby Vinton, Rudy Lewis, and Lenny Welch, they were more inspired by the all-girl repertoire: “To Know Her Is to Love Her,” “Angel Baby,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “Boys,” “Please Mr. Postman,” “Mama Said,” “Baby It’s You,” “Love Is a Swingin’ Thing,” “The LocoMotion,” “Devil in Her Heart,” “Chains,” and “Keep Your Hands off My Baby.” Jacqueline Warwick notes that five “girl group” songs appear on their first two LPs, as opposed to only a single Chuck Berry cover. She finds that they lend a woman’s viewpoint to the albums, at its most gender-bending in the Shirelles’ “Boys,” and presage the Beatles’ creation of their own “advice” songs, “She Loves You” and “You’re Going to Lose That Girl.”122 Very few songs by others were required, not only because of the growth of the Beatles’ own product but also because of the fast-increasing brevity of their appearances. In February – March, the Beatles were among a large number of EMI artists, headlined by teenager Helen Shapiro and Kenny Lynch, playing twice nightly in cinemas in a package tour of fourteen British cities. Shapiro had been named by Melody Maker as the nation’s top female singer of 1962 but was already past her prime in early 1963; Lynch had had minor hits with covers of “Puff ” and “Up on the Roof ” in 1962. Of the tour, Lennon said, “But we sold out, you know. The music was dead before we even went on the theatre tour of Britain. We were feeling shit already because we had to reduce an hour

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

or two hours playing, which we were glad about in one way, to twenty minutes and [we would] go on and repeat the same twenty minutes every night. The Beatles’ music died then as musicians.”123 The group’s playlists on these dates would consist of a selection of the following, to make up a fifteen-minute set: “Chains,” “Keep Your Hands off My Baby,” “A Taste of Honey,” “Please Please Me,” “Love Me Do,” and “Beautiful Dreamer.”124 Lennon preferred rocking freely with Berry and Lewis numbers, but such live performances were now largely a thing of the past, gone with Hamburg. As the Beatles’ fame continued to spread worldwide over the next year, their performances would be limited each night to a selection of nine to twelve very set songs. It would not take long before the group would begin to prefer the creativity they discovered in the recording studio. But for now, George Martin wished to capitalize on what he knew was going to be a #1 single by recording an LP that reflected the group’s dynamic live act. Finding on December 9, 1962, that the Cavern would be unsuitable for a live recording, he booked Studio Two at EMI for the entire day of February 11, 1963, for the recording of that first LP.

The First LP: Please Please Me In three sessions totaling less than ten hours in a single day, the Beatles recorded ten new tracks that together with the four sides of their first two singles would constitute their first LP. Instrumentation for the basic tracks (as in previous practice, vocals and instruments were recorded simultaneously) included McCartney’s Höfner and Starr’s Premier drums, Harrison’s Duo-Jet and Jumbo, and Lennon’s Capri and Jumbo. The Jumbos were sometimes amplified, sometimes not. The ten songs taped on February 11 were, in order of recording:125 “There’s a Place” (recorded in ten takes) “I Saw Her Standing There” (nine takes, recorded under the working title “Seventeen”) “A Taste of Honey” (five takes) “Do You Want to Know a Secret” (six takes) Echo-laden overdubs for each of these (“Secret”: Lennon and McCartney’s harmony vocals and drumsticks tapped together added to Take 6; “Taste”: McCartney’s double-tracked vocal added to Take 5; “There’s”: Lennon’s harmonica added to Take 10; “Seventeen”: handclapping added to Take 1) “Misery” (eleven takes; Take 11 was recorded at 30 ips rather than the usual 15 “to facilitate easier superimposition of piano at a later date”) “Hold Me Tight” (thirteen takes, all unused) “Anna (Go to Him)” (three takes) “Boys” (one take) “Chains” (four takes) “Baby It’s You” (three takes) “Twist and Shout” (two takes)

On February 20, Martin added the Steinway grand to the intro and bridge of “Misery” (taped at half speed — an octave lower than sounding — for greater rhythmic precision) and celesta to “Baby It’s You.” The entire LP was edited and

The First EMI Recordings

mixed for both mono and stereo versions on February 25. Editing was limited to the following two instances: “I Saw Her Standing There” melds the count-off from Take 9 to the intact body of Take 12 (which itself was a rerecording of Take 1 with handclaps added), and “Please Please Me” required an edit of three takes. Mixing involved the balancing, equalizing, and compressing of the two tracks, adding a touch of echo to the vocals, and providing fades for “Boys,” “Chains,” “Misery,” “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” “There’s a Place,” “Baby It’s You,” and “Love Me Do,” even though these songs were performed with full cadences in concert or for broadcast.126 The album was released in mono on March 22; the less important stereo release was delayed a month. A minimum of overdubs, even by early-1960s standards, results in a very live sound, in keeping with the original aim for a concert LP (as well as adhering to a very frugal budget). Unlike the case with the first two singles, at least some of the five reels of twin-track working tapes for this LP still exist in the EMI library, and many officially unreleased versions (some thirty-seven unreleased takes, and released takes in premix states) of the day’s first five recordings have been issued in excellent sound with the two tracks fully separated.127 “There’s a Place” The morning’s first effort was primarily composed by Lennon, who has said, “’There’s a Place’ was my attempt at a sort of Motown black thing, but it says the usual Lennon things: ‘In my mind there’s no sorrow.’ It’s all in your mind.”128 The composer’s R&B-inspired mordents are shown in example 2.22a. Aspects of both previous A-sides can be detected therein: from “Love Me Do,” we have an opening section (there the chorus, here the verse, A [0:09 – 0:20]) that begins with two-bar groupings that embellish I with an alternating IV. From “Please Please Me,” we have a line in octaves on Harrison’s Duo-Jet doubled by Lennon’s harmonica, decorating an intro with a bass opening that is nearly identical to that on the single, and a rise in McCartney’s vocal line to 4, a2 (“Please Please Me,” C+4 [0:27]; “There’s a Place,” B+2 [0:24]), but the planned borrowing from “Please” of the repeated eighths in the bass gives way to a simpler dotted rhythm (matched by Duo-Jet chording in the third verse [1:11–1:24]) by Take 6 in “Place.” Like “Please Please Me,” “There’s a Place” expands a dominant preparation, in this case VI, in an unconventional way. The structural V itself is always hidden but implied during stop time, as in the anacruses preceding A (0:05 – 0:07). VI is expanded in B+4 – 5 (0:27– 0:30); the incomplete neighboring functions of the A and Fs m triads to the prolonged Cs m triad in these measures are suggested in example 2.22b. VI itself then resolves, in B+7 (0:32), as an incomplete neighbor to the implied cadential V. VI is prolonged in a more concrete yet modally irregular manner, in the bridge (D [0:54 –1:11]). Here, a normal I – III –V– I progression in Cs minor is emphasized by a choral confirmation with Paul singing an octave above the unison voices of John and George. The passage is also given a Dorian coloring in D+2 by a chromatic passing as (0:56 – 0:57), which is supported by an Fs major triad (the score errs). The Fs triad represents another incomplete neighbor chord, this time escaping from the Cs triad it decorates.

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Example 2.22a “There’s a Place” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

   

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Above this harmonic scaffolding, the upper parts sustain several anticipations and suspensions that behave oddly. The leading tone is given special treatment. Introduced immediately by the harmonica as a suspended dissonance against I, ds2 moves first to a (consonant!) neighboring cs2, before it resolves in McCartney’s voice to e2 in A+1 (0:09). A similar pattern is set up in B+1– 6, where Lennon sings the suspended & above I (implicitly in B+1 [0:22 – 0:23], explicitly in B+3 [0:25 – 0:27]) and moves to cs2, as done before. This motion is imitated by the harmonica in B+5 – 6 (0:29 – 0:31), now harmonized by VI (again, the neighboring cs2 is given a consonant basis), and the resolution to 1

The First EMI Recordings

occurs only when McCartney returns to the next verse. In a related situation, the cadential b1 sung in B+5 – 6 sounds oddly consonant, even though it appears as a fourth and then as an implied seventh above the bass. This apparent consonance can only result from the role of anticipation played by the b1; a V harmony is expected but is explicit only in the listener’s imagination. These nonharmonic tones seem to be searching for their proper places, quite a fitting sound for the song’s main theme. On the other hand, the strong quality of 7 (and other raised scale degrees shown in example 2.22b, as in George’s gS, as, and bs, and the repetition of two of those pitch classes in the rising chromatic line in the bridge) leads this example far away from the pentatonic minor of “Love Me Do,” and thus it might seem antithetical to Lennon’s aim to produce a “Motown black thing.” Recall, however, John’s fondness for “uptown” soul music — that of Alexander and other largely major-mode singers; also hear the Marvelettes’ “I Want a Guy” (released December 1961). In “There’s a Place,” blue states are expressed with minor triads, as with the Csm chord emphasized at “alone” in B+4 – 5 (0:29 – 0:31), rather than by a pentatonic blues style. Perhaps this is because in this song, Lennon does not have the blues; he has retreated to his mind, and we suspect that once there, happy memories of his beloved have let him forget whatever it was that brought him “low” in the first place. Blues aside, both the lyrics and their tonal world express an unusual mix of happiness and melancholia. “I Saw Her Standing There” The Beatles next tackled what was to become the LP’s lead-off track, a recording that’s especially effective in that role with McCartney’s tempo-setting count-off. McCartney, the song’s primary composer: “I wrote it with John in the front parlour of my house in 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton. We sagged off school and wrote it on guitars and a little bit on the piano that I had there. I remember I had the lyrics ‘just seventeen never been a beauty queen’ which John — it was one of the first times he ever went ‘What? Must change that.’ ”129 Lennon changed the opening line to “Well, she was just seventeen; you know what I mean.” In recent criticism, this line has been taken for an unspoken “nudge-nudge, wink-wink” suggestion of sexuality. Regardless of the composers’ specific intention, the line invites the listener into the singer’s imagination and thus represents the first in a long line of Beatle songs that clearly have a message (however vague) beneath the surface. The Beatles’ lyrics often work as a window to a larger world, and the same will become true of their music as it begins to refer to other music. The lyrics of “I Saw Her Standing There” invoke other songs covered by the Beatles: the song’s title might come from “Young Blood,” the first line of which is “I saw her standing on the corner,” and the opening verse of “Standing There” rings of Berry’s “Little Queenie,” who is “too cute to be a minute over seventeen.” While these references may have been made unintentionally, they still contribute to a rich interpretation. McCartney has admitted a direct reference to Berry; his bass ostinato, he says, is copied from “I’m Talking about You.”130 Example 2.23a is the ostinato pattern as played by an unknown bassist in Berry’s recording. The Beatles per-

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Example 2.23a “I’m Talking about You” (Chuck Berry). © 1961, Arc Music Corp.

       



       

Example 2.23b “I Saw Her Standing There” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.



♯♯♯♯

PM vocal

PM bass



One





two

three



 faw!

           

formed Berry’s song in E, and so McCartney might very well have begun “I Saw Her Standing There” as a recomposition of “I’m Talking about You.” Example 2.23b shows McCartney’s count-off and bass pattern in the opening of “Standing There.” (Paul also used the pattern as a stop-time solo in Berry’s “Too Much Monkey Business” and in “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues.”) Lennon has his own reference to Berry in “I Saw Her Standing There”; his guitar repeats a If7 chord with the rhythm, ŒqΩç≤Ωç«≤w, a standard Berry riff. John also plays the same pattern in “Hippy Hippy Shake,” a song so wild in 1962– 63 performances that it seems at times to presage “Helter Skelter.” Underneath Harrison’s solo, McCartney drops the ostinato in preference for the boiling-over repeated eighths on I and then on IV that recall “909” and its skiffle roots. In the bass here, one can hear an echo of such rapid repeated-note lines as “if you want to ride you gotta take it like you find it, buy your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line.” The song’s other rhythmic effect of note is the unison handclap rhythm, ŒΩçŒq, with which the Cookies had accompanied Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion” and “Keep Your Hands off My Baby” as well as their own “Chains.” Ostinati are employed in many rock-and-roll numbers covered by the early Beatles: “Lucille,” “Dizzy Miss Lizzie,” “Boys,” “Twist and Shout,” “It’ll Be Me,” “Twenty Flight Rock,” “All Shook Up,” “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Hound Dog,” and “Good Golly Miss Molly” are all examples with repetitive bass-register patterns that (regardless of original instrumentation — bass, sax, or piano) were played by McCartney. Given their strong rock-and-roll roots, bass ostinati govern surprisingly few Beatle compositions after “I Saw Her Standing There.” “Hold Me Tight,” “Little Child,” “What You’re Doing,” “Day Tripper,” “Paperback Writer,” “Hey Bulldog,” “Birthday,” and “The Ballad of John and Yoko” are the very few examples. More common are repetitive upperregister guitar licks, as in Lennon’s work in “I Feel Fine” and “Run for Your Life” and Harrison’s in “Ticket to Ride” and “If I Needed Someone.” “I Saw Her Standing There” is based on a blues ostinato, the opening chords of the verse (If7– If7– IVf7– If7) are a double-time demonstration of those of the first eight bars of a twelve-bar structure, and the pitches of the opening vocal line quoted earlier — b1, dn2, and e2— highlight the pentatonic c-trichord. But

The First EMI Recordings

the Beatles quickly break out of the blues mold. In the verse’s second line, “and the way she looked was way beyond compare” (see A+5 – 7 [0:14 – 0:17]), the accented 2, fs2— a nonpentatonic pitch heard in A+1 as an upper neighbor — is emphasized to open up a new world, as if to show how far from the mundane blues is the singer’s major-mode vision (poetically expressed in a suddenly more refined locution, “beyond compare”). In the second verse, McCartney uses the same fs2 to declare his transcendent inclination, predicting that he is about to fall in love. The song’s refrain shows the subtleties of the Beatles’ blues-based tonal language: we hear John sing cn2 in B+2 (0:22) and gn1 in B+5 (0:27) and Paul sing dn2 in B+5. The structure here is a two-bar prolongation of tonic (moving from 5 3 at B+1 to ¢ in B+2, which must be taken from the Cochran recording of “Hallelujah! I Love Her So”), sequenced on IV in the following two bars, moving to a cadential V in B+6 (0:27), and closing with a perfect authentic cadence. The major mode introduced by fs2 in the verse is continued in the refrain’s opening. The seventh heard in B+2 makes the chord an applied harmony to IV, to which it resolves, but the modally borrowed cn2 and gn2 anticipate the minor-mode nVI of B+4 (0:24 – 0:26), which paints with dynamic neighbor tones an active support for McCartney’s Richard-based 1 in the wolf-call falsetto. The “In7” chord of B+5 is not an applied V, and it is not really tonic, either — it represents a cadential ∞ with implied 5 in the bass, which resolves to the V7 in B+6, both bars supporting a fully pentatonic “tumbling strain” for a static, bluesy rendition of the song’s title not unlike the solo vocal cadence in “Searchin’ ” or the exposed bass solo in the Shadows’ “The Frightened City.”131 So the refrain involves subtle transitions of scale degree inflections, from major to minor, and from active minor to static (“Standing”) pentatonic minor, all invoking changing states of mind in the singer. And not only are the scale degrees blues related but so are the rhythmic embellishments. Note McCartney’s swinging off-beat and on-beat neighbors in such lines as “well SHE looked at ME”; these are much more subtle than Lennon’s in-your-face mordents and more typical of McCartney’s style of vocal ornamentation. And don’t miss the fact that one bar before McCartney completes his cadential drop through an accented gn1 in the last quarter of B+6 (not shown in the Wise score), Lennon’s tumbling strain falls through a contrasting gs1, re-creating the partners’ bluesy cross-relation in “The One after 909.” Blues language is also basic to the song’s bridge (C [0:56 –1:10], where the bass ostinato remains constant). Here, six bars of IVf7 with oblique vocal parts lead to a cadential V, highlighted by the Lennon falsetto climax that highlights all three 1963 singles. But V drops back through IVf7 (C+9 –10 [1:08 –1:10], adopting contrary motion in the vocal parts), which I have shown to be a typical twelve-bar retransitional doubling of the seventh of V7.132 This emphasis on 4 is recaptured in the coda, which concludes with a plagal ending tacked onto 9 chord (barred an authentic cadence. Harrison’s guitar finishes with a bluesy I b7 on the seventh fret and voiced with fifth on top, contrary to the score; it is unfortunately less audible in the LP mixes than in live performances), still another reference to the song’s important 2.133

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Example 2.24a “I Saw Her Standing There” (Cavern Rehearsal, Oct.[?] 1962) (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.



♯♯♯♯

E7



  ♮   ♮    ♮ 

♯♯  ♯ ♯ ♮    B7

7

12



♯♯♯♯

 ♮ 

 ♮        ♮   ♮    E

bend





♮   ♭   

    ♮ 

♮  



     

A ♮      ♮  

♮ B   ♭    7

E

♭    

 

E7

   ♮



Example 2.24b “I Saw Her Standing There” (EMI Take 2, 11 Feb. 1963) (LennonMcCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

 5

 11



  ♮  

E7

♯♯♯♯ ♯♯♯♯

  ♮

♯♯♯♯ 

A



   ♮    B7

♮ 

     ♮   ♮       ♮ E7

♭     ♮     ♮   ♭   ♮   ♮   ♯   ♮     ♮           

 ♮  

♯  ♯

 ♮  

  ♮  ♯  E7

B7

 ♮   ♮ 

  ♮  ♮  

♮   

The song’s kinship with blues is probably most apparent in Harrison’s sixteen-bar solo, which follows the completion of a rounded verse-verse-bridgeverse unit. The solo is improvised mostly of embellished pentatonic licks. Example 2.24 gives representative solos (of the twenty examples studied) performed for this song in 1962– 63.134 Note that while each is different, there are striking similarities — they are all arch shaped, rising from the open low E string into the upper treble range, usually rising to e2 or thereabouts, and often ending with a flourish in a lower register. Three figures are retained in enough solos to be heard as compositional motives. First, there is often a strong motion from 1 to 2 in anticipation of V (example 2.24a, mm. 5 – 6, reflecting the structure of the vocal line in the verse, A+5 – 6). This motive disappears for several months and reappears in nearly all later solos (examples 2.24c – d, always mm. 5 – 6; m. 6 always continues with a descent through the c-trichord). Second is an intensification of the predominant IVf7 chord of measures 11–12. This spot is highlighted from the start with a lowered 5 (example 2.24a, mm. 12–13) or raised 4 (example 2.24b, mm. 11–12), but characteristic sevenths and ninths (and sometimes elevenths) are added in these bars in nearly all 1963 perfor-

The First EMI Recordings

Example 2.24c “I Saw Her Standing There” (BBC Radio, 21 May 1963, 5 p.m.) (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.



  ♮   

E7

♯♯♯♯

 

  ♮    ♮  

♯ ♯  ♮  ♮        ♮      ♯♯ B7

6

11



♯♯♯♯

♮  

   ♮ 

♮  ♮   ♮   ♮ 

   ♮    E7

   ♯  ♮ 

♭  ♮     

♯    ♮ 

♮ 



A B7 E7  E7 

   ♮     ♮    ♮   ♯      ♯   ♯    ♮    ♮   ♯     

Example 2.24d “I Saw Her Standing There” (BBC Radio, 3 Sept. 1963) (LennonMcCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

 ♮  ♮

♯ ♯♯  ♯ 4



♯♯♯♯

♯ ♯ ♯ ♮  ♯   ♯ 

♯♯♯♯

♮  

♮ ♮  ♯   ♭ ♮  ♮  ♯  ♮    ♯   ♯    

       ♮     ♮    ♮   ♮  ♯   ♮ 

8

12

E7

♯

♮  ♮

 ♮





B7



  ♮    

E7bend



A7

♯        ♯  ♮    ♮  ♯  ♮     E7





♮ ♮ 

♯♯♯♯    ♯    ♮   ♮   

14

B7

♯

E7



♯

 ♮  



  ♮ ♮ 









       

mances. These tones act as dissonant anticipations of the same scale degrees in the chords that follow in measures 13 –14 (functioning as an implied single V harmony prepared by ∞ neighbors). The third recurring motive is the repeated syncopated trichord, a(s )– b – d1, appearing in measures 1– 3 in all performances after June (beginning with example 2.24d). While no two solos are alike, one can listen to all twenty in succession, following all of the retained but altered figures, and sense a breathing composition in Harrison’s sometimes inspired, sometimes tired hands. The Beatles are not known for their improvisational skills. The blues, how-

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

ever, remained an important domain of their early live sets until these were shortened to a display of their hit records. The December 1962 tapes, for example, show Harrison soloing for two or more choruses in two numbers each from Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry. Blues-based guitar solos grace a few Beatle covers released in EMI packages and even a few original Beatle songs (“Yer Blues” even parodies the solos of British blues bands that had proliferated by 1968, following John Mayall, the Yardbirds, and Cream). The many unreleased covers preserved in BBC broadcasts, such as “Ooh! My Soul,” “Little Queenie,” “Kansas City,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Boys,” “Roll Over Beethoven,” and many others prove that the guitarists, particularly Harrison, had improved immensely since the meanderings of April 1960. Many of the licks used in “Ooh! My Soul” appear in “I Saw Her Standing There”— both are in E major. Both the EMI recording and live performances of “Long Tall Sally” (a frequent encore) feature two instrumental verses — the first constant and the second different with every performance. The same is true of early performances of “Roll Over Beethoven,” but time pressures caused a reduction of the solo to a single chorus from about October 1963 onward. As opposed to most “horizontal,” melodyoriented blues improvisation (Clapton, Beck, Hendrix), Harrison’s playing is notably “vertical,” chord-oriented, as is the case with his rockabilly forebears. Other early improvisations of note would embellish structural points in a dramatic manner; vocal retransitional lead-ins, for example, would be added to “Anna,” “Stay,” “I Remember You,” “Like Dreamers Do,” “Come Go with Me,” and “This Boy.” Also reminiscent of classical drama, though thoroughly composed, is the meno mosso vocal turn added just before the coda in “She Loves You.” “A Taste of Honey” On February 11, the Beatles devoted the morning session (10:00 am –1:00 pm) to “There’s a Place” and “I Saw Her Standing There.” Then, while Martin and his assistants (engineer Norman Smith and tape operator Richard Langham) took a lunch break, the group continued to rehearse in Studio Two. Taping resumed at 2:30, with the Beatles ready to launch into their cover version of “A Taste of Honey,” the only non-Beatle composition taped before all five of the group’s original songs were complete. “A Taste of Honey,” which McCartney said was a favorite of his Aunt Gin’s, is notable for its “Eleanor Rigby”– presaging Dorian verse. An inner voice here contains a chromatic descent from 1 through 7 and f7 to n6 (0:15 – 0:21) and is supported by a major IV chord, resulting in the Dorian inflection in the otherwise minor mode.135 The Dorian quality, an important color for the Beatles through 1963, is repeated in the bridge (B, 0:43 –1:03). The Beatles reproduce the Lenny Welch arrangement to a tee, from the “doot-doot-n-doo”s through the shuffling alternation of triple and quadruple meters with brushed drums, to the lead guitar arpeggiations based on the chromatic scale, although they transpose it up a whole step from E Dorian to Fs. The echo-laden superimposition of McCartney’s second voice for the unison refrain, however, was Martin’s touch. This adds a sense of great distance for the “I will return” refrain. Even though Lennon would have had lots of practice on this tune in concert, his guitar is hardly heard after the introduction.

The First EMI Recordings

“Do You Want to Know a Secret” The title character’s first song in Walt Disney’s 1937 film Snow White begins with the spoken introduction, “Wanna know a secret? Promise not to tell?” before breaking into song: “We are standing by a wishing well.” These lines, like those from the Bing Crosby number from the same decade that were to inspire “Please Please Me,” were often sung to young John Lennon by his mother; thus the opening verse of “Do You Want to Know a Secret.” Other inspiration for Lennon’s song, hints George Harrison, comes from the vocal rhythms and the descending chromatic passing lines (7–f7–6 over 5–f5–4 — see B+1– 2 [0:42– 0:44]) in the verse of the Stereos’ September 1961 Top-Forty hit “I Really Love You.”136 Oddly, McCartney doubles his chromatically descending vocal part a perfect fifth below in the bass, capping off the descent by playing a double-stop, 6 over 2 (0:16). Even more oddly, he recreates exactly the same effect with the same scale degrees, double-stops and all, five months later in “Till There Was You” (at 1:05 and 1:52) and again a year later in the chromatic descent in the verse of “If I Fell” (at 0:21– 0:23). (The double-stops are omitted in the Wise score in all examples.) Harrison had probably sung the Stereos’ number as a Beatle, and “Secret” was written with a similarly limited vocal range (it spans a ninth, fs– gs1, including falsetto tones). Lennon dates the writing of “Do You Want to Know a Secret” to August 1962, when Brian Epstein lent his “secret” apartment to the Beatle following his unpublicized wedding to Cynthia Powell.137 Although “Do You Want to Know a Secret” is in E major, its intro (see example 2.25a) has one of the most thoroughly minor colorings of any Beatles passage, especially given the Neapolitan harmony that ends measure 3, but also noting the non-Dorian minor IV as neighbor in measure 2. The melodrama is intensified by the free tempo and vocal rhythm and by Lennon’s amp tremolo, the earliest to have certainly emerged from the Vox AC-30s. Both guitarists play their matching Jumbos; George’s amp is miked to the right channel, with the voices, and John’s to the left, along with bass and drums. The dominant supports a chromatic lead guitar line (at a tempo) that will appear in retrograde in McCartney’s backing vocal part. Except for the tremolo, the slowly strummed opening E-minor chord sounds exactly like the first chord in Welch’s “A Taste of Honey.” Other than in their own recording of “My Bonnie,” the Beatles had previously performed a slow or unmeasured introduction only in “Mr. Moonlight,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” “When My Little Girl Is Smiling,” and the slack-tempo opening of “Take Good Care of My Baby.” But these songs did not have the colorful chords or the melodramatic effect of Lennon’s 1963 intros. In introductions to come, John would often have a fermata over a single unstable opening chord, as in “All I’ve Got to Do” and “A Hard Day’s Night.” Take 6 of the basic tracks, the recording that was eventually released, originally ended with a full close that was faded out in the mixing process. The original final chord is given in example 2.25b. Note the added sixth that appears on the first string of Harrison’s guitar, as well as in his lower vocal part. This direct answer to the intro’s arpeggiated Vadd6 barre chord (example 2.25a, m. 4) was heard in live performances and broadcasts, but the chord was apparently not to Martin’s taste. Five months later, Martin was against ending “She Loves You” with the added sixth, but he lost that argument.138

151

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Example 2.25a “Do You Want to Know a Secret” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

 ♯ ♯ ♯ ♯ GH Vocal            You’ll nev- er know how much I pick at bridge R GH Gtr 
♯♯ ♮    ♯♯  pick at fingerboard   L JL Gtr  ♮     ♯♯♯♯  



Slowly, freely

♮   

R

♯♯  ♯ ♯ L

3

 

♯♯♯♯



Bass

 

    



    ♮          ♮ ♮ 

You’ll nev-er know how much I real - ly


♯ ♯ ♮ ♮   ♯ ♯ ♮  ♮ ♮       ♯ ♯ ♯ ♯ ♮     





♯♯♯♯



 











 



real- ly love you._

♮      ♮           

♮   





 

♮ 

 





 molto rit







a tempo

 = 126

 



care._

 

♯ 

 ♯ ♯





♯  ♮   ♯    

Example 2.25b “Do You Want to Know a Secret” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

♯♯♯♯

GH Vocal double-tracked




♯♯♯♯   Bass ♯ ♯♯  ♯

GH Gtr

 

ooh_



 

   

  

    

       

“Misery” On a request of Helen Shapiro’s producer Norrie Paramor, Lennon and McCartney began writing “Misery” for their tour headliner on January 26, 1963, a week before they were to meet Shapiro.139 She did not hear the song, and it is said that her management had turned it down; its poetic theme was certainly not along the lines of her happy-go-lucky megahit of 1961, “Walkin’

The First EMI Recordings

Back to Happiness.”140 Hoping that someone would take the song onto the charts and apparently lacking confidence in their own ability to do so, the composers turned to tour-mate Kenny Lynch, who recorded the song and released it on March 22. Lynch’s version, double-tracked for a much more substantial descant part than Martin allowed the Beatles, begins with the introductory line “You’ve been treating me bad” and continues with second person address (“I’ve lost you now, I’m sure”; “Please come back to me”). This also appears in early sheet music and thus must have been the version sung by John and Paul in their demo recording for Lynch and their publisher, Dick James. But, as John Robertson says, “Lennon and McCartney turned [the song] into a chip-on-myshoulder piece of romantic paranoia, with ‘The world is treating me bad.’ What’s remarkable is not the simplicity of the song structure, or its admission that even big Lennons cry, but the sheer fact that a song about misery can sound so damn optimistic.”141 The “optimistic” character is provided by both the major modality and the upbeat tempo, in contrast to the maudlin, recitative-like opening phrase —which has the effect of a major-mode version of the “Secret” introduction. Like Robertson, Tim Riley believes that “John hardly sounds sad: and even when he does, in the middle eight bars, the descending piano octaves that echo his melody are too saccharine to believe.”142 To those commentators, one might respond that Lennon alone is not responsible for this song —McCartney cowrote it with him, and both John and Paul are heard to sing every note of it in unison, except for the title, which they sustain in parallel thirds, and until the coda, when John scats in ever-higher registers. Perhaps the lighter-hearted McCartney was responsible for the song’s confusing rhetoric of mood. (Such confusing treatments will be unambiguously the creation of Paul alone in later years, at an extreme in “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.”)143 In the intro, though, the tantrum-throwing triplets and the whining mordent on “bad” are pure Lennon. “Anna (Go to Him)” Following the taping of those original songs deemed suitable for the LP, the Beatles turned to the final five covers, all of which would be done in very quick succession, requiring a total of only eight complete takes between them. The covers were performed live without overdubs except for George Martin’s addition, at a later date, of a celesta part to “Baby It’s You.” I’ve noted a number of songs by Arthur Alexander covered by the Beatles.144 Their arrangement of “Anna (Go to Him)” is loosely based on Alexander’s original — Ringo’s hi-hat is struck on the second half of every third beat in the verse, just as in the model. The original piano figuration has been taken over by Harrison’s Duo-Jet (see Intro), but the model’s viola section’s countermelody is not recreated. Lennon bases his vocal retransition on Alexander’s, but it is now more controlled, and more steps in the scale are now articulated. McCartney’s bass line in the bridge (B [0:57–1:31], reminiscent of “Stand By Me”) comes from the rhythm, but not from all of the pitches, of the model. In many ways, the bridge is extremely simple — the backing singers surround Lennon’s part in wordless parallel sixths throughout; these parts will be more highly developed against the guitar solo of “Day Tripper.” McCartney re-

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

peats a bass ostinato on only four different chords (and in the same order and harmonic rhythm as they appear in countless other rock bridges of the 1950s and 1960s), expanding IV (in B+1–12 [0:57–1:22], reposing momentarily on tonic in B+5 – 8 [1:06 –1:14]) before passing through an applied V, E, to the structural V, A. There is a good deal of unusual tension, however, in the lead vocal line, which is replete with nonharmonic tones that often suggest I against IV (vaguely in B+1– 4 and more explicitly in B+9 –12) in increasingly complex rhythms, all devised by Lennon. The dramatic nonchord tones on the statement and resolution of the contextually bold chromatic chord, E, amount to a measured turn (e1– fs1– e1– d1– e1) on the cadential 2, which, when taken with the repeated text of B+13 –14 (1:23 –1:27) and the heart-rending lead-in of C–1 (1:29 –1:31), expresses the singer’s defiant frustration and great helplessness. It is the nonchord tones that will lead Lennon in the direction of the bridge of “This Boy.” “Boys” Ringo’s vocal showcase on the first LP (his live vocal and drums are miked together onto the same track) is a raver in which nothing but the ctrichord is sung in the lead part of the first twelve-bar verse; other pitches are extemporized in later verses. Harrison’s Duo-Jet is memorable for its twangy Eddy-like open E-strings that sound the downbeats during the stop time (A+1– 3 [0:07– 0:11]), and for the memorable twelve-bar rockabilly solo (C [1:07–1:26]). A number of different ideas appear in these few bars, with great rhythmic variety, including two [025] trichords as closing gestures (C+2 – 3 [1:10], a – gn– e; C+12 [1:26], e – dn– B); similar uses of Bf/As to those heard in “I Saw Her Standing There”; a juxtaposition of single notes, double-stops (some with Scotty Moore – styled bent “unisons”), and three-note chords; and a new chromatic line (C+4 – 5 [1:12–1:13], reversed in C+11–12 [1:24 –1:25]). This line remains constant in the midst of changing surroundings through the six earliest broadcast and concert performances of this song known to me before the idea was abandoned in December 1963.145 The chorus (B [0:47–1:06]) features a raucous ostinato played by McCartney and doubled on Lennon’s Capri. With such wild hard-rocking abandon, the singer’s gender is ignored as easily as are all other concerns. One take only! “Chains” Harrison sings lead in “Chains.” He has a very simple part, singing in the twelve-bar verse a repeated 3 – 2 – 1 descent, adorned only by a change from 3 to f3 at the appearance of IVf7 (0:15) and an ornamental arpeggiation up to 5 (0:21– 0:22) late in the verse. Lennon and McCartney supply upper harmony parts, all singing three-part chords in close position with a few nonchord tones and plenty of minor sevenths for variety and a dense vocal texture, creating an aural metaphor for the embracing imprisonment. This will be the same arrangement of lead vocal and close upper backing harmony parts in the slower “This Boy.” In the verses, all vocal parts come note-for-note from the Cookies’ model; the bridge is carried by a Harrison solo vocal without the wordless backing parts sung in the original. The Beatles add quite a bit of life to the model recording. McCartney’s bass

The First EMI Recordings

line is his own, and it represents his typical dotted-rhythm alternation of triad roots and fifths (note the swing notation), adding passing tones between roots at chord changes (A+4 [0:13], A+8 [0:21]). Lennon’s Capri boogie pattern in the second and following verses, with its neighboring sixths and ninths (mentioned elsewhere), is also new with the Beatles’ version — the Cookies are accompanied by straight strumming. Harrison’s Duo-Jet plays a similar, often overlapping, rhythmic role; in live performances, he ends the song with tonic voiced with 5 on top, f7 below that, and 6 below that, nicely reflecting the frequency with which those tones are added through the song.146 Lennon’s guitar apparently suffers from a poor electrical connection, as there is a heavy distortion caused by a breakup of his signal, either in the cord to his amplifier or in the wiring from the amp’s microphone to the console, at the beginning of the second verse (0:31), throughout the first retransition, and into the third verse (1:03 –1:15), all especially obvious in the stereo mix. Rivaling the goof-up in Lennon’s lyrics preserved in the stereo mix of “Please Please Me,” this uncorrectable problem is the greatest betrayal of the haste in which the first LP was produced. “Baby It’s You” Like both “Boys” and “Chains,” “Baby It’s You” comes from a “girl group,” and its backing “sha-la-la-la”s had already been used by the Beatles in “Sweet Georgia Brown.” This number is Lennon’s vehicle, and his vocal is characteristically emotive, particularly just before the refrain (compare example 2.26a with the score), when he leaps from a close on e1 (B+6 [0:41], in an inwardly questioning register, with an insecurity like that heard in “Anna”) to begin the next motion with an outwardly directed shout from g2. Note the importance of the [025] trichord in this passage (the second verse and refrain, carrying some improvisatory ornamentation not present in the first verse). This is in a major, rather than pentatonic minor, context: Lennon’s d1– e1– g1 grouping in A+6 (on “true” [1:10 –1:11]) ornaments the fifth of I with its upper neighbor, as does its appearance the octave higher in example 2.26a, where the neighbor motion is emphasized with a very deft trill. The song’s title is sung with a transposed [025] grouping, e1– g1– a1, in B+9 –10 (0:47– 0:49) and again in B+11–12 (1:37–1:39, there embellished with John’s mordent). The sketch in example 2.26b indicates a number of the structural neighbors (the e1– d2 of A+1– 3, the c2 in both lead and backing vocals in B+3 – 4, the smallscale e1 and g1 neighbors in the title in B+9, and the larger-scale tenor-range neighbors e and a — both roots — in B+1– 4) that corroborate Lennon’s vocal ornaments at deeper levels. In comparison with the transcribed excerpt, the sketch also reveals that in the structural upper line descending 3-2-1, the articulation of the big 2 is delayed as long as possible, to the last eighth of B+9 (as part of the [025] trichord). For added tension, B+9 is performed in stop time. Tim Riley has taken this recording to task for its solo, which he says is “the most period-sounding Muzak on the entire record (the original it’s drawn from has an even tackier organ).”147 The Shirelles’ two-part Hammond organ solo is given in example 2.26c, and the Beatles’ single-line version in 2.26d. I have no

155

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Example 2.26a “Baby It’s You” (Burt Bacharach, Mack David, and Barney Williams). © 1961, 1962, New Hidden Valley Music, Polygram International Publishing Co., Inc., and EMI U Catalog Inc. B

+7 P ah_ G

♯ 4      4 J   don’t no want

IV

        

bod-y,

no - bod -

Sha la la la la la la._

Ba - by,

VI

I



V7

♯                      

  you.

y,



    

‘cause ba - by,

                 

Sha la la la la la

it’s

la._

  

it’s you._

I

VI

Example 2.26b Analysis of “Baby It’s You.” A

+3

B

+3

+7

+5

^3


♯ ( )  

   

♯   



G:

N

I



N

           





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disagreement with Riley’s taste. Martin’s celesta, which may be perversely heard as a precursor to the Lowrey sound in “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” was probably added at the last minute to beef up the tone of Harrison’s Jumbo solo, which had been taped at a low volume. In the one known live recording of this song (made on June 1, 1963, for a BBC broadcast of June 11), Harrison ends his tonally expressive guitar solo with a much stronger nod to the original. “Twist and Shout” A raver with a scorching lead vocal from Lennon, “Twist and Shout” was the Beatles’ concert closer until 1964, when McCartney’s rendition of “Long Tall Sally” would usurp that honor. From that point on, a truncated version of “Twist and Shout,” beginning at E (1:24), would often open the show. Thus there are many more live recordings of Beatle performances of “Twist and Shout” than of any other song. They are all surprisingly the same — the same bass/guitar ostinato, same vocal interplay, same high-energy retransitional climax on V7 (see example 2.27).148 This song’s static repetitiveness (given the number of times the ostinato’s same I – IV–V progression is heard without transposition) is made more unbearable only by a certain video. This,

The First EMI Recordings

Example 2.26c “Baby It’s You,” words and music by Burt Bacharach, Mack David, and Barney Williams. © 1961, 1962 (copyrights renewed) New Hidden Valley Music, Polygram International Publishing Co., Inc., and EMI U Catalog Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission of Warner Bros. Publications U.S. Inc., Miami, FL 33014.





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the mimed “Ready, Steady, Go!” broadcast taped in October 1963, was directed with two cameras (one on John’s singing head, the other framing backing singers Paul and George), duly cutting from one close-up to the other and back every bar, as the vocal assignments alternate.149 Even though this song hints at none of the Beatles’ greatness to come as composers, it showcases another brilliant vocal from Lennon, and its electrified energy, some generated by the conflicting solos played simultaneously by Lennon and Harrison at D, makes a fitting close to the group’s first long player. The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” be-

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came the group’s last #1 hit in 1986, when Capitol released it to tie in with summer teen flicks that featured the number. Please Please Me was issued with the following ordering of tracks: Side 1 “I Saw Her Standing There” “Misery” “Anna (Go to Him)” “Chains” “Boys” “Ask Me Why” “Please Please Me”

Side 2 “Love Me Do” “P.S. I Love You” “Baby It’s You” “Do You Want to Know a Secret” “A Taste of Honey” “There’s a Place” “Twist and Shout”

Martin’s basic strategy was to lead off and conclude each side with the strongest songs; it is not known whether the Beatles might have had any part in such decisions. In records to come, Martin would have a much more obvious role than he does in Please Please Me. However, it is for this album that he makes his greatest contribution as their producer. For he let the Beatles have their way. Instead of handing them certain ready-made hits, he allowed them to develop more deeply by recording their own material. “Do You Want to Know a Secret” is a weak composition sung with little grace. But the LP’s performance is earnest, the overall energy of the performers is quite infectious, and Lennon’s confidence and expressive power are instantaneously recognizable. While

Composers at Work

Please Please Me contains no original masterpieces, the listener is transfixed by the fun the Beatles can create in a single day. On the strength of a dynamic #1 single, Please Please Me was given a listen, and it stood at the top of the British LP charts for an incredible thirty weeks into November, when it would be toppled by an album that was to enter the chart at #1: With the Beatles.150

Composers at Work (February – July 1963) Spring 1963 — The Third Single Not satisfied with EMI’s lackluster promotion of “Love Me Do,” the Beatles sought a more energetic publisher. Dick James impressed them by booking the group for a major television appearance immediately upon hearing an acetate copy of “Please Please Me.” He formed a new company, Northern Songs Ltd., on February 22, 1963, to publish the Beatles’ new compositions for the LP and all subsequent ones (until Harrison formed a company, Harrisongs Ltd., for his own works in 1968).151 The Beatles continued to average about one concert a night through 1963, in addition to the spring package tours behind Helen Shapiro, Tommy Roe, and Chris Montez and a “Mersey Beat Showcase” organized by Epstein to show his growing number of Liverpool artists — the Beatles, Gerry & the Pacemakers, the Big Three, and Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas — in twelve cities from March through June.152 Another highlight on the road that spring was an appearance in the New Musical Express Poll Winners concert of April 21.153 A two-week vacation in the Canary Islands was to be followed by a three-week package tour behind Duane Eddy beginning May 18. Eddy fell through, but the Beatles joined on with Orbison instead (May 18 – June 9) and in fact shared top billing with the American star as Please Please Me rode the top of the British charts. The Beatles were to make their debut on London’s BBC Television in April and make three other televised appearances through June. But the major development in this arena was a series of programs for BBC Radio (now broadcasting pop) that were to continue on a regular basis into 1964. The BBC was required by law to program a large number of live performances. Many radio series, including “Here We Go,” “Saturday Club,” “The Talent Spot,” “Parade of the Pops,” “On the Scene,” “Easy Beat,” “Swinging Sound ’63,” “Side by Side,” and “Steppin’ Out,” were to feature the Beatles in live studio performances (usually taped in advance) in the very hectic first six months of 1963.154 Overwhelmingly successful, the group was asked to broadcast their own series, “Pop Go the Beatles,” which was to run for fifteen programs from June through September. The timing was perfect for the Beatles; their stage act — constrained by time limits and the need to promote the hits —was getting stale, and so they determined that their show for the BBC would focus mostly on the cover repertoire once featured in their long sets at the Cavern and the Star-Club, with a few of their own compositions sprinkled in as well. So we have studio broadcast recordings of all of the titles performed for the BBC but not released by EMI be-

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fore 1994 – 95, if ever, and many live studio versions of songs that EMI produced only with overdubs.155 Even when the Beatles perform the same arrangement on the BBC that is available on an EMI record, very often the balances are different enough between them to afford a new appreciation for parts that had been hidden in Martin’s mix. But the primary value of the BBC recordings is the window they open to the group’s 1961– 62 repertoire and arrangements. Listed here are the BBC recordings finally released by EMI in the 1994 set Live at the BBC. The two sides of the vinyl “Record 1” are equivalent to the entirety of “Disc 1” of the set of two compact discs; recording dates are parenthesized, and bracketed titles are spoken-word recordings: Record 1, Side 1 [“Beatle Greetings”] (10/9/63) “From Us to You” (2/28/64) [“Riding on a Bus”] (11/17/64) “I Got a Woman” (7/16/63) “Too Much Monkey Business” (9/3/63) “Keep Your Hands off My Baby” (1/22/63) “I’ll Be on My Way” (4/4/63) “Young Blood” (6/1/63) “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues” (8/1/63) “Sure to Fall (In Love with You)” (6/1/63) “Some Other Guy” (6/19/63) “Thank You Girl” (6/19/63) [“Sha la la la!”] (6/1/63) “Baby It’s You” (6/1/63) “That’s All Right (Mama)” (7/2/63) “Carol” (7/2/63) “Soldier of Love” (7/2/63)

Record 1, Side 2 [“A Little Rhyme”] (7/2/63) “Clarabella” (7/2/63) “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)” (7/16/63) “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” (7/16/63) [“Dear Wack!”] (7/30/63) “You Really Got a Hold on Me” (7/30/63) “To Know Her Is to Love Her” (7/16/63) “A Taste of Honey” (7/10/63) “Long Tall Sally” (7/16/63) “I Saw Her Standing There” (10/16/63) “The Honeymoon Song” (7/16/63) “Johnny B. Goode” (1/7/64) “Memphis” (7/10/63) “Lucille” (9/7/63) “Can’t Buy Me Love” (2/28/64) [“From Fluff to You”] (2/28/64) “Till There Was You” (2/28/64)

Record 2, Side 1 [“Crinsk Dee Night”] (7/14/64) “A Hard Day’s Night” (7/14/64) “I Wanna Be Your Man” (2/28/64) [“Just a Rumour”] (2/28/64) “Roll Over Beethoven” (2/28/64) “All My Loving” (2/28/64) “Things We Said Today” (7/14/64) “She’s a Woman” (11/17/64) “Sweet Little Sixteen” (7/10/63) [“1822!”] (7/10/63) “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes” (7/10/63) “Nothin’ Shakin’ ” (7/10/63) “Hippy Hippy Shake (7/10/63) “Glad All Over” (7/16/63) “I Just Don’t Understand” (7/16/63) “So How Come (No One Loves Me)”

Record 2, Side 2 “I’m a Loser” (11/17/64) “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” (7/14/64) [“Have a Banana!”] (11/25/64) “Rock and Roll Music” (11/25/64) “Ticket to Ride” (5/26/65) “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” (5/26/65) “Kansas City”/”Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey” (7/16/63) [“Set Fire to That Lot!”] (7/10/63) “Matchbox” (7/10/63) “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” (5/1/64) [“Love These Goon Shows!”] (6/1/63) “I Got to Find My Baby” (6/1/63) “Ooh! My Soul” (8/1/63)

Composers at Work

(7/10/63) “I Feel Fine” (11/17/64)

[“Ooh! My Arms”] (8/1/63) “Don’t Ever Change” (8/1/63) “Slow Down” (7/16/63) “Honey Don’t” (8/1/63) “Love Me Do” (7/10/63)

“From Me to You” Melody Maker announced on March 2: “The Beatles record a follow-up to their chart-rocker [”Please Please Me”] next Tuesday. No titles have been set but it is understood they will go into the studios with several numbers, get them on tape, and decide on the next release.”156 On March 5, the Beatles sandwiched into their concert schedule two three-hour sessions at Abbey Road. In the afternoon, tapings of “From Me to You” and “Thank You Girl” resulted in the group’s third single. In the evening, “The One after 909” was attempted but left unreleased. The verse of this version of “909,” a bluesy relative of “I Saw Her Standing There,” could pass at times for a Springsteen outtake. I have already speculated that “909” might have been strongly considered for the A-side until it became evident that the recording would not work out. During the session, Ringo, George, Paul, and John each in turn catch grief from a mate after flubbing one take or another. The Beatles had also hoped to tape “What Goes On” on this date, but there would not be time to begin to do so. Most, if not all, of “From Me to You” was written jointly by Lennon and McCartney on February 28, on the Shapiro tour bus between York and Shrewsbury, “and was based on a letter column ‘From You to Us,’ which appeared in the New Musical Express.”157 The “me” / “you” conceit was directed at fans, who took lines like “if there’s anything that you want . . . just call on me” in early songs such as “From Me to You,” “All I’ve Got to Do,” and “Any Time at All” quite personally. Lennon: “The first line was mine. Then we took it from there. It was far bluesier when we wrote it. . . . It was written together singing into each other’s noses.”158 One of the song’s novelties was the retransitional falsetto “woo” (first and second endings [0:48]). Lennon, again: “The ‘woo woo’ was taken from the Isley Brothers’ ‘Twist and Shout,’ which we stuck into everything —‘From Me to You,’ ‘She Loves You.’ ”159 Kenny Lynch recalls: “I remember John and Paul saying they were thinking of running up to the microphone together and shaking their heads and singing, ‘Whooooooooooo.’ It later became a very important, terrifically popular part of their act when they sang ‘She Loves You.’ But at the time they were planning it, even before [’From Me to You’] was written, I remember everybody on the coach fell about laughing. . . . I remember John saying to me he thought it sounded great and they were having it in their act.” Helen Shapiro recalls of Lennon, “He said I obviously didn’t realize that it was him singing the high falsetto voice on ‘From Me to You.’ He said: ‘I can do the high stuff better than Paul.’ I do remember that.”160 The retransition that features this famous “woo” will be discussed more fully hereafter. As with “Please Please Me” and perhaps with “Misery” as well, the composers benefited from Martin’s advice on the song’s arrangement. The producer, on the 1963 recordings:

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I would meet them in the studio to hear a new number. I would perch myself on a high stool, and John and Paul would stand around me with their acoustic guitars and play and sing it — usually without Ringo or George, unless George joined in the harmony. Then I would make suggestions to improve it, and we’d try it again. . . . [W]e didn’t move out of that pattern until the end of what I call the first era . . . which lasted through “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” . . . I would make sure that the song ran for approximately two and a half minutes, that it was in the right key for their voices, and that it was tidy, with the right proportion and form. At the beginning, my specialty was the introductions and the endings, and any instrumental passages in the middle. I might say, for instance, “ ‘Please Please Me’ only lasts a minute and ten seconds, so you’ll have to do two choruses, and in the second chorus we’ll have to do such-and-such.” That was the extent of the arranging.161

In “From Me to You,” Martin adjusted the intro, which took shape in different guises — including some truly bad falsetto screaming from Paul — in the various edit pieces, Takes 8 –13, that were superimposed on both channels of Take 7 of the basic tracks. He also added the instrumental solo, not present in the first full recording (Take 2, in which the third refrain had led directly into the second bridge, C), and had Lennon add the harmonica to the coda as well. The final intro added both a harmonica and wordless vocals (“da da da da da dun dun dah”), in octaves, to Harrison’s original Duo-Jet line, itself having two lines in octaves — despite the score. All this was based on the verse’s opening motive, which itself is a rhythmic redistribution of the introductory 3–2–1–2–6 motive from “You Really Got a Hold on Me.” In the solo (example 2.28), Lennon plays harmonica, doubling the lower of two registers from Harrison’s Duo-Jet, which is simulatneously doubled an octave lower in a second bass line overdubbed by McCartney. (The harmonica was rarely used in live performances of “From Me to You” but did appear occasionally; the solo section was not always performed in concert. By late 1963, the first line of the verse would often be used, without singing, as a trademark entrance or exit number, as the curtains opened or closed.) Echo was applied to the vocal track during recording, whereas the instruments’ track remained “dry.” The A-side was edited and mixed for both mono and stereo on March 14 and released as a monophonic Aside on April 11.162 An interesting point of speculation relates to how Harrison and Starr would have learned their parts to a song they would have heard first at the recording date and then (particularly for A-sides) would have to recreate more or less the same way in concert after concert. McCartney speaks to this a bit: Normally John and I would go in the studio, sit down with the guys and say, “Right, what are we going to do?” . . . We’d show it to the band over the course of twenty minutes, possibly half an hour. . . . Ringo would stand around with a pair of drumsticks which he might tap on a seat or a screen or a packing case. John and I would sit with our two guitars. George would bring his guitar and see what chords we were doing and figure out what he could do. George Martin would sit down with us and then we would separate, go to each instrument and come out ready to fight. And we just did it, and within

Composers at Work

Example 2.28 “From Me to You” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs. Vocals

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the next hour, we would have done it. We would have decided how we were going to play this song.163

So it seems that with such limited time, Harrison and Starr would typically have to pull from a conventional bag of tricks rather than develop something new and complex. Fortunately, they pulled from large-capacity bags. In the verse (A), note the I –VI alternation in Lennon’s Jumbo (as performed by the Beatles in the Everlys’ “Love of My Life,” Little Eva’s “The Loco-Motion” and many others), the alternation of unison singing with oblique (A+1– 2 [0:07– 0:10]), contrary (A+3 [0:12– 0:13]), and parallel (A+7– 8 [0:18 – 0:20], for the refrain) motions, the contrast of full voice and Lennon’s falsetto (A+3 – 4), and the bluesy coloring of 3 (which, in its major-mode manifestation, is the primary tone of the structural 3–2–1 line, carried by Lennon’s voice; in A+7, John should have ef2, followed by Paul’s en2), reminiscent of the tumbling refrain in “I Saw Her Standing There.”164 A few points relating to harmony

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

are worth noting: the V in A+4 (0:12 – 0:13) is back-relating, and so the first four bars prolong tonic. Thus A+5 – 6 (0:14 – 0:17) expand a V preparation, and the “I” on the downbeat of A+7 represents the same bass-less cadential ∞ heard in “Please Please Me” and “I Saw Her Standing There.”165 “From Me to You” is in C, but the bridge (C [0:35 – 0:49]) begins with a strong tonicization of F. McCartney discusses the chord changes of the first half of the verse and the opening of the bridge: “that middle eight was a very big departure for us. Say you’re in C then go to A minor, fairly ordinary, C, change it to G. And then F, pretty ordinary, but then it goes [sings] ‘I got arms’ and that’s a G Minor. Going to a G Minor and a C takes you to a whole new world. It was exciting.”166 The tonicization of F — and this complete a tonicization was indeed “a whole new world” for the Beatles as composers — may have been exciting, but that excitement was more than matched by the second half of the bridge, which melody sequenced that of the first half a whole step higher, supported by a move from D7 to G and on through G+ for a tension-filled return to the verse.167 This move in the bridge from the flat side (tonicizing, or at least touching upon, IV or II) to the sharp side (tonicizing V) duplicates one made in a few of the Beatles’ oldest compositions (as in the original version of the bridge in “I’ll Follow the Sun” and in that of “You’ll Be Mine”) and in scores of covers (which nearly always use V/V, and often V/IV as well, as the bridge often follows a verse that ends I8 –f7). Three such songs played contemporaneously by the Beatles include “The One after 909” and “Till There Was You,” both also moving through V+, and “Anna (Go to Him).” This bridge technique is to be maintained through the year in Lennon’s “Bad to Me” and “I’m in Love” (both of which end with V+) and in the joint Lennon-McCartney songs “I’ll Get You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” It will be suggested as late as “Hey Jude” and “Oh! Darling.” The retransition (C+7– 8 [0:46 – 0:49]), with its quarter-note triplets from Harrison’s Duo-Jet in the second bridge (articulating the second halves of both bars in tense cross-rhythm), with the repeated bass eighths, with Starr’s expert drum fills, with the augmented triad, with McCartney’s vocal ds2 that pushes up to the returning verse’s primary tone, and with Lennon’s ecstatic octave leap into a falsetto 5 from his deep, physical “keep you satisfied,” creates a climax that is the cauldron of the rush of Beatlemania.168 It is the climax that brings more tension to “From Me to You” than exists in “Please Please Me,” the bridge of which had dissolved into I and a weak turnaround V that hardly knew whether it pointed backwards or forwards. The triplet becomes an important form-defining device for the early Beatles. In opposition to its function in beginning the bridge of “Ask Me Why,” the triplet is the basis of Lennon’s improvised vocal lead-in in the retransition to “Anna” (see C–1 [1:29 –1:31]). Similarly, in “From Me to You,” Harrison adds a quarter-note-triplet articulation (one two tri-po-let, one two tri-po-let) to the second retransition. “Twist and Shout” and then “I Want to Hold Your Hand” reserve quarter-note-triplets for rhythmic closure in the codas. (Compare Ringo’s drumming in the coda of “Day Tripper.”) Triplets mark as similar Harrison’s two-part guitar solos in “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes” and “The Honeymoon Song”; Lennon was to borrow this technique in his later “The Ballad of John

Composers at Work

and Yoko.” Isolated triplets could also appear within verses, as Holly has in the last verse of “That’ll Be the Day” and the Beatles have in “There’s a Place.” Triplets emphasize chromatic lines in “Besame Mucho” and in Harrison’s solos to “Kansas City” and “Boys”; a similar effect occurs in Lennon’s syncopated barre-chord slide, I –sI – II –sII – III – IV, in “Long Tall Sally.” The coda of “From Me to You” reminds one of the modal ending of “Please Please Me” but points even more toward the conclusion of “She Loves You,” which reharmonizes a repeated melodic motive with different chords for each appearance. In “From Me,” neighbors resolve four times to 1 and 3, and each downbeat is accompanied by a new tone in a line of descending chromatic passing tones, 6 – f6 – 5, allowing for different chord qualities in each bar and reversing some of the tension of the chromatic bridge, a technique the Beatles had practiced in a current favorite, “Falling in Love Again.” The song’s final chord, a nonresolving VI, is a reminder of the neighbor function of the opening of the verse; a similar effect will achieve much more subtlety and complexity in “She Loves You.” Improving on a good thing, the coda of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” will be both more economical and more harmonically profound than any coming before. “Thank You Girl” The B-side to “From Me to You,” “Thank You Girl” is an innocuous Holly-style number with a few interesting aspects.169 The combined verse-refrain, the second of which pair is excerpted in example 2.29a, shows that the two composers are continuing to develop their phrase-marking contrast of unison and divided vocal parts. Here, McCartney’s descant in contrary motion with Lennon’s line (A+5 – 6 [0:14 – 0:17]) melts into one descending in parallel sixths above (A+7 [0:17– 0:19]). The anticipations in both parts, and McCartney’s grace note, are pure C&W ornamentation that together create, as Alan Pollack says, “a delightfully pungent, dissonant jumble of fourths.”170 Note Harrison’s continued fascination with Iadd6 (these chords are much louder and are sometimes sustained longer in Take 1 than in the released version, taken from Take 6), creating a great anticipation, as b1 is heard throughout the first eight bars of the verse (0:07– 0:20), to become a chord tone in A+9 (0:21) so that it may resolve down to 5 (A+10 [0:22]) just as McCartney approaches the same pitch, a2, in contrary motion (both by step from downbeat g2 and by leap from weak-beat d2). The bridge (B [0:48 –1:08]), the beginning of which is shown in example 2.29b, begins with a scale descending the full octave between first scale degrees.171 (The scale is given an unusual sequence a step higher in the bridge’s second line, not shown here.) Also of interest in some performances of this passage is the chiming of Harrison’s guitar, slowly arpeggiating each change of chord, once per measure. Although this technique was practiced in “P.S. I Love You,” the matching Jumbos made the effect nearly inaudible there. Harrison chimed more effectively on his Gretsch instruments, but the effect is probably identified with the Beatles most strongly when Harrison creates it in 1964 on his electric Rickenbacker twelve-string, as in the bridge of “I Should Have Known Better.”172

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The Beatles’ third single jumped to the top of the British charts within a month of its April 12 release and stayed there for six weeks. It peaked at #10 in Australia and #15 in Norway.173 Vee Jay, the Chicago-based company that had released “Please Please Me” to no U.S. reaction, did little better with “From Me to You”; this song, released on May 27, made its way onto the bottom end of Chicago playlists and reached only #116 on the Billboard chart of August 3, 1963, more than two months after its appearance.174 The Beatles’ fame crossed some oceans, but the important American market was to be impenetrable for more than half a year after this second huge British hit.

Composing for the Epstein Stable Brian Epstein signed Gerry & the Pacemakers in May 1962 upon landing the Beatles’ recording contract. On June 26, Brian (with his brother Clive) registered NEMS Enterprises Limited, “the main operating company for the Beatles and all his other artists.”175 The list of NEMS artists from Liverpool grew through 1963 to include the Fourmost, the Big Three, Billy J. Kramer & the

Composers at Work

Dakotas, and Tommy Quickly, as well as the Beatles and Gerry & the Pacemakers. By 1964, NEMS also managed Cilla Black, the Remo Four, and Sounds Incorporated.176 All of these acts were to receive very close attention from Epstein, and they were to benefit from exposure with the Beatles, touring with them and even recording new songs provided by the suddenly prolific Lennon-McCartney writing team.177 Gerry & the Pacemakers, more popular in Liverpool than the Beatles in 1960 but second to them by 1962, actually shared the stage with their rivals on October 19, 1961— the combined act called itself the Beatmakers. The group followed “How Do You Do It” with a number of hit records recorded by Martin for EMI’s Columbia label through 1964, including “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying,” and “Ferry Cross the Mersey,” none written by Beatles. They closed the first half of the show on the Beatles-Orbison tour.178 The Fourmost (once the Four Jays) gained in popularity through 1961 and were voted #10 in the Mersey Beat poll of January 1962. Lennon gave them “Hello Little Girl,” recorded on July 3, 1963, with the Beatles in the studio; it became a Top-Ten hit. Lead guitarist Brian O’Hara recalls receiving a demo tape of “Hello Little Girl” with John and George [?] on acoustic guitars a few days before the recording session. He also recalls McCartney having played bass on the Fourmost’s recording of “One and One is Two,” which went unreleased.179 They also recorded Lennon’s “I’m in Love” in late October or November 1963 when Kramer could not perform it satisfactorily. At the close of 1963, the Fourmost supported the Beatles’ Christmas shows, and in 1968, McCartney produced a record for them.180 Once known as Cass & the Cassanovas (Liverpool’s biggest attraction in 1960), the Big Three (including one-time Beatle drummer Johnny Hutchinson and friend Adrian Barber) placed #7 in the 1962 Mersey Beat poll. Recording for Decca, they had a moderate hit with “Some Other Guy” in May 1963, but they soon disagreed with Epstein’s choice of material. In a misunderstanding of their preferred style (they liked “Peanut Butter”), he had them record Mitch Murray’s “By the Way.” This is the only one of Brian’s acts that did not continue with him into 1964; they never saw any Lennon-McCartney compositions. “Billy J. Kramer” (real name William Howard Ashton; the “J” was Lennon’s idea) sang with a backing group calling themselves the Coasters, together the #19 act in Liverpool by January 1962. Epstein signed Kramer in January 1963 and, as the Coasters did not wish to give up their day jobs, rematched him with the Dakotas, a Mancunian band. Kramer recorded for Parlophone, but Martin found his voice weak. It was nearly always double-tracked, and Martin also used the “wind-up” piano (described earlier in connection with “Misery”) in an attempt to mask the vocal flaws.181 Kramer covered “Do You Want to Know a Secret” as his first single. It was recorded on March 14 and 21, 1963, before the Beatles’ version had been released. He proceeded to release six other LennonMcCartney compositions, only one of which was also to be released by the Beatles: “I’ll Be On My Way” (recorded March 14 and 21, 1963, and released on April 26 as the B-side to “Secret”; the record was held to #2 nationally by

167

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

“From Me to You”); “Bad to Me” and “I Call Your Name” (the A- and B-sides of Kramer’s first #1 record, both recorded June 27, 1963, with McCartney attending, and released on July 26); “I’ll Keep You Satisfied” and “I’m in Love” (both taped October 14, 1963, with Lennon in the studio, the former released on November 1 but the latter remaining an outtake until released in 1991); and “From a Window” (recorded May 29, 1964, supposedly with McCartney supplying the concluding high note, and released the following July 17).182 Although he was not a composer himself, Kramer rejected two Lennon-McCartney compositions offered by Epstein (one being “One and One Is Two”), once even cutting a song written by Kenny Lynch.183 Kramer also supported the Beatles in the Christmas 1963 shows. Epstein continued to manage the group, which had continued success, until his death in October 1967. Tommy Quickly recorded McCartney’s “Tip of My Tongue” (from the Beatles’ November 1962 demo) for the Piccadilly label in July. Released on July 30, it did not sell. Epstein teamed Quickly with the Remo Four and worked very hard at his career, but “within eighteen months of his first record, Quickly had released five new and lively singles — and all had flopped.”184 Without Quickly, the Remo Four toured with the Beatles in 1963 and 1964; in 1968, they recorded some of the soundtrack for George Harrison’s film Wonderwall. Other than the Fourmost, Billy J. Kramer, and the Beatles themselves, Cilla Black (b. Priscilla White) was the only Liverpool artist to take a LennonMcCartney song to national prominence. She did that with three McCartney compositions recorded by George Martin for Parlophone: in 1963 with “Love of the Loved” (learned from McCartney’s guitar demo but scored by Les Reed with a sassy pair of trumpets, recorded on August 28, and released on September 27), in 1964 with “It’s for You,” and in 1968 with “Step Inside Love.” Black performed with the Beatles in the 1963 Christmas shows and in television specials broadcast in 1964 and 1965, had a good career with several hit cover versions of American recordings, and hosted her own television series in 1968. Sounds Incorporated, from Kent, was the first of several non-Liverpool acts signed by Epstein.185 A six-piece instrumental band of guitars, drums, and horns, Sounds Inc. had backed Gene Vincent for at least one British tour, played frequently in Liverpool, recorded the “Top Gear” theme song in July 1964 for the Beatles’ BBC show of that name, and were to tour several times with the Beatles. They are perhaps best known for playing on the Beatles’ “Good Morning Good Morning.” Lennon and McCartney gave one more original composition to another act in 1963 — the Rolling Stones. The Beatles first heard the Stones that April in West London and finished composing “I Wanna Be Your Man” for them during a September 10 Stones rehearsal. The Stones’ recording, a far bluesier version than that done by the Beatles (an excerpt is heard in vol. 2 of Beatles 1996c), was released on November 1 and went into the Top Ten in January 1964. Later that year, McCartney was to offer his “Things We Said Today” to the Merseyside band the Searchers, but they unappreciatively buried the song as a B-side.186 The only northern bands to succeed nationally in the 1960s without direct Beatle support were the Hollies (a Mancunian group recorded by Ron Richards for Parlophone), the Swinging Blue Jeans (whose biggest hit was former Beatle fa-

Composers at Work

vorite “Hippy Hippy Shake”), and the Scaffold (one of whose three members happened to be Michael McCartney, working as Mike McGear). The Beatles’ success with “Please Please Me” and “From Me to You” turned all attention in the music trade to the beat from the north. In the first six months of 1963, George Martin produced one LP (Please Please Me) and five singles for Epstein groups. All reached #1. Before the year was out, Epstein-managed groups would account for weekly placings in the Top Ten a total of eightyfive times, with forty placings by the Beatles.187 The partnership with Epstein filled Martin’s calendar; his July 1963 bookings read as follows:188 July

1: Session with the Beatles 2: Session with Gerry & the Pacemakers 3: Artist test for the Fourmost 4: Mixing session for the Beatles 16: Session with Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas 17: Session with Gerry & the Pacemakers 18: Mixing session for the Beatles; session with Gerry & the Pacemakers 22: Session with Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas 24: Session with the Fourmost 25: Artist test for Cilla Black 29: Mixing session for Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas 30: Session with the Beatles

Of course, Martin was recording other artists besides. For that matter, some of Epstein’s acts were working with other producers. The Songs Of the oldest Lennon-McCartney songs recorded by these other artists, “Hello Little Girl” and “Love of the Loved” have already been discussed; analysis of “I Call Your Name” will be reserved for the Beatles’ own 1964 recording. The repetitive melody and simple chord changes of “Tip of My Tongue” shed little light on its composer’s work. We do not know whether the I –fIII – fVI –fVII – I coda of Quickly’s recording, reminiscent of both “P.S. I Love You” and “Please Please Me,” was McCartney’s idea or was tacked on by producer Les Reed. While Beatlesque, it is unrelated to the rest of the song.189 “I’ll Be on My Way” is an early Holly-styled McCartney composition of around 1961. McCartney cut a demo prior to Kramer’s March 1963 recording session.190 Kramer’s record was plugged by the Beatles with their own performance taped on April 4 for the BBC and broadcast on June 24.191 The intro’s rising and falling chromatic line, 5–s5–6–f6–5, on the guitar, comes from the introduction to the Crickets’ “Don’t Ever Change.” As in “Misery,” the foursquare verse proceeds in unison until measure 11, when McCartney’s part becomes a descant in parallel thirds above Lennon’s for the song’s title, a technique strongly derivative of Holly’s double-tracked vocal patterns. The six-bar bridge, seen in example 2.30 (Beatles 1994c, from the BBC, April 4, 1963), weakens the retransitional V by overuse of IIs7 ; even VIs7 is hardly enough to sustain interest as the sharp-side harmonies try to indicate just where it is McCartney is headed. (The “this way I will go” lyrics are too closely related, in an innocent way, to those of “I’ll Follow the Sun.”) Three remaining songs, “Bad to Me,” “I’ll Keep You Satisfied,” and “I’m in

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Example 2.30 “I’ll Be On My Way” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

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Love,” were composed specifically for Epstein to give to others. Lennon, in fact, wrote “Bad to Me” while vacationing with Epstein (April 28 – May 9). He recorded a demo with two acoustic guitar parts and two vocals (probably in mid-May), an acetate of which was given to Kramer. The song works well as a follow-up to Kramer’s first single, “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” as it begins with a slow quasi-recitative introduction (example 2.31a) that also links “Secret” to Lennon’s 1964 masterpiece “If I Fell.”192 Like “The One after 909” and “From Me to You,” its bridge ends with an augmented V triad. Kramer’s recording improves Lennon’s bridge by concluding that passage with the progression I –fIIIf5– II –V+, all with 5 sustaining as a vocal pedal; the neighboring fIII was not part of John’s demo. Lennon’s coda (example 2.31b) takes the one chromatic chord of his bridge, VI7n (which there functions as V7 of II), and makes it now the object of a deceptive cadence (example 2.31b, mm. 2– 4) that is decorated with a 4 – 3 suspension (as f1 is held from m. 2 through m. 3 to resolve to en1 in m. 4 — see the guitar triplets with downward stems) and a mixtureproduced incomplete chromatic passing tone (df, m. 3).193 The conclusion, the only place where Lennon’s double-tracked voice splits into two parts, has a motive (on “to me”) performed three times for a fade-out. As in “From Me to You” and “She Loves You,” the Beatles might have reharmonized this motive each time, but here Lennon remains on the tonic. “I’ll Keep You Satisfied” (probably by Paul) apparently survives only in Kramer’s recording. It is of interest for its intro, a textless articulation of the modal progression I –fVII –fVI –V, two beats per chord, as well as for the chromatic descent at the end of the verse — shown in example 2.32— to the strong cadential ∞ (m. 3) that signals the refrain. Lennon’s “I’m in Love” is heard in recordings by Kramer and by the Fourmost in addition to the composer’s demo.194 Example 2.33a shows most of the intro of Kramer’s recording.195 The intro has a descending chromatic line

Example 2.31a “Bad to Me” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

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172

Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

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(made clearer in the sketch in example 2.33c), which, when sounded against the repeated three-word, three-syllable title, points to the “She Loves You” chorus. Actually, the voice leading and rhythm here are much closer to an example not composed until 1968 – 69, Lennon’s “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” The lead-in to the verse on V+/VI (m. 8) makes for a subtle chromatic change from I and is heard again in the triplet-heavy stop-time retransition from the bridge. The [025] trichord played by the lead guitar in measures 1 and 3 is supposed to be doubled by the singer (it is heard with the bracketed text in the Fourmost’s

Composers at Work

recording), but for some reason (he is having difficulty here) Kramer does not oblige. An interesting connection between register and expression is made when this trichord, sung by the Fourmost in the low register (c1– bf– ef1, m. 1) to express an inner desire and a longing to speak, is suddenly taken up an octave (c2– bf1– ef2, example 2.33b) at a deceptive cadence and at the culmination on 1 of a tenor-register sequence in the lead guitar, when the singer wants to “shout out loud.” Note the constant association in this song between I and VI, especially at structural points, a favorite proccupation of Lennon’s in 1963. These songs given to others are not the only new Lennon-McCartney compositions that did not appear on a Beatles album in 1963. In addition to “What Goes On,” which remained shelved until late 1965, McCartney was at work on “Michelle” (which was in 1963 an instrumental number the composer would play on acoustic guitar at parties, in imitation of a French cabaret style), and Starr had begun work on his first composition, “Don’t Pass Me By.” This had been brought to the studio numerous times but was not recorded until 1968; the other Beatles kidded Ringo that the song sounded like a Jerry Lee Lewis B-side.196

The Fourth Single: “She Loves You” / “I’ll Get You” In June 1963 the Beatles acquired the instruments that would fix their sound and their stage appearance in the world’s imagination: Starr bought a new American Ludwig kit and Harrison took on the Country Gentleman; both became their owners’ primary instruments through 1964.197 Harrison, a student of the playing of Gibson ES-295-wielding Scotty Moore, Gretsch hollowbody players Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins, Duane Eddy, and Eddie Cochran, Telecaster players Paul Burlison (lead guitarist for Johnny Burnette) and James Burton (lead guitarist for Rick Nelson), and Luther Perkins (lead guitarist for Johnny Cash), was developing his own distinctive lead style with boogie patterns, chords with nonresolving added tones, lines in octaves, low E-string glissandi between the roots of V and I (as in “Please Please Me”), and brief, motivic “commenting” licks in between phrases (as in “Please Please Me,” “From Me to You,” and “She Loves You”), turning more and more toward a pentatonic language in an otherwise major context. Harrison was intrigued by new guitar colors, and the Country Gent had a brighter timbre still than the Duo-Jet and one naturally highly reminiscent of Clovis, Nashville, and Memphis players. In the summer of 1963, Harrison said, “One day I want to sit down, give it a lot of thought — and come up with a completely revolutionary idea for a new guitar. They could call it the Harrison guitar.”198 Soon after he bought the Country Gent, Harrison reintroduced Holly’s “Words of Love” into the group’s repertoire, probably for the reasonable imitation by the new Gretsch of the bright ringing full-treble Strat tone in Holly’s model. The Beatles performed “Words” on the BBC on July 16 and recorded it at EMI a year later. The new guitar was also very effective for recreating the Duane Eddy “twang” in bent notes and on the open sixth string, and this soon colors “It Won’t Be Long” (recorded July 30).199 Harrison would soon take textural advantage of

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

the instrument’s bright tone by playing more often his loud, slowly arpeggiating whole-note chords to chime the chord changes in bridge sections. This has quite a different effect from when done with the Jumbo for seven changes in “P.S. I Love You.” For evidence, listen to the bridges of “Hold Me Tight” and “Don’t Bother Me” (both taped September 12, 1963). The Beatles returned to EMI on July 1, 1963, to record both sides of their next single, “She Loves You” / “I’ll Get You,” in two three-hour sessions. Both sides would be mixed on July 4 for release on August 23. “She Loves You” “Of all the early singles, no other combines their mastery of pop styling with the rapture it incited from their audience —Beatlemania — as manically as ‘She Loves You.’ Everything here can be traced to earlier material (the beat, the hooks, the formal ingenuity), but nothing that came before hints at this kind of power.”200 “She Loves You” is the foremost example of the Beatles’ ardent early works, which cohere by virtue of a greater degree of structural tension than is heard in most of their later work. Support for this argument can be found in the sparing, calculated use for dramatic effect of registral contrasts and rhythmic emphasis, in the clever announcement of harmonic and voice-leading events from the body of a song by its intro, in the commanding strength of the expansion of structural harmonies and in the powerful retransitions based on elaborated dominants, variously expressive of either ecstasy or pain. Perhaps more economically than any other early Beatle song, “She Loves You” displays a substantial variety of dissonance treatment and a rich exploitation of motivic functions on both surface and structural levels, usually in an unambiguous setting of an idea in the poetic text.201 Because of its historical importance and compositional ingenuity, my analysis will penetrate the song as deeply as space allows. After a show on a Wednesday night (June 26) in northern Newcastle-uponTyne, John and Paul wrote “She Loves You” in their hotel room. On the following Monday, all four were in London, recording a polished performance of the biggest British hit before 1977.202 Lennon remembers, “It was written together . . . I remember it was Paul’s idea: Instead of singing ‘I love you’ again, we’d have a third party.” McCartney recalls the song’s genesis: “John and I wrote it together. I thought of it first and thought of doing it as one of those answering songs. You know, the sort of thing the American singing groups keep doing. A couple of us would sing ‘she loves you’ and the others would do the ‘yeah yeah yeah’ lines. . . . Then John and I agreed it was a pretty crummy idea. . . . But at least we had the basic idea of writing the song. That night in Newcastle we just sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it.” Paul has said more recently, “I remember for some reason thinking of Bobby Rydell; he must have had a hit that we were interested in.”203 Bobby Rydell’s “Forget Him” (written by Tony Hatch) peaked at #11 on the June 29, 1963, Melody Maker chart, and several of its features appear in “She Loves You.” As for the lyrics, it is an advice song that involves a third party. Its introduction has a chorus descending a filled-in third as it repeats “for-get him, for-get him,” but from 5 to 3, as opposed to the 8 – 7– 6 “yeah, yeah, yeah” de-

Composers at Work

Example 2.34 “Forget Him” (Tony Hatch). © 1963, Universal MCA Music Publishing. 15


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scent of “She Loves You.” Both the Rydell song and McCartney’s vocal line in “She Loves You” rise stepwise from 1 to 7 to open the respective verses, a rather striking though rhythmically veiled resemblance. But the strongest similarity links the cadences of both verses. That in Rydell’s song is shown in example 2.34. Following a repeated 8 –7– 6 descent (mm. 17–18), the dominantpreparatory harmony (Em7) moves to the half cadence through a mixtureenhanced minor IVf chord (m. 19). Note how, in “She Loves You,” the 8–7– 6 motto in George’s guitar (B+1– 4 [0:26 – 0:31]) leads to the same IVf –V7 (B+5 – 8 [0:32– 0:38]). The Beatles’ hard-hitting appropriation of Rydell’s sympathetic pap symbolizes well the passing of the torch from American teen idols to the British beat boom. Because the working tapes for this day’s recordings no longer exist (and these are among the last such missing documents of Beatle songs), little is known about the recording process. We don’t even know how many takes or edits were required for either A- or B-side. But the recording of “She Loves You” has exactly the same arrangement (without harmonica, handclaps, or keyboard) as performed live many times, and so it can be assumed that overdubs were not necessary.204 The recording features Lennon’s vocal and electrified Jumbo, McCartney’s bass and vocal (usually in parallel thirds above Lennon’s), Harrison’s vocal (which normally doubles McCartney’s part at the unison for occasional emphasis but is tacet for much of the song) and new Country Gent, and Starr’s new Ludwig kit. It was Martin’s idea to begin the song with an introductory chorus rather than with the verse. He also disagreed with the composers over the final sonority, which he thought passé and, he feared, would be associated with the Andrews Sisters and Glenn Miller. McCartney: “Occasionally we’d overrule [Martin], like on ‘She Loves You,’ we end on a sixth chord, a very jazzy sort of thing, and he said, ‘Oh! You can’t do that! A sixth chord? It’s too jazzy.’ We just said, ‘No, it’s a great hook, we’ve got to do it.’ ”205 McCartney gives Harrison credit for the idea of the added sixth, a sonority that the guitarist had of course been playing for years and that had been the final guitar chord in prior Beatles songs. But this chord is not played on guitars, sounding instead in the three-part vocal chord in which Harrison sustains the nontriad member (despite the score, Paul sings g2, George e2, and John d2). The only three-part sung added sixth chord among their cover songs occurs at the conclusion of Elvis Presley’s “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear” (voiced differently there), but the sonority’s unresolved 6 is also reminiscent of Fats Domino’s “Coquette” and the

175

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Someone to Love, Somebody New (1960–1963)

Shadows’ “Midnight.” I will investigate hereafter how the combination of 6 with I is of the most integral motivic value in this song and in later Lennon efforts, but first I must give Ringo credit for highlighting the chord’s first appearance by beginning, two bars before the verse begins (at A–2 [0:10]), his rhythm of continuous eighths on a hi-hat that percussionist Steven Baur notes is both unusually loose and hard hit for maximum crash, sizzle, and ring.206 The poetic text of “She Loves You” has the singer’s persona consoling a friend who believes that he has lost his love with the news that she is ready to forgive him for a past offense that goes nameless. “She Loves You” and many other early Beatle songs have been dismissed for their juvenile lyrics, as they often are simply joyful celebrations of adolescent love. But these songs are powerful in their vocal exuberance — as Simon Frith has said, Lennon’s music “involves an urgent eagerness to be heard”— and the poetic text of “She Loves You” seems the perfect vehicle for such urgency.207 The surface of “She Loves You” is tension-filled. This is partly due to a strong rhythmic drive created by such devices as the strongly accented beat-dividing syncopations in the strumming throughout and in the syncopated snare flams that follow the “yeah, yeah, yeah” motto within the chorus (C+2 should have grace notes in the drum part), the stop-time fourth-beat rests near the end of the chorus (C+5 [1:11]), the unexpected repetitions of the final phrase of the last chorus (analogous to a pair of deceptive cadences that are finally set right, Coda), and the suspension of the tempo at the song’s structural, dramatically embellished V7 (D–1– 2 [2:03 – 2:05] are a single bar, molto rit.). All of these aspects mark other pre-1966 Beatle songs: the drum syncopations are reheard in “Ticket to Ride” (1965), the fourth-beat rests characterize the refrain of “The One after 909,” the repeated deceptive cadences conclude “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and closing caesurae grace “It Won’t Be Long” and “In My Life.” The surface feature that represents the greatest tension, however, is the twopart falsetto “ooh” on a structural V (C–1– 2 [1:02–1:03]). These are the two points at which the performers shook their famous haircuts, leading to surges of audience hysteria. This is preserved in films, including the final, mimed, stage performance of “She Loves You” in the 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night.208 At this climax, we have no augmented triad, important in previous retransitions. Here, the fifth of V, A, is altered otherwise: Lennon’s voice ascends to its upper neighbor, b2, a falsetto octave above the baritone’s prolonged 2, a1, which had been established in B+5 (0:32) and which Harrison sings at C–1– 2.209 This ascending registral shift compliments a descending shift heard at the beginning of the refrain (B [0:25 – 0:38]), as both voices shift down from g2 to g1. The transfer seems to bind together the corporeal world of the low register with the emotion-charged upper register. The combination of the two registers at the falsetto V seems then to express both a physical and a spiritual ecstasy. Structural octave shifts such as that in “She Loves You” are featured in every imaginable tonal context throughout the Beatles’ pre-1966 music. Witness those on 1 in “I Saw Her Standing There” (refrain, 0:23 – 0:25 and elsewhere) and “I’m a Loser” (verse, 0:19 – 0:20), on 2 in “It Won’t Be Long” (retransition, 0:51– 0:55), on 3 in “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (refrain, 0:19 – 0:22), “I

Composers at Work

Should Have Known Better” (bridge, 1:00 –1:02), and “Yes It Is” (end of verse to retransition, 0:55 –1:13), on 4 in “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” (beginning of transition to end of retransition, 0:52–1:08), on 5 in “From Me to You” (retransition, 0:46 – 0:49) and “Wait” (opening arpeggiation, 0:00 – 0:01), on 6 in “No Reply” (verse to beginning of bridge, 0:02 and 0:14 – 0:17), and on 7 in “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (verse, 0:13 – 0:22) and “If I Fell” (introduction, 0:05 – 0:06). In “She Loves You,” expressive registral placement is married to thematic design. The intro and later choruses feature the descent from g2 through fs2 to e2, the carrier of the emphatic “yeah, yeah, yeah.” In the song proper, this motive is first heard at the beginning of the refrain, played in filled-in octaves by Harrison’s muted guitar at B+1– 2 (0:26 – 0:28) and repeated, suddenly unmuted, at B+3 – 4 (0:29 – 0:31). (Harrison deliberately muted the octaves played under the vocals, thereby articulating them primarily “in the gaps,” correcting a problem for which he had been chastised in “Please Please Me,” which had been recorded with a Duo-Jet that lacked a mute switch.) At the beginning of the refrain, the friend for whom the song is performed is glum, downcast — that is why the word “bad” is sung on the low e1 and is harmonized in minor by VI. This lowest motion from G to E, in the bass (B+2 – 3 [0:29]), outlines the motive. In the final chorus, the same direct bass motion from G to E precipitates the deceptive endings mentioned previously. In the refrain, the guitar’s midregister repetition of the “yeah, yeah, yeah” motive might be heard either as a representation of the glum friend’s tired reaction to the advice he believes he has heard before, or as an extension of the singer, who expresses his message in the glum friend’s lower register so as to seem particularly sympathetic. With the latter hearing, the guitar acts as if it is attempting to raise the friend’s chin, by emphasizing a line, G – Fs – E in the sympathetic midregister, that will prove to be one of emphatic encouragement when it comes to the fore in the voices an octave higher in the chorus. It is as if the guitar, by pointing, gesturing toward a higher register, is telling the friend that he should rise to his beloved’s higher level. And the ascending gesture could be clearly visible in live performances where Harrison rolls the chords in question “backward,” from bright first string upward, with obvious relish in the high overtones emphasized from attack through the duration of the sonority. This listener prefers, however, the former reading, which has the guitar symbolize the reaction of the friend, who is filled with self-doubt. Through the guitar’s G – Fs– E motive, the friend mocks the singer’s news (“yeah, yeah, yeah —I’ve heard it all before”), and in the refrain’s first ending, the guitar’s low-register [025] blue-note lick, with its strong hint of an aggressive Vs9 chord, makes the friend sound like he’s sulking. In the second verse, the singer reveals that he speaks from a privileged position, as he is probably aware of the details of the past hurt for which his friend feels guilt, and so the falsetto shriek at the end of the second refrain gets through to the friend, who may be convinced of the promised state of forgiveness and gladness and who may be somewhat uplifted by the chorus’s upper-register “yeah, yeah, yeah”s. The friend is possibly also affected by the singer’s sympathetic ear, an attitude portrayed by

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the conjunction of John’s bf1 (C+6 [1:12]) and Paul’s bn1 (C+7 [1:13]); the singer has apparently heard the friend’s blue s9 chord in the guitar but still concludes that he should be “glad.” Lennon’s blue singing here reverberates with that in his vocal for “Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms),” which he was to record the following day for the BBC. The G – Fs– E guitar motive is strikingly syncopated (to make sure the listener hears the opening vocal “yeah, yeah, yeah” echoing in its strings). Beatlologist Alan Pollack finds this interesting: The fact that this sort of syncopation is used so sparingly within this song makes this instance the more powerful. Indeed, there are two additional reasons for the powerful effect here yet again teaching us how “less is more”: 1. the same syncopation is not repeated in the next phrase where (rote) symmetry would have argued for it. . . . 2. [T]he chord for our syncopation is G but the choice for the low note in the bass is B, putting the chord in its first inversion which carries less weight than the root position.210

Of course, McCartney learned in “Standing There” how moving from I to I6 can lift a song towards its climax; “She Loves You” takes us on a dotted-rhythm bass-line roller coaster until its first climax is reached at C–1– 2 (1:02–1:03). Each of the three tones of the G – Fs – E motive has varied meanings. The g2 of the “She Loves You” chorus is prepared by McCartney’s dramatic 7 in C–2. This inner-voice fs2 had been set up in register as a stable consonance, as the fifth of III, in A+3 (0:16). Reinterpreted as the third of V in A+4 (1:18), fs2 becomes a tendency tone that moves to g2 at B+1 (0:26). (“I Want to Hold Your Hand” will give & a similar dual-harmonization, as it appears first — at the end of the verse [0:20]— as the stable fifth of III before it becomes, early in the refrain [0:23], a tendency-tone over V.)211 Not only does the singer communicate the song’s title in the strongest possible way by exposing it in a register well above the fundamental line, but he constantly reharmonizes the g – fs– e motion, the affirming “yeah, yeah, yeah,” as if to get his simple message across in as many ways as possible, by exploring the common-tone functions of G and E. In the intro, the three-note motto is sung against an Em chord, an A7 chord, and then a C chord — the three triads or seventh chords (irrespective of further chromatic alterations) that contain both E and G. In the coda, following the guitar’s articulation of this motive against the tonic G chord, the chorus’s Em and A7 chords are telescoped, both represented at the same moment: in D+3 (2:09 – 2:11), McCartney plays E in the bass, Lennon’s rhythm guitar sounds an Em chord, and Harrison’s lead guitar simultaneously articulates A7 (before cs1 slips down to cn1). This sort of reharmonization for motivic emphasis, as I have noted regarding the coda of “From Me to You” and the intro to “I’m in Love,” is characteristic of the early Beatles style, and it is also practiced in the bridge of “I’ll Get You” as well as the later “Yes It Is” and “Help!”212 The reharmonization, in the coda of “She Loves You,” of 1 and 6 as common tones during a prolonged plagal cadence achieved by following IIs with IV casts s4 as a descending chromatic passing tone from the 5 to 3. This creates a favorite voice-leading structure, involving the line 5–s4–4–3, in the Beatles’ early

Composers at Work

music. Other examples will be encountered in “I Call Your Name,” “Baby’s in Black,” “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party,” “You Won’t See Me,” “Eight Days a Week,” “Yesterday,” “In My Life,” and “She’s Leaving Home.”213 It was noted earlier that unlike the augmented triad that appears with a related function in “From Me to You,” the falsetto V of “She Loves You” (C–1– 2 [1:02–1:03]) contains an added sixth above the root. This added B, which does not resolve back to the fifth of the chord, is otherwise reminiscent of a cadential ∞. The Vadd6, which appears in the verse, A+4 (0:18 – 0:19), as well as in the refrain’s second ending, is like those in other G-major songs. The same sonority concludes the retransition of “You Can’t Do That” (at 1:06 there) and the verse of “I Should Have Known Better” (at 0:12 there). It is a clever transposition of the more significant Iadd6, which dominates “She Loves You” by its appearances at the end of the intro and at the end of the coda. The joyful chord neatly expresses the motivic crux of the song, as it includes G and E, the boundaries of the song’s important motto, and more important, as it telescopes the three notes, D, E, and G, the [025] trichord of the song’s title as sung at the beginnings of the intro, the refrain, and the chorus. The Iadd6 has just been characterized as “joyful.” Deryck Cooke equates the major 6 with “pleasure” and “yearning” and says that “when it is exposed against the major [tonic] triad unresolved, it produces . . . the feeling of a continuous pleasurable longing, or longing for pleasure.”214 In keeping with this affect, the added sixth does not seem to require resolution, but rather sustains alongside the fifth as an imperfect consonance. The Beatles apparently consider it a full member of the tonic sonority. In A+2 (0:15) and A+6 (0:21), 6 appears within a bass arpeggiation of I; we know that a tonic G major chord functions at A+2 despite the E in the bass, because Paul’s vocal d2 is heard as a consonance, not as a dissonant seventh. Alternatively, in the opening of the refrain, McCartney’s bass arpeggiates I6 in its normal spelling. The consonant appearance of nontriadic tones in many early Beatles songs — compare the boogie playing in “Chains”— culminates in “This Boy.” Robert Gauldin has discussed aspects of Abbey Road in terms of Robert Bailey’s double-tonic complex.215 This complex, sounding like a major triad with added sixth, is formed, in Bailey’s words, by “the pairing together of two tonalities a minor third apart” and functions as an axis so that “one of the two elements is at any moment in the primary position while the other remains subordinate to it.”216 Despite the fact that Bailey goes on to caution the analyst that “the function of this major triad with added sixth [as heard in Wagner] should not be confused with the function of the added – 6th chord in twentieth-century popular music, which acts simply as a decorated triad (a triad with an extra nontriadic note),” it seems that the G – B – D – E sonority of “She Loves You” would be an excellent candidate for Bailey’s complex.217 While E minor is never tonicized in “She Loves You” (not a requirement for Bailey), it often assumes a primary position over that of the tonic (as seen in Lennon’s “I’m in Love”), as a dark shadow engulfing the brighter major mode: the song begins with an Em chord for an incomplete progression, the E minor sonority obscures I for the word “bad” (B+3 – 4 [0:29 – 0:31]) and with every ubiquitous appearance of

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the G – Fs– E motive, and G major gives way to Em for the ultimate pair of deceptive cadences. The final added-sixth chord is not simply “a decorated triad” but a motivic summary of many of the work’s important relationships, as well as a reminder of the shadow that follows the singer’s friend.218 Thus the song’s tonal, registral, and instrumental forces combine to create tension at both surface and structural levels, so as to portray the contrast between sulking ache and ecstatic joy. “I’ll Get You” “Get You in the End,” as the B-side was known until shortly before the record’s labels were printed for release, has a foursquare verse-refrain (A [0:08 – 0:38]) and a contrasting bridge (B [1:09 –1:24]). The verse-refrain alternates between unison, harmony (parallel thirds then fourths are heard both at the end of the verse [A+1– 8 (0:08 – 0:23)] and in the beginning of the refrain [A+9 –16 (0:24 – 0:38)]), unison, and octaves in the two composer’s vocal parts. The octaves that emphasize “oh, yeah!” to conclude both the refrain and the bridge are stunning in reaching down to the foundation of Lennon’s vocal range. This tessitura, which had been used for comic effect in the Coasters covers, is suddenly expressive of an affirmation of truth. There is a bit of subtle humor in the text’s bravado and in the assumption of a foregone conclusion in the bridge’s combination of the chromatic II7s harmony with a suggestion of surrender that belies the seriousness of the parallel perfect intervals in this low register, but one does not find it comic. The chromatic chord ending the bridge is not new; it represents once again the move in a bridge from the flat side to the sharp side. The vocal arrangement, however, is quite new: McCartney is leading here, and Lennon has composed a lower harmony part that reharmonizes each of the three appearances of McCartney’s 3–2–1 motive (B+1– 2 [1:09 –1:12], 3 – 4 [1:13 –1:16], and 5 – 6 [1:17–1:20]).219 The chord that has not appeared before is the surprising modal sound of the neighboring minor V7, heard in the refrain (A+10 [0:25 – 0:27]). McCartney’s vocal sounds like it existed prior to Lennon’s line here as well, as the 5 prolonged in A+9 (0:24 – 0:25) is repeated two bars later (and eventually descends through 4, A+13 [0:31], 3 and 2, A+14 [0:33 – 0:34], to 1, A+15 [0:35]).220 (Note also that John’s overdubbed harmonica part virtually duplicates Paul’s line here.) After the minor V, the progression is the same I –VI, IV–V– I, with the same metric placement at the phrase level, heard in the bridge of “How Do You Do It,” the bridge of “Take Good Care of My Baby,” and the refrain of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

The Final Two-Track Recordings (July – October 1963) Beatlemania: The Second Half of 1963 The Beatles were a long way from the provincial status they had held at the beginning of 1963. While “She Loves You,” released August 23, received some poor notices, it outsold every previous British record. McCartney recalls that

The Final Two-Track Recordings

“the very first week that came out it was supposed to be the worst song the Beatles had ever thought of doing.” The single “went immediately to number one based on advance orders of 500,000 copies.”221 The millionth British copy was recognized with a gold record awarded on October 11. This quick a sale would have been stunning in the United States but it is more so in Britain, with its population of only 52 million in 1963. The record’s chart history is unprecedented and unmatched since: it jumped from an initial appearance at #12 (August 31) straight to #1, where it remained for five weeks. Then, following six weeks in the #3, #4, and #2 positions, it climbed back for two more weeks at the top, this second rise coinciding with the release on November 22 of the group’s second LP. “She Loves You” did not leave the Top Ten until February 1964. Bruce Spizer points out that “She Loves You” was also the Beatles’ first Canadian hit, and it was a blockbuster there too. Released by EMI’s affiliate, Capitol of Canada, in September 1963, the record was played by CKWS of Kingston, Ontario, in October and entered the nation’s standard chart surveyed by CHUM in Toronto on December 2 at #42. It jumped to #15 within two weeks and then to #5 on December 23, well before the Beatles were picked up on radar south of the border, reaching #1 on January 13, 1964 — several weeks before the Beatles would hit #1 in the States — for a nine-week stay, with a full twenty-two weeks on the station’s playlist.222 “She Loves You” did not become a hit in the United States until after “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was to plant the Beatles’ foothold there in 1964. Back in Britain, the group enjoyed many abundances, firsts, and lasts; they recorded sixty-two songs for the BBC from July 2 to August 1; throngs of screaming fans were now commonplace at concerts; their last Cavern appearance was August 3 (Epstein feared for their safety in any hall without a raised stage); they were voted the nation’s most popular recording artists in a September Melody Maker poll; and their rapidly growing fan club demanded a monthly magazine, The Beatles Monthly Book, which began publication in August. Its “first issue sold 111,000 copies, the second reached 200,000, and by the sixth issue the magazine was selling 350,000.”223 The Beatles had an unprecedented seven records on the charts in the December 7 issue of Melody Maker.224 Liverpool was no longer a sensible base, and so the group moved to hotel rooms in Mayfair, London, in early October. The London press coined the term “Beatlemania” for the incredible mobs in the streets outside the October 13 performance at the London Palladium. For a television audience estimated at 15 million, the Beatles played “From Me to You,” “I’ll Get You,” “She Loves You,” and “Twist and Shout,” by which time George and John had graduated to Vox AC-50 amplifiers in an effort to outpower the mob. This Super-Twin amp with two woofers had a reverb circuit plus a selector switch to run five different voltages, suitable for overdriving the preamp for a range of sustained distortion levels at low volumes. On October 17, the Beatles taped their fifth single and a Christmas message for their fan club; for this, John led a demented version of “Good King Wenceslas,” dipping down to D for another comic use of his lowest register. Sessions for the second album

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were scattered among national touring dates, July – October, a period ending with a week-long Swedish tour. Selected set lists appear in table 2.6. The group’s prominence led to a Royal Command performance on November 4. They had as many televised appearances as could fit, were the subject of a documentary film, The Mersey Sound, and many newsreels (such as “Beatles Come to Town,” still enjoying theatrical circulation thirty years hence), and were approached with ideas for a feature film.225 The year ended with Christmas shows with Rolf Harris, twice nightly for a week in London, while the Beatles’ music was the subject for a London ballet, Mods and Rockers. At the dawn of London fashion, the Beatles were the major attraction.

The Second LP: With the Beatles The Beatles’ second collection for Parlophone was produced over the course of eleven sessions from July through October, five with the entire group and six for the purposes of individual overdubs, editing, and mixing. The fourteen new recordings (no sides from singles were to be included), comprising six covers and eight original compositions, were taped in a total of thirty hours of studio time. All but one of the covers, the exception being “Till There Was You,” come from the R&B repertoire, played with more drive than shown in the originals. Charles Gower Price says: “Although the Beatles’ versions often lacked the delicate layering of textures and rhythmic buoyancy of the carefully produced originals, they . . . adapted the songs . . . with their own driving instrumental accompaniment.”226 Part of the power comes from McCartney’s new Vox T-60 amp, first used at EMI for the July single. But McCartney is playing powerfully as well. In “Hold Me Tight,” for example, his churning bass playing seems to exhaust him nearly to the point of losing control of his vocal. The bass amp is also treated more prominently in the mix. Dennis Alstrand says that With the Beatles “was the first album where ROCK bass playing first crawled from the ocean and breathed air. On most of the album, George Martin and engineer Norman Smith decided to let the bass come up front and for good reason. The playing is solid and wild, especially for the times. Ringo and Paul have developed, by this album, an awesome matching of power that few other bands could boast.”227 But the LP was not entirely power-driven; the cover of “Till There Was You” is positively delicate. We don’t know when Harrison acquired the José Ramírez nylon-stringed classical acoustic guitar with which he graces “Till There Was You” and “And I Love Her,” but I would guess this happened between the July 18 and July 30 sessions devoted to the basic tracks of “Till.” Lewisohn 1988 notes that the three takes of the 18th were abandoned and the Beatles remade their basic tracks on the 30th, and he suggests that Ringo switched from the Ludwig toms to bongos for the remake.228 It seems quite logical that a change of guitar, from the two Gretsches (with which Harrison had played this song both in concert and broadcasts) to the new nylon-string, a change made to better evoke the Latin style of the Peggy Lee model, would have led to Ringo’s move to the bongos. The sessions ran as given in table 2.7. Note that most of the borrowed ma-

The Final Two-Track Recordings

Table 2.6 Evolving Set Lists, July – December 1963: July 10, Margate: “Roll Over Beethoven” “Thank You Girl” “Chains” “Please Please Me” “A Taste of Honey” “I Saw Her Standing There” “Baby It’s You” “From Me to You” “Twist and Shout” October 25–30, Swedish tour: “Long Tall Sally” “Please Please Me” “I Saw Her Standing There” “From Me to You” “A Taste of Honey” “Chains” “Boys” “She Loves You” “Twist and Shout” November 1–3, December 1–13, U.K. tour: “I Saw Her Standing There” “From Me to You” “All My Loving” “You Really Got a Hold On Me” “Roll Over Beethoven” “Boys” “Till There Was You” “She Loves You” “Money” “Twist and Shout” December 24 –31, London: “Roll Over Beethoven” “All My Loving” “This Boy” “I Wanna Be Your Man” “She Loves You” “Till There Was You” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” “Money” “Twist and Shout”

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Table 2.7 Recording Sessions for With the Beatles July 18: “You Really Got a Hold on Me” (seven takes of basic tracks, plus overdubs of Martin’s Steinway along with the group for the retransitions and coda) “Money (That’s What I Want)” (six takes plus an edit piece for Martin’s Steinway) “Devil in Her Heart” (three takes plus overdubs of Starr’s maracas) “Till There Was You” (three takes, unreleased) July 30: “Please Mr. Postman” (seven takes plus overdubs) “It Won’t Be Long” (eight takes plus overdubs for the ending) “Money” (more overdubs of Martin’s Steinway) “Till” (five more takes of basic tracks, with Starr on bongos instead of his kit, Lennon on Jumbo, Harrison on Ramírez nylon-string, McCartney on bass and solo vocal; no overdubs would be necessary) “Roll Over Beethoven” (five takes plus overdubs and an edit piece of Harrison’s final chord) “It Won’t” (overdubs of Lennon’s second vocal) “All My Loving” (ten takes plus overdubs of McCartney’s descant vocal) August 21: Editing: Takes 6 and 7 of “Money”; Takes 7, 10, and 11 of “You Really Got”; Takes 7 and 8 of “Roll Over”; Takes 17 and 21 of “It Won’t” Monophonic mixing: “Devil” (Take 6); “Money” (Edit); “You Really Got” (Edit); “Please Mr.” (Take 9); “Till” (Take 8); “Roll Over” (Edit); “All My” (Take 14); “It Won’t” (Edit) September 11: “I Wanna Be Your Man” (one take; unreleased) “Little Child” (two takes; unreleased) “All I’ve Got to Do” (fourteen takes plus an overdub) “Not a Second Time” (five takes plus overdubs of Lennon’s doubling vocal line and Martin’s Steinway, recorded simultaneously) “Don’t Bother Me” (four takes plus overdubs; unreleased) September 12: [Christmas messages for Australian fans, in four takes] “Hold Me Tight” (ten takes plus overdubs of Lennon-McCartney handclaps and harmony vocals, and edit pieces of second bridge) “Don’t Bother” (four more takes of basic tracks plus overdubs with Harrison’s doubled vocal, McCartney’s claves, Lennon’s tambourine, and Starr’s bongos) “Little Child” (five more takes of basic tracks plus overdubs with Lennon’s harmonica, McCartney’s Steinway, and Lennon’s harmonica solo) “I Wanna” (six more takes) September 30: Editing: Takes 15 and 18 of “Little Child”; Takes 26 and 29 of “Hold Me” “Money” (overdubs of Martin’s Steinway) “I Wanna” (overdubs of Martin’s Hammond organ) Monophonic mixing: “All I’ve Got” (Take 15); “Don’t Bother” (Take 15); “Little Child” (Edit; unreleased); “Hold Me” (Edit; unreleased); “Not a Second” (Take 9)

The Final Two-Track Recordings

Table 2.7 (continued) October 3: “I Wanna” (overdubs of Starr’s maracas) “Little Child” (more overdubs) October 17: “You Really Got” (Take 12, in four-track; unreleased) [“I Want to Hold Your Hand” (Takes 1–17)] [“This Boy” (Takes1–17)] [The Beatles’ Christmas Record] October 23: “I Wanna” (overdub) Monophonic mixing: “I Wanna” (Take 16); “Little Child” (Take 21); “Hold Me” (second mix of Edit of Takes 26 and 29) October 29: Stereophonic mixing (from same working tapes used for previous mono mixes): “It Won’t”; “All I’ve Got”; “All My”; “Don’t Bother”; “Little Child”; “Till”; “Please Mr.”; “Roll”; “Hold Me”; “You Really Got”; “I Wanna”; “Devil”; “Not a Second”; “Money” (this last mix went unreleased) October 30: Stereophonic mixing: “Money” (stereo mix, each channel having a different two-track monophonic mix of Take 7 as overdubbed on September 30)

terial was taped before most of the original songs, probably indicating that the Lennon-McCartney selections were composed just prior to recording. (A few non-LP projects are indicated in brackets.)229 Lennon’s Motown Trio: “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” “Please Mr. Postman,” and “Money (That’s What I Want)” In all their years together, the Beatles are known to have performed only three songs originating in Berry Gordy’s Detroit establishment, Motown, and all three appear on this LP: “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” (as originally titled by composer Smokey Robinson), “Please Mr. Postman,” and “Money (That’s What I Want).” Among all early Beatle recordings, these stand out for their lack of important ideas for the guitar. Most of the interest lies in the vocal arrangement (John sings lead in each) and the Steinway grand as an important rhythm carrier. In “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” the intro features one of Lennon’s favorite harmonic ideas, the alternation of I –VI – I –VI, which derives from the verse (A [0:14 – 0:25]). Lennon sings lead and Harrison provides a lower harmony vocal, the two in predominantly parallel and similar motions throughout. McCartney also joins in the refrains (B [1:22–1:35]).230 A similarly homophonic vocal texture is heard in McCartney’s and Harrison’s backing vocal parts for “Please Mr. Postman,” but this supports a doubletracked lead vocal by Lennon that is rhythmically independent of the vocal harmony. A nearly identical three-part vocal texture will emerge in the verses of Lennon’s “Help!” in 1965, while the voice leading and harmony point to Starr’s

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Example 2.35 “Roll Over Beethoven” (Chuck Berry). © 1956, Isalee Music Publishing Co.


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  ♮  

Bass

 

“Octopus’s Garden,” 1969.231 “Money (That’s What I Want)” is a raver; note the fact that the ride cymbal is reserved for the last two choruses, at which point it is heard in energetically constant eighths. The verses feature Starr’s toms. It’s built around a bass ostinato, with a screaming vocal from Lennon. As was the similarly sung “Twist and Shout” for Please Please Me, “Money” is this LP’s closer.232 Harrison’s Covers: “Roll Over Beethoven” and “(There’s a) Devil in Her Heart” Just as “Tutti-Frutti” was highlighted at the top of Side 2 on Elvis Presley’s first LP for RCA, Side 2 of With the Beatles opens with a hard-rocking cover version; note the blues boogie in Lennon’s “Guitar II” part. “Roll Over Beethoven” has probably the best-imitated Harrison cover of a Berry guitar solo (“Guitar I” at A and D). It is reliant on the pentatonic-minor scale and has frequent double stops, both of which factors influence the repeated syncopated passage in A+5 – 8 (0:06 – 0:11).233 In performance, the interior solo usually continues for two choruses, the second improvised. The guitar’s tacked-on final ninth chord is voiced as shown in example 2.35. A similar guitar voicing (major ninth chord, with added sixth in place of the seventh) is heard in the final chord of “(There’s a) Devil in Her Heart.” This obscure song is noteworthy for its three-part vocals, with Harrison singing solo and the others usually attempting to steer him, acting as his conscience. The bridge (B [0:24 – 0:42]) begins on the flat side and invokes mode mixture with Harrison’s descending chromatic line; this descent, 6–f6–5, figures in many Beatle melodies and countermelodies of this album and, as I have shown, of this period. The bridge ends just as firmly on the sharp side, as the imagery moves from that of a devil to that of an angel, by approaching V with its own applied V7. In fact, the fiery contrast of altered scale degrees is so strong in this section that the attention-demanding retransition boils over with an extra fifth bar of three-part a cappella stop-time singing on V7 in repeated eighths.234 Three Original Rockers: “Hold Me Tight,” “Little Child,” and “I Wanna Be Your Man” “Hold Me Tight” was an old Cavern number that had been recorded for Please Please Me, but it lay dormant after its exclusion from that album. The “extra” February tape may have already disappeared by September, when the Beatles decided to rerecord the song for their second LP. The song is built upon a bass

The Final Two-Track Recordings

Example 2.36 “Hold Me Tight” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.


♭    ♭  ♭ 



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It PM



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GH gtr

           

feels

 



so

right,



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♭ 

ostinato, played by both McCartney and Lennon, that looks forward to “Birthday.”235 The song is said by its composer, McCartney, to have been inspired a bit by the Shirelles.236 Perhaps he was thinking of his gospel-based responsorial refrain (A+9 –16 [0:17– 0:31]), where the two backing vocalists repeat the singer’s words in close succession — this is the texture of the retransition of the Shirelles’ “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” (performed but never recorded by the Beatles): “when the night [when the night] meets the morn- [meets the morn-] ing sun.” Note in this passage the mixture-related motive d2– df2– c2, 6–f6–5, in Harrison’s vocal part, just as he had sung in “Devil in Her Heart.” (Because tapes of the February arrangement of “Hold Me Tight” do not survive, chronological priority of this motive in the two songs cannot be established.) Mixture is also present in the I –fIII – I progression in the bridge (B [1:00 – 1:04]), on which progression the coda, mentioned earlier in relation to “P.S. I Love You,” is based. Note how the cross-relations here involving An and Af are emphasized by the whole-note chiming in Harrison’s Country Gent (“Guitar II”). Also of interest is the texture of the retransitional bar (example 2.36, 1:10 –1:11). Here, two vocalists articulate the same syllables on each quarter note, but Lennon supplies upper-neighbor eighths that increase the density, especially in tandem with McCartney’s lead vocal, which stretches the neighbor function over two quarters. This vocal texture is actually guitar-motivated and is heard in many two-part Berry solos. Compare as well the bent eighths in the various solos for “I Saw Her Standing There,” as in example 2.24c (m. 11). Of “Little Child,” the last track added to the album’s lineup, Lennon says, “this was a knock-off between Paul and me.”237 Its tempo, ostinato, and texture are similar to those in “Hold Me Tight,” even though John and Paul sing in unison (except for the plaintive line “I’m so sad and lonely,” sung in Everlys thirds), McCartney plays a piano overdub (his first EMI appearance on an instrument that was once the basis of his stage act with the Beatles), and there are no guitars in the mix.238 The coda fades with a repeated vaudevillian progression of applied Vs, I –VIs7– IIs7–V7, not recorded by the Beatles since “Ain’t She Sweet.” George Martin had added the Steinway grand to “Misery,” “You Really Got a Hold on Me,” “Money (That’s What I Want),” and “Not a Second Time,” and

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McCartney played the same instrument on “Little Child,” but Ringo’s vocal number for this LP, “I Wanna Be Your Man,” was the first of many Beatle tracks to feature EMI’s Hammond B-3 organ, added by the producer while the group was on holiday. McCartney recalls borrowing from the song “Fortune Teller” by Benny Spellman (released May 1962).239 Like “Hold Me Tight” and “Little Child,” “I Wanna Be Your Man” was predominantly by McCartney, but Lennon helped finish it during a September 10 Rolling Stones session.240 The Stones recorded the song in C, but the Beatles do it in E. Whereas Ringo sings lead, the composers provide vocals for the chorus (B [0:21– 0:31]). Although the chords are different (they compare more closely to the coda of “Little Child”), note that the same chromatic line, 5–s4–4–3, that was the basis of the “She Loves You” chorus is heard here in McCartney’s descant (0:25 – 0:29).241 But the hard blues-rock language of the verse sets the stage for “A Hard Day’s Night.” “It Won’t Be Long” Lennon’s first new composition for the collection was its eventual opener, “It Won’t Be Long,” the LP’s only original recording begun before all basic tracks of covers were complete. Terence O’Grady has written perceptively about three important aspects of the song’s verse (B [0:15 – 0:27]): its borrowing of the mixture-related I –fVI – I progression from “Honey Don’t,” its elision of the fourth bar (at 0:21), producing a large metric structure of 3+4 measures, and its melodic affinities with “Please Please Me” (a descent from 8 to 5, the goal of which is ornamented by an upper neighbor).242 The vocal 1–7–5– (n)6–5 motive is developed in the first four eighths of Harrison’s guitar response (B–2 [0:12– 0:13]), which then arpeggiates down to an Eddy-inspired open E string, sometimes doubled by the bass, at times (as at 0:42 and 1:23) overdriving its amp to the point of raw distortion.243 The chorus picks up on the verse’s 5–6–5 motive by alternating VI and I (after “She Loves You,” this song begins with VI for its “yeah-yeah” chorus), and introduces a new chromatic twist in the common-tone º7 (E – Gn– Bf– Df, A+6 [0:11]) that ornaments the final resolution of the otherwise plagal cadence. This cadence generally supports the vocal resolution of neighbor cs2 to structural b1, yet another important articulation of the 6–5 motive. Lennon’s chorus is also related to “Please Please Me” in that both titles allow for a dual usage of the word(s) “be-long”: “It Won’t Be Long till I belong to you.”244 The 5–6–5 motive is stated at two levels in the song’s bridge (D [0:42– 0:56]). On the surface, the line is heard in the first two bars of Lennon’s lead vocal. At the deepest level, Lennon also sings b1 (D+1 [0:42]) – cs2 (D+4 – 7 [0:49 – 0:54]) – b1 (D+8 [0:55 – 0:56]). But the bridge adds a new dimension of chromaticism to the 5–n6–5 motive of the verse and to the common-tone º7 of the chorus. Here, McCartney and Harrison sing a line in octaves that descends chromatically from 3 (over I, D+1 [0:43]) down to 1 (D+5 and 7 [0:49, 0:53 – 0:54]) and would then move down to the tacet 7 in D+8 (0:55 – 0:56) for the retransitional V7. (Instead of articulating 7, Paul’s voice reaches over to the seventh of V7, a2.) Note also in the bridge McCartney’s two bars (D+5 – 6) of bass fifths (A/e and B/fs, not shown in the score). This colorful doubling has not

The Final Two-Track Recordings

Example 2.37 “All My Loving” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.


♯♯  ♯♯ 

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been previously heard but will reappear in September and October in both the verse of “All I’ve Got to Do” and the bridge of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The chromatic descent of the bridge is recaptured in the song’s “Long” meno mosso coda, played in the bass and doubled in thirds by the Country Gent. Although the coda’s bass descent ends on 1, the 7 that had served as the chromatic line’s goal in the bridge is frozen into the final sonority, a tonic major-major seventh chord, rare for the Beatles but here just as significant motivically as is the final added sixth chord in “She Loves You.”245 “All My Loving” This song is McCartney’s first composition for the LP. “I think it was the first song where I wrote the words without the tune. I wrote the words on the tour bus during our tour [May 18 – June 9] with Roy Orbison. We did a lot of writing then. Then, when we got to the gig, I found a [backstage] piano and worked out the music.”246 Perhaps most remarkable in this song is the original rockabilly solo composed by Harrison, given as example 2.37. Played both with plectrum held by thumb and forefinger (for the lowest line) and with bare fingertips (for the upper parts), the solo varies between two and three parts, except for the single-line intro and conclusion. McCartney’s walking bass line becomes a major scale that descends a ninth in measures 5 – 8 of the solo; this line, as well as the II –V7– I harmonies that it supports in root position on downbeats, comes directly from the opening three bars of the verse. Scotty Moore, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran, and Buddy Holly exemplified the rockabilly sound produced by two and three simultaneously plucked parts, mostly in stepwise patterns with occasional bent notes for a bluesy emphasis. Harrison had learned to play the rockabilly parts to “That’s All Right (Mama),” “Glad All Over,” “Your True Love,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” “Midnight Shift,” “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes,” “The Honeymoon Song (Bound by Love),” “So How Come (No One Loves Me),” and “I Got a Woman” (this last containing passages that presage the lead riffs in “Help!”), before he added his own solos to “Boys” and “All My Loving.” The Bill Black Combo, a rockabilly group

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from Memphis, toured the United States with the Beatles in 1964. The Beatles (in both group and solo capacities) enjoyed many associations with Perkins, recording together as late as a June 1996 Perkins-Harrison collaboration for Go Cat Go! The third verse (A [1:15 –1:39]), which directly follows Harrison’s solo, is identical to the first and second verses (it repeats the lyrics of the first verse) except that McCartney has superimposed a descant part above his own structural melody that had previously appeared alone. In live performances, George sings the main melody and Paul the descant for the third verse. As happens in much classical music, the recapitulation of the primary theme (the verse structure) seems to have been influenced by an aspect of a contrasting section (the multiple lines of the rockabilly solo). Also of interest in the first half of the verse of “All My Loving” is its cadence, employing mixture to expand V7 (A+8) with a preliminary nVII chord (A+7 [0:10 – 0:11]). This chord functions as a consonant support for a1, in preparation for its dissonant role as the seventh above V. The verse structure has an interruption form, previously heard in “Sure to Fall (In Love with You)” and discussed in connection with “Till There Was You.” But, as shown by Naphtali Wagner, the structural upper voice is fully supported in two descents from 8, the first interrupted. The deep structure of the first eight bars moves from 8 /I at A+3 (0:04, through 7/III –6/VI –6/IV–5/I –4/II –3/VI) to 2/V7 at A+ 7 (0:10 – 0:13); the following eight bars return to 8/I and descend similarly through 2/V7 to 1/I (0:22– 0:24).247 Mixture appears beyond the cadence, as it also colors the backing vocals of the song’s chorus (C [0:50 –1:02]). Here (and in the coda) Harrison sings the same 6–f6–5 line he had sung in “Devil in Her Heart” and “Hold Me Tight.” Also note that McCartney’s tune in the verse proceeds in an almost completely stepwise manner, and usually in contrary motion with the walking bass line, except for the partially filled-in arpeggiation of VI in A+3 – 4 (0:04 – 0:06); this line (e2– ds2– cs2– gs1) is the basis of the lead melody of the chorus.248 By this point in 1963, the Beatles were finding their individual voices. The sentimental text of “All My Loving,” while typical of McCartney’s work, would not have been produced by Lennon. This song supports well Tim Riley’s assessment of the different interests of the group’s primary composers: “Lennon’s musical personality is obsessed with rhythm, and his lyrics most often rise above Paul’s. Paul was primarily a melodic thinker, both in the lyricism of his vocal lines and in the sweep of his bass playing; his gift lies in linear phrases, while Lennon’s jagged beats disrupt songs horizontally. McCartney’s texts are usually witty, charming, narrative, or sentimental. Lennon’s are more extreme: ascerbic, confessional, or maddeningly obtuse.”249 But McCartney’s rhythm threatens to break loose in the impromptu coda, where his vocal swings in a pre –“Can’t Buy Me Love” mode that predicts in a small way the much greater freedom to be taken in Beatle codas to come. “All I’ve Got to Do” Right from its dissonant, rhythmically free introductory guitar chord (see example 2.38) — a mixture-colored V minor ninth with root

The Final Two-Track Recordings

Example 2.38 “All I’ve Got to Do” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

 

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  ♮  

omitted, sounding over anticipatory 1 and 3 pedals (produced by a unique fingering pattern barred at the fifth fret) —Lennon’s “All I’ve Got to Do” sounds fresh and yet unsure.250 The chord’s deceptive resolution into VI for the opening verse (A [0:03 – 0:25]) marks these musicians as explorers of new territory. As if to attempt to solidify the tonal grounding of the song proper, McCartney offers stable fifth doublings of the roots of Lennon’s harmonies, still another alternation of VI and I. This solidity, articulated in longer-sustained bass rhythms for the second and third verses than for the first, is somewhat offset by Ringo’s offhand, understated, syncopated hi-hat rhythm, borrowed from “Anna (Go to Him).” (Had Lennon so directed him?) Just as he augments the root-position bass line with fifths in the verse, McCartney provides for the refrain (A+4 – 6 [0:10 – 0:14]) a descant vocal part, a descending pentatonic minor scale on VI (gs2– fs2– e2– cs2– b1– gs1). While the fifths should solidify the tonal grounding, their alternation in parallel motion is tonally ambiguous. While the refrain’s descant part is both diatonic in E major and supportive of the chord tones in the VI chord against which it is sung, its pentatonic nature defeats the strength of the tonal center, a condition never improved by any clear V function. And of course, the slow alternation of minor and major modes with VI and then I creates an unstable contrast of mood. In the lyrics, Lennon sounds as if he is trying to convince himself that he has what it takes to have his girl respond.251 His underlying insecurity, never made explicit in the poetic text, is portrayed by both the tentative opening chord and the IVf that ends the verse with a weak mixture-colored plagal cadence (0:20 – 0:25). This recaptures the A, the Cn, and the neighboring function of the opening sonority. Even though Lennon’s line rises to a higher register and is supported with backing vocals and more aggressive percussion in the bridge (B [0:48 –1:05]), the melody there is based on the defiant yet undirected pentatonic scale (repeating many times the d-trichord over VI, recalling the notes of McCartney’s earlier pentatonic descant), the backing vocals offer only neighbor relationships (cs2 moves to b1 in B+6 [0:58]), and the song’s strongest trace of V appends the bridge section, where the bass arpeggiates E – B – E (B+8 – 9 [1:01–1:04]) while I is sustained beyond the plagal cadence. Affirming the song’s apparent lack of resolve, the coda trails off with the composer’s meditative humming above alternating VI and I chords.252 “Not a Second Time” The LP’s sparest texture is found in “Not a Second Time,” which seems to have no contribution from Harrison. The song’s composer, Lennon (double-tracked at the unison), is the only singer, and the instrumentation consists only of drums, acoustic guitar, bass, and Martin’s tastefully echoing overdubbed Steinway grand.253 Uncharacteristically for this LP, the

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bass is very low in the mix, practically inaudible. Alexander’s “Anna (Go to Him),” with its two-bar subphrases alternating I and VI, is a likely model for the song.254 In fact, this alternation of I and VI, with which the coda fades out, was one object of praise in William Mann’s notable end-of-year review of the Beatles as Britain’s best composers (“so natural is the Aeolian cadence at the end of ‘Not a Second Time’ ”).255 Perhaps because of their artsy, serious half-shadow portraits on the LP cover as much as by their musical structures, the Beatles’ work was suddenly attracting critical acclaim from the highbrows. Lennon’s reaction: “Really, it was just chords like any other chords. That was the first time anyone had written anything like that about us.”256 “Not a Second Time” has a verse-refrain musical structure (A–B [0:00 – 0:45]), but there is only one repeated stanza. Just as “natural” as the Aeolian cadence is the asymmetrical grouping in the verse of two seven-bar phrases, same in their structures even though they have a substantial difference of harmony in their respective sixth bars. The first phrase, which would seem to represent the first part of an interrupted structure, supporting 3, b1, for six bars and then moving down to 2, a1, in A+7 (0:11– 0:12), consists of two prototypical four-bar groups. An elision, however, forces A+4 (0:05 – 0:07) to act simultaneously as the first bar of the new group, and the phrasing is only made more ambiguous by the unusual delayed entry of the drums, tacet for the opening four bars. The second phrase, which begins as a repetition of the first and therefore promises to complete the interrupted melodic structure, instead leads to a V that is even stronger — by virtue of the pre-V harmony at B–2 (0:23 – 0:24) — than the V that had ended the first phrase. The tonic is not satisfied, but all of the chords are functional in G major. Even though the Beatles do not create mixed meters before 1966, such irregularities — especially involving elided measures at the phrase level — occur at deeper levels throughout their career. The simultaneous beginning and ending functions of a metric unit in phrase groups, noted here in connection with a single bar in “Not a Second Time,” has also been observed in the ten-bar bridge of “I Saw Her Standing There,” where two bars of V7 simultaneously end an eight-bar group and begin a four-bar group. A seven-bar phrase was noted in the verse of “It Won’t Be Long,” where a prototypical 4+4 grouping was made asymmetrical by the removal of the fourth bar. Occasionally, a hypermetrical level will involve changing meters for which “missing” measures cannot so easily be accounted. The seven-bar bridge of “Hold Me Tight” (B), for example, is metrically divided into a four-bar group (strong-weak-strong-weak, representing a hypermeasure in 44) followed by a three-bar group (strong-weakweak, with the closing V acting as an anacrusis, for a hypermeasure in 34). The same is heard in the eleven-bar bridge of “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” where a hypermeasure in 44 is followed by another in 34 and (as if interrupted) by yet another in 44. Even odder lengths are heard in 1964: Lennon’s “I’ll Be Back” has phrases of 61⁄2 and of 91⁄2 measures. We have heard added measures disturb the prototypical phrase length in “Love Me Do.” A very similar technique is at work in the eleven-bar verse of “All I’ve Got to Do,” where a three-bar unit (A+7– 9) interrupts a prototypical eight-

The Final Two-Track Recordings

bar unit: VI –VI – I – I –VI –VI – (II – II – IVn–) I – I. Extra bars of anacrusis have been discussed as found in “Ask Me Why” (which verse consists of 4+4+5 bars), “There’s a Place,” “I’m in Love,” and others. This is also the case with “I Wanna Be Your Man” (for a seventeen-bar verse) and “(There’s a) Devil in Her Heart” (for a nine-bar bridge). Later, added measures will force a reinterpretation of strong and weak metric status within irregular phrases in “If I Fell” (1964), “Yesterday” (1965), and others. More informally, “Things We Said Today” (1964) — otherwise completely foursquare — has an extra bar of I as a vamp between verses. The priority of G in “Not a Second Time” disappears in the refrain (B [0:26 – 0:45], grouped in 4+6 units), which ends with a modal “Aeolian” Vn– n VII – I cadence in the VI area, E (B+7–10 [0:38 – 0:45]). A strong preparation for the cadence in E Aeolian is created not primarily by harmonic relationships, but by register: the melodic cadence in E, 2–1 (fs1, to e1, B+8 – 9), is prepared by the high-register protest (“No!”) on fs2, B+7 (0:38), which can be heard to have progressed from the upper-register g2 of B+3 (0:31). In retrospect, then, this registral connection between B+3 and B+7 allows us to hear the entire refrain following a 3–2–1 line, moving from upper to lower register, in E. So the coda’s equality of the “1” and “6” (G and E) in alternation is greater than that enjoyed by those tones in the final chord of “She Loves You”; this seems due entirely to this song’s cadence in E Aeolian, a very strong subversion of G. “Don’t Bother Me” Other than the cowritten “Cry for a Shadow,” “Don’t Bother Me” was Harrison’s first published composition, listed with the James-Epstein partnership, Jaep Music. (Harrison was to sign a five-year contract with Northern Songs on November 9, 1963.257) Bill Harry claims that he habitually goaded Harrison into repeating the success of “Cry for a Shadow” and that Harrison’s spiritless response to him actually inspired the name of the new song. The composer has a different memory: this was “the first song that I wrote — as an exercise to see if I could write a song. I wrote it in a hotel in Bournemouth, England, where we were playing a summer season —I was sick in bed — maybe that’s why it turned out to be Don’t Bother Me.”258 Had the song not been written, and had the group required another Harrison lead vocal to balance the LP, one logical candidate would have been Carl Perkins’s “Glad All Over,” a favorite Harrison cover in BBC broadcasts of July 1963. A brief tape of part of the Bournemouth composition session (heard on Beatles 1992b) was made sometime between August 19th and 24th. It contains just 2’15” of George working on the bridge, at a very early stage. He whistles through the melody (there are probably no words yet) at C+1– 8 as he plays the eventual chords on an acoustic guitar, but at C+9 he launches several times into what is shown in example 2.39. His goal in these passes is to find a way to work a C-major chord into C+13, and he does so by dropping the tune there down a third. The fs2 with which the example begins remains in the finished song and becomes its highest vocal pitch, more striking still because it is the only sung note outside of the E pentatonic-minor scale. And the C-major chord remains as well to add new emphasis to a sixth scale degree. Cs had been pres-

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Example 2.39 “Don’t Bother Me,” compositional draft (George Harrison). © 1963, Dick James Music Ltd.

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ent only as an inner voice in the Dorian IVs chord, and now the weak plagal cadential root Cn (following the vocal fs2) mutates the scale from E pentatonic-Dorian to E Aeolian, all very exotic in a way that will lead Harrison to be attracted in two years to Indian scales. Following the trail blazed by the Shadows’ “Apache,” “A Taste of Honey,” “Money,” and one of the Beatles’ final covers from early 1963, “Diamonds” (by Shadows bassist Jet Harris and drummer Tony Meehan), “Don’t Bother Me” is primarily in the Dorian mode, fading out with a repetition of the song’s strongest cadence, I – IVs – I in E minor. The minor V appears early in the verse and in the bridge, but never in a cadential manner. As if to complement the dark quality of the mode and the ominous tone of the text, Harrison seems to have wanted as dark a guitar timbre as possible. In the early takes, Lennon tried raising the signal’s gain from the Capri’s dark neck pickup enough to overburden the pre-amp circuits for a “dirty” sound, but Martin was not happy with the distortion. Instead, a compressor was brought into the control room and applied to the Capri, squeezing flat the dynamic range of the attack-sustain-decay envelope. (Martin to his engineer: “Can we have a compressor on this guitar, Norman? We might try to get a sort of organ sound”).259 During verses, Lennon rapidly picks out a dark, predominantly single-line rhythm part (“Guitar I”) on only the three lowest strings. The Capri rings a bit more brightly in the chiming whole-note chords sustained through the refrain (B [0:17– 0:22], shown as “Guitar I”) and the bridge (C [0:40 –1:01]), but only because the five highest strings are now heard. As if to compensate for the higher pitch, the guitar is made more sinister in the refrain and bridge with its high degree of amplifier tremolo (matching for the first time the Shadows’ timbre from the Vox amps). All this time, Harrison plays just a bit of simple chording on the Gretsch (more easily heard at C), and George takes the simple pentatonic minor solo on the Country Gent (F [1:19 –1:29], shown as “Guitar I”), not switching from the Gent’s rhythm pickup. Perhaps it was the experience of this recording session that led Harrison to purchase his own Rickenbacker rhythm guitar, the Combo, within two weeks. The new guitar qualities found here will soon lead to experimental ap-

The Final Two-Track Recordings

proaches to vocal and instrumental timbres. “In 1963, John became interested in the first ‘organ-guitar’ being developed in Britain by the entrepreneurial instrument manufacturer Jim Burns. John became deeply involved in all stages of the instrument’s development. [Said John,] ‘I fancy a guitar that plays like an organ as well as a guitar; it’d be gear.’ ”260 Knowing this, Lennon’s use in 1966 of both the rotating Leslie speaker from an electronic organ cabinet to alter the sound of his own voice (in “Tomorrow Never Knows”) and the Mellotron (in “Strawberry Fields Forever”) should not surprise anyone completely.261 The switching of lead/rhythm guitar roles in the verses of “Don’t Bother Me” may seem counterintuitive, but with the constraints of primarily live twotrack recording, Harrison always had difficulty singing and playing competing rhythms simultaneously. Just as John says he “helped” George with “Don’t Bother Me,” Paul later takes credit for helping him with “Taxman,” that help amounting to playing the lead solo. Harrison is heard complaining about his difficulty in singing and playing simultaneously after a quickly aborted Take 12 of “Don’t Bother Me,” and his similar complaint during the recording of the basic tracks for “Help!” will be seen to suggest in 1965 a revolution in the Beatles’ recording and arranging habits.262 Harrison’s extreme care with guitar timbre here is also notable in the way this attention completes an album in which the guitar often takes a back seat to one keyboard or another. With the Beatles was released on November 22, 1963, with the following track order: Side 1 “It Won’t Be Long” “All I’ve Got to Do” “All My Loving” “Don’t Bother Me” “Little Child” “Till There Was You” “Please Mr. Postman”

Side 2 “Roll Over Beethoven” “Hold Me Tight” “You Really Got a Hold On Me” “I Wanna Be Your Man” “(There’s a) Devil in Her Heart” “Not a Second Time” “Money (That’s What I Want)”

Advance orders for the LP were a record-breaking quarter of a million, and the millionth British copy (a first for any album) was sold within two years. On the strength of its advance sales, With the Beatles replaced Please Please Me as Britain’s top LP in its first week of release and remained at the top of the LP charts for twenty-two weeks (through April 1964), not dropping out of the Top Ten until the last week of September, by which point the group’s third LP, A Hard Day’s Night, dominated the trades. The Beatles had now satisfied all of their ambitions. At least in Britain . . . Nearly all of our comparisons of Lennon-McCartney songs with those by artists admired by the Beatles have focused on musical relationships. And this is how it should be — it is informative to see, for instance, that the Beatles’ professed desire to create hard rock and roll, perhaps exalted in “I Saw Her Standing There,” really doesn’t rise to the musical level of “Boys,” “Roll Over Beethoven,”

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“Money,” or even “Twist and Shout” in such songs as “It Won’t Be Long,” “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and “Little Child.” But in another year, with “You Can’t Do That,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Tell Me Why,” “I Feel Fine,” and “She’s a Woman” behind them, it will become clear that the Beatles’ brand of rocking blues really can give “Long Tall Sally” a run for its money. Conversely, the strengths of the Lennon-McCartney songs of 1963 lay mostly on the sensitive side, and musical issues —well covered in the bulk of this chapter — can easily step aside for a moment for the consideration of lyric themes. The poetry of “Till There Was You” may be more florid, vivid, and otherwise more imaginative than that of Lennon’s “Misery,” “Ask Me Why,” “There’s a Place,” “Not a Second Time,” and “This Boy,” but it is no more soulsearching. The pain of separation that the Beatles learned to exploit as a theme in “A Taste of Honey” and “Please Mr. Postman” guides McCartney’s “All My Loving” and the bridge of Lennon’s “It Won’t Be Long.” The battle against gossip fought in “Baby It’s You” and “Devil in Her Heart” also directs the story in “She Loves You.” And though the Beatles’ rockers of 1964 would show a new strength, their 1964 ballads would also shine with greater originality as well as sensitivity. While the tender “And I Love Her” is McCartney’s, the best heartbreak songs of 1964, “If I Fell,” “I’ll Be Back,” and “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party,” are his partner’s. So much for Lennon the rocker and McCartney the balladeer. In rock song and love song both, Lennon and McCartney made a great showing in 1963, but their year-long ascendancy suggested still greater promise for 1964.

INTERLUDE

1

I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND

The Beatles’ fifth single, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” / “This Boy,” earned them American and world fame. The group was well prepared for its invasion of the States, in that the members’ physical appearance, public personalities, stage presence, relationship with the press and promoters, and musical ensemble were all thoroughly polished by the time America instantly turned on in January 1964. The timing of this phenomenal success hinged on many factors, chiefly sociological and economic as well as musical, but there could scarcely have been a better vehicle for the group’s introduction to a new audience than the new A-side, as this song embodied many of the salient procedures and materials of their most popular British successes, in a spare and coherent structure that begged and received continual rehearings. Its quintessence is also marked by an underlying normalcy; in a rigorous statistical analysis of deviations from standard phrase forms in all the Beatles’ A- and B-sides, Terhi Nurmesjärvi has found that “I Want to Hold Your Hand” possesses the highest correlation values with predictable norms.1 Both sides of the new single were recorded along with a Christmas message taped for fan club members on October 17. With the inauguration of four-track recording at EMI with this record, the Beatles’ production facilities and personnel were also on the cusp of a great era of new experimentation. EMI finally installed four-track machines and control boards, as Martin says, “with the success of the Beatles adding weight to my continual demands.”2 The four-track recording procedure would generally work one of two ways. First, the first performance could be distributed over three tracks ([1] bass, drums and rhythm 197

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Example 2.40a “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs.

 

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guitar; [2] lead guitar; [3] vocals), leaving the fourth for minor overdubbing. Second (if more substantial overdubbing would be required, and this was more the case in later work), the three basic tracks could be reduced (processed and “bounced down”) to one or two tracks on another generation of tape, leaving additional tracks there for superimpositions.3 Not only did the four tracks allow for more flexibility in the recording process (progressively less of a complete performance was to be required in the first taping) but it also permitted more control in the balancing, equalization, compression, and echo for each track. By comparing the two available stereo mixes of “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” it can be determined that the following are the likely contents of each track of the original working tape for this song: Basic tracks *1. Paul’s bass, Ringo’s drums, John’s Capri *2. George’s Country Gent *3. Vocals by John (lead) and Paul (descant) Overdub 4. Handclaps, George’s bass, John’s falsetto “ooh” (see example 2.40a)

In the most commonly heard stereo mix (first used in 1964–66 for the continental LPs The Beatles Beat and Beatles’ Greatest and England’s A Collection of Beatles Oldies and more recently on the 1962–1966, Past Masters, and 1 CDs), Track 1 is heard on the left channel, Track 2 on the right, and Tracks 3 and 4 in the center (these signals having been split and fed in equal amounts to both channels). In a rarely heard stereo mix (created in November 1966 but apparently released only on a 1976 Australian single, Parlophone A8103), the instruments and vocals were fed to entirely separate channels.4 The working tape for “This Boy” was similarly recorded; note, however, that the two overdubs (John’s second vocal and George’s second guitar) were both presumably taped on the same track (possibly in different takes) but fed differently to the stereo master: Basic tracks *1. Bass, Drums, John’s Jumbo [left] *2. George’s Country Gent [center] *3. Vocals by John (lead), Paul (upper harmony), George (middle harmony) [right] Overdub 4. John’s double-tracked vocal (bridge only) [right], and George’s additional lead guitar (coda only) [center]

Example 2.40b Analysis of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” A

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200

I Want to Hold Your Hand

Example 2.40c “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1963, Northern Songs. B


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Each song required a total of seventeen takes, including overdubs. “This Boy,” given a fade-out, required the editing (hear the splice at C, 1:28) of two different mono mixes (perhaps because of different balance requirements of the vocal and guitar on Track 4).5 No editing of either performances or mixes was necessary for the A-side. I Want to Hold Your Hand As they did for the two previous A-sides, Lennon and McCartney wrote “I Want to Hold Your Hand” together. Lennon: “I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher’s house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, ‘Oh you-u-u . . . got that something . . .’ And Paul hits this chord and I turn to him and say, ‘That’s it!’ I said, ‘Do that again!’ In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that — both playing into each other’s noses.”6 Following this song, the Lennon-McCartney partnership was to enter a new phase. Upcoming compositions — both singles and album tracks —were primarily to be composed individually (featuring fewer vocal duets), with occasional help solicited from, or offered by, the partner. Many post-1963 compositions were written by Lennon or McCartney alone. The structure of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is exposed in Example 2.40b. My discussion will proceed from an analysis of the verse (A+1– 8 [0:08–0:21]) to that of the refrain (A+9 –12 [0:22 – 0:29]), bridge/retransition (C [0:51–1:11]), and closing refrain (Coda [2:12 – 2:23]). Asked in 1970 what he thought was his “best song,” Lennon listed his usual Beatle favorites —“Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Help!,” “I Am the Walrus,” and “In My Life.” But he continued: “I like ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’ we wrote that together, it’s a beautiful melody.”7 The melody of its verse is built of two-bar subphrases, an arrangement familiar from the verses of most of the previous singles, arranged in the SRDC pattern heard in “Please Please Me.” New, however,

I Want to Hold Your Hand

is the idea of sequence; comparison of the score and the analytical sketch shows how the opening descending third in the vocal (d2– c2– b1, A+1 [0:08]) is heard a step lower in A+2 (0:10) and is then foiled when b1 moves down not a third but an unexpected fourth to fs1 in A+3 – 4 (0:11– 0:13). The filled-in third is emancipated from the sequence but is given further motivic corroboration above IV in A+9 (0:22, with the same g2– fs2– e2 so important in the “She Loves You” chorus) and then, in the refrain, in two structural descents, d2– c2– b1 (A+9 –10 [0:23 – 0:25]) and b1– a1– g1 (A+11–12 [0:26 – 0:28]). The cocomposers sing in unison until Lennon leaps an octave into his falsetto range (as done in the refrain of “Please Please Me” and elsewhere) on the eighth before A+8 (0:20). The excited anticipation adds to the sense of exhilaration emphasized by the offbalance drum fills (A+8). At the same time, McCartney’s voice jumps from b1 to fs2, mirroring his drop from b1 to fs1 in A+3 – 4. Notwithstanding the appearance here of the emphatic 7 (which drives to g2 for the refrain), the “Bm” chord of A+4 and 8 is a stable point between I (A+1 and 5) and the IV with which the refrain begins (A+9). Note that, as in the verse of “She Loves You,” also in G major, 7 is given a stable harmonization — as a perfect consonance above the root of III— before it becomes active as part of V7, A+9.8 While the whole verse is excited, its local climax in A+8 is intensified by the registral relationship between the contemplative inner-voice fs1 (A+4), which seems to represent an inner “understand”ing, and the cadence-invoking fs2. The verse exhibits yet another motive important to both melodic and harmonic structures: that of 6 as neighbor to 5, a favorite starting point for Lennon in 1962– 64. The song’s first vocal notes are in fact bold incomplete neighbors, nonharmonic statements of e2 that step confidently down to d2 into A. This motive is heard in retrograde in the bass in A+2– 3. As if making sure that no one could miss the connection otherwise made plain by the new status of these tones as roots, Harrison superimposes a chromatic intensification of this D – E motion an octave above McCartney’s line (see example 2.40c [0:10 – 0:11]).9 This is all to approach the deceptive Em harmony, “the chord that made the song” for Lennon. The refrain (A+9 –12) motivically rounds off the verse-refrain group by reinterpreting the motion from E to D yet once more, supporting it with chord changes in both A+9 (here as part of a descending octave scale in John’s vocal part) and A+11 (here as part of a brief echo that is divorced from the structural upper voice, which moves from a sustained b1 through a1 to g1). In addition to functions already noted, the refrain completes the full fundamental line, descending from 5 to 1, all with a new momentum deriving from a harmonic tempo double that of the verse. (This increased tempo also functions as a foil against the moderate chord changes of the bridge.) The chord pattern, beginning off-balance with IV–V– I –VI (0:22– 0:25, reordering the typical I –VI – IV–V progression), has been heard this way previously in the bridges of “Take Good Care of My Baby” and “How Do You Do It” and is related to the opening of “All My Loving,” the refrain of “I’ll Get You,” and the first four bars of the refrain of “Not a Second Time.” In the second refrain, following a slight change from the original lyrics in B+7–10 (0:40 – 0:47), the title is resurrected in B+11–12 (0:48 – 0:49), subtly unifying the first two verses and creating a

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powerful sense of closure before the arrival of the first bridge. The third refrain, discussed hereafter, marks even greater departures from those previous, allowing for a most profound summary. As McCartney’s “new world” opened up in the bridge of “From Me to You,” a tonicization of IV opens the bridge of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” (In C, we now have the identical progression, II –V– I –VI, from the opening of “All My Loving.”) Just as the verse contrasts “inner” and “outer” moods, the bridge, at first reflective, is answered by a demonstrative retransition, as the described emotion moves from the “inside” (C+3 – 4 [0:55 – 0:57]) to where it can no longer be hidden (C+7–11 [1:02 –1:11]) and as the counterpoint moves from the couth to the untamed (with vocal fifths in C+9 –11 [1:07–1:11]). Whereas the counterpoint reverts at times to the expression of raw power, scale degrees are nearly uniformly unaltered, with only a few bent tones from George in the retransition, reinforcing the predominantly polite tone of the lyrics. As suggested in the preceding paragraph, 6 as a neighbor to 5, reminiscent of “Please Please Me” and looking forward to “I Should Have Known Better,” is further developed in the bridge. The governing line in the alto register ornaments the fifth of IV, g1 (implied in C+2 and realized in C+3 [0:55]) with its incomplete upper neighbor a1 (C+1, 4). The retransition ends with a boogie pattern in Lennon’s guitar (C+10 –11 [1:07–1:11], a – b – a, a decoration of the dominant chord’s fifth with its upper neighbor). The motive also occurs at its original pitch: compare e2– d2 entering A and in C+1– 2. But these rehearings of previous material are combined in a new dramatic unfolding of V9 harmony that gives the bridge-retransition its purpose and at the same time “explains” the incomplete neighbor in the vocal opening. Example 2.40b shows how the new arpeggiation of elements of Dm9 up to the incomplete neighbor, a1– c2– e2 (all heard in C+1), is composed-out at a larger level in C+5 (0:59, a1) –C+7 (1:03, c2– e2; the implied c2 is articulated in the added descant part in the second bridge, example 2.40a). Then, the move to fs2 over V (C+8 [1:04], recalling the same register-defying move from g1 to fs2 at the end of the verse — compare slurs in the graph) leads to a further arpeggiation an octave higher (reminding one of the four-part arpeggiation of V7 in the retransition of “Twist and Shout”), through the same pitch classes, a2 (C+10 [1:07]) through c3 (sounding only in falsetto, example 2.40a [1:52 –1:53]) to an implied e3 (appearing at the more singable level of e2, which is where the song begins).10 The drama of the move from the bridge to the retransition is accomplished by means textural and rhythmic as well as motivic. Harrison’s slow, clean arpeggiations lay bare the voice leading in the inner parts, and the bass register is emphasized by McCartney’s unusual double stops in the second half of the first bridge and all of the second. Recall a similar technique used in “It Won’t Be Long” and “All I’ve Got to Do.” This inner-voice texture aids the listener in focusing on what’s “inside,” in preparation for the coming explosion into the upper register. Harrison’s arpeggios also lead to a new interest in chord color — note the large number of thirdless chords that had been played by all three guitarists in the intro and verse. The new complete chords and the smooth voice leading of same create the “couth” atmosphere that disappears with repeated

I Want to Hold Your Hand

parallel motions from IV to V. A phrase-level metric reinterpretation is necessary in C+8 (1:04): this bar might once have been heard as weak, as the fourth bar of a second four-bar unit (C+5 – 8 following C+1– 4), but is reheard as strong following the change of harmony, resulting in a third four-bar group, C+8 –11. The pacing of the elision propels the retransition even more forcefully. And while the song’s introduction, based closely on the retransition, is not subject to this metric elision, the introductory rhythm is nearly uninterpretable, owing to the guitarists’ anticipations of the chord changes and the accompanying syncopated cymbal crashes. It is very difficult, even with the advantage of repeated listenings, not to hear an opening anacrusis of two eighths followed by three full measures of 44 and a fourth inscrutable bar of 98 .11 The closing refrain introduces two extensions: a surprising reharmonization of 3 (B7 [2:14 – 2:15]), which requires a fourth consecutive statement of the title, and a plagal codetta in the last two bars. The B7 chord that appears here for the first time inflects the diatonic III with the chromatic s5 (from George’s superimposed line), giving the midregister 7 (fs1 in the guitar) yet another form of support before it resolves an octave higher in the final three bars. The surprise chromatic ending, rehearsed in Lennon’s “Bad to Me” and repeated in his “Yes It Is” (suggesting that this is his contribution in “Hold Your Hand”), had been performed in such covers as “Tonight Is So Right for Love” and “I Remember You.” The plagal ending allows for a final hearing of the 6–5 motive, as encouraged by the appearance of B7 (see example 2.40b) and as emphasized by e – d in Harrison’s guitar, last two bars. The upper register closes with the same vocal octave, g1– g2, once sustained after the fermata in “She Loves You.” The final vocal octave is now approached fluently by a sixth (fs2 over a1). Tim Riley describes well the rhythmic function of the cadential triplets (taken from “Twist and Shout”): “as if any more ingenuity were needed, triplet quarter-note kicks are added beneath the final word, ‘hand,’ buffering the momentum of the entire track.”12 One last loose bit of straw pertaining to tone color. Many astute Beatle listeners swear they hear an organ in “Hold Your Hand.” This perception, if not caused by the bass double-stops or by Harrison’s unique bass overdub, is probably due to the full compression, set with an extreme ratio (in the neighborhood of 10:1) and immediate attack, applied to the signal from Lennon’s Capri, totally flattening its dynamic range across the envelope. In connection with “Don’t Bother Me,” where Martin introduced this sonority a month previously, I noted that both he and Lennon compared the sound to that of an organ. Take 9 (heard on Beatles 1996c, vol. 2) opens with Lennon reveling in the sound of his Rickenbacker (“I love that!” he says after running through his opening rhythm part), which does resemble that of an electronic organ. (The compressed Capri is heard more freely against the German vocals in “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand.”) And so this A-side is a motivically rich, structurally dynamic restatement of many of the melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and textural ideas presented in previous hits, embodying what Lennon considers “a beautiful melody.” Because the Beatles were about to change gears with their next A-side, it also stands as a final Lennon-McCartney demonstration of the Beatles’ early rock style.

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“This Boy” Lennon says “This Boy” was written with thoughts of Smokey Robinson. 13 Both “This Boy” and its model (specifically, “You Really Got a Hold on Me”) are in a rare slow 12 8 meter, as was “To Know Her Is to Love Her.”14 Lennon’s recollection of “This Boy” is similar to that of its A-side: “I was writing melody with the best of them.”15 In the verse (A [0:09 – 0:35]), his lead vocal (the lowest of the three parts) is rather nondescript, a barely ornamented 3-line that is buried beneath two descant parts rich with sevenths, ninths, and elevenths. Of slightly more interest here melodically is McCartney’s poignant descant line (often in nonfunctional parallel fifths above Lennon’s part), which adds a bittersweet edge to the texture by accenting 7, which resigns each time (A+1, 3, and 5) as chordal seventh. William Mann’s famous contemporaneous assessment of the vocal arrangement (which is supposed to have been composed before the group entered the studio): “the slow, sad song about ‘This boy,’ which figures prominently in Beatle programmes, is expressively unusual for its lugubrious music, but harmonically it is one of their most intriguing, with its chains of pandiatonic clusters, and the sentiment is acceptable because voiced cleanly and crisply.”16 The “pandiatonic clusters” are highly reminiscent of Harrison’s added sixth and ninth chords and (stylistically worlds apart) the extended tertian “boogie” sonorities. While these vocal dissonances all behave more or less normally over the repeated I –VI – II7–V pattern, the harmonic function of the verse is somewhat undercut by McCartney’s bass line at the cadence (at A+6 [0:26 – 0:27]), bass notes should read E – Fs, leading back to E at A+7 [0:29]), a blatant duplication of Lennon’s melody that smooths out the harmonic/contrapuntal texture by omitting 5 (too harmonically strong a tone for the desired effect; 3 is substituted) from the bass line. Harmonic function promises to dominate the bridge, however, when the second verse ends with a strongly accented I8–f7 motion (second ending [0:55 –1:01]; hear the guitar accents and the strategically placed openings of the repeatedly struck hi-hat on the tenth and sixteenth sixteenths of B–1, all unnotated in the Wise score). Because of its slow tempo, “This Boy” has only a single eight-bar bridge (B [1:02–1:27]). The strongly emotive passage (given a double-tracked lead vocal and sustained vowels in the vocal harmonies, for textural contrast with the verse) is emboldened by forte applied chords to VI (B+2 [1:05]) and to V (B+6 [1:18]) in a dramatically restrained harmonic tempo, half that of the verse. (Paul’s and George’s sustained backing vocals that support these chromatic motions are reminiscent of the same singers’ parts in the bridge sections of Arthur Alexander’s “Soldier of Love” and “Anna.”) A fever pitch is reached on the retransitional V (B+7– 8 [1:21–1:27]), where the rhythm instruments become mute, the bass drops down an octave (score notwithstanding), and Lennon cries, in expressive grace-note sprezzatura, on the upper neighbor (fs2) to the structure-interrupting 2 over V. The bridge of “It Won’t Be Long,” the reader may recall, also ended with 3–2 motion above the retransitional interrupting V. Largely because the bass is now strongly supporting dominant function at B+8, a remarkably different effect is also created by the same pitch classes (A–Cs– E – Fs)

I Want to Hold Your Hand

that sounded so weak in Lennon’s straight-across-the-second-fret barre chord in the second half of B+6 (1:20 –1:21; again, the score is incorrect). Perhaps it is the melody of the bridge, rather than that of the verse, that Lennon has recalled so proudly. As in “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” the tune is based on a sequence (the falling third, d2– b1, B+1, is heard a step higher in B+2 and again in B+3) that is dramatically altered in B+6. The abrupt melodic “interruption” is emphasized here by Harrison’s applied V9/V (not shown in score), the fs of which will in retrospect be heard as an anticipation of Lennon’s vocal fs2 of B+8. The sequence is so strong that the chordal seventh, e2 in B+2, is carried upward to fs2 in B+3.17 Lennon’s vocal fs2, repeated in various guises (B–1 and B+4, as part of V7/IV; B+3, as part of VI; B+8, above V), is doubly significant because of the registral shift from fs1, the song’s primary tone and practically Lennon’s upper limit in the verse. As in other early Beatle numbers, the form-related registral shift is tied to the expression of restrained versus demonstrative emotive states.18 Unlike the song’s energetic A-side, the excited bridge of “This Boy” returns to a subdued (but somewhat more hopeful) third verse, rounded off by a repetitive coda featuring Harrison’s superimposed guitar octaves (not given in the score). Copies of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” / “This Boy,” ready in early November, were not released until the 29th of that month; the delay was due to the unexpected continued demand for “She Loves You.”19 Owing to huge advance sales, the single sold a million copies in three days, sixteen times faster than Britain’s previous fastest, Elvis Presley’s “It’s Now or Never.” The record entered the British charts at #1 in its week of release and enjoyed four weeks at the top. Behind only “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was Britain’s secondlargest-selling record of 1963.20

Initial Reception in America As very few English acts had ever broken in the States, America was very slow to invest any sort of interest in the Beatles. “My Bonnie” had been released there by Decca in April 1962 to no avail. Dave Dexter of Capitol, the U.S. popular-music division of EMI, rejected both “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me.” As a result of George Martin’s frustration with Dexter, EMI asked Transglobal Music, a New York agency that had licensed other EMI recordings in such cases, to place “Please Please Me” / “Ask Me Why” with another American label. Transglobal quickly found another affiliate, the Chicago-based VeeJay Records.21 Vee-Jay released the record in late February 1963, sold about 5,650 copies, and then was given “From Me to You” / “Thank You Girl” as well. A financial crisis led the cash-strapped Vee-Jay from fulfilling its royalty payment obligations with Transglobal, which then terminated the agreement and demanded the ceasing of manufacture and distribution of Beatles product on August 8. Dexter again passed on the sound and potential of “She Loves You,” and after rejections from all major labels and several independents as well,

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Transglobal found a new label in Swan, a small Philadelphia outfit with close ties to Dick Clark, who played “She Loves You” on his popular national recordrating television show “American Bandstand” around the time of its September 16 release, but to no reaction. (One disc jockey, Gene Loving, was allowed several private interviews with the Beatles in 1964 in appreciation for his attempts to promote “She Loves You” on his Tidewater, Virginia, station in September 1963.) Despite a favorable review in Cashbox, “She Loves You” did not chart. The record eventually sold 2.5 million copies, but it hardly moved before 1964. Despite the amazing reaction to the Beatles in Britain, Dexter said no again to “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Dumbfounded, Brian Epstein had Capitol president Alan Livingston listen to the record. This finally led to the contract that formed the core of Epstein’s masterstroke, the three-pronged conquering of America. The first element was the booking through college student Sid Bernstein of Carnegie Hall for a concert to be held on February 12, 1964.22 The second element was cemented when Epstein came to New York in November 1963 to book East Coast appearances around the Carnegie Hall date. He met with Ed Sullivan, who had witnessed on October 31 an incredible fan reception at Heathrow Airport upon the Beatles’ return from Sweden. Four days of negotiations led to the Beatles receiving headline status for three February appearances (two live, one taped) on his universally popular Sunday night variety show. Epstein also arranged for a concert in Washington, D.C., that would be filmed for American theatrical release. The invasion strategy was set when Livingston, who may have seen some of November’s network TV coverage of this odd English phenomenon, agreed to release “Hold Your Hand” and to introduce it with a $40,000 marketing campaign geared to the Beatles’ unusual group name and haircuts.23 Merchandising was soon in full swing, and Beatle wigs were worn everywhere by January. The Beatles’ success was secured by disc jockeys. Carroll James played the British pressing on WWDC in Washington on December 17, and tape dubs quickly spread through the nation’s stations. Advance orders for the first Capitol release were so large that “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (backed with “I Saw Her Standing There”) was rush-released on December 26, three weeks ahead of schedule. The all-important New York market was saturated by instant radio play on WMCA, with WABC and WINS following soon behind. For the Beatles’ audience, AM-radio airplay translated almost directly into record sales and chart positions. Table 2.8 lists all Beatle records ever added to the weekly playlist of “W-A-Beatle-C” (arguably the world’s single most influential outlet for Beatle airplay), ranked by the success of each song in the 77WABC surveys unveiled every Tuesday afternoon, alongside national data for comparison against this large segment of the New York market. Note that of all 133 new Beatle titles played by WABC, only one ever held the airwaves better than did “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The record sold its first million by January 10; in only its third week on the national Billboard chart, the disc began its seven-week stay at the top. The United States led the international pace that eventually accounted for more

I Want to Hold Your Hand

Table 2.8 Beatle Recordings Ranked as to Success on WABC-New York Playlists

Rank Song Title 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45.

“Let It Be” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” “Hey Jude” “She Loves You” “Hello Goodbye” “Get Back” “Eight Days a Week” “Penny Lane” “We Can Work It Out” “I Feel Fine” “Yesterday” “Do You Want to Know a Secret” “Can’t Buy Me Love” “Help!” “A Hard Day’s Night” “All You Need Is Love” “Paperback Writer” “Ticket to Ride” “Lady Madonna” “Come Together” “Twist and Shout” “Love Me Do” “The Long and Winding Road” “Please Please Me” “Yellow Submarine” “Nowhere Man” “Instant Karma (We All Shine On” [JL] “She’s a Woman” “Something” “P. S. I Love You” “Give Peace a Chance” [The Plastic Ono Band] “And I Love Her” “Eleanor Rigby” “Day Tripper” “Roll Over Beethoven” “All My Loving” “Ain’t She Sweet” “Revolution” “My Bonnie” “From Me to You” “I’ll Cry Instead” “This Boy” “Thank You Girl” “Matchbox” “I Saw Her Standing There”

Peak Position (wks at peak)

Debut Date (weeks on list)

National Peak (wks at peak) / Weeks on Top 100

#1 (7) #1 (6) #1 (6) #1 (6) #1 (6) #1 (5) #1 (3) #1 (3) #1 (2) #1 (2) #1 (2) #1 (2) #1 (2) #1 (1) #1 (1) #1 (1) #2 (3) #2 (2) #2 (2) #2 (1) #2 (1) #3 (3) #3 (2) #3 (1) #4 (4) #4 (2)

Feb 28 ’70 (14) Dec 31 ’63 (15) Aug 27 ’68 (19) Jan 14 ’64 (15) Nov 14 ’67 (12) Apr 14 ’69 (15) Feb 2 ’65 (10) Feb 2 ’67 (12) Nov 23 ’65 (13) Nov 10 ’64 (12) Sept 7 ’65 (11) Mar 17 ’64 (11) Mar 10 ’64 (10) July 13 ’65 (16) Jun 23 ’64 (17) July 11 ’67 (12) May 20 ’66 (11*) Mar 30 ’65 (17) Feb 29 ’68 (12) Oct 14 ’69 (12) Feb 18 ’64 (12) Mar 10 ’64 (17) May 5 ’70 (10) Jan 14 ’64 (13) Aug 16 ’66 (8) Dec 7 ’65 (12)

#1 (2) / 14 #1 (7) / 15 #1 (9) / 19 #1 (2) / 15 #1 (3) / 11 #1 (5) / 12 #1 (2) / 10 #1 (1) / 10 #1 (3) / 12 #1 (3) / 11 #1 (4) / 11 #2 (1) / 11 #1 (5) / 10 #1 (3) / 13 #1 (2) / 13 #1 (1) / 11 #1 (2) / 10 #1 (1) / 11 #4 / 11 #1 (1) / 16 #2 (4) / 11 #1 (1) / 14 #1 (2) / 10 #3 / 13 #2 (1) / 7 #3 / 9

#4 (1) #5 (1) #7 (1) #10 (2)

Feb 10 ’70 (12) Nov 10 ’64 (10) Sept 30 ’69 (13) Apr 21 ’64 (9)

#3 / 13 #4 / 9 #3 / 16 #10 / 8

#13 (2) #13 (1) #14 (1) #14 (1) #14 (1) #16 (1) #17 (1) #19 (1) #19 (1) #22 (1) #27 (1) #27 (1) #28 (1) #28 (1) #29 (1)

July 8 ’69 (7) Jun 23 ’64 (13) Aug 23 ’66 (7) Nov 23 ’65 (9) Feb 25 ’64 (6) Feb 11 ’64 (11) Jun 30 ’64 (7) Sept 17 ’68 (6) Feb 4 ’64 (4) Jan 28 ’64 (11) Jun 23 ’64 (11) Feb 18 ’64 (8) Mar 24 ’64 (6) Jun 23 ’64 (15) Jan 28 ’64 (11)

#14 / 9 #12 / 9 #11 / 8 #5 / 10 #68 / 4 #45 / 6 #19 / 9 #12 / 11 #26 / 6 #41 / 6 #25 / 7 #92 / 3 #35 / 7 #17 / 8 #14 / 11 (continued)

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Table 2.8 (continued)

Rank Song Title 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 59. 61. 62. 62. 64. 64. 64. 67. 67. 67. 67. 67. 72. 72. 72. 75. 76. 77. 77. 77. 80. 81. 81. 81. 81. 81. 81. 81. 88. 88. 88.

“Rain” “Strawberry Fields Forever” “Yes It Is” “I Should Have Known Better” “Don’t Let Me Down” “Boys” “If I Fell” “I Am the Walrus” “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” “I’ll Be Back” “Things We Said Today” “Words of Love” “Honey Don’t” “Michelle” “Slow Down” “Rock and Roll Music” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” “When I Get Home” “I’ll Follow the Sun” “Kansas City” “Any Time at All” “No Reply” “Baby’s in Black” “The Lovely Linda” [PM] “Hot as Sun” [PM] “I’m a Loser” “One after 909” “That Would Be Something” [PM] “I’ll Get You” “There’s a Place” “Till There Was You” “The Night Before” “I’ve Just Seen a Face” “You Can’t Do That” “Every Little Thing” “Another Girl” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” “I Need You” “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” “Across the Universe” “Maybe I’m Amazed” [PM] “Please Mr. Postman” “Ask Me Why” “Act Naturally”

Peak Position (wks at peak)

Debut Date (weeks on list)

#32 (1) #34 (1) #34 (1) #35 (1) #37 (1) #39 (1) #40 (1) #40 (1) #41 (1) #54 (1) Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Hot Prospect Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Hot Prospect Hot Prospect Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Hot Prospect Album Cut Album Cut

May 20 ’66 (3) Feb 2 ’67 (9) Mar 30 ’65 (5) Jun 23 ’64 (12) Apr 14 ’69 (4) Jun 23 ’64 (4) July 28 ’64 (11) Dec 5 ’67 (1) Feb 2 ’65 (7) Jun 23 ’64 (10) July 7 ’64 (20) July 7 ’64 (18) Dec 1 ’64 (15) Dec 1 ’64 (13) Nov 30 ’65 (13) Jun 23 ’64 (12) Dec 1 ’64 (12) Dec 1 ’64 (12) July 7 ’64 (10) Dec 1 ’64 (10) Dec 1 ’64 (10) July 7 ’64 (9) Dec 1 ’64 (9) Dec 1 ’64 (9) Jun 2 ’70 (9) Jun 2 ’70 (9) Dec 1 ’64 (8) Jun 2 ’70 (8) Jun 2 ’70 (8) Jan 28 ’64 (7) Mar 3 ’64 (6) Feb 11 ’64 (6) Jun 22 ’65 (6) Aug 3 ’65 (6) Mar 10 ’64 (5) May 25 ’65 (5) Aug 3 ’65 (5)

Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Hot Prospect Hot Prospect Hot Prospect

Aug 3 ’65 (5) Aug 3 ’65 (5) Aug 3 ’65 (5) Jun 2 ’70 (5) Jun 2 ’70 (5) Mar 17 ’64 (4) Apr 7 ’64 (4) Aug 3 ’65 (4)

National Peak (wks at peak) / Weeks on Top 100 #23 / 7 #8 / 9 #46 / 4 #53 / 4 #35 / 4 #102 #53 / 9 #56 / 4 #39 / 6 #95 / 1

#68 / 5 #25 / 7 #68 / 5

#68 / 5

—— #74 / 1

#48 / 4

#92 / 3 —— #47 / 7

I Want to Hold Your Hand

Table 2.8 (continued)

Rank Song Title 91. 91. 91. 94. 94. 96. 96. 96. 96. 96. 96. 96. 103. 103. 103. 103. 103. 103. 103. 103. 103. 103. 113. 113. 113. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 116. 132. 133.

“Tell Me What You See” “Getting Better” “Oo You” [PM] “The Saints (When the Saints Go Marching In)” “What Goes On” “I Wanna Be Your Man” “Bad Boy” “You Like Me Too Much” “What You’re Doing” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” “Hey Bulldog” “All Together Now” “Little Child” “Hold Me Tight” “Long Tall Sally” “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” “Norwegian Wood” “You Won’t See Me” “Drive My Car” “If I Needed Someone” “She’s Leaving Home” “Lovely Rita” “Anna” “Money (That’s What I Want)” “The Inner Light” “It Won’t Be Long” “Not a Second Time” “Tell Me Why” “Think for Yourself ” “The Word” “It’s Only Love” “Girl” “I’m Looking Through You” “In My Life” “Wait” “Run for Your Life” “I’m Only Sleeping” “Doctor Robert” “And Your Bird Can Sing” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” “The Fool on the Hill” “I Got a Woman”** “A Day in the Life”***

Peak Position (wks at peak)

Debut Date (weeks on list)

Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut

May 25 ’65 (4) May 31 ’67 (4) Jun 2 ’70 (4)

Hot Prospect Hot Prospect Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Hot Prospect Hot Prospect Hot Prospect Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut Album Cut

Feb 11 ’64 (3) Dec 7 ’65 (3) Feb 18 ’64 (3) May 25 ’65 (3) May 25 ’65 (3) Jun 1 ’65 (3) May 31 ’67 (3) Jan 7 ’69 (3) Jan 7 ’69 (3) Feb 18 ’64 (2) Mar 3 ’64 (2) Aug 25 ’64 (2) May 25 ’65 (2) Nov 30 ’65 (2) Nov 30 ’65 (2) Dec 7 ’65 (2) Dec 7 ’65 (2) May 31 ’67 (2) May 31 ’67 (2) May 19 ’64 (1) Jun 2 ’64 (1) Feb 29 ’68 (1) Mar 3 ’64 (1) Mar 31 ’64 (1) Jun 23 ’64 (1) Nov 30 ’65 (1) Nov 30 ’65 (1) Nov 30 ’65 (1) Nov 30 ’65 (1) Nov 30 ’65 (1) Nov 30 ’65 (1) Nov 30 ’65 (1) Nov 30 ’65 (1) Jun 7 ’66 (1) Jun 7 ’66 (1) Jun 7 ’66 (1)

Album Cut Album Cut Exclusive Exclusive

May 31 ’67 (1) Dec 12 ’67 (1) Nov 24 ’64 (1) Apr 19 ’67 (1)

National Peak (wks at peak) / Weeks on Top 100

—— #81 / 2

—— —— #96 / 1

(continued)

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Table 2.8 (continued) * “Paperback Writer” charted for an additional week, that of August 2, 1966, during which time it (along with all Beatle records) was banned from rotation by WABC due to the reaction surrounding John Lennon’s controversial “Christ” comments. ** “I Got a Woman,” a recording from the BBC studios, was played from a bootleg. *** “A Day in the Life” (surely a dub of the premaster acetate brought to Los Angeles that month by McCartney), announced as “I Read the News Today,” was played on only one day before Capitol forced the song from the air. NB: “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” a #8 hit nationally, was banned on WABC due to the use of “Christ!” as an expletive. “Baby You’re a Rich Man” (#34 nationally), “Mr. Moonlight” (#68), “Why,” (#88), “Sie Liebt Dich” (#97), and “I’m Down” (#101) did not enter the WABC playlist. But note the astounding number of album cuts, one in rotation as long as twenty weeks, on a station that played no such recordings at all by other artists prior to 1967. This list includes all new recordings credited to Beatles as group or soloist through July 1970 but excludes those designated as “solid gold oldies.”

than twelve million copies sold, the most ever for any British-made recording. This American success was so immediate and extensive that advance sales for the Beatles’ sixth single, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” were to reach 2.1 million worldwide, an unmatched figure thirty-five years hence. At the end of 1963, though, the Beatles had no idea how they would be received in the States, which they saw as territory fully claimed by American artists. The Beatles’ ambitions for their coming U.S. minitour were little more than a hope of finding a few hardto-get American recordings and catching a few Miami rays.

THREE

1 I’M NOT WHAT I APPEAR TO BE (1964)

It is commonplace to speak and hear of early Beatles and late Beatles, the Beatles of the stage and the Beatles of the studio, but it is less easy to draw the dividing markers. Many point to Rubber Soul as a defining moment that separates the early music from a middle period, and use as one criterion the group’s new originality in (and dependence upon) the recording process. But by early 1964, the Beatles were creating most of their arrangements in the studio rather than for the stage. Harrison, speaking on September 17, 1964: “on every record . . . it’s all our own arrangements but Paul and John write a song, bring it into the studio, and usually nine times out of ten Ringo and I haven’t heard of the song before; we get in the studio and just try all different arrangements and we all stick in little bits here and there, you know.”1 Another criterion marking Rubber Soul is a new range of topics in the lyrics; but Lennon shows undeniable Dylan influence in Beatles for Sale, an album that has been found somber in comparison with previous writing. More rewarding than erecting walls between one LP and another is finding elements that appear at one point, develop over the course of several efforts, and gradually fade to be replaced by other interests. Like most complete works, the Beatles corpus is best understood as a single living body that evolves through lyrics, harmonic vocabulary, formal innovations, melodic figures, instrumental color, and recording and mixing technique, all developments attended at their own tempos. The modal fVII chord, for example, appears briefly in 1962– 63, becomes more prominent in 1964, and peaks in the variety of its functions in Help! and in the intensity of its identity in Revolver. One could not 211

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point to a finished song on Sgt. Pepper and imagine it having been on Please Please Me, but many elements of that song were probably present in 1963. There are numbers on Rubber Soul and Abbey Road that with only minor variation could appear on any of the albums, and there are incongruous pieces everywhere. The path from beginning to end is not straight, nor is it regularly interrupted with sharp angles. The Beatles were to record and release substantially more of their own compositions in 1964 (twenty-four) than in 1963 (eighteen), writing between dates in a still-busy concert schedule now made more grueling by its worldwide range. Their four-track recording procedure varies little between October 1963 and mid-1964, and the resulting stereo mix seems to regularly favor the basic track on the left, vocals in the center, and lead guitar on right. Later in 1964, when the lead guitar is often doubled, it is heard both center and right. This simple template will often be discarded in 1965 as instrumentation and the numbers of overdubbed parts gradually expand. By the end of 1964, the group hints at their great potential for growth — that they are not what they appear to be. But some would say the signs had been visible all along. Table 3.1 provides an overview of the major events of the Beatles’ career in 1964.

The Beatles Conquer America (January – May 1964) History through May 1964 The Beatles’ performances in the first two weeks of 1964 included the continued nightly Christmas Show at Finsbury Park, London (through January 11), one taping session for the BBC (January 7), and a second appearance on Britain’s premier television variety show, “Sunday Night at the London Palladium” (January 12).2 All promoted “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and With the Beatles, and all were an unqualified success. (The fortnight was marred only by the loss of Lennon’s Jumbo, which was soon replaced by a nearly identical model.) But more important than these shows was the broadcast of a recent stage performance of “She Loves You,” complete with frenzied audience reaction (taped on November 16 at Bournemouth), on Jack Paar’s “Tonight Show” in New York on January 3. The meteoric rise of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on the American charts and its domination of the U.S. airwaves into March led to many 1964 – 65 repackagings and rereleases of early Beatles product that had initially flopped in the States, as gathered in table 3.2. Of these U.S. releases, the new single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and LP Meet the Beatles were Capitol-EMI’s top priorities through March, and sales benefited from a huge promotional campaign as well as untold free publicity on the British Beatlemania phenomenon.4 The March 5, 1964, issue of Billboard reported the album’s sales to be 3.65 million units in the United States in its first month on the market.5 It was during a three-week engagement in Paris (January 15 – February 4) that the Beatles learned that “I Want to Hold Your Hand”

The Beatles Conquer America

Table 3.1 Time Line of Major Events for the Beatles, 1964 Jan. 29, Feb. 25: Feb. 7–16: Feb. 25 –Apr.16: Mar. 2–Apr.24: Mar. 20: Mar. 23: June 1– 3: June 4 – 30: June 19: July 6: July 10: Aug. 11– Oct. 26: July 12–Aug.16: Aug.19 – Sept. 20: Oct. 9 – Nov.10: Nov. 27: Dec. 4: Dec. 24:

Recordings for German market and for new single, EMI studios in Paris and London Minitour of U. S., including first appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show Recordings for soundtrack of first film, EMI, London Shooting of first film, London and southern England locations “Can’t Buy Me Love” / “You Can’t Do That” released in U. K. Publication of John Lennon’s first book, In His Own Write Recordings to fill soundtrack LP, EMI, London Concert tours of northern Europe, Oceania Long Tall Sally released as EP single in U. K. World première of film, A Hard Day’s Night, London Single “A Hard Day’s Night” / “Things We Said Today” and LP A Hard Day’s Night released in U. K. Recordings for LP and single at EMI, London Concerts in England and Sweden Concert tour of the U. S. British concert tour “I Feel Fine” / “She’s a Woman” released in U. K. Beatles for Sale released in U. K. London Christmas concerts begin; continue through Jan. 16, 1965

had risen to the top of the American charts: that of Cashbox on January 25, jumping directly from #43 to #1, and that of Billboard on February 1. This incredible success was a bit ironic, as the Beatles’ two or three fifteen-minute Parisian appearances nightly, sharing the bill with eight other acts, were met with a singularly indifferent reception. The Paris set list contained both sides of the new single, the previous two A-sides, and “Twist and Shout.”6 Epstein’s focus was clearly the international market, and there were many concerns. EMI-Odeon of West Germany insisted that if the Beatles were to have a hit there, their vocals would have to be in German. Martin flew to Paris to supervise recordings of “Sie Liebt Dich” and “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand,” with language coaching by a Cologne-based EMI employee, on January 29. The translations of the Beatles’ two biggest hits took great liberties; one chorus became “Sie liebt dich, yeah, yeah, yeah . . . denn mit dir allein, kann sie nur glücklich sein.” To produce the recordings, the Beatles had to perform “Sie Liebt Dich” in its entirety but were able to use a copy of the original basic tracks of “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” owing to the use there of four-track tape. The Beatles thus needed to dub only Harrison’s Gent (note its register, different from the bass he’d used in the English version), handclaps, and vocals for “Komm.”7 The single was released on March 5 in Germany and on May 21 in the States, the latter by then hungering for any Beatle product. Finishing their work a bit early on the 29th, Martin and the Beatles used the remaining studio time to record the basic tracks of a new McCartney composition, “Can’t Buy Me Love.”8

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Table 3.2 American Reissues of Beatle Recordings Hamburg recordings from 1961: “My Bonnie” / “The Saints,” MGM K13213, rel. 1/27/64 (reaching #26) The Beatles with Tony Sheridan and Their Guests, LP, MGM SE4215, rel. 2/3/64 (#68) “Why” / “Cry for a Shadow,” MGM K13227, rel. 3/27/64 (#88) This Is the Savage Young Beatles, LP, Savage BM69, rel. mid-1964 “Sweet Georgia Brown” / “Take Out Some Insurance on Me Baby,” Atco 6302, rel. 6/1/64 “Ain’t She Sweet” / “Nobody’s Child,” Atco 6308, rel. 7/6/64 Ain’t She Sweet, LP, Atco SD 33-169, rel. 10/5/64 3 Reissues of the first three singles: “Please Please Me” / “From Me to You,” Vee-Jay 581, rel. 1/30/64 (#3); Oldies OL150, 8/10/64 (sold c. 21,000 copies); Capitol Starline 6063, 10/11/65 “Love Me Do” / “P.S. I Love You,” Tollie 9008, rel. 4/27/64 (#1 for 1 wk.; sold c. 1.16 million copies in 1964); Oldies OL151, 8/10/64 (sold c. 36,000 copies); Capitol Starline 6062, 10/11/65 Material from the First LP: Introducing the Beatles, LP, Vee-Jay LP1062, rel. c. 1/10/64 (#2 for 9 wks.; sold c. 1.3 million copies in mono, 42,000 copies in stereo) Jolly What! The Beatles & Frank Ifield on Stage, LP, Vee-Jay LP1085, rel. 2/26/64 (#104) “Twist and Shout” / “There’s a Place,” Tollie 9001, rel. 3/2/64 (#2 for 4 wks.; sold 1 million copies in 1964); Oldies OL152, 8/10/64 (sold c. 38,000 copies); Capitol Starline 6061, 10/11/65 Souvenir of Their Visit to America, EP, Vee-Jay VJEP 1903, rel. 3/23/64 (sold c. 79,000 copies in 1964) “Do You Want to Know a Secret” / “Thank You Girl,” Vee-Jay 587, rel. 3/23/64 (#2 for 1 wk.; sold c. 1 million copies in 1964); Oldies OL149, 8/10/64 (sold c. 35,000 copies); Capitol Starline 6064, 10/11/65 The Beatles vs. The Four Seasons, LP, Vee-Jay VJEX 30, rel. 10/1/64 (#142) Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles, LP, Vee-Jay VJLP1092, rel. 10/12/64 (#63) The Early Beatles, LP, Capitol (S)T2309, rel. 3/22/65 (#43; 1 million copies ultimately sold) Material from Later 1963: Meet the Beatles, LP, Capitol (S)T2047, rel. 1/20/64 (#1 for 11 wks.; with quintuple platinum sales —5 million units — the Beatles’ biggest-selling pre-1967 album) “She Loves You” / “I’ll Get You,” Swan 4152, rel. 9/16/63 (#1 for 2 wks.) The Beatles’ Second Album,* LP, Capitol (S)T2080, rel. 4/10/64 (#1 for 5 wks., with sales of 2 million in 2 wks.) 4 by the Beatles, EP, Capitol EAP-2121, rel. 5/11/64 (#92) “Roll Over Beethoven” / “Misery,” Capitol Starline 6065, rel. 10/11/65 “Boys” / “Kansas City,” * Capitol Starline 6066, rel. 10/11/65 *Some

1964 recordings are included on these Stateside reissues as well. The six discs in the Starline series were in distribution for only two months at the end of 1965.

The Beatles Conquer America

Despite having the #1 single and a rising Top-Five album in the United States and the prospect of three consecutive weeks of top billing on the Ed Sullivan Show, the top-rated American television variety program, the Beatles were apprehensive about their trip to America. “John was worried because no British groups or singers had ever got through in America before. ‘Cliff [Richard] went there and died. He was fourteenth on the bill with Frankie Avalon.’ George said he’d seen Cliff ’s film Summer Holiday reduced to the second feature in a drive-in in St. Louis.”9 All such anxieties disappeared on February 7 with the sight and sound of a mobbed Kennedy Airport in New York, a charmed reaction to their first press conference, and round-the-clock radio and television coverage of their every activity. Videotape of the first Sullivan show, performed live on February 9 for a house audience in hysterical ecstasy and for a record 73 million viewers, captures in one exchange of joy-filled smiles between George and John (in one refrain of “She Loves You”) the seeming knowledge that they have risen to the top of the entertainment world. The Beatles remained in the States for two weeks, for two live “Sullivan” appearances (February 9 and 16, the latter broadcast from Miami), the taping of another (for broadcast on February 23), and concerts in both Washington, D.C. (February 11, supported by American acts Tommy Roe, the Chiffons, and the Caravelles, and filmed for closed-circuit theater showings on March 14 –15), and New York’s Carnegie Hall (two shows on February 12).10 The U.S. repertoire consisted of “Please Please Me,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Twist and Shout,” “From Me to You,” “She Loves You,” “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and “This Boy” (all performed in both live and television appearances) and — played in concert only —“Roll Over Beethoven,” “I Wanna Be Your Man” (providing George and Ringo, respectively, with vocal roles), and “Long Tall Sally” (Paul’s closer). While in New York, Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney were all presented with new instruments by manufacturers who could have no better endorsements. New guitars came from Rickenbacker and a new Höfner bass from Selmer.11 Lennon’s new Rickenbacker was a Jetglo-black 3/4-size slimline Capri 325 with split-level pickguard and Ac’cent vibrato, very similar to the 325 he had played for years. This became Lennon’s primary guitar, beginning with the February 16 Sullivan rehearsal taped in Miami.12 Judging by many recordings, this instrument seems to be capable of a much brighter treble than was the older 325, although Lennon continued to reserve the rhythm pickup chiefly for live performances. But Harrison’s new guitar, Rickenbacker’s twelve-string, was to give the Beatles such a new sound as to affect a great deal of British and American rock. The jangly instrument was subsequently adopted by Gerry Marsden, Hilton Valentine of the Animals (as in “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” and “It’s My Life”), Denny Laine of the Moody Blues, Pete Townshend of The Who (“I Can’t Explain” and “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere”), Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys, and, most influentially, Jim McGuinn of the Byrds (who had been playing an amplified acoustic Gibson twelve-string when he saw the Rickenbacker in A Hard Day’s Night).13 Harrison’s copy “was the second twelve-string Rickenbacker ever made, and the first one strung with the high octave strings on the treble side, rather than on the bass side as

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on most twelve-strings.”14 The four low courses would be tuned in octaves, the upper two in unison.15 The acoustic twelve-string was an old folk instrument, used by such bluesmen as Leadbelly and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. When the Beatles met up with the Kestrels in early 1963, the banjoey sound of their twelve-strings may have reminded them of the Quarry Men’s skiffle days. The Gibson B-45-12 was popularized in early 1963 by the Rooftop Singers and again in early 1964 by McCartney’s friend Peter Asher. But the Beatles would not adopt an acoustic twelve-string until much later in 1964. For now, it was the jangly electric Ricky 12 (as Harrison calls it), whose dozen strings would routinely set off wild beats from slight intonation conflicts with other instruments, part of what characterizes the amazing opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night.”16 The Ricky 12 is heard in about two dozen Beatle recordings altogether. The Beatles’ instrument collection was growing rapidly: Harrison was said to have six guitars before he received the Ricky 12.17 In an interview on August 29, 1964, Lennon said, “I’ve got about four or five [guitars] and George about eight and Paul’s got two I think.”18 As for other equipment, Harrison’s Country Gent saw continued service, as did Starr’s Ludwig set, but the Vox 50-watt amplifiers acquired in October 1963 were to give way to 100-watt Vox amps for the August – September 1964 tour of the United States. These Super Deluxe AC100s would feature two Midax horns and four 12-inch woofers each and add “MRB,” a midrange resonance boost, to the previous Vox effects. Upon their February return from America, the Beatles were welcomed back to London in television skits saluting their transcontinental triumph, which they performed with comic hosts Mike and Bernie Winters on “Big Night Out,” taped on February 23. Then began the recording of new compositions, largely written in Paris and in America for the film A Hard Day’s Night. The Beatles’ activity in EMI’s Studio Two may be summarized: February 25: Completion of “Can’t Buy Me Love”; recording of “You Can’t Do That”; preliminary work on “And I Love Her” and “I Should Have Known Better” February 26: Mixing of “Can’t Buy Me Love”; recording of “I Should Have Known Better”; continued work on “And I Love Her” February 27: Recording of “And I Love Her,” “Tell Me Why,” and “If I Fell” March 1: Recording of “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You,” “Long Tall Sally,” and “I Call Your Name”

The Beatles had four widely seen television appearances in March, April, and May. They mimed to their records on “Top of the Pops” (March 19, for broadcast March 25) and “Ready, Steady, Go!” (broadcast live on March 20). They performed their own show, “Around the Beatles.” For this telecast, recordings were taped April 19 for miming on May 6; musical performances — including a brief medley edited from live performances of the group’s first five A-sides, and “Shout,” in which Paul (“click my fingers”), John (“take it easy”), George (“a little bit softer now”), and Ringo (“a little bit louder now”) trade vo-

The Beatles Conquer America

cals while vamping on a continuous I –VI alternation —were augmented by a comical enactment of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, act 5, scene 1. The Beatles were also the featured act in the telecast of the 1963 – 64 New Musical Express Poll Winner’s concert of April 26. Other Poll-Winners performers included the Searchers and Gerry & the Pacemakers — all from Lancashire — and Londonbased beat groups the Rolling Stones and the Dave Clark Five.19 Despite the appearance in March of new “pirate” radio stations off the British coast, which gave Brits their first day-long exposure to rock and roll (the stations would be outlawed in 1967), the Beatles continued to perform on the BBC, on February 28 (for broadcast on March 30, including a live performance of “You Can’t Do That,” a new song first taped at EMI only three days before), March 31 (for broadcast on April 4), and May 1 (for broadcast on May 18, including their final performances of any Cavern-era songs that would never be recorded for EMI releases —“I Forgot to Remember to Forget,” included on Beatles 1994c, and “Sure to Fall [In Love with You]”). These radio tapings feature not only a number of double-tracked vocals but also a double-tracked Country Gent solo by Harrison, for “Can’t Buy Me Love” (February 28), just as it had been recorded for EMI.20 These textural overdubs in supposedly “live” performances, along with the group’s increasingly inexact miming on television appearances through 1964 (by the end of the year, all pretense of performance is lost in video appearances), show the beginnings of a rift between studio recording and live performances in the attitudes of these musicians. Primary shooting for the Beatles’ first feature film, the ninety-minute comedy A Hard Day’s Night — a day in the life of the Beatles, who are beset by fans, press, and managers —was accomplished between March 2 and April 24 at various locations (principally Paddington Station and the Scala Theatre) and at Twickenham Studios. Conceived in August 1963 by United Artists as a low-budget ($500,000) vehicle for a highly profitable soundtrack album, it was produced by Walter Shenson (b. 1919, San Francisco), directed by Richard Lester (b. 1932, Philadelphia), and written by Alan Owen (b. 1925, a “Welsh playwright who knew Liverpool very well.”) 21 Lester was a cult figure in England for his eleven-minute short of 1959, The Running, Jumping, and Standing Still Film, a series of long shots of absurdist slapstick vignettes set in a large field and played by a small group of awkwardly cavorting characters (including Peter Sellers) with such props as camera, bicycle, tent, violin, kite, and rifle, with sound effects and Lester’s own jazz score but without dialogue. The effect lies somewhere between Mack Sennett and Monty Python’s Flying Circus.22 Lester also had experience with popular young British musicians, as both Helen Shapiro and Craig Douglas had starring roles in his film It’s Trad, Dad (1961). The latter film features quick cuts between close-ups of instrumental work in a recording studio; A Hard Day’s Night was to place this type of detailed attention to the Beatles’ performing techniques (as in the close-ups of Harrison’s heavy wrist vibrato and timbre-conscious divisions of string lengths in his articulation of different guitar colors in “And I Love Her”) into the fast-paced sort of slapstick seen in the Running, Jumping short. Shenson requested “six or seven” songs for the film — two ballads, two up-

217

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I’m Not What I Appear to Be

tempo and so on.23 Lennon said, “there were times when we honestly thought we’d never get the time to write all the material. But we managed to get a couple finished while we were in Paris, during our stay at the Olympia. And three more were completed in America, while we were soaking up the sun on Miami Beach.”24 Legend has it that only after filming was nearly complete, on April 15, did Shenson request a title song — by name. Lennon is supposed to have obliged by composing it that evening, and it was recorded the next day.25 The truth, a little different, will be explored hereafter. March 23 saw the publication of Lennon’s book In His Own Write, which not only sold 300,000 copies in Britain alone but also garnered favorable reviews. This collection of poems and very short stories full of Joycean dialect substitutions, Carrollian portmanteau words, and rich-sounding stream-of-consciousness double-entendres (generously illustrated by Lennon’s Thurber-like cartoons) provided its author with nonsensical fodder for many radio and television appearances. The most popular items, all still circulating in tapes of Lennon’s own voice, included “No Flies on Frank,” “Good Dog Nigel,” “The Wrestling Dog,” “I Sat Belonely,” and “Deaf Ted, Danoota, (and me).” Within a month, Lennon’s book was awarded the prestigious Foyle’s Literary Prize.26 But it was in the tabulation of record sales and radio play that the Beatles took all honors in the spring of 1964. “Can’t Buy Me Love” / “You Can’t Do That” (U.K.: Parlophone R 5114, released March 20, 1964; U.S.: Capitol 5150, released March 16, 1964) was to sell a record-breaking 2.1 million copies worldwide in advance of its release and still remain at #1 for five weeks in the United States. Incredibly, and by far without precedent, the April 4, 1964, Billboard chart ranked “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Twist and Shout,” “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and “Please Please Me” in the top five positions, respectively, and seven other Beatle records, including four B-sides and two Canadian imports, in the same “Hot 100.” The Beatles commanded all six top positions on the Australian charts of March 27. Not since the U.S. Marine Band created the first national hit records in 1895 had a single artist so saturated a nation’s — let alone the Western world’s — record sales. Concert performances in Edinburgh (April 29) and Glasgow (April 30) were followed by a month-long vacation from Beatles activities — outside of a little composition and, no doubt, chart-watching — in the Virgin Islands and Tahiti.

Peter & Gordon; Other Friends Before I examine the Beatles’ own first recordings of 1964, it is necessary to look at some of the last songs they were to give to other performers. One of McCartney’s first homes in London was a room in the house of his girlfriend, Jane Asher. The Asher family, including Jane’s father Richard, mother Margaret (who happened to have been George Martin’s oboe teacher), and brother Peter, had strong interests in classical music and other fine arts that were to influence Paul’s artistic growth to a great degree. Gordon Waller (singing lead) and Peter Asher (harmony) recorded as Peter & Gordon for EMI-Columbia. McCartney was to compose three of their 1964 A-sides: “A World without Love” (the only

The Beatles Conquer America

Example 3.1 “A World without Love” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs. 31

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song of the trio to reach #1, which it did on both sides of the Atlantic), “Nobody I Know,” and “I Don’t Want to See You Again” (this last a warm-over that need not be discussed further). Following his 1967 split with Waller, Asher became an internationally sought record producer, beginning in 1968 with James Taylor’s first album. According to Lennon, “A World without Love” was a very early McCartney composition: it was “an early one he wrote when he was about sixteen or seventeen. I think he changed the words later for the record by Peter and Garfunkel [sic].” “I think he had the whole song before Beatles and gave it to Peter and Gordon. . . . Paul never sang it. Not on a record, anyway. That has the line ‘Please lock me away’—which we always used to crack up at.”27 McCartney most probably taped a demo in the first two weeks of January, as Peter & Gordon recorded their version on the 21st. The verse opens with a progression characteristic only of the later McCartney, I –V7/VI –VI (as in “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” [1969]), but the song continues with three hallmarks of the 1963 – 64 Beatles: introductory unison singing gives way within the verse to a descant line above the structural voice, the bridge begins (0:49) and ends with “Forget Him” mixture from the minor mode (progressing IVf– I – IVf– II7– IV6–V; see the end of the bridge in example 3.1), and the guitar solo introduces pentatonic blues material into an otherwise major/minor piece. A second aspect of “A World without Love” points directly to McCartney’s later work with the Beatles: the bridge has the singer waiting for his true love in his low register. When she appears (1:01), his voice rises nearly an octave in joyful recognition. This notion is recomposed by McCartney in “Blackbird” (1968). Several of McCartney’s 1964 compositions for others are combinations of some materials common to 1963 – 64 Beatle songs, with other materials not performed by the Beatles until much later. “Nobody I Know,” “custom built for Peter and Gordon” a few months later and recorded in April, is a largely innocuous McCartney song that again fea-

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I’m Not What I Appear to Be

Example 3.2 “Nobody I Know” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs. 9

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tures a few early-Beatle hallmarks.28 Note that the verse (the second of which is excerpted in example 3.2) includes a descending scale in twelve-string guitar, mixture from the minor mode (initially in the form of fVII and Vf, not reproduced here), a split from unison singing to parallel thirds, and the contrast of diatonic minor triads III and VI with a climax on fVI. As did “A World without Love,” this song features McCartney’s new-found progression I –V7/VI –VI, this time introducing the bridge. The verse of “Nobody I Know” reintroduces the SRDC formal structure operating since “Please Please Me.” In the D-gesture of “Nobody” (mm. 9 –12 [0:15 – 0:23]), the new substance of the lyrics, the growth of vocal texture, the telling change from diatonic minor triads to an intensified one borrowed from the minor mode, and the transcendence to an upper register for the C-gesture all suggest a brief fantasy, a momentary flight to dreams (particularly in the second verse), and perhaps the wonder (expressed by the motion from I to III [0:15 – 0:18]?) of falling in love. The C-gesture, now beginning on e2, can complete the verse’s business with a descent to c2, the pitch that had opened the verse but which in the S- and R-gestures had seemed somehow divorced from the more structural motion involving e1– f1– e1 (mm. 1– 3) – d1 (m. 7). Another song given away, “One and One Is Two,” was probably McCartney’s first composition of 1964; he is supposed to have recorded four demos in Paris.29 Despised by Lennon, the lightweight song (in the vein of “All Together Now” [1967]) was in E major but touched by pentatonic-minor blues elements in the verse, not unlike the contemporaneous “Can’t Buy Me Love.” The March 20 recording of “One and One,” by Mike Shannon & the Strangers (a South African group), added a Beatlesque descant line and “I’ll Get You”– inspired “oh yeah” backing vocals to the composer’s model. It was released on May 8, 1964, but did not reach the charts.30 “One and One Is Two” was originally written for Billy J. Kramer, who de-

The Beatles Conquer America

Example 3.3a “From a Window” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs. 47

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clined. Kramer did, however, accept a different McCartney offering in the spring of 1964. Kramer: “It was Brian’s idea to record ‘From a Window.’ I think Paul wanted to give it to Peter and Gordon, and when you think about it, it would have fit them. John and Paul did some singing at the end of it.”31 The first verse’s lyrics, “Late yesterday night I saw a light shine from a window, and as I looked again your face came into sight,” reverberate in Lennon’s “No Reply,” originally written in mid-1964 for another artist. Chromaticism in the bridge (which includes the I –V7/VI –VI progression once again [0:41– 0:45]) leads to a retransition (example 3.3a, mm. 49 – 51) on scale degrees ( 5 ) – s4 – 4 – 3 (0:45 – 0:49) that sounds here more like the barbershop coda to “Moonlight Bay” sung by the Beatles the previous December than the same line basic to the chorus of “She Loves You.” The song’s triplet-inflected plagal coda (example 3.3b), reminiscent of “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” is prefaced with a deceptively introduced fVI chord (effecting a modal plagal cadence, fVI – I [1:45 –1:58]) that is not heard again in this function until McCartney’s “I Will” (1968). Aside from McCartney’s early “Like Dreamers Do” (recorded by the Applejacks, a Birmingham group, for Decca in May and taken to #20 in Britain), the only other Beatle composition to be recorded by another artist in 1964 was McCartney’s very different “It’s for You,” on which he and Cilla Black worked many times in the early part of the year. Its final incarnation is discussed later in this chapter.

“Can’t Buy Me Love” / “You Can’t Do That” The Beatles’ first A-side of 1964 was written in late January, in Paris. The group had a Caveau console, a Parisian piano, brought to their suite at the George V to work on this and their new film songs.32 “Can’t Buy Me Love” was recorded

221

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I’m Not What I Appear to Be

Example 3.3b “From a Window” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs. 56

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in EMI’s Paris studio. This session consisted of bass, drums, and Lennon’s new Jumbo on one track, McCartney’s lead vocal on another, and backing vocals from Lennon and Harrison along with Harrison’s Country Gent on a third.33 An overdub of Harrison’s Gretsch (for the solo) with a double-tracking of McCartney’s lead vocal on the same fourth track was probably also recorded that day.34 Harrison added the new Ricky 12 to the song’s intro, chorus, and coda (ringing the changes of minor triads and affirming the cadences in each) on February 25, which part seems to have been edited into the place of the Gretsch played throughout the basic track, now deleted (along with backing vocals) except for the solo. The verse of “Can’t Buy Me Love” (see B) is a fast twelve-bar blues with a strong backbeat, perhaps influenced by Marvin Gaye, to whom McCartney often refers in January and February.35 The chorus (see C) does not prolong the tonic but instead functions harmonically as bridge and retransition, providing scaledegree contrast against the verse’s pentatonic minor materials with minor III and VI triads and moving to a dissonant V.36 Martin decided that the chorus was so effective (it “catches the ear immediately, a hook”) it should introduce the number.37 This fact and changes made among the first takes indicate that little of the arrangement had been worked out before studio time became unexpectedly available. McCartney’s usually flexible vocal range seems to have been a problem, for although the finished song (based on Take 4) is in C, Take 3 had been attempted in B and Take 2 in D. While the first three takes included backing vocals by Lennon and Harrison that were interjectory in the second and later verses (“ooh love me too . . . ooh give to you”) and contrapuntal in the chorus, these were apparently abandoned in the favored Take 4. (We don’t know why the backing vocals were omitted — perhaps this was done to give the song more immediate appeal — or it might have been necessitated by the addition of the Ricky 12.) Particularly rich in the backing vocals of Take 2 is the retransition (see example 3.4), which culminates on a V53 (0:55 – 0:56) with

The Beatles Conquer America

Example 3.4 “Can’t Buy Me Love” (Take 2) (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.

35

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Lennon’s gracefully introduced unresolved sixth (fs2) and Harrison’s 4 – 3 suspension, itself resolving the seventh of II. This is an early demonstration of one of the many ways that, contrary to the norm, Beatle arrangements sometimes become simplified during the recording process.38 Whereas “Can’t Buy Me Love” does not initiate a substantial run of twelvebar Beatle compositions, its rich vocal dependence on blue pentatonic scale degrees (once a hallmark of vocal lines in early Beatle covers but then often relegated to brief guitar interjections throughout the otherwise diatonic hits of 1963) does begin a progression of such preoccupations that culminates in several Revolver tracks. Of “You Can’t Do That,” Lennon says, “That’s me doing Wilson Pickett. You know, a cowbell going four in the bar, and the chord going chatoong!”39 Harrison says the song was written in Miami Beach.40 The song’s treatment of jealousy has thematic precedent in “Some Other Guy” (a favorite of John’s) and in this aspect preceeds Lennon’s own “No Reply,” “Run for Your Life,” and “Jealous Guy.”41 Recorded in nine takes (the last receiving overdubs) on February 25, instrumentation consists of drums, bass, and Ricky 12 (Guitar I) on one track, Lennon’s highly compressed new Capri (Guitar II) on a second, and two tracks (both mixed center for stereo) for the composer’s two unison vocals, backing vocals from McCartney and Harrison, and percussion (cowbell and conga) from Starr and others.42 Along with the dubs on the A-side, this song presents the two new guitars for the first time. Harrison’s intro (the four bars preceding A) presents the ostinato that colors the verses, solo, and coda with alternating minor and major thirds above I. (The fact that this particular guitar’s introduction and coda share the same dissonant ornamentation of G major — particularly with the penultimate bar’s Fn— prepares the way for the opening sonorities of “A Hard Day’s Night” and “I’ll Cry Instead.”)43 Proud of

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I’m Not What I Appear to Be

his new instrument, Lennon takes the bluesy solo (at D [1:28 –1:51], above Harrison’s ostinato), saying later in 1964, “I’d find it a drag to play rhythm all the time so I always work myself out something interesting to play. The best example I can think of is like I did on ‘You Can’t Do That.’ There wasn’t really a lead guitarist and a rhythm guitarist on that because I feel that the rhythm guitarist role sounds too thin for records. Anyway, it’d drive me potty to play chunk-chunk rhythm all the time. I never play anything as lead guitarist that George couldn’t do better. But I like playing lead sometimes, so I do it.”44 The guitar’s manufacturer was similarly proud; Rickenbacker’s July 1964 advertisement in Mersey Beat boasted of both John’s and George’s models as played in this song.45 Lennon’s bent-unison double-stops and accented G7 chords drool the blues. The verse is a twelve-bar blues; given the rarity of this structure in the Beatles’ music, this song seems very much like Lennon’s answer to McCartney’s Aside.46 Like “I Just Don’t Understand” and a host of others, the vocal melody tends to arpeggiate among chord-based pentatonic minor scale degrees. But, like the ostinato, the tune gains tension from the alternation of bn (A+1/2/3/7) and bf (A+5/11). The bn is also made dissonant against the omnipresent fn, which sustains even against the C7 chord at A+10 (0:24 – 0:25).47 All chords contain sevenths, but the greatest dissonance is reserved for the Vs9 chord of A+9 (D – Fs–A– Cn– Fn [0:22 – 0:23]), which stresses both major and minor thirds of V, just as tonic had been decorated in the introduction. The effect here, with the D7 chord repeated on four eighths as Lennon shouts the Fn, answered with a stop-time drum response, is such that “you can almost hear him wag his finger on the hook (‘because I told you before’). Ringo reacts to that line with a syncopated entrance, jerking the band back in rather than easing them around the curve.”48 As the blues gives way to new “uptown” tonal materials in the chorus of “Can’t Buy Me Love,” so functions the bridge in “You Can’t Do That.” Backing vocals emphasize the “green” of envy with a shocking and sustained V7/VI (B+1 [0:52 – 0:53]). Further harmonies here, including various minor triads, are fully diatonic.49 Also of interest is the substitution of III for V in B+3 (0:56 – 0:57). The same III, given downbeat status, leads to a fear-stricken (shrieked in a high register) retransitional Vadd7 6 at C–1 (1:05; Paul sings b2, not the a2 shown in the Wise score, on the downbeat; note the formally stronger use of Bm – D7 as dominant than heard in the verse of “She Loves You”). While the verse attests to the singer’s jealousy, the bridge attributes that emotion to “everybody” else; here (in contrast to Paul’s A-side sentiment), love is clearly treated as a commodity, the value of which rises and falls with the security of ownership. “You Can’t Do That” was considered for the film, and an outtake of the Beatles performing this song at the Scala Theatre was broadcast on the “Ed Sullivan Show” on May 24. Whereas Lennon professes preferring “Can’t Buy Me Love” to this song, Harrison is heard in June and again as late as September saying that the B-side is his favorite Beatles number.50

A Hard Day’s Night

A Hard Day’s Night: Film Soundtrack “And I Love Her” Although this ballad is generally considered to be McCartney’s composition (as he sings it solo), Lennon claims that he helped write the bridge.51 Originally taped (on February 25) with Ricky 12, Ludwig toms, and hihat, Harrison substituted a Ramírez classical guitar with nylon strings on the second and third days’ work. Lennon’s bridge was also composed in the studio, as it is not present on Take 2 from the 25th. The best version of the basic tracks (Take 21) was achieved on February 27, and this received overdubs so that the final texture consists of McCartney’s bass, Lennon’s Jumbo, and Starr’s bongos on one track, McCartney’s lead vocal and Harrison’s claves (tapping a repeated Œ q≤Ωç q rhythm) on another, and overdubs of McCartney’s second vocal on a third and Harrison’s Ramírez on the fourth.52 The Ramírez is notable for its chiming changes in the bridge, its poetic interpretation of the verse’s melody in the solo, and its high-register arpeggiations in eighths through the second and later verses. Thus, the gentle “And I Love Her” becomes the first Beatle recording with fully Latin percussion instead of Starr’s Ludwig kit. Perhaps this is why the song was Ringo’s favorite from the film.53 Tonal ambiguity is not characteristic of much Beatle music. Problematic tonal schemes, however, do exist. In “And I Love Her,” “Girl,” and others, a conflict of priority arises between relative major and relative minor. A scale is easily determined, but the tonal center seems to fluctuate between the two pitch classes without particular allegiance to either. In “Girl,” the verse and contrasting middle section are in C minor, and the chorus is in Ef major. The song has no ending but fades out during the Ef chorus. “And I Love Her” is more complex. The verse (A) prolongs Cs minor, but its refrain (last three bars before B [0:24 – 0:29]) cadences with V7– I in E major. Note, however, that cs1 lingers through the arrival of I at B–2; this added sixth is the source of the introductory cs. The bridge (B [0:50 –1:06]) moves vaguely from Cs minor to V of E. This does not resolve to E, however, but deceptively to Cs minor, with the return to the verse. Thus, verse – bridge – verse is a loop moving between E major and Cs minor.54 Matters are confused further with the “truck-driver’s modulation,” as the instrumental solo (C) suddenly shifts a half-step higher (1:28) and the song continues, alternating between F major and D minor. The final cadence appears to be a Picardy third on D major.55 At this final cadence, it is difficult — if not impossible — to hear the Cs minor and D minor areas as having functioned as VI to tonics of E and F, respectively.56 These songs do not seem to adhere to a tonal system in which scale degrees with specific functions may be prolonged through momentary alterations to the scale of the home key as much as they resemble vagrant medieval modal systems, in which different tones (finalis and confinalis) alternate priority, without necessary alterations to the original scale. This topic is of particular interest to Naphtali Wagner, who refers to the alternation of key centers as “tonal oscillation” and says of “And I Love Her” that “this cyclic lyrical movement is reminiscent of the first song in Schumann’s cycle Dichterliebe, in which the vocal fragments pull towards A

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I’m Not What I Appear to Be

major, while the instrumental interludes between them pull in the direction of Fs minor.”57 Part of the difficulty in determining the song’s tonal center is due to its melodic upper voice, which is reduced in example 3.5. Most sense of E/F-ness (which is supported by the retransitional appearance of a vocal fs over B, 2 over V in E, and perhaps by the memory of 8–7–6 as a tonic-enabling guitar line in the refrain of “She Loves You”) is hampered not by the preponderance of minor triads nor by the unexpected ending on VIs, nor by the shift in the verse’s phrase rhythm (divided as 4+6) that is required to achieve a cadence in E, but by the lack of vocal cadence on 1 (which line is suggested in Cs within the verse, at A+4 [0:15 – 0:16]). It does no harm to the structure that “And I Love Her” does not begin in E major — the song could have an incomplete structure, beginning in medias res; after all, the composer said “having the title start in midsentence, I thought that was clever.”58 “I Should Have Known Better” Rehearsed in the studio on February 25 and recorded the following day, “I Should Have Known Better” (written in the United States) was Lennon’s first contribution to the film. Nine takes (the last being best) were devoted to the basic tracks. These consisted of placing Lennon’s Jumbo, Starr’s drums, and McCartney’s bass on one track and Lennon’s vocal on another. Another thirteen takes were required for overdubs, with Harrison’s Ricky 12 played in the bridges and solo on a third track, and Lennon’s vocal overdub and harmonica on a fourth.59 As in “Can’t Buy Me Love,” there are no backing vocals. Take 22 was mixed for release, but the stereo mix (not appearing in the United States until February 1970) uses a different edit piece for the harmonica intro than that heard in mono. I have noted Harrison’s whole-note chiming in a number of earlier songs, but in the bridge of “I Should Have Known Better,” the Ricky 12 gives this effect the bell-like fullness of an electric svaramandal, the Indian table harp that the Beatles would begin using in 1966. Like “And I Love Her,” “I Should Have Known Better” has a ten-bar verse (A, divided as 6+4 by virtue of an expanded two-bar upbeat), and as shown in the voice-leading sketch of example 3.6, this passage has a simple I –VI – IV–V– I structure. While the extended anacrusis has a static melody simply decorating 5 with its upper neighbor, the tune proceeds to defy gravity and rise stepwise to 8 (the 5–6–7–8 motion [0:18 – 0:22] is labelled a to make clear a later motivic function), in an expression of joy often associated with the 6 through which Lennon passes.60 The sixth scale degree, which is born as a complete upper neighbor (A+2 [0:10]) and then takes on a life of its own as an incomplete neighbor (A+4 [0:13]), is supported with a strong octave at A+6 (0:16), giving it the strength to change direction, abandoning neighbor for passing status. The further development of this VI chord in the bridge will fully emancipate the joy-carrying 6. The second verse (B) is cut short to eight bars (6+2), because of the unexpected appearance of V7/VI in support of 7 (C–1 [0:38 – 0:39]), initiating a transition to the bridge (C).61 While there is no authentic cadence here, a re-

Example 3.5 Analysis of “And I Love Her.”

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A Hard Day’s Night

flection on an inner-voice b1 at C+1 only briefly interrupts the rise to 8 (see the second a) that is completed at C+2 (0:42), effecting a motivic overlap of the verse, transition, and bridge, itself worthy of Brahms, that expresses the singer’s great determination to communicate (“when I tell you . . . and when I ask you”). With the boost to 8 from the inner-voice b1, Lennon reaches a new depth of understanding not seen in the previously blithe treatment of 6, portrayed in a new setting of 8 with the tonicized VI. It is as if this area, VI, is where Lennon was headed all along, but even he could not have known so; the tonal evolution of 6 is a deep portrayal of the hindsight that inspires the song. There is an even deeper relation between the life of 6 in the verse and that in the bridge: the surface treats 6 as an incomplete neighbor, as the 5 to which it resolves at C+9 (0:55) is only implied.62 The bridge melody, which is lyrical and expansive in comparison with that of the verse, features the song’s only blue note (bf1, C+8, 0:54), which connects with the harmonica’s f7 in the intro. The bridge continues with a climactic Orbison-like octave jump to the falsetto b2 (C+12 [1:00 –1:02]) for one final appearance of VI as Lennon bares his soul.63 The truth that Lennon is finally able to get across, that “you’re gonna say you love me too,” is set with a straightforward fundamental line descending from 5, with the return to the lower obligatory register affirmed by a 9 – 8 suspension on the surface (C+15 [1:06]).64 While McCartney knocks off blues numbers, Lennon intrigues us with his tonal imagination. “If I Fell” Lennon’s ballad for A Hard Day’s Night, “If I Fell,” was begun in 1963 but was probably completed in Paris or in the United States. It is one of only four songs written and released by the Beatles before 1966 for which solo, prestudio working tapes by the composer have seen general circulation (the other three, all of whose early versions are less informative, are “Don’t Bother Me,” “Michelle,” and “We Can Work It Out”).65 The mid-1963 draft recording features Lennon singing through “If I Fell” several times, playing chords on acoustic guitar in a strict quarter-note rhythm. The draft sounds in Ef, as opposed to the group’s recording in D; Lennon is probably tuned high. The song’s most stunning feature, its introduction, is intact in the draft tape, but the early solo verse and bridge (part of each appearing here as examples 3.7a and b, respectively) are interesting in comparison with the finished arrangement, which features a homorhythmic Lennon-McCartney vocal duet. In comparing the initial and final performances, note (1) that Lennon begins his draft by performing the upper of the two vocal lines — singing in falsetto the line that is eventually to be assigned to his partner; (2) that his initial cadence, at measure 17, is on 6 over I, harking back to “I Should Have Known Better” (note that the score is in error at B+9 [0:36 – 0:37], as John sings a1, not fs1); and (3) that in the bridge (C), the melody is to become the lower of the two vocal lines until the retransition begins at measure 32 (C+6 [1:09]), where the singer recaptures McCartney’s part and adds a rhapsodic Presleian lead-in (“so-o-o I”) that is left out of the final version, which thereby adopts a much more subdued and sympathetic character.66 (Errors mar the score once again at C+4 – 5; vocal-part accidentals are missing for cn2, bf1, and fn2 through these bars.) Note

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also that because Lennon changes chords every two or four beats and that because neither the second vocal part nor McCartney’s bass is present, there is not yet a hint of the song’s highly characteristic fourth-beat diminished triad formed at B+2 (0:22) by the later addition of two chromatic passing tones in those parts. This later idea is probably not Lennon’s, even though he has already evidenced an interest in chromatic descents that is to grow through the year. Example 3.8, for example, had been played by John on February 9, 1964, while experimenting with a Hohner Melodica, a two-octave keyboard powered by breath; this exact idea is to resurface three years later, transposed, as the Mellotron introduction to “Strawberry Fields Forever.”67 We guess that this passing chromaticism is McCartney’s, as he plays on the bass the same chromatic descent to the double-stop-fortified 2 that we heard in “Till There Was You” and “Do You Want To Know a Secret.” Also absent in the draft version are the mixture-enhanced IVf–V7 cadence of B+10 (0:38 – 0:40, created by George on his Ricky 12), and the related coda — the draft ends with repeated vamping on the progression I – II – III – II and so on, along with a fragment that will form the core of the “I Should Have Known Better” verse. When recorded in one session at EMI, the eventual arrangement comprised bass, drums (predominantly soft damped rim shots), and Jumbo on one track, the two vocals on another, Harrison’s Ricky 12 (chiming on downbeats in the intro and, as in the second verse of “And I Love Her,” arpeggiating in eighths through the song proper) on a third, and overdubs of Lennon’s vocal (for the intro only) and Harrison’s twelve-string (heard only in the first ending and on the very final chord, beating the final chord with light amp tremolo) on the fourth.68 In the tonally complex chromatic introduction (A), the singer enters a love relationship tentatively, looking for assurances that he will not be treated as he had been in the past.69 While the structure of the singer’s melody (see first system of example 3.9) represents a straightforward interrupted 3-line in D major, the harmony is quite confused: the piece opens with a tonicization of Cs major (emphasized at A+3 [0:05 – 0:07] by the octave leap on what is to be 7 in D major, now utterly consonant), ultimately to be heard as III of V. This opening prolongation of V is made more complex by the dual roles of D triads: that heard within the tonicization of Cs (at A+2) seems to substitute for the local V (Gs, here spelled as Af) a tritone away (a function more explicit in McCartney’s “Things We Said Today,” to be taped a few months later), and that heard at A+6 (0:12 – 0:13) is heard retrospectively both as the emerging I (befitting the discovery mentioned in the poetic text) and as a passing chord between III/V and II. A neighboring gs at A+6 prevents the D from taking too firm a hold right away. Just as a rising motive links the verse and bridge of “I Should Have Known Better,” the introduction here searches for, and finally finds, the motive that will enable the beginning of the verse: an initial ds1– es1– fs1 (the song’s first three notes) twice becomes “normalized” to d1– e1– fs1 (at each D triad). Once on firmer ground, the second normalized motive leads to a rise all the way up to a1 (d1– e1– fs1– g1– a1, A+6 – 8 [0:14 – 0:17]), which is the basis of Lennon’s vocal line in the verse (A+8, B+1– 2 [0:18 – 0:21]). Despite these

A Hard Day’s Night

Example 3.7a “If I Fell,” compositional draft (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.

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risings, Tom Hartman rightly points out the descending motion of the intro’s first three chords, which he hears as Lennon’s illustration of falling, the song’s subject.70 As if having gained new confidence from finding its way via the strong I – II –V progression (D – e7–A7) at the end of the intro, harmony is strongly functional through the song proper (verse, B, and bridge, C) and is delineated with a commonplace bass line. The song’s repeated I – II –V– (I) harmonic structure — see the second system of example 3.9— is rescued from the threat of tedium by the Beatlesque III triad (0:21– 0:22) and passing diminished chord in the verse and by a touch of mixture in the guitar tag in the first ending. This mixture predicts a middleground-level inner-voice chromatic descent of d – cs– cn– b – bf– a in the second verse and bridge, describing past “hurt” and “pain” with the age-old f6–5 line, and is recaptured in the coda. But if the harmony is solid, the fundamental line is not. First, the intro’s promise of a 3-line is never fulfilled. Fs remains prominent but only in an inner voice that takes the Fs to its upper neighbor and back. Much more of a determining factor for the voice leading is an upper voice that descends from 8 to 5, passing from Paul’s vocal part to John’s a1— recall the error in the score — in the first ending. The line stops there in the verse but continues its descent above a tonicization of IV in the bridge, which is built on a sequence: C+1– 3 (0:58 –1:04) becomes C+4 – 6 (1:05 –1:10). The continuation is allowed by a register transfer signaled by the mixture-enhanced figure in the bright electric Ricky 12 in the first ending. The line continues down to a retransitory 2 (1:10 –1:12), where it is interrupted by the fear of the new relationship being “in vain.” The verse returns,

231

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A Hard Day’s Night

and with it the beginning of an 8-line. The descent, however, never again progresses below 5, where the line ends. The reason seems obvious — the whole point of this song is that the singer cannot decide whether or not to “fall.” “Tell Me Why” Of this song, Lennon recalls: “they needed another upbeat song and I just knocked it off. It was like a black – New York – girl group song.”71 Recorded the same day as two more involved pieces, this number required eight takes to complete. We hear drums, bass, Jumbo, and Country Gent on one track, Lennon’s lead vocal on another, more Lennon-McCartney vocals on a third, and Martin’s Steinway on the fourth.72 The piano was deleted from the bridge to make room for an additional unison vocal track from John, probably to improve the sonority of the full line sung in falsetto (C+4 – 6 [1:32–1:35]). “Tell Me Why” shares two structural aspects of voice leading with “If I Fell,” in addition to the fact that they are both performed in D, even though the styles are very different. As in the ballad, Lennon’s vocal cadences on a1 with McCartney on d2 (see A+11 [0:22]), the final vocal sonority is McCartney’s fs2 over Lennon’s a1 (despite its articulation over Bm in “Tell”), and the bridge (C [1:27–1:42]) is prepared by D7.73 Also of note is the fact that the chorus (A) and verse (B) share the identical harmonic progressions (and some crucial voice leading, such as the fs2– e2– d2 vocal descent with which both begin), although the sections are very different from each other in most other respects.74 Perhaps it is Lennon’s new infatuation with descending chromatic lines, an interest that will peak in 1967– 68, that guides the bass through the coda’s unprecedented jazzy VI – Ger65–V13– I cadence, in barre chords that simultaneously remind us of his banjolele origins, tie this song’s texture to that of “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You,” and predict his contribution to Paul’s “Honey Pie” (1968). “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” Including both sides of the new single, six of the seven songs intended for the film had been recorded, and Harrison had yet to sing lead. Of “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You,” Lennon says, “That was written for George. I couldn’ta sung it.”75 The song, a Latin number with a harder edge than “Ask Me Why,” was recorded with only two takes of the basic tracks. This was done with drums and bass on one track and Lennon’s banjorecalling Capri (Guitar II) and Harrison’s Ricky 12 (Guitar I) (which has only the Csm triads that sustain through the four-measure intro) on another. There was one full go at the overdubs, adding George’s lead vocal double-tracked via tape-to-tape dubbing, along with Ringo’s Arabian drum with its q≤Ωç≤q Œ rhythm in the verse (B) on a third track and John’s and Paul’s reverb-laden backing vocals on the fourth.76 “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” shares ideas with three previously taped film songs: (1) As in “And I Love Her,” csm (tonicized in the opening and in the first half of the bridge, C) and E (the eventual goal) are contrasted as tonal centers, this time leading to an unambiguous incomplete structure in E major with a perfect authentic cadence at the end of the bridge (C+7– 8 [0:54 – 0:57]). The fact that the (normally anacrustic) introduction (at A+4) and end of the bridge (C+8) both conclude with such strong cadences throws the song a bit off bal-

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I’m Not What I Appear to Be

ance, as the (normally conclusory) refrain (B+7– 8 [0:24 – 0:28]) ends with 3 in the upper voice. (2) McCartney’s bass line adds a chromatic passing tone between 3 and 2 in the third verse (B+1 [0:59]) derived from the same sources that led to the device appearing in “If I Fell” but now without the linked doublestop. (3) The syncopated ending of “Tell Me Why” is recreated here. The final three added sixth chords culminate in E with an added Cs, tying together the song’s two competing tonal centers, as did the final chord of “She Loves You,” not as VIs was asserted at the end of “And I Love Her.” Whereas the upper-part voice leading in “And I Love Her” was just as ambiguous as the turns of harmony, this is not the case in “Happy Just to Dance.” Here, as shown in a graph seen in Wagner 1999 (263), the lead vocal descends 5–4–3 through B and then 3–2–1 through C, making E very clearly the tonal goal despite the prominence of Cs minor. As an original touch, the final refrain is extended by a discovery (B+7, final lyrics) that resolves deceptively in the coda. This continues with a rehearing of the original refrain (vocally, ending on Cs, and then instrumentally, ending on E). As a borrowed touch, the I – CTº7– II7–V7 support for 5 in the bridge had once been heard in “Someday My Prince Will Come” in Snow White (the source of “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” which has been linked through the chromatic bass motive to “Happy Just to Dance”). Unique to this song (though recreating an approach heard in the solo section of “From Me to You”) is the form of the introduction, which predicts the song’s chorus but for its lack of vocals in the four opening bars. “Long Tall Sally” and “I Call Your Name” On the day before the Beatles began their intense shooting schedule, two songs were recorded that were destined for release on an EP. In the tradition of their previous show-closer, “Twist and Shout,” its replacement, Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally,” was recorded in a single take. We hear bass, drums, and compressed Gretsch on one track, McCartney’s shouted vocal on another, and Lennon’s Capri and Martin’s Steinway on a third. The second chorus of Harrison’s twelve-bar solo on the Gent (C) opens with broken octaves (above Lennon’s chromatic barre-chord slide) that might have been taken from Paul Burlison’s Stratocaster solo in the Johnny Burnette Trio’s “The Train Kept a-Rollin’ ” (1956). “I Call Your Name” is the early Lennon composition given to Kramer in 1963.77 Although consequence is not implied as it was in “Hello Little Girl” and other early Beatle numbers, a verse-bridge-verse unit is perceived here, as the final verse (C) is truncated in half. The recording uses portions of two of the seven takes, edited differently in the mono and stereo mixes (noticeable immediately in the introductory twelve-string figure and the late stereo appearance of the cowbell). It features bass, drums, and Lennon’s Capri on one track, Lennon’s lead vocal on a second, the Ricky 12 (Guitar I) on a third (a better alternate take was spliced into the mono mix), and an overdub with Lennon’s doubled vocal and Starr’s four-in-the-bar cowbell on the fourth track, which was edited to include the guitar solo from a different take. Again, there are no backing vocals.78

A Hard Day’s Night

Although the song’s vocal line is completely diatonic, the accompanying tonal materials are the typical Beatle mix of pentatonic, major, minor, and chromatic scale degrees, strongly leaning toward the sharp side. Harrison’s guitar harps on pentatonic f7 and f3 in the intro, in the solo (D), and in his bluesy [025] colorings on If7 in the verses (A). Including If7, the verse features all major-minor seventh chords organized in a circle of fifths until II7s acts not as an applied V (as at A+5 [0:17– 0:20]) but as the Lydian IIs, moving to IV at B–3 (0:34) for the barbershop / “She Loves You” inner-voice descent, 5–s4–4–3 (A+9 –16 [0:24 – 0:39]). The harmonic rhythm is halved at the appearance of II7s from chord changes every other bar to every bar, and an inner voice increases the tempo again at B–3 (0:35) by changing IV to IVf at the half bar, an alteration not heard in the Kramer arrangement. The only other mixture from the minor mode (already present in 1963) is the retransitional Ger 65 at B+7 (0:51– 0:52). Harrison’s bridge ostinato, which, as in the introduction to “You Can’t Do That,” offers minor/major alteration for every chord through B except on the minor VI, is another feature not heard in Kramer’s version.79 (The incorrect accidentals at B+5 – 6 should read an1– as1.) The line’s busy quality points to the more harmonically complex guitar arpeggiations in the bridge of “And Your Bird Can Sing.” The shuffle rhythm provided by the bass and Lennon’s guitar during Harrison’s solo (at D [1:08 –1:25]), which adds some rhythmic contrast to the song (everywhere 4+4), was also new to the Beatles’ recording.80 As in “I Should Have Known Better,” Lennon’s line in the verse decorates 5 with its upper neighbor and then rises to 8. Here, though, the ascent is interrupted, rising 5–6–7 (to A+7– 8 [0:20 – 0:22]) before the line is fulfilled, 5–6–7–8 (0:34 – 0:36). This ascent is balanced by a standard descent in George’s solo, gs2 (D+3 – 4 [1:14 –1:17]) – fs2 (D+5 – 6 [1:18 –1:21]) – e2 (D+7– 8 [1:21–1:25]). The upper voice in the bridge holds a static 8 through several chord changes, only dropping to 7 in the retransition. The Ger56–V7 progression (just before C) supports this motion in parallel tenths. The neighbor motion in the bass, Cn– B, recomposes the diatonic 6–5 neighbor of the opening vocal line (A–1), a larger-scale modal recomposition than the one that Lennon had employed to great effect in his vocal within the verse of “It Won’t Be Long.” Lennon’s vocal fades out on the upper 8 rather than performing a conclusory descent; the upper register effectively represents his outwardly reaching call, and the lack of a resolving descent suggests that he is prepared to forever await his answer.81 “A Hard Day’s Night” The film’s title was originally a word-twist by Ringo borrowed by Lennon in “Sad Michael,” a story in In His Own Write. The composer: “I was going home in the car and Dick Lester suggested the title Hard Day’s Night . . . and the next morning I brought in the song. ‘Cause there was a little competition between Paul and [me] as to who got the ‘A’ side, who got the hit singles.”82 All nine takes were completed on April 16, with the basic tracks comprising drums with constant loose hi-hat riding, bass, Jumbo, Ricky 12, and Lennon-McCartney vocals. Paul supplied two bars of descant vocal in the verse

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I’m Not What I Appear to Be

and sang the bridge because it was above John’s range.83 Overdubs included second Lennon and McCartney vocals, conga, cowbell (in the bridge), and a solo (E) played simultaneously in octaves by Martin (Steinway) and Harrison (Ricky 12).84 The striking ametrical opening chord, with Martin’s piano doubling Harrison’s twelve-string above McCartney’s bass, is given as example 3.10a. Martin says, “We knew it would open both the film and the soundtrack LP, so we wanted a particularly strong and effective beginning. The strident guitar chord was the perfect launch.”85 And the piano intensifies the opening attack, particularly for the bass D. Because the tonal center of G will eventually become clear, McCartney’s bass imparts dominant function to a chord that otherwise sounds as if it includes both neighbors to, and anticipation of, I. One of those neighbors, the blue Fn, disturbs the diatonic opening of the G-major verse (at A+3 [0:07– 0:08]) as both a modal bass neighbor (moving I –fVII – I) and the completion of a pentatonic [025] set, c2– d2– fn2 (the same b-trichord heard in the opening gesture of “You Can’t Do That,” which also descends to the 3 of G major).86 The “wind-up” guitar/piano duet (E [1:20 –1:33]) could hardly do more with the [025] set: the b-trichord is repeated with syncopation at E+3/7, and it is preceded and followed by the a-trichord, g1– bf1– c2. McCartney recalls an incident involving the notation of the vocal fn2: George [Martin] was writing out “Hard Day’s Night,” ‘cause he was going to do an orchestral version or somebody wanted it in sheet music, which we of course never required. The Beatles just read each other . . . we just learned a song and if we couldn’t remember it, it wasn’t any good, we junked it. So when George was scoring “Hard Day’s Night,” he said, “What is that note, John? It’s been a hard day’s night and I’ve been work –innnn? Is it the seventh? Work –innnggggg?” John said, “Oh, no, it’s not that.” “Well, is it work – innnggg?” He sings the sixth. John said, “No.” George said, “Well, it must be somewhere in between then!” John said, “Yeah, man, write that down.”87

The modal neighboring fVII chord, used here to open a phrase, becomes more structural later in 1964 when it takes on cadential function, blossoms in Help!, and dominates several songs on Revolver. The I –fVII – I progression goes back to Bo Diddley (1955), the Coasters (“Poison Ivy,” 1959), and the Drifters (“On Broadway,” 1963) but was not heard often until resurrected by the Beatles to become a staple of late-1960s hard rock, basic to the Mothers, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother & the Holding Company, the Dead, It’s a Beautiful Day, the Doors, Spirit, The Who, and King Crimson. Perhaps Lennon used the powerful fVII sonority to answer, and intensify, the blue edge that McCartney had created for “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Beginning with their 1963 cover version of the song “Money,” financial power was the subject of several Beatle recordings. In 1964, the Beatles professed a disdain for lucre, emphatically singing “I don’t care too much for money, for money can’t buy me love,” but by the time of their breakup, McCartney was complaining “You Never Give Me Your Money,” during the group’s bitter squabbles over corporate problems. In some lyrics, as in “I Feel Fine” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” gifts of diamond or golden rings clearly buy happiness, and in “A

A Hard Day’s Night

Example 3.10a “A Hard Day’s Night” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.

Rick 360-12 and piano

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Hard Day’s Night” the exchange of money for sexual favors is strongly implied by the parallel pitch accents on the words “money” in one line and “give me” in the next. The pitch accent is strong not only because of the relative height of the note and its longer duration in both phrases but also because it is a note that is not part of the scale; thus, it is not expected and powerfully emphasizes the connection between the money and the unspecified gift. Like so many other 1964 numbers, the blue pentatonic verse of “A Hard Day’s Night” contrasts with an “uptown” section, here the bridge, which moves III –VI – III in consonant support of 7, a structure lingering from 1963 and the “If I Fell” intro; 1 is used as its upper neighbor at C+2 (0:47– 0:48). These triads lead to a clichéd use of the I –VI – IVf7–V7 progression, all of which supports a dramatic rise from 7 in the vocal, through 1 (C+5 – 6 [0:52 – 0:55]) to a retransitional 2 (C+8 [0:56 – 0:58]), the song’s highest note, recalling that of the verse’s chromatic D-gesture at B+1– 2 (0:17– 0:20). (In Take 1, heard on Beatles 1995d, which decorates the retransition in the florid manner shown in example 3.10b, 2 is not Paul’s highest note.) The 2 is intensified by a highly dissonant anticipation against an inner Bf at C+7 (0:55 – 0:57) that explodes with McCartney’s “Yeah!” (C+8), which itself is intensified in the second bridge, where Lennon simultaneously shouts “Oh!” on the lower 4. The coda leads on record to an arpeggiation of the “F [chord] with a G on the first string” with which the piece began and concludes in concert with a simple I –fVII – I reminder of the verse. Regarding this ending, Mellers theorizes about fVII and the conclusion of the vocal line on 5: In this song the coda crystallises the ambivalence between Home and World Outside, for that floating [fVII] triad is a dream of bliss, if you like, but it’s a dream won through to by the blue reality of those false relations. It’s a small

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I’m Not What I Appear to Be

but meaningful detail that the repeated [D’s] in the vocal phrase, on the words “I feel alright,” anticipate the lovely-surprising harmonic cadence: for whereas the first two “alrights” oscillate between major and minor thirds, the last “alright” stays still on the note [D]—which acts both as the fifth of the tonic [G] and as an added sixth to the triad of [F]. The repeated [D’s], which in the initial phrase spelt tedium (“work all day”), now suggest peace.88

While the Beatles’ overall style has not changed essentially from 1963, the new burst of composition for the film has led to vivid and new interests: Lennon’s pursuit of chromatic relations reaches a peak in “If I Fell” and the earcatching function of the introduction culminates in “A Hard Day’s Night,” which song also introduces a neighboring fVII into the Beatles’ harmonic palette, now tinted a bit more deeply into the blues. Lennon and McCartney write beautiful melodies with the verse of “And I Love Her,” a song that creates new ambiguities of tonal center (to be recreated in new ways in 1967– 69), and the bridge of “I Should Have Known Better,” which is given a new motivic propulsion at the end of the verse. The Beatles also make clear their attention to instrumental color. The nylon-string and electric twelve-string guitars continue an apparently geometric timbral progression always at the forefront of rock music.

June – July 1964: World Tour, Additional LP and EP Tracks The Australian Tour and Surrounding Events The Beatles were set to embark on a concert tour of Oceania (the group was to be welcomed to Adelaide by the largest crowd they would ever see, estimated at 300,000) over the last half of June, and as they had had only six live appearances since the January – February French trip, including a seven-song performance in London on May 31, several northern European concerts were scheduled as a warm-up. But before they could leave, the Beatles had to record seven more tracks to complete the film LP and the Long Tall Sally EP; all seven, “Matchbox,” “I’ll Cry Instead,” “Slow Down,” “I’ll Be Back,” “Any Time at All,” “When I Get Home,” and “Things We Said Today,” were taped on the first three days of June. Ringo was suddenly stricken with tonsillitis and pharyngitis on the 3rd, so each of the remaining Beatles used that day’s studio time to record a demo of a new composition. Little-known drummer Jimmy Nicol (then just named to Georgie Fame’s Blue Flames) was recruited to stand in for Ringo on tour until he could rejoin the group for a Melbourne concert.89 The tour repertoire consisted of 1963 numbers and both sides of the “Can’t Buy Me Love” single; the itinerary was as follows: June 4: Copenhagen (two shows; one heard on Beatles 1973a) June 5: Hillegom (TV performance, mimed plus live vocals; video circulates) June 6: Blokker (eight songs supposedly circulate)

June–July 1964: World Tour, Additional LP and EP Tracks

June 9: Hong Kong (two shows) June 12–13: Adelaide (four shows; one show from the 12th is heard on Beatles 1990c) June 15 –17: Melbourne (six shows; one from the 16th is heard on Beatles 1988b; one from the 17th is heard on Beatles 1990c) June 18 – 20: Sydney (six shows) June 22– 23: Wellington (four shows) June 24 – 25: Auckland (four shows) June 26: Dunedin (two shows) June 27: Christchurch (two shows) June 29 – 30: Brisbane (four shows)

Recordings taped through June 3 were released as follows; multiple releases of the film songs, especially in the United States, flooded the market with Beatles product the way competing companies had in the spring. Long Tall Sally, EP, Parlophone GEP8913; rel. 6/19/64 (#14) A Hard Day’s Night, LP (U.S.), United Artists UAL/UAS6366; rel. 6/26/64 (#1 for 14 wks.; sold 1 million copies)90 “A Hard Day’s Night” / “Things We Said Today,” Parlophone R5160; rel. 7/10/64 (#1 for 4 wks.) A Hard Day’s Night, LP (U.K.), Parlophone PMC/PCS3058; rel. 7/10/64 (#1 for 21 wks.; sold 4 million copies in the U.S., nearly all in CD format) “A Hard Day’s Night” / “I Should Have Known Better,” Capitol 5222; rel. 7/13/64 (#1 for 2 wks.) “I’ll Cry Instead” / “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You,” Capitol 5234; rel. 7/20/64 (#25/#53) “And I Love Her” / “If I Fell,” Capitol 5235; rel. 7/20/64 (#12/#53) Something New, LP, Capitol (S)T2108; rel. 7/20/64 (#2 for 9 wks.; sold 2 million copies) “Matchbox” [at 1:37, the Beatles’ shortest single] / “Slow Down,” Capitol 5255; rel. 8/24/64 (#17/#25) Extracts from the Film A Hard Day’s Night, EP, Parlophone GEP8920; rel. 11/4/64 Extracts from the Album A Hard Day’s Night, EP, Parlophone GEP8924; rel. 11/6/64 “If I Fell” / “Tell Me Why,” European Parlophone DP562; rel. 1/65, U.K. import

July 6 marked the London première of the film, which garnered critical as well as public acclaim; a second film was immediately planned for the following year. The group had eight more concerts in England and Sweden through August 16 and several summer performances on television (mimed) and radio in promotion of the new film and records. While looking forward to a grueling

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American tour, the Beatles had a leisurely six weeks in July and August, with Lennon, Harrison, and Starr literally getting their houses in order, as they had just purchased suburban estates (Lennon’s “Kenwood” in Weybridge, Surrey, George’s “Kinfauns” in Esher, and Ringo’s “Sunny Heights” in Weybridge; McCartney would buy in St John’s Wood, just around the corner from the Abbey Road studios, in April 1965). All homes but Ringo’s would include studios that began in 1964 with a couple of modest tape decks for composition and demo purposes but would grow in a few short years to professional capabilities. Ringo has often maintained that he did not play drums at home.

Final Recordings for the EP and LP Two Covers: “Matchbox” and “Slow Down.” While the fandom accorded to the Beatles as a group was enormous, each had his own devoted following, and so a vocal opportunity had to be found for Ringo, who had not added a number to his (recorded) repertoire since “I Wanna Be Your Man” was given him the previous year. And so, possibly in honor of Carl Perkins being in England and his acceptance of an invitation to meet the boys at EMI on June 1, the group recorded “Matchbox,” a song they had most recently performed only in BBC sessions of July 10, 1963, and May 1, 1964 (both with Ringo singing).91 “Matchbox,” taken by Perkins from Leadbelly’s version of the uncopyrighted “Match Box Blues,” was recorded in five takes. We hear drums (with touches of a guide vocal, as at 0:43 – 0:44), bass, and Lennon’s Capri on one track (left), Starr’s lead vocal on another (center), overdubs of Martin’s Steinway and Harrison’s wobbling Country Gent solo on a third (right), Starr’s doubling vocal with a few handclaps on the fourth (right), and the opening only of an edited-out Gretsch solo on the fourth (center). A four-track EP (thus far to include “Long Tall Sally,” “Matchbox,” and “I Call Your Name”) was completed with Lennon’s performance of “Slow Down,” a cover of Larry Williams’s shouter (and, like “Matchbox,” a twelve-bar blues rocker) that the group had not played since a BBC session of July 16, 1963. The tape, recorded in three takes, includes bass, drums, and Lennon’s Capri on one track and Lennon’s vocal on another. Overdubs had the Country Gent and Lennon’s vocal doubling on a third and Martin’s Steinway, pounding out all eighths (taped after the group had left for Copenhagen) on the fourth. None of the EP’s “oldie” tracks had backing vocals, and thus the four-song package had the atmosphere of an early live set. Wolf Marshall provides a good run-down of Harrison’s solo for “Slow Down” (totally unrelated to the tenor sax solo or any other aspect of Larry Williams’s model recording), played on a compressed Gretsch that has just switched from the neck to the bridge pickup: Harrison’s lines are based on classic minor pentatonic blues and rock mannerisms in C. He begins in the guitar’s low register and delivers a series of ground-finding motifs which exploit slurs, hammer-ons, and half-step string

June–July 1964: World Tour, Additional LP and EP Tracks

bends. By mid-solo [C+11] George is anchored in the typical blues-box pattern at the 8th fret, and is building toward a climax of varied double stops and blues scale melodies. Here the Gf blue note is employed as a fixed idea, appearing in single-note and dyad form (combined with either a G or C note), or as a bend. Initially, he milks a bluesy double stop, Fs and G (a minor second), for its maximum dissonance value — sounding it with a high C note and reiterating it in a Morse Code – type rhythm pattern [C+15 –16]. The texture, concept, and phrasing are reminiscent of blues organ style. The slurred unison lick [C+17–18] alludes to Chuck Berry’s R&B approach. It’s followed [at C+19 – 20] by a resolving double-stop line, C and Gf resolving to C and F, played with pick and fingers. Its articulation and C pedal tone again lend a blues keyboard impression. The closing thoughts combine dyad and singlenote textures, and unmistakable mixed-mode scale combining of the blues and rock vernacular. Notice the deliberate use of the C blues scale (C – Ef– F – Gf– G – Bf), the C-minor pentatonic scale (C – Ef– F – G – Bf), and the C Mixolydian mode (C – D – E – F – G –A– Bf) in the final phrase [C+21– 24].92

“I’ll Cry Instead” Lennon had offered “I’ll Cry Instead” for the film, but it was not accepted and therefore not recorded in February.93 An edit (at 1:09) of two of the eight takes results in bass, drums, and Country Gent occupying one track, Lennon’s lead vocal on another, his Jumbo on a third, and a fourth overdub track with Lennon doubling his vocal and playing tambourine (which has an unusual ostinato, stressing only the second beat of every 44 measure). All stereo releases and the British mono release are edited as shown in the Wise edition; American mono releases, from both United Artists and Capitol, precede the second hearing of the bridge (B) with a repeat of the first verse. The song’s SRDC verse-refrain (A) sets a major-mode descent from 5 (5–4–3 in A+1– 3 [0:03 – 0:07], and 3–2–1 in the refrain, A+13 –15 [0:17– 0:20]) that surrounds the D-gesture, a pentatonic-minor descent of fn2– d2– c2– bf2– g2 (A+9 –12), with a rockabilly backing that with the lamenting lyrics creates the odd overall effect of a major-mode blues. Note that this is already the third Lennon vocal written this year that has moved up to a blues-derived fn2 in a Gmajor context. The bridge (B) contrasts the pentatonic-flavored verse with the “uptown”-styled minor triad on III (0:42– 0:44) and pair of chromatic applied chords (A7) that prolongs the head-tone, 5, and reinforces it with its own leading tone, cs (B+3 – 5 [0:45 – 0:47], B+8 [0:51– 0:52]). The contrast in tonal materials appearing in the verse and in the bridge help make an artistic statement: The blues-tending verses reinforce Lennon’s “tough guy” stance — he is “mad,” with a “chip on [his] shoulder,” and would “try to make [a woman] sad” and break the hearts of girls “all ‘round the world.” The macho threat is well portrayed by McCartney’s business-meaning walking bass breaks in the third verse — see A+11–13 (1:05 –1:07), creating a much-needed break in the texture. Conversely, the weak III chord (B+1 [0:42]) introduces John’s sensitive nature in the bridge; he doesn’t “want to cry when there’s people there” and admits to shyness when the harmony takes a surprising lurch backward from III to II 7s (0:45). The retransition “but I’ll come back again someday” announces the return of the verse’s bold stance with a forward-pointing VI – II 7s –V7 pro-

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gression. The bridge of “Getting Better” (1967), “I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved,” has a franker confession of a problem that lies under the surface here — that despite his sensitive nature, John could be prone to thoughts of abusing women. Although the intent of the first verse is vague, it seems quite possible (especially in light of the Presley line, “I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man,” that haunted Lennon through the years until “Run for Your Life” provided catharsis) that Lennon could think of doing such harm (“if I could get my way,” A+9, in the threateningly crude pentatonic rise to fn2) that he would be incarcerated, “locked up today.” Perhaps it is comforting to know from the refrain (A+12–15) that the singer can’t do the harm that part of him would wish but instead acquiesces in the 3–2–1 line; his violent pentatonic impulses seem to be governed by a major-mode moral standard. Three More by Lennon: “I’ll Be Back,” “Any Time at All,” and “When I Get Home” Lennon continues to dominate new composition in this period by a wide margin. While McCartney finished several numbers for other artists, “And I Love Her” was his sole new contribution to the film. Lennon continued his lead by writing three of the final four songs recorded for the LP. “I’ll Be Back,” made with nine takes of the basic tracks and an additional seven of guitars and vocals, features bass and drums on one track, Harrison’s lead on his Ramírez nylon-stringed classical guitar on another, Lennon-McCartney vocals and Lennon’s Jumbo on a third, and a Harrison overdub with Jumbo on the fourth. The texture of three acoustic guitars (see opening parts in example 3.11a) looks forward to the 1965 LPs, while the classical lead guitar’s nonresolving nonharmonic tones present in both the intro (mm. 0 – 3) and coda remind one of “A Hard Day’s Night” and “You Can’t Do That” as well as the more stylistically similar “And I Love Her.” Harrison’s overdubbed guitar includes measures full of triplet quarters (m. 5 [0:08 – 0:10]), predicting the bridge of “We Can Work It Out.” Thus instrumental technique in this song serves as a bridge between Beatle styles of 1964 and 1965. The song is organized, in an unprecedented way, as a rondo in very short sections with two bridge-like episodes. Where A indicates the verse-refrain, and B and C indicate episodes, the structure presents a form designated by rehearsal numbers, as follows: A–B–A–C–A–B–12A–Coda in less than 212 minutes. The A–B–A combination is like the verse-bridge-verse unit discussed previously but different in that, in the opening A–B–A, the entire A section returns, instead of half of that structure, which is what occurs the second time. An identical ambiguity will occur in “She’s a Woman” later in the year. The formal innovation is complemented by a complex phrase rhythm, where the twelve-bar verse (a repeated 4+2 group) is answered by episodes of 612 and 912 bars.94 In the first episode, the retransition abruptly quadruples the prevailing harmonic rhythm (two-bar chords in B+1– 4 [0:27– 0:34] are answered by half-bar chords in B+5 – 7 [0:35 – 0:39]). Although the same retran-

June–July 1964: World Tour, Additional LP and EP Tracks

Example 3.11a “I’ll Be Back” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.

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sition appends the second episode, it is here the result of a more gradual change in harmonic rhythm (two-bar chords in C+1– 4 [1:03 –1:10] are followed by one-bar chords in C+5 – 7 [1:11–1:16] and half-bar chords in C+8 –10 [1:17–1:21]), as if to underscore the singer’s “surprise.” Lennon claims that “I’ll Be Back” was a “variation of the chords in a Del Shannon song.”95 This song must be “Runaway,” an American #1 hit in April – May 1961, a sketch of which appears as example 3.12.96 A comparison of this sketch with one of “I’ll Be Back” (example 3.11b) shows that verses in both minor-mode songs have root-position triads descend the natural minor scale from I to V, which is followed by a mixture-produced Is chord. The blatant parallel fifths in Shannon’s song are somewhat softened by Lennon’s superficial consonant 6 – 5 suspensions.97 Whereas Shannon’s chorus (B) repeats Is–VI several times, Lennon’s (B) begins there and immediately moves on to II. Both songs also feature a major-major chord on IV (not heard from the Beatles since “It Won’t Be Long”), unusual in a minor context. As in “And I Love Her,” there are none of the then-common references to blues and no motion toward IV. But the song’s mixture of minor and major modes creates strong tension in scale-degree alteration, as heard in “If I Fell”

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Example 3.11b Analysis of “I’ll Be Back.”

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I’m Not What I Appear to Be

and elsewhere.98 In this context, episode 2 (C [1:03+]) takes on an “uptown” function, relying on the minor II and III triads of the parallel major mode, before a V preparation (C+5 – 7 [1:11–1:16]) is expanded in true early-Beatle style: VIs– IIs– IV, recalling the Lydian IIs of “She Loves You,” an important function again through 1965. Harrison’s portamento-colored chromatic descent that opens the C section, b – bf– a – gs (1:03 –1:10) preimitates the innervoice s4–n4 motion (involving the Lydian IIs) of C+6 – 7 (1:13 –1:16). The song’s background structure, which is interrupted at 2 in the bridges and stops at s3 in all verses, including the song’s conclusion, portrays the singer’s indecision as to whether to continue forward or to return backward. The final s3 (at “I’ll be back again”) harks back to the song’s opening on n3— the minor opening reflects pain (“if you break my heart”), whereas the major conclusion suggests hope for something better the next time around. Renewed hope based on a repetition of the past, pictured with a conclusion on 3, makes “I’ll Be Back” a precursor to both “Yesterday” and “In My Life.” But Lennon’s indecision about his course of action is evident in the coda, which trails off without a conclusion as to the strength of his hopes: Is–n–s–n . . . “Any Time at All” was recorded in eleven takes, and consists of drums, bass, and Ricky 12 on one track, Lennon’s lead vocal and Jumbo on another, Lennon’s second vocal on a third (ending with two final telephone-bell chords from the Ricky 12), and an overdubbed Steinway on the fourth.99 The single-line piano part, which features at C a rising scale in quarter triplets — not existing until Take 8— roughly inverting that in “Misery,” is probably George Martin’s. (Note that the piano part should appear in octaves and in the bass clef through B.) The song features only a few pentatonic alterations (as with the fn2 of A+5 [0:08]; the pitch reverts to fs2 in A+6, despite the score), and chromatics are restricted to the piano/Ricky 12 duet (reminiscent of “Baby It’s You”), which is structured with voice-exchanges (C [1:29 –1:45]). Mode mixture, however, is prevalent in the verse’s 6–f6–5 descent in the bass (B+3 – 4 [0:18 –1:21], a strong contrapuntal preparation for the cadential ∞ of B+5 [0:21]), which supports a straightforward 5-line (0:15 – 0:25: 5 at B+1 – 4 at B+4 – 3 at B+5 – 2 at B+6 – 1 at B+7). Rhythmic interest is provided by the elision that joins pairs of verses (the downbeat of B+7 both concludes and begins a verse).100 “When I Get Home,” requiring eleven takes, features drums, bass, and Lennon’s Rickenbacker on one track, Lennon’s vocal and leaking cymbals on another, Harrison’s Country Gent on a third, and Lennon-McCartney vocals on the fourth.101 McCartney attempts a falsetto shriek that gives the opening chorus a frightening sound that, after the threats of “I’ll Cry Instead,” makes the line “I’ve got a whole lot of things to tell her” sound ominous. Actually, this undermines the singer’s joyful anticipation of imparting good news that is much more clearly expressed in the verses. Each chorus ends with a deceptive move to VI (A+7 [0:12]), the last appearance moving initially to a surprising VIs [2:02], momentarily suggesting the conclusion of “And I Love Her” as well as the reharmonized coda of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” But unlike the ambigu-

June–July 1964: World Tour, Additional LP and EP Tracks

ous return expressed in the conclusion of “I’ll Be Back,” “When I Get Home” has a resounding return “home” in its coda, with a home-based descent to 1 achieved in the final bar.102 “Things We Said Today” McCartney is quoted as saying of his Virgin Islands holiday in May: “There was something about the atmosphere there that made me get quite keen on writing new songs in the evenings. I did a couple while I was there, which we recorded when we got back, ‘The Things We Said Today’ and ‘Always and Only.’ ”103 The second title remains obscure, but the first is well known as the composer’s final LP contribution. Only three takes (the first a false start) were required to tape this song, which has bass, drums with eighths tapped on the closed hi-hat, Country Gent, and Jumbo on one track, McCartney’s lead vocal on a second, and McCartney’s second vocal, Ringo’s tambourine, and Lennon’s Steinway leaking onto a third track. The tambourine and piano are heard only in the bridge (C). The verse-refrain (A–B) has an SRDC structure, and McCartney’s doubletracked vocal departs from his lead line for a part a third lower for the D-gesture (B+1– 4 [0:17– 0:24]) and down to 5 for the end of the C-gesture (B+7– 8 [0:28 – 0:31]). The D-gesture, with the poetic references to “dreaming,” leaps up to 5 (B+1 [0:17]), whereas 3 had been the vocal’s upper limit for the S- and R-gestures, and thus continues the thread begun with “Nobody I Know.” The gesture’s superficial chromatic aspect —B+1– 2 (0:17– 0:20) — reminds one of the verse of “A Hard Day’s Night,” while it leads to a C9 version of the vocal voicing of the D9 opening of the “If I Fell” bridge. The chromatic line is a foil against the [025] (a1– c2– g1) opening, which is more strongly A Aeolian (due to the Vf) than A pentatonic. As in “I’ll Be Back,” the minor I is surprisingly replaced by the parallel major, which is announced by a cadence and continues through the next section, entering here at C–1 (0:59). 9 –VI –fII (B+1– 4), might at first seem The progression in the D-gesture, IIIb7 9 at the opening of the bridge to tonicize VI, as IV was tonicized by an applied Vb7 in “If I Fell.” But the Chopinesque Bf chord of B+4 (0:23 – 0:24) is not IV of F. Probably because of the strongly-directed voice leading in the two vocal parts d – c ), the Bf triad seems to substitute for V7. This relationship might not be ( ec – bb a apparent in the verse, but it becomes very clear in the bridge (C). There, an antecedent phrase (C+1– 4 [1:01–1:07]) includes a II s7 chord that moves normally to V7; in the consequent (C+5 – 8 [1:07–1:14]), the same II s7 moves instead to fII7. In the tonal language of jazz, fII7 is a frequent substitute for V7; enharmonically, they share two scale degrees (4 and 7), and their difference exists in that their roots and their fifths are tritones apart. This tritone substitution gives fII7 the strongest V function in the song and also informs the listener further as to the meaning of the Bf triad in the verse. This function, which will henceforth be referred to as the Phrygian fII, will not be heard again for nearly a year, when Lennon writes “You’re Going to Lose That Girl.” Mono and stereo mixing for A Hard Day’s Night was completed on four dates while the performers were on tour; the final track lineup was as follows:

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Side 1 “A Hard Day’s Night” “I Should Have Known Better” “If I Fell” “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” “And I Love Her” “Tell Me Why” “Can’t Buy Me Love”

Side 2 “Any Time at All” “I’ll Cry Instead” “Things We Said Today” “When I Get Home” “You Can’t Do That” “I’ll Be Back”

“You Know What to Do,” “No Reply” (Take 1), and “It’s for You” On June 3, the day Ringo was suddenly taken ill, Harrison recorded a demo of his new composition, “You Know What to Do.” The recording proceeded with George singing along with chords from his Gretsch, Paul on bass, and John on tambourine. The same day, Lennon taped a run-through of “No Reply,” a song he gave to Tommy Quickly, whose July 1964 recording went unreleased. A release was originally planned for August, but perhaps Lennon began taking the song more seriously in late July, canceled the Quickly recording, and had the song performed instead by the Beatles for Beatles for Sale. (Both Harrison’s and Lennon’s demos are heard on Beatles 1995d.) Harrison’s song, a long-lost tape of which was found in 1993, has a simple three-chord verse in A that looks forward to “You Like Me Too Much,” but McCartney has distinguished the bridge by adding a chromatic descent, B – Bf–A beneath the opening Bm chord, as if practicing for “Got to Get You into My Life.” The bridge goes nowhere (the interesting II [0:43] droops back to I), dooming the song to disgrace. “No Reply,” Take 1, has McCartney playing bass and singing descant (at A but not at B, reversed for the ultimate arrangement, and not resolving leading-tone gs2 at D+2 – 3) over Lennon’s vocal and Capri, and perhaps Harrison playing drums in the ill Ringo’s absence. This demo skips right from B+1 to B+4, but these oddities will be smoothed over in the Beatles’ version taped on September 30. The same day, McCartney recorded a version of “It’s for You,” a song that was to be arranged by Martin and recorded by Cilla Black —Martin conducting and McCartney playing one of two piano parts — on July 2.104 Any existing demos of this remain in very private collections, but we do have Black’s recording. Black showcased a big voice, in the style of Shirley Bassey (whom Martin also recorded in 1964), in her numbers such as “Summertime” and “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” and Paul used it to good advantage in “It’s for You,” released as a single on July 31.105 In both tonal and rhythmic ways, this is McCartney’s most progressive composition to date. The first verse (A) and the opening of the bridge (B) are reduced as examples 3.13a and 3.13b, respectively. “It’s for You” is unusual for McCartney both in its minor mode, quite a current exercise, and its triple meter. The mode of C minor gives way to major at the cadence (B–4), in the vein of “I’ll Be Back” and “Things We Said Today.” The bass line of the verse descends c – Bf–An–Af (A+1– 4), as if conflating the verses of “I’ll Be Back” and “Any Time at All,” but also predicting “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” But then,

June–July 1964: World Tour, Additional LP and EP Tracks

Example 3.13a “It’s For You” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs. A

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seems”) after the tonal/rhythmic structure would have it. A two-bar anacrusis to the bridge leads to an eight-bar group (B+1– 8), but as if to be sure that an off-balance ten-bar structure is perceived, McCartney repeats the anacrusis for the second statement (B+9 –18). This tailoring of such a dramatic song for a particular singer’s requirements —McCartney would probably never have sung this with the Beatles — is evidence of growing compositional versatility. Though McCartney had not remained as prolific as Lennon, he hadn’t lost his touch.

Late 1964: U.S. Tour and Fourth LP Events of August–December 1964 Before embarking on their American tour, the Beatles began work on their next LP, recording “Baby’s in Black,” “I’m a Loser,” “Leave My Kitten Alone,” and an early attempt at “Mr. Moonlight” on August 11 and 14. In these sessions, Harrison introduced another new guitar, the Gretsch Tennessean, which has a larger body and so a more resonant bass and an even brighter sound than the Country Gent. The United States avidly anticipated the group’s arrival. The two American albums with soundtrack materials would be the top two LPs on the charts for nine weeks, and the film (opening on August 11) “earned $1.3 million in the U.S. in its first week.”106 For concert repertoire, the group chose songs that were already released and were performable in arrangements that were identical or very close to recorded versions. For instance, no harmonica was needed, but Harrison switched between the Country Gent and Ricky 12 guitars, even though the latter would often be used on songs that had been recorded with the former, as when “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Boys” were sandwiched in between “If I Fell” and “A Hard Day’s Night.” The program was as follows:107 “Twist and Shout” (abbreviated) or “I Saw Her Standing There” “You Can’t Do That” “All My Loving” “She Loves You” “Things We Said Today” (abbreviated) “Roll Over Beethoven” “Can’t Buy Me Love” “If I Fell” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” “Boys” “A Hard Day’s Night” “Long Tall Sally” or “Twist and Shout”

The itinerary, on which the Beatles were supported by Jackie DeShannon, the Righteous Brothers, the Bill Black Combo, and the Exciters, comprised thirtytwo performances in twenty-five theaters, coliseums, and stadiums over the span of thirty-three days:

Late 1964: U.S. Tour and Fourth LP

August 19: San Francisco August 20: Las Vegas (two shows) August 21: Seattle (heard a half-step low on Beatles 1995a) August 22: Vancouver (heard on Beatles 1975b) August 23: Los Angeles (heard on Beatles 1993e) August 26: Denver August 27: Cincinnati August 28-29: New York (two shows) August 30: Atlantic City September 2: Philadelphia (heard on Beatles 1975a) September 3: Indianapolis (two shows; one heard on Beatles 1993g) September 4: Milwaukee September 5: Chicago September 6: Detroit (two shows) September 7: Toronto (two shows) September 8: Montréal (two shows) September 11: Jacksonville, Florida September 12: Boston September 13: Baltimore (two shows) September 14: Pittsburgh September 15: Cleveland September 16: New Orleans September 17: Kansas City (added, en route, to the schedule for a fee of $150,000) September 18: Dallas September 20: New York

Despite new 100-watt amplifiers, the Beatles’ sound was drowned out by the constantly screaming thousands. How many in Vancouver could have noticed that McCartney forgot half of the second verse of “Things We Said Today” and substituted a vamped rhyme instead? Pandemonium reigned, commotion interrupting the show more than once. The Los Angeles concert, at the Hollywood Bowl, was taped by George Martin and Capitol’s Voyle Gilmore but not deemed fit for release because of the crowd noise until 1977. The Beatles’ success was of such enormous proportions and so promising for the future that Epstein had to reject an offer of $10 million put up by a New York syndicate for management rights to the group.108 Lennon’s major disappointment? The Beatles bought “about 400 records in the States” but left them with Customs, which demanded £4,000 in levies.109 Upon return to London, the group spent two months (September 29 – November 25) fitting six EMI sessions, two BBC-Radio tapings, and five television dates into a schedule of appearances with Mary Wells and Tommy Quickly throughout Britain, with fifty-five houses in twenty-five cities over thirty-five days. Liverpool saw the group perform for the first time since 1963.110 The EMI sessions over this period produced the following material for a year-end LP: September 29 – 30: Recording of “Every Little Thing,” “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party,” “No Reply”

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October 6, 8: Recording of “Eight Days a Week,” “She’s a Woman” October 18: Completion of “Eight Days a Week,” recording of “Kansas City” / “Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey,” remake of “Mr. Moonlight,” “I Feel Fine,” “I’ll Follow the Sun,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” “Rock and Roll Music,” “Words of Love” October 26: Recording of “Honey Don’t,” “What You’re Doing,” and “Another Beatles Christmas Record,” mixing session involving the Beatles

The profusion of cover versions, including six of the last nine songs taped, and the concentrated activity on October 18 suggest that great haste was required to get an LP in the shops for Christmas.111 One of the covers, “Honey Don’t,” was for Ringo to sing, and another, “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” was for George. Called Beatles for Sale, it was to be the last LP for which Harrison could not compose his own song. For only the second time, the project’s lead single, “I Feel Fine” / “She’s a Woman,” was identical on both sides of the Atlantic, although the United States continued to produce “extra” singles (Britain tending instead toward EPs when LP sales began to fade) and to have fewer tracks per LP (some songs were reserved for an American album not released until the following June). The British and American releases from this project included: “I Feel Fine” / “She’s a Woman,” Capitol 5327, rel. 11/23/64 (entering the chart at #2 with sales over a million in its 1st wk., #1 for 3 wks.); Parlophone R5200, 11/27/64 (#1 for 6 wks.) Beatles for Sale, LP, Parlophone PMC1240/PCS3062; rel. 12/4/64 (#1 for 9 wks., taking over directly from A Hard Day’s Night; sold 500,000 copies in the U.S., nearly all in CD format) Beatles ’65, Capitol (S)T2228; rel. 12/15/64 (#1 for 9 wks.; sold 3 million copies) 4 by the Beatles, EP, Capitol R 5365; rel. 2/1/65 (#68) “Eight Days a Week” / “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party,” Capitol 5371; rel. 2/15/65 (#1 for 2 wks. / #39) Beatles for Sale, EP, Parlophone GEP8931; rel. 4/6/65 Beatles for Sale No. 2, EP, Parlophone GEP8938; rel. 6/4/65

After a month-long respite — in which Harrison vacationed in Nassau, McCartney visited Liverpool, Starr had his tonsils removed, and Lennon developed his home recording studio — the Beatles’ annual Christmas show began on December 24, running to thirty-eight performances through January 16, 1965, with Freddie & the Dreamers, the Yardbirds, the Mike Cotton Show, and Sounds, Inc., also participating. Following the trademark opener, the Beatles’ set list featured all-1964 recordings: “Twist and Shout” (abbreviated) “I’m a Loser” “Baby’s in Black” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” “Can’t Buy Me Love”

Late 1964: U.S. Tour and Fourth LP

“Honey Don’t” “I Feel Fine” “She’s a Woman” “A Hard Day’s Night” “Rock and Roll Music” “Long Tall Sally”

During these shows, Harrison used yet another new guitar, a stereo doublecutaway electric archtop Gibson ES-345TD with a sunburst finish (without Bigsby — very much like the 345s used by Joe Brown, one of Harrison’s guitarwielding heroes, and Mike Pender of the Searchers; the guitar is similar to Chuck Berry’s ES-350T). It is not known if this instrument was ever used in the studio, but it is seen in the promotional video made for “I Feel Fine.” This film is a forerunner of the concept video, in that the Beatles were obviously not performing the song that comprised the soundtrack; Ringo pedals on an exercise bicycle while the others hold their instruments, and George is seen talking through much of his camera time. The video promotional format was foreign thus far to television but was to be developed to a greater and greater degree by the Beatles and their London producers (especially Jack Good, Michael LindsayHogg, and Tony Bramwell), and would of course dominate the music industry in the 1980s and beyond.

Beatles for Sale and “I Feel Fine” / “She’s a Woman” While on tour, the Beatles were subjected to hundreds of press representatives; more than a score of LPs are devoted to different audio interviews from 1964.112 From these sources, we learn from McCartney on August 28 that “we’ve got to do a lot of recording, and actually, John and I have got to do a lot of writing too . . . we haven’t written many yet.”113 Lennon tells us on September 13 that two songs have thus far been written on tour.114 In November, anticipating the compositions to be required for their second film, McCartney says, “We only finished writing for the LP the day before the recording session — and we finished our single two days before we recorded the number. For our film we’ll probably write six numbers — but we haven’t started on them yet. We’ll probably write the film songs early in the new year.”115 With the traveling in August and September, Lennon and McCartney had very little time for composing the number of songs they had created for the year’s first LP; thus the many covers — some of which had not been performed in years — on Beatles for Sale. In comparison with the all-original LP A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles for Sale is often found wanting, as if the “tired” expression on the faces on the cover, explained by the quartet’s grueling schedule, portrays the group’s exhausted inability to compose more than six new songs. However, it must be remembered that in addition to the title song, A Hard Day’s Night allowed for two whole sets of sessions three months apart — before filming and then again months later — and that the film had demanded all new songs by deadline, a first experience for Lennon and McCartney. An examination of the second 1963 LP project shows that recording for With the Beatles began on July 18, yet only two new songs

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had been taped before September 11. So rather than thinking of Beatles for Sale as a regression, I believe we must appreciate A Hard Day’s Night as a very unusual project involving both an industrious meeting of deadlines and an internal three-month period of growth. And while the Beatles were developing their compositional voices, they still enjoyed their roots in concerts, broadcasts, and thus on LPs as well. Even Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, and Buddy Holly recorded songs written by others. The August Compositions: “Baby’s in Black” and “I’m a Loser” “Baby’s in Black was a joint Lennon-McCartney composition sharing the meter and tempo of “It’s for You.”116 The product of fourteen takes features drums, bass, and Jumbo on one track, Tennessean on another, a Lennon-McCartney vocal duet, largely in thirds (in their Everlys mode) on a third, and tambourine and second Tennessean on the fourth. The second Tennessean appears by virtue of at least two takes — note the splice at 1:31, easily heard on the right channel of the stereo mix. The bridge (C [0:49 – 0:56]), which has its origins in the Quarry Men number “Won’t You Please Say Goodbye” (recall example 1.8), is very brief, filling only four bars. But it attracts attention with its vocal reaching-over to a high register that descends to 5 for the succeeding verse. Its Lydian IIs (0:51– 0:53), led to IV by Lennon’s vocal 5–s4–n4–3 line, is the song’s only distinctive harmonic feature. Phrase rhythm is kept lively with a chorus (0:04 – 0:13) of six (4+2) bars and a verse (0:14 – 0:26) of seven (4+3). The song’s primary interest, however, lies in Harrison’s Nashville-styled solo on the new Tennessean (E [1:07–1:18]), a rare two-part rockabilly waltz that gracefully leaps up two sevenths to ascend an octave while descending a scale: cs2 (E+1) – b1– a1– gs1 (E+2) up to fs2– e2– ds2 (E+3) up to cs3 (E+4) – b2, creating an overall 3–2 motion that is completed by a whammy-emphasized 1 two octaves lower (E+6). The Tennessean is articulated with dynamic swells that look forward to the volume/tone control work that Harrison enjoys in February 1965. This sound, apparently, though, is produced by John’s turning up the guitar’s master volume knob (that on the upper treble bout) after George has set the string in motion.117 On August 25, 1964, Lennon was asked by an interviewer, “Is there any one of your songs that has a particular theme in it from something from real life?” To his own apparent surprise and embarrassment, Lennon could not name a single song.118 This realization put into the composer’s focus a number of questions about the banality of Beatle lyrics that had been put to him since the publication of In His Own Write. In any event, Lennon began to see his own craft in light of the work of Bob Dylan, whose lyrically moving musical statements about life at many levels had Lennon’s deep admiration. We have seen Lennon coping with his own weaknesses in “I’ll Cry Instead,” but his autobiography comes to the fore in the meditative “I’m a Loser,” in which he admits a negative self-view, concentrating on personal (not merely interpersonal) problems, leading finally to the loud cry for “Help!” in the following year. This progression in his writing is in some ways a microcosm of the quantum leap made in Lennon’s first post-Beatle record (Lennon 1970), about which the composer says in De-

Late 1964: U.S. Tour and Fourth LP

cember 1970: “I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I think it’s realistic and it’s true to me. That has been developing over the years from ‘In My Life,’ ‘I’m a Loser,’ ‘Help,’ ‘Strawberry Fields.’ They’re all personal records. I always wrote about me when I could. I didn’t really enjoy writing third person songs about people who lived in concrete flats and things like that. I like first person music.”119 Still, it is primarily the adolescent game of love in which Lennon is “a loser.” With his roots in the blues of Jesse Fuller and Leadbelly and the folk song of Woody Guthrie, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan embodied folk protest of the early 1960s in his topical second and third LPs (Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, May 1963, and The Times They Are A-Changin’, January 1964). Along with expressions of other social concerns, these records made poignant appeals for civil rights (“Oxford Town,” “Only a Pawn in Their Game”) and international peace (“Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Masters of War,” “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “With God on Our Side”). Both of these topics were to appear in Beatle songs in subsequent years. The Beatles became Dylan fans in January 1964; Lennon even took to wearing a Dylan-styled cap that month. “Guitar Blues,” improvised in a New York hotel room in February, features Harrison with a guitar, singing a parody of Dylan’s talking blues style (Beatles 1990b; compare with Dylan’s “Talkin’ World War III Blues” [1963], and hear also the Beatles discussing Dylan in 1964 on Beatles 1986c and 1992a). Lennon credits Dylan directly with raising the value of his song lyrics: I think it was Dylan helped me realize that — not by any discussion or anything but just by hearing his work —I had a sort of professional songwriter’s attitude to writing pop songs; [we] would turn out a certain style of song for a single and we would do a certain style of thing for this. . . . But to express myself I would write . . . In His Own Write, the personal stories which were expressive of my personal emotions. I’d have a separate songwriting John Lennon who wrote songs for the sort of meat market, and I didn’t consider them — the lyrics or anything — to have any depth at all. They were just a joke. Then I started being me about the songs, not writing them objectively, but subjectively.”120 With little precedent, “I’m a Loser” was Lennon’s watershed.

The Beatles met Dylan in New York on August 28, 1964, at which time he introduced them to marijuana. Specific Beatle references to Dylan include the use of his photograph on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Lennon’s mentions of “Dylan’s Mr. Jones” in “Yer Blues,” and “as they kill with God on their side” in “The Luck of the Irish.” The Beatles used several Dylan songs for warm-ups in January 1969: “All Along the Watchtower,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “I Shall Be Released,” “I Threw It All Away,” and “Momma, You’re Just on My Mind.” At Dylan’s New York home in 1970, Dylan and Harrison cowrote “I’d Have You Anytime” and “When Everybody Comes to Town.” Dylan’s “If Not for You” was recorded by Harrison in 1970, and Dylan appeared in Harrison’s August 1971 New York concerts to aid the refugees of Bangladesh. Lennon parodied Dylan in many home recordings of the 1970s. But the

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closest musical relationship between Dylan and any Beatle flourished when Harrison and Dylan formed the Traveling Wilburys in 1988. “I’m a Loser,” one of the strongest tracks of these fall 1964 sessions, was Martin’s initial choice to lead off the LP.121 Requiring eight takes, the song is composed of drums, bass, and Lennon’s first recording with an acoustic twelvestring on one track, Lennon-McCartney vocals and Lennon’s harmonica in solo and coda on a second, the Tennessean (full treble, heard in the solo, at E [1:26 –1:36]) and tambourine (for the chorus) on a third, and a Tennessean overdub on the fourth.122 The acoustic twelve-string is probably the same instrument seen in the film Help!, a Framus Hootenanny. Alan Pollack notes that “the details of the arrangement seem more carefully organized than usual toward maximizing contrast between the verses and refrains. In the verses, John sings a single tracked solo, the bassline is in a predominantly four-in-the-bar oompah pattern, and the percussion is quietly restrained. For the refrains, John is double-tracked and joined by Paul’s harmonizing above him, the bassline is walking, and the percussion gets noisier and more sizzling.”123 Through the song’s intro (A), verse (B [0:11– 0:32]), and chorus (C [0:32– 0:42]), the major mode is disturbed only by the Mixolydian fVII, which appears in each. Becuase this chord has a cadential function each time, particularly strong in the verse, it has more of a harmonic role than it did in the verse of “A Hard Day’s Night,” where its role was more contrapuntal, and so the sonority grows in importance, pointing toward even greater structural appearances in coming years.124 The square 8+8 phrase rhythm is offset by the atemporal intro, Lennon’s first of 1964, a lament based on the beginning (II –V, II –V) and, a tempo, the end (II –fVII –V) of the chorus.125 At this retransitional point, the fVII and V tend to collapse into a single V7 sonority, with fVII supporting 4. Example 3.14, which shows the retransition as it appeared in Take 2, has a descant vocal from McCartney that emphasizes this 4 in the vocal parts. This line, which —with its Fn and D— recalls Lennon’s vocal at the end of the verse, at C–2), disappeared from the composition with a simplification of the song’s arrangement.126 The instrumental break has Lennon’s harmonica recomposing the verse (D [1:15 –1:25]), so that its upper voice can rise to fn2, the pentatonic pitch emphasized in “You Can’t Do That,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” and elsewhere in 1964. The break also has Harrison’s Tennessean recomposing the chorus (E) with Atkins / Perkins-inspired rockabilly-type string crossings and blue notes (bf2 coming from added sixth bn2 at E+5 and, as if answering, fn2 moving to fs2 at E+8).127 The rockabilly sound is reinforced by John’s Nashville-styled rhythmically shifted accented passing tones at B+6. As in “A Hard Day’s Night,” the vocal part in the first four bars of the verse makes the effortless descent from 5 (B+1– 2 [0:12]) through 4 (B+2– 3 [0:14]) to 3 (B+4 [0:15]), and 5 seems to be confirmed as primary tone in the chorus, where Lennon’s vocal ornaments 5 with its upper neighbor before descending through 4 and 3 to 2 (0:42), interrupted there on the cadential V. The second half of the verse, however, does not continue the linear descent but instead jumps from 3 down to 1, which then, in a highly unusual move, leaps an octave

Late 1964: U.S. Tour and Fourth LP

Example 3.14 “I’m a Loser” (Take 2) (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.

 

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lower. We are quite used to Lennon leaping up the octave, often leaving his full voice behind for falsetto, but the negative, frowning poetic text here demands a descent to John’s lowest vocal range. Lennon’s low register has a tragicomic aspect that complements the maudlin sound here of the 2-less fVII and would put this singer in the role of Canio (the clown in Pagliacci) if the song’s fast tempo were not too fast to allow the singer to take himself seriously.128 But there is a bit of tragedy, the result of the singer’s hubris — the third verse (“pride comes before a fall”) reveals the cause of his undoing, with an effect more artful than the corresponding verse (“pride can hurt you too”) of “She Loves You.” Because Lennon is so concerned with his own identity here, it is easy to attach the tonal center, 1, to the singer’s self-image. The fact that the true registral goal, the true final resting place for 1, is unclear, seems to confirm Lennon’s statement: “I’m not what I appear to be.” Without a convincing descent to 1, and with only the interrupted conclusion on 2 reached with these words in the chorus (with which the instrumental group fades out), the song lacks resolution both poetically and musically. One doubts that, at the next opportunity, the singer will be able to follow his own advice. First Covers: “Leave My Kitten Alone” and “Mr. Moonlight” The two covers attempted on August 14 represent one of Lennon’s most inspired borrowings and one of his least. Unfortunately, the former, “Leave My Kitten Alone,” was never released during the group’s tenure and was not even mixed until 1984. Plans through 1985 to release the song were continually aborted (it was finally contained on Beatles 1995d, but the best mix by far remains Emerick’s stereo mix on Beatles 1993f ). Take 5 of “Leave My Kitten Alone,” a twelve-bar C-major rocker in the vein of “Slow Down,” features drums, bass, and Lennon’s Capri on one track, his vocal on a second, and overdubs of Harrison’s Country Gent and another Lennon vocal on a third and of McCartney’s pounding Steinway and Starr’s tambourine on a fourth.129 An abrupt edit following the guitar solo is probably the only reason for shelving this otherwise stellar performance. One of the Beatles’ least popular tracks, the obscure “Mr. Moonlight,” required eight takes over two days. We hear Starr’s conga and bass on one track; overdubs of Harrison’s pitch-bending African drum (heard on the second beat at A+16) and McCartney’s tremulant-rich Hammond organ on a second; vocals from Lennon (lead, with a very promising intro), McCartney, and Harrison on a third; and a Country Gent overdub on the fourth. Settings without the African drum and organ are heard in Takes 1, 2, and 4 (heard in Beatles 1995d

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and 1996c). The song sounds in Fs major, pushing Lennon’s vocal way up to a dirty full-voice as1 for the a cappella opening, but the tone quickly becomes inexpressively lugubrious. “Every Little Thing” Another song Paul wrote in the Asher home130 and his first song for the LP, “Every Little Thing” features bass, drums, and Jumbo on one track, Lennon-McCartney vocals (often in unison) on a second, the tremolo-enhanced Ricky 12 with a strong midrange resonance boost from the Vox on a third, and McCartney’s Steinway and Starr’s timpani dubbed (but not in the verse) onto the fourth.131 In some ways, “Every Little Thing” retreads old territory — eternal love is the sole idea in the lyrics. But fVII gains strength in its chorus (B [0:27– 0:42]), where it is the sole alternative to I, and this I –fVII – I progression is vocalized in very unusual parallel fifths that attest to the lyric’s primitive nature.132 Just as in “Eight Days a Week,” parallel fifths are tied to parallel fourths for a stark, open sound. Phrase rhythm is of interest, as the verse (A [0:03 – 0:26]) is complete with only three two-bar units. But the song seems incomplete — there is no perfect authentic cadence. As if to affirm the line “love will never die,” the melody (A+11–12) descends only to 3. “Every Little Thing” is yet another 1964 song that became simplified in the recording process. An unidentified early take (excerpted in example 3.15a, from Beatles 1978) has McCartney singing a later-discarded descant line in parallel thirds above Lennon (at A+7– 8). This example shows another change, a clear improvement in the arrangement: before the piano was considered, Harrison’s electric twelve-string played the countermelody at A+10 –12 (see example 3.15b) and elsewhere. The Steinway provides much-needed registral balance when it takes over both this line and the chorus’s A– Gn–A, also first played on the Ricky 12.133 “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” This song is Lennon’s; he says: “That was a very personal one of mine.”134 Like “I’m a Loser,” the song deals with hiding disappointment. Recorded in nineteen takes (only five of which were complete), the texture includes drums, bass, and Jumbo on one track, one Lennon vocal part on a second, the bright round sound of Harrison’s MRB-enhanced Tennessean on a third, and Lennon’s self-duetting vocal, tambourine (in bridge, C [0:50 –1:04]), and backing vocals by McCartney and Harrison for the SRDC verse’s D-gesture (B+1– 4 [0:20 – 0:24]) on the fourth.135 This D-gesture departs from surrounding 3–2–1 lines descending stepwise to g1 in Lennon’s lead part with a dramatic leap to 7 in the upper register, fs2 (B+4 [0:23]), illustrating the departure taken in his text, “there’s nothing for me here, so I will disappear.” The concluding C-gesture (B+5 – 8) repeats the opening melodic construction (A+1– 4) but reharmonizes it to use the new Beatle cadence, I –fVII – I, again using the same F9 chord of “A Hard Day’s Night” and “I’m a Loser.” Alan Pollack has aptly characterized the fVII effect here “as a lazy, shoulder-shrugging impression.”136 The line fn1– e1– d1 in John’s acoustic introduction, measures 2 – 5, is another reminder of the cadence of the verse in “I’m a Loser.” It is supported by the “Hard Day’s Night” chord that

Late 1964: U.S. Tour and Fourth LP

Example 3.15a “Every Little Thing,” draft (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.

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here has a V-preparatory role; the fn1 is subsequently canceled by a rising line through fs1. Perhaps because of the Mixolydian nature of the fVII triad, the chord at A+7 (0:17– 0:19) and the one more clearly notated in the solo at D+8 (1:34) sound more like Vf than a blues-based Vs9. The bridge professes the singer’s undying love, despite disappointment, in bold whole notes that hide nothing, not even the adamant, volatile, countrytinged nonresolving sevenths. The boldness is enhanced by the off-balance 2+4, 2+4 grouping that contrasts the steady whole notes with bouncing eighths. Example 3.16 (C+3 – 6) shows that while the passage is based on the Lydian IIs and its chromatically descending tenor line, the real voice-leading interest lies in how the seventh of neither VI7 nor II s7 , both sung in Lennon’s lower part, resolves in register. These whole notes, especially by virtue of their tonal qualities, defy; those heard in the bridge of “I Feel Fine,” with its “normal” voice leading, are just as powerful but not at all defiant. As for structural voice leading, a graph in Wagner 1999 (130) shows that the 5–6–7–8 rise in G major (but touching upon a tonicized E minor along the way) through the verse into the bridge in “I Should Have Known Better” repeats here in disguise (5 at A+1–6 at B+1–7 at B+4 –8 at C+1), but without the corresponding final descent, all a perfect emblem of the boldness discussed earlier. A country tinge

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Example 3.16 Analysis of “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party.”

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suggested in the confident bridge is answered by the jangly rockabilly doubleand triple-stopped Tennessean solo that ends on the high g2 (predicting the high, bright 1 that is to end the “Nowhere Man” solo a year later) to which the D-gesture and the 7-ending bridge would have wanted to resolve. “What You’re Doing” McCartney’s “What You’re Doing,” written in Atlantic City on August 30, is unusual for 1964 in that the products of the first two sessions devoted to it (September 29 – 30) went unreleased. Take 5 is heard on Beatles 1996c (vol. 2) but breaks down in the intro; McCartney, to Martin: “George, what did it sound like with the bass doing a funny thing, did it sound any good or did it sound just all ugly crap?” Martin: “It sounded rather magnificent.” Take 11, part of the John Barrett nachlass (Beatles 1999a), is if not magnificent then fairly interesting. Lennon is certainly playing his own Rickenbacker twelve-string, a 325-12 (modeled on the Capri), in this series. We hear drums, bass, and Lennon’s Ricky 12 rhythm part on one track, Harrison’s second Ricky 12 rhythm part on another, vocals by Paul and John on a third, and George’s overdubbed repeated lead riff on yet another Ricky 12 on the fourth. The chief differences between this arrangement and the one released are the lack of an introductory drum solo, a soon-abandoned harmony vocal from John that is continuous through the verse (the opening of which is shown in example 3.17a) and reappears for the “Please Please Me”– like oblique retransition (example 3.17b), and an instrumental break that has the overdubbed Ricky 12 transpose the lead riff to a tonicized G for three bars (one bar of G, one of C, one of G), followed by a bar of retransitional A7. The remake, involving Takes 13 –19 on October 26, was the last recording for the LP. Drums and bass are heard on one track, McCartney’s lead vocal on a second, Harrison’s Ricky 12 ostinato (like a diatonic version of the “You Can’t Do That” riff ) and Lennon’s Jumbo on a third, and McCartney’s doubled vocal and Lennon’s backing vocal with the duet (D [1:17–1:32]) between Martin’s Steinway and Harrison’s Ricky 12 on the fourth. Martin’s piano work is interesting for its tremolo; in 1966 – 67 (with “Good Day Sunshine” and “Lovely Rita”) this technique will be applied to a McCartnian barrelhouse style, but here it simply makes a good vehicle for contrasting the Fs of I (as at D+1 [1:17–1:19]) with the Fn of IVf7 (D+2 [1:19 –1:21]), a feature deemed characteristic enough to be recaptured in the coda. The Fn first serves to portray the singer’s “blue” feelings at A+4 (0:20) and crying at C+4 (1:06) in a song that is otherwise completely diatonic in the major mode, save for an applied V at the

Late 1964: U.S. Tour and Fourth LP

Example 3.17a “What You’re Doing,” draft of verse opening (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.

A

   

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Example 3.17b “What You’re Doing,” draft of retransition (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs.

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retransition (0:53 – 0:56). Also ear-catching are McCartney’s retransitional stop-time melisma on V (B+6 – 7 [0:57–1:00]), modest solos for drums and bass in the intro and coda, the 4+3+2 grouping in the verse (shortened to 4+3+1 after the first hearing, in the same manner that marks the verses of “Things We Said Today”) and the poetic rhythm that end-rhymes “doin’ ” with “blue an’ [lonely]” and “runnin’ ” with “fun in [it],” a technique also to be explored in “She’s a Woman” (there, “lonely” with “only [fooling]” and “jealous” with “well as [loving]”).137 The shouted “Look!” and “I’m” (A+1– 3) sound like a rehash of the twice-heard “Wait!” that opens “Please Mr. Postman.” “No Reply” Of this number, Lennon says, “That’s my song. That’s the one where Dick James, the publisher, said, ‘That’s the first complete song you’ve written where it resolves itself.’ You know, with a complete story. It was sort of my version of ‘Silhouettes.’ . . . I had that image of walking down the street and seeing her silhouetted in the window and not answering the phone, although I never called a girl on the phone in my life.”138 Despite Tommy Quickly’s recording, the Beatles decided to include “No Reply” on Beatles for Sale and recorded in it eight takes on September 30.139 The arrangement is nearly set with Take 2 (Beatles 1995d) except for the cha-cha coloring of Martin’s Steinway (contrasting with straight eighths in the released bridge). Heard in the final mix are 9 syncopated drums, bass, and Gretsch (used little but heard in the final I add6 chord) on one track; Lennon’s vocal with echo on another; and his Jumbo on a third. The fourth track has overdubs of Lennon-McCartney vocals with — in the bridge (D [1:03 –1:33]) — handclaps (the first heard since January dubs for

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“Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand”) and Martin’s Steinway (the eighths of which are reminiscent of the bridge-only piano appearance in “Things We Said Today”), which is also heard in the D-gesture (B [0:17– 0:24]) of the SRDC verse. The Dgesture is highlighted not only by the entrance of McCartney’s anxious high vocal on the minor triads VI and III and yet another major-major IV7 chord but by the crash cymbals that herald downbeats an eighth early, with the brilliant high partials that illustrate the “light” that, as Mellers points out, refers both to the flicking of the wall switch and to the singer’s sudden inner enlightenment.140 The crashes also provide a suitable jolt in the second verse here, for the singer’s exclamation “I nearly died.” Just as short motives were reharmonized in “She Loves You” and elsewhere, note how the major-mode [025] collection (e2– g2– a2) of the D-gesture is supported by four different chord qualities in four bars. This [025] set transposes another from the cadences of the S- and Rgestures (g1– a1– c2), showing that “your window” (A+6 – 7 [0:13 – 0:14]) is where Lennon “saw the light.” Also reminiscent of “She Loves You” is the tonic chord with added sixth that appears not only at the end but in the Jumbo at A+3 – 4 and in the piano chord on the downbeat of D+16. Example 3.18, a sketch of the song’s voice-leading structure, shows that Lennon’s melody is unusually rich, comprising three voices in the verse and bringing the lowest inner voice up an octave to 6, a2, at B+1 in McCartney’s vocal for the D-gesture. Level 2 of the example, 3.18b, shows that the basic structure of the bridge (D) continues the motion of the verse (A–C [0:02 – 0:31]) and actually sequences its upper lines a third higher, providing a structural integrity that is hidden by applied dominants and a continuous two-part vocal texture on the surface. “Eight Days a Week” McCartney has said, “I used to drive out to John’s house. He lived out in the country, and I lived in London. I remember asking the chauffeur once if he was having a good week. He said, ‘I’m very busy at the moment. I’ve been working eight days a week.’ And I thought, ‘Eight days a week! Now there’s a title.’ ”141 And so this is most likely a joint Lennon-McCartney composition. The thirteen takes, all done on October 6, include several (see Beatles 1995d) in which Lennon and McCartney experiment with a vocal intro and rejected falsettos in the refrain. The oblique vocals beginning Take 1 (marked by “Love Me Do”– like emphasis on John’s Jumbo) are represented in example 3.19a. Take 5 begins with unison footballs sustained on 3 through the same progression.142 The final mix from Take 13 results in bass, drums, and Country Gent on one track, and Jumbo and Lennon-McCartney vocals (Paul sings only at C, singing lead as John adds open parallel fifths and then fourths below) on another. A third track has Lennon’s double-tracked vocal and handclaps (note that the D-gesture, B+1– 4 [0:21– 0:27], is sung in unison for the first and third verses, but note that he duets with himself for the second [0:48 – 0:54] and the fourth) and his vocal in the chorus (C [1:02–1:16]). Harrison’s Ricky 12 for the intro and coda, and bass triplet eighths and drums (featuring the final cymbal crash), also in the coda, constitute the fourth track. The song is given a novel and celebrated fade-in in all mono and stereo mixes (reheard in “Love,” on

Example 3.18a Analysis of “No Reply.”

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Example 3.18b Analysis of “No Reply.” A

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Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band album, 1970), whereas the coda comes to a full conclusion.143 The verse of “Eight Days a Week” (A–B [0:07– 0:34]) perhaps highlights the Lydian IIs more than does any other Beatle passage.144 Within the SRDC structure, the I – IIs– IV– I progression is heard in each phrase except the D-gesture (B+1– 4). The same progression is featured in the intro and coda, played by Jumbo and electric twelve-string while 1 is rearticulated in triplet eighths on the bass and Gretsch.145 The D- and C-gestures are sketched in example 3.19b. Here, it sounds as if the accompaniment is trying to work out a way to support the chromatic descent 5–s4–n4–3 characteristic of the Lydian IIs, which line is beamed in the treble staff. An unproductive attempt is made (B+1– 2 [0:21– 0:24]) with VI7– II65, but a reharmonization finds IIs (B+4 [0:26 – 0:27]), and so the chromatic descent may proceed. The Lydian IIs leads to a retransitional V in the chorus (C+5 – 8 [1:09 –1:16]), a passage that begins with vocal fifths reminiscent of “Every Little Thing” and continues with a stop-time two-part vocal melisma, “loooooove you,” that may be heard as a link between the retransition of “What You’re Doing” and the later polyphonic chorus of “Paperback Writer.”

Late 1964: U.S. Tour and Fourth LP

The Eighth Parlophone Single: “I Feel Fine” / “She’s a Woman” Of “I Feel Fine,” Lennon says, “I wrote this at a recording session. It was tied together around the guitar riff that opens it.”146 He also says, “That’s me completely. Including the electric guitar lick and the record with the first feedback anywhere.”147 But Harrison differs: “A lot of Lennon-McCartney songs had other people involved, whether it’s lyrics or structures or circumstance. A good example is ‘I Feel Fine.’ I’ll tell you exactly how that came about: We were crossing Scotland in the back of an Austin Princess, singing ‘Matchbox’ in three-part harmony. And it turned into ‘I Feel Fine.’ The guitar part was from Bobby Parker’s ‘Watch Your Step,’ just a bastardized version. I was there for the whole of its creation — but it’s still a Lennon-McCartney.”148 The Beatles did not take this trip across Scotland until after the recording of “I Feel Fine.” (Perhaps they were instead returning to London from the far-northern Hull, a trip that directly preceded the session in question?). Nonetheless, there is some merit in Harrison’s claim. (“I Feel Fine” was recorded on October 18, 1964; the Beatles were in Scotland on April 29 – 30 and October 19 – 21 of that year.) The final four bars (A+7–10 [0:24 – 0:29]) of the ten-bar verse (A) could be the concluding phrase of any twelve-bar blues, but they also descend (in the lead vocal, which sounds below Paul’s and George’s descant parts) 5–4–f3–1, as does the the conclusion of the verse in “Matchbox.” The lead riff from Parker’s “Watch Your Step,” sequenced from I to IV within the blues frame, is shown in example 3.20a; it is certainly similar to Lennon’s product. (Take 7 opens with Lennon working out the repeated riff from “Tequila,” also related.) Another possible model exists in a song of John’s own; the original title of the 1963 number “I’m In Love” was to be “I’m So Glad,” which is the motto featured in the bridge (B [0:43 – 0:53]) of “I Feel Fine.”149 Reaching deeper, the swinging solo vocal line recalls McCartney’s “Can’t Buy Me Love,” and “I Feel Fine” seems to comment on McCartney’s promise there to purchase a diamond ring. Requiring eight takes of the basic tracks and one for overdubs, the finished recording includes bass and drums on one track, Lennon’s MRB-enhanced Jumbo and Harrison’s Country Gent (used sparingly) on a second, Lennon’s vocal on a third, and vocals by Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison on the fourth. Almost hidden is the hint of a new technique on McCartney’s bass that will dominate Revolver and “Paperback Writer”: the statement of an octave that is subsequently filled in with a pentatonic line. The ostinato shown in example 3.20b, which is closely related to Lennon’s opening Gibson riff, is played at C+5 – 6 and all through the third verse (where the pattern is repeated on I as well as on V) in Take 6 of “I Feel Fine.”150 In the released version, the octave is

Example 3.20a Opening riff from Bobby Parker, “Watch Your Step” (Robert Lee Parker – Phil Belmonte). © 1961, EMI Grove Park Music, Inc.

♯4  4



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Example 3.20b “I Feel Fine” (Take 6) (Lennon-McCartney). © 1964, Northern Songs. 1:19



♯



Bass



   





   

stripped away and the pattern is heard only at C+6 (1:00 –1:01) and C+10 (1:06 –1:07). As do the previous 1964 examples, “I Feel Fine” contrasts a blues-based verse (A, again — following “A Hard Day’s Night” and others — repeating the [025] set, d2– f2– c2 in G major before the “Matchbox” cadence) with an “uptown” bridge (B) highlighting III (0:44 – 0:46). By late 1963, “yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,” as in “It Won’t Be Long,” had become a cliché. By the October 1964 recording of the bridge of “I Feel Fine,” the Beatles’ shouts and endlessly repeated syllables and phrases were for the most part toned down into joyful yet Apollonian “ooh”s in sustained backing vocals. The Beatles had begun to seek other means of expressing excitement, involving both instrumental and vocal techniques. In “I Feel Fine,” powerful joy is celebrated both in the opening, in which Lennon creates feedback in his own guitar from the open A on McCartney’s bass, and in the rhythmically emphasized three-part choral declamations “I’m so glad” and “she’s so glad.” For all the celebrated conjecture as to references to recreational drugs in the Beatles’ lyrics, the earliest example, recorded two months after the group’s first exposure to marijuana, has escaped most attention, as this is hardly a drugbased song. Of “She’s a Woman,” Lennon says: “That’s Paul with some contribution from me on lines, probably. We put in the words ‘turns me on.’ We were so excited to say ‘turn me on’— you know, about marijuana and all that, using it as an expression.”151 The seven takes have drums, bass, and Lennon’s carefully damped MRB-colored Capri (Guitar II, played dry like a Motown offbeat “chick” rhythm guitar but with its amp leaking onto McCartney’s vocal mike for added presence) on one track, McCartney’s vocal on another, Harrison’s Country Gent on a third, and Harrison’s double-tracked Country Gent, Starr’s chocalho, McCartney’s Steinway, and double-tracked vocal (this last for the chorus, B [1:15 –1:20]) on the fourth. Outtakes show that Harrison did not play on the basic tracks, which on Take 7 were extended by a blues jam of 2'40", which — by virtue of McCartney’s many Little Richard screams and Lennon’s dissonant guitar — points more closely than any other pre-1968 recording to Lennon’s “Cold Turkey.”152 While he did not play on the basic tracks, Harrison double-tracked his solo, C, double-stops and all, in nearly identical takes. While the solo recalls Carl Perkins in many respects, it is significantly tied to the R&B world of Little Richard as well in that this is the first guitar part for a new composition since those of “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “You Can’t Do That” to feature bent strings. Whereas A Hard Day’s Night features blues elements, in its vocals and in the structural relations among its sometimes pentatonic chord roots, and exhibits other forms of left-hand ornamentation, such as C&W-styled

Late 1964: U.S. Tour and Fourth LP

hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides, the solos in the four R&B tracks of the Long Tall Sally EP, the resurrected “Baby’s in Black” and “Kansas City,” and the allnew “She’s a Woman” are the only 1964 material to include string-bending. This seems particularly significant in hindsight, knowing that McCartney was about to purchase the Epiphone Casino on which he was to add bent-note leads to “Ticket to Ride,” “The Night Before,” and “Another Girl” in February 1965. Lennon’s guitar and McCartney’s overdubbed piano are the only instruments heard for the first four bars. The heavily accented backbeat in the intro is obviously not perceived as such until the bass and drums enter, subsequently “proving” the correct metrical accent. (The stabbing opening E7 chords are reheard ten years later in Steely Dan’s “Monkey in Your Soul.”) The verse of “She’s a Woman” (A [0:11– 0:42]) is a simple twenty-four-bar blues, a length that makes the four-bar chorus (B) doubly short. After beginning on the major 3, McCartney reaches over, only to tumble down the full pentatonic-minor scale, a2– gn2– e2– c2– a1, leaving minor sevenths hanging in a tantalizing way on both I and IV.153 Although the melody has more conjunct motion and simple sequences in the second and third phrases (A+9 –16 [0:21– 0:31], A+17– 24 [0:32 – 0:42], respectively), syncopation in eighths abounds. The “uptown” chorus (which alters the “Can’t Buy Me Love” chorus, III –VI . . . , with a major VIs at B+2 [1:17]) leads to a retransition (B+4 [1:19 –1:20]) that adds the vocal sixth (cs2 here) to V, as did the retransition of “You Can’t Do That.” Because the chorus is only four bars long, and because McCartney’s pitch is heightened in the succeeding third verse for a cadential effect (he sings a2 for all syllables the third time through A+2 [1:22–1:23], not what is given in the score), formal ambiguity is created, even more than was heard in “I’ll Be Back,” by the abrupt return to the verse. A sense of a verse-chorus-verse unit is strongly suggested by these factors but then dissipates as the third verse continues beyond its first half. Oldies: Five Covers and “I’ll Follow the Sun” Richard’s “Kansas City” / “HeyHey-Hey-Hey,” Holly’s “Words of Love,” Berry’s “Rock-and-Roll Music,” and Perkins’s “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” and “Honey Don’t,” in addition to McCartney’s very early “I’ll Follow the Sun,” were all recorded in two October sessions to round out the LP’s contents. All covers but “Words of Love” (which follows Holly’s two-part vocal and guitar arrangement faithfully) are boogie numbers for bass and guitar. Only Ringo’s cover of “Honey Don’t,” taken from John’s repertoire at the last moment to provide Ringo one vocal piece for the album, required more than two takes and overdubs. For the record, track contents for each of the numbers are given in table 3.3. Take 2 of “Kansas City” (Beatles 1995d) is interesting as proof, along with two other performances from 1962 – 63, that Harrison’s swinging yet bluesy solo on the released take is entirely improvised. Starr’s drumming on his packing case on the last number recorded on October 18 suggests that the decision to record “Words of Love” was made at the last minute (perhaps resulting from a decision to drop “Leave My Kitten Alone”), after the drummer’s equipment had already been packed up. But this timbre recreates the percussive sound

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Table 3.3 Track Contents of Beatles for Sale Covers “Kansas City” / “Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey”: 1. Drums, bass, John’s Capri 2. George’s Country Gent 3. Paul’s lead vocal 4. George Martin’s Steinway, backing vocals and handclaps by George and John “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby”: 1. Drums, bass, John’s Jumbo 2. George’s Country Gent 3. George’s vocal with heavy STEED 4. George’s doubled vocal for chorus and tambourine “Rock and Roll Music”: 1. Drums, bass, George’s Jumbo 2. John’s Capri 3. John’s vocal with STEED 4. John, Paul, and George Martin all at the Steinway together “Words of Love”: 1. Bass, Ringo’s drumming on packing case 2. John’s Capri 3. John / Paul vocal duet with handclaps in eighths 4. George’s Tennessean “Honey Don’t”: 1. Drums, bass 2. George’s Tennessean and John’s acoustic twelve-string 3. Ringo’s vocal 4. John’s tambourine

heard in Holly’s cover of “(You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care,” so it may have been planned. Harrison’s silver-toned Tennessean on this track, the top and midrange of its signal boosted to the max by the Vox AC-100 pre-amp, is a pretty good imitation of Holly’s Stratocaster, an instrument that Harrison was finally to purchase within four months of this recording. The use of STEED (single tape echo and echo delay) on lead vocals for two tracks suggest that there was no time for proper double-tracking of vocals for any of the covers.154 Just as Lennon resurrected “I Call Your Name” for spring recording, so McCartney brought back “I’ll Follow the Sun” in the autumn. When asked why the song had not been attempted earlier, McCartney responded, “it wouldn’t have been considered good enough. I wouldn’t have put it up. . . . We had this R&B image in Liverpool, a rock and roll / R&B / hardish image with the leather. So I think that songs like ‘I’ll Follow the Sun,’ ballads like that, got pushed back to later.”155 Recorded were McCartney’s acoustic guitar and Ringo’s tapping his hands on his knees on one track, Harrison’s Country Gent (rhythm pick-up) on a second, McCartney’s vocal on a third, Harrison’s brief solo on bright Country Gent (D+1– 4 [1:01–1:07]) and Lennon-McCartney vocals and Tennessean on

The Beatles’ Musical Growth in Their First Two Years with EMI

a fourth. Like the Quarry Men, who gave birth to this song, the Beatles have no bassist here. In the first phrase (A+1– 4 [0:03 – 0:10]), the dissonance of a seventh is heard above each root. The phrase demands both poetic and musical resolution — the listener wants to know where and why the singer is going. When the compelling sevenths are no longer an issue (A+5 – 8 [0:10 – 0:17]), the question has been answered — the restless singer is headed toward sunshine because he fears the rain and the romantic difficulties it symbolizes. It is rather incredible that such a detestable theme, which could be paraphrased as “I’m serving notice that as soon as things get tough, I’m gone, and then you’ll know you should have held on to me,” seems to be commonly accepted as a love song, perhaps because of the moderate tempo and unobtrusive, predominantly acoustic, instrumentation.156 Beatles for Sale (mixed for mono and stereo on six dates from October 16 through November 4, including work on the single) consisted of the following titles: Side 1 “No Reply” “I’m a Loser” “Baby’s in Black” “Rock and Roll Music” “I’ll Follow the Sun” “Mr. Moonlight” “Kansas City” / “Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey”

Side 2 “Eight Days a Week” “Words of Love” “Honey Don’t” “Every Little Thing” “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” “What You’re Doing” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby”

The LP topped the charts for nine weeks; its novel British gatefold sleeve was described as “flamboyant,” but this black-and-white inside photo of the boys in front of a Twickenham Studios mural featuring numerous film stars merely hints at the truly flamboyant Sgt. Pepper sleeve still two and a half years away.157 The Beatles’ worldwide popularity held steady, but the late-1964 recordings rely heavily on old material and techniques. Few new ideas appear other than the gimmicks opening “I Feel Fine” and “Eight Days a Week,” a few interesting vocal voicings, and the hint in “I’m a Loser” of Lennon’s self-revelations yet to come. McCartney does suddenly exhibit an abundance of keyboard playing along with his first recording on acoustic guitar. The Beatles play as a rock-and-roll band (“Rock and Roll Music,” “What You’re Doing”) and are not praised this year-end by the intelligentsia as Britain’s most vital composers, as they’d been at the end of 1963. The next three years would tell quite a different story.

The Beatles’ Musical Growth in Their First Two Years with EMI From the time they signed with Parlophone in mid-1962, the Beatles’ career took off from that of a favorite hometown band known only in a few spots outside its province through national hit status by February 1963 to the domination of Western pop music by February 1964. Early in 1963, the group reduced

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the length of their show from more than an hour to fifteen-to-thirty minutes as a grueling schedule of scorching concerts imposed on nearly every day of the year. In 1964, their live performances were restricted to a few days in February, four month-long tours in the summer and autumn, and a week of Christmas concerts, allowing a bit more time for studio recording than enjoyed the previous year. Radio appearances occupied a good bit of the 1963 schedule, and with the onset of Beatlemania late that year, television became more demanding of their time. The feature-length film quickly became inevitable. In the recording studio, the introduction of four-track procedures in October 1963 allowed the Beatles’ sessions to evolve from essentially live two-track performances into those permitting the regular overdubbing of backing vocals and one or more guitars. Parallel with the gradual growth through 1964— and the more rapid evolution through 1965 – 66 — of their studio techniques was a growing interest in instrumentation. The Beatles introduced the electricacoustic J-160s for their first 1962 single and the Country Gent, Ludwigs, and Ramírez classical guitar in mid-1963, and they enjoyed a great expansion of their arsenal in 1964: Lennon and Harrison were given new Rickenbackers, Harrison picked up the twangy Gretsch Tennessean, and Lennon added a twelve-string acoustic. Signal processors, amplifiers, and tape echo were mined for new effects. Three new guitars, Epiphone Casinos, purchased at the end of 1964 and the beginning of 1965, pointed toward the sounds of 1966 – 67 and introduced Lennon to perhaps his favorite guitar ever. In 1965 – 67, the group’s interests in new timbres were to extend well beyond guitars, but the sonic quest essentially began with the Ramírez nylon-string in 1963 and the Rickenbacker twelve-string in 1964. The Beatles’ abilities as composers blossomed through their work on demand for other Epstein acts in 1963. Compositions given to others trailed off rapidly by mid-1964. The group received strong guidance in structuring their songs from George Martin into 1964, and extra attention to strong opening and closing sonorities resulted first in his editing fixes, then in the Beatles’ own devising of striking chords (the final vocal assignment of “She Loves You,” the opening/closing collection of “Hard Day’s Night”), and then in electronic effects (the feedback in “I Feel Fine,” the fade-in of “Eight Days a Week”). The Beatles were to continue through 1964 to cultivate the varieties of dissonance treatment and motivic development that had made “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” compact masterpieces. The muse was not always on call through 1964, however. Whereas Lennon’s abundance of production filled A Hard Day’s Night with all-original songs, that year ended with the group having to resurrect five age-old cover versions to complete their year-end LP. But the 1964 compositions exhibit more variety, on the whole, than do their 1962 – 63 predecessors. There is far less emphasis on dramatic power and a growing reliance on subtleties, as shown in the new integrity in pitch and rhythm that binds the various sections of “I Should Have Known Better.” The bridges that once climaxed with a tonicized IV preparing a powerfully dissonant retransition on V (“From Me to You,” I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “This Boy,” “I Call Your Name,” and “If I Fell”) are usually replaced by moodier bridges open-

The Beatles’ Musical Growth in Their First Two Years with EMI

ing with diatonic minor triads (“Can’t Buy Me Love,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “I Should Have Known Better,” “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You,” “And I Love Her,” “I’ll Cry Instead,” “I’ll Be Back,” “She’s a Woman,” “I’m a Loser,” “Baby’s in Black,” “I’ll Follow the Sun,” and “What You’re Doing”). After “Can’t Buy Me Love,” the retransitional V is much less demanding; it is even replaced by the tonic itself in “Should Have Known” and “Happy Just to Dance.” Lennon’s dynamic post-Orbison falsetto, a hallmark of each 1963 A-side, is put to pasture in 1964. It disappears entirely from released product after a twomeasure burst in “Tell Me Why,” as do most instances of structural registral contrast. Alongside occasional screams in only a few cover songs, vocal outbursts are downright composed in “When I Get Home” and “She’s a Woman.” Compared to any previous effort, Beatles for Sale is absolutely tame in this regard. The melodramatic time-defying caesuras that conclude “She Loves You” and “It Won’t Be Long” are not heard again until Lennon’s backward-looking “In My Life” (1965), “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” (1968), and, for that matter, “(Just Like) Starting Over” (1980). It is almost as if the waxing and waning of the initial burst of Beatlemania itself, spreading over the world from October 1963 through the opening of A Hard Day’s Night, is simultaneously reflected in the group’s most central musical structures and its most vital means of expression. The Beatles expand their already large harmonic vocabulary in this period. Harrison’s great interest through 1963 in pitches added to triads continues. Both he and Lennon create in 1964 a superabundance of major-minor seventh chords of every conceivable function. The Lydian IIs of “She Loves You” and “I’ll Get You” continues to be a trait of the early Beatles, appearing in “I Call Your Name,” “Eight Days a Week,” “Baby’s in Black,” and “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party,” as well as three songs written in 1965 and a single example from 1967. The exotic ornamental Phrygian fII of the “Do You Want to Know a Secret” intro is given a new structural power in “Things We Said Today,” and Harrison resurrects the Dorian mode, an important middle-Beatles scale, with “Don’t Bother Me.” The Beatles explore chromaticism not only through these techniques and a continuing interest in applied dominants but also in the use of a passing diminished triad (“If I Fell”) and phrases governed by chromatic descents (as in “It’s for You,” “It Won’t Be Long,” “If I Fell,” “Tell Me Why,” and “I’ll Be Back”), a pattern that becomes de rigueur for Lennon in 1967– 68. Several late-1964 songs (“Every Little Thing,” “Eight Days,” “Spoil the Party”) experiment with unusual vocal counterpoint. There are stylistic shifts afoot as well; their acoustic work turns slightly from Everly-based Appalachia to the rural blues-folk background of Dylan. The Latin experiments of 1962 (“P.S. I Love You,” “Ask Me Why”) become progressively stylized in 1964, their elements blending with those of other genres (“And I Love Her,” “Happy Just to Dance,” “No Reply”). Not only is it true of the Cavern-recalling Perkins and Holly covers, but several original songs for Beatles for Sale exhibit a new C & W emphasis; John says “The numbers on this L.P. are different from anything we’ve done before and you could call our new one a ‘Beatles Country and Western L.P.’ ”158 But the most perceptible shift in compositional interest over this period has

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to do with the Beatles’ vocal relationship with the blues. Whereas the melodies of both “Love Me Do” and “I Saw Her Standing There,” two of the earliest original songs that Lennon and McCartney brought to EMI, are drenched in the pentatonic-minor blues, all songs of 1963, except “I Wanna Be Your Man” (written for the blues-based Stones), stand pretty firmly in the major-minor diatonic world. It’s the major mode, for instance, that gives “All My Loving” its rockabilly cast. Only Harrison’s brief pentatonic and note-bending comments on his Gretsches remind the 1963 listener of the Beatles’ blues roots. But all of this changes in 1964 with McCartney’s “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Suddenly, f7 seems to be the vocal scale degree of choice, as demonstrated in Lennon’s “You Can’t Do That,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “I’ll Cry Instead,” “I’m a Loser,” “Spoil the Party,” and “I Feel Fine.” The growing role of fVII in “Hard Day’s Night” and “Loser” will come to dominate many compositions in 1965 – 66, becoming a defining tonal function of rock music. Despite these areas of growth, a definite pulling in of the reins can be detected in Beatles for Sale. As discussed earlier, this LP is often described as a tired effort, but if one compares the disc and its muted cover photo to the mellow Rubber Soul rather than to the exuberant film-based albums surrounding it, Sale takes on a warmer glow. Both of the Beatles’ 1964 LPs are largely reflective of John Lennon’s mindset: A Hard Day’s Night flaunts brute confidence, but Beatles for Sale expresses a touching vulnerability that will be an important facet of the remainder of the Beatles’ work, both together and individually. “Junk,” “Crippled Inside,” “Here Today,” and “Get It” all seem to look back to Beatles for Sale. But this fragile quality is overshadowed for most by the loud presence of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, and Buddy Holly, whose songs here make it difficult to focus on this album’s role in the steady emergence of rock out of rock and roll. The Beatles of 1965, however, will ensure that this trend is not obscured in the least.

FOUR

1

I’M HERE TO SHOW EVERYBODY THE LIGHT (1965)

Popular Music, 1964 –1966 In 1964 the Beatles revolutionized pop-rock music, leading to imitation in many forms. But many other musical ideas were flowing in the same airspace, and although the Beatles were no longer an active cover band, their ears were tuned to everything they heard. In fact, perhaps the single most important skill they possessed as musicians was an ability to draw from a remarkably diverse set of literatures, and then adapt their own sense of style as they added new influences to their mix, leading to the greatest originality ever heard in mainstream popular music. The year 1965 began and ended with the Beatles still most interested in R&B, but it was also during this year that classical and nonWestern influences were first felt. I begin this chapter with a brief contextualization of the Beatles’ early music within the domain of pop-rock music of the early 1960s.

British Beat Music The Beatles’ national and then worldwide impact on popular music in 1963 – 64 was phenomenal. Although the giants of the 1950s, Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard, could still occasionally place records in the Top Ten through the mid1960s, most pop music of the early part of this decade — such as the beach movie pap of Frankie Avalon and the Brill Building product for the girl groups (and other safe reactions to the imprisonment of Berry, the disc jockey/record 273

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promoter “payola” scandals of 1958 – 62, the army induction of Presley and the retirement of Little Richard) –– were eclipsed by the beat boom that began in Northern England. In 1963 “beat” groups, following the Beatles and their Liverpool contemporaries, brought to British popular music a rougher R&B edge that was disappearing from the more sanitized American music of the early 1960s. The Merseyside groups to attain greatest prominence were the Beatles (whose own compositions were being recorded by others to a remarkable degree, with three covers charting in Britain in 1964, six in 1965, and five in 1966, including a #1 hit with “Michelle” by the Overlanders); the Searchers (who achieved three #1 hits in 1963 – 64); the Swinging Blue Jeans (who fell out of favor after charting four times in 1964 with big hits in “Hippy Hippy Shake” and “Good Golly Miss Molly”); Epstein’s groups Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer, the Fourmost, and the Applejacks (all of whom had great success in 1964 but could not reach the Top Ten after that); and a few others who went along for the ride, such as the Merseybeats, the Mojos, and the Undertakers. Liverpool was also represented by two adult-oriented solo singers, Cilla Black (who enjoyed steady popularity through 1966, although she could not reach the #1 position after “Anyone Who Had a Heart” and “You’re My World” did so in 1964; in 1966 she found her audience in the London theatre) and Ken Dodd (comedian-turnedcrooner whose “Tears” was the second-biggest-selling record of 1965, behind the Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”). The Beatles’ double-tracked leads, vocal counterpoint, handclaps, guitar work, and modal harmonies of 1963 were adopted by Manchester’s Hollies, signed to Parlophone in January 1963 by George Martin’s assistant, Ron Richards. The Hollies (best known in the States for “Bus Stop”) were followed in the spring of 1963 by other Beatle-like Mancunian groups, all under the same management: Freddie & the Dreamers (“I Understand” and “I’m Telling You Now”), Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders (“The Game of Love” and “A Groovy Kind of Love”), and Herman’s Hermits (“I’m Into Something Good” and “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter”). By 1964 – 65, beat groups from the midlands and London were dominating the nation’s pop charts. Of greatest competition against the Beatles, and absolute greatest in longevity, were the Rolling Stones of Richmond, West London. Of the original five members, Jagger, Richard, and Watts were still intact for a new LP in 1997 and concerts through 1999. The Stones began their recording career in 1963 by covering R&B numbers by Berry and others and in fact made several of their first recordings in Chicago’s Chess studios with Willie Dixon and Bo Diddley. Like the Beatles and unlike most other northern groups, they soon began to record their own compositions, beginning with “The Last Time,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Get Off of My Cloud,” and “19th Nervous Breakdown,” all written jointly by Mick Jagger (lead singer) and Keith Richard (rhythm guitar). Jagger-Richard songs were widely performed by others; seven such covers charted in 1964 – 66, five taken from the 1966 LP Aftermath — including “Out of Time,” which was taken to #1 by Chris Farlowe. The Stones’ pentatonic orientation and their growing abilities in composition were

Popular Music, 1964–1966

characteristic of other groups, many of which featured electronic keyboards in their lineup: the Animals (from Newcastle; “House of the Rising Sun”), the Zombies (St Albans, north of London; “She’s Not There”), the Spencer Davis Group (Birmingham; “Keep on Running,” “Somebody Help Me”), The Who (Acton, West London; “I’m a Boy”), the Yardbirds (Surrey; “Heart Full of Soul,” recorded just after Eric Clapton’s resignation over the group’s turning from R&B to more commercial material), and the Kinks (Muswell Hill, North London; their first self-penned hits, “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night,” are quintessential [025] work-ups, but in 1966 composer Ray Davies turned to the music hall for inspiration for “Dedicated Follower of Fashion” and “Sunny Afternoon”). Other beat-bound British acts at the top of the charts in 1964 – 66 tended to be less R&B based and more pop oriented. These included Brian Poole & the Tremeloes (London; “Someone, Someone”), Peter & Gordon (London; McCartney’s “A World without Love” was their debut and their only #1 single), the Dave Clark Five (Tottenham; “Glad All Over” and “Bits and Pieces”), the Honeycombs (Essex; “Have I the Right”), the Moody Blues (Birmingham; “Go Now”; guitarist Denny Laine was to be a primary member of McCartney’s group of the 1970s, Wings), Manfred Mann (London; “Pretty Flamingo,” “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”), and the Troggs (Andover; “With a Girl Like You,” “Wild Thing”). Another Brit to achieve fame in 1965 was Donovan, a folk-based Glaswegian (“Sunshine Superman,” “Mellow Yellow”) who became a close friend of the Beatles.1 The Beatles, in fact, appeared regularly in gossip columns as attending club performances by the likes of The Who and the Moody Blues, and they often showed their extensive knowledge of records and artists throughout Britain’s weekly Top-Fifty disc charts when asked to review new releases, “blind,” for the BBC television program “Juke Box Jury” and for the Melody Maker feature “Blind Date.”

Pop Music in America By 1964, the American popular music industry was dominated by production teams in various recording capitals. Of greatest interest to the Beatles was Detroit, headquarters of “uptown” soul music on the Motown labels, led by director Berry Gordy, composer Smokey Robinson (writer or cowriter of more than 4,000 Motown songs, including hits by Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, the Marvelettes, and his own group, the Miracles), and the composing team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland (writers of most hits by the Supremes and the Four Tops, many of which were very sensitive as to matters of voice leading, chromatic harmony, and text-painting); and string arranger Paul Riser. Another was Memphis; following the passing of Sam Philips’s Sun dynasty, this was the home of gritty R&B produced by Steve Cropper on the Atlantic Records’ labels Stax and Volt, as sung by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Sam and Dave. Also of central importance were Nashville (center of country music with the Grand Ol’ Opry and RCA’s Jim Reeves — much more popular in Britain than in the States), New York (producer of adult

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popular music on Columbia Records and of many rock bands on independent labels, including the Four Seasons, the Shangri-Las, Phil Spector’s Ronettes and Righteous Brothers, and later, Atlantic’s Young Rascals), and Hollywood (home of Capitol, the label of many Las Vegas stars, and studios for other major labels). Capitol Records gained a foothold in the youth market with the Beach Boys, who remained dominant in the Top Ten from 1963 through 1966. When they forsook surf and hot rod music (“Surfin’ U.S.A.,” “Fun, Fun, Fun,” “I Get Around”) for Brian Wilson’s much more imaginative creations in 1966 (“Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows,” “Good Vibrations”), they gained the respect of the Beatles. Lennon’s enthusiasm is evident in his reaction to the Beach Boys single “The Little Girl I Once Knew” (November 1965): “This is the greatest! Turn it up, turn it right up. It’s GOT to be a hit. It’s the greatest record I’ve heard for weeks. It’s fantastic. I hope it will be a hit. It’s all Brian Wilson. He just uses the voices as instruments. He never tours or does anything. He just sits at home thinking up fantastic arrangements out of his head. Doesn’t even read music. You keep waiting for the fabulous breaks. Great arrangement. It goes on and on with all different things. I hope it’s a hit so I can hear it all the time.”2 It was clear that the Beach Boys were listening carefully to the Beatles in 1964; not only was Wilson double-tracking his vocals in unison (an unusual technique outside of novelty recordings, before the Beatles), but he adopted Lennon’s mordent in songs such as “Don’t Worry Baby” and “You’re So Good to Me.” Wilson returned Lennon’s compliment: “I’ve spent five months working on this new album [Pet Sounds]. I give a lot of credit, a lot of it, for everybody’s success, to the Beatles. They’ve had a tremendous, universal influence. That Rubber Soul album was a great new contribution. It helped them reach a new plateau.”3 Compositional factors aside, one of Wilson’s greatest influences on the Beatles might have been his decision to not tour with the Beach Boys. While he was the group’s producer and foremost composer and singer in the studio, he would be replaced on stage after April 1965 by bassist-singer Bruce Johnston. This approach may have made it thinkable for the Beatles to quit touring in 1966 while continuing their career of composing and recording. Certainly, the ingenuity of the LP Pet Sounds (released May 1966) and the reports that the Beach Boys required over ninety hours in four different studios to record “Good Vibrations” to Wilson’s satisfaction must have seemed great challenges to the Beatles, who themselves began exploring the great creative possibilities of the recording studio. Dylan’s first LP (Bob Dylan, March 1962) contained the acoustic guitar/ harmonica/vocal renditions of traditional blues and folk numbers popularized in Greenwich Village clubs; its “House of the Rising Sun,” as electrified by the Animals in 1964, presaged the folk-rock boom that was to hit the world in 1965. Topical folk protest made up the core of Dylan’s second and third LPs (May 1963 and February 1964), but a turn away from the political and toward both deeper understandings of interpersonal relationships and apocalyptic stories of carnival characters with imagery often linked to the French symbolists (particularly Rimbaud) is made in the fourth LP, Another Side of Bob Dylan (August 1964), and the three that followed. All Beatles professed great admiration

Popular Music, 1964–1966

for these records, and a January 1965 London news story, “Beatles Say —Dylan Shows the Way,” is credited for an international surge of interest in Dylan, peaking during his triumphal April – May 1965 tour of Britain.4 Chuck Berry seemed to be a bigger influence than Woody Guthrie on Dylan in his fifth LP, Bringing It All Back Home (March 1965), featuring an electric-guitar/ bass/drums setting not heard with Dylan since an obscure 1962 single. This cordial gesture to the young rock audience outraged the folkie purists, who now found Dylan to have totally burned his folk-music bridges. Bringing It produced Dylan’s first charted single, and the next LP (Highway 61 Revisited, August 1965) produced the second, the six-minute-long “Like a Rolling Stone.” Blonde on Blonde (August 1966) was released within days of a motorcycle crash that broke Dylan’s neck and began a two-year-long retreat. While the Beatles would sometimes express disdain for the obscure, mysterious imagery in the lyrics of these latter four LPs, this quality is to characterize many later Beatle songs. The early works of these artists are the sounds America was listening to when the early-1964 arrival of the Beatles ushered in the “British Invasion,” in which some British groups — notably the lightweight Herman’s Hermits and Freddie & the Dreamers —were more popular in the United States than at home. Wildly successful Ed Sullivan appearances that year by the Dave Clark Five, the Searchers, the Stones, Peter & Gordon, and others led to new TV programs devoted to rock music, ABC-TV’s “Shindig” (1964 – 66) and NBC-TV’s “Hullabaloo” (1965 – 66). These after-school shows were populated by Farfisa-toting “garage bands” such as Paul Revere & the Raiders (whose powerful but empty parallel fifths mimic those of the Dave Clark Five), Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs (“Wooly Bully”), Tommy James & the Shondells (“Hanky Panky”), and ? & the Mysterians (“96 Tears”). Also important in 1965 – 66 were the Byrds, whose frequent early covers of Dylan material, particularly “Mr. Tambourine Man,” gave way to original compositions by members Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn, and David Crosby such as “Eight Miles High,” an ode to the group’s trip to England and their experiences there.5 The group’s vocal arrangements are very Beatlesque, along with hints of other British sounds — notably those of the Ivy League, heard on the early Who singles —while Clark’s choices of harmonies remind one of the Kinks as well as the Beatles and point the way for the then-fledgling San Francisco bands Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe & the Fish. McGuinn’s solo vocalizing on all the Dylan covers and his stunning use of the Rickenbacker twelve-string brought the Byrds to the Beatles’ attention, particularly to that of Lennon and Harrison.6 In addition to the Byrds, two groups of refugees from Greenwich Village were making music in L.A. studios — the Lovin’ Spoonful (“Summer in the City,” “Daydream”) and the Mamas and the Papas (“California Dreamin’,” “Monday, Monday,” an arrangement surely derived from the vocal harmonies of “Nowhere Man” as much as from folk music). Both groups borrowed heavily from the Beatles, and both were to become their favorites in 1966. Also active in Los Angeles were Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention, but they did not achieve a wide audience during this period dominated by AM radio.

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Table 4.1 Most Popular Singles Artists, 1964 –1966 U.K. Chart Entries Artist Beatles Rolling Stones Supremes Beach Boys Roy Orbison Manfred Mann Cilla Black Righteous Brothers Four Tops Seekers Tom Jones Byrds Herman’s Hermits Sonny & / or Cher Ken Dodd Searchers Bobby Vinton Barry Sadler Dave Clark Five Troggs Petula Clark Spencer Davis Group Animals Walker Brothers Lovin’ Spoonful Mamas & the Papas Elvis Presley Sandie Shaw Peter & Gordon Small Faces Frank Sinatra Honeycombs Georgie Fame Dixie Cups Kinks Hollies Gary Lewis & the Playboys Who Four Seasons Jim Reeves Dusty Springfield Simon & Garfunkel Nancy Sinatra Mary Wells Freddie & the Dreamers

U.S. Chart Entries

#1 (wks)

Top Top Top 5 10 50

#1 (wks)

Top Top Top Top 5 10 50 100

9 (36) 6 (13) 1 (3) 1 (3) 2 (5) 2 (5) 2 (7) 1 (2) 1 (3) 2 (6) 2 (6) 1 (2) 1 (1) 1(2) 1 (5) 2 (5) 0 0 1 (3) 1 (2) 0 2 (4) 1 (1) 2 (4) 0 0 1 (3) 2 (3) 1 (2) 2 (3) 1 (2) 1 (3) 2 (3) 0 2 (2) 1 (2)

10 9 4 3 3 7 5 1 1 4 2 2 4 3 2 4 0 0 3 3 2 3 6 3 1 1 2 4 2 3 1 1 2 0 5 7

12 (35) 3 (8) 8 (17) 3 (5) 1 (3) 1 (2) 0 2 (5) 2 (4) 0 0 2 (4) 2 (4) 1 (3) 0 0 2 (5) 1 (5) 1 (1) 1 (2) 2 (4) 0 1 (3) 0 1 (3) 1 (3) 0 0 1 (1) 0 1 (1) 0 0 1 (3) 0 0

19 4 9 7 1 1 0 4 3 2 1 2 7 2 0 1 2 1 5 1 3 0 1 0 3 4 1 0 1 0 2 1 0 1 0 1

20 9 10 10 2 1 0 5 4 2 2 2 10 4 0 1 3 1 7 1 4 1 2 0 7 4 1 0 3 0 2 1 0 1 3 2

36 14 11 15 8 4 1 9 10 3 6 6 13 12 0 8 11 2 17 3 9 1 11 2 7 5 19 1 10 0 7 2 1 4 9 4

46 15 12 17 11 4 3 14 11 3 8 8 13 16 0 14 14 2 18 3 9 2 12 5 7 6 23 3 12 0 10 2 3 5 9 5

10 10 5 5 4 10 8 1 1 5 3 2 5 6 3 5 0 0 3 3 3 3 8 3 2 2 4 7 4 4 1 1 2 0 8 10

17 13 8 9 13 12 9 6 4 6 9 5 10 12 8 13 1 1 12 4 9 6 10 8 5 3 14 10 7 5 3 4 7 2 11 11

0 1 (2) 0 1 (2) 1 (2) 0 1 (1) 0

0 3 1 3 4 0 1 1

0 0 3 9 2 5 5 9 8 11 1 2 1 2 1 1

1 (2) 0 1 (2) 0 0 1 (2) 1 (1) 1 (2)

5 0 3 0 1 3 2 1

7 0 8 0 2 3 3 1

10 0 15 1 6 5 5 5

10 2 20 7 7 5 6 12

0

0

3

1 (2)

1

1

5

5

6

Popular Music, 1964–1966

Table 4.1 (continued) U.K. Chart Entries Artist Four Pennies Donovan Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders Johnny Rivers Temptations Louis Armstrong Cliff Richard McCoys Shangri-Las Dean Martin Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas Moody Blues Lou Christie Young Rascals Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs Gene Pitney Yardbirds Bob Dylan Roger Miller Fortunes Bachelors Val Doonican Gerry & the Pacemakers Swinging Blue Jeans Martha & the Vandellas Zombies Brian Poole & the Tremoloes Everly Brothers Unit 4+2 Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich Barron Knights P. J. Proby Herb Alpert James Brown Them Stevie Wonder Del Shannon Marianne Faithfull

#1 (wks)

Top Top Top 5 10 50

U.S. Chart Entries #1 (wks)

Top Top Top Top 5 10 50 100

1 (2) 0

1 3

1 3

5 5

0 1 (1)

0 2

0 2

0 3

0 5

0 0 0 0 1 (1) 0 0 0

3 0 0 1 4 1 0 0

3 12 0 0 0 3 1 1 8 11 1 3 1 2 0 2

1 (1) 1 (1) 1 (1) 1 (1) 0 1 (1) 1 (1) 1 (1)

2 3 2 1 0 1 2 1

2 5 3 1 0 2 3 3

3 10 11 2 0 4 6 10

4 11 12 4 2 6 11 13

1 (1) 1 (1) 0 0

1 1 0 0

1 1 0 0

0 0 1 (1) 1 (1)

0 0 1 1

2 1 1 1

5 1 3 3

6 3 5 4

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 6 4 1 1 1 6 2

1 3 9 11 5 6 5 9 1 4 1 4 7 13 4 6

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

2 0 0 2 1 0 0 0

2 2 2 3 5 1 1 0

6 8 6 6 10 2 3 0

7 11 6 7 12 3 4 0

0 0 0 0

1 2 0 0

3 2 0 0

7 5 3 2

0 0 0 0

1 0 1 1

3 0 3 2

8 2 7 2

11 3 9 4

0 0 0

1 1 1

2 1 1

6 6 4

0 0 0

0 0 0

0 0 0

0 1 1

1 2 2

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

1 3 2 1 0 1 0 1 1

4 5 3 4 3 10 1 3 0 3 2 3 0 3 1 4 4 6

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0

0 0 0 1 3 0 3 1 0

0 0 0 9 7 2 5 4 4

0 0 2 12 15 3 7 6 5

4 3 2 0

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Table 4.1 presents a ranking of the most popular recording artists of 1964 – 66, based on appearances of records in pop singles charts in Britain’s Melody Maker and America’s Billboard. Artists are listed in order by the cumulative number of weeks they achieved a #1 placement in either country, the number of weeks their discs held #2, and so on. Among other relationships, the table shows how the Beatles’ chart success in these years is two to three times better than that of their nearest competitor, the Stones. British and Irish artists are shown in boldface.

A Second Feature Film For the Beatles, all imaginable ambitions had been achieved by 1964, and 1965 saw a virtual repeat of the previous year’s activities: they made a second film, toured Europe, America, and Britain, and recorded two new LPs. Details are provided in table 4.2, a time line summarizing the major events for the Beatles in 1965. While the 1964 schedule was in large measure repeated, more time was set aside for composition and recording, and the results gave the group a new sense of artistic purpose.

Help!: Recordings for the Film Following completion of the London Christmas shows on January 16, the new year began with vacations in the Austrian Alps (for Lennon) and Tunisia (for McCartney). Ringo married his Liverpool girlfriend, Maureen Cox, on February 11. These days provided time for the composition of new film songs. After the January 16 show, Lennon said, “Paul has written five structures —I suppose he means tunes without words — for the film, and I’ve done half a song, so we aren’t doing bad.” Before the end of January, Harrison had written “I Need You,” and eleven new tracks altogether would be recorded by February 20.7 The Beatles returned to the studio on February 15 for six straight days of work on the new soundtrack. The film was referred to by a working title, “Beatles II,” until “Eight Arms to Hold You” was suggested. This title held for about three weeks in March –April and was prematurely announced on the label of the first new American single of the year. Paul may have tried to write a title song to order, but the phrase could not be worked well into a lyric.8 Of the eleven songs taped during this week, “Ticket to Ride,” “Another Girl,” “I Need You,” “Yes It Is,” “The Night Before,” “You Like Me Too Much,” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” “If You’ve Got Trouble,” “Tell Me What You See,” “You’re Going to Lose That Girl,” and “That Means a Lot,” none were tailored to the film —McCartney had not yet even read the script. Lennon said, “they’re just songs. If they fit the story and the sequences, some of them will be in. It’s up to the film bosses. Not us. We’ve just concentrated this week on making records. There are a couple of obvious songs for the film, at least we think so, but nothing’s been decided.”9 With further comments in the coming weeks, Lennon revealed that two (unnamed) new compositions had gone unrecorded: “we wrote thirteen, we’ve

A Second Feature Film

Table 4.2 Time Line of Major Events for the Beatles, 1965 Feb. 15 –Apr. 13: Feb. 23 – May 11: Apr. 9: May 10 – June 17: June 14: June 20 – July 3: July 23: Aug. 6: Aug. 14 – 31: Oct. 12– Nov. 11: Dec. 3: Dec. 3 –12:

Recordings for soundtrack of second film, EMI, London Shooting of second film in the Bahamas, Austria, and the U. K. “Ticket to Ride” / “Yes It Is” released in U. K. Recordings for U. S. market and to fill soundtrack LP and single, EMI, London Beatles VI released in U. S. with “Bad Boy,” not made available to British market until Dec. 10, 1966 Concerts in France, Italy, and Spain “Help!” / “I’m Down” released in U. K. Help! released in U. K. U. S. tour Recordings for LP and single at EMI, London Single “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper” and LP Rubber Soul released in U. K. Final U. K. tour

recorded eleven, they’re using seven, and we need a title song, so all together we’ll have written fourteen but only seven will be in the film.”10 A new recording procedure of Martin, in which guitars were often placed on different tracks than were bass and drums, led to a more satisfying stereo image, and thus the initial releases of Beatle LPs on compact disc (1987) allowed those for Help! onward to be issued in stereo, the first three of them digitally remastered. Several factors mark the new songs as different from previous efforts, and these will be discussed in the pages to follow. One general point will be made here: instrumentation was diversifying. The Ludwigs, percussion (tambourine, maracas, shaker, cowbell, claves, conga, bongos, guiro), Steinway grand, Höfner, Jumbo, Tennessean, and Capri remained standbys, but McCartney overdubbed lead guitar onto three tracks, either Lennon or McCartney brought an electric piano to three others, Harrison experimented with a volume/tone pedal effect on three songs, Lennon featured the Framus acoustic twelve-string on others, and — for the first time — an outside musician was brought in, to add flutes. When later asked about the “new sound” of the eventual LP, Harrison replied, “We try to change every record.” Journalist Ray Coleman reported at the time of these sessions, “John said they were still searching for the ideal sound. ‘I don’t know if we’ll ever find it. We still haven’t made the sort of sound we want to, and we don’t even know what we’re after.’ ”11 “Ticket to Ride,” “Another Girl,” and “I Need You” “Ticket to Ride,” which was to become the Beatles’ ninth A-side for Parlophone, was written by Lennon and recorded in a single session (February 15). McCartney recalls working on the song at John’s home, Kenwood: “We sat down and wrote it together. I remember talking about Ryde but it was John’s thing. We wrote the melody together; you can hear on the record, John’s taking the melody and I’m singing harmony with it.”12 The distribution of parts onto the session tape, as listed here, is similar to that from the first days of four-track recording in October 1963. The procedure, though, is radical in comparison in that all vocals are overdubbed and

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that Lennon played tambourine rather than guitar on the basic tracks, an unusual move at the time but a predictor of Harrison’s role in some important recordings of 1966 and 1967. Perhaps most noteworthy, however, is the overdubbing of guitars for textural effect and rhythmic counterpoint as much as for solo value. The guitars are stunning when combined with the drum and tambourine parts. Bracketed “left,” “right,” and “center” indications here pertain to the most commonly heard stereo mixes. The November 1971 issue of the Help! LP on the Apple label in the United States, however, isolates the tambourine from the rest of the texture, which is otherwise lumped together. Basic tracks 1. Bass, drums [left] 2. George’s lead riff on Ricky 12 [right] 3. John’s tambourine (backbeat in verse, shaken in bridge) [center] Overdub 4. John’s lead vocal, Paul’s descant vocal, handclaps in bridge, John’s Capri in verse, George’s Stratocaster in verse, Paul’s Casino [center]

As McCartney played a bit of guitar on the Beatles’ previous LP (on “I’ll Follow the Sun”), and as he liked to have an instrument strung for a left-hander handy in the studio to better demonstrate a particular guitar part he wanted Harrison to play, it became natural for McCartney to bring a guitar to the studio and to take an occasional lead himself. In December 1964 he heard John Mayall and B. B. King play very live guitars and he wanted a similar sound. “I just went down to a guitar shop . . . and I wanted something that fed back. [The shopkeeper] said, ‘This Epiphone will do it, because it’s semi-acoustic.’ And he was right. The only reason I don’t use it onstage is because it’s a little too hot.”13 The electric hollow-body Epiphones (particularly the Rivoli bass) were widely used, and Casinos were played by Dave Davies of the Kinks and Keith Richard of the Stones. Impressed by the sound, Lennon and Harrison immediately bought matching Epiphones as well. From late 1965 into his solo years, it replaced the Capri as Lennon’s chief instrument. Another new guitar may be heard here as well; Harrison had recently acquired a 1961 Stratocaster, yet another model of which Lennon was to purchase a matching copy. In “Ticket,” this guitar seems to be run through a volume/tone pedal. The pedal, which has foot-switched potentiometers that perform like the guitar’s volume and tone controls but that free the strumming hand, was introduced to Harrison by a member of the Remo Four, a Liverpool band. Its effect, perhaps better known through Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” (July 1966), is to subdue the initial articulation so that whatever string has been activated will fade in and out by depressing and releasing the volume control, or gradually add and lose partials by the tone control, in a rude version of the later wah-wah pedal. The intention reminds one of the fade-in given “Eight Days a Week” during the mixing process.14 Because of the brevity of its appearance and the disguise of its natural attack envelope, it is hard to be sure that this guitar is the Strat, but I hear the same guitar color here, in the backbeat chords of “Another Girl,” and in the volume/tone pedal effect in “I Need

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You.” Harrison was photographed with the Strat in Studio Two in February 1965. Paul’s brand-new Casino has the hot but compressed high-register bent-note solo fills at the retransitional lead-ins on V (B+8 – 9, at 1:24 –1:28) and in the loose coda (C; 2:46+). John’s Capri is itself heated up with MRB; his simple rubber-band part (“Guitar II”) doubles the bass’s syncopated roots two octaves higher through the verses (A, as at 0:04 – 0:22). George has two parts. First and foremost is the hit-making triadic ostinato played on Ricky 12 with the basic tracks (“Guitar I” in the score). Second and much more subtle is the refrain’s overdubbed GM7 chord on the Strat (A+12, as at 0:29 – 0:30) that is run through the volume/tone pedal, struck once but articulated by the pedal three syncopated times. Tom Hartman notes that the GM7 chord appears once with lowered fifth; to my ear, Harrison stops the fifth string at 1:49 on Cs while the GM7 chord still sounds, suggesting that he’s preparing to continue with the following Fsm chord (and only coincidentally doubling Lennon’s vocal pitch). The following Fsm chord may have been recorded but doesn’t make it into the released mixes.15 Like the coda version of the famous “Hard Day’s Night” chord (“F with a G on the first string”), Harrison creates the ostinato riff for “Ticket” by arpeggiating the tonic triad and alternating the root with its neighboring ninth. Alan Pollack notes how important such nontriadic pitches are for melodic dissonance in the vocal parts as well; he starts by marveling at Lennon’s vocalizing over the volume/tone pedal’s GM7 chord: “John [is] singing the pitches Fs– E – Cs on the stretched out word ‘ri-i-de,’ none of which is consonant with the chord below it. . . . The vocal counterpoint at the beginning of the second phrase [A+5, at 0:15] not only features their trademark parallel, open fourths, but Paul’s initial stress on the pitch B provides a development of the added-ninth flavor we’ve described as inherent in the opening ostinato figure.”16 Ringo’s drumming harmonizes with the guitar work, and the guitar complements the voices. In each bar of the verses, the bass-line syncopation is answered by Ringo’s syncopated flams, which also fall on the only two syncopated notes in George’s ostinato.17 In the chorus, George’s unique stop-time pedalarticulated tease of a chord is answered by a tom fill in thirty-seconds otherwise reserved for the intro and retransitions. The bluesy gns that color Harrison’s G7 chord and McCartney’s solo licks in retransition and coda contrast with the diatonic ostinato. Note how the vocal arrangement, by splitting from predominantly unison singing to part singing at A+5 and through B, also emphasizes the pentatonic Gn and Cn. The vocal parts follow mostly straight eighths but verge into heavy off-beat accents of their own to mark the tag line “she don’t care,” as if we are finally getting the words that Ringo’s accusatory rhythm has been trying to find all along. In “Ticket to Ride,” all voices and instrumental forces are united in simple but structural ways to produce an original and compelling hit.18 While the Beatles have previously appended codas of repeated (usually chorus-generated) material quite regularly, and often with a fade-out, “Ticket” does so in a new way. The words and vocal parts from the tag end of the chorus

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(A+14 –15 [0:33 – 0:34]) are recomposed in falsetto, as McCartney’s bass now matches the straight-beat placement played and evenly divided by Starr in the bridge (B). Such codas, which relate to the body of the song but do not repeat its material, are developed through later Beatle compositions, as in “Good Day Sunshine,” “Rain,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “All You Need Is Love,” “I Am the Walrus,” “Hello Goodbye,” “Hey Jude,” “Glass Onion,” “Piggies,” and “You Never Give Me Your Money.” All are certainly miles ahead of their Beatle-cover forebears, the grand pauses heard just before oh-gosh surprise codas in “Do You Want to Dance,” “Hully Gully,” and “Love, Love, Love.” McCartney’s “Another Girl” and Harrison’s “I Need You” have nearly identical recording histories; both were begun on February 15 and completed the next day. In each, drums and bass from the basic tracks are heard on the left, and all overdubbed vocals are in the center. (In “Another Girl,” Paul sings lead with John and George backing; in “I Need You,” a double-tracked George leads with Paul and John backing.) In both, guitars are on the right (“Another Girl”: John’s Jumbo pounding the rhythm, George’s damped Stratocaster on backbeats, and Paul’s overdubbed solo Casino —“Guitar III”; in “I Need You”: George’s pedalcontrolled guitar —“Guitar I”—with cowbell). In addition, John strums a simple nylon-string part —“Guitar II”— in the center for “I Need You.” McCartney says he wrote “Another Girl” in his vacation villa in Hammamet, Tunisia.19 Rooted in backbeat guitar chords (“Guitar II”) like a faster version of “She’s a Woman,” “Another Girl” is in A major and features the same bluesy vocal pitches, Cn and Gn, that were just performed in “Ticket to Ride.” The G major chord at B+2 (0:08, a rehearing of the one nondiatonic chord of “Ticket”) also harks back to many 1964 Beatle recordings in its modal neighbor relationship to I (I –fVII – I, B+1– 3 [0:06 – 0:10]). The song’s great originality is in the dual function of this chord. First used as a Mixolydian neighbor in the verse (B), it leads to mixture from the minor mode in the bridge (D), tonicizing nIII (C major, D+1– 5 [0:49 – 0:55]) with a facile yet urgent three-part vocal arrangement that is masterful in the way its counterpoint leads us through the chromatic changes.20 In retrospect, the vocal Cn of the chorus (A) and verse (B) can be heard to have minor as well as pentatonic connotations, by virture of the retransition from nIII through the V of D+6 – 8 (0:56 –1:00), as the resulting In–nIII –Vs structure is solidly grounded in the minor mode. The same In–nIII –Vs structure is to be heard in A in McCartney’s “Birthday” (1968), but nowhere do the Beatles blend Mixolydian, pentatonic, and minor functions so thoroughly as in “Another Girl.” The vocal melody of “I Need You,” Harrison’s third composition to be released, is knocked off balance both rhythmically, with its extreme syncopation, now becoming a hallmark for the composer, and tonally, with its refusal to resolve to 1. In some ways, the melody resolves its dissonances with displacements, as in the 3–2–4–3 turn figure split between the singer and his guitar (A+3 – 4 [0:07– 0:10]) and in the resolution of the modal Gn to Fs with an octave shift (B–2 to B+1 [0:14 – 0:18]). But when the tune moves from cs2 to b1 (as at A+3

A Second Feature Film

and at B+4), it always returns to cs2 rather than descending home. The retransition, C+6 – 9 (1:01–1:07), decorates 3 with a structural upper neighbor, which is itself ornamented by a chromatic ds2. While it is used in other songs, the volume/tone control pedal has its greatest effect in “I Need You.” In the coda, for instance, chords are strummed once every two bars but enjoy multiple articulations, each successively softer. Every chord of “Guitar I” in “I Need You” is treated with this flautando – like effect. Harrison said of the pedal, “I could never coordinate it. So some of those, what we’d do is, I played the part, and John would kneel down in front of me and turn my guitar’s volume control.”21 Perhaps Lennon and Harrison are playing the same guitar in “I Need You.” “Yes It Is” Following overdubs for “Another Girl” and “I Need You,” the Beatles devoted the February 16 session to the recording of “Yes It Is,” of which Lennon says, “That’s me trying a rewrite of ‘This Boy,’ but it didn’t work.”22 The tempo, 12 meter, Jumbo rhythm, pandiatonic three-part vocals, and dramatic retransi8 tion on the tonicized V (B+4 – 5) are characteristics common to both songs. Fourteen takes were required for the instrumental backing: John’s Jumbo (“Guitar II”) on the left, Paul’s subdued bass in the center, George’s fully pedal-controlled rhythm guitar, nearly always playing strong-beat chords but slightly marred by hum from a weakly grounded amplifier (partly shown in the “Guitar I” part), and Ringo’s slightly open hi-hat tapped on all offbeats and then damped, on the right. The Beatles then spent three hours arranging, rehearsing, and recording the three-part vocals by Lennon (lead, double-tracked in the bridge, B), McCartney (descant), and Harrison (who normally sings below Lennon but sometimes rises above his part), along with both Ringo’s offbeat rim shots throughout and Harrison’s simultaneously dubbed pedal-controlled lead (also shown within the “Guitar I” part), all heard in the center.23 In his lead lines, Harrison adds to the pedal’s color effects by playing a number of natural harmonics; some of these are indicated in the score. Unlike the determined and foursquare “This Boy,” the gloomy “Yes It Is” generates surface tension with odd phrase lengths. The phrase rhythm in the first verse (A [0:04 – 0:31]) of 4+312 bars actually represents an enlargement from 4+3, which was performed in Takes 1 and 2. The bridge, which tantalizes by moving Lennon’s structural 3–2 vocal motion from a low register (gs1– fs1 in the two bars surrounding B [0:57–1:00]) to a higher octave (gs2– fs2 at B+4 – 5 [1:11–1:18]) for the retransitional interruption on 2, is extended by interpolation, as this five-bar passage includes an “extra” bar, that at B+3 (1:08 –1:10). The song’s final phrase is also extended, this time by the insertion of a colorful harmony. In Take 1, Lennon had simply ended the song by repeating a VI – I gesture, as if the song would fade out like “Not a Second Time,” but he said, “we’ll have to have an ending,” as if obliquely asking for help.24 Beginning with Take 9, a major IIIs chord is inserted in the penultimate bar, creating a five-bar conclusory phrase. This reharmonization of the title motive, a reworking of the “She Loves You” conceit, was probably John’s idea, even though it predicts a related event in the ending of Paul’s “I Will.” The IIIs chord functions not as a dar-

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ing V/VI (as might be expected after the previous cadential appearances of Csm) but as a chromatic expansion of I that resigns unexpectedly to continue on its way to the IV–V7– I cadence. IIIs for I6 is not the song’s only harmonic substitution. At A+4, the guitars’ newly multifunctional fVII (0:15 – 0:16) appears not as neighbor to I but as a melancholy modal substitute for the II that had appeared in A+2, preparing V as in the “All My Loving” cadence. Tonal variety is also present in the many nonchord tones (including consonant ninths, sixths, fourths, and sevenths) in the clustered vocal parts, and Harrison’s pedal-controlled lead ends the song with 7 descending to 6 over I. For tonicization on both the flat and the sharp side, the retransitional V is prepared by a tonicized IV (B+1– 3) that uses a chord sequence, II –V– I –VI, once heard in the bridge to “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The lyrics of “Yes It Is” bring to mind both “She Loves You” and “If I Fell.” As in the former, Lennon confides (in the bridge) that pride could lead to downfall. As in the latter, “the singer states his wish to avoid painful memories of a previous relationship. He appeals to his current girlfriend to not wear red, since this would remind him of the ‘other’ girl and all the plans they had made.”25 While “Yes It Is” seems to borrow from a number of earlier Beatle songs, and while Lennon may be correct in that it is not quite of the standard of “This Boy,” it is no mere retread; the song incorporates emotions as strong as those in “I’ll Cry Instead” but washes them in personal reservations. “The Night Before” and “You Like Me Too Much” These songs, by McCartney and Harrison, respectively, provided the day’s work for February 17; both were begun and completed on that day. “The Night Before” has bass and drums to the left; Lennon’s Hohner Pianet N electric piano to the right; and two tracks in the center, one with McCartney’s lead vocal and matched Casino parts by Harrison and McCartney and the other with a doubled McCartney vocal, backing vocals from George and John, and (in the bridge) loud maracas shaken on quarters. The Hohner Pianet, whose sound is produced by the plucking of accordion reeds, has its own amplifier (probably used here) but could alternately have been run through Lennon’s Vox amp. The guitars, heard only in the break (F [1:31–1:42]) and coda, present an interesting timbre. Lennon says, “George and Paul are playing the same break exactly, both playing but in different octaves”; McCartney says, “that sound was one of the best [we] had got on record, instrumentally.”26 Alan Pollack has compared McCartney’s unifying final guitar lick (2:27 to end) to the final trumpet gesture in “Penny Lane.”27 Steven Baur notes variety in the seemingly constant cymbal ride: “Ringo builds and sustains an overtone swell with a heavy ride pattern. . . . The proximity to the edge [of the cymbal] and Ringo’s heavy playing contribute to the swelling overtones, but he is playing with the tip of the stick, such that we can hear the eighth-note pattern through the cresting overtone swell.”28 At a slower tempo, McCartney’s hard-rocking “The Night Before” could have been a Kinks or Animals song, because the parallel fifths and octaves in the first ending convey such primitive power and the repeated pentatonic I –fVII – IV–V progression in the verse (A) provides not only yet another new use for the fVII

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chord but, especially by virtue of its parallel instrumental voice leading, instigates a rock cliché, as heard in the guitars’ motto in the Animals’ “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” (July 1965) or Paul Revere & the Raiders’ “Just Like Me” (December 1965). “The Night Before” draws on the pentatonic elsewhere, with the slowed-down post-Perkins, post –“Please Please Me” I –nIII – IVn7–V7 intro, and borrows from minor as well (in the verse’s D-gesture, B+1– 4 [0:23 – 0:28]). I –nIII – IVn7, when removed from its motion to V and thus acting as a simple neighboring embellishment of tonic, I –nIII – IVn7– I (mirroring the IV–nIII – I intro to the Shirelles’ “Love Is a Swingin’ Thing” [1962]), will eventually become a staple of hard blues-rock music, typified by the chorus of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” On the sharp side for great contrast, V is tonicized in one of the early Beatles’ final big retransitions (C+5 – 8 [1:02–1:07]). The second offering of the week from a newly prolific Harrison, “You Like Me Too Much” features bass, drums, Jumbo, Martin’s intro part on the Steinway grand, and (for the bridge and break only) Harrison’s tambourine on one track (left), Harrison’s lead vocal on another (center), Harrison’s doubled vocal and McCartney’s descant on a third (center), and Martin’s Steinway grand, Lennon’s Pianet (with heavy knob-controlled tremolo in the intro, as if to balance Martin’s hand tremolo, if not to compete with Harrison’s pedal device), and the composer’s Tennessean on a fourth (right).29 In the break (E), Martin and Harrison have chromatic gestures in sixths, traded in contrary motion. Martin always plays a shaky tremolo reminiscent of barrelhouse or of Jerry Lee Lewis’s “You Win Again.” The passage is related to the rockabilly parallel sixths in contrary motion intoduced in Harrison’s solo in “She’s a Woman” but in a new boogified performance style that was to reappear in “Good Day Sunshine,” “Lovely Rita,” and others. Though Martin’s playing follows Harrison’s, the piano register seems to cue that of the guitar in E+5 – 6 (1:31–1:34) and E+7– 8 (1:34 –1:37). Also of interest is the pre-“Taxman” Vs9 chord produced by the combined keyboards in the intro and the effect created by the presence of f7 throughout the intro, in one keyboard or the other. Lennon’s part continues with pandiatonic tertian sonorities in the S-gesture of each verse, piling up thirds each time his right hand ascends. Outside of such textural aspects, this song offers little new. Alan Pollack, who praises the song for the enjambments going in and out of the bridge, also faults the melody, which numbs him with “a circular repetitiveness reminiscent of the kind of rut you can wear in a carpet from too much fretful nervous pacing.”30 Speculating on Lennon’s claim that he would help Harrison finish his early songs, Ian Hammond finds several convincingly Lennonesque items in the bridge to “You Like Me Too Much”: a rhythm and contour in “I really do” (C+1– 3 [0:53 – 0:56]) like that in “I still love her” from “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” (C+3 – 6 [0:52– 0:56]), and the four-note chromatic run in “If you leave me” (D–1– 2 [1:01–1:03]) like those in “Wait” (A+1– 2 [0:01– 0:04]) and “The Word” (D+7– 8 [2:26 – 2:29]).31 “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” “If You’ve Got Trouble,” and “Tell Me What You See” Three more songs were recorded, start to finish, on February 18.

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Lennon remembers writing “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” at home (“Kenwood”), “in my Dylan period,” as a conscious attempt to come up with another song for the film.32 The recording features Lennon’s strummed acoustic twelve-string Framus (“Guitar II,” including a hardly noticable “Hard Day’s Night” chord, “F with a G on the first string,” in many spots right from A+1) and Paul’s bass on the left; Ringo’s brushed snare and overdubbed tambourine (entering midway through the first verse, at B), Harrison’s lead Ramírez classical acoustic (“Guitar I,” heard only in the choruses), and maracas (choruses and coda, D) on the right; Lennon’s vocal and two flutes (not entirely in tune) are in the center.33 Flautist Johnnie Scott remembers, “they told me roughly what they wanted . . . and the best way of fulfilling their needs was to play both tenor flute and alto flute.”34 McCartney and Harrison play the descending leadin line (C–1, 0:35 – 0:39) in octaves. Lennon says he attempted to sing in Dylan’s style.35 While he doesn’t adopt Dylan’s most revolutionary and uneasy vocal devices (landing on 4, 2, or 6 at an authentic cadence, for example), the singing is highly expressive, artfully conveying a deep emotional involvement with the text, and itself a model for all rock singers of the 1960s. Lennon’s voice captures Dylan’s raw, gravelly multiphonics (in “two foot small”) and is rich with subtle dynamics (as at “all you clowns”), sensitive articulation (“Hey! ≤ you’ve got to . . .”) and an emotive portato (concluding such phrases as “in the state I’m i-i-in”).36 The song’s folk arrangement is suitable for a text that reverberates with at least one Dylan line: “I’m a walkin’ down the road with my head in my hand” (from “Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance,” 1963), as well as Dylan’s frequent references to clowns — as in “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (1963), which is performed in a gentle 12 8 at the same tempo as is “You’ve Got to Hide.” Nicholas Schaffner even believes the flutes to be a less grating substitute for Dylan’s harmonica.37 What was certain in the Dylanesque “I’m a Loser,” a lost love, is foreboded in the contemplative “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away.” And the same touch of paranoia noticed in “Yes It Is” is also palpable here. Lennon makes phrase lengths of 412+5 bars (in each verse, A–B) seem perfectly natural, as is the fact that all vocal lines cadence on V. Even the final cadence, a merely plagal affirmation of I, ends with 5 in the melody. A lack of closure can also be seen in the lyrics —would a third verse have tied up the loose ends? (Dylan might have written seven or eight verses.) While there is no tonal closure, there is strong tonal gravitation and interest; the cadential V sounds all the more fresh when 7 is preceded by f7 in the neighboring Mixolydian fVII of A+1 (0:04) and in the fVII that has yet another new function in A+2 (0:08) and A+4 (0:16). Here, fVII acts as IV of IV, and thus we can term its modally derived function as a “double plagal” motion. The song ends with a doubleplagal cadence, fVII – IV– I, that is to become a Beatles staple and a standard rock expansion of I. It has been, in fact, anticipated in The Who’s contemporaneous single “I Can’t Explain,” which first charted February 27, 1965.38 In two years, the Beatles will expand this motion much further in “A Day in the Life,” descending several fourths from the flat side to arrive on I. Not only was “You’ve Got to Hide” covered by many groups in 1965 (including the Beach Boys), but Lennon and McCartney themselves produced an-

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other artist’s version, recorded by the Silkie, an Epstein-managed folk quartet from Hull University consisting of a soprano, two male vocalist-guitarists and a double-bassist. In this version, the bass and acoustic six- and twelve-string guitars played by the Silkie were augmented by tambourine (played by Harrison) and a Casino (with constant motto based on the 8–7–6–7 figure of C+1) played by McCartney. The vocalists traded double-tracked solo parts, the soprano added a descant to the first half of the second verse, and all three sang parts for the end of the second verse and both choruses. The Silkie single was recorded on August 9, 1965, and released on September 10; it reached the Top Ten in the United States. Journalist Ray Coleman reports, “at 7 pm, the Beatles are working up to their time for a long-deserved break and food and drink. They are just completing a song which features Ringo singing. ‘I wrote it,’ says John. ‘It’s the funniest thing I’ve ever done — listen to the words.’ [Of Take 1, Martin says,] ‘Okay. John and Paul played awfully but Ringo was very good.’ ”39 The track was “If You’ve Got Trouble,” which never saw light outside of EMI until bootlegged in 1985. The opening is given as example 4.1 (from The Beatles Anthology, vol. 2). The track is primitive; the same simple [025]-derived line is played on the bass and two guitars, and, a step beyond his part in “Ticket to Ride,” Lennon never chords anything on his Strat but the open interval shown — right through IV and V harmonies as well as on I— until he plays fVII – I for the final cadence. Despite the primitive basic track, an attempt at completion was made with several overdubs, including a weak Tennessean solo by George and Ringo’s troubled doubletracked vocal, and the song was apparently considered for the film —How could Ringo’s fans be disappointed? While this song is a mindless throwaway, it predicts the 1 pedals of “Paperback Writer” and “Rain” to come in 1966. McCartney’s vaguely Hollyesque ballad “Tell Me What You See” has a backing track of bass, drums (mostly tapping the closed hi-hat on all eighths but highly exposed at C+5 – 8 [1:07–1:13]), Lennon’s treble-boosted Capri and Harrison’s guiro (to the left), a second track with a syncopated Lennon-McCartney vocal duet and Starr’s snappy claves (center), a third with Lennon’s tambourine (rolling strongly at C+1– 2 [1:00 –1:02] for the applied V9/IV) (center), and a fourth with McCartney adding a third, inner vocal part for the chorus (C) and playing the Pianet for the break (C+4 – 8) and coda (right). (The tambourine appears far right in the 1987 mix for compact disc.) The spirit of the session is documented (with minor inaccuracies) by Ray Coleman: George Martin reappears and the session restarts. The next two and a half hours are productive. Martin is perched on a high chair and the four Beatles are around him, singing lightly and playing acoustic guitars. Martin sings a song with them. . . . Eventually, they do another run-through. The group tapes the instrumental backing with George forsaking his guitar and getting a comb and paper effect with a drumstick and a piece of wood. Ringo, who isn’t featured, climbs on the back of Malcolm Evans, their road manager, and they walk off to talk.

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Example 4.1 “If You’ve Got Trouble” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1965, Northern Songs.

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The music stops. George Martin: “Let’s have one more go at the backing, then we’ll record your voices separately. This time, we’ll get it exactly right.” Paul: “Why —what was exactly wrong?” Martin: “The tuning sounded wrong. And you, George, should be coming in on the second beat every time instead of every fourth beat.” Harrison: “Oh, I see.” They record the vocal by Lennon and McCartney, and later, they overrecord on to the original with Lennon, cigarette between his lips, shaking a tambourine and Ringo playing maracas. “We want the Mexican effect,” says Lennon. At 10 pm, with Paul playing electric piano, John shouted across to road manager Evans: “I like electric pianos, Mal. Buy me one tomorrow.”40

Steven Baur connects the song’s percussion work with its rhetorical attitude, reminiscent of the polite demands of “Please Please Me”: In “Tell Me What You See,” the dynamics and dramatic effect of the song depend largely on variations in the percussive register. Throughout the verses,

A Second Feature Film

as Lennon and McCartney softly recite a litany of promises, Ringo opts for a soft, tight sound. The ride pattern, played on tightly closed hi-hats with the tip of the stick, and the light rim-tap backbeat, are hardly audible under the other percussion instruments — a tambourine, claves and a guiro. This sets up the dramatic drum entrance at the end of the chorus. Following the light drum sound of the verses, Ringo’s hard-hitting solo entrance grabs the attention of the listener. The percussive register in “Tell Me What You See” contributes greatly to the rhetorical impact of the song. Both times it occurs in the song, the loud drum entrance is followed by the lines: “Listen to me one more time; how can I get through / Can’t you try to see that I am trying to get to you.” As the vocal alternates between the polite statements of the initial verse [and] insistent demands for attention, Ringo’s tracks effectively do the same.41

The vocal arrangement itself is also of interest; not only do John and Paul sing in harmony (in both two and three parts) and in unison but they also sing in octaves for the refrain (B), again honoring a favored 1963 texture (“There’s a Place,” “I’ll Get You”). Lennon’s low octave (below that in the score) provides registral interest and even gives McCartney’s song a profundity probably unimagined by the composer, as the deep voice hints at an inner truth as it beckons the listener to “look into these eyes now, tell me what you see.” More exists than is apparent on the surface, and the Beatles will soon become more aware of such possibilities and quite consciously intone spiritual principles in songs such as “The Word.” “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” and “That Means a Lot” Lennon’s “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” (taped February 19) and the first version of McCartney’s “That Means a Lot” (February 20) completed the preshoot recordings.42 The former has bass, drums, and Lennon’s Casino as backing track on the left, Lennon’s lead vocal on a second track (center), Motown-based responsorial backing vocals by Paul and George (repeating the title during the break, E, as in “From Me to You”) with John’s double-tracked lead on a third (center), and Ringo’s bongos, Paul’s Steinway grand, and Harrison’s string-bending Strat solo on a fourth (right; the piano drops out during the solo).43 McCartney’s piano part moves to a delicious “tonic” seventh in the bridge, on the last eighth of D+4 (1:03). In her analysis of the backing-vocal girl groupisms in “You’re Going to Lose That Girl,” Jacqueline Warwick fantasizes about a Motown choreography for this advice song: “it’s easy to picture Paul and George shimmying and wagging their fingers if only they hadn’t instruments to contend with.”44 Actually, one can see Paul doing just that in the film Help! The foursquare rhythm, standard pop changes, and thorough diatonicism of the chorus (A [0:00 – 0:08], C+1– 4 [0:45 – 0:51]) and verse (B [0:08 – 0:22]) are no preparation for the sudden chromaticism that emerges in the two-bar transition (C+5 – 6 [0:52 – 0:55]) to the seven-bar bridge (D [0:56 –1:08]). “Though the modulations are initiated by melodic movement, empirically, there’s nothing to match their violence in the earlier songs.”45 The motion from E to G for the bridge comes from “To Know Her Is to Love Her” and “Love of the

291

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Loved,” and it is similar to the structural relationships governing “Another Girl,” “Here, There and Everywhere,” “Birthday,” and “Two of Us.” But the means of modulation is jarringly original here, and it gives fVII (the D chord of D–1 [0:54 – 0:55]) yet another new function, now structural — that of a pivot chord reinterpreted as V of G—which the listener is to take as a stern warning. The retransition is just as unexpected; the C triad that had functioned (at D+2 [0:57– 0:59]) as a neighboring IV in G is reinterpreted (at D+6 [1:05 –1:06]) as V of F (fVII of G!), which easily slides back down to the tonic of E as the Phrygian nII. Here, Fn stands for B—V of E— as the tritone substitute heard in the retransition of Paul’s “Things We Said Today.” Simultaneously, this F functions as a passing chord between the tonicized G and the tonic E, in a similar manner in which the first D – major triad in the “If I Fell” intro slides from Ds minor to a tonicized Cs. In the penultimate bar of “Lose That Girl,” the D chord of the transition is recaptured with new significance, as part of a double-plagal cadence that has more rhythmic conviction than did the same structure at the end of “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away.” A sketch of the song’s voice leading, example 4.2, shows that a 5–6–5 motion (a diminution of the “Please Please Me” verse) covers a structural 3 that rises in register for Lennon’s falsetto (A+3 [0:05]) before moving to 2 (A+4 [0:06]), where its descent is interrupted. The chorus has essentially the same voice leading as the verse. The same high-register 3–2 motion guides the bridge, but now (prepared at C+5 [0:52] by upper neighbor a2) with the mixtureproduced gn2 and fn2. The final 3–2–1 cadence has fVII substituting for V, which sonority never does lead to I in a structural manner. McCartney rectifies the a2– gn2 of C+5 –D+1 to a2– gs2 in his final descant notes. Example 4.3 reduces portions of the first verse (4.3a) and bridge (4.3b) of “That Means a Lot,” the second song of the sessions destined for neither film nor LP. The song received a full production on the 20th, with McCartney playing bass and Steinway and singing lead (double-tracked for the first half of the bridge), Lennon and Harrison on guitars (playing Capri and Strat, respectively) and singing harmony with maracas (in the coda only), and Starr on drums. But the vocal range, a full twelfth and seeming to require a “large” voice such as that of Gene Pitney, extended too low for McCartney. A remake was attempted a minor third higher on March 30 with the same instrumentation, but this lay too high, so the song was given to P. J. Proby, a Tom Jones – like balladeer of Bernstein-Sondheim’s “Somewhere” and “Maria.” Proby recorded “That Means a Lot” on April 7 under Ron Richards, with Martin conducting an orchestral arrangement. This was released on July 5 and rose to #24 on the New Musical Express chart in September.46 Because of a profusion of misidentified outtakes on the bootleg market (and even an incorrect take number on the official Anthology release), I’ll attempt to set in order what recordings are available and therefore what we know of the sessions. The confusion is understandable because of the edits in the working tapes, the 1965 practice of taping over unnumbered rehearsal takes, labeling problems resulting from tape reduction, the recording of unnumbered “test”

Example 4.2 Analysis of “You’re Going to Lose That Girl.”

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Example 4.3a “That Means a Lot” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1965, Northern Songs.


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takes, problems of continuity, and of course the distance we all have from the original sources. But I think we have enough information to clear up the matter. On February 20, several rehearsals and balance testing were taped in unnumbered takes. One such live passage with a duration of 2'10" is heard on Beatles 1999a, track 8, beginning at 1:15 (it is mislabeled on the liner card as “Take 21”). Here we hear what will be the distribution of instrumentation on the three tracks of Take 1: Paul’s bass and Ringo’s drums on the left, Paul’s vocal in the center, and John’s top-boosted Capri and George’s Strat both on the right. At this time, George is playing thoroughly in the major mode with a highlighted cadential riff in parallel thirds, and Ringo ornaments every fourth beat with a snare roll, both characteristic of the impending Take 1, except that the roll is conventionalized there into still-dramatic sixteenths. Following the successful recording of such basic tracks as Take 1, with a duration of 2'45", overdubs of Paul’s second vocal along with backing vocals from John and George were added to the available fourth track. It was decided to add more, and so this tape had to be reduced to three tracks of a new tape (becoming in the process Take 2), thus freeing up a new fourth track for final dubs on McCartney’s Steinway and, in the coda, maracas. (Later in the year, when McCartney would have become more proficient still at the keyboard, he would often play piano on the basic tracks, giving him the freedom to compose a more melodic bass line as an overdub.) Prior to recording Take 2, the useable part of Take 1 was removed from the working tape, excising the last twenty-six seconds of vamped coda. We have (in Beatles 1999c, track 8) what’s left of the edited working tape: chat preceding Take 1 is spliced directly to the unused portion of the coda. Take 2, with all of the overdubs, is heard in a mono mix made the same day (sounding best on Beatles 1996a) and a rude, nonfading stereo mix made on the 23rd (Beatles 1999c, track 7). The latter is heard with two of the original rhythm tracks (bass, drums, guitars) locked together on the left, Paul’s lead vocal in the center, and both overdub tracks together on the right. A remake was called for, perhaps because the Take 2 mixdown resulted in too great a loss of the bass and drums (a problem that would often in other

The Spring of 1965

Example 4.3b “That Means a Lot” (Lennon-McCartney). © 1965, Northern Songs.


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cases lead to a “freshening up” of new drum parts following a tape reduction). The problems that resulted on March 30 led to an irreversible dissatisfaction with the song. Take 20 (heard as track 8 on Beatles 1999a) has a new approach with straight backbeat drumming from Ringo and pentatonic-minor blues fills from George, perhaps inspired by the change of key from E to G. This breaks down in the second verse. We do not have Takes 21 or 22, but (on Beatles 1999a, tracks 9 and 10) we hear a reversion to the major-mode setting (still in G) in Take 23, a false start that leads directly to Take 24, which breaks down just after the first bridge when Paul flubs the words for the following verse. This then goes straight to an unnumbered “test” take that, given George’s jokey shuffling on the Strat (egged on by John’s off-mike fooling around on the piano?), must have followed on the heels of the similar Take 24 breakdown, leaving the uncertain session in swinging abandon. But Take 2 results in a legitimate piece of music. The dramatic song, in the vein of the previous summer’s “It’s For You,” moves from E through G (A+9 –11) to V (A+12), as did “You’re Going to Lose That Girl.” (The March remake moved from G to Bf, as would “Here, There and Everywhere” and “Two of Us.”) Note that McCartney may have picked up on the significance of Lennon’s low-register vocal in “Tell Me What You See”: McCartney delves deep into primal inner voices at “love can be deep inside” (B+1– 2) and then erupts to the high gs2 at the desperate Dave Clark Five – like “can’t you see” before the structural line drops the octave again, cadencing 3–2 (B+7– 8), but the natural interrupting V is nowhere in sight. It is a shame that McCartney was ultimately unable to interpret one of his more expressive compositions.

The Spring of 1965 The shooting of Help! required eleven weeks (February 23 – May 11) in locations chosen as favorite Beatle vacation spots, the Bahamas and Austria. Post-

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production film work required the principals’ presence at times through June 16. Directing a Bond take-off with comic-book situations and supporting character types on the level of the Three Stooges, Lester missed his mark somewhat (but his following effort, The Knack — and How to Get It, is acclaimed as one of Britain’s funniest-ever films). The flimsy plot of Help! involves a vaguely Hindulike religious cult, and so a sitar dominates the incidental music and is even featured in a restaurant scene shot on April 5 – 6. This was Harrison’s introduction to the instrument that was to be his main musical focus in 1966 – 68.47 July 29 saw the film’s London première; the U.S. release was on August 23. On March 13, the Beatles and Epstein chose “Ticket to Ride” and “Yes It Is” as the A- and B-sides, respectively, of the year’s first single; it was released in Britain on April 9, and it entered the charts at #1, where it remained for five weeks. Both sides were promoted in televised mimed appearances on March 28 and April 10 –11 and were among seven titles played for the group’s final BBC session, taped on May 26 (heard on Beatles 1993c). Although its classic status makes it hard to believe, the single has never been certified a million-seller in the United States. When the film’s title was finally decided by the execs, and just after a meeting in which Paul signed for his house on Cavendish Avenue, St Johns Wood (he would not be able to occupy until renovations were complete in March 1966), the Beatles rushed to the studios on April 13 to record Lennon’s “Help!” The Beatles cut two tracks (“Dizzy Miss Lizzie” and “Bad Boy”) on May 10 for the U.S. market and made new recordings to fill out the LP (“I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “I’m Down,” “Yesterday,” “It’s Only Love,” “Act Naturally,” and “Wait,” the last not used) on June 14 –17. Other events this spring include a second NME Poll Winners’ concert at Wembley on April 11 (comprising “I Feel Fine,” “She’s a Woman,” “Baby’s in Black,” “Ticket to Ride,” and “Long Tall Sally,” three of them available on Beatles 1988a; here, the Beatles introduced the Nehru jackets that in retrospect might be seen as precursors to the “Pepper” uniforms), the announcement on June 12 that the Beatles were to be awarded Membership of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, and the June 24 publication of Lennon’s second book, A Spaniard in the Works.48 Title Track and Larry Williams: “Help!,” “Bad Boy,” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” When “Eight Arms to Hold You” was given to the Beatles as the name of the film, McCartney set to work on a title song and came up empty. When “Help!” was suggested, Lennon took up the challenge and was immediately rewarded. The composer: “the Beatles thing had just gone beyond comprehension. We were smoking marijuana for breakfast. We were well into marijuana and nobody could communicate with us, because we were just all glazed eyes, giggling all the time. In our own world. That was the song, Help!” “I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it’s just a fast rock ’n’ roll song. I didn’t realize it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But . . . I was fat and depressed and I was crying out for help.”49 Lennon’s post-Dylan, introspective manuscript expresses insecurity (“I’m not so self-assured”) in only one verse. (Perhaps the second was written in the stu-

The Spring of 1965

dio?) It begins with the chorus (D); the intro was probably arranged in the studio.50 Eight takes were required for the basic tracks, with bass and drums on one track (left) and Lennon’s acoustic twelve-string strumming (“Guitar II”) and Harrison’s Tennessean (“Guitar I”) on another (right). Difficulties included a broken string from Lennon, the composer’s common problem in skipping a beat, and Harrison’s difficulty in playing his break (B–1+2 [0:08 – 0:10]) in steady eighths. During Take 4, Martin suggests that Harrison “track” (i.e., overdub) his lead lines, but Harrison doesn’t want to play during a vocal recording, and the remaining two tracks were to be reserved for double-tracked vocals. McCartney is concerned that the beat be marked for George’s overdub during the stop-time bars (B–1+2), and Lennon resolves to slap time on his twelvestring’s soundboard. Four takes of overdubs include double-tracked Lennon vocals with backing vocals and tambourine from Harrison and McCartney (center) and Harrison’s Gretsch overdub (right) –– evidently, some tape-to-tape reduction must have been required by George’s dilemma, allowing for a total of five tracks (one left, two center, two right).51 Lennon once said: “Paul [would] say, ‘Well, why don’t you change that there? You’ve done that note fifty times in the song.’ You know, I’d grab a note and ram it home.”52 This trait is characteristic of much of Lennon’s melodic writing but nowhere more than in the verse (B) of “Help!,” where it conveys an underlying urgency behind the soft emphasis of the poetic text.53 As shown in the graph of example 4.4, Lennon’s sustained cs2 is developed by upper neighbor d2 (B+7 [0:18]), a note that at C+7 (0:28) “[opens] up the door,” pulling the bass up to Gn, allowing a return to I with the Mixolydian V-substitute. Lennon’s monotone is offset by rhythmically independent backing vocals in unison that predict both the text of Lennon’s lead (as done in “Please Mr. Postman”) and Lennon’s upper neighbor by introducing a lower neighbor to the prolonged a1 (B+3 – 4 [0:13 – 0:14]). McCartney recalls devising these countermelodies.54 All voices work together at B+7– 8, as Lennon sings of his vanishing independence. In the last verse (E–C), a reduced setting followed by the tutti ensemble helps portray a contrast between memories of the past and the present situation, a dilemma that Lennon explores again in “She Said She Said,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and elsewhere. Lennon ends the chorus (D [0:31– 0:50]) with a leap to falsetto as exuberant as McCartney’s “can’t you see” in “That Means a Lot.” As Tim Riley has noted, “the whirlpool of paranoia has sucked him in, and he chooses this moment to soar into his high register — usually his most poignant range, used here to express devastation.”55 Voice-leading variety is provided here by a chromatic line in an inner voice, fs1– gn1– gs1– a1 (a chromatic version of the D-gesture of “Please Please Me”) that rises as the harmonies change, reharmonizing the repeated melodic line as surely as did the motto of “She Loves You.” This is made more evident by the intro (A), which telescopes the chord changes of the chorus and has McCartney vocalize that rising chromatic line in his highest octave. The colors and functions of the chords involved, II –fVII –V7, increase in intensity as the bass line descends to 5 (arriving at A+5 [0:06]).56 The com-

297

Example 4.4 Analysis of “Help!”

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The Spring of 1965

poser’s insecurity is suggested by the ambiguous V at B–1– 2 (0:08 – 0:10), where the bass vacuum suggests V. As in the end of the bridge of “That Means a Lot,” the vocals suggest 46, and the guitar is lost. Insecurity is also heard in the indecision as to whether the final chord is to be a I with added sixth (as suggested by the coda’s deceptive arrival on Fsm), a plain triad (penultimate measure), or an added sixth chord after all (by virtue of Paul’s unsure vocal rise to fs2). Capitol Records, United States, needed two more songs to slap together an album (Beatles VI, released in June) before the film soundtrack was ready for release; the Beatles provided recordings of “Bad Boy” and Dizzy Miss Lizzie,” both Larry Williams rockers from the Cavern repertoire shouted by a solo Lennon on May 10. Perhaps the impetus for the choice lay in the great national resurgence of popularity of Williams, who was then touring Britain. The Beatles are increasingly drawn to the keyboard: in “Dizzy,” Lennon plays Hammond organ, and in “Bad Boy,” McCartney overdubs the Pianet (center). Oddly, Harrison plays two unison guitar takes in each, but his second whammy (1:59 – 2:00) and other tough-to-double effects were edited out of “Bad Boy.” In Britain, “Dizzy” became the rousing final track of the Help! LP, whereas “Bad Boy” remained an outtake until late 1966. “I’ve Just Seen a Face” and “I’m Down” Three new McCartney compositions were taped, start to finish, on June 14: “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “I’m Down,” and “Yesterday.” Before it was given lyrics, the first had a working title, “Auntie Gin’s Theme,” as Paul’s aunt had liked the tune. (The working title is given on the cover of the instrumental LP George Martin & His Orchestra Play Help!, which also gives “That’s A Nice Hat (Cap)” as the title for “It’s Only Love” and “Scrambled Egg” for “Yesterday.”) This recording consists of two backing tracks: Harrison’s acoustic twelve-string, probably Lennon’s Framus (“Guitar I,” duplicating the function of “Guitar I” in “Help!”), McCartney’s nylon-string acoustic (“Guitar IV” in the intro, followed by chording), and drums on the left, and both Lennon’s acoustic rhythm guitar (“Guitar II”) and McCartney’s lead vocal in the center. Overdubs placed to the right include one track (heard only in the chorus, B) with McCartney’s descant vocal and maracas and another with McCartney’s upper part for the nylon-string intro (“Guitar III”) and the jaunty twelve-string acoustic solo (“Guitar III,” E). For his bluegrass-tinged ballad, McCartney writes a masterful verse (A), a straightforward propulsive 3-line that accents insistent yet unobtrusive rhymes every two beats (note the C meter) and a chorus (B) that leaps up for emphasis only to fall, 5–4–3–1, with the descant a third above that. And speaking of falling scales, Alan Pollack would point out that the seemingly unrelated introduction is a composing-out of the 4–3–2–1–7–1 “lie-die-die-dat-’n’-die” vocal cadence (in case you hadn’t noticed this, compare the twelve-string descent, A–1– 2 [0:09 – 0:11], with vocal, A+10 –12 [0:20 – 0:23]).57 The song is apparently a favorite of McCartney, as it was one of the first Beatle songs he was to perform after the group broke up, reintroduced in the 1975 – 76 Wings tours.

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“Twist and Shout” had been the Beatles’ concert closer in 1963, “Long Tall Sally” in 1964. With tours approaching, McCartney wanted to replace these with his own twelve-bar blues, and he came up with the Little Richard – Larry Williams – style rocker “I’m Down.”58 “That was, as a painter would say, after Little Richard,” said the composer in 1973.59 A cross between “Long Tall Sally” and “Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey,” “I’m Down” features drums, bass, organ, and Harrison’s Gretsch on the left, McCartney’s lead vocal, Ringo’s congas and answering backing vocals from Harrison and Lennon, with Lennon’s feisty Hammond organ part — featuring Lewis-styled elbow glissandi — dubbed in for the coda in the center, and more backing vocals from Harrison and Lennon (the latter dropping to G on the choruses) on the right. An alternate Harrison solo is edited in; this passage (B) has the new Gretsch line on the left with organ; in the center are heard bass, drums, vocals, and leaks from the original Gretsch solo.60 The song must have come pretty quickly to McCartney, who evidently didn’t practice it much; he was to reverse the order of its verses in an August taping for Ed Sullivan, and worse memory slips befall his 1966 performances. It was a raucous bit of silliness, and George and John are seen to have quite a bit of fun with it on stage too, particularly visible in the 1965 Shea concert film. “Yesterday” McCartney was asked in 1989 what his favorite own composition might be; he answered, “the obvious choice is ‘Yesterday’ because it’s the biggest song ever.”61 This is no exaggeration; it was reported in May 1994 that the Beatles’ recording of “Yesterday” had received 6 million radio plays in the United States, more than any other record in history. The song had been covered by 119 artists as of January 1968 and by more than 2,000 by 1986.62 McCartney said in 1973, “I like it not only because it was a big success but because it was one of the most instinctive songs I’ve ever written.”63 The song began life in G major in late 1963; the composer says “I . . . must have dreamed it, because I tumbled out of bed and put my hands on the piano keys and I had a tune in my head. It was just all there, a complete thing. I couldn’t believe it. It came too easy. In fact, I didn’t believe I’d written it. I thought maybe I’d heard it before, it was some other tune, and I went around for weeks playing the chords of the song for people, asking them, ‘Is this like something? I think I’ve written it. And people would say, ‘No, it’s not like anything else, but it’s good.”64 “I did the tune first and wrote words to that later. I called that ‘Scrambled Egg’ for a long time. I didn’t have any words to it.”65 In 1965, Lennon said, “This song was around for months and months before we finally completed it. Paul wrote nearly all of it but we just couldn’t find the right title. Every time we got together to write songs or for a recording session, this would come up. We called it ‘Scrambled Egg’— and it became a joke between us. We almost had it finished, we had made up our minds that only a one word title would suit — and believe me we just couldn’t find the right one.” George Martin: “I first heard ‘Yesterday’ when it was known as ‘Scrambled Eggs’ . . . at the George V hotel in Paris in January 1964. Paul said he wanted a one word title and was considering ‘Yesterday,’ except that he thought it was perhaps too corny. I persuaded him that it was all right.”66 The lyrics, said the

The Spring of 1965

composer, took about two weeks to write; a facsimile of the manuscript shows the poetic text intact.67 “Yesterday” was completed in Albufeira, Portugal, days before recording, on a small Martin OO-18 acoustic guitar owned by Paul’s host, Bruce Welch of the Shadows.68 The song’s harshest critic? John Lennon’s kindest words about the song were, “Well, we know all about ‘Yesterday.’ I have had so much accolade for ‘Yesterday.’ That’s Paul’s song and Paul’s baby. Well done. Beautiful — and I never wished I’d written it.”69 With the Beatles unable to realize “That Means a Lot” and never able to imagine what they could do with “Yesterday,” it must have seemed as if McCartney were exercising musical interests that took no account of his mates. One wonders how long the Beatles would have lasted had a single, “Yesterday,” credited to Paul McCartney alone, been released. It was considered. Finally finding his lyrics (perhaps as a contemplative response to “Hide Your Love Away”?), McCartney was ready to record the song. “First of all . . . I played it just me on acoustic, and sang it. And the rest of the Beatles said, ‘That’s it. Love it.’ So George Martin and I got together and sort of cooked up this idea. I wanted just a small string arrangement. And he said, ‘Well, how about your actual string quartet?’ I said great, it sounds great. We sat down at a piano and cooked that one up” at Martin’s home. Martin recalls, “The only thing I could think of was strings but Paul was unsure. He hated syrup or anything that was even a suggestion of MOR. So I suggested a classical string quartet. That appealed to him but he insisted ‘No vibrato, I don’t want any vibrato!’ ”70 George Martin has credited McCartney with the violin’s inverted pedal in the last verse (A [1:37–1:48], suggesting the ominous “shadow hanging over me,” a tenaciously held memory of past happiness), and with the cello’s f7 in the second bridge (B+4 [1:26], responding to the poetic text with sadness). “The rest of the arrangement was pretty much mine.”71 Except, of course, that the score’s most prominent part, that of the cello, duplicates the lowest part of McCartney’s guitar voicing throughout. Martin’s original string score, signed by McCartney, hangs at the producer’s Wiltshire home.72 On June 14, following the taping of “I’m Down,” McCartney recorded his guitar and voice parts simultaneously but onto separate tracks; the strings were overdubbed the same night onto a third, leaving the fourth track for a second try at the vocal. We hear the guitar — an Epiphone Texan — on the right, the quartet on the left, and McCartney’s first vocal take (augmented during the last three bars of B, first time through [0:52 – 0:59], where the second take — awash in echo —was also inserted to help mask an intonation irregularity) in the center.73 Performances of “Yesterday” for 1965 television audiences (in Blackpool on August 1 and in New York on August 14) featured McCartney and Texan, accompanied by an offstage string quartet playing in F. The singer was to accompany himself on electric organ for the December 1965 British tour. On the 1966 world tour, the Beatles provided electric-guitar backing, in G, with McCartney on bass. McCartney has since used a brass arrangement, sounding in Fs; in the 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street, the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble employs a flügelhorn, French horn, and trombone, joined after the first verse by a cornet.

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As “Yesterday” was to remain an album track (only the film’s title song would be a single in the United Kingdom), McCartney wanted it recorded by Marianne Faithfull, who had had a Top-Ten hit in September 1964 with “As Tears Go By.” This was a song composed by Jagger and Richard and produced by Mike Leander with a folk sound: twelve-string acoustic guitar, tambourine, piano, bass, drums, a chorus of sopranos augmented by an English horn, and a section of violins for a countermelody.74 Faithfull recorded “Yesterday” (produced by McCartney, Leander, and Tony Calder in October 1965), but a version by Parlophone’s Matt Monro was the British hit, peaking at #7. The Beatles’ own “Yesterday” was a #1 hit record in the United States (and elsewhere, selling 3 million copies worldwide) but was not released as a single in Britain until the spring of 1976. The Beatles’ arrangement is probably responsible for the late-1960s explosion of interest in classical instrumentation in pop music, with the Left Banke taking the string quartet to the Top Five in September 1966 and such instruments as the harpsichord finding use by artists from Judy Collins to the Doors. Take these sorts of instrumentations, add the psychedelia of 1967 Beatles, and you have the roots of British progressive rock. The introduction to “Yesterday” has a dark quality both because the Texan is transposed a whole step low and because all tonic chords are thirdless.75 The singer’s opening is equally portentious; preceded “by silence and marked by an appoggiatura, one can’t help but to be drawn into the story.”76 Accented dissonances maintain interest through the verse (and the viola’s unusual bn– cs1 in half notes at B+1 [0:39 – 0:41]— creating a G7 chord between As in outer parts — is one of the more unfortunate omissions from the score). Mellers’ description of functions in the verse is useful: Paul has lost his girl, and although the opening words tell us that yesterday his troubles seemed far away, the music in the second bar immediately enacts these troubles with a disquieting modulation from tonic, by way of [cs], to the [submediant]. The first bar, with its gentle sigh, seems separated, stranded, by the abrupt modulation; and although the troubles “return to stay” with a descent to the tonic, the anticipated modulation sharpwards is counteracted when the B natural is flattened to make an irresolute plagal cadence. The “lost” feeling is incarnate in the irregular phrasing: for that one isolated bar is followed by two, and then by two plus two. This makes seven, leaving us one bar short; but this first irregular strain is completed by the tune’s continuation after the double bar: which also, of course, initiates the middle section.77

The irregular phrase length results from a doubling of the tempo. In the verse’s first four bars, one clearly feels strong measures (A+1, A+3) alternating with weak (A+2, A+4). At the same level, the next three bars alternate strong and weak half measures (taking their harmonic rhythm from the previous weak bars), breathlessly plunging into “Suddenly” and abruptly ending the desired 4+4 pattern one bar into the second verse, where the strings enter unexpectedly.78 The understated quartet arrangement, with its suggestive associations with the past, is a fit coloring for a retrospective, sentimental song. McCartney’s bridge (B) is remarkable in that it invests the same harmonic

The Spring of 1965

functions and voice leading heard in the verse (a1 over A7, d2– f 2– d2 over dm, c2 over C7, a1 over F) with such rhythmic displacements as to make them nearly unrecognizable. The cornerstones are primary tone a1 and registrally exposed inner voices d2 and f2. The upper-register tones tend to remove attention from the structural primary tone and prepare the ear for “the outburst of expression, where the line rises to the high F” via a strong 7.79 The retransitional descending arpeggiation (last bar of B [0:57– 0:59]) in the viola and then sung by McCartney deflates the passion with a gesture in opposition to that which had opened the tonal space at the beginning of each section. More expressively important than the song’s cadence with Lydian IIs is the ending of its melody on 3, the primary tone. This is the pitch of the first violin’s pedal, and a solid reason for wanting to hear the tune continue with the abrupt 2–1 that would begin the succeeding verse, as it was prevented from doing at A+4 (0:15). In the end, the avoidance of V and the substitution of a plagal cadence reduce the pull of 2 down to 1, allowing it to return upward to the stronger 3, offering the hope of a new beginning as assertively as all previous risings above the fundamental line portray aspirations to serenity. “It’s Only Love” and “Act Naturally” John Lennon: “’It’s Only Love’ is mine. I always thought it was a lousy song. The lyrics were abysmal.”80 The tune came first; its working version was called “That’s a Nice Hat (Cap).” Lennon’s most forced effort at rhyming (a weak attempt at matching the effect of McCartney’s “I’ve Just Seen a Face”?), the original draft included a second verse that was mercifully scrapped: Can’t explain or name I think it’s pain, but, again I’m ashamed the flame of love is maimed, you’re to blame now and then I’ll complain in vain, and I’ll still love you.81

One interesting bit of word-painting is heard. During the recording of “I’m a Loser,” engineers had tried unsuccessfully to get Lennon to use a wind-screen on his microphone to prevent his popping “P”s, which are occasionally heard on the Help! album as well as in Beatles for Sale. Perhaps Lennon preferred this sort of immediacy, which is heard in the word “butterflies” in “It’s Only Love,” where the rush of air voiced by the f of “flies” conjures the fluttering insect. While probably not as conscious a performance of word-painting as the pop of the cork in “Lovely Rita,” finding such colorful aspects frequently rewards the study of Beatle details. Outdoing “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” five guitars plus bass are employed in “It’s Only Love”; all recording was done on June 15. We hear a backing track of two acoustic guitars (“Guitar II” and the twelve-string capoed at the fifth fret, “Guitar IV”), bass and drums, all on the left; Lennon’s vocal on a second track, center; and two tracks on the right, with Lennon’s double-tracked vocal and tambourine in the choruses (B+5 –12 [0:34 – 0:50]) and three electric guitars (Harrison’s single-line Gretsch lead, “Guitar I,” his tremolo-rich Ricky 12 repeating c1 in the intro and choruses, and a dry “chick” guitar playing chords with a repeated Œ q≤Ωç≤Ωç rhythm in the verses, A through B+4, and

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coda).82 Little tension is generated, despite the first use of V+ since 1963 and a first use of fVII motivated by a sequence (A+3 [0:10]), modally coloring a descending tetrachord c2– bf1– a1– g1 in an interesting manner. The asymmetrical construction of the verse, where a repeated antecedent phrase (A) is followed by a four-bar consequent (B+1– 4 [0:25 – 0:33]) that slides into the chorus, also does little to upset the balance. The folk music’s mildly interesting aspects cannot rise above the distracting lyrics. One element, however, is a subtle hint of great things to come: not only does the capo allow transpositions for various reasons of convenience but it also permits a shorter string length more consistently through the song than does simple barre chording. With this comes a brighter timbre as well as higher pitch, even on the lower strings. In a number of Rubber Soul tracks, we often hear capoed guitars in combination with others played in nut position, allowing a constantly wide range of register and timbre, even without electronic coloration. Add to this factor the year’s improvements in recording clarity, and one should appreciate 1965 as the year of marked yet sometimes subtle timbral development. The master tapes for Help! were due at the disc cutter’s, and Ringo’s only vocal contribution, “If You’ve Got Trouble,” was not considered up to scratch. On June 17, the Beatles recorded their last-ever cover version for release (other than “Maggie May,” simply busked in January 1969), with Ringo singing Buck Owens’s “Act Naturally,” a song he chose for himself.83 Unlike previous covers, this was not dredged up from the Cavern era but was in fact an early-1963 C&W hit (recorded on February 12 and released on March 11). The narrative, about a man so sad that he would not have to rehearse the part of such a character for a film, had a charmingly self-effacing glow that perfectly fit the drummer’s persona (which is foiled by John’s composition given to Ringo in 1973, “I’m the Greatest”). So this song was to be used within weeks as Ringo’s fan-pleasing vocal vehicle on tour. We hear drums, bass, and Jumbo on the left, Ringo’s lead vocal in the center, and Harrison’s busierthan-usual Tennessean (quite at home with this cowboy song, once the lowest string is tuned down to reach the low D at A+7, 0:14), McCartney’s descant vocal, and overdubbed rat-a-tat drum sticks on snare rim on the right. All parts come from the Owens arrangement, although Harrison’s guitar part is a free paraphrase. For the Beatles, the composing and recording processes had begun to merge, with their now composing more lyrics, musical structures, and arrangements in the studio. Mixing for the film and LP was still considered to be largely independent of the creative process and proceeded as before: Martin would save up several day’s worth of raw working tracks and then do mono mixes for five or six tracks in a two- or three-hour session while the group would be otherwise occupied. Stereo mixes for all seventeen tracks were done in two sessions requiring a total of only four hours. Later in the year, the Beatles would begin to become more involved in the technical side of recording, and the mixing process would involve more deliberation.84 The final contents for the British LP featured film songs on Side 1 and others on Side 2:

The Second Half of 1965

Side 1 “Help!” “The Night Before” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” “I Need You” “Another Girl” “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” “Ticket to Ride”

Side 2 “Act Naturally” “It’s Only Love” “You Like Me Too Much” “Tell Me What You See” “I’ve Just Seen a Face” “Yesterday” “Dizzy Miss Lizzie”

The Second Half of 1965 Summer Tours Following are the Beatles’ U.S. and U.K. releases of Help! material, supported by summer tours and televised appearances: Beatles VI, LP (U.S.), Capitol (S)T 2358, June 14 (#1 for 6 wks.; sold 1 million copies) “Help!” / “I’m Down,” (U.S.), Capitol 5476, July 19 (#1 for 3 wks.); (U.K.) Parlophone R 5305, July 23 (#1 for 4 wks.) Help!, LP (U.K.), Parlophone PMC 1255 / PCS 3071, August 6 (#1 for 15 wks.) Help!, LP (U.S.), Capitol (S)MAS 2386 [seven film songs plus Ken Thorne’s incidental music], August 13 (#1 for 9 wks.; sold 3 million copies) “Yesterday” / “Act Naturally,” (U.S.), Capitol 5498, September 13; released the day after both songs given their U. S. premières on an Ed Sullivan broadcast (#1 for 4 wks. / #47) Yesterday, EP (U.K.), Parlophone GEP 8948, March 4, 1966

The Beatles warmed up for their U.S. tour with live appearances in Paris (two shows, June 20; the afternoon performance is heard on Beatles 1994e, the evening on Beatles 1988b), Lyon (two shows, June 22), Milan (two shows, June 24), Genoa (two shows, June 25), Rome (four shows, June 27– 28; three songs circulate on Beatles 1980a), Nice (June 30), Madrid (July 2), and Barcelona (July 3). Many of these dates were marked by less-than-capacity crowds, and a Vienna concert was canceled that week due to low advance sales. The set list for all shows was as follows: “Twist and Shout” (abbreviated) “She’s a Woman” “I’m a Loser” (one Paris performance is heard on Beatles 1996c, vol. 4) “Can’t Buy Me Love” “Baby’s in Black” “I Wanna Be Your Man” [Ringo’s vocal] “A Hard Day’s Night” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” [George’s vocal] “Rock-and-Roll Music” “I Feel Fine” “Ticket to Ride” “Long Tall Sally”

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Back in England, the Beatles were to enjoy nearly six weeks with only a single professional engagement, a live television performance of six songs (“I Feel Fine,” “I’m Down,” “Act Naturally,” “Ticket to Ride,” “Yesterday,” and “Help!,” four of these heard on Beatles 1996a and all, about 10 percent flat, on Beatles 1990a) on “Blackpool Night Out,” August 1. This date shows Lennon with a new electronic organ, a Vox Continental Mk I, that was to be used on stage for “I’m Down” through 1966. The U.S. visit began in New York with a press conference on August 13 and a taping the next day for the Ed Sullivan Show (featuring the “Blackpool” repertoire with Paul’s Höfner and Texan, George’s Tennessean, John’s Capri and Continental, and Ringo’s Ludwigs, all but the organ through new 150-watt Vox amplifiers, all heard on Beatles 1995f ). The concert tour, supported by Brenda Holloway and the King Curtis Band, Cannibal & the Headhunters, Sounds Inc., and (in New York only) the Young Rascals, had the following itinerary: August 15: New York (televised “Shea” film in wide circulation) August 17: Toronto (two shows) August 18: Atlanta (heard on Beatles 1995a) August 19: Houston (two shows; both heard on Beatles 1979c) August 20: Chicago (two shows) August 21: Minneapolis August 22: Portland (two shows) August 28: San Diego August 29 – 30: Hollywood (two shows, both heard on Beatles 1997a) August 31: San Francisco (two shows)

Early plans to end the tour with concerts in Mexico City and South America were abandoned, and so the resulting tour was much less grueling than that of the previous year. The set list comprised the following; deviations from the previous European dates are noted: “Twist and Shout” (abbreviated) “She’s a Woman” “I Feel Fine” “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” [replacing “Rock and Roll Music” as current cover] “Ticket to Ride” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” “Can’t Buy Me Love” “Baby’s in Black” “Act Naturally” or “I Wanna Be Your Man” “A Hard Day’s Night” “Help!” [the new A-side, replacing “I’m a Loser”] “I’m Down” [replacing “Long Tall Sally”]

Instrumentation included McCartney’s Höfner and Starr’s Ludwigs exclusively (Paul kept the Texan backstage), Harrison’s Tennessean (introducing a new ostinato for all known performances of “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” that was taken from Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman”) and Ricky 12— through a Fender Twin/ Reverb amplifier — for “A Hard Day’s Night” only, and Lennon’s Capri and (for “I’m Down”) the Continental. Lennon’s Jumbo was kept onstage as a reserve instrument. Harrison was given a new Rickenbacker twelve-string in Minneapo-

The Second Half of 1965

lis on August 21. In Los Angeles, the president of the Rickenbacker company (headquartered there) gave new guitars to Lennon and McCartney. Paul’s was a Rickenbacker bass made for left-handed playing that was eventually to replace the Höfner in the studio.85 Another presentation at the L.A. press conference was of a gold record for the new LP, which had achieved U.S. sales of $1 million within two weeks of release. The New York Shea Stadium crowd of 55,600 eclipsed the Beatles’ 1964 Hollywood Bowl audience of 17,000 as a new world record not to be erased in the States before a 1973 Tampa concert by Led Zeppelin for 56,000. There seem to be only eight confirmed, highly sought-after, unused tickets for the 1965 Shea concert in existence.86 The world attendance record would be broken in 1966 by the Seekers, with a Melbourne crowd of 110,000, but McCartney was to reclaim the world record for concert audience for a single act on April 21, 1990, performing for 184,000 in Rio de Janiero. The Shea concert was filmed by NEMS for televising at Christmas, but after Epstein previewed a print in early November, it was decided that the soundtrack’s numerous problems had to be addressed, and so on January 5, 1966, the Beatles overdubbed parts for several songs. In addition, the EMI recording of “Act Naturally” was substituted for the live performance, necessitating several splices to fit the footage.87 The color film, The Beatles at Shea Stadium, was finally aired on March 1, 1966. Both Hollywood Bowl performances were taped by Voyle Gilmore; seven songs from the August 30 date were to appear with six others from 1964 on Beatles 1977a, and one more was heard on 1996c. The highlight of the tour was a rest between the Portland and San Diego gigs in a rented Benedict Canyon home. During this time, they met Elvis Presley for the first time in Bel Air, attended a recording session by the Beatles’ favorite American group, the Byrds, and partied with close friends.88 The events of one gathering, on August 24, including the Byrds and Peter Fonda as guests, were to be the source of “She Said She Said,” recorded in 1966. On this day, three Beatles knowingly took LSD— legal until October 1966 — for the first time. (The drug had been surreptitiously slipped into the coffees of Lennon and Harrison, much to their annoyance, at a private dinner in London the previous spring; McCartney did not partake until long after the others did.) Cynthia Lennon says this about her husband’s involvement with the LSD experience: John strongly believed that everyone should experience the joy of knowing this life, of coming to terms with one’s own ego, accepting one’s body and mind as being an integral part of the universe. . . . The psychedelic and hallucinatory qualities of the drug LSD were absorbed and directed into their music; they painted incredibly colourful pictures with words and music. As an artist and musician John found LSD creative and stimulating, his senses were filled with revelations and hallucinations he experienced each time he took it. John was like a little boy again. His enthusiasm for life and love reached a new peak; he had opened the floodgates of his mind and had escaped from the imprisonment which fame had entailed.89

Not only were the Beatles “turned on” to a revelatory chemical experience by the Byrds but they also heard the work of Ravi Shankar for the first time on this day, courtesy of David Crosby and Roger McGuinn, who played some record-

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ings. Harrison was especially impressed and bought his first sitar soon after returning to London on September 2.90 The group enjoyed another six-week break before resuming recording sessions for another LP, single, and Christmas message.

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper” George Martin, for all his contributions to EMI (corporate net profits from albums he produced from 1963 through mid-1964 totaled £2,200,000), felt he was being treated shabbily, taking a straight salary of only £3,000 yearly along with insults. So in August 1965 Martin and two engineers (Ron Richards and John Burgess) left EMI to form with five others their independent recording concern, AIR. The Beatles and other Parlophone acts elected to continue working with Martin, still booking time at EMI’s Abbey Road studios.91 The Beatles’ recordings for their next LP, Rubber Soul, were among Martin’s first projects under the new, more equitable, arrangement. Recording (requiring 113 hours over 13 days) and mixing (17 hours, 6 days) observed the following schedule, all working through the night as the deadline for delivering the master approached, progressively ending sessions at 1 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m., and finally 7 a.m.: October 12: “Run for Your Life,” “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” October 13: “Drive My Car” October 16: “Day Tripper,” “If I Needed Someone” October 18: “If I Needed Someone,” “In My Life” October 20: “We Can Work It Out” October 21: “Norwegian Wood,” “Nowhere Man” October 22: “In My Life,” “Nowhere Man” October 24: “I’m Looking through You” October 25: Mono mixing October 26: Stereo mixing October 29: “We Can Work It Out,” mono mixing November 3: “Michelle” November 4: “What Goes On,” “Twelve-Bar Original” November 6: “I’m Looking through You” November 8: Christmas message, “Think for Yourself ” November 9: Mono and stereo mixing November 10: Stereo mixing, “The Word,” “I’m Looking through You” November 11: Overdubs for “Wait,” mono and stereo mixing for “You Won’t See Me,” “Girl,” “Wait” November 15: Mono and stereo mixing November 16: Compilation of master tape

Peter Brown sums up the standard view of Rubber Soul: “Here the simplistic love songs begin to wane, replaced with a dazzling spectrum of subjects and curios, from the banal to the ephemeral. The very sound of the music was strikingly different; richer, more melodious, haunting. Now, instead of producing

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

an album that was just a disconnected hodge-podge of hit songs (which could be blithely juggled by Capitol Records in America from album to album), the albums had a sense of collective identity, a mood and a sound linking them.”92 Terence O’Grady believes that the album brings “a new approach to rock and roll — an approach that focuses on musical detail rather than on the massive, ear-catching sound gestures of the earlier pop-rock songs.”93 The LP’s hallmarks are rich multipart vocals, a continued exploration of multiple but differently textured acoustic guitars, more new timbres and electronic effects, an exploration of more soulful adaptations of pentatonic-based melodies, and a more consistent search for meaningful ideas in the lyrics. More and more composition was occurring in the experimental cauldron of the studio — sometimes one verse of lyrics or a few melodic motives would be brought to the session and half a day later intricate basic tracks and vocal parts would be on tape. The Beatles were radically changing the recording process itself. Lennon: “We were just getting better, technically and musically, that’s all. We finally took over the studio. In the early days we had to take what we were given, we had to make it in two hours or whatever it was, and one or three takes was enough, and we didn’t know how you can get more bass. We were learning the technique. On Rubber Soul, we were sort of more precise about making the album, that’s all, and we took over the cover and everything. That was Paul’s title, it was like ‘Yer Blues.’ I suppose, meaning English Soul, I suppose, just a pun.”94 One remarkable change in the group’s sound, alluded to by Lennon above, comes from McCartney’s introduction of the Rickenbacker bass to Beatle recording sessions for nearly all of Rubber Soul; he would continue to use the lightweight Höfner in performance and in some recordings, but when he could sit he preferred the Rickenbacker. In 1964 – 66, the electric bass was coming to the fore in Wilson Pickett’s records made with Stax bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn (such as “Don’t Fight It,” “991⁄ 2 Won’t Do,” and “Mustang Sally”) and in James Jamerson’s direct-injected recordings as a member of Motown’s house band (as in the Temptations’ “My Girl,” the Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself ” and “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” and the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love”).95 So McCartney’s focus on the new Rickenbacker in addition to Lennon’s wanting a more pronounced bass in the mix led to the ultimate recording of the Beatles’ bass line on its own track, separate from Starr’s drums. This allowed for a greater role for the bass in the overall balance, allowed McCartney to play piano or guitar for the basic tracks and then overdub his bass, and simply allowed McCartney to compose a new bass line (sometimes after multiple attempts) after the basic tracks had been completed. All of these possibilities led McCartney to develop more melodic ideas as he continued to stabilize harmonic function with roots at rhythmically and tonally structural points. The process began with Rubber Soul and its attendant single and developed further after that.96 First, McCartney reinforced his bass line with guitar doublings in “Drive My Car,” “Day Tripper,” and “Think for Yourself.” Later, his line asserted more melodic independence in “If I Needed Someone,” “In My Life,” “Nowhere Man,” and “You Won’t See Me.” Finally, his line achieved textural independence from the drums in “Michelle” and “The Word.” The bass is prominent in the mix in nearly all

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cases as well; “Girl” is the album’s only song reminiscent of the spring recording of “Wait” for its wallpaper bass track. McCartney’s sense of outer-voice counterpoint is now mature, no longer presenting high vocals in parallel with the lowest voice, and we have the bass sound and function that will carry through Revolver and all the way to Abbey Road. Instruments photographed at the Rubber Soul sessions include McCartney’s Rickenbacker and Texan, Lennon’s Capri, Casino (seen plugged into a Fender Twin/Reverb), Strat, Jumbo, and acoustic twelve-string, Harrison’s Ricky 12, Jumbo, and Ramírez, matching Russian-made classical guitars for all four Beatles, the Hohner Pianet, the Vox Continental, and EMI’s Hammond organ, various-sized Olympic tambourines, and bongos. The three Beatle guitarists are now pictured with capos on various instruments, although they have used them previously in “It’s Only Love” and conceivably for the transpositions of “Can’t Buy Me Love” and/or “That Means a Lot.” The album is also notable for the number of its songs that include three-part vocals, all of which are doubletracked often enough so that when remixed for compact disc in 1987, the album becomes lush with full vocals in each of two separate spatial locations. Of the three LPs digitally remastered for compact disc, Rubber Soul benefits the most, particularly for the new presence brought to the bass line and vocals and for the stereo imaging of the session tape’s four tracks, far more interesting than the original extreme left/right separation. All of these new aspects of composition, performance, and recording go along with the gradual emergence of a new, “middle period” style in Rubber Soul and some of the more imaginative songs that preceded it, a style that was to flower in the psychedelic experimentation of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper before being replaced by the “late period,” which Tuomas Eerola finds to be a combination of both early and late traits. Eerola has published a study quanitifying every appearance of early-period characteristics (the use of cover songs, vocal ornamentation, stage-bound instrumentation, three-part singing, harmonica, “woo” and “yeah” interjections, and romantic lyrics) and experimental characteristics (changing meter, the fVII chord, tone repetition, descending bass line, static harmony, classical instruments, Indian instruments, sound effects, and political, nostalgic, or psychedelic lyrics). Following a rigorous statistical distribution method for stylistic determinations proposed by Gjerdingen (1988) that shows each Beatle album significantly matching Gjerdingen’s “normative lifespan of style,” Eerola has found an interesting style-bound distribution of these early- and middle-period traits, graphed in table 4.3.97 This graph shows that “the lowest point of the early period falls at the same place as the peak of the experimental period,” in 1967. The rise to this peak in appearances of middle-period traits begins in 1965. Yrjö Heinonen theorizes that the Beatles’ transformation around 1965 – 66 from a cohesive band with maximum output to a group that can integrate conflicts in order to produce maximum quality follows the transformation from stage 3 to stage 4 of a sociologist’s five-stage model of small-group development that would correspond to the Beatles thus: “(1) group formation — the Quarrymen years (1957– 60), (2) group integration — the Hamburg-Cavern years

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

Table 4.3 Population of the Beatles’ Early and Experimental Style Features (Eerola) 2.4

All features of the experimental style All early style features

Frequency of occurrence (standardized)

1.9

1.4

0.9

0.4

-0.1

-0.6

Abbey Road

Let It Be

White Album

M.M.T. / Singles / Y.S.

Recording projects

Sgt Pepper

Revolver

Rubber Soul

Help!

Beatles for Sale

A Hard Day's Night

With the Beatles

Please Please Me

-1.1

(1960 – 62), (3) the work group stage — the Beatlemania years (1962– 65), (4) group differentiation — the psychedelic or art-rock years (1965 – 67), (5) and group termination — the post-Epstein years (1967– 70).”98 Certainly the group crisis suggested in regard to McCartney’s “That Means a Lot” and “Yesterday” could be seen conjecturally as a time of conflicting approaches that could not yet be integrated into the group, whereas Rubber Soul represents a more successful sort of group melding of wide-ranging influences that culminates in the 1967 releases. Len McCarthy suggests in yet another quantitative study a further manner in which Rubber Soul sets the pace for a major shift in pop-rock music. He has focused on the slowing-down of the perceived tempo. In comparing the Beatles’ evolving tempos to those in hundreds of examples from contemporaneous poprock literatures, McCarthy finds that a late-1965 change in the Beatles’ basic rhythms sets the stage for the remainder of their career and for those of other rock musicians: “The use of slower tempos generated a new rhythmic conception (involving regular adoption of triplet, sixteenth note and swing sixteenth note density referents) that had not been present in the Beatles’ approach from [the period] 1962–1965, which like most popular music in the early sixties, utilized straight eighths, swing eighths or triplets as density referents.”99 To look

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at the issue in another way, Rubber Soul, it seems, was made more to be thought about than danced to, and this began a far-reaching trend. “Run for Your Life” Interviewed on August 25, 1964, Lennon said that Presley’s Sun recording of Arthur Gunter’s “Baby Let’s Play House” was one of his favorite songs.100 One verse of that song begins with the abusive line “listen to me baby, try to understand, I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man.” Discussing the 1976 “subconscious plagiarism” ruling against George Harrison for his “My Sweet Lord,” Lennon said, “in the early years, I’d often carry around someone else’s song in my head, and only when I’d put it down on tape — because I can’t write music —would I consciously change it to my own melody because I knew that otherwise somebody would sue me.”101 He might have been referring to the opening of “Run for Your Life,” which clearly had its genesis in that line from Presley’s record. (Or, as I’ll show hereafter, he might have been thinking of the bridge of “Michelle.”) The simple song was an inauspicious start for the new album sessions. Tim Riley says, “for its tone alone it’s the weakest song on the album. Where the rest of the record is open-ended, allowing room for indecision and change, this song hammers closed-minded distress home with petty clichés and insulting accusations (it makes ‘You Can’t Do That’ sound reasonable).”102 The composer has no strong attachment to the song; “’Run for Your Life’ I always hated . . . it was one of them I knocked off just to write a song, and it was phoney.”103 Nevertheless, it was chosen to close the LP, probably because it and the opening song, “Drive My Car,” made effective bookends as the only two straightforward hardrocking blues-oriented numbers —“rubber soul.” As was done for much of the LP, pairs of tracks of the “Run for Your Life” master tape were sent separately to each channel, with nothing in the middle.104 The left channel has the backing track of Lennon’s Jumbo, Harrison’s electric lead, McCartney’s Höfner bass, Starr’s drums, and Martin’s tambourine; also on the left is the backing vocal track, which has parts from all three singers and an additional electric guitar with slide. On the right are tracks with vocals (John’s lead, Paul’s descant, George’s harmony) and electric guitars (George, lead for breaks and first ending; John, rhythm; both play on the duet, C+1– 6, and coda, F). Harrison’s lead guitar (his Casino?) has a metrically realigned version of Scotty Moore’s lead part in Presley’s “Baby Let’s Play House,” so he was clearly in on the reference. The line may also, in turn, be the inspiration for the Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville.” The song has only one section, a verse-refrain combination, but the guitar duet introduces a six-bar blues for variety. Of harmonic interest is the refrain’s attempted tonicization of V that never arrives (B+1– 3 [0:19 – 0:24]) but instead leads to a tonicization of VI (B+3 – 4 [0:24 – 0:29]). For Naphtali Wagner, the E-major chord produces an alternation between B Dorian (B+1– 2) and B minor (B+3 – 4), which exists within a larger oscillation between D major (A, itself invoking the VI area but turning bluesy in instrumental passages) and B minor (B).105 McCartney’s often-high descant part tops a three-part homorhythmic texture that colors parts of eight other songs on the LP: “Drive My

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

Car,” “Nowhere Man,” “Think for Yourself,” “The Word,” “What Goes On,” “In My Life,” “Wait,” and “If I Needed Someone.” “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” The following appears scribbled alongside Lennon’s cartoon drawing of a girl on the top of a folding table taken from a limousine used on the Beatles’ 1964 U.S. tour: This Bird Has Flown I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me, she showed me her room, isn’t it good, Norwegian Wood.106

Thus marks the earliest documentation of “Norwegian Wood,” which is also reported to have been composed during Lennon’s January 1965 Alpine vacation. Lennon, on his inspiration for the song and for Harrison’s use of the sitar: I was trying to write about an affair without letting me wife know . . . , so it was very gobbledegook. I was sort of writing from my experiences, girls’ flats, things like that. . . . I wrote it at Kenwood. . . . I think [I decided to add the sitar] at the studio. George had just got the sitar and I said “Could you play this piece?” We went through many different sort of versions of the song, it was never right and . . . he was not sure whether he could play it yet because he hadn’t done much on the sitar but he was willing to have a go . . . and he learned the bit and dubbed it on after. I think we did it in sections.107

Lennon gives McCartney credit for some of the lyrics, and the latter says his contribution was the “twist” that has the narrator burn down the girl’s house “because she wouldn’t let him have it.”108 The lyrics are a Dylanesque collection of oblique yet evocative references to elements of an affair, reminiscent of Dylan’s “Spanish Harlem Incident” (1964) and have enjoyed many interpretations, but McCartney’s remarks seem to capture best the song’s story, if not its spirit. Like “Run for Your Life,” “Norwegian Wood” contains only a verse-refrain section, without independent chorus or bridge. Unlike any previous songs, the verse has an unusually repetitive a–a (A) –b–b1 (B) –a–a (C) phrase scheme, each phrase at this level containing two bars. Ned Rorem has described the effect of the a-phrase: “it is the arch of the tune — a movement growing increasingly disjunct, an inverted pyramid formed by a zigzag —which proves the song unique and memorable, rather than merely original.”109 Harmony is nearly as simple as possible; each a-phrase moves through nothing other than an E triad; b moves along Dorian scale degrees from In to IV, and b1 takes this pre-dominant to its destination, moving from In through II7 to V7. Tonic seems unchanging; there is an illusion of nVII in the second beat of A+2 (0:21) because of both the [025] in the bass and the Mixolydian turn in Lennon’s vocal, but tonic is maintained in the guitars. The stasis, reminiscent of “If You’ve Got Trouble,” creates an appropriate drone background for the sitar, giving the Mixolydian scale a particularly exotic (if not Norwegian!) spirit.110 Perhaps the narrator’s unrelieved frustration is the cause for the song’s static effect, which lies midway between the slow harmonic rhythm of “Ticket to Ride” and the total lack of harmonic rhythm in “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

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Example 4.5 “Norwegian Wood” (Take 2) (Lennon-McCartney). © 1965, Northern Songs.

♯ ♯ 12JL  8   

PM So

      

   I

lit

a fire;

   

is - n’t it

  ♮   

good







Nor- we - gian wood.

The song was first attempted on October 12 with a backing track of Jumbo, sitar, bass, and Ringo’s tapping his sticks on the snare rim and his fingers on the crash cymbal. This work was given overdubs of two vocals by Lennon and one by McCartney, plus maracas and tambourine (Take 1 with dubs is heard on Beatles 1996a). Not pleased with the production, the group began from scratch on October 21, remaking three more attempts at the basic tracks. Take 2 (Beatles 1993a) emphasizes the Jumbo less, featuring instead a heterophony of melodies from bass, sitar, and vocal. An extra McCartney vocal, scrapped for the final version, is performed in the song’s final line, as shown in example 4.5. Beginning with Take 3, the sitar is not heard in the basic tracks, and Take 4 (heard on Beatles 1991n) is that ultimately used for the master tape. The backing was laid onto two tracks, so that Lennon’s Jumbo (“Guitar I”) and Starr’s bass drum are sent to the right, and McCartney’s bass and Harrison’s twelvestring acoustic (“Guitar II,” which chimes in the bridge, as shown in the score’s sitar staff ) are sent to the left. Both guitars and bass are capoed at the second fret; earlier takes were performed in D, and apparently Lennon could not comfortably cadence on A. Two overdubbed tracks are likewise diverted to different channels: to the left goes Harrison’s sitar (having the tune of the a-phrase and — during the verse — its Mixolydian ending) and to the right go Lennon’s lead vocal and, in the bridge, McCartney’s descant and Starr’s tambourine. Stereo imaging for LP and disc are similar, but in 1977 the entire right channel of the original mix was pulled slightly to center for the compilation album Love Songs; for some unexplainable reason, this was done for “Girl” as well. Lennon reports having been “paranoid” that Bob Dylan rewrote “Norwegian Wood” in “4th Time Around” (1966), a song Dylan had played for the group in London.111 The songs are in the same key, tempo, meter, and vocal rhythm and share a similar texture, very similar melodic contour (see example 4.6), and poetic situations (Dylan’s: “It was then that I got up to leave but she said ‘don’t forget, / everybody must give something back for something they get’ ”; “She threw me outside, I stood in her dirt where everyone walked. / And after finding out I’d forgotten my shirt I went back and knocked.” . . . “I tried to make sense [of] her Jamaican rum and when she did come, I asked her for some.” The works of Lennon and Dylan never approached each other more closely. “Drive My Car” McCartney’s “Drive My Car” began as a sort of answer to “Can’t Buy Me Love,” with “a Zsa Zsa Gabor [snob] talking to her boy toy” in the chorus, “you can give me golden rings.” Lennon disliked the line, and the two together replaced it with “baby, you can drive my car,” having the would-be star

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

Example 4.6 “4th Time Around” (Bob Dylan). © 1966, Dwarf Music.

 

♯ ♯ ♯ ♯ 12    8 I_

   

 *

  

stood there and hummed, I tappedon her





drum,

 * I

   

askedher how come.

hire a chauffeur before she could afford the car. The unexpected change of situation in the last line repeats the twist of the ending of “Norwegian Wood.”112 The instrumental parts, while soulful throughout, often capture the starlet’s personality, especially in McCartney’s final overdubs. The left channel has the basic track, with drums, Lennon on tambourine, Harrison’s Strat part (“Guitar II”), and McCartney’s bass doubling that. Harrison: “I just played the line, which is really like a lick off [Donald “Duck” Dunn’s bass part for Otis Redding’s ‘Respect,’ September 1965] and I played that line on the guitar and Paul laid that with me on bass.”113 The main vocal track (center on compact disc, right on vinyl), with Lennon-McCartney leads and backing from Harrison (at B–1– 2), also includes leaks from a slide guitar, which had been attempted in the vocal take but was later redone. A third track, on the left, has only Lennon’s doubletracked vocal for “and maybe I’ll love you” and “beep”s (second ending and coda). The fourth track, on the right, features continuous cowbell, McCartney’s buoyantly debonair slide on the Casino (“Guitar I”) for the intro, wide-ranging solo (C), and coda, and his triplet-swaggering piano “punched into” the same track for the choruses (B).114 A new jazzy sophistication is heard in the vocal arrangement, where McCartney retains 4 through the verse (A) — dissonant over I and ultimately becoming a seventh in the cadential V7 (B–1– 2), Lennon simultaneously suspends the seventh of I into a 4 – 3 suspension over IV (A+1– 2) and then repeats that dissonant tone over the cadential V7 to create a Vs9 chord, and then Harrison’s vocal entry adds an incongruous-but-stubborn minor sixth above the Vs9, all tones repeated with the dissonant insistence of a honking car horn . . . apparently the intent. While such V harmonies as A– Cs– E – Cn– Fn– G do not remain characteristic of the Beatles, the 4 – 3 suspension introduced here will flavor many songs to come. The honking vocal texture here is reminiscent of the trumpet/tenor/bari Stax voicings that underlie Redding’s “Respect” and the other Memphis soul creations more accurately copied by the Beatles’ 1966 trumpet-and-sax charts for “Got to Get You into My Life.” The chords of the chorus, beginning with its tonicization of II (B minor), were apparently built around those of the refrain from “Run for Your Life.” On the heels of “Help!,” Lennon’s interjectory backing vocals, when given different stereo placement from McCartney’s, point the way to such contrasting vocal arrangements as will be heard in “Eleanor Rigby” and “She’s Leaving Home.” Perhaps the track’s most original feature is its ametrical introduction resulting from the apparent overdub of McCartney’s bottleneck-slide guitar over the bass/drum track, perhaps erasing a previous melody there. Starr’s oddly accented fill here could be linked to his syncopated, though much more deliber-

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ate, transition to the chorus at B–1– 2. The off-balance opening —with its blue notes presaging what is to come — is applied to the album as a whole, by virtue of Martin’s track sequence.115 “Day Tripper” While Lennon attributed some of the verse to his partner, he took nearly full credit for “Day Tripper,” which was to be the next single: “That’s mine. Including the lick, the guitar break and the whole bit. It’s just a rock ’n’ roll song. Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferryboat or something. But it was kind of — you know, you’re just a weekend hippie. Get it?”116 At the Beatles’ last concert, August 29, 1966, John introduced the song, “this one’s about the naughty lady called Day Tripper.”117 More of this lady’s character will be explored hereafter. Two backing tracks were done first: one was given bass and drums, and the other had Lennon’s Casino for rhythm (“Guitar II”) and Harrison’s performance, in spots, of the Lennon-composed ostinato (“Guitar I,” which also has the pedal-articulated rising scale on backbeats at C, misleadingly shown in the score on the “Guitar II” staff ). Both are mixed on the left. Overdubs heard on the right include a reverb-laden vocal track (Paul singing above John’s reach in the verse, A, and George joining for the first four bars of the refrain, B) and a fourth track with the composer’s tambourine and two more guitars: Harrison’s Casino (completing the “Guitar I” part but mute in the opening two bars in the mix for the U.S. stereo LP— for an essentially fully staggered entrance of the six instruments before the singers begin) and Lennon’s Strat followed by Harrison’s Casino adding the solos at C. Here, Lennon plays the ostinato on V (C+1– 6 [1:21–1:31]) and Harrison answers with the bluesy finish (C+7–10 [1:32 – 1:37]).118 With the bass line often doubled in octaves, McCartney’s falsetto (at B+5 – 6 [0:39 – 0:41]), and much of interest in between — including a guitar scale that rises a twelfth —“Day Tripper” is poised with registral as well as textural tension and balance.119 “Day Tripper” is a fine example of how the midperiod Beatles extended materials given to them in the repertoire of other artists. The guitar ostinato that begins the song (in I at A+1– 2 and in IV in A+5 – 6) could have been used in nearly any Motown production. In fact, it conflates Robert White’s guitar ostinato in Robinson’s “My Girl” (the Temptations, December 1964), with the older Barrett Strong riff from “Money” and tops it off with the c-trichord from Marvin Gaye’s “I’ll Be Doggone” (March 1965). Other models could be found in Presley, the Shirelles, Bobby Parker, Jackie Wilson, and even Oscar Peterson examples. A rockabilly influence can be traced in the ostinato’s touch of Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman” (August 1964), and C&W is heard in the parallel vocal lines at B. John’s vocal was compared, in the single’s initial review, to Lee Dorsey’s “Ride Your Pony” of July 1965.120 The triplets in the coda sound like they were taken from the Four Seasons’ “Dawn (Go Away)” (1964). Harrison’s guitar solo at C is not unlike John Mayall’s blues improvisations — more “rubber soul.” The twelve-bar blues form serves as a springboard for “Day Tripper,” the verses of which begin with two four-bar phrases that satisfy the typical poetic,

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

harmonic, and instrumental guidelines of the blues. The third phrase (B+1– 8 [0:32– 0:45]), however, is extended to eight bars and prolongs VI –V (voice-led with parallel perfect intervals!), instead of the blues model’s V– (IV) – I. The harmonic function of the apparent progression I (through A) – IIs7(B+1– 4) is ambiguous yet is decidedly off on a one-way journey from which no one has ever returned, until the German 56 resolution in B+5 – 6 (0:39 – 0:41). It is then clear that VI, Cs, has been tonicized through B, via its own IV9– Ger65 –V7. The submediant is an area that was suggested with force in “I Saw Her Standing There” and, of course, has been expanded in “Run for Your Life” and “Drive My Car” and will be expanded again in October’s “We Can Work It Out” and “I’m Looking through You.”121 Aside from its departure from the blues form, many aspects mark “Day Tripper” as an interesting composition. Several dissonances involving seconds lend coherence to the guitar ostinato: the chromatic FS neighbor that resolves to Gs (m. 1), the syncopated (and tonically accented) fs neighbor (m. 2) that originates in the e of measure 1 and resolves only at the end of measure 2, and the nagging dn (mm. 1– 2) that resolves not as a neighbor to e but as a passing tone (as the seventh in V7/IV) to cs at A+5 (the gn in which measure resolves, by way of the FS respelling implied at A+7, directly to Gs). On a larger scale, the halfstep motive is obviously important in the change from E to Es as the bass moves to VI and is the origin of the Ger 56 resolution (see bass, rhythm guitar, and backing vocals in B+5 – 6). The text suggests the meaning behind some of these events; the song is about a “teaser” who can be heard in the ostinato’s teasing fs neighbor that “skirts” e. The ostinato’s dn conveys a nagging frustration that lingers in the coda (“she” did, after all, only take him “half the way there”), despite the singer’s gradual (“it took me so long to find out, and I found out”— B+5 – 8) realization (“ah!,” C) that he was being used.122 It is in the bump of discontinuity from tonicized Cs to the home V7 (C–1– 2) that Lennon first wakes up to reality. The singer’s gradual realization is musically portrayed in a strong climax. The second verse is followed by a carefully worked out dominant prolongation, C+1–12, which creates an increasing amount of tension through the bass pedal (which grows in rhythmic intensity from quarters through a dotted rhythm to steady eighths), the registral ascent of the solo guitar (“Guitar I”), the regularly rising backbeat scale from b to fs2 in Harrison’s first guitar, the progressively louder cymbal playing, and the crescendi and measured acceleration in the vocal attacks (producing durations of w in C+7– 9 [1:31–1:36], w in C+10 –11 [1:36 –1:39], and h in C+12 [1:40 –1:41]–– corresponding slurs should be inserted into the score) that perfectly express a gradually-arising, yet sudden sensation of, enlightenment.123 Although tonic arrives at C+13 (1:42), tension is still contained in the tambourine shake (C+13 –14) and is released only when the ensemble agrees that I is achieved, at the entrance of the drums and rhythm guitar in C+15 –16. Again, a staggered entrance prepares the returning verse, where both Lennon and McCartney adjust the melodic shape just enough to express a renewed exasperation. They never cool off but fade away with the nagging ostinato.

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Example 4.7 “Bells of Rhymney” (Peter Seeger – Idris Davies). © 1965, Ludlow Music, Inc.



♯♯

D

%

     

      



“If I Needed Someone” George Harrison says that his “If I Needed Someone” “is like a million other songs written around the D chord. If you move your finger about you get various little melodies. . . . That guitar line, or variations on it, is found in many a song and it amazes me that people still find new permutations of the same notes.”124 More confidentially, Harrison revealed to Derek Taylor at the time of composition that the song was based not on “a million other songs” but on two by the Byrds, “Bells of Rhymney” and “She Don’t Care about Time.”125 The syncopated opening of the former, played on McGuinn’s twelve-string Rickenbacker, is given in example 4.7. The recording’s basic track has bass, drums, and Lennon’s bright Strat on the left; Harrison’s lead vocal and McCartney’s descant are in the center; and a third track has Harrison’s double-tracked lead and Lennon’s vocal (in the middle, except for the break, D, where he sings the lowest part) on the right. A fourth track, with Harrison’s exceedingly bright capoed Ricky 12 and Ringo’s tambourine, is normally heard on the left but moves to the right for the solo (D) and coda. Unlike later Rubber Soul mixes, this new image is probably not a result of panning the track during mixing but seems more like the editing together of two different stereo mixes, one that has the fourth track on the left and the other with that track on the right (note the false edit for the coda at 2:08, where the guitar is articulated on the left but continues midsustain on the right). All guitars and bass are capoed at the seventh fret, transposing up from a D fingering to an A sound; Lennon’s Strat (with treble pickup) and Harrison’s Ricky 12 create the Beatles’ brightest guitar sound yet, a fitting tribute to the Byrds.126 McCartney predicts the stunning bass work of 1966 when he arpeggiates upward through a twelfth, as he does here in the verses (A, B, E), and his maintenance of the I arpeggio through the fVII chord (A+5 – 6 [0:15 – 0:18]) does the same. Lennon’s vocal is similarly dissonant in the break, with its “Day Tripper”– like sustained “ah”s; at D+5 – 8 (1:15 –1:18) he doubles the bassist by singing A under a G chord but then moves to G over the tonic A chord (the score is incorrect). This sort of dissonance will dominate Revolver in 1966. Repeated from the previously recorded composition “Day Tripper” is the pantonal planing of three-part root-position triads (B+1– 4 in both songs, 0:22– 0:30 in “If I Needed”), a Byrds-like technique that will also return in the Beatles’ following recording. AIR engineer Ron Richards must have felt that the vocal arrangement would suit his Hollies, for that group recorded the song (peaking in the British charts at #23) before the Beatles released their LP.127 One final note: like Harrison’s previous 1965 compositions, “If I Needed Someone” is in a cheery major mode. But whereas “You Like Me Too Much” and “I Need You”

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

place minor triads into major contexts, the bridge of “Needed Someone” fully tonicizes a minor area, the mediant, without any hint of the Dorian inflections preferred in earlier work, apparently leaving that for Lennon’s “Run for Your Life.” “In My Life” John Lennon: “I think ‘In My Life’ was the first song that I wrote that was really, consciously about my life, and it was sparked by a remark a journalist and writer in England [Kenneth Alsopf] made after In His Own Write came out. . . . But he said to me, ‘Why don’t you put some of the way you write in the book, as it were, in the songs? Or why don’t you put something about your childhood into the songs?’ ”128 Chastised, Lennon set to work, describing the sights along a bus trip taken from his home on Menlove Avenue to the city center: Penny Lane is one I’m missing Up Church Road to the Clock Tower In the circle of the Abbey I have seen some happy hours Past the Tramsheds with no trams On the five bus into town Past the Dutch and St. Columbus To the Dockers Umbrella that they pulled down.129

The composer found this dull and reworked the lyrics in his music room at Kenwood to recall — in a less constrained manner — friends and lovers, both dead (a reference to Stu Sutcliffe) and living (such as Pete Shotton).130 “And it was, I think, my first real major piece of work.”131 John says that Paul helped with the music, particularly in the bridge (B), but McCartney has a vivid memory of composing the entire “Miracles-inspired” tune on a Mellotron in a half-hour at Kenwood.132 There was always a degree of dispute as to just how much of the tune and chords were McCartney’s; Lennon often referred to this as one of his own best melodies. McCartney recalls writing the tune on the Kenwood Mellotron, and he is correct in claiming that “the melody’s structure is very me.”133 Exactly as in the similarly nostalgic “Yesterday,” the tune of “In My Life” leaps up an octave, then descends back to 1 only to cadence gently on a wistful 3 when dominant support is not found. But, as pointed out to me by Albin Zak, Lennon recreates this cadence in an early sketch for “Strawberry Fields Forever,” a later song about his childhood. Example 4.8 presents the end of Lennon’s earliest conception of the chorus of “Strawberry Fields” (from Track 6 of Beatles 1997b), quite reminiscent of the ending of “In My Life.” One thing is sure — the scrapped verse for “In My Life” quoted earlier does not in any way scan with the familiar verse melody, making it clear that Lennon did not have the ultimate melody in mind during the early stages of composition. The two composers’ individual harmonic languages are so tightly intertwined that it is difficult to make a firm determination as to whose music graces “In My Life,” even given its idiosyncratic aspects of harmony and voice leading. The f7– 6 –f6 – 5 line supporting a tonicized IV moving to its borrowed minor form (heard at A+2– 3 [0:12– 0:16], adding an appropriately bittersweet flavor

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Example 4.8 “Strawberry Fields Forever,” compositional draft (Lennon).

 

♯♯♯

nylon-string strumming D



JL

   ♮     ♮ 

Straw - ber- ry_

Dm

Fields_

and

A



no -

 



thing._

to the reminiscences) is first heard in Lennon’s own “If I Fell” (moving to its bridge, with similar poetic associations), and the same specific line, A– Gn– Fs– Fn– E, is heard in “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and numerous other solo Lennon compositions. The chromatic descent, however, is emphasized here not by Lennon but by McCartney, first with the exposed seventh, gn, in his bass (A+2) and then with its resolution through fs2 and fn2 to e2 in his upper backing vocal (A+3 – 4). (Chromatic descents, especially from 8 to 5 and within portions of that tetrachord, become important to McCartney beginning in late 1964; witness the 6–f6–5 line heard in his reworked “I’ll Follow the Sun” and in “Michelle.” Lennon is as apt to color other intervals with chromatic descents, as in the 5–3 motion of “Baby’s in Black” and the 3–1 in “And Your Bird Can Sing.”) Likewise, the use of fVII as a Mixolydian neighbor to I (B+3 [0:32 – 0:34]) has been closely associated with Lennon (“Ticket to Ride,” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” and “If You’ve Got Trouble” in 1965), but this function is highlighted in McCartney’s very next recorded composition, “We Can Work It Out.” Both composers are equally fluent with the Lydian IIs– IV– I cadence (B+6 – 7 [0:39 – 0:43]; the score requires a ds2 in George’s vocal part, and there should be an fn1 in the guitar part, D+3), with “Yesterday” again being a recent model. John and Paul had such a long history of writing “into each others’ noses” that the origins of even such Beatles-marking details can’t be securely placed with one or the other. The recording has the basic track (October 18) of bass, drums, Harrison’s lead (“Guitar I”), Lennon’s soft Casino (“Guitar II”), and (Martin’s?) tambourine alternating pairs of bars in the bridge (B, played in unison with Starr’s tapping the crown of his ride cymbal) on the left. Lennon’s lead vocal with descant from Paul is center on the compact disc (this track is right on vinyl). Another vocal track (John lead, Paul and George backing) is on the right, as is the fourth track with Martin’s October 22 overdub of “wind-up” piano for the invention-styled solo (C). Martin first attempted the solo, which he says he composed himself, on the Hammond, and then played it at half speed, an octave below the desired sound, on the Steinway, achieving not only strict beat-division placement but also a harpsichord-like rapid decay.134 The Bach reference in a song that has roots in Lennon’s memories of Penny Lane will be rekindled in McCartney’s own “Penny Lane” (1966 – 67). As in “Yesterday,” suggestions of music’s historical past accompany the reawakening of the singer’s memories: Martin’s interlude is juxtaposed against Lennon-McCartney’s dead-wakening organum-like lines in the bridge, sung over Harrison’s eerie (especially the third time through

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

B) open fifth. Whereas in 1963 – 64 the Beatles often contrasted phrases of one vocal part with phrases of two, “In My Life” and others in Rubber Soul represent a new desire to contrast two-part passages with others in three parts. Lennon’s notable solo line is the falsetto conclusion, with the group’s first meno mosso cadence since “She Loves You” (other than “Wait,” which is still awaiting release). “We Can Work It Out” McCartney wrote the verse structure of “We Can Work It Out” on guitar at his father’s house in Heswall, Cheshire, and gave a homemade tape to Lennon, who provided the bridge.135 The latter: “Paul did the first half, I did the middle eight. But you’ve got Paul writing, ‘We can work it out / We can work it out’— real optimistic, y’know, and me, impatient: ‘Life is very short and there’s no time / For fussing and fighting, my friend. [Interviewer: “Paul tells the story and John philosophizes.”] Sure. . . . I always looked below the surface.”136 Lennon’s form of address, “my friend,” had been heard in McCartney’s “Can’t Buy Me Love” but more closely echoes that phrase as sung in Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “Oxford Town.” The topic is daringly introspective for McCartney, although the lines do not evince awareness of their selfishness; it is the girl who must come around and see things his way. The recording features two tracks on the left and three on the right, even though only four were taped. The basic track of McCartney’s bass, Starr’s drums, Lennon’s Jumbo, and Harrison’s tambourine is heard on the left. On the right is one track with McCartney’s lead vocal and Lennon’s lower vocal for the bridge (C). A third track, heard on the right until the final cadence, has Lennon’s first performance on the harmonium, played on the refrains (B–1– 2, C–1– 2) and bridges but not on the verses (A–B). This track floats silently to the left channel for the final tonic harmony, which is sustained through the last two bars, ending with 1 on top. The fourth track, heard entirely on the right, includes McCartney’s double-tracked lead vocal and Lennon’s second take on the harmonium, this time played with noticeable swelling, and only in the verses (A+1– 6, B+1– 6). This second harmonium ends with the moving line that concludes 3–4–3.137 This conclusion sums up the song’s frequent 4 – 3 figuration, beginning with the fs– g – fs guitar line in A+1– 3, with the finger moving “around the D chord,” as Harrison has been quoted in reference to “If I Needed Someone.” In fact, the guitar’s g2 here and the singer’s neighbor e2 motivate the fVII chord of A+2– 3 (0:03 – 0:05) as consonant support for the two neighbors. The harmonium’s swells emphasize the neighbors, particularly g to fs. McCartney concludes each verse with a 4 – 3 suspension over a nonresolving V (it actually is handled deceptively in entering the bridge). The lack of resolution, later to have a similar effect in “For No One” (1966), does not allow the listener to understand how the misunderstanding will be “worked out.” The verse’s metric construction describes the misunderstanding: it is built of an off-balance 3+3+2 grouping, reminiscent of the 412+5 of “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” which also develops the guitar’s 4 – 3 work on the open D triad. Within this 3+3+2, a subtle cross-meter of 64 is stressed by the neighbor-based harmonic rhythm (112+112+112+112+2).

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The insistent bridge, which duplicates other Rubber Soul recordings in expanding VI (involving the same Bm – G – Fs progression as in “Run for Your Life” and alluded to in “Drive My Car”), features the 4 – 3 suspension in the harmonium over V/VI (C+4). Lennon’s harmonium part seems to motivate the turn to B minor, as his b – a – b – a neighbor figure of C–1– 2 (0:37– 0:41) surprises with a switch to b – as– b at C+1– 5 (0:37– 0:48). Like the verse-refrain, the bridge also encompasses twelve bars, now asymmetrically divided as 4+2+4+2. The “fussing and fighting” are well portrayed in the suspensions and in the triplets of C+4 – 6 (0:46 – 0:50), a rhythm that reminds Tim Riley of an oom-pahpah calliope, and — via the merry-go-round image —“the futility of the argument.”138 Oddly, the bridge ends firmly on tonic, even though the text there states an intent to make a request. Balancing the odd end of the refrain, the effect is of resolving to continually ask for an agreement that is never to be offered, looking ahead to a related acquiescence that will color “Strawberry Fields Forever.” “Nowhere Man” Lennon says that “Nowhere Man” was at first the self-description of an uninspired composer; “I’d spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good and I finally gave up and lay down. Then ‘Nowhere Man’ came, words and music, the whole damn thing, as I lay down.”139 Extrapolated as a social commentary, the song has “their first lyric to completely depart from the subject of boy-girl relationships”140 The Beatles taped an aborted effort on October 21 and made a fresh start the next day. On the original LP mix, the basic track of bass (McCartney’s most melodic part yet, rich with passing tones, bouncy neighbors, and optimistic anticipations), drums (with Starr’s rare transitional snare roll, C–1 [0:30 – 0:31], last bar of first ending and second bar of coda), and Lennon’s Jumbo (“Guitar II,” capoed on the second fret for a D-major fingering) was on the left. Two tracks, each with the three double-tracked vocals (Lennon leading), were on the right. A fourth track with Harrison’s and Lennon’s overdubbed Strats (“Guitar I” without capo; mostly in a tight unison but the two players are betrayed by intonation-related beats and by different parts at the second retransition, 2:03 – 2:06) were on the left, except for the two-man solo (D), which was placed on the right. With an unintended sloppiness that was not repeated in the 1987 mix for compact disc, the fifth-fret harmonic that ends the solo (last bar of first ending [1:02–1:05]) pans from right to left, evidencing Martin’s use in a third song on the album of a “roving” fourth track. This harmonic can be heard as an unintentional harbinger for all of the “spacey” panning characteristic of late-1960s psychedelia. “Nowhere Man” is one of the rare tracks that has a substantially different stereo image on the 1987 compact disc than that appearing on the original stereo releases (for most digital remasterings, Martin merely adjusted the equalization to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, but as I have shown, some vocals were pulled to center in a number of Rubber Soul tracks), and it is one of only two pre-1966 Beatle songs that were remixed with substantial digital signal processing for the 1999 release of the Yellow Submarine Songtrack. The 1987 compact disc mix (used on the “Red” collection as well as on Rubber Soul) is

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

more elaborate than the original, with the Strats (except solo) on the left, the basic track left of center, one set of vocals right of center, and the other vocals and Strat solo (without a panning harmonic) on the extreme right. The very crisp 1999 mix has vocals on the extreme right and left; Jumbo, bass, and drums left of center; and the Strats just right of center. The unusual timbre of the Stratocasters is a result of the Beatles’ new confidence in controlling the technical side of production. McCartney remembers: “we wanted very treble-y guitars, which they are, they’re among the most treble-y guitars I’ve ever heard on record. The engineer said ‘All right, I’ll put full treble on it’ and we said ‘that’s not enough’ and he said ‘But that’s all I’ve got, I’ve only got one pot and that’s it!’ and we replied ‘Well, put that through another lot of faders and put full treble up on that. And if that’s not enough we’ll go through another lot of faders and . . .’ ”141 The strings were probably also plucked forcefully right at the bridge to excite the fullest possible treble vibrations. Lennon’s melody (beginning with a repeated b1) is buried in the vocal texture (in between McCartney’s higher and Harrison’s lower parts), contributing toward the expression of the text’s sense of misplacement in “nowhere-land.” Mixture from the minor mode, at B–3 (0:10 – 0:12) and B+6 (0:26 – 0:28), adds poignancy to the sadness of the situation. A sense of confusion is brought out more clearly in the wide-ranging guitar solo. Here, the guitar further decomposes direction and identity by alternating inverted measures of Lennon’s and McCartney’s vocal lines and ending with a motivic hodgepodge of all three vocal parts. It is ironic that the lack of direction that Lennon bemoans is musically complemented by the highly directional structure of his buried melody, a barely adorned fundamental line from 5 (5 in A+1– 2 [0:00+], 4 at A+3 [0:04], 3 in A+4 [0:07], 2 in A+5 [0:08], 1 in A+7– 8 [0:13]), with a supremely confident a cappella opening. Also incongruous is the guitar’s bright natural harmonic, sounding e3 (three octaves above the previous note), which evokes clarity (enlightenment?); this sustains above the ensuing text, “he’s as blind as he can be.” By virtue of its highly directional preparation of V (ascending in the bass at C from Gs through A to B, as the upper voice decorates the primary tone with its complete upper neighbor, cs2), the bridge corroborates the listener’s comprehension that the Nowhere Man is proceeding in a clear, successful direction, but he is the only one unaware of his ability to do so. The text and music combine ironically with the composer’s motivating concern to show that even when he is unconscious of his talent, Lennon’s songwriting is inspired. “I’m Looking through You” Lennon and McCartney having alternated offerings since the album’s first track, “I’m Looking through You” represented McCartney’s next turn. Like “We Can Work It Out,” this song reflects trouble in the McCartney-Asher relationship.142 The composer on his behavior toward the actress: “I knew it was selfish. It caused a few rows. Jane left me once and went off to Bristol to act. I said okay, then leave; I’ll find someone else.” McCartney wrote these songs in the attic music room of Asher’s house while she was in Bristol.143

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Take 1 of “I’m Looking through You” was done — basic tracks and overdubs — on October 24, but the song was remade on November 6 and again on the 10th. Vocal overdubs on the 11th, continuing through the morning of the 12th, were the final recordings for the LP. The ultimately used Take 4 differs from Take 1 (Beatles 1996a) chiefly with its faster tempo (q = 164 as opposed to q = 132), its substitution of a bridge passage (C) for the previous electric twelvebar blues jam, and its pitch center of Af as opposed to G . The pitch change was probably not achieved with a capo but, given attack/decay envelopes, was more likely due to sped-up tape — later a ubiquitous Beatle technique. Take 1 has a great contrast of textures not heard in the later version; a soft acoustic verse (with unaccented handclaps, maracas, two fingerpicked nylon-string guitars, bass, and two vocals by Paul and one by John) is followed by a twelve-bar blues (the preceding arrangement less vocals, plus electric guitar, drums, and Ringo’s harmonium) that follows on the cadential extension equivalent to B+8 –11 (0:28 – 0:32). The original intro (replaced in the faster version) is given as example 4.9a, and the cadential extension (having the function of B+8 –11) as example 4.9b. Note the heavy blues leanings of the [025] cluster in the harmonium (preserved on the Hammond B-3 in Take 4) as doubled in the electric guitar (later altered). This and the following blues break are raucous (the harmonium cluster repeats, untransposed, through all chord changes), taunting the listener with the post –“Nowhere Man” accusation “you’re nowhere!” Take 1 ends with an extended blues jam (cut off at 3:08 on Beatles 1993f but faded at about 2:52 on Beatles 1996a) –– more “rubber soul.” The final version has a basic track of bass, drums, Lennon’s Jumbo (with 4 – 3 suspensions in the bridge, C+7– 8 [1:07–1:09], that with the vocals create the strongest cadential 64 heard in a Beatle song yet), and Harrison’s tambourine (for cadential extension, bridge, and coda) on the left. McCartney’s lead vocal (ranging as high as a bluesy cf3, at B+7 [0:27]) is heard in the center (pulled from the album’s right to center for the CD) and another vocal track by McCartney with Lennon, with handclaps (on laps?), is on the right. This second vocal track introduces a telling split from unison to two parts for the D-gesture, B+1– 4 (0:18 – 0:23), indicating a sudden inability to focus on the girl’s nature. Vocal registers are particularly meaningful in the third verse, where spatial positions are compared. The fourth track, featuring — on the extension and coda —Ringo’s repeated Hammond cluster and Harrison’s very “dirty” Casino, is also on the right.144 The new bridge (C) is based simply on a descending major scale — extending a ninth from 6 down to 5–– fulfilling a melodic tendency of McCartney also satisfied in the verse of “Penny Lane,” in the chorus of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” and in instrumental parts in “Hello Goodbye,” “Lady Madonna,” and others. The one-bar anacrusis that follows the cadential 64 extends the bridge to a very natural nine bars. “Michelle” For more than two years, “Michelle” was an instrumental number that McCartney played on acoustic guitar. The song’s germ, its introduction, was based on a style of two-part oblique voicing from Chet Atkins’s “Trambone” (March 1962), and its verse structure was full of colorful jazz sonorities

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

Example 4.9a “I’m Looking through You” (Take 1) (Lennon-McCartney). © 1965, Northern Songs.

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such as the added-sixth “Gretty” chord that had wound up in the “Till There Was You” solo and fully diminished seventh chords revoiced time after time as they ascend the guitar neck. Many friends heard this at parties, with exaggerated Charles Aznavour – style cabaret vocalizing.145 Thus, like “Hold Me Tight,” “I’ll Follow the Sun,” and “Yesterday” (and like “When I’m Sixty-Four” to

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Example 4.9b “I’m Looking through You” (Take 1) (Lennon-McCartney). © 1965, Northern Songs.

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come), “Michelle” marks the completion of a very old McCartney draft for an LP. One mid-1963 home tape of the instrumental version has a rudimentary though highly chromatic bridge passage — perhaps an experiment — that has never surfaced again; this is shown, as performed in C, as example 4.10a (the 1963 draft is heard on Beatles 1992b). We also have a second draft without vocal, probably from the fall of 1965, with McCartney playing his Casino (heard on Beatles 1994g). Still prior to input from Lennon, McCartney has revamped his bridge, but all we have are the Ellingtonian chord changes, one s9 –Afs9 – G4 – 3; we’re guessing that, chord per bar: Cm – FM –Af7– Cm / Cm – FM b7 b7 as the capo is not yet in use, there has been no engagement with the ultimate lead vocal and thus no change from the tonal center of C. Perhaps the strong appearance of fVI in this second draft inspires Lennon’s surprise tonicization of fVI in the final version. McCartney could never let go of the once-jokey French frame of reference, and so he approached Jan Vaughan, a French-teacher and wife of Liverpool mate Ivan, who gave him the line around which the song was built, “’Michelle, ma belle’ sont les mots qui vont très bien ensemble.”146 McCartney still lacked a useable contrasting section when he shared the new lyrics with his partner; Lennon offered a bridge (C) with a “bluesy edge,” inspired by the intense spirit of a line from Nina Simone’s scatted version of “I Put a Spell on You” (August 1965).147 The salient phrase that was to be recomposed by Lennon is reproduced here as example 4.10b. Note Lennon’s altering the contour of the [025] trichord as well as its accent pattern. Alan Pollack is right when he calls McCartney’s coda a “masterstroke,” as it decorates the structure of what had originally been both the retransition and the intro with a new tune “that is both more similar in style to that of the verse itself, and befitting of closure in terms of its melodic shape.”148 It seems that two tracks were given to the basic recordings, with two taken by overdubs. From the initial recording, Paul’s Texan, George’s part on the twelve-string acoustic (John’s Framus), and Ringo’s drumming (rim shots and

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

Example 4.10a “Michelle,” compositional draft.

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tapping on the closed hi-hat) are heard right, and John’s chromatically descending part on the Ramírez nylon-string guitar (for the introduction and retransitions) is heard left. We also hear Paul’s lead vocal (right) and a fourth track with Paul’s very independent overdubbed bass, three backing vocals, and George’s part on a heavily distorted Casino (on neck pickup with the treble turned all the way down and MRB way up) — for the solo (D) and coda (left). All guitars except the solo Casino were capoed at the fifth fret — played in C, sounding in a very bright F. Harrison’s Casino part was taught him by Martin; the sequential solo embellishing the structure of the melody is reminiscent of two similar breaks arranged by Martin for Cilla Black in 1964: one for bassoon and English horn, in octaves, for “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” and another for baritone-register electric guitar for “You’re My World.” The Beatles were again exploring new ground with their combinations of guitar timbres, lines, and textures. McCartney has spoken on numerous occasions about his bass line for “Michelle,” and how he purposefully uses an accented 5 in the intro (m. 1), the insistent retransition (C+7 [0:45]), and the sympathetic ending (F+1 [2:11]), all passages sharing the same voice-leading structure.149 The academically untrained composer, on his discovery of the dissonant 64 : “if you’re in C, and you put [the bass] on G— something that’s not the root note — it creates a little tension. It’s great. It just [takes a long, expectant, gasping breath] holds the track, and so by the time you go to C, it’s like, ‘Oh, thank God he went to C!’ And you can create tension with it.”150 The cadential 64 has just been demonstrated in McCartney’s “I’m Looking through You,” as well as a few earlier Beatle recordings. At C+1 (0:33 – 0:34), as in the original version of “I’m Looking through

327

Example 4.10c Analysis of “Michelle.”

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Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

You” (at the verse’s cadential extension), McCartney’s bass doubles — in heterophony — the same [025] trichord that he sings, in this case C – Ef– F. This fragment was Lennon’s “bluesy edge” to the song, as he called it — yet more “rubber soul.”151 Mellers says, “the subtlety of the song lies in the contrast between chromatic sophistication . . . and pentatonic innocence.”152 As for the former, the chromatic descent from 8 to 5 expanding the introductory/retransitional V is only a hint of the song’s complexities of mode mixture (the piece is in F major, by virtue of beginning and ending, even though the F minor scale predominates) involving a tonicization of fVI in the bridge, all sketched in example 4.10c. Note especially the mixture-developed neighbor to 1 in the bridge, where f2 is first ornamented by g2 (C+1– 2 [0:33 – 0:36]) and then by gf2 (C+3 – 4 [0:37– 0:40], backing vocals). At this point, the bass [025] has a pivoting function; the same c – ef that prepares f at C+1 arpeggiates even more surely up to af at C+2. The bass line at C+7– 8 (0:45 – 0:48) reminds us that the c – ef– f [025] is a modification of the song’s bass opening, c – en– f, the off-balance notes of which McCartney is so proud. The wondrous tonal motions into the fresh new areas in the bridge befit the singer’s eloquent attempts to communicate his love, which he does by bringing his inner-voice emotions into the upper register, f2– g2– f2– gf2– f2, as shown in the sketch. Although not a Beatles single, “Michelle” was the radio hit of Rubber Soul, and George Martin worked fast to have his new AIR client, the duo David & Jonathan, record the song. Their version entered the Top Twenty in both Britain and the States. Table 2.8 shows that on the WABC playlist, the Beatles’ “Michelle” outlasted their American single “Nowhere Man” thirteen weeks to twelve in New York. As of January 1968 “Michelle” was the second-most covered Lennon-McCartney composition behind only “Yesterday,” with eighty versions. By 1981, the same two songs dominated this category, with 201 recordings of “Michelle.”153 “What Goes On” “What Goes On” was Lennon’s answer to “Michelle,” in that it was a song begun long before its recording, possibly in Quarry Men days. McCartney and Starr collaborated on the verses of Ringo’s jealousy-laden vocal number for the LP. The substance of the last verse reverberates with the third verse of Paul’s “I’m Looking through You.” The drummer says of his contribution, in August 1966: “[I wrote] about five words to ‘What Goes On’ and I haven’t done a thing since.”154 Beatle road manager Neil Aspinall remembers that McCartney made a multitrack home demo of the song: “When Paul wanted to show Ringo how ‘What Goes On’ sounded he made up a multi-track tape. Onto this went Paul singing, Paul playing lead guitar, Paul playing bass and Paul playing drums. Then Ringo listened to the finished tape and added his own ideas before the recording session.”155 Between “Michelle” and “What Goes On,” McCartney was obviously becoming proficient at overdubbing multiple parts, a skill that was to show in solo LPs of 1970 and 1979. The simple recording features McCartney’s soulful, [025]-full bass line and Starr’s drums plus overdubbed vocal on the left and Lennon’s Capri (featuring

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a Steve Cropper-styled Memphis “chick” rhythm part) and Harrison’s Tennessean (with rockabilly string crossings, double-stops, and portamento neighbors), plus country-tinged backing descant vocals from Lennon and McCartney, on the right. (The Tennessean is muted for the last two bars (2:39 – 2:46) of the mono mix, perhaps because an engineer intended to mute the backing vocal track at that point, forgetting that the guitar was there as well.) Note Lennon’s 4 – 3 suspension on the cadential V of the chorus, A+9 (0:26 – 0:28), as well as his odd mixture-produced augmented second in B+5 (0:41– 0:43). Starr must have done a guide vocal during the basic tracks, subsequently wiped by the finished take; his original part can be heard bleeding onto a drum mike during the solo (C) and coda, as can Lennon’s off-mike response to Starr’s “tell me why” (C–2– 3, second time) —“we already told you why,” perhaps in reference to the Hard Day’s Night song. The chief composer had long since stopped taking the song very seriously, probably a prerequisite to giving it to Ringo to perform. As was “Act Naturally” on the Help! LP, this Ringo vocal was chosen to begin the second side of Rubber Soul. “Twelve-Bar Original” Perhaps knowing that “I’m Looking through You” was about to be remade without its twelve-bar section, the Beatles set out on November 4 to record an instrumental blues on its own. The take was announced “Twelve-Bar Original” and counted out by McCartney. At 6’42”, the take consists of seventeen twelve-bar choruses in E, taped live without overdubs, with drums, bass (most active in the ninth chorus), Harrison’s Strat with tone pedal (featuring a Duane Eddy knock-off in the fifth chorus), Lennon’s Casino, and Martin’s harmonium (tremolo-heavy in the second chorus).156 When editing “12-Bar Original” for the Anthology, Martin chose to include only choruses #1– 2 (0:00 – 0:46), #9 –10 (3:04 – 3:50), #14 (4:59 – 5:22), and #16 –17 (5:46 – 6:38). Although unreleased until 1996, the Beatles’ first instrumental number since “Cry for a Shadow” might actually have been originally undertaken as the LP’s title track. “Think for Yourself ” As he did for Help!, Harrison contributed two songs to Rubber Soul; and he would write three for the following LP. In “Think for Yourself,” he returns from the light pop sound of “I Need You,” “You Like Me Too Much,” and “If I Needed Someone” to the nasty, cynical world of “Don’t Bother Me.” As in numerous other songs from Rubber Soul, vocal tracks are split between the two channels. On the left are heard bass, drums, and Harrison’s rhythm part for Strat from the basic track (at which point the song was still called “Won’t Be There with You”) and a vocal track with all three singers, Harrison leading. (The three-part minor-mode vocals remind this listener of an early-1965 British nonhit, “Lonely Room” by Mal Ryder & the Spirits.) On the right is heard Lennon’s organ from the basic track, plus an overdub track of three more vocals with tambourine, maraca, and Paul’s fuzz bass. McCartney simply doubles his bass line on the “fuzz bass,” which part is played on the Casino plugged into a distortion box that overloads the signal with an intermediate amplifier rigged by the AIR engineers so that irregular resonances in the

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

circuit are highly amplified as strong formants approaching a square wave; the long-sustaining dirty timbre suggests all of the lyric’s bitter qualities.157 Although primitive in comparison, the relatively ornate bass line added to George’s song here predicts an important factor in what will make “Something” so elegant in 1969. Despite all of the apparent work, no tape-to-tape reduction (bouncing down the tracks in a second generation to make way for additional parts) would have been necessary; the second of the two overdubbed vocal tracks simply wiped a guide vocal that had originally taken that place. The original four-track working tape of “Think for Yourself ” was copied and digitally scrubbed in 1999 for a pristine hearing on Yellow Submarine Songtrack. Recalling the modal quality as well as the acerbic tone of “Don’t Bother Me,” “Think for Yourself ” has an ambiguous tonal coloring. All of the total chromatic except for Cs is a chord member: the G major scale is commonly ornamented with chromatic passing tone Gs (A–1 [0:03]); Bf and Fn appear by virtue of both Dorian mixture (as in A+2– 3 [0:06 – 0:09]) and the pentatonic minor (as in B+1– 4 [0:26 – 0:33], and in every V7, which takes on the s9 quality); and Ef is borrowed from the harmonic minor (B+5 [0:33 – 0:34], creating a fVI –V progression that has already been heard in “Michelle” and in applied situations in “Run for Your Life,” “Day Tripper,” and “We Can Work It Out”). As in “Day Tripper,” every I to the last includes f7. Harrison’s pentatonic melody in the chorus (B, the first four bars of which emulate the second phrase of a twelve-bar blues, more “rubber soul”), the source of McCartney’s triplet bass run (B+4 [0:31– 0:33]), is accompanied first by an [025] trichord in perfect fifths above (B+3 – 4 [0:29 – 0:33]) and then by McCartney’s descant from the minor (B+5 – 6 [0:33 – 0:36]) before cadencing in G major. The mixture of scales is so strange that the three-part vocals had to be rehearsed and recorded phrase by phrase, three or four bars at a time, for each verse; chord quality — particularly the major quality of the G chord at B–2 —was the main issue of chat between vocal takes.158 Even the tonal center is called into question by the unexpected move to A minor at B–1 (0:24 – 0:25), sounding momentarily as if it resolves the preceding G7 as its fVII. The tonal capriccio is well suited to the notion of the questioning and hesitation that accompany being forced to think about one’s identity, the song’s basic concept. In this respect, Harrison’s composition informs his “I Want to Tell You” (1966) and more significant later work by Lennon. “The Word” Lennon on his saintly flower-child incantation: “ ‘The Word’ was written together, but it’s mainly mine. . . . I write messages.”159 Again (after “Michelle”), McCartney had to overdub his bass part, this time because he’d played the Steinway on the basic tracks. We hear the following four tracks, 1 and 2 on the left, 3 and 4 on the right: (1) Paul’s piano, Ringo’s drums, John’s “chick” rhythm on Strat (in a style later adopted in much of his solo work); (2) John’s lead vocal and backing vocals from Paul and George (this track is heard right in a preliminary mix appearing only on the American LP); (3) John’s double-tracked lead vocal (muted for the British stereo mix) and doubled backing vocals with maracas from Paul and George and in the coda, Martin’s over-

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driven, dissonant harmonium; and (4) Paul’s bass (replete with transposed [025] trichords for the twelve-bar blues chorus at A) and high falsetto (reaching to d3 in the last chorus and coda, D), George’s overdubbed lead guitar with neck pickup at B (doubling Lennon’s mantra-like repeated [025] line over a changing bass there), and more maracas. The seven vocals allow for increasing complexity in moving from two to three parts in the voicings of the four choruses and coda. Note how, in a true late-1965 Beatles blues style, the enriched Is9 chord is sung even against IV (A+5 – 6 [0:13 – 0:16]), and Lennon has worked a panconsonant descending chromatic line of 8–7–f7–6 into V harmony (A+9 –10 [0:21– 0:24]). Lennon’s own vocal part, often simply alternating between 1, D, and 5, A, seems like a reuse of a line once rejected as the harmony vocal for “What You’re Doing” (see example 3.17a). Mellers writes on the vocal parts: The tonic minor triads formed by the voice part are underpinned by false related tonic major triads in the guitars, giving the song a runic wildness; and false relations between triads of [A] major and [F] major occur too, syncopated, in the descending answering phrase. This gives the simple words —“It’s so fine, it’s sunshine”— an unexpected resonance; and prepares us for the four-bar middle, which sets the words “in the beginning” to a priestly monotone, undulating between triads a tone apart —“non-temporal” flat sevenths, neither achieving nor seeking cadential resolution.160

Incongruously, McCartney relates the monotone to a rather nonpriestly repertoire: “To write a good song with just one note in it — like ‘Long Tall Sally’— is really very hard. It’s the kind of thing we’ve wanted to do for some time. We get near it in ‘The Word.’ ”161 Hearing Lennon repeat a similar pedal for another spiritual (but more mystical) text in “Tomorrow Never Knows” (1966), one has no trouble agreeing with Mellers’s characterization. “You Won’t See Me” McCartney recalls the composition of “You Won’t See Me,” another Rubber Soul song originating in the Ashers’ attic music room and apparently one having its basis in the same motivating idea for “Michelle”: “this was written around . . . a two-note progression that I had very high on the first two strings of the guitar: the E and the B strings. I had it up on the high E position, and I just let the note on the B string descend a semitone at a time, and kept the top note the same, and against that I was playing a descending chromatic scale. Then I wrote the tune for ‘You Won’t See Me’ against it. . . . To me it was very Motown-flavoured. It’s got a James Jamerson feel.”162 While McCartney’s pop-flavored song is barren of all the blues-related elements of “The Word,” it borrows others. McCartney plays the Steinway grand for basic tracks and overdubs a bass line that features octave arpeggiations (compare A+1– 4 [0:04 – 0:11] here with A+9 –10 [0:21– 0:24] in “Word”; both songs also have repeated-note bass lines in B passages). Lennon adds the descending chromatic countermelody (5–s4–n4–3 at A+1– 8 [0:41– 0:56] and f7–6–f6–5 at A+9 –12, second time [0:57–1:04]), in falsetto. The vocal arrangement becomes increasingly involved, growing steadily from one to three parts (ending with Harrison’s high 1 pedal). Harrison’s rhythm guitar has

Rubber Soul and “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper”

an offbeat articulation. A non-Beatle (this time equipment manager Mal Evans) plays keyboard (a one-finger A on the harmonium, sustained through the last verse — C, second time [2:28 – 2:56]). The long string of commonalities with Lennon’s more soulful work tends to give “You Won’t See Me” a sterile, manufactured sheen that most of the LP lacks — the dry vocal rests within the opening bars tend to chill the climate, despite an otherwise well-developed melody and a deeper alteration of IV than usual (at B+2– 3 [1:20 –1:23]). Perhaps it’s here that the listener wishes for a touch of tasteful vocal vibrato to vary the texture, to bring the tone from the cooler head into the warmer chest. The “oohla-la-la”s of the backing vocals do not come from the passionate “Word” but from the sympathetic “Nowhere Man,” and the Lydian IIs progression on which the verse is based (A+1– 4) is derived from older Beatle sources (most closely with “Eight Days a Week”). The rhythm section saves the composition from banality; one of the track’s most stunning properties is Ringo’s crash cymbal in tandem with his overdubbed playing on the closed hi-hat. This points to 1966 (“Good Day Sunshine”) as surely as do the independent voice pairs in the refrain (A+15 –18 [0:32 – 0:40]; the pairs are related inversionally as done instrumentally in “You Like Me Too Much”), while Lennon’s solo vocal line freed from McCartney’s in the retransitional V (“no I wouldn’t, no I wouldn’t,” B+7– 8 [1:30 –1:34]) points to 1967 (“She’s Leaving Home”). We hear piano, drums, rhythm guitar, tambourine, and two backing vocals on the left; bass, one McCartney lead vocal, hi-hat, and organ center (on the CD; the vinyl mix has all vocals right), McCartney’s descant vocal (the composer sings separate parts a third apart through the refrain and most of bridge), and two backing vocals on the right. “Girl” Lennon based “Girl” on the frustration over a character who has let the singer down in various ways and who, the third verse (A [1:30 –1:49]) reveals, was brought up with a religious ethic that rewarded deprivation (“I was just talking about Christianity in that . . . you have to be tortured to attain heaven”).163 Bitterness envelops the bridge (C), as her air of superiority is sullied with taunts of “tit, tit, tit, tit” in the backing vocals.164 The left channel has the basic track of Jumbo capoed at the eighth fret, bass, brushed drums (the ride cymbal is brushed continuously through the bridge), and the descant acoustic guitar (appearing first at E, “Guitar II”; this is plucked at the bridge with very sharp strokes and positioned between the eighth and eleventh frets for a nasal, sitar-like “bouzouki” sound). Lennon’s lead vocal is center (but right on vinyl). The right channel has Harrison’s acoustic twelvestring Framus (“Guitar I,” muted — though leaking — through the first two verses but remaining for the third verse and E) and Lennon’s double-tracked vocal, joined by McCartney for the refrain (B) and bridge. As in “Nowhere Man,” the Beatles had a hand in the equalization process during mixing; McCartney relates, “listen to John’s breath on ‘Girl.’ We asked the engineer to put it on treble, so you get this huge intake of breath and it sounds just like a percussion instrument.”165 In fact, the sound closely imitates the continuously brushed cymbal. Elsewhere, at E, Ringo’s damped cymbal crashes on beats two

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and four work with the two acoustic guitars (one with double courses) to lend the minor-mode progression the character of a Greek lute band, seeming to suggest the girl’s Byzantine morality. McCartney recalls devising this line in the second half of September 1963, when he and Ringo were on holiday in Greece: “in the song ‘Girl’ . . . there’s a Zorba-like thing at the end that I wrote which came from that holiday. . . . We just did it on acoustic guitars instead of bouzoukis.”166 This harmonic-minor effect would soon reappear in the Hollies’ “Bus Stop” (June 1966). As in “And I Love Her,” the tonal center of “Girl” alternates between minor (verses) and its relative major (refrains), with the bridge moving from one to the other. Because there is no authentic cadence, neither C minor nor Ef major can be said with certainty to be the tonal center (the Bf7 chord must act as V to both Ef and C). Rather, the centers vacillate as do the narrator’s attitudes toward the girl: bitter frustration in minor and disappointed dreamy idealization in major. “Wait” Lennon’s “Wait” had been almost completed for the Help! LP, having even been mixed for mono on June 18. For Rubber Soul, the group recorded additional parts on November 11, bringing the track up to date with the newer material. With the June recording, the song would have included a basic track of bass (which adds a dramatic pick-hand tremolo to the meno mosso ending), drums, and Lennon’s Capri in the bridge (C) on the left, and vocals by Lennon (lead) and McCartney (descant) on the right. If Harrison had recorded a lead guitar part in June, this was abandoned for the November effort. Half a year later, he added two volume pedal-controlled guitar parts, one on the left (“Guitar II,” playing 5–5 over 8–7 in the retransitional last bar of the bridge) and one on the right (“Guitar I,” playing 3–2 over 8–7 in the same bar). On compact disc, the vocals from June 2 are heard in the center, and two more vocal parts were added to the right for chorus and bridge. (All vocals are right on vinyl.) Paul’s voice is double-tracked alone for the bridge, which he probably composed — sequencing the opening motive from the verse. He adds a third part to the ending, with “You Won’t See Me”– like pedals on 3 and 5 above the original parts. Tambourine and maracas were also added to the right.167 Some of the song’s elements are characteristic of the spring compositions. This would include its “Another Girl”– like basis in the minor-mode progression, I (A, in Fs minor) – III (B and C) –V (B+4, C+8) – I. Also related to the earlier work is its asymmetrical 3+3 phrase construction in the verse (A, where stopand-start singing over the 1 pedal, with added tension from Paul’s chromatic vocal descent, describe John’s impatience) and five-bar chorus (B). Other elements, particularly the newly configured cadential 46 in the retransition and the three-part vocals, are new with the fall LP.

November– December 1965

November – December 1965 In November, the Beatles recorded a one-hour television variety special, “The Music of Lennon and McCartney” (taped November 1– 2, aired December 17), and several promotional films for worldwide broadcast (taped November 23, aired beginning December 2). The special featured fourteen artists performing their versions of Lennon-McCartney songs, nearly all mimed, and the Beatles mimed both sides of their new single as well. Highlights include Peter Sellers’s recitation of “A Hard Day’s Night” in the character of Richard III (popular demand led to its release as a British single), Henry Mancini’s live solo piano arrangement of “If I Fell,” and Marianne Faithfull’s “Yesterday.”168 The Beatles’ November promo videos, all mimed, were made for “We Can Work It Out” (three versions), “Day Tripper,” “Help!,” “Ticket to Ride,” and “I Feel Fine” (two versions). The Beatles pretended to play instruments that included a studio harmonium and tambourine along with the Höfner, Capri, Ludwigs, and Harrison’s Gibson ES-345.169 The Beatles’ third feature film was in the planning stages in November – December 1965. One possible source, Richard Condon’s cowboy story A Talent for Loving, was approved by Shenson and Lester, new songs were to be recorded immediately after wrapping up Rubber Soul, and arrangements were underway to film in Spain and Britain in the coming spring. But the Beatles vetoed the script in November, and a search for material was renewed in vain. The Beatles’ third film would be only an animated feature released in 1968.170 The Beatles privately snubbed the royal family by declining for a second time to perform for the year’s Royal Variety Show, and they disappointed fans by deciding not to renew their Christmas revue. Time permitted a short British theater tour with the Paramounts, Beryl Marsden, Steve Aldo, the Koobas, the Marionettes, and the Moody Blues, with the Beatles performing “I Feel Fine,” “She’s a Woman,” “If I Needed Someone,” “Act Naturally,” “Nowhere Man,” “Baby’s in Black,” “Help!,” “We Can Work It Out,” “Yesterday,” “Day Tripper,” and “I’m Down,” with the following itinerary, two houses per date: December 3: Glasgow December 4: Newcastle-upon-Tyne December 5: Liverpool December 7: Manchester December 8: Sheffield December 9: Birmingham December 10: Hammersmith, London December 11: Finsbury Park, London December 12: Cardiff

This, which was to be their final British tour, was marred by the destruction of Harrison’s Country Gent (then his third tour guitar, behind the Tennessean and one of the Ricky 12s), when it fell off the back of a car on the drive to Scotland, but was highlighted by the Beatles’ fee —£1,000 per night, a first in Britain.171 Such was the group’s worldwide fame that Rubber Soul was the first of four

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Beatle albums to do without the artist’s name on the cover. The LP’s contents in the United Kingdom were as follows: Side 1 “Drive My Car” “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” “You Won’t See Me” “Nowhere Man” “Think for Yourself ” “The Word” “Michelle”

Side 2 “What Goes On” “Girl” “I’m Looking through You” “In My Life” “Wait” “If I Needed Someone” “Run for Your Life”

December and related record releases in Britain and the United States were: “We Can Work It Out” / “Day Tripper,” promoted as a double-A-sided single, Parlophone R 5389, December 3 (#1 for 4 wks.); Capitol 5555, December 6 (#1 for 3 wks. / #5) Rubber Soul, LP (U.K.), Parlophone PMC 1267/PCS 3075, December 3 (#1 for 13 wks.); (U.S.) Capitol (S)T 2442, December 6 (#1 for 6 wks.; sales of 1.2 million within first 9 days, 2 million in original pressing, eventually 6 million copies sold in the U.S.) The Beatles’ Million Sellers, EP, Parlophone GEP 8946, December 6 “Nowhere Man” / “What Goes On,” Capitol 5587, February 21, 1966 (#3/#81) Nowhere Man, EP, Parlophone GEP 8952, July 8, 1966

In addition, “Michelle” appeared on 1966 singles charts in two cover versions, as did “Girl” and, in one version each, “If I Needed Someone” and “Nowhere Man.” “Woman” Example 4.11 represents outer parts from Peter & Gordon’s “Woman,” produced with pre –“Eleanor Rigby” strings in December 1966 by the AIR team and released by EMI in January 1966. The composer’s credit was officially given to Bernard Webb, but this was a pseudonym for McCartney, who was curious as to how well a composition of his would do without his name attached. While not a #1 hit, the record peaked at #14 in the States and #21 in Britain, outscoring the duo’s two previous releases (which were by other composers). In example 4.11, note the Beatlesque vocal harmonies and the 1965-era McCartnian phrase extension to seven bars by keeping a 1 pedal under a chord change and then descending through a passing tone (A) to 6, which then proceeds in fifths to I. The Beatles’ sudden whims regarding anonymity would again provide them a great creative boost in 1967, when they were to masquerade as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. 1965 drew to a close with the Beatles having released two new albums and attendant singles containing the highest-yet concentration of original songs. Experimentation resulted in many new instrumental colors (Lennon’s keyboard, McCartney’s new bass techniques, Harrison’s sitar, the tone pedal, capos, and

November–December 1965

Example 4.11 “Woman” (Bernard Webb). © 1966, Northern Songs.

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fuzz box, the Strats and Casinos) and bold harmonic plans (“You’re Going to Lose That Girl,” “Another Girl,” “Day Tripper”). Perhaps because songs, or sections of songs, were now composed primarily independently rather than in close collaboration, the differing poetic interests of Lennon and McCartney were becoming recognizably definable, and the myriad styles they copied were represented in purer imitations (C&W: “What Goes On”; R&B: “Drive My Car”; folk: “I’ve Just Seen a Face”; and now classical: “Yesterday,” “In My Life”) with less mixture among them. Such a change from the more thorough homogenization of styles of 1964 to the stark contrast of 1965 would recur in an even more obvious way in moving from 1967 to 1968.

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POSTLUDE

1

THE ACT YOU’VE KNOWN FOR ALL THESE YEARS (1957–2000)

It’s a bit difficult summarizing where the Beatles stood at the end of 1965, a somewhat arbitrary point of conclusion for this volume. One can hardly imagine this time as a hypothetical ending of their career, whereas it is easy to imagine such a potential juncture at the end of 1966, 1967, 1968, or 1969. No, despite the facts that in 1965 their expected end-of-year projects were in sudden decline and that their plans for the early-1966 film project were moribund, this group was just hitting its stride in working through major challenges and innovations in composition and recording technique and in deciding where it wished to invest its energies. Rubber Soul included six more original songs than either of the two previous fall LPs, suggesting a new determination to create wonder in abundance. Whereas the numbers of their products would drop off quickly in 1966, Help! and Rubber Soul usher in a period embodied by a new seriousness of purpose. Perhaps George Martin’s new independence from EMI encouraged John Lennon’s revolutionary spirit. Perhaps Paul McCartney had more to prove to oboist Margaret Asher than he had to girlfriend Jane. Perhaps these musicians truly wished to create meaningful art rather than the passing entertainment that had originally inspired them. Did John Lennon’s and George Harrison’s searches for new sounds go so deep that they confronted their own souls in ways that would lead to the reinvention of Western popular culture? Whereas the “Soul” of the Beatles’ late-1965 album title is certainly derived directly from the new marketing label for the the slicker black urban styles that emerged out of the rougher, more rural R&B, the word also contains the deeper meaning behind the metaphor: this band of musicians was unmistakably at339

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tempting to express its own essence, its vital and sometimes spiritual principle, in ways that hadn’t been attempted before in pop music. It is the Beatles’ soul that shines through “Help!,” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” “Tell Me What You See,” “Yesterday,” “Nowhere Man,” “The Word,” and “In My Life.” It is truly a small step from these pieces to “Eleanor Rigby” and “Tomorrow Never Knows,” and even “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “All You Need Is Love” are visible in the distance. That distance is viewed a bit more comprehensively in table 4.4, which presents a time line of the Beatles’ last projects together. From 1966 through 1969, the Beatles created new studio effects in Revolver, dabbed from a global tonal palette in Sgt. Pepper, thumbed their noses at the critics in Magical Mystery Tour, barely supported each others’ goals in the White album, revived the good times in Let It Be, and came together in Abbey Road. All of these albums plus such singles as “Strawberry Fields Forever” / “Penny Lane,” “All You Need Is Love,” and “Hey Jude” / “Revolution” are thoroughly treated in the companion volume to this one, The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology. The solo work of the ex-Beatles, given just the briefest thumbnail sketch at the end of that book, would rightly fill a third volume of its own. But I would like to update here, in table 4.5, one register of the Beatles’ solo activity through the year 2000 and simply mention that two more Top-Ten albums were produced by an ex-Beatle in the years since that book listed such achievements: Paul McCartney’s Working Classical (1999) spent two weeks at #1 on Billboard’s classical chart and his two-CD compilation Wingspan (May 2001) entered the Pop chart at #2. While I have at times suggested trends that would seem to be an argument that the Beatles were always improving and developing, only to reach their greatest work late in their career, this is only one perspective. It is true that many aspects of immaturity, both in adolescent poetic topics and naive sloppiness in voice leading, mark the musicians’ first several albums. But even the monumental Abbey Road cannot shake the hubris behind “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” or the indifference suspended over “Mean Mr Mustard.” Reception in America, as measured at the cash register, strongly favors the late albums over the early ones; following are sales figures for all LP sales in the United States, as reported by the RIAA through February 2001: 11 million copies sold: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; Abbey Road 9 million: The Beatles (the White album) 7.5 million: 1967–1970 (the “Blue Album”) 7 million: 1962–1966 (the “Red Album”); 1 6 million: Rubber Soul; Magical Mystery Tour 5 million: Meet the Beatles; Revolver 4 million: A Hard Day’s Night (Parlophone); Let It Be; Anthology Volume 1 3 million: Beatles ’65; Help; Hey Jude; Love Songs 2 million: The Beatles’ Second Album; Something New; “Yesterday” . . . and Today; 20 Greatest Hits; Live at the B.B.C.; Anthology Volume 2 1.5 million: Anthology Volume 3 1 million: The Early Beatles; Beatles VI; Yellow Submarine; Live! at the Hollywood Bowl; Rock and Roll Music Volume 1; Rock and Roll Music Volume 2; Please Please Me; Past Masters, Volume 1; Past Masters, Volume 2 0.5 million: The Beatles Story; Rock and Roll Music (double album); Rarities; Reel Music; With the Beatles; Beatles for Sale

The Act You’ve Known for All These Years (1957–2000)

Table 4.4 Time Line of Major Events for the Beatles, 1966 –1970 1966 April 6 – June 22: June 24 – July 4: Aug. 12– 29: 1967 Nov. 24, 1966 –April 21, 1967:

Feb. 13 – June 2: April 25 – Nov. 17: May 11: May 17– June 9: June 14 – 26: Sept. 11– Oct. 31: Oct. 2– Nov. 2:

Recordings and postproduction for Revolver (LP) and “Paperback Writer” / “Rain” (single) at EMI, London Concerts in West Germany, Tokyo, and Manila U. S. tour; final live performances for ticketed audience Recordings for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (LP) and “Penny Lane” / “Strawberry Fields Forever” (single), EMI and Regent studios, London Recordings for Yellow Submarine soundtrack, EMI and De Lane Lea studios, London Recordings and mixing for “Magical Mystery Tour” soundtrack, EMI and Chappell studios, London Recording of “Baby You’re a Rich Man,” Olympic studios, London Recordings and mixing for “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number),” EMI, London Recording and mixing of “All You Need Is Love,” Olympic and EMI studios, London Filming of “Magical Mystery Tour,” southern England and France Recording of “Hello Goodbye,” EMI, London

1968 Jan. 12– Feb. 8: Feb. 4 –11: May 30 – Oct. 17: July 31–Aug. 1:

Recording of “Lady Madonna” / “The Inner Light” (single), EMI studios in Bombay and London Recording of “Across the Universe,” “Hey Bulldog,” EMI, London Recording and mixing of The Beatles (a. k. a. the White album), EMI and Trident studios, London Recording of “Hey Jude,” Trident, London

1969 Jan. 2– 31: Feb. 5: Feb. 22–Aug. 25: April 14 –18: April 30:

Recording and filming for “Get Back” project, Twickenham and Apple studios, London First mixing of Get Back material, continuing through April 2, 1970 Recordings and postproduction for Abbey Road LP, Trident, EMI, and Olympic studios, London Beatles record “The Ballad of John and Yoko” / “Old Brown Shoe” (single), EMI, London Beatles continue recording “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number),” EMI, London

1970 Jan. 3 – 4: April 10:

Recording of “I Me Mine,” EMI, London McCartney announces the breakup of the Beatles

Some of the reason behind the staggering appetite for late-period product has to do with the unique format given earlier American releases, creating false competition for totals between album pairs such as the “Red Album” and Past Masters 1, or Beatles VI and Help!, or Something New and two separate tallies for A Hard Day’s Night, false because much material is shared between the LPs of

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Table 4.5 Musical Activity of the Solo Beatles, 1968 – 2000 New Compositions

Ex-Beatle McCartney Harrison Lennon Starr Total

Solo Additional Albums A-sides 32 15 17 16 80

19 3 6 3 31

Self – For Recorded but released others unreleased 281 148 96 52 577

56 19 7 2 84

79 8 38 4 129

Total new released titles 387 169 144 154 854

each pair. Another, probably more significant, component in this trend would be the vast quantities sold immediately upon the original releases, recognizing that the largest segment of the Beatles’ audience typically moved from purchasing singles to albums later in the 1960s, largely as a result of trends in what the Beatles were releasing. In fact, a look at the Beatles’ ten best-charting singles according to Billboard, listed here, shows that seven of the ten entered the chart in the years 1964 – 65, while only three entered in 1966 – 70: 1. “Hey Jude” (9 wks. at #1) 2. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (7 wks. at #1) 3. “Get Back” (5 wks. at #1) 4. “Can’t Buy Me Love” (5 wks. at #1) 5. “Yesterday” (4 wks. at #1) 6. “Hello Goodbye” (3 wks. at #1) 7. “We Can Work It Out” (3 wks. at #1) 8. “I Feel Fine” (3 wks. at #1) 9. “Help!” (3 wks. at #1) 10. “She Loves You” (2 wks. at #1)

Add to these titles such early evergreens as “In My Life,” “Michelle,” “Nowhere Man,” “Day Tripper,” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” “Ticket to Ride,” “I’m a Loser,” “Eight Days a Week,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “And I Love Her,” “If I Fell,” “All My Loving,” “This Boy,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “Please Please Me,” and it’s evident that to the world’s ears, the Beatles evolved from a group that could write and record great songs to one that could produce great albums. Early on, nearly every single Beatles recording packed as much excitement as possible into two and a half minutes, whereas later on, individual songs did not tend to depend on earth-shaking climaxes because the energy was more evenly distributed across an LP. “Within You without You” could never have existed on its own, but its role in opening Side Two of Pepper makes “A Day in the Life” all the more powerful. Probably the single biggest reason that “the album” began to dominate popular music around 1967 was that Pepper was the first American Beatle LP that did not contain an A-side. All this being said, the preceding list is probably still a fairly accurate reflection of the relative popularity today of each of the Beatles’ albums, generally holding the

The Act You’ve Known for All These Years (1957–2000)

more colorful, expansive late work in higher estimation than the grittier, more ebullient early releases. Today, Beatle records are hiss-covered multitrack artifacts hampered by all sorts of technical constraints. Even the best conceivable digital remixes could never begin to give back to the group the creative opportunities they would have enjoyed in a twenty-first-century recording studio. But just as we admire the way Mozart pushed the limits of primitive brass instruments in his horn concertos, the way a deaf Beethoven led to fundamentally new ways of hearing in his late quartets and sonatas, or the way Joachim’s violin performance transcends the cone-to-cylinder recording system of his day, we readily appreciate the boundaries that the early Beatles cross in their work as composers and recording artists. What they did for melodic phrasing, structural counterpoint, harmonic coloring, rhythmic variety, formal experimentation, timbral characterization, textural and registral expression, articulative and dynamic range, word play, and electronic manipulation was not only novel and influential; it was usually just plain right. Every aspect of their craft seemed to work in harmony with the others to bring out exactly what they wished to communicate, at a depth that repays contemplation, at once rarefied and without pretension. And this is what makes their music as timeless as that of Bach or Brahms. What would we be listening to today had Paul McCartney not met up with John Lennon in July 1957? Fortunately, we will never know.

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APPENDIX: INSTRUMENTS PLAYED BY THE EARLY-PERIOD BEATLES

Fretted Instruments Banjolele The banjolele had a mandolin neck and a small but resonant banjo body with a banjo bridge, normally tuned like a soprano ukulele, G – B – Fs–A. The jugband/skiffle instrument (popularized in England by George Formby) was a result of a 1920s craze for hybrid instruments; Gibson made one popular model. This was the first string instrument played in the early 1950s by both Lennon and McCartney. Fender Stratocaster The 1961 (pre-CBS) Strat had a solid body with an asymmetrical double-cutaway and rounded body edges; John’s and George’s model, first used in February 1965, was Sonic blue, with a nitrocellulose finish. The jack was angled into the top, which had a three-layer (white-black-white) celluloid pickguard with eleven screws, three pickups with white plastic covers, and three white plastic knobs. The thin peghead had a butterfly clip and topped an unbound rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays for the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, and twenty-first frets. Harrison says, “I set up this Strat . . . for slide play before we did ‘Nowhere Man.’ In the late ‘60s I painted it psychedelic — it was the one I used for the ’67 satellite thing for ‘All You Need Is Love’ and also on ‘I Am the Walrus’ on Magical Mystery Tour” (White 1990, 147; see also Forte 1987a, 86; 1987b, 93 – 4). Harrison did extensive later slide work with this guitar and is seen playing it with Joe Cocker, Gary Wright, and others. 345

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Framus Hootenanny John Lennon introduced the Framus acoustic twelvestring to the Beatles’ instrument collection with the recording of “I’m a Loser.” Following “Loser,” it is probably used in “Honey Don’t,” “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” “Help!,” “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “It’s Only Love,” “Norwegian Wood,” “Michelle,” and “Girl.” The Bavarian-made guitar, seen in the film Help!, is a 41-inch-long flattop round-shouldered dreadnought with flat mahogany back and sides and natural spruce top with dark binding, a long tortoiseshell pickguard with one point near the upper treble bout and another following the lower, a thin rectangular bridge, trapeze tailpiece, white pegs, a nonslotted peghead with truss rod cover and Framus logo but without inlay or other ornament, twelve of nineteen frets on a rosewood fingerboard clear of the body, and no fingerboard inlays but small guide dots along the bass edge. Futurama III The red sunburst Neoton Futurama “Resonet,” bought by Harrison in Liverpool in late 1959, was made in Czechoslovakia by Grazioso and distributed in England by Selmer. It is shaped slightly like a Stratocaster and has three Strat-type pickups but without Fender’s oblique alignment — all are parallel to the bridge (and so not arranged to capture the optimum harmonics for most string stoppings, especially with the crucial bridge pickup). Worse, according to George: “It was a dog to play; it had the worst action. . . . It had a great sound, though, and a real good way of switching in the three pickups and all the combinations” (Forte 1987b, 96; Futurama’s 1960 advertisements boast seven tone changes from three switches). The fingerboard has eighteen frets clear of the body, and all twenty-one are clear of the treble cutaway; black dot inlays mark the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, and twenty-first frets (the octave has two dots). Selling for about £47 in 1960, the Futurama was popular; it was also played in Liverpool by Gerry Marsden and by members of Billy J. Kramer’s first band, the Coasters. Gallatone Champion The earliest available photographs of John with a guitar, 1957– 58, show him with the Gallatone, a small flattop acoustic model with a red-to-black sunburst finish, white binding, and a metal trapeze tailpiece; an odd thirteen frets (of a total of eighteen) are clear of the body, and dot inlays mark only the fifth, seventh, and twelfth frets. The head sports an obtrusive treble clef and white pegs. This is the Dutch-made steel-string bought at Hessy’s around March 1957; at one time repaired and fitted with a plaque by Mimi, it sold for $266,000 at auction on September 14, 1999. Gibson Epiphone Casino The 1964 E330TD Casino was a fully hollow 16-inchwide thinbody with a 24 3⁄4-inch scale, rounded double cutaways, single-bound top and back, white three-ply pickguard, and sunburst finish. The single-bound fingerboard had twenty-two frets (sixteen clear of the body) and single parallelogram inlays on the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth, and twenty-first frets. The guitar was fitted with two Gibson P-90 single-coil pickups with poles across the center of chrome covers with triangular ears. The tune-o-matic bridge and trapeze tailpiece were standard

Fretted Instruments

(lacking vibrato), as on Lennon’s model; Harrison and McCartney both had right-hander’s Bigsby units. In 1967, Lennon spray-painted the back and neck of his guitar, and all three Casinos lost their pickguards. Harrison and Lennon scraped the varnish from their instruments in mid-1968, leaving a breathing, natural blonde bare wood; according to Harrison, “they became much better guitars” (Forte 1987a, 88). McCartney’s guitar was used in sessions from Help! through Sgt. Pepper, as well as in his solo career; Harrison and Lennon used theirs in the 1964 – 65 Christmas shows and on the 1966 tours; Lennon used hardly any other guitar in 1968 – 69. Gibson Epiphone Texan The FT 79, a favorite C&W guitar, was McCartney’s principal acoustic guitar until he acquired a Martin in 1967. The 16-inch-wide instrument had a round-shouldered dreadnought shape with mahogany back and sides and a spruce top with natural finish. The peghead had plastic tuner buttons and a vertical oval inlay; the rosewood fingerboard had single parallelogram inlays on only the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, and fifteenth frets; fourteen cleared the body. Gibson Jumbo The Gibson J-160E is a 16-inch-wide, round-shouldered, dreadnought-shaped flattop electric-acoustic guitar with a single-coil adjustable pole pickup at the fingerboard end of the soundhole and two knobs (for volume and tone) on the lower treble bout. The bridge has an upper belly, an adjustable saddle, and two inlaid dots. The laminated spruce top has a sunburst finish with a single rosette around the soundhole, the back and sides are of mahogany, and both top and back are bound in plastic. The bound rosewood fingerboard has fifteen frets clear of the body and trapezoid inlays on the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, and seventeenth frets. The peghead has a “crown” inlay and a small tortoise-shell pickguard follows the body-edge contour. The Jumbos, a pair of which were purchased on September 10, 1962, are heard in most early Beatle recordings; sometimes the only sound heard from them would be Lennon’s strumming as it leaked onto his vocal microphone. Lennon would have to replace his original Jumbo, which was stolen during the Beatles’ 1963 – 64 Christmas Show (the replacement has a double rosette around the soundhole). In 1965 – 67 photographs of both his and Harrison’s Jumbos, the pickup has been moved to the bridge side of the soundhole; this is Lennon’s guitar heard in “A Day in the Life” and “Give Peace a Chance.” Regarding the use of both Jumbos during the September 1962 recording session, see Shepherd 1964a, 9. See also Lease 2000, 30 – 31. Gretsch Country Gentleman New to Harrison in June 1963 was Gretsch’s Chet Atkins – designed Model 6122, the Country Gentleman. (Atkins also used a twelve-string version.) It was an electric archtop with reddish mahogany stain, measuring 17 inches wide and 2 inches deep; the neck was of a 241⁄2-inch scale. The body had a double-rounded cutaway with four-ply binding on the top and back, with simulated f-holes. The bound ebony fingerboard had a zero fret and “thumbprint” inlays on the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth,

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and seventeenth frets. The two Filter Tron double-coil pickups had two rows of poles each; there were three brass knobs and a standby switch on the lower treble bout, one knob on the upper treble bout, and two mute switches on the upper bass bout. The guitar was fitted with a straight metal bar bridge, a Gretsch Bigsby vibrato, and a V-cutout tailpiece. The single-bound peghead had a small square metal plate with the model name and serial number engraved, and stairstep tuner buttons. The pickguard was marked with the “T-bar” logo that appeared on the peghead, and all metal parts were gold-plated. The guitar was destroyed in a December 1965 drive to Scotland. (See James 1966a, 13, regarding the guitar’s demise. See also “Beatle news” 1964, 29.) Gretsch Duo-Jet The Gretsch was a make popularized by Chet Atkins, Eddie Cochran, and many rockabilly artists fond of its sure action and its clear, bright tone. Harrison’s Duo-Jet (Model 6128) was an electric “solidbody” but, like Lennon’s Capri, it was actually heavily routed beneath the top. Its black-finished mahogany body measured 131⁄4-inches wide and 2 inches deep, had a single rounded cutaway and a carved, triple-bound top. The single-bound fingerboard was of a 241⁄2-inch scale, with twenty-two frets (sixteen clear of the body) and hump-top cloud-shaped inlays on the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, and seventeenth frets. The guitar had two black-face DeArmond single-coil pickups, altered by three brass knobs (a master tone control and two individual volume knobs, each marked with an arrow-transversed “G”) on the lower treble bout, a master volume knob on the upper treble bout, and a pickup selector switch on the upper bass bout. The guitar was fitted with a Bigsby vibrato unit, a V-cutout tailpiece, and a straight bar bridge. The Gretsch “T-roof ” logo appeared on both the single-bound peghead and the silver pickguard. Harrison may have first seen the Duo-Jet in the hands of Cliff Gallup, the original lead guitarist in Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps; the Beatle bought his first Gretsch between July 4 and August 5, 1961. Gretsch Tennessean The Chet Atkins Tennessean, Gretsch Model 6119, was made in 1963 and purchased by Harrison in late 1964. It has a single rounded cutaway and the bass bout joins the neck at a right angle. The walnut finish has white-outlined painted f-holes; the top is double-bound, but the back and ornament-free peghead are unbound. The twenty-two frets (fourteen clear of the body, eighteen of the cutaway; there is also a “zero” fret) have pearl thumbprint inlays on the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, and seventeenth. The guitar has a Bigsby vibrato, a white plastic pickguard, two Hi-Lo ‘Tron pickups, a knob on the treble bout, and two switches on the upper bass bout. Höfner Club 40 The unornamented, single-pickup member of the Club series with a Lennon-friendly short scale of 24.4 inches, the 40 was a hollow body with no sound holes and a single rounded cutaway. Its spruce arched top was spruce finished in natural blonde, and its flat back and sides were of flame maple. Top and back were given dark binding and a tortoiseshell scratchplate.

Fretted Instruments

There were a total of twenty-two frets (fifteen clear of the body; dot inlays appeared on the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth frets, with two dots marking the octave). The peghead was labeled with a vertical “Höfner” decal. The single black-bar pickup had heightadjustable wheels, and the ebony bridge was fitted with adjustable wire saddles for four different string lengths. The trapeze tailpiece was of nickel-plated brass. When Harrison bought his Futurama in late 1959, he lent his Club 40 to Lennon, who passed it to McCartney in late 1960, who returned it to Harrison in early 1961. Another Liverpool player of the very popular Club 40 around 1961 was John McNally of the Searchers. Höfner President This simple cello-style acoustic, the second guitar owned by Harrison, has a top cut with with f-holes, its fingerboard and peghead are all bound in white, and triple-dot inlays mark the fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth frets. Fifteen frets clear the body, and the single rounded cutaway allows easy access to all twenty-two. Strings are secured by the “Resonator” tailpiece. Harrison added a pickup for amplification. Höfner President Bass This was Stu Sutcliffe’s jumbo hollow-body bass (Model 500/5), with two pickups (and two volume knobs with three sliding switches — one for each pickup and one for power), a single cutaway, and a large bass bout joining the body at a right angle. The guitar had a sunburst finish, bound top and back, f-holes, trapeze tailpiece, and a dark pickguard. Fifteen of the total twenty frets were clear of the body, and dots were inlaid on the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth frets (with two dots at the octave). The President had been played in late 1960 by Joe Brown’s bassplaying Bruvver, Peter Oakman. Höfner Senator The Senator was an all-maple dreadnought-shaped large (201⁄4" ⫻ 16 1⁄2" body) archtop acoustic with tortoise-shell pickguard, whitebound f-holes, and white-black-white-black bound top and back but unbound neck and headstock. The headstock sported a plastic facing with vertical “Hofner” [sic] logo and open machine heads. The rosewood fingerboard had twenty-three frets plus the usual Höfner “zero fret,” fourteen clear of the body, and triple-dot inlays on only the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and twelfth frets. The ebony bridge had a simple vertical adjustment for a low action, and the instrument had the usual noisy “Compensator” tailpiece. Played by Lennon in 1959 – 60, this guitar sold for $25,000 at Sotheby’s in 1986. Höfner “Violin” Bass The 500/1 “violin” bass (actually shaped like a bass viol) made and purchased in early 1961 is the instrument most closely associated with Beatle Paul. Despite an indistinct pitch in its low end and intonation problems high on its neck, this lightweight hollow-body left-hander’s bass and its like replacements were relieved in most Beatle recordings by a Rickenbacker instrument only in late 1965. With a 30-inch scale and an unbound peghead with vertical logo, the rosewood fingerboard had twenty-two frets (featuring

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the usual Höfner “zero fret”), with dots inlaid on the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth frets (with the octave marked by a pair). Sides and back of the nitrocellulose-finished bass were of maple, and the 11-inch-wide, double-bound, warm-toned laminated spruce top featured a pearloid pickguard with strings attached to a trapeze tailpiece. Two double-pole, double-coil Nova Sonic pickups (with metal diamond-stamped covers concealing the poles) were fitted at neck and middle positions; electronics were controlled with two knobs and three flick switches (rhythm/solo, bass on, treble on). In October 1963, when electrician’s tape could no longer hold its neck pickup in place, this instrument was replaced by a revised 1962-model 500/1 (with horizontal script logo and new pickup configuration) for the London Palladium performance; this is the Höfner bass used to the present day. The original bass was redone with new pickup parts, potentiometers, and a three-color sunburst finish and retained as a back-up instrument until stolen in 1969. Selmer presented McCartney with a third Höfner 500/1 (with gold-plated parts and bound neck) in the spring of 1964, an instrument that circulates on the collector’s market (having sold for only £200 in early 1994!). The Höfner bass was also played by Tony Jackson of the Searchers and Brian Gregg of the Tornados. See Dunn 1996 for excellent photos and further information. Ramírez Classical Model George Harrison’s classical guitar, used in 1963 – 65 to create a Latin feel for “Till There Was You” and “And I Love Her,” was made in Madrid by José Ramírez III, one of Spain’s outstanding luthiers; Andres Segovia and Christopher Parkening have played Ramírez instruments. The thin flat top of German spruce with heavy sprayed lacquer finish gives the guitar a loud and bright tone, also augmented by the longer-than-normal 664-millimeter scale. Back, sides, and bridge are of Brazilian rosewood, and the wide fingerboard, not marked with any inlays, is of ebony and is overlaid on a cedar neck. The saddle slopes slightly to improve bass-string intonation and the tieblock top is of bone. Twelve frets are clear of the body, and a twentieth fret is available for the upper strings only. The rosette surrounding the round soundhole, through which can be seen the circular label, is decorated with black fleurs-de-lis on a natural background. In the film A Hard Day’s Night, Harrison is seen to play the Ramírez with great sensitivity to tonal quality as he modulates both his left-hand vibrato and the placement of his string-length division with his right (picking) hand to go along with the string stopping in the left hand, to maintain continuous tone color. Rickenbacker Bass The solid-body Rickenbacker 4001S bass, with crestingwave body and peghead shape, was cut specifically for the left-handed Beatle, completed in January 1964, and offered to him when George and John were given new Ricks in February 1964, but McCartney did not take possession until August 29, 1965. The body has a Fireglo finish, a one-piece pickguard, and no binding. The rosewood fingerboard had dot inlays on the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, and seventeenth frets (with two dots at the octave); nineteen frets were clear of the body and all twenty were clear of the treble cut-

Fretted Instruments

away. There was a bar pickup at the neck and a heavy horseshoe pickup at the bridge; volume and tone were controlled with four knobs and a switch. The Rick bass was used by Pete Quaife of the Kinks into 1966. As did Harrison’s Strat and Lennon’s Casino, McCartney’s Rick bass aquired a new coat of paint in 1967 (red, white, and grey), which was sanded away for a natural finish a few years later; the horseshoe magnets also disappeared in 1975, during the Wings years. Rickenbacker Capri The 325 was a 3⁄4-size maple instrument made in 1958, originally with a natural “Hi-Lustre Blond” finish, a hollow thinbody guitar with no soundholes, featuring a double-cutaway with pointed horns, both cut to the highest (twenty-first) fret. The guitar had standard trim with no binding and the standard Rickenbacker recess at the tailpiece; dot inlays marked the fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, and fifteenth frets. This instrument had a singlelevel gold Lucite pickguard, three chrome bar pickups, a Kauffman vibrato with roller bridges, and four diamond-shape “oven” knobs. The guitar, purchased by Lennon around September 1960, went through make-overs in the summer of 1961 and in September 1962 and is best known with the Bigsby tailpiece/vibrato unit it received in 1961 and with the black finish it was given in 1962. (The guitar was stripped back to its natural finish and used once again in Lennon’s last album, Double Fantasy.) In honor of the Beatles’ first appearance in America (February 1964), the Rickenbacker company presented Lennon with a new replacement Jetglo-black Capri that finally retired this well-used original; this copy was severely damaged and repaired during the 1964 Christmas shows. Rickenbacker Combo While visiting his sister near St. Louis during a September 1963 vacation, Harrison purchased a new Combo 425 made with no vibrato bar in 1962. It was a thinbody (15⁄8 inches deep) guitar with a crestingwave body shape, refinished in black with a large white plastic pickguard, a single chrome-bar pickup in the middle position, two knobs and a toggle switch, twenty-one frets and standard trim (no binding, plastic pegs, dot inlays on the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth frets, with a pair for the octave). Harrison painted the guitar black to match Lennon’s 325 and also added a second pickup in the mid-1960s. Except for its use as an unamplified prop in mimed performances for two 1964 television tapings, the guitar is known to have been used only in October – December 1963 concerts in Sweden and Britain. Despite its relatively tenuous connection with the Beatles, the guitar sold for $95,000 at Christie’s in London on September 30, 1999. Rickenbacker Twelve-string Harrison’s Ricky 360-12, given him in February 1964, was a full-scale thinbody instrument with a double pointed cutaway and Fireglo finish (red to yellow); all twenty-one frets were clear of the body. The flat-plate trapeze tailpiece was angled lower left to upper right and had no vibrato unit. Two chrome-bar pickups, at the neck and the bridge, were wired for stereo but not used in this manner; controls included five knobs (sectioned into

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eighths) and a pickup switch. The trim was deluxe, with triangular crushed pearl sparkle inlays on the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth, fifteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth frets, white plastic split-level pickguard, double-bound top, back and fingerboard, and bound slash holes. Harrison was given a second copy during a press conference in Minneapolis on August 21, 1965; this instrument had “New Style” trim, including a rounded top edge, checkered binding on the back only, and an opposite-oriented “R” tailpiece. Lennon purchased his own Rickenbacker twelve-string around May 1964. This was a 325-12 based on the Capri design, which may have been used in the “What You’re Doing” sessions in addition to the Scandinavian and Far East tours of 1964. Rosetti Egmond Bros. Beginner’s Guitar George Harrison’s first guitar was a small Dutch-made Spanish-style flattop acoustic steel-string instrument with a sunburst finish and no scratchplate. Dot inlays appear only on the third, fifth, and twelfth frets. Only twelve of a total eighteen frets clear the body. Rosetti Solid 7 McCartney’s first electric guitar was a Dutch-made semiacoustic featuring a double-cutaway, bought at Hessy’s in Liverpool just prior to the first Hamburg trip. This symmetrical shape appealed greatly to the left-hander, who could reverse the string arrangement, play the instrument upside down, and still have a cutaway for access to the high register. The bound top of the low-price guitar was marked with a decal reading “Solid 7 by Rosetti” and had a large scratchplate that held two pickups; the bound fingerboard had twenty frets, curiously marked with dot inlays at only the third, fifth, twelfth, and sixteenth (!) frets. This was a common beginner’s electric and was also played by a young Rory Gallagher growing up in Cork County, Ireland. Russian Acoustics All four Beatles aquired matching nylon-strung Russianmade classical guitars in early 1965; these may have been used in the Help! sessions, as on “I Need You,” and in Rubber Soul. The small natural-finished, dark-bound instrument has the shape of a Gibson B-25, no pickguard, and a fingerboard that follows the contour of the soundhole for a total of nineteen frets. Large dots mark only the fifth, seventh, tenth, and twelfth frets, and twelve are clear of the body; the peghead is slotted and carries no logo. Sitar The sitar is an Indian instrument in the lute family with six or seven plucked wire strings lying above twenty adjustable metal frets, which lie above thirteen sympathetic strings within the hollow teak neck. The extreme resonance is enhanced by two seasoned gourds. Harrison purchased his first sitar in London in September 1965 but soon found this unworthy of his growing interest. He upgraded to a finer sitar in July 1966 when he planned to begin his formal study of the instrument. Zenith Acoustic This, McCartney’s main guitar through the first half of 1960, was a sunburst-finish archtop guitar with f-holes, bound top and unbound back, white pickguard, and a trapeze tailpiece. The fingerboard contained

Drums

twenty-one frets, fourteen of which were clear of the body; dot inlays appeared on only the fifth, seventh, ninth, and twelfth frets.

Drums Ludwig “Super Classic” Set In June 1963, Ringo replaced his Premier kit with an oyster black pearl Ludwig “Super Classic” kit with a 14" ⫻ 22" bass drum (a smaller one, at 20 inches, was part of the two Ludwig “Downbeat” kits used for touring, and so is visible in most photographs taken outside of the studio), a matching wooden-shell 5" ⫻ 14" snare (as opposed to the snappier all-metal Super-Sensitive model adopted by many users), and 16" ⫻ 16" and 9" ⫻ 13" tom-toms. He used a Clear Tone cow bell, a thin 18-inch crash cymbal, a medium 20-inch ride cymbal with rivets, and 15-inch hi-hats (originally Paiste Formula 602 but later Turkish-made Zildjian cymbals; both came standard with the Ludwig kit). Ringo moved from Remo mylar to calfskin heads after 1965, perhaps as late as with the new kit purchased in 1969; he always used hickory sticks (Hayes 1968, 14, and Clayson 1992, 81, 274 nn45, 46). Pete Best switched to Ludwigs in the fall of 1962, more than half a year before Ringo did. Premier Kits Both Pete Best and Ringo Starr acquired their British-made Premier drum sets around 1959. Pete’s was light blue mother of pearl, Ringo’s was mahogany brown. Both had a 24-inch bass drum with pedal (Pete later graduated to a 26-inch shell), mounted and floor toms, hi-hat, suspended cymbals (Pete used one and Ringo, two), and a shallow snare. Both Pete and Ringo had matching unmounted bongos as part of the set. Ringo’s set was customized with Ludwig’s superior Speed King pedal. After Ringo joined the Beatles, he changed his front drum head (which had his name amaturishly embossed in black tape) to one that sported a horizontal sash with the group’s name in a script logo with a “buglike” B.

Keyboards Celesta The celesta is a small upright keyboard instrument with damper pedal patented in Paris in 1886. Its sound is produced by the striking of hammers on steel bars, which ring over wood resonators for an ethereal, liquid tone quality. The range is of four octaves, c1– c5, and the color is probably best known from Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairies” (The Nutcracker Suite) prior to its use by George Martin in “Baby It’s You.” Hammond B-3 EMI’s B-3 in Studio Two was introduced to the Beatles for “I Wanna Be Your Man.” Its tone was produced by ninety-one frequency generators and a geartrain driving a series of 109 tone wheels rotating adjacent to a magnet/coil assembly; pitch was determined both by speed of rotation and by the differing numbers of bumps on each wheel that would magnetically disturb

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Appendix: Instruments Played by the Early-Period Beatles

the electrical signal. Tone color was synthesized by adding the relative volumes of the first nine partials through eighteen presets, thirty-eight drawbars, and four effect stops, including key click and percussion. Various vibrato and chorus effects were produced by phasing the signal with filters. The instrument’s characteristic tremulant feature, to become of great importance to the Beatles in 1966, was created by the attached Leslie cabinet, which included both a twospeed rotating horn that would produce both amplitude modulation and a pitch-affecting Doppler shift, and a stationary 15-inch woofer facing directly into a rotating reflector. Its two keyboards were each of five octaves, and it was mounted on wheels, its two-octave pedalboard usually detached. The model was first made in 1955 and quickly gained wide use in jazz circles. Harmonium The harmonium is a small keyboard instrument developed in France in the mid-nineteenth century. Pedaled bellows force air across thin metal reeds as valves are opened by the keyboard. Different timbres are controlled by a small number of stops, and an expression lever determines whether the air supply is continuous or modulated by changing foot pressure. The harmonium is related in principle both to the harmonica, employed extensively by John Lennon in the early Beatles, and to the Hohner Melodica, in which he once showed passing interest. It differs from the sound of an organ’s reed pipes in that it lacks resonating chambers; because of this, vibration is not channeled in isolation but puts neighboring reeds in sympathetic vibration, producing a markedly more richly discordant tone. It is interesting, therefore, that the Beatles developed an interest in the harmonium in late 1965, just as they were discovering the same principles in the fuzz bass and in the sympathetic strings of the sitar. Hohner Pianet N The Hohner was introduced in 1962. Its sound is produced by the amplified plucking of metal accordion reeds with a leather/foam plucker, has a five-octave range, F1 to f3, a volume pedal, a natural-wood finish, and folding top (Carson 1993, 149). Its detachable amplifier, with a knob-controlled tremolo, was of only 15 watts and so was bypassed on stage and perhaps in the studio. The amp provided poor sustain, but the attack was strong enough to generate interesting overdriving capabilities. The Hohner Pianet and its cousin, the Cembalet, were used by Rod Argent of the Zombies, Al Kooper, and Manfred Mann; it is also well known in Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” The Beatles used the Pianet on four Help! tracks (it is seen in the film) and, two years later, on “Getting Better” and “I Am the Walrus.” (See Isler 1988, 56, on Lennon’s block-chord Pianet voicings.) Mellotron In 1963 and afterward, Lennon expressed interest in a guitar that could sound like an organ, so it was natural for him to be an early (October? 1965) owner of the Bradley Brothers Mellotron (see Coleman 1992, 331, and Lewisohn 1988, 87). This instrument, with its two side-by-side keyboards — each of three octaves — that calls forth flutes, brass, or strings from 1,260 tracks on banks of magnetic tapes, also offering chord buttons, rhythm presets,

Keyboards

and a pitch-bend knob, at a price of £975 (comparable contemporaneous keyboard prices: Selmer Pianotron, £71; Hohner Pianet, £115; Philips Philicordia, £185; Farfisa Compact, £209; Lowrey models, £273 –£1,049; see Melody Maker, February 27, 1965, p. 15). While the Mellotron does not appear on any Beatles recordings made before the end of 1966, McCartney says he composed “In My Life” on Lennon’s home Mellotron (Miles 1997, 277). Steinway Music Room Grand Studio Two contained a Hamburg Steinway B, which, because of its molding, can be dated to pre –World War II vintage, probably the early 1930s. This eighty-eight-key, six-foot 101⁄2-inch grand, fitted with soft, sustain, and sostenuto pedals, had a double-crowned soundboard of tapered spruce and a case of ebonized mahogany, walnut, and birch. This is the piano heard in all Beatle recordings from Please Please Me through Rubber Soul, with the exception of “Misery.” Vox Continental Mk I In 1965 – 66, the Beatles toured with the Continental, a lightweight four-octave (C – c3) single-manual solid-state keyboard with whiteon-black keys and four sliding tone drawbars, mounted on a tubular steel Zshaped stand and typically played through a 100-watt Vox amplifier. This was one model used by Manfred Mann; electronic organs were also popularized in Britain by Alan Price of the Animals, Roger Lavern of the Tornados, and Steve Winwood of the Spencer Davis Group. Lennon’s blue “Shea” Continental sold for £19,000 at Bonham’s in London in early 1999; he also used a black model in 1965 – 66.

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1

TABLE OF CHORD FUNCTIONS

The purpose of this table is to list the basic harmonies of tonal music, as identified by the roman numeral system adopted in this book, and to describe their most characteristic functions, both in common practice generally and as used by the Beatles. The chords in most of the Beatles’ music conform to the major scale, even when melodic lines are drawn from the bluesrelated pentatonic minor; this is perhaps the strongest aspect of the tonal language of “Another Girl.” True minor-mode pieces do occur as well, and of course the Beatles make ample use of mode mixture, borrowing scale degree alterations from the minor into the major mode, for color contrast at a level that is often significant. Chords other than those listed here, including the more exotic applied chords and such chromatic intensifiers as augmented-sixth chords and common-tone diminished sevenths, are referred to and discussed in the text, but their functions are based on a combination of the harmonic principles described hereafter and more individualistic contrapuntal lines. In addition, it should be borne in mind that all of these chords will occur most often in root position but that inversions are frequent and largely subject to the melodic development of McCartney’s bass playing. Sevenths, ninths, suspended fourths, added sixths, and other passing or neighboring nonchord tones are added commonly and characteristically, and these events are discussed with ample attention in the main body of the text.

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I Tonic harmony represents the home base, relaxation, consummation, and arrival. It is most effectively approached by V and can be embellished plagally by IV but in blues-rock can be ornamented by lower neighbor fVII as well. If This symbol refers to a minor tonic triad imported into the major mode. Such mode mixture is basic to “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” and “Penny Lane,” both of which juxtapose the two colors for immediate contrasts of mood. Is The symbol for a major tonic chord within a minor context, as in “Things We Said Today.” Basically in the minor mode, “I’ll Be Back” illustrates a powerful conflict of intentions by juxtaposing I against Is; the song fades out indecisively. fII An altered supertonic chord, a major triad built a half-step above tonic, with two typical functions. Most commonly a dominant preparation known as the “Neapolitan” chord, as in the introduction to “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” but fII may also function as an altered V itself, by tritone substitution, even when the seventh of the chord does not sound as it would in most jazz applications. This is heard in the retransitions to “Things We Said Today” and “You’re Going to Lose That Girl.” The Beatles do not use fII in first inversion. II The supertonic harmony is typically a dominant preparation. In some rock music, particularly in acid rock, this chord works as a simple upperneighbor embellishment of tonic, but before “Don’t Let Me Down” and “Sun King,” such a nondirected function is unknown in the Beatles’ work. The Beatles often use a root-position II— considered too stable for such a usage in classical music — as a passing chord, as in moving from I to III within a tonic expansion. The verses of “If I Fell” and “Here, There and Everywhere,” the chorus of “Getting Better,” and the bridge of “Sexy Sadie” illustrate. II is tonicized for the bridges of “For No One” and “If I Needed Someone,” in both cases leading then to a retransitional V4 – 3. IIs The Beatles often use IIs—which is normally a dominant preparation (the applied chord, V of V) characterized by the rising raised fourth scale degree — for the melodic potential of its raised scale degree in a chromatically descending context. I refer to this usage as the Lydian IIs, and it is heard moving to IV in many Beatles songs from “She Loves You” to “She’s Leaving Home.” IIs is tonicized to illustrate transcendence in “Doctor Robert.” fIII A major mediant triad appearing a minor third above tonic. This can be part of a blues-based I –fIII – I arpeggiation, as in the verse of “Helter Skelter,” but much more often continues on to IV, as in the [025]-related, blues-inflected “Please Please Me,” “The Night Before,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (where fIII is tonicized), “I Am the Walrus,” “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” and the final cadence of “The End.” In a minor key, fIII will often be tonicized according

Table of Chord Functions

to “normal” practice, as in “Another Girl” and “Your Mother Should Know.” In this minor context, fIII may lead directly to V, as in “Girl” and most classical music, but the Beatles will also compose this in a pentatonically inflected major mode; witness the introduction of “You Like Me Too Much” and the whole of “Yer Blues.” fIII is tonicized in the minormode “Wait,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and “You Never Give Me Your Money,” and in a major context, “She Came In through the Bathroom Window.” III The normally weak mediant triad is a source of strength for the Beatles, adding poignant color to songs from “She Loves You” to “Across the Universe.” It normally provides initial consonant support for a melodic leading-tone that then is elecrically charged by a succeeding V; one can practically smell the ozone as this occurs in “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Or it may act as a sensitive fifth above VI, as in the introspective verse of “Help!” Lennon’s “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” opens with a tonicized mediant, an emphasis that also appears in the verse of his “Sexy Sadie.” IIIs Aside from its applied role as V of VI, IIIs is known only as a surprising substitute for I6 on its way to IV in the reharmonizing codas of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Yes It Is.” IV IV has two important roles, as either a dominant preparation or a plagal ornament to the tonic. The Beatles will usually begin their bridge with IV, as in “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” to set up the retransitional dominant. This IV will often be tonicized, as in “From Me to You” and “Because,” to further intensify that form-defining V. In the minor-mode “I’m Only Sleeping,” the bridge tonicizes IV but then withholds the dominant. In some similar cases, as in the chorus of “Ask Me Why” or the verse of “And Your Bird Can Sing,” V does not appear at all, and IV thus takes on a greater role. In a blues context, IV may act as an upper-neighbor embellishment of I, even if directly following a cadential V, as in “Can’t Buy Me Love.” IVf A minor subdominant chord in a major context. This usually drops to tonic as a plagal function weakened by mixture from minor, as in “All I’ve Got to Do,” “I’ll Follow the Sun,” “Nowhere Man,” and “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.” May be part of a larger use of the minor mode in a major context, as in the bridge of “Here, There and Everywhere.” V The dominant, the tension-providing counterpoise of the tonic, strengthens the latter with the authentic V– I cadence or opposes the same by ending a phrase with the half cadence. Usually the structural goal of the bridge’s retransition, and may be tonicized there, as in “I’ll Get You.” Vf The minor dominant is rare in the Beatles’ music after “I’ll Get You” but may embellish the modal fVII, as in “Good Morning Good Morning.”

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“Strawberry Fields Forever” uses the minor dominant and other colorful “wrong-mode” chords to portray Lennon’s sense of displacement. fVI The major triad built a half-step above V is usually a modally inflected dominant preparation, often including a “seventh” that resolves as an augmented sixth. This occurs in the retransitions of “I Call Your Name” and “Mean Mr Mustard.” In “Honey Pie,” the resolution of fVI7 to V7 is delayed by two intervening applied chords. So as to further intensify their respective dominants in the minor mode, fVI is tonicized briefly within both the bridge of “Michelle” and the verse of “I’m Only Sleeping.” fVI may provide a modally inflected plagal approach to the tonic, as in the simple fVI – I verse of “It Won’t Be Long,” the fVI –fVII – I cadence of “P.S. I Love You,” or the mixture-enhanced arpeggiation of the subdominant in the IV–fVI – I succession heard in “Hello Goodbye” and “Oh! Darling.” Rarely, fVI will work as IV of fIII, as in the retransition of “A Day in the Life.” More in line with traditional tonal practice, fVI as the goal of a modally inflected deceptive cadence precipitates the coda of “I Will.” VI Lennon would frequently embellish the tonic by alternating it with its submediant, as in “All I’ve Got to Do,” “Run for Your Life,” and “All You Need Is Love.” In the Dorian “Eleanor Rigby,” VI is the only embellishment that McCartney allows the tonic. Lennon tonicizes VI in the opening of the bridge of “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” and “You Can’t Do That,” in the middle of the bridge of “This Boy,” in the end of the bridge of “There’s a Place,” and throughout the bridge of “We Can Work It Out.” The descending arpeggiation, I –VI – IV, a rock cliché, is rare in McCartney’s work but is one of Lennon’s favorite ideas, as written into the verses of “I’ll Get You” and “I’m So Tired,” the chorus of “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” and many other songs. All three composing Beatles enjoy resolving VI plagally to III, as they do in “Please Please Me,” “She Loves You,” “No Reply,” “I Need You,” “I Will,” and “Julia.” VIs In addition to its common applied role as V of II, the Beatles discover VIs as an area to be tonicized in its own right, a salient feature of Abbey Road. George Harrison anticipated his artful use of this relationship in the middle section of “Something” in the intentionally clumsy bridge of “Only a Northern Song.” fVII The major subtonic chord may prepare V7 with a telling cross-relation on the altered seventh scale degree, as in cadences in “All My Loving,” “I’m a Loser,” “Yes It Is,” and “Dig a Pony.” This may be part of a larger dominant preparation, as in the II –fVII –V7 arpeggiation in the chorus of “Help!,” or in the expanded tonicization of fVII in the chorus of “Penny Lane” that resolves in its retransitional V. In rock music but not in art music, fVII will be used as a lower-neighbor embellishment to tonic, beginning for the Beatles with “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Every Little Thing.” This I –fVII – I progression will sometimes grind against a tonic pedal below, as in “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Got to Get You

Table of Chord Functions

into My Life.” The Beatles progress from fVII through IV to I in the rockdefining “double plagal” cadence, used heavily from “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” and “The Night Before” to “Here Comes the Sun” and “Polythene Pam.” fVII may also be a passing chord between the modal fVI and I, as in “P.S. I Love You,” “With a Little Help from My Friends,” and “Lady Madonna,” and it appears as V of fIII in a rare major-mode context in “The Word.” VII Aside from an applied function to the mediant like that in “Martha My Dear,” the Beatles rarely build any quality of triad on the leading tone, which in art music would typically appear as a passing diminished triad in first inversion. The second chord of “Yesterday,” a minor triad built on the leading tone, is soon understood as II of VI. A major-minor VII7 chord appears in “I’m So Tired,” and this is heard as a chromatic preparation of the dominant that follows after an intervening IV chord.

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1 GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Acetate an early test pressing made for production purposes, often for the home study of an experimental mix; also called a “dub.” Applied dominant also called “secondary dominant”; a major triad (or major-minor seventh chord) whose root lies a perfect fifth above that of another major or minor triad, which is thereby tonicized (q. v.), such as the chord on “green” in “You Can’t Do That.” The root of an applied diminished triad lies a chromatic half-step below the root of the major or minor triad being tonicized. Backbeat in common time, a strong accent on beats two and four, usually emphasized by the snare. A central feature of rock music, the origin of the backbeat has been traced by Steven Baur to 1929 in Gene Krupa’s work and 1927 in the playing of Duke Ellington’s banjo player, whereas it was made into a standard rock pattern by Connie Kay, session player for Atlantic Records in the 1940s and 1950s. (See Baur 2000.) Banjolele see appendix. Barre chord a guitar chord formed with the left index finger stopping all strings (creating an artificial, movable nut, effectively reducing the length of all strings), allowing for several convenient methods of chord positioning and voicing with the three remaining fingers. Boogie the repeated alternation of one or more chord tones (third or fifth) with their upper neighbors, usually idiomatic in guitar, keyboard, and vocal parts, such as in Lennon’s guitar part in “Chains.” Often but not always performed in a triplet “shuffle” pattern. Bridge a song’s contrasting section, often beginning in an area other than tonic and usually leading to a dominant retransition. Celesta see appendix. 363

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Chorus a song’s section, nearly always affirming tonic, usually appearing in the song’s interior, with lyrics that remain constant with each hearing. If there is no refrain, the chorus is the container of the song’s title. Common-tone diminished seventh chord (CT°7) a fully diminished seventh chord, one of which tones (usually that spelled as the chord seventh) is also a member (most commonly the root) of the principal chord being embellished. Usually, the common tone is maintained as a bass pedal; e.g., the embellishment of an Fmajor triad with a neighboring Gs°42. Compression paraphrasing only slightly from Romblom 1999, compression is a variable gain control that responds to the level of the input signal in order to “flatten” the color and dynamic range of the sound’s envelope. In general, if the signal gets loud, a compression unit will turn down the volume. Settings will determine the threshold volume level, the ratio of attenuation applied to the guilty signal (extreme ratio values, which will keep the signal closely bound to the threshold value, may be considered limiting), and the quickness of response in gain alterations during attack and decay portions of the signal. (A slow attack time, typically used when limiting drums, allows the initial articulation to break through the dynamic threshold before attenuation begins.) “In most cases a Compressed track will sound suffocated and repressed because of the reduced dynamic range and the fact that percussive timbres may be present without the corresponding high volume.” This seems to be the quality Harrison and Martin were seeking in “Don’t Bother Me.” Cover the recording of another’s previously-released song; when the rendition is in a different style from that of the original, the cover often brings an existing song to a new audience. D-gesture or D-line see SRDC. Dominant preparation a harmony, usually II6, II, IV, IV6, or VI but also including the applied Vs, that sets the stage for V. Double-plagal cadence roots progressing to a goal tonic in two successive descending perfect fourths, fVII – IV– I, allowing both the anticipations of roots and stepwise descending resolutions in upper voices, as in “She Said She Said.” Elision here, a term used to designate the enjambment of two phrases, as in “Any Time at All.” Expansion (of harmony) see Prolongation. Fifth-progression the filling-in of a melodic fifth with passing tones, as in the guitar retransition in “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away.” Hypermeasure, hypermeter terms devised by Edward Cone to permit consideration of the metrical relations that exist among groupings of measures, thereby acknowledging strong and weak accentual relationships among consecutive downbeats. Incomplete structure a harmonic pattern that does not begin with I but “in medias res,” e.g., the opening IV–V– I of “No Reply.” Interruption a voice-leading structure expressed in song as a period with antecedent, leading to a half cadence, followed by consequent, ending with an authentic cadence, so that the structural upper voice descends to 2 over V at the first cadence, then returns to the beginning for the consequent, which descends fully to 1 for the second cadence. The entire descent is thus said to have been interrupted at the first half cadence. Exemplified in “All My Loving.” Lydian IIs A major triad built on 2, in a major key, but not functioning as V of V, as in “She Loves You.”

Glossary of Terms

Mellotron see appendix. Mixolydian fVII A subtonic chord built on f7 in a major key. Nut position Harrison’s term for the most basic left-hand guitar position taking advantage of open strings; allows what are commonly called “cowboy” chords. Phrygian fII a major triad built on f2, which does not necessarily act as a Vpreparatory Neapolitan but instead may substitute for an altered V, as in “Things We Said Today.” Pitch class the group of all pitches related by octave equivalence, e. g., the pitches . . . cs1, cs2, cs3, . . . are all members of pitch class cs. Power chord open fifth on guitar, usually loud and distorted; several often combined in parallel motion, usually adhering to the minor pentatonic scale. Pre-dominant see Dominant preparation. Progressive tonality a system characterized by the modulation from one key area to another without any indication of an overriding single tonal center, as in “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.” Prolongation (of harmony) the expansion of a scale degree through its composingout, which may involve (1) tonicization (q. v.) (as in the prolongation of C in “Birthday”), (2) the unfolding through time of intervals of its triad (as in the If7– I65 progression in “I Saw Her Standing There”), or (3) contrapuntal elaboration, as with passing or neighboring chords (as the F9 chord helps prolong C in “Golden Slumbers”). Refrain an optional final line of a song’s verse, consisting of a lyric (usually containing the title) that does not vary from verse to verse. Sitar see appendix. Shuffle a swinging rhythmic subdivision created by dividing the beat into three and articulating the first and third parts of each beat. Swing and shuffle beats are common to most rock and roll; Steven Baur says, “during the late 1950s and early 1960s, duple subdivisions of the quarter became more common in rockand-roll drumming, replacing the triple subdivision of the quarter note characteristic of swing and shuffle patterns” (Baur 2000). SRDC an abbreviation for Statement – Restatement – Departure – Conclusion, the designation for the periodic functions, as well as motivic and tonal correspondences, among phrases of certain verses, as in “I’ll Cry Instead.” Individual phrases may be referred to as a D-gesture or -line. STEED acronym for single-tape echo and echo delay, a method of producing a very heavy, cavernous reverberation, as heard on George’s vocal in “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby.” Tea-chest bass a wooden crate (common around Liverpool’s shipping docks) fitted with an upright broom handle; a string is attached to both the chest (which functions as an amplifier) and the top of the broomstick; the open string is plucked by the free hand and its tension (and therefore pitch) is governed by pulling and relaxing the stick with the other. Tonicization the temporary bestowal of “tonic” status on a scale degree other than 1, achieved by any of the techniques traditionally associated with modulation. The tonicized area will eventually resolve back to the original 1. Trichord any collection of three discrete pitch classes (q. v.); the [025] trichord is formed by any three pitch classes (e.g., G – Bf– C or G –A– C) that contain between them the three intervals of a major second, a minor third, and a perfect fourth (and is named by a count of half-steps between constituents). The [025] trichord occurs in four places in the minor-pentatonic scale.

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Truck driver’s modulation the modulation to an area one step higher, usually achieved very smoothly by stating or repeating V at a half cadence, analogous to depressing a clutch, transposing that V up a step, shifting to the next-higher gear, and then resolving to the new I, releasing the clutch. An odious time-killer in much commercial music but made more subtle by the incomplete progression in “And I Love Her.” Verse a song’s section equivalent to the stanza, usually placed directly after any introduction, that usually appears with two or three (or, rarely, more) different sets of lyrics but in rare early cases has one set only.

NOTES

Preface 1. I recommend Aldwell and Schachter 1989 for background on musical issues pertaining to harmony and voice leading that cannot be discussed in depth here. 2. The Beatles are often said to have enjoyed universal appeal. But despite their obviously enormous core pop following — and the band’s popularity continues unabated, with sales of over 20 million CDs in 1996 alone — the group never once crossed over to Billboard’s “Country & Western” or “Rhythm & Blues”/”Soul” charts, whereas even the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons enjoyed R&B hits. As a solo artist, McCartney had one B-side enter the C&W chart in 1975 and three R&B hits in 1982– 83, the latter all coperformed with Stevie Wonder or Michael Jackson. 3. Distinguished musicians have for many years compared the music of the Beatles to that of Monteverdi, Schubert, Schumann, and Poulenc; see the thoughts of Bernstein, Copland, Rorem, Rifkin, Perlman, and Foss in Kozinn 1995b, 31– 34. 4. The Wise scores were apparently transcribed without recourse to either preoverdub recordings or video archives, all of which permit a clear understanding of guitar voicings and other details masked by dense final-mix textures. 5. Unless otherwise stated, CD timings are intended for reference in commercially released EMI recordings, even if the passage being discussed is part of another recording, such as a compositional draft or a live performance, of that particular song. Prelude 1. The Allerton Public Library contains a number of publications on local history. For further information, the Allerton visitor may wish to see Bagley 1969, Hand 1910 and 1912, Stewart-Brown 1911, and other sources cited hereafter in notes 2 and 6. Regarding John Lennon’s childhood memories of the Sunday church bells, see Wenner 1971, 40. 367

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2. On land lying between the Mersey River, the city airport and a large industrial park, city construction of “more than 35,000 houses and flats” began in Speke in 1937 (Whale 1984, 22). Mike McCartney (who worked for some time under the name Mike McGear) was to achieve fame in the 1960s as a member of the comic musical group the Scaffold. He has since published several books of his photographs, many of which document events in the early life of the Beatles. 3. The Forthlin Road home was acquired on a $77,700 grant by the National Trust in 1995 (Beatlenews roundup 1997b, 6) and was opened to the public as a museum on July 29, 1998. 4. J. Goodman 1984, 90. By “harmony,” Paul is probably not referring to abstract chordal relationships but to the combination of two or more simultaneous vocal lines. Elsewhere, he has said, “I learned very early how to sing harmony, which was one of my big roles in the Beatles. Whenever John sang I automatically sang in harmony with him, and that’s due to my dad’s teaching” (Miles 1997, 23). Paul recalls his early musical experiences in McCartney World Tour 1989, 8, 13. 5. Coleman 1995, 25 – 26. 6. White 1990, 143. The senior McCartney speaks on Paul’s failed audition in 1953 for the Liverpool (Anglican) Cathedral Choir in Davies 1968b, 26. A photo documenting the occasion is seen in Gottfridsson 1997, 12. Paul was a choirboy in St. Barnabas Church in Penny Lane, which had its Church Hall (since known as Dovedale Towers) on the intersecting Dovedale Road. “After the second world war a number of plays and pageants (often on a large scale) were performed in the Church Hall in Dovedale Road. These included a Pageant of the Stained Glass Windows (September 1949), a Sunday School Festival Pageant and a Drama of St. Barnabas on St. Barnabas Day, June 11th 1950. An unusual event was the Pageant ‘The Men of the Burma Road’ by Chiang Yee, performed in April 1946 in aid of the United Aid to China Fund” (St. Barnabas 1989). If music were to have been included, the young McCartney is likely to have participated in one or two of these adventures; Lennon’s half-sister Julia says that Paul was a choirboy at St. Barnabas “until his voice broke” (Baird 1988, 37). John’s first group, the Quarry Men, was to perform at the Dovedale Towers in the late 1950s. 7. Piano/vocal arrangements of the songs alluded to here and a thumbnail history of the genre are contained in Davison 1971. Paul’s compositions for the Beatles invoking the music-hall and dance-band traditions include, most directly, “When I’m Sixty-Four” (completed in 1966), “Your Mother Should Know” (1967), “Honey Pie” (1968), and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (1969). These were followed by such solo efforts as the Fred Astaire – inspired “You Gave Me the Answer” (1975) and “What People Want Is a Family Life” (from “Peace,” Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio), a semiautobiographical work that recalls the composer’s father in a trumpet part). McCartney has also resurrected Gracie Fields’s 1931 dance number “Sally,” which he performed during his 1989 – 90 world tour. This and the would-be comical “If I Were Not Upon the Stage” may be heard on McCartney 1990. The warmth of Paul’s relationship with his father is expressed in his 1988 composition “Put It There” (McCartney 1989). 8. J. Goodman 1984, 92. 9. The transcription is made from the original release, a 45-rpm single by “the Country Hams” (this being McCartney’s name for his own band, Wings, augmented by the Nashville session players), EMI 3977. The recording also appears on the compact disc version of McCartney 1976a. 10. White 1990, 122. 11. McCartney World Tour 1989, 39. 12. Most of these facts concerning John’s home life with his mother are recounted by one of his two half-sisters by Dykins, Julia Baird (1988, 9, 11). Although she is frank in discussing her mother’s moral life, Baird makes no reference to the possibility of prostitution. John’s stepmother Pauline writes sympathetically of her

Notes to Pages 14 – 21

husband Alf in P. Lennon 1990. A Norwegian woman named Ingrid Pedersen made apparently plausible claims in 1998 that she was John’s half-sister by Julia and one Taffy Williams. See also Gentle and Forsyth 1998, 3, regarding the possibility that John was cared for by Alf ’s brother, Sydney, for a few weeks just prior to moving into Mimi’s home, Mendips, in 1946. 13. McCartney is quoted in Baird 1988, 33. 14. Baird 1988, 6, 22. 15. Baird 1988, 6 – 7, and P. Lennon 1990, 11, subscribe to Alf Lennon’s story; Mimi’s contradiction is emphasized in Coleman 1992, 51. Freddie (Alf ) Lennon released a record of his own, “That’s My Life (My Love and My Home),” at the end of 1965 (Piccadilly 7N35279), to cash in on the tabloid notoreity he received when he unsuccessfully attempted to ingratiate himself with his long-ignored, world-famous Beatle son. The hard-tale “I make no excuses” recording is nearly all spoken in a Scouse eerily like that of his son, but the final sung cadence betrays no musical paternity whatsoever. 16. White 1990, 114. 17. John’s spastic stage play can also be seen as a mockery of his idol Gene Vincent who, as a result of several accidents, had a conspicuous limp onstage. 18. Young John’s “A Treasury of Art and Poetry” was sold by roommate Rod Murray in 1984 for £16,000 (Beatlenews roundup 1984, 4). 19. Wooler 1961, 24. John recalled in Lennon 1975a having sung Ray’s songs twenty years earlier. In the first installment of Starr 1983 (June 4, 1983), Ringo remembered Ray’s having appeared at the Liverpool Adelphi c. 1955. The “hiccup” is a feature of Buddy Holly’s (and later, Buddy Knox’s and Bobby Vee’s) singing and is significant for its place among the numerous emotive embellishments of rock-androll singing; Roy Orbison’s more dynamic outbursts also remind one of Ray. Quarry Man Len Garry places Lennon’s harmonica playing as late as 1955, by citing Julie London’s “Cry Me a River” and Eartha Kitt’s “Old Fashioned Millionaire” among his repertoire (Garry 1997, 92). 20. Lennon was interviewed on August 25, 1964; the conversation appears on Beatles 1986c. Mary Ford’s harmonies with Les Paul, especially in “How High the Moon” (1951, performed by the Beatles in 1960 – 61) suggest Paul’s 1971 vocal arrangements for himself and Linda McCartney. One 1. See Lewisohn 1992, 12, Harry 1982, 7, and Garry 1997, 87– 90. Donegan’s “Rock Island Line” became a Top-Ten hit in the States in May 1956, a rare event for a British recording. Skiffle was first popularized in New Orleans and Chicago in the 1920s and also spearheaded rock and roll in Germany in the mid-fifties. 2. Marsden 1993, 10. See Clayson 1992, 13, regarding the strong C&W flavor of Liverpool skiffle acts in 1955 – 59. 3. On August 24 – 25, 1964, John discusses how skiffle motivated him and many others to form groups (Beatles 1964k). 4. The Egmond, the Gallatone, and all known Beatle instruments are described in more detail in this book’s appendix, “Instruments Played by the Early-Period Beatles.” For more on John’s first guitar, see Baird 1988, 29, 37, Coleman 1992, 51, 137, 142, and Lewisohn 1992, 12, 46. Lennon is also supposed to have played in the late 1950s a Höfner Senator, but (despite authentication of the story from George Harrison) I have seen no photographs of Lennon with the instrument. See Sotheby’s London 1984, 29. Perhaps the Senator is the otherwise unidentified guitar supposed to have been stolen by Lennon in Manchester in November 1958. In the late 1970s, Lennon gave son Julian a 3⁄4 -scale Gibson SG Special made in late 1959 (with cherry finish, stud bridge, four black bonnet knobs and switch, two black soapbox pickups, and dot inlays) that he may have used as a Beatle in Hamburg.

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Notes to Pages 21– 24

5. See Lennon 1975a. It is commonly said that the Quarry Men removed the two lowest strings from their guitars, but the July 6, 1957, photo seems to show the two outer strings missing from Griffiths’s and Lennon’s guitars. This would sensibly lead to a resulting G – B – fs– a tuning from dropping the four inner strings. The guitars’ pitch is inaudible in our recording from that date of “Putting on the Style,” but Lennon’s voice (the group’s only amplified sound, though Hanton’s drums are also prominent) sounds in Af, so this modified “open G” tuning is quite plausible. (Donegan’s banjo-heavy, high-tenor model of the song is almost a fifth higher, in D.) See also Gottfridsson 1997, 43, and Garry 1997, 154. Julia is also said to have taught John the chords to two of his “favorite” standards, “Little White Lies” and “Girl of My Dreams” (Miles 1997, 30). It should also be noted here that the “standard” E – a – d – g – b – e1 guitar tuning was not universal. In some numbers, for instance, the Everly Brothers seem to play one of their Gibson J-200s with a standard configuration and the other with a blues-derived open tuning. 6. Baird 1988, 19, 37. 7. Re the Quarry Men’s early skiffle repertoire, see Shotton and Schaffner 1983, 52– 53, Harry 1982, 22, Coleman 1992, 139, “When did you” 1969, 10, and Gottfridsson 1997, 43. The group probably also performed Lonnie Donegan’s 1956 hit “Lost John,” a number revisited on Lennon 1998 as well as on the 1997 album Get Back—Together by five reformed Quarry Men recording under the name of John Lennon’s Original Quarrymen. The February 1958 release by the Vipers Skiffle Group, “No Other Baby,” was not only covered by the Quarry Men in 1958 – 59 but also by Paul McCartney in his 1999 album Run Devil Run. 8. Coleman 1992, 139. 9. Shotton and Schaffner 1983, 48 – 49. 10. See Coleman 1992, 141. John says of “Peggy Sue,” “this I was singing ’round when I was sixteen or something,” and of Berry, “the first thing you learn [to play] is the guitar break on ‘Johnny B. Goode’ and once you’ve got that, you’re down for ‘Oh Carol’ and all the rest of them” (Lennon 1975a). Len Garry (1997, 133) recalls normally singing descant to Lennon’s lead vocal during the year before McCartney took over that function. 11. The Donegan date is supplied by Lewisohn 1992, 12. The Zenith is seen in most pre-Hamburg (pre –August 1960) photographs, but the earlier guitar is seen in some of these and near the conclusion of the 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street (McCartney: The Beatlefan interview 1984, 11). 12. See Mulhern 1990, 18, re the B7 story. Michael’s memories are presented in Coleman 1992, 162– 63. 13. McCartney World Tour 1989, 37. 14. The 1957 playlist is from Coleman 1992, 145. John’s statement was made in Lennon 1975a, and the improvised lyric is suggested in Baird 1988, 30. “Penitentiary” is a word Lennon would have known from Leadbelly songs such as “Midnight Special.” Garry (1997, 150 – 68) lists several other songs he recalls playing at the St. Peter’s fête, but his list includes two records that were not released until months after the July date. Local news coverage of the fête is reported in Gottfridsson 1997, 199. The clothing and outdoor staging of Quarry Men performances seen in 1957 photos resemble Louisiana Hayride – style concert scenes in Elvis Presley’s June 1957 film Loving You, which was known to the Beatles. 15. Paul’s first-owned record is documented in Lewisohn’s notes for McCartney 1991b. Paul’s words are cited in Baird 1988, 32. McCartney also rehearses the events of this meeting in J. Goodman 1984, 90, and the events of July 6, 1957, are narrated in O’Donnell 1996. The Quarry Men performed again after the Lennon – McCartney conversation. A very noisy four-minute tape of their performances of “Putting On the Style,” Donegan’s then current #1 hit, and “Baby Let’s Play House” made that night with a Grundig home tape recorder and single handheld microphone was bought by EMI on September 15, 1994, for $122,770 (Kozinn 1994). A

Notes to Pages 24 – 26

half-minute portion of the historic recording of “Putting on the Style” is available on Beatles 1998. 16. Coleman 1992, 75, 149, 191. McCartney was to rededicate the “Innie” as the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts in January 1998. 17. Baird 1988, 38. 18. McCartney is quoted in Garbarini 1980, 49. For the Mersey Beat article, see V. Harry 1962, 30. 19. “A World without Love” is listed here only because of a dating by Lennon (Lennon 1972a, 304) that would place the song c. 1958 – 62; I find no other mention of the song’s existence prior to Paul’s January 1964 demonstration recording. John’s frequent ridicule of the song’s opening lyric, “Please lock me away,” would have been sufficient to rule out any Beatle interest in the song and thus postpone any appearance for several years. For “Tip of My Tongue,” “I’m in Love,” and “Nobody I Know,” see note 32 hereafter. 20. Gentle recorded “I’ve Just Fallen” for Parlophone and released it in April 1962 under the name of Darren Young. (It was produced by John Burgess, not Parlophone head George Martin.) See Gentle and Forsythe 1998, 50 – 51, and Engelhardt 1998, 517. 21. Gottfridsson 1997, 150, 177. Sheridan recorded the song in 1997 but says that McCartney has refused to allow him to release it (Beatlenews roundup 1998, 9). 22. In a spring 1968 housecleaning, Paul’s ex-girlfriend Jane Asher disposed of many Lennon-McCartney composition notebooks (Shotton and Schaffner 1983, 56), but MPL announced in 1997 “that McCartney has a school notebook containing about six songs (including ‘Love Me Do’) he and Lennon wrote about forty years ago” (Beatlenews Roundup 1997b, 6 – 7). 23. When Lowe was preparing to offer the unique disc at auction in 1981, McCartney bought it privately and pressed fifty copies of the acetate for friends. Both 1958 tracks appear on Beatles 1995d (where “In Spite” is shortened from 3'25" to 2'42"). See pertinent interviews and other source material in Gottfridsson 1997, 23, 28, 45 – 47, and 193 – 95. Very thorough searches for a number of tapes made by the pre-Beatles in 1957– 59 have yielded no results, leading to conclusions that they have been lost and/or erased by subsequent recordings. Among the possible material: (1) several skiffle sessions at Colin Hanton’s home, taped by friends and neighbors (the “Davies/Wong” tape); (2) several 1958 – 59 performances by Rory Storm & the Hurricanes featuring George Harrison as well as band member Ringo Starr, recorded at the “Morgue” club; and (3) Paul and Institute mate Neil Harding singing Leadbelly’s “Pick a Bale of Cotton” in April 1959 (the “Burfitt” tape). See Gentle and Forsythe 1998, 100, and Gottfridsson 1997, 25 – 26. 24. See Lewisohn 1988, 6, 7, and Gottfridsson 1997, 194 – 95. 25. The first two pages of the manuscript draft of Paul’s promotional letter are reproduced in Davies 1968a, 62 – 63. The “Years” lyric appears in Miles 1997, 39. The legend that “Keep Looking That Way,” “Years Roll Along,” “Winston’s Walk,” “Looking Glass,” “I Lost My Little Girl,” and “Thinking of Linking” were recorded in an early 1962 rehearsal has been unsupported since it surfaced in the early 1970s. 26. From the April 1960 Grundig tapes, “You’ll Be Mine,” “Cayenne,” and a cover of “Hallelujah! I Love Her So” are heard in Beatles 1995d, and portions of “The One after 909” and a cover of “I’ll Always Be in Love with You” are heard in Beatles 1996c. 27. A facsimile of Epstein’s list is given in Lewisohn 1992, 70. “Pinwheel Twist” has also been mentioned by Joe Flannery (Brocken 2000, 33), who like Epstein was a manager of Liverpool groups. 28. Pete Best recalls that Paul composed “Love of the Loved” just prior to the Decca audition (Best and Doncaster 1985, 144).

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Notes to Pages 27– 33

29. A prelyrics run-through of “When I’m Sixty-Four” may exist in a 1960 home tape that has not been distributed. 30. Lewisohn 1988, 12. On January 28, 1969, Lennon busked half-remembered lines from “Thinking” over the continuing chords from the verse of “Peggy Sue Got Married,” making it likely that the apparently forgettable song had origins in the Buddy Holly style and perhaps in that song. Anthology director Bob Smeaton says that McCartney, Harrison, and Starr ran through “Thinking of Linking” during the early 1995 acoustic jams at George’s Henley-on-Thames home studio (Beatlenews Roundup 1996, 4), but we know nothing of the outcome. 31. “Too Bad about Sorrows” is transcribed from Beatles 1991d. Paul sings a bit of “Just Fun” in his discussion of his early songwriting that appears about nine minutes into Beatles 1970c. The soundtrack for this film and an interview in Martin 1983, 65, are the sources of example 3. Paul believes “Too Bad about Sorrows” may be the first song he cowrote with John, and “Just Fun” was of a similar vintage (Miles 1997, 36). 32. “That’s My Woman” is mentioned as a 1958 Lennon-McCartney composition in Lewisohn 1992, 13, and elsewhere. Sheridan’s claim as to “Tell Me If You Can” is relayed in Wiener 1992, 6. Wiener 1992, 205, dates “Tip of My Tongue,” “I’m in Love,” and “Nobody I Know” from 1960 – 61. “Long Black Train” is a title frequently given as a Lennon original, but this certainly refers to a cover of Presley’s 1955 version of “Mystery Train.” Quarry Man Davis: “John always used to make up his own words to the songs that were popular. ‘Long, black train’ was one of them” (Norman 1981, 24). 33. From Beatles 1991d. One line was provided by Paul’s early girlfriend Iris Caldwell (Turner 1994, 13). 34. Lennon is heard in BBC 1990, and McCartney’s response to Johns is transcribed in Cott and Dalton 1969. 35. All three transcriptions were made from Beatles 1982b. 36. “Hot as Sun” and the question are heard on Beatles 1981c. 37. Miles 1997, 21. 38. The 1969 version is from Beatles 1991d. Paul’s documentary bridge (given in example 1.9b) is from McCartney 1992b. The 1991 dialogue (broadcast by satellite on April 3, 1991) is on McCartney 1991b. 39. The 1959 date is given in Coleman 1992, 190; Lennon is quoted in Fallon 1969, 16 –17. 40. In the EMI recording, John plays the chord once in each section — verse, refrain, and bridge. 41. The photograph is reproduced in M. McCartney 1992, 107. In BBC 1990, Paul said of the partnership, “we very much emulated each other and mirrored each other, really, I mean literally, with me being left-handed.” McCartney recalls writing “Standing There” with John around his own first verse in the Forthlin Road living room (Miles 1997, 93). 42. Pawlowski 1989, 138 – 39. See also Martin 1979, 131. 43. Lennon discusses “Love Me Do” in Lennon 1972a, 30, and Golson 1981b, 163. In Miles 1997, 36, McCartney says it was “completely cowritten.” 44. John has said that “Hello Little Girl” was one of his first finished compositions (Miles and Marchbank 1978, 79). Paul discusses the first incarnation of “I’ll Follow the Sun” in Lewisohn 1988, 12. Examples 1.10a – b are from Beatles 1987e and 1991g, respectively; example 1.11 is from Beatles 1987e. John’s very early “I Call Your Name” apparently did not have a contrasting section at all until the song was prepared for the June 27, 1963, recording by Billy J. Kramer. The composer in September 1980: “That was my song. When there was no Beatles and no group. . . . It was my first effort as a kind of blues originally, and then I wrote the middle eight just to stick it in the album when it came out years later. The first part had been written before Hamburg even. It was one of my first attempts at a song” (Golson 1981b, 180). McCartney recalls the song being composed in

Notes to Pages 33 – 40

Mendips (Miles 1997, 46). The Kramer bridge lacks a shuffle rhythm, but is otherwise equivalent to the version recorded by the Beatles on March 1, 1964. 45. See BBC 1990 and Coleman 1992, 370 – 71. 46. Paul discusses the delay in J. Goodman 1984, 110, and White 1990, 143. 47. Golson 1981a, 182. 48. Davies 1968a, 45; see also 1968b, 27. 49. Beatles 2000a, 27. George speaks about his father on August 30, 1964 (Beatles 1985e). 50. Forte 1987b, 95 – 96; see also Beatles 2000a, 81. Harrison prices the first guitar at “three pounds, ten [shillings]” in Beatles 1996c, vol. 1. 51. The Domino citation is given in Beatles 1996c, vol. 1; other references are from Forte 1987b, 95. See also Harrison 1980, 26. The Everlys played simple rhythm on their matching Gibson J – 200 acoustic guitars, but as they recorded in Nashville, their sound was often “sweetened” by electric guitarist Chet Atkins (whom George was to admire greatly) and pianist Floyd Cramer. Harrison says his own stringbending style was revolutionized by the March 1960 discovery that Cochran used a more pliable unwound B string as his third (G) string (White 1996, 87). The Donegan date is supplied in Giuliano 1991b, 15. 52. George was to play slide guitar on the LP Duane Eddy, produced by Paul McCartney in 1987. Rumor has it that the Beatles recorded “Raunchy” in 1964, but no such tape has circulated. I believe both Harrison and Lennon must have also listened a good bit to Paul Burlison, who played the Telecaster in the Johnny Burnette Trio, in their first years with the guitar. 53. Paul’s “Bert Weedon” tale is found in McCartney 1987; George is quoted in Giuliano 1991b, 17. See also Davies 1968a, 44. 54. I have written elsewhere on the effect of Julia’s death upon John and its relevance to his music in Everett 1986. 55. Shepherd 1963, part 2, 7. Paul describes the amp in McCartney World Tour 1989, 40. The 8-watt Elpico model, controlled by five simple knobs, is probably best known for having functioned in late 1964 as the pre-amp through which Dave Davies plugged his Harmony Meteor guitar, in turn overdriving a Vox AC-30 amp to produce the famous distortion in the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night.” For the Levis audition, the more likely “Rave On” (a May 1958 hit) is mentioned in place of “It’s So Easy” in Beatles 1996c, vol. 1. 56. See Shepherd 1963, part 2, 7; Harrison 1980, plate 4. 57. Cliff Richard had an unmatched record of #1 records in Britain from 1958 through 1963, and an attempt was made to invade the States — he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1962, to absolutely no reaction. He was not to attain a TopTwenty placement across the water until 1976, when “Devil Woman” peaked at #6. 58. Chusid 1996. The vibrato bar is frequently referred to as a tremolo arm or a whammy bar. 59. Davies 1968a, 57. See also Harrison in Forte 1987b, 95 – 96. 60. Coleman 1992, 76. In 1961, Bob Wooler said that the Beatles brought the emotion of American rock and roll back to a scene overshadowed by the emasculated backdrop of Richard and the Shadows (“Well now” 1961, 22). 61. The early history of Liverpool bands is covered in Harry 1977, 6 –16, Marsden 1993, 11– 34, Pawlowski 1989, 5 – 23, Flippo 1988, 33, and notes accompanying Swinging Blue Jeans 1992 and Gerry & the Pacemakers 1991. The Hurricanes equipment is identified in Gottfridsson 1997, 59. 62. Marsden 1993, 19. “Jambalaya (On the Bayou),” a Hank Williams original from 1952, is listed on a 1961 Beatles set list auctioned by Sotheby’s on August 28, 1968, but is not associated with the group after that; see Wiener 1992, 206. The number was among the first recorded by Marsden, in 1963. 63. The early history of the Cavern is outlined in Leigh 1984 and in Pawlowski 1989, 33. All known Beatle venues are indicated on the Liverpool map.

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Notes to Pages 40 – 47

64. See Best and Doncaster, 1985, 16 –17. 65. The Quarry Men at the Casbah in 1959 is a topic covered in Harry 1982, 22, Flippo 1988, 31– 34, and Lewisohn 1992, 16. The attribution of August 29 repertoire is first seen in DeWitt 1985, 227. 66. See Williams and Marshall, 1975, 16 –19, 28 – 31. 67. Many of the songs are listed in Lewisohn 1992, 361– 65. The 1959 repertoire is discussed in Flippo 1988, 32. 68. Date supplied by Flippo 1988, 55. 69. Shepherd 1963, part 3, 7. An interesting depiction of the tensions in group dynamics among Lennon, Sutcliffe, and McCartney is offered in Flippo 1988, 63. 70. This long recording, with its marvelous content, is one of only five known audio records of the Quarry Men / Beatles predating 1962. (The five are from July 1957, summer 1958, April 1960, October 1960, and June 1961.) Swedish historian Hans Olof Gottfridsson has gone to admirable lengths to document the story of the original three April 1960 source tapes; see Gottfridsson 1997, 34 – 36, 174, and 200 – 8 for the original performance ordering as well as the provenance of the “Hans-Walther Braun,” “Astrid Kirchherr,” and “Charlie Hodgson” tapes. Kirchherr gave her original reel (all instrumentals) to Harrison in 1994, and McCartney is thought to have bought the Hodgson tape in March 1995. Nearly all of the material appears on Beatles 1987d and 1987e (with artificial lengthening of all five of the untitled blues), with one lone number appearing on Beatles 1993b. The Hodgson tape is also said to contain performances of “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Winston’s Walk,” and “Ask Me Why” that are not known to have circulated on bootlegs. This is very unfortunate, as we don’t know what “Sixty-Four” sounded like in its early instrumental form, we know nothing of the instrumental “Winston’s Walk,” and “Ask Me Why”— if truly represented — may be extremely rudimentary here, as all other sources have the song composed shortly before its June 1962 tapings. 71. Paul recalls the arrangement in McCartney World Tour 1989, 40. 72. Re “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise,” see Wiener 1992, 205. The 1960 recordings, which feature a version of an Eddie Cochran cover of a Ray Charles tune, are contemporaneous with the death of Cochran, who was killed in an auto accident on April 17, 1960, just weeks after a March appearance at the Liverpool Empire. Beatle attendance at this show has been suggested. 73. “Moovin’ and Groovin’ ” is mistakenly labeled “Guitar Bop” on Beatles 1987e. 74. It is conceivable that the exotic title of “Cayenne” was devised for publication purposes in connection with the release of Beatles 1995d. The title “Cayenne” had not been publicized, to my knowledge, prior to the fall of 1995. 75. Casey 1963, 52. 76. George says in 1984 that Stu also drew inspiration for “the Beetles” from the name of a motorcycle gang in Marlon Brando’s film The Wild Ones (1954) (George Harrison 1984), but it has since been pointed out that the film had not been screened in Britain prior to 1968 (see Gottfridsson 1997, 37). Heinonen 2000 is a clever, entertaining, and scholarly surmise on the origins of the Beatles’ name that gives McCartney partial credit in a new twist that also convincingly references influences from Lewis Carroll to Johnny & the Hurricanes. 77. Casey 1963, 52. See Williams and Marshall 1975, 32– 33, 39 – 54, 81– 98, re Williams’s bookings for the Beatles. Fury (b. 1941), a solo baritone who emulated Presley but otherwise sported a fast vibrato, was Liverpool’s first rock star (Harry 1982, 27). A good sense of his act can be had from Fury 1963, with such songs as “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “That’s All Right,” “Wedding Bells,” “Sticks and Stones,” and Presley’s “Just Because,” all of which were also in the Lennon – McCartney repertoire. 78. Pawlowski 1989, 16. 79. The set lists come from Gentle and Forsyth 1998, 40 – 41, 62. While Gentle does not mention it, Harrison recalls Gentle singing Presley’s 1957 hit “(Let Me Be

Notes to Pages 47– 59

Your) Teddy Bear” and “Wear My Ring around Your Neck” (from 1958) on this tour (Beatles 1996c, vol. 1, Beatles 2000a, 44). Although sometimes fanciful, Johnny Gentle’s memoir of the tour is recommended. 80. A facsimile of the page appears in Gottfridsson 1997, 15. 81. Paul was speaking to Mersey Beat (Harry 1977, 38); see also Flippo 1988, 48 – 50. George says he had just learned to play “Moonglow” at this time. See Davies 1968a, 66. The “Spanish Fire Dance” (“España Cani”), with its Flamenco-based minor-key V–VI (over 5 pedal) –V neighboring motion, was part of Harrison’s 1969 draft of “I Me Mine” and certainly part of his 1960 guitar repertoire. 82. Williams and Marshall 1975, 92, 94. 83. M. McCartney 1992, 39. 84. Roberts 1964b. 85. The medley consisted of “Rave On,” “Not Fade Away” (Ef), “Maybe Baby,” “Heartbeat,” “Peggy Sue Got Married,” and “Peggy Sue” (Lennon 1988d) (Holly’s keys: G, E, A, A, A, A, respectively). The influence of Holly’s music on the early Lennon-McCartney compositions was immeasurable. John found Paul’s early-1970s purchase of the Holly catalog copyrights “one of the best buys that one could make in this business” (Lennon 1975a). A touching letter to Holly’s one-time backing group, the Crickets, signed by all four Beatles on January 24, 1963, is found in Peer and Peer 1972, 38. Of the forty-nine recordings on Holly 1985 and 1990, twentytwo are in A major. 86. Lennon’s demo is heard in Beatles 1993a and the aborted recording session is heard in Kramer 1991. 87. The progression I –VI – IV–V is heard in several Beatle covers from 1960 – 62: “You Don’t Understand Me,” “Stay,” “Angel Baby,” “Stand By Me,” “Quarter to Three,” “Please Mr. Postman,” “Mama Said,” “Hey! Baby,” “Open Up Your Lovin’ Arms,” and “Sharing You.” It is developed chromatically in “Free as a Bird” (Lennon 1993 and Beatles 1995d). 88. Mellers 1973, 28; see also 41– 42. 89. Perhaps indicative of a more natural blues-free Liverpudlian musical accent than Lennon’s are the recordings of “Hello Little Girl” made by the Pacemakers and the Fourmost — both native Liverpool groups — in 1963. These are both very “straight” performances with square syncopation, in strictly even eighths as opposed to John’s much freer style, in the music-hall tradition and lacking all soul. The Fourmost recording is heard on Hits 1983; Marsden’s version is on Gerry & the Pacemakers 1991. 90. Lewisohn 1988, 7. 91. Two of the five most popular major-mode songs in the 1955 – 90 era, Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” and Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife,” also feature [025] trichords in their verses. In the pentatonic minor, perhaps most familiar is “Hanky Panky” (Tommy James & the Shondells, 1966), which, like “Be-Bop-A-Lula” and “Dream Baby” mentioned earlier, transposes the c-trichord over I to a over IV in both the verse and the chorus. 92. The transcription is from a BBC performance recorded on June 1, 1963, and broadcast ten days later (Beatles 1994c). 93. No recording in the Beatles’ EMI canon contains a spoken (sincere, “from the heart”) bridge, an approach that appeared very often in the music of the 1950s. On McCartney (1970), “Hot as Sun” was a fully instrumental recording, but in a January 1969 performance, Paul played through the song, providing a spoken middle section: “welcome to the south sea islands, where the sound of the waves landing on the sand brings joy to the eyes and the ears of the natives” (Beatles 1981c). The Beatles do not speak in their own version of “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin.” 94. As customary in such sketches, note values indicate not rhythmic lengths but rather weightings of structural value. Notes with open noteheads are orna-

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Notes to Pages 59 – 78

mented by those with closed noteheads. Flags indicate neighboring function and dotted slurs connect repeated tones or anticipations. The graph thus demonstrates the hierarchy of structural value among the pitches of McCartney’s tune, typically rich with such relationships. See Forte 1995, 42 – 51, for an excellent primer on reading such “voice-leading” sketches. 95. “Too Much Monkey Business” and “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You),” both performed live as early as 1960, are preserved only as 1963 BBC broadcasts (both heard on Beatles 1994c). “Great Balls of Fire,” also performed in 1960, was only recorded in January 1969 and may be heard on Beatles 1987f. 96. A portion of Take 1 of “I Saw Her Standing There” is heard on Beatles 1983. The triple meter of “A Taste of Honey” is very rare among Beatle covers; other known examples include “True Love,” “Falling in Love Again,” and “He’ll Have to Go.” 97. In Presley’s “Just Because” and Joe Brown’s “I’m Henry VIII, I Am,” as well as “Love Me Tender” and “Ain’t She Sweet,” a vaudeville effect is created by the latein-the-verse strings of chromatic chords at a doubled harmonic tempo; “I’m Henry VIII” begins a very long chain of applied Vs with IIIs. 98. Porter 1979, 240 n 3. 99. Coleman 1992, 372. 100. The terms “boogie” and “shuffle” are used quite interchangeably among rock practitioners. I have adopted the distinction between pitch and rhythmic characteristics set forth in Moore 1993, 182. 101. “Ain’t She Sweet,” recorded on June 24, 1961, is heard on Beatles 1995d. 102. Lennon is heard to play the “blues” boogie in the three Berry covers, “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Too Much Monkey Business,” and “Sweet Little Sixteen.” The blues boogie shuffle in “Wild Cat” is probably played by Harrison. 103. The amazingly nuanced nature of the solo vocal apparatus heard in Presley’s early recordings is detailed in Everett 2000, 279 – 83. 104. “I Got a Woman” was performed for the BBC on July 16, 1963, for broadcast on the following August 13 (Beatles 1994c). 105. Example 1.27 is from Beatles 1995d; examples 1.28 and 1.29 are from 1994c; example 1.30 is from 1991g. 106. White 1990, 45. 107. “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes” was recorded for the BBC on July 10, 1963, for a July 23 broadcast (Beatles 1994c). “Searchin’ ” is from the Decca audition (Beatles 1995d). “Lucille” was taped on September 3, 1963, for the BBC, which aired it on September 17 (Beatles 1993c). “Reminiscing” is transcribed from the December 30 or 31, 1962, performance (Beatles 1977b). “Glad All Over” was taped on July 16, 1963, for a BBC broadcast of August 20 (Beatles 1994c). Bobby Vee and Joe Brown had vocal stylings strongly marked by the Holly hiccup; this may be a major factor in George’s interest in the material of both of these singers. 108. Lewis combines such effects in both his own singing and his keyboard banging. The refrain of “Great Balls of Fire,” for instance, features an octavespanning yodel that is referred to by piano glissandi. 109. The “Lucille” excerpt is from the September 3, 1963, taping (Beatles 1994c). 110. Sheff 1981, 86. 111. Riley 1988, 41. See also Somach et al. 1989, 145. 112. “Tennessee” is transcribed from Perkins 1977. The Beatles ran through “Tennessee” in January 1969 (Beatles 1975c). “Lend Me Your Comb” was performed on July 2, 1963, for a BBC broadcast of the 16th (Beatles 1993c). “Sure to Fall” is transcribed as sung for the Decca audition (Beatles 1991g). 113. Price 1997, 215. 114. As sung on June 1, 1963, for a BBC broadcast of the 11th (Beatles 1994c). 115. Example 1.44 is transcribed from a March 5, 1963, performance (Take 2)

Notes to Pages 78 – 93

in the EMI studios (Beatles 1990d). Judging by Beatles 1995d, George Martin apparently feels that an edit of Takes 4 and 5 represents the song better. 116. “The One after 909” was recorded on March 5, 1963, at the same session that also saw the recording of both the A- and B-sides of the Beatles’ third single. This coincidence raises speculation that “From Me to You” was written during a period in which “The One after 909” might have been resurrected and worked up as a possible third single. Perhaps, after recording the three numbers, the group and its producer felt “909” to be the weakest and relegated it to the scrap heap. Two 1. Marsden 1993, 30. See also Williams and Marshall 1975, 108 – 30. 2. “Shakin’ ” is identified as Pete’s audition piece in Best and Doncaster 1985, 29. An audition tape made by the Beatles for Williams at the Jacaranda was apparently destroyed en route to Hamburg. See Gottfridsson 1997, 31– 33. 3. Leigh 1984, 25, provides details on the obscure “Pinwheel Twist.” 4. Williams and Marshall 1975, 150. The Watkins amp was identified for me by Tim Fletcher, and more information on this was provided by Rob Livesey. 5. Lewisohn 1992, 25; see also Gottfridsson 1997, 52– 53. 6. This repertoire is discussed in Casey 1963, 52. See Best’s description in Best and Doncaster 1985, 39, 41, and in Pawlowski 1989, 25, and see Harrison’s listing of his influences at this time in Forte 1987b, 95. Also see Shepherd 1963, part 2, 13. Sutcliffe’s record collection is described in Sotheby’s 1984, 24. 7. The primary source for this table is one in Lewisohn 1992, 361– 65, although many changes have been necessitated. 8. George recalls buying an amp at the same time John bought the Capri in Beatles 2000a, 81. The amplifiers are identified from photographs. 9. Sutcliffe was also present at the session at Akustik Studio, Kirchenallee 57, Hamburg, but it is doubtful that he played. No written documentation of the session survives, but some maintain that “September Song” was also recorded. See Gottfridsson 1997, 55, 111, Williams and Marshall 1975, 192– 95, and Flippo 1988, 112. 10. Sutcliffe had become engaged to Astrid Kirchherr, who along with Jürgen Vollmer took many artistic photos of the Beatles in Hamburg. See Gottfridsson 1997, 56, 63 – 64. 11. A portion of this letter is reproduced in Sotheby’s 1984, 26. 12. Beatles 2000a, 58, 92. 13. See Coleman 1992, 221, and Flippo 1988, 121. 14. The Beatles’ live performances have been painstakingly tabulated in Lewisohn 1992 and in Wiener 1992. See also Williams and Marshall 1975, 202, and Flippo 1988, 122, 179, regarding performances of this period, and Leigh 1984, 23 – 27, for the Cavern’s early history. 15. First-hand accounts of Wooler and of the Cavern in this period are found in Beatles 1986a, Mulhern 1990, 18, Shepherd 1963, part 2, 17, and Williams and Marshall 1975, 138 – 39. See also Epstein 1964, 39. 16. Leach 1999, 100. 17. Leach 1999, 46, 48, 75 – 77. 18. Miles 1997, 59. 19. A silent thirty-second 8-mm film surfaced in May 1996 that is said to show the Beatles performing in the Cassanova Club on February 14, 1961 (see Leach 1999, 52). McCartney is shown with the Höfner bass that is known to have been bought in Hamburg and thus (see Harrison’s December letter above) could not have been purchased before the last days of March 1961. 20. Many of Sutcliffe’s paintings are exhibited in Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery and are the subject of an unseen CD-ROM that was reported in 1995-96 to be in production at John Moore’s University.

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Notes to Pages 94 – 98

21. McCartney World Tour 1989, 43. The violin bass matched the model played by Tony Sheridan’s own bass player, Colin Milander (Beatles 2000a, 62). Miles 1997, 74, supports my mid-April dating of the bass acquisition, but Best recalls that the Beatles still considered Stu their bassist in May plans for the June recordings (Pritchard and Lysaght 1998, 69, 70). The transition was rough; one Top Ten photo (Gottfriddson 1997, 71) shows Sutcliffe sharing the stage with McCartney, each with his own Höfner bass. Pete Best recalls a fistfight (Best and Doncaster 1985, 103, 106). Paul’s own accounts are heard in McCartney 1980b, Mulhern 1990, 20, and White 1990, 147. See also Harry 1982, 34, Giuliano 1991b, 36, M. McCartney 1992, 3, and Shepherd and Dean 1967, 31. McCartney must have taken from Stu the old Art College Truvoice amp, which continued service for vocal microphones after McCartney had a bass cabinet built in mid-1961 by Adrian Barber (member of the Big Three, the resident band of Leach’s Cassanova Club). This “coffin” amp appears from photos to have driven two 12-inch cones and a large midrange horn, probably powered by 30 watts. It would be used for about two years before the Beatles were to acquire a proper bass amplifier. 22. McCartney’s technique is discussed in Alstrand 1997. 23. McCartney discusses Richard’s bass lines and his own ideas on bass/drums ensemble in Coleman 1964c, 10 –11. 24. See Lewisohn 1992, 32, 42, for details. A three-to-four-minute silent double-8 film is supposed to exist showing the Beatles at the Top Ten in the spring of 1961, but it has not circulated. See Gottfridsson 1997, 70. 25. The following appears in Wiener 1992, 206: “Several titles of unreleased Beatles numbers were noted during the 28 Aug. ‘68 auction at Sotheby’s including several written by Stu Sutcliffe; these included ‘Ooh, Ooh, Ooh,’ ‘Yea Cos Your a Sure Fire Bet to Win My Lips [sic],’ and ‘Everybody’s Ever Got Somebody Caring.’ The same auction offered a 1961 Beatles playlist in Harrison’s hand that included ‘Reelin’ and Rockin’,’ ‘Long Tall Sally,’ ‘Sticks and Stones,’ ‘More Than I Can Say,’ ‘Jambalaya,’ ‘I Know,’ ‘Hi Heel Sneakers,’ ‘Summertime,’ and ‘Let’s Stomp.’ ” The set list is spurious, as “Let’s Stomp” could not have been performed before 1963 and “Hi-Heeled Sneakers” before 1964; others listed here were no longer in the Beatles’ repertoire by 1964. 26. Liner notes, Beatles 1970a. 27. Gerry Marsden recalls his mentor in Marsden 1993, 23. See also Harry 1983, 19, and Leigh 1984, 40. Re Sheridan’s blues repertoire, see DeWitt 1985, 18. 28. See Engelhardt 1998, 441. Gottfridsson has found that outtakes from these sessions, perhaps including versions of “Rock-and-Roll Music,” “Kansas City,” and “Some Other Guy,” no longer exist. See Gottfridsson 1997, 70 – 74, 83, 113, for extensive research on the mechanics of this recording project. 29. “My Bonnie,” “Ain’t She Sweet,” and “Cry for a Shadow” appear on Beatles 1995d. 30. Upon a British reissue of “My Bonnie” on May 24, 1963, timed to cash in on the Beatles’ huge success, John Lennon garnered the banner headline in “Beatles blast” 1963, 1, with his description of the recording: “It’s terrible. It could be anybody. I wouldn’t buy it.” See also Robertson 1991, 6 – 7, and Flippo 1988, 134. 31. McCartney is quoted in Arnold 1998, 77, Harrison in Forte 1987b, 95 – 96. 32. New Musical Express (August 16, 1963). It has also been suggested that “Cry for a Shadow” was influenced by the Shadows’ 1961 hit “The Frightened City.” See Best and Doncaster 1985, 104 – 5. Although the song’s title seems like a natural Lennon joke on the Shadows, he and Harrison were actually considering “Beatle Bop” (George’s losing candidate?) as a title even after the recording had been completed. See Harry 1977, 18. We also know from Bob Wooler that some instrumental number was announced as “Beatle Bop” from the Cavern stage (Leigh 1998). 33. The Fss that decorate 5 in “Apache,” not shown here, lend a strong Dorian

Notes to Pages 98 –110

flavor to the A tonality; Harrison was very soon fond of the Dorian mode. Probably because of the influence of George Harrison (although the mode was also promoted by Californian Dick Dale), this sound — unknown in popular music of the 1950s — became common in the mid-1960s, in pieces as diverse as the opening theme of Frank Zappa’s Lumpy Gravy and the Strawberry Alarm Clock’s “Incense and Peppermints” (both 1967). 34. See the series of Bigsby advertisements beginning October 29, 1960, in Melody Maker. 35. Miles 1997, 274. 36. The alternation of I and VI is a dominant feature of many soulful songs sung by John with the Beatles (including “Anna (Go to Him),” “Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms),” “Baby It’s You,” and “You Really Got a Hold on Me”), of two Everlys covers sung in duet by John and Paul (“I Wonder If I Care as Much” and “Love of My Life”) as well as “(‘Til) I Kissed You,” of several songs covered by the Beatles whose lead vocalist is unknown but all of which would have adapted well to John’s vocal styles (“Maybe Baby,” “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame,” “Runaway,” “When My Little Girl is Smiling,” “Mama Said,” and “Loco-Motion”), and of the whole of one song (“Shout”; see Beatles 1995d) sung in alternation by all four Beatles. Following closely on a few 1962 songs by Arthur Alexander, this harmonic feature reverberates in many Beatle compositions, such as the opening of the verse of Lennon and McCartney’s “From Me to You”; John’s “Misery” (bridge), “All I’ve Got to Do” (verse-refrain), “Not a Second Time” (verse), “It Won’t Be Long” (chorus), and the refrain of McCartney’s “All My Loving.” 37. See John’s contributions to Mersey Beat in Harry 1977, 17 (“Being a Short Diversion on the Dubious Origins of Beatles, Translated from the John Lennon,” on the front page of the first issue), 23, 36, and 38 (these three written under the byline “Beatcomber” and two of the three to appear in Lennon 1964), 76 (two more poems), and 20 and 23 (personals). The first Beatle fan letter appeared in August 1961 and is seen on Harry 1977, 20. See also Coleman 1989, 67, Robertson 1991, 8, and Flippo 1988, 141. 38. Beatles 2000a, 81. Harrison recalls buying the Duo-Jet in response to a 1962 ad in the Liverpool Echo, but photographs show him with the guitar as early as August 5, 1961. 39. Best and Doncaster 1985, 120. 40. See Harry 1984, 92. 41. Lewisohn 1992, 362– 63. 42. Riley 1988, 17. 43. Coleman 1989, 65 – 66, and Flippo 1988, 145. For Brian’s memoirs, see Epstein 1964. Miles 1997, 86, estimates that the Epsteins’ nine NEMS shops in Liverpool stocked a total of 500,000 records at the time that Brian met the Beatles. 44. Flippo 1988, 159 – 60; Coleman 1989, 150 – 51. 45. Coleman 1989, 137; see also Schaffner 1977, 13. 46. The Beatles recalled playing “What’d I Say” at Decca (Shepherd 1964d, 130), but no tape survives. Five songs are presented on Beatles 1995d. A Decca-made acetate of “Hello Little Girl” and “Like Dreamers Do” sold for £4,000 in 1996 (Gottfridsson 1997, 188). 47. A likely order of performance of the fifteen titles, identical with that on Beatles 1991g, is suggested in Lewisohn 1992, 63. 48. Beatles 2000a, 18. 49. Miles 1997, 81. 50. Berry ends the original recording of “Roll Over Beethoven” with a If7 chord, a sound that dominates the verses of his “Memphis” and “I’m Talking about You.” 51. On “Searchin’,” see Giuliano 1991b, 19; on “Three Cool Cats,” see Mulhern 1990, 18; on “Besame Mucho,” see Lewisohn 1988, 8. Coasters-type novelties such as “Farmer John” and “Who Shot Sam” were local hits for other Liverpool groups.

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Notes to Pages 110 – 21

Ex-Shadow Jet Harris released an instrumental version of “Besame Mucho” in 1962. 52. One wonders if the Beatles’ interest in Latin styles, evident not only in their performances of “Till There Was You” and “Besame Mucho” but also in several of their own compositions to be recorded in 1962– 64, was related to the great popularity of Elvis Presley’s hits based on well-known numbers from Italian opera “It’s Now or Never” (released July 1960) and “Surrender” (February 1961). 53. This technique, by which the expression of inner-voice material in a register above the fundamental line may portray the outer expression of inner emotions, is heard in a wide range of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art music. See Everett 1990 and 1991. 54. See Barrow 1983, 7; Coleman 1989, 100. 55. Lewisohn 1992, 65. 56. The broadcast can be heard on Beatles 1993c. 57. See Gottfridsson 1997, 98, 101– 2, 105 – 9. Gottfridsson unwittingly removes all doubt as to the 1961 versus 1962 mystery re “Swanee River” by documenting the discrepant timings. 58. According to Gottfridsson 1997, 107, Epstein considered signing the pianist to the Beatles in 1962, much as organist Billy Preston was to be strongly considered for full membership in early 1969. 59. “Some Other Guy” is mentioned in Leigh 1984, 161, and Best speaks in Best and Doncaster 1985, 161. 60. Wiener 1992, 9, and Gottfridsson 1997, 212. 61. Martin 1994, 32– 33. 62. Wiener 1992, 9, Epstein 1964, 55. 63. The “P.S. I Love You” story appears in Pawlowski 1989, 74. 64. See list, including seven Lennon-McCartney originals, in Lewisohn 1992, 70. 65. Both are on Beatles 1995d. The “Besame Mucho” acetate was held in the EMI vaults, but “Love Me Do” survived only on a disc found in Martin’s home during Anthology production (Davis 1995d, 35). 66. Martin’s biography and career are the subjects of Martin 1979. 67. Martin 1979, 124. 68. Martin 1979, 123. 69. Martin 1979, 166. 70. Flippo 1988, 170. 71. Clayson 1992, 4 – 5. The run-down four-room house on 9 Madryn Street, Liverpool, where Ringo was born sold for $21,107 at a Bonhams auction in Tokyo on March 22, 1997 (see Beatlenews roundup 1997a, 6). 72. Clayson 1992, 270n6. Ringo recalls his early equipment in Beatles 2000a, 36 – 38. 73. Clayson 1992, 27, 34 – 35, 49, and Leach 1999, 83. 74. In 1962, Starr seriously contemplated emigration to Houston; see Clayson 1992, 54, and hear Ringo’s September 17, 1964, interview on Beatles 1992a. In the video component of The Beatles Anthology (tape 1), Paul and George recall how Ringo would attend Beatle performances in Hamburg, requesting such numbers as Duane Eddy’s “Three-Thirty Blues,” and would sit in when Pete didn’t show up for a gig. 75. Baur 2000. Baur also notes that Ringo’s normally hard-hitting style produces not only great volume but also a “fattening” of the drum’s attack and decay. 76. First quote: Clayson 1992, 65. Second quote: Ringo spoke on the first installment of Starr 1983. See also “On drums” 1963, 13, and Garbarini 1982, 47. 77. Smith is quoted in P. Goodman 1965, 13, McCartney in Garbarini 1980, 47. In private correspondence of December 17, 2000, Ian Hammond suggests that it took Ringo three years or so with the Beatles to become musically integrated enough to find his own voice.

Notes to Pages 121– 27

78. See Beatlenews roundup 1993a, 5. Robertson 1991, 13, notes that the introduction of “Some Other Guy” is imitated in John’s early solo single “Instant Karma.” Both songs apply the same rhythm and similar texture to a heavily doubled blues-derived [025] c-trichord. Because of distortion on the August 22 soundtrack, a sound crew returned to the Cavern on September 5 to get two more takes of “Some Other Guy” and one of the “Kansas City” medley, to which audio tape the film would be edited. This constitutes the earliest surviving sound film of the Beatles. Several acetates of these soundtracks were made in 1962; one copy sold in 1993 at Christie’s in London for £15,000 (see Gottfridsson 1997, 191– 93, 197, 216 –17). 79. Pritchard and Lysaght 1998, 97. 80. Leigh 1984, 110. 81. The first fifty years’ history of the EMI Studio, one of the world’s first designed for electrical recording, is chronicled in Southall 1982. 82. The digital remastering is discussed in Kozinn 1987, 8. 83. George Martin discusses his twin-track technique in Martin 1979, 142– 43. 84. “Norman Smith on She Loves You” 2000, 13. 85. The tape hiss that was added in the accumulation of generations is clearly demonstrated in the working tapes of an overdub session for “From Me to You” (Beatles 1990d, Edit Piece 6, Take 13). 86. Forte 1987b, 92. 87. Sparing echo was added to the Beatles’ first LPs and singles; Norman Smith discusses the “dry” sound in Fulpen 1982, 22. 88. Lewisohn 1988, 7; see also Pritchard and Lysaght 1988, 104, for more from Paul. 89. See data on the recording sheet reproduced in Lewisohn 1992, 77. Apparently none of the working tapes from September 4 survive. Emerick used the original master for “How Do You Do It” in his work on the aborted Sessions project in 1984, and Martin used the same tape for the Anthology in 1995. 90. Starr 1983, June 4; also see Garbarini 1982, 47. 91. Andy White is heard in the only extant take of “P.S. I Love You,” and in one of two surviving September takes of “Love Me Do” (that first released on Please Please Me). His drumming on the latter is almost identical to that on Ringo’s earlier version but for a louder crash from White following Lennon’s harmonica solo. Handclaps are dubbed onto the harmonica solo of the September 4 version but not that of the 11th. 92. Brian Epstein was to lead George Martin to success with a number of Liverpool groups. The Beatles’ producer was introduced to the Pacemakers when he visited Liverpool in early December 1962 to see if the Cavern would be a suitable place to record a live LP by the Beatles. Gerry Marsden’s version of “How Do You Do It” is idiosyncratic in that the instrumental backing for the two-bar retransition is repeated immediately, deflating the intensity of the vocal retransition. The same unfortunate anticlimactic effect also mars the Pacemakers’ recording of “I Like It,” also composed by Mitch Murray, leading one to speculate that it was present on the original demos for both Murray songs and wisely removed by the Beatles. See Marsden 1993, 32, 37– 38, 40. (The suspicion of sabotage is related in Marsden 1993, 39.) A very brief excerpt of Murray’s demo for “How Do You Do It,” sounding in Fs, is heard on Beatles 1996c, vol. 1. EMI almost released the Beatles’ “How Do You Do It” in 1982 but did not do so before Beatles 1995d. 93. Lewisohn 1988, 6; see also J. Goodman 1984, 104. 94. Paul describes the difference as one between their “bluesier” song and Mitch Murray’s George Formby – like “rock-a-pop-a-ballad” (Miles 1997, 83). Harrison’s solo for “How Do You Do It” injects several bent notes and pentatonic scale degrees, but this is apparently not enough to redeem the song for the Beatles. 95. Griffiths 2000. His Beatle example compares the change in syllabic density

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Notes to Pages 127– 31

between the verse and bridge in “Please Please Me.” Nurmesjärvi 2000b, 152, discusses the two-bar convention in the pop song. 96. Pollack 1990b. 97. Golson 1981b, 178 – 79. 98. Garbarini 1980, 49. 99. The relationship of the asymmetrical phrases of “P.S. I Love You” to the irregular syllable pattern of the lyrics is explored in Price 2000. 100. The structural counterpoint of “P.S. I Love You” is clarified in a voice-leading graph appearing in Wagner 1999, 267. 101. The September 4 take with Ringo on drums was used for the “Love Me Do” single, but the later tambourine version would be mixed in both mono and stereo for the far better-selling album in early 1963 (and would appear on the single’s reissue in 1976) and so is far better known. Ringo finally undid the damage of having been replaced on a Beatle record by releasing his own version of “Love Me Do” on his 1998 album Vertical Man. Information on label variations for both promotional and stock copies of “Love Me Do” and subsequent Parlophone singles is found in Alan Ould’s series of articles in Beatlology. The original master for the “Love Me Do” single was destroyed by EMI in 1963, once it became clear that a second Parlophone pressing would not be called for (see Gottfridsson 1997, 190 – 91, 215). Whereas Capitol Records in the United States showed no interest in releasing “Love Me Do,” Capitol of Canada released all Beatle singles beginning with this, despite the lack of a master. The Canadian 45 (catalog number 72076) was dubbed from a British single in early 1963, as would be the Past Masters CD in 1988 (see Spizer 1998, 68, and Pritchard and Lysaght 1998, 136 – 38). Paul’s own company that handles his publishing, recording, and film interests, MPL Communications, bought the rights to “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You” in the early 1980s, making these the only Lennon-McCartney compositions published during the group’s life to be owned by any of the Beatles. Ownership is no doubt the reason behind the repeated appearance of the odd medley “P.S. Love Me Do,” in McCartney concerts and records since 1989. 102. See a portion of EMI’s first Beatle press release in Lewisohn 1988, 22. For further information on the promotion and reception of the Beatles’ first Parlophone release, see Dean 1978, iii – iv, and Shepherd 1979, iii – v. 103. In 1963, NEMS would expand with a secretary and two press officers, Brian Sommerville and Derek Taylor, the latter serving as ghostwriter of Epstein’s 1964 memoir A Cellarful of Noise. 104. The only extant recording from any television performance predating August 1963 consists of a forty-seven-second audio fragment of “A Taste of Honey” from Granada TV, Manchester, October 29, 1962. This is heard on Beatles 1993b. 105. A negative review of a December 2 Peterborough concert appears in Lewisohn 1992, 85. 106. See Gottfridsson 1997, 173. 107. The tape, heard on Beatles 1991g, is thought to have been stolen from Mike McCartney’s Liverpool home in the early 1980s. See Gottfridsson 1997, 218 –19. 108. Paul recalls that the composition of “Please Please Me” began after the Beatles met Martin (Martin 1983, 66). It must be acknowledged, though, that this Lennon song has no resemblance to Orbison’s seven hits of 1961– 62, while it is closely related to his last three hits of 1960, “Only the Lonely,” “Blue Angel,” and “I’m Hurtin’.” Each of these features a section that climbs to falsetto, and two of the three do so in stop time; this technique in these songs is very likely the model for the refrain of “Please Please Me.” John mentions “Only the Lonely” specifically in Golson 1981b, 179. 109. Prichard and Lysaght 1998, 113. 110. Golson 1981a, 194. In private correspondence of December 17, 2000, Ian

Notes to Pages 131– 41

Hammond suggests that Lennon wrote the verse-ending plea “so please . . . “ in “Love Me Do,” and points out Lennon’s repetition in the line “won’t you please, please help me” (“Help!”). 111. McCartney is quoted in Miles and Marchbank 1978, 79, Richards in Lewisohn 1988, 18. In the released version, while Harrison’s riff is heard prominently in the intro, first and second endings and retransition (last two bars of D [1:16 –1:19]) (“in the gaps” and in the coda), it is also heard in a suppressed manner in B+1– 2 (0:07– 0:10) and B+5 – 6 (0:14 – 0:17). Harrison could repeat his riffs habitually; interestingly, his regular interjections in the verses of both “Don’t Ever Change” and “Anna (Go to Him)” were taken from piano lines in the model recordings. 112. Martin 1979, 130. The “Please Please Me” outtake on Beatles 1995d (from an acetate bought at auction by EMI in September 1995) is supposedly from September 11 (with White on drums), but it seems instead that the take is an attempt at basic tracks from November 26. Ringo is certainly the drummer; his fill at D+4 (1:08 –1:09) would be discarded when backing vocals would be arranged for the bridge. Otherwise, the track is identical to the released arrangement except that George rings his chords in the bridge, the bass is less active at times, and the harmonica was never dubbed onto this rejected attempt. Both this outtake and the released master are at precisely the same tempo, q = 140. A one-sided 45-rpm 7-inch acetate of an alternate November 26 take of “Please Please Me” sold at Sotheby’s for £3,200 in 1994 (see Gottfridsson 1997, 223); perhaps EMI bought the same disc a year later and misunderstood the disc’s contents. Collectors recognize a profitable market for acetates, which are pressings made by hand for private purposes and not always labeled in great detail. Brian Epstein’s personal collection of twenty-five Beatle acetates sold for $23,542 at Bonhams in Tokyo on March 22, 1997 (see Beatlenews roundup 1997a, 6). 113. Nurmesjärvi 1998, 77, 79, 85 – 86. 114. Both the motivically related neighbors and the song’s use of nIII are noted in Rifkin 1968, 116 –17. 115. The organicist can find a complex nesting of motivic functions here. The bass line at C+1– 4 represents a descending arpeggiation of IV, whose fifth is embellished by a neighboring sixth. This neighboring motion, of course, transposes that of the opening of the verse, while the harmony being expanded here (IV) develops that same point from the verse. Paul’s rising vocal line in C+1– 4, e2 –fs2 –gs2 –a2, inverts the opening tetrachord of John’s melody, B+1– 2. The passage may also bear out Ger Tillekens’s perceptive theory that Tonnetz-based chord substitutions are often aligned for the Beatles with a change of address or authorial voice, so as to express a shift of emotional meaning (Tillekens 2000). 116. While their respective vocal melodies are quite different, “Please Please Me” and “Ask Me Why” (both in E) share the same harmonic structure (I – IV–V repeated) in the same rhythm, in their bridge sections. (The chromatic passing s5 in “Ask Me Why” distinguishes the two sections more than do the melodic differences.) The passages share nearly identical bass lines from McCartney, which is remarkable given their idiosyncratic mix of arpeggiations, neighbors, and passing tones. 117. For the release of “Ask Me Why,” Martin approved a different mono master for the LP than that used on the single; the vocal track in the single mix is “drier,” and in that for the LP it has had more echo applied. 118. For more information on Barber, see Leigh 1984, 130, Harry 1983, 14 – 21, and 1984, 41, 63 – 64. A silent film of the Beatles performing in Hamburg surfaced in 1994 but was not included in Beatles 1996a. 119. See Repka 1977 and Gottfridsson 1997, 141– 48, 177– 88, 381. Page 381 features the facsimile of a 1977 letter from Lennon listing his grievances with the project. 120. See Spizer 1999, 25, as to how Vee-Jay was located through New York at-

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Notes to Pages 141– 50

torney Paul Marshall, who represented American licensing interests for both VeeJay and EMI. Perhaps Vee-Jay heard in the Beatles a resemblance to their EnglishAustralian artist Frank Ifield, who recorded in London for EMI’s Columbia label. 121. In December 1970 Lennon revealed that in his early composing career with McCartney, the two “wanted to be the Goffin and King of England.” Wenner 1971, 70. 122. Warwick 2000. Matthew Bannister finds that the group’s “cuddly androgyny is partly a result of girl group influence” (Bannister 2000). 123. Wenner, 1971, 46. The Beatles are said to have learned the polite unison bow with which they ended each number from the Kestrels during the Shapiro tour (Coleman 1995, 8). 124. Lewisohn 1992, 98. 125. We also know that McCartney had wanted to record “Falling in Love Again.” Martin’s preference was to get the numbers that could be recorded with the least trouble (see Pritchard and Lysaght 1998, 117, 118). Information on ordering and contents of the various takes, including timings and reel numbers, is seen in facsimiles of the EMI Recording Sheets, given in Lewisohn 1988, 26 – 27; for the tape speed for “Misery,” see p. 24. 126. The stereo mix was given much lighter compression than the mono mix and thus maintains greater transparency and fidelity. For release on an American single, Dave Dexter of Capitol based his mono mix of “I Saw Her Standing There” on Parlophone’s cleaner stereo tapes. Oddly, a few of the LP’s tracks were originally mixed to play slower in mono than in stereo. This is especially true of “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” particularly as mastered for the mono release of The Early Beatles. Other oddities include a six-note introductory piano-guitar chord for the mono mix of “Misery” that appears on most releases but not on the Please Please Please CD, which has a five-note opening. “Standing There,” “Boys,” and “Twist and Shout” were the three Please Please Me songs given a new stereo mix by Martin for the 1976 release of Rock ’n’ Roll Music; for these, Martin brought both channels closer to center for a more pleasing sonic integration. 127. The full Take 9 of “I Saw Her Standing There” is on Beatles 1995g. All thirteen takes of “There’s a Place,” all twelve of “Standing There,” eight of “Misery,” two of “A Taste of Honey,” and two of “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” are heard on Beatles 1994p, nearly all appearing a half-step slow. 128. Golson 1981a, 196. McCartney recalls the song having been written at his home in Forthlin Road (Miles 1997, 95). 129. Lewisohn 1988, 9. 130. Mulhern 1990, 18. 131. Such “Yakety Yak”– like cadential tumbling strains will be heard throughout the Beatles corpus, shaping the endings of “Get Back” and “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” both of 1969. In a personal conversation of May 1999, Ian Hammond pointed out the rhythmic similarities between the vocal lines of “Standing There” and “(When) The Saints Go Marching In”: compare the anacrustic openings and also the lines “I want to be in that number, (oh) when the saints go marching in” and “so how could I dance with another, ooh!, when I saw her standing there.” 132. The retransitional chord is A7, not E7; the word is “mine,” not “mind.” 133. “Standing There” changed form after it was recorded. Beginning no later than a March 16, 1963, performance (heard on Beatles 1993c), the bridge following the solo would regularly be cut. This is less severe than such concert cuts as beginning “Twist and Shout” at the first retransition and the relegation of “From Me to You” to a simple “infinitely” repeated signature motto for curtain openers and closers. 134. Sources of the recordings: 2.24a: Beatles 1991g; b: Beatles 1991m; c and d: Beatles 1993c. 135. Paul’s remark about his aunt was made to a BBC audience on April 4, 1963 (Beatles 1988e).

Notes to Pages 151– 59

136. See White 1987, 55; George was to cover the Stereos’ song on Harrison 1982. Ian Hammond, in correspondence of December 17, 2000, notes that the title of the Stereos’ song appears in the introduction to “Secret.” 137. Sheff 1982, 175 – 76. 138. The ending of the basic tracks is heard on Beatles 1991n. While the final chord was voiced in a way that was not to Martin’s taste, it was marred in another way that may have prompted the editing decision: Lennon thoughtlessly spoke over the sustained last chord, and his mike had been mixed with Harrison’s guitar part, so it would have been impossible to mute by itself. 139. The date is given in Lewisohn 1992, 98. See also Turner 1994, 20. Other than the Shapiro angle, we know nothing of the composers’ inspiration for “Misery.” The title itself is a word not often heard in rock and roll but is featured in a very big way in the bridge of Holly’s “Raining in My Heart,” a song already mentioned in connection with the lyrics of “Please Please Me.” 140. Paul relates the Shapiro story in Lewisohn 1992, 8; other details are given in Shepherd 1964d, 167, and Coleman 1992, 281. 141. Robertson 1991, 17. On the topic of altered lyrics, one has difficulty imagining what the original opening line of the first verse might have been —Shapiro would not have been asked to sing: “I’m the kind of guy who never used to cry,” but this is how the verse opens for Lynch as well as for the Beatles. 142. Riley 1988, 51. 143. Mellers (1973, 36) perceptively finds “Misery” to be “closer to the musichall than to folk song or blues.” 144. Charles Gower Price notes that Alexander had been “one of the first singers to record at the Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Price 1997, 225 – 26. 145. The 1964 rendition of “Boys” on Beatles 1977a is one of the group’s very tightest concert performances. 146. The Beatles end “Chains” with an authentic cadence in performance. Their LP recording, like the Cookies’ single, fades out before closure. 147. Riley 1988, 55. 148. Lennon’s and McCartney’s screaming retransition is far juicier than either the Isley Brothers’ model or Richie Valens’s ill-timed return in “La Bamba,” the song whose riff formed the basis of “Twist and Shout.” (See Price 1997, 225.) John’s guidance here in the expertly timed retransition makes incongruous the dullness of his October 1974 performance of “Do You Want to Dance” (Lennon 1975b), where he does not perform that song’s similar retransitional V7 arpeggiation, one of the composition’s few points of interest. 149. A far more stimulating video presentation of “Twist and Shout” is seen in Beatles 1996c, an edit of footage from at least five different sources. 150. Most of the Please Please Me material would be largely unheard in the States for another year. Vee-Jay took steps toward a July 1963 release of its mono and stereo masters of the LP, but because of severe cash-flow problems, postponed exercise of its rights until January 1964, at which point a major hit was assured. See Spizer 1999, 25. 151. The history of Northern Songs is well told in Coleman 1995, 110 –14. 152. The Beatles’ fifteen-minute set list for the Roe / Montez tour consisted of items from the first LP: “Love Me Do,” “Misery,” “A Taste of Honey,” “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” “Please Please Me,” and “I Saw Her Standing There.” Re the “Mersey Beat” shows, see Marsden 1993, 42. 153. Apparently no tape of the Poll Winner’s concert survives, but the Beatles performed “Please Please Me,” “From Me to You” (their just-released third A-side), “Twist and Shout,” and “Long Tall Sally” (Lewisohn 1992, 108) to their first crowd of 10,000. A set list of seven songs from May 15 is given in Lewisohn 1992, 109. A June 30 list of eleven songs is seen in Lewisohn 1992, 114. 154. See Robertson 1991, 12, regarding the restriction on BBC “needle time.”

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Notes to Pages 159 – 65

Tapings of fifty-three songs from March 6, March 16, April 4, April 18, May 21 (for two shows), May 24, June 1 (for two shows), June 17, June 19, and June 24 can be heard on Beatles 1995e and Beatles 1993c. For more information on the Beatles’ schedules and repertoire on the BBC, see Howlett 1983. 155. Altogether, the Beatles recorded 275 performances for the BBC. Many selections were performed several times each; “From Me to You” received fifteen tapings. EMI released many titles in Beatles 1994c and 1995d but neglected “Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream),” “A Picture of You” (both 1962), “Beautiful Dreamer,” and “I’m Talking about You” (both 1963). 156. “Radio series” 1963, 3. In the tapings of “909,” George never did produce an acceptable solo, Ringo’s bass-drum syncopation bothered the others, and Paul was unable to maintain long-repeated eighths on the bass with his bare thumb, as can be ascertained from session chatter. 157. DeWitt 1985, 219. 158. Golson 1981a, 182. 159. Golson 1981b, 179 – 80. 160. Lynch is quoted in Coleman 1992, 288. Shapiro is quoted in Coleman 1992, 286. Are the Supremes copying the Beatles’ “woo” in “Back in My Arms Again” (May 1965)? 161. Martin 1979, 132– 33. 162. No stereo mix of “From Me to You” survives, but one of the original twotrack tapes (Take 8, including the solo overdubbed onto Take 6 but without the edit piece —Take 10 or 12— containing a harmonica intro) was released, as if a stereo mix, on Beatles 1966a. Rohan Byrnes speculates convincingly that discontinuities in the widely circulated session tapes from March 5 (Beatles 1994q) involving Takes 10 and 12 represent splices, points at which tape operators removed edit pieces to create the mono master for the single (Byrnes 1999). This procedure of editing uncopied raw working tapes (and discarding “extraneous” material once the mono master would be completed), if used on the early singles, would explain the disappearance of working tapes and the lack of potential for ever having stereo mixes for such songs as “Love Me Do” and “She Loves You,” the mastering of which may have involved editing portions of different basic tracks and thus a wholesale destruction of the original recordings. 163. Miles 1997, 191. 164. EMI’s press release for “From Me to You” told radio programmers what to listen for: “ear catching high spot: Those unexpected falsetto-voice high-kicks on the line ‘If there’s anything I can do.’ ” The statement also called attention to the song’s unusual coda. See Pawlowski 1989, 130. 165. The Beatles’ cadential ∞ regularly becomes more explicit, with suspensions and passing tones over the bass 5, only in 1965. 166. Lewisohn 1988, 10. 167. Judging by the long quotation in Shepherd 1964d, 79, Lennon found the tonicization of F just as exciting and unusual as did his partner. 168. The retransitional V+ appears in the following, in addition to the songs listed earlier: “Glad All Over,” “I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’),” “Falling in Love Again,” and “Like Dreamers Do.” The Beatles covered scores of other songs whose bridges culminate in a retransitional dominant, most recently “Theme for a Dream,” “Mama Said,” Rory Storm’s arrangement of “Beautiful Dreamer,” “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues,” “Hey! Baby,” “I Remember You,” “Open Up Your Lovin’ Arms,” “Sharing You,” “Devil in Her Heart,” and “How Do You Do It.” 169. The basic tracks of “Thank You Girl” required six takes. Takes 7–13 were edit pieces of the ending, with different fills from Ringo in each attempt. (Takes 1–13 are heard on Beatles 1994q.) On March 13, John added an echo-saturated harmonica part during Takes 14 – 28. The final mono and stereo mixes were made on that same day from edits of Takes 6, 13, 17, 20, 21, and 23. The stereo mix features

Notes to Pages 165 – 68

more harmonica edit pieces and more echo added to the vocal track than does the mono, evidence that Capitol remixed their stereo master for the mono release of The Beatles’ Second Album. 170. Pollack 1990c. 171. I have already noted a few of Paul’s scales; this feature will appear in the bass line of “All My Loving,” the refrain and coda of “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and many later McCartney examples. 172. This chiming is not heard on the March 5 recording of “Thank You Girl.” Example 2.29b is transcribed from a BBC performance of June 19, aired on the 23rd. It is quite possible that this BBC gig is the first in which George uses his new Gretsch “Country Gentleman” guitar (discussed later in relation to “She Loves You,” the first EMI recording in which Harrison plays the instrument). The Gent’s bright tone would encourage such chiming. On an April 1 BBC broadcast, Harrison had loudly but quickly arpeggiated the first two bridge chords with his Duo-Jet; the June 1963 acquisition of the Country Gent leads to a great progression in George’s notions of color and texture. 173. DeWitt 1985, 222. The Beatles’ success in both of these countries was phenomenal for nearly a year before they were known in most of America. 174. The Beatles’ radio coverage and sales were not helped in the States by the competing release of Del Shannon’s cover version of “From Me to You,” released on June 3. Shannon, who had shared a bill with the Beatles in Britain, reached #77 with his version. See Fulper-Smith 1984, 10, for a reproduction of WLS’s chart of March 8, 1963, showing “Please Please Me” by “The Beattles” (as misspelled on the record label) at #40 in Chicago, where it peaked at #35. The Los Angeles market, where “From Me to You” broke enough on KRLA to peak at #32 on August 11, led the record to the brink of the national charts with sales of 12,675 copies through September. See Spizer 1998, 11–18, and 1999, 25. 175. Coleman 1989, 164 – 65. 176. Coleman 1989, 185; see also Barrow 1963, 19, and Epstein 1964, 60 – 68, 92. 177. Just as the 1967 Monterey festival was to bring record executives flocking to San Francisco, the Beatles’ charge to the top of the British charts had led the London talent scouts to Liverpool, and Epstein was only too happy to receive them. See Nurmesjärvi 2000a, 106. 178. Marsden’s group did record Lennon’s “Hello Little Girl” on July 17, 1963, but it was not released. 179. Engelhardt 1998, 171. 180. The 1968 single was “Rosetta.” “Hello Little Girl” and “I’m in Love” were released in the United States to no reaction. A tape of the session involving the Beatles and the Fourmost was sold at Sotheby’s in 1989 for £5,720 (Wiener 1992, 14, 629). 181. Martin 1979, 101. 182. Epstein may have been hedging his bets on the promise of Please Please Me; in addition to Kenny Lynch’s pre-Beatle recording of “Misery” noted earlier, and the Kestrels covering “There’s a Place,” not only did Epstein give Kramer a copy of Lennon’s demo of “Do You Want to Know a Secret” before the Beatles LP was recorded but he also arranged for Parlophone artist Duffy Power to record “I Saw Her Standing There.” This organ-heavy record with only a single vocal part was released April 26, 1963, the same day as Kramer’s single “Do You Want to Know a Secret” / “I’ll Be on My Way.” 183. Coleman 1989, 163. Kramer also recorded a song written by EMI engineer Norman Smith and one cowritten by Bob Wooler and George Martin! 184. Coleman 1989, 184. 185. By 1966, he would manage American acts as well, such as the Cyrkle; see Epstein 1964, 117.

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Notes to Pages 168 – 74

186. Coleman 1989, 182. 187. Lewisohn 1992, 89. 188. See Lewisohn 1988, 32. 189. Of “Tip of My Tongue,” McCartney was to say, “This is pretty much mine, I’m ashamed to say” (Miles 1997, 182). 190. Dakotas guitarist Mike Maxwell claims that all four Beatles play on the acetate, which he still owns, but such a statement lacks any additional support. See Beatlenews roundup 2000, 9. 191. See BBC 1990; Harrison’s guitar solo from this performance has already been examined as example 2.20. 192. Example 2.31 is transcribed from John’s demo, on Beatles 1991a. 193. Perhaps this complex hearing requires further explanation. Tonic is expected in measure 3 of example 2.31b, but the C7 chord is its deceptive substitute. C7 is not articulated immediately but is embellished so that even the root is delayed by the motion through Df (m. 3) to C. This Df is a chromatic passing tone from inner-voice Dn but is called an “incomplete” passing tone because the bass actually sounds Bf– Df– C. The deceptive chord (which tonicizes II) has the same ear-catching function as does the surprising III7s in the coda of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” It has precedent at “crown” in the Platters’ “The Great Pretender” (December 1955), which the Beatles surely knew even if they did not perform it. 194. John’s manuscript is seen in Sotheby’s 1984, 47. The lyrics therein are identical with those of the finished song, except that the title line was once “I’m so glad”; this has been crossed out. (Compare “I Feel Fine,” 1964.) The composer’s G-major piano demo, which was probably recorded shortly prior to Kramer’s session of October 14, 1963, is heard on Beatles 1993a. 195. Kramer’s version (Take 32 appears here) is on Kramer 1991. The Beatlesque falsetto jump and striking bridge retransition of “I’m in Love” are copied in a later English record, “Don’t Lie to Me,” released in October 1963 by the Chester group Jeanie & the Big Guys. 196. A 1963 recording of “Michelle” is on a tape that was put up for auction by Sotheby’s in 1989; the tape did not sell (Wiener 1992, 211). McCartney said in June 1964, “Ringo has written one called ‘Don’t Pass Me By, Don’t Make Me Cry, Don’t Make Me Blue’ ” (Beatles 1981b). See also Clayson 1992, 71, Wiener 1992, 14, and Starr 1983, no. 15 (September 10). 197. Both the drums and the guitar are first seen in Dezo Hoffmann’s photographs taken at a BBC session on June 18, 1963 (Marchbank 1982, 32– 33). Russ Lease, owner of the Ludwig drum head seen on the February 1964 Ed Sullivan show, told me in an August 2000 conversation that Drum City of London, where the Ludwig kit was purchased, furnished the seven bass-drum skins with the famous Beatles logo, which were generally changed at the beginnings of tours. 198. On lead 1963, 7. Marino Marini, whose recording of “The Honeymoon Song (Bound by Love)” was a model for Paul McCartney, was an electronics engineer who designed a mixer with echo chamber for his group’s four vocal microphones and electric guitar. He had rigged eighteen separately controlled microphones on his guitar; all the Beatles were intrigued. See Dawson 1958, 7. Paul says Marini also controlled his guitar with a volume pedal, which George used in 1965; see Lewisohn 1988, 8. 199. Harrison mentions being fond of Eddy’s playing in “On lead” 1963, 7. Eddy played a hollow Guild instrument not unlike the Country Gent. 200. Riley 1988, 66. Much of the following discussion on “She Loves You” is from Everett 1992. 201. Guy Cook and Neil Mercer (2000, 89 – 90, 92– 93) argue persuasively that the abundance of universal pronouns in the Beatles’ early songs, as opposed to the frequent use of precise proper names in later work, creates a sense of “drama and immediacy.” I believe it is this kind of ear-catching drama that is so effectively set

Notes to Pages 174 – 80

with the basic vocabulary of immediate and powerful harmonic hooks that gives way to the experimental chords of the late Beatles. 202. Paul’s “Mull of Kintyre” was the first single to sell more copies (2 million) in Britain than had “She Loves You” (1.5 million). 203. John is quoted from Golson 1981b, 179; Paul from Pawlowski 1989, 136, and more recently, Miles 1997, 149 – 50. 204. Overdubs were necessary for the harmonica in “I’ll Get You.” This recording has no handclaps either, but in all five concert and broadcast performances I’ve heard of “I’ll Get You” (as in Beatles 1995d), John, George, and Ringo drop guitars and sticks to clap hands through the intro under the “oh yeah . . .” vocals and over the bass. Whereas there will never be a true stereo mix of “She Loves You,” Dave Dexter of Capitol Records and Geoff Emerick of Parlophone each filtered the mono master into low, middle, and high channels (the bass fundamentals prominent on the left and the cymbal sizzle and Gretsch overtones being the primary occupants of the right channel) for stereo releases on The Beatles’ Second Album (U.S., also including a reprocessed mix of “I’ll Get You”), Beatles’ Greatest (European continent) and A Collection of Beatles Oldies (Britain). Dexter had already performed the same reprocessing for both “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “This Boy” on the rushed release of the stereo Meet the Beatles, but continental releases in later months of 1964 used a true stereo mix of “Hold Your Hand.” 205. McCartney 1982a, 44. 206. Baur 2000. Baur hears the same hi-hat technique gracing “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Those who argue that “She Loves You” is full of edits are hearing instead, I think, Ringo’s terraced approach to the hi-hat. 207. Frith 1988, 75. 208. Gloria Steinem, with NEMS publicist Derek Taylor in the wings of the CBS theater for a February 1964 Ed Sullivan appearance: “Taylor stood next to me and tapped my arm just before each chorus of screams reached a crescendo. ‘You can always tell,’ he explained calmly. ‘It happens just after one of them tosses his hair or lifts his guitar’ ” (Steinem 1964, 35). 209. If the retransition of “I Saw Her Standing There” borrows from “Great Balls of Fire,” then this point (C–1– 2) of “She Loves You” reminds one of Presley’s “All Shook Up.” In the first retransition of that song (“my heart beats so, it scares me to death”), Elvis’s voice leaps a fifth to the upper neighbor of 5, which does not resolve. There is a strong connection between “She Loves You” and “All Shook Up” in Lennon’s mind: when asked about the origins of “yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said, “I don’t know where the ‘yeah, yeah, yeah” came from. I remember thinking when Elvis did All Shook Up that it was the first time I heard ‘uh huh,’ ‘oh, yeah’ and ‘yeah yeah’ all in the same song” (Golson 1981a, 194). 210. Pollack 1989e. 211. The Moody Blues will sound like the Beatles when they support 7 with III in “Floating” (1969). 212. The Cyrkle’s “Red Rubber Ball” (1966, see coda) is one of many pop hits of the mid-1960s to copy the Beatles’ triple-harmonization of a motive. 213. In previous rock music, the unusual line s4–n4–3 would normally be supported by V7/V–V7– I, as in the cadence to Rick Nelson’s “Hello Mary Lou” (1961). 214. Cooke 1959, 64 – 65, 69, 70. 215. Gauldin 1990, 149 – 51. 216. Bailey 1985, 121– 22. 217. Bailey 1985, 122. 218. I am grateful to Kevin Korsyn for alerting me to the applicability of the double-tonic complex in this case and for the felicitous choice of the word “shadow.” 219. “I’ll Get You” was performed in C, not in the score’s Df. 220. If the bridge is Paul’s, perhaps the verse is John’s. Steve Turner (1994, 33) is quite observant in finding the text “Imagine . . . it’s easy” both here and in John’s

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Notes to Pages 180 – 85

“Imagine” (Lennon 1971). McCartney says this was “one of the rare songs written at Mendips,” so John may have motivated the composition. But Paul also says the minor dominant came from his copy of Joan Baez’s recording of “All My Trials” (Miles 1997, 150 – 51), a fact that supports my idea that Paul may have led the composition of the D-gesture. 221. McCartney’s recollection appears in Garbarini 1980, 46. The advance-sales figure is from Wiener 1992, 14. From an analysis of label variations among initial pressings, Alan Ould concludes that because the single caused such a sudden and surprisingly unabating demand, Decca plants supplied copies that could not be manufactured quickly enough in EMI’s own Hayes and Middlesex factories (Ould 2000c, 10). 222. Spizer 2000b, 15; 2000a, 156. Capitol of Canada also released With the Beatles as Beatlemania with the Beatles on November 25. This album spawned a unique single, “Roll Over Beethoven” / “Please Mr. Postman,” released as Capitol of Canada 72133 on December 9, rising to #2 on CHUM and entering the American charts in March 1964 as a heavily imported disc. 223. Coleman 1989, 170 – 71. Fifty-six of the July –August BBC tracks are available on Beatles 1993c and fifteen of these were distributed much more widely on Beatles 1994c. Forty-seven more tracks recorded in September – December are heard on Beatles 1993c and on Beatles 1989a. 224. They were: “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (#1), “She Loves You” (#2), the Twist and Shout EP (#11), The Beatles Hits EP (#17), and The Beatles No. 1 EP (#19) on the singles chart, and With the Beatles (#1) and Please Please Me (#2) on the LP chart. 225. Fifteen minutes of the soundtrack to The Mersey Sound, including interviews with all four and Epstein besides, plus two songs from an August 27 Southport concert, may be heard on Beatles 1994a. Beatles 1995d features three songs from the historic October 13 Palladium show, five numbers from a Stockholm taping for broadcast on October 24 (the entire show is on Beatles 1994e), three of four numbers plus John’s famous “jewelry” remark from the November 4 Royal Command performance (the entire segment can be heard on Beatles 1989b), and excerpts from the Morecambe and Wise appearance of December 2 (one additional song appears on Beatles 1993e). The complete December 7 Liverpool Empire concert may be heard on Beatles 1979d and Beatles 1994a. We also have a group of tape reels (all heard on Beatles 1992b) with datable contents from July and August 1963 that include the following: (1) hotel-room tapes of Gerry Marsden and John Lennon singing Psalms 23 and 24, and Paul and John singing along with radio broadcasts of Percy Faith’s “Tammy Tell Me True” and an unidentifiable performance of “Over the Rainbow,” which can be dated to July 23 (in Weston-Super-Mare) by the inclusion of a BBC broadcast on that date of “Love Me Do”; (2) rare live EMI control-room monitor-mix taping of several July 30 backing-track (outtake and pre-overdub) takes of “Please Mr. Postman” and “It Won’t Be Long”; (3) a 2'15" tape of Harrison composing “Don’t Bother Me” in the Palace Court Hotel, Bournemouth, sometime between August 19 and 27; (4) an undatable 3'56" tape of Lennon composing “If I Fell”; and (5) an undatable recording of McCartney woodshedding at an acoustic guitar as he works through instrumental-only parts of “Michelle,” “Three Coins in the Fountain,” and various boogie licks; this tape continues for 8'42" before it is erased through recording-over around 1967 by John, young son Julian, and Paul. 226. Price 1997, 221. 227. Alstrand 1997. 228. Lewisohn 1988, 34. 229. The information in table 2.7 is drawn from Lewisohn 1988, 34 – 37; 1992, 117, and a hearing of available working tapes.

Notes to Pages 185 – 88

230. In the stereo mix (which of course maintains the original twin-track instrumentation), all three vocal parts are heard on the right channel; the left channel features bass, drums, John’s Jumbo and George’s new Country Gent. The edit piece with Martin’s piano appears twice briefly on the left, and Harrison’s lead guitar part appears on the right. 231. The stereo mix of “Please Mr. Postman” has the drums, bass, Country Gent, and Lennon’s Capri on the left channel; the right features the three vocals plus the song’s overdubbed parts: John’s second vocal and (in the intro and coda) handclaps. 232. In “Money (That’s What I Want),” the mono LP has only the basic tracks and a piano edit piece (probably heard only in the first bar). The mono All My Loving EP mix has the single-line ostinato played in octaves, with the piano, George’s and John’s electric guitars, bass, drums, and three vocals. The stereo mix includes the heavily superimposed piano, which is not heard on the mono mix for Beatles 1988c. The stereo arrangement: left: bass, drums, George’s and John’s electric guitars, original piano part; center: the three vocals and handclaps during the solo; right: piano overdub, including glissandi during the solo (the introductory tapping seems to be muted). These messy twin-track mixes must have given Martin and his staff headaches as they waited for EMI’s purchase and installation of four-track tape equipment. The original mixes of “Money” and “Devil in Her Heart” as well are unusually dry, but Dave Dexter overcompensated in both cases (and in the stereo mixes of “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Little Child”) by adding too much echo to both mono and stereo American releases. Dexter’s slight echo added to the stereo mix of “Not a Second Time” is a bit more successful. 233. The stereo mix has bass, drums, Country Gent, and Capri on the left; on the right are Harrison’s double-tracked vocals (Lennon and McCartney do not sing) and overdubbed handclaps. 234. On the left channel, we hear bass, drums, Country Gent, Capri, and the maraca overdub; on the right are vocal parts sung by George (lead) and Paul and John (harmony). (The high frequencies of the ride cymbal leak onto Lennon and McCartney’s vocal microphone.) 235. The basic tracks, perfected in Take 24, had bass, drums, Country Gent, and Capri (heavily distorted by a high-voltage setting overdriving the Vox amp) on what became the left channel and the three vocal parts on the right. The overdub of Paul’s descant vocal for the verse and handclaps throughout in Take 26 was added to the right channel. This was the sole basis of the mono mix, but the stereo mix includes an edit from Take 29 to replace some brief talking occurring in the last verse (at 2:01) and to provide a descant part to the coda. Takes 20 – 29 of “Hold Me Tight” (the entirety of the September 12 remake session) are available on Beatles 1993a (Take 20) and Beatles 1994q (the remainder). 236. Lewisohn 1988, 10; see Lennon’s negative thoughts on the song in Golson 1981b, 181. 237. Lennon 1972a, 55; see also Miles 1997, 153, where Paul recalls getting part of the tune (at “I’m so sad and lonely”) from “a song by the 1950s English folk balladeer Elton Hayes.” 238. The stereo configuration: left channel: bass, drums, overdubbed piano, blues harp, and John’s vocal retransition (“come on, come on, come on!”); right: Paul and John’s vocal duet and awkwardly spliced, distantly miked edit piece for the instrumental release, with more piano, more drums, and (way up front) blues harp (equivalent to the harp solo Lennon invented for “Clarabella,” which is unrelated to the Jodimars’ guitar solo in that song). 239. Miles 1997, 153. The borrowing consists of the choral I –fVII motion over a resting bass, heard twice in the Spellman song and at B+ 7– 8 (0:29 – 0:30), ending the chorus, in “I Wanna Be Your Man.” 240. Lennon 1972a, 55; see also Golson 1981b, 181– 82.

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Notes to Pages 188 – 95

241. The stereo mix has the instruments (bass, drums, Country Gent, Capri, and overdubs of organ and maracas) left and four vocals (including Ringo’s doubletracked lead with reverb) right. 242. O’Grady 1983, 37– 38. Alan Pollack (1989d) hears “Peggy Sue,” not “Honey Don’t,” as the origin of the song’s fVI. 243. The distortion is noted in Alstrand 1997. 244. It has been noted that a third meaning, a sexual double entendre, is present in the song’s title and chorus as well. 245. In the stereo mix, the left channel carries the bass, drums, and Country Gent (if John plays guitar, it is inaudible); the right has a vocal line overdubbed by Lennon onto the three vocals of the basic tracks. 246. Lewisohn 1988, 10; see also J. Goodman 1984, 104, and Miles 1997, 148. 247. Wagner 1999, 78. 248. The bass, drums, Country Gent, and Capri (John performs the verse’s furious triplet chords that abate in the chorus) are heard on the left channel; the four vocal parts (Paul lead, Paul descant, John and George backing) are on the right. For some reason, the continental master heard on Dutch and Swedish pressings of Beatles’ Greatest includes Ringo’s hi-hat count-off, but this was edited from all British and American releases. A tape from the nachlass of EMI engineer John Barrett, distributed in 1999 (see Beatles 1999a), shows that this “count-off ” was actually part of a hi-hat overdub that continues through the whole song but was never included in any released mixes. 249. Riley 1988, 21. 250. John on “All I’ve Got to Do”: “That’s me trying to do Smokey Robinson again” (Golson 1981b, 203). 251. See Riley 1988, 72, for a similar reading. 252. This song’s stereo mix has bass, drums, and Country Gent on the left (Lennon apparently does not play a guitar) and the four vocal parts (John’s lead and double-tracked vocals, and Paul’s and George’s backing vocals) on the right. 253. The instruments are heard on the left; the double-tracked vocal is on the right. Lennon’s difficulty in matching the basic tracks in the improvised coda during the overdub session is only one of several notable observations from the September 11 session to be reported in Roberts 1963, 12 –13. Martin’s articulation, rhythms, and dynamics are sensitively placed. 254. In turn, “Not a Second Time” became a model for the Stones’ “The Singer Not the Song” (1965). 255. Mann 1963, 28. Mann compared the I –VI alternation in the “Not a Second Time” coda to the conclusion of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. Good grief ! It’s “Mama Said” or “When My Little Girl Is Smiling,” not Mahler. The I –VI relationship reverberates strongly with some of John’s first solo recordings of 1970, including “Instant Karma,” “Look at Me,” and “Well Well Well.” 256. Miles and Marchbank 1978, 79; see also Wenner 1971, 72. 257. Wiener 1992, 16. 258. Harrison 1980, 84. 259. Roberts 1963, 13. See “Compression” in glossary. 260. Coleman 1992, 331. See also Coleman 1965b, 8. Vox created a “Phantom” guitar with sustaining organ effects in 1966; this was played by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones and by four members of Peter Jay & the Jaywalkers and more recently by Colin Moulding of XTC. 261. In the track’s stereo mix, all instruments (bass, drums, both guitars, and overdubbed tambourine, claves and bongos) are heard on the left, and George’s two vocal tracks are on the right. As did John in “Not a Second Time,” George had difficulty matching the scatted coda in his double-tracking session. Early in the final mix, the composer is heard (slightly off-mike) to complain that the basic tracks have

Notes to Pages 195 – 201

begun too fast. The same complaint interrupted Take 11, but the band continues through Take 13, the eventual basis of the master. 262. Takes 10 –13 of “Don’t Bother Me,” the last chosen for the overdub, are heard on Beatles 1994q. Interlude 1. Nurmesjärvi 1998, 74. Among the singles issued in 1962– 65, the next highest correlation values are demonstrated in the last two British A-sides, “We Can Work It Out” and “Help!” Although “Ask Me Why” has a relatively low value, only “Thank You Girl” and “I’m Down,” both marked by unusual interludes, are found statistically “deviant” from structural norms. 2. Martin 1979, 147. 3. Martin 1979, 148 – 50. 4. The song was mixed for mono on October 21, 1963, with the first British stereo release only on December 9, 1966, on Beatles 1966a. On January 29, 1964, the Beatles rerecorded their vocals, handclaps, and George’s overdub (this time not on a bass but on the Gretsch) for the German-market version of their new hit “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand.” In preparation, the original Tracks 1 and 2 (the basic tracks minus the English-language vocals) had been mixed down to a single track of a two-track tape; the overdub session was done in Paris. In the German stereo mix, the overdubbed guitar is heard with the other instruments on the left, while the vocals and handclaps are on the right, suggesting a required third generation of tape, made to preserve the ability to balance vocals against all instruments. 5. The “This Boy” mixes were made from Take 15. One take (6?) appears on volume 2 of Beatles 1996c, and an edit of Takes 12 and 13 (all three false starts marred by Lennon’s or McCartney’s confusion over the verse-opening words “that” and “this”) is heard on Beatles 1995g. The stereo mix appeared first on the Canadian single, Capitol of Canada 72144 (both sides of which were to reach #1 in 1964), as reissued in 1976. 6. Golson 1981b, 150. Asher was a London actress with whom McCartney was to have a long romantic relationship. She had met the Beatles in April, and so they looked her up when they moved to London in early October. Paul lived in the fifth floor of her parents’ home from fall 1963 into 1966. McCartney’s fair-copy manuscript of the lyrics to “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is given in Davies 1968a, 265. 7. Wenner 1971, 115 –16. 8. In addition, fs2 harmonized by Bm in the context of G major has been identified as an important structural element in Lennon’s most recent composition, “Not a Second Time.” In December 1963 William Mann wrote, “Those submediant switches from [I] into [fVI], and to a lesser extent mediant ones (e.g. the octave ascent in the famous ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’) are a trademark of LennonMcCartney songs . . . and show signs of becoming a mannerism” (Mann 1963, 28). Regarding “She Loves You,” we say that the vocal b2 and fs2 are supported by a Bm chord, but this is a trick of perception. As Tom Hartman points out in various rec.music.beatles posts in May 1999, Lennon is actually muting a fingered B7 chord visible in all films at this and similar points, sounding the same B5 that is sung. The ear supplies a diatonic Dn here that is not actually played. 9. George used Paul’s bass for this overdub, but he played the chromatic line (rather than the treble-register fs– e guitar bend performed for the basic tracks) on his Country Gent in live performances. See “J. and P.” 1964, 29. Note the use of both of Harrison’s guitars to stimulate occasional interest in the inner middle registers. The unusual use of a bass for an overdub might have been suggested by Paul’s doing so in “From Me to You”; Harrison’s chromatic fill has origins in his chromatic interjections in “Anna.”

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Notes to Pages 202 –12

10. The falsetto c3 of example 2.39a is apparently an excited, anticipatory, extemporaneous outburst made during the handclap overdubbing; it is not reproduced by John, George, or anyone else in live performances. 11. Take 9 (heard on Beatles 1996c, at the end of vol. 2), opens with Paul directing Ringo to attack his first and third bass drum kicks loudly but the second one softly, adding to the off-balance accent. Robert Freeman, photographer of Beatle LP covers, 1963 – 65, claims that his playing of a contemporary French jazz album for Lennon led to the thrice-repeated retransitional “I can’t hide” (Turner 1994, 43). 12. Riley 1988, 87. 13. Golson 1981b, 203. Harrison corroborates this in White 1987, 67. 14. Paul recalls that the three-part singing in “This Boy” was learned from singing “To Know Her Is to Love Her” (Lewisohn 1988, 10) and that he and John sang the song in two parts before George’s line was added (Miles 1997, 155). The Shadows’ “Midnight” (1961) is a notable precursor to “This Boy,” with its bridge harmony as well as its 12 8 meter. 15. Golson 1981b, 149. 16. Mann 1963, 28. 17. The same unusual and dramatic outer-part voice leading as heard here in B+1– 3, !/IV–@/IIIs7–#/VI, is that heard in “Falling in Love Again” and at the beginning of the bridge in Jerry Capehart’s “Turn Around, Look at Me,” which song may have been known to Lennon; the Beatle certainly knew many other Capehart songs through Eddie Cochran’s recordings. 18. As the bridge tonicizes IV, the appearance of fs2 in B+3 –– supported by a Bm chord in the context of G major — is again reminiscent of the same sonority heard in “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “Not a Second Time,” and “She Loves You.” 19. “Beatle news” 1963, 29. 20. Britain’s Ivor Novello Awards for 1963 were dominated by five presentations to the Beatles: Most Outstanding Contribution to Music, Most Broadcast Song (“She Loves You”), Top-Selling Record (“She Loves You”), Second Top-Selling Record (“I Want to Hold Your Hand”), and Second Most Outstanding Song (“All My Loving”). 21. Most of the information on Transglobal, Vee-Jay, and Swan is taken from Spizer 1998, 3 –10, 203 – 7; 2000a, 6 – 34; and 2000b, 12–13. 22. Capitol had arranged to record this concert, but objections from the American Federation of Musicians scuttled the plan. Despite persistent rumors, apparently no tape survives. 23. See Coleman 1989, 200 – 4, and Wiener 1992, 16 –17. Three 1. Beatles 1992a. 2. “Johnny B. Goode” from the BBC date is heard on Beatles 1994c, and all six songs performed that day are on Beatles 1993c. Lennon creates an odd effect in the show’s last number, “I Wanna Be Your Man,” by playing only the first scale degree through the verses, looking forward to “Ticket to Ride” but for its very wide amp tremolo. All five songs from the Palladium show are heard a half-step slow on Beatles 1990a. 3. All four Atco sides were altered in 1964 for these releases, through editing or by adding work from Atlantic session players Cornell Dupree (guitar) and Bernard Purdie (drums); see Gottfridsson 1997, 222, 310, 313, 333, 341. 4. Sales figures in table 3.2 are taken from Spizer 1998, 31– 32; 1999, 27. The saga of Vee-Jay’s LP Introducing the Beatles is covered in detail by Bruce Spizer; see 1998, 109 – 46; 1999, 25 – 27. More details on Brian Epstein’s plans for America are provided in Davies 1968a, 194, and Schaffner 1982, 4 ff. The American reception of the Beatles and other Brits is the topic of M. Kelly 1991.

Notes to Pages 212 –17

5. The Beatles’ recording masters as released in America were not always the same as those heard in Britain. See McCoy and McGeary 1990, 159 – 72, for a general summary, and 172– 255 for specifics, relating to the differences between mono and stereo mixes made for the home market and those appearing overseas. Principally, Capitol’s Hollywood studios rebalanced, re-equalized, and added reverb in many cases, in a seeming attempt to simulate the lush production characteristics of their recordings of Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, and so on. Contrary to the claim of those authors, however, many true stereo Beatle recordings did appear in the United States before 1966. 6. The January 19 concert at the Paris Olympia may be heard on Beatles 1987a. 7. Edit Piece 10 of “Sie Liebt Dich” is heard at the close of Beatles 1995c. In the basic tracks for this recording, Lennon plays his Capri, thus distinguishing the backing track from that of the single, on which Lennon had used the Jumbo that was stolen in January. 8. For details on the tape copying and recording sessions of January 24 and 29, see Lewisohn 1988, 38. 9. Davies 1968a, 192. 10. Many of the events and the atmosphere of the Beatles’ first American trip are documented in Braun 1995 and in the videotape Beatles 1990b. All three Sullivan shows plus the Miami rehearsal circulate in video formats and may be heard on Beatles 1995f. Oddly, the February 9 Sullivan tapings and the February 11 Washington Coliseum concert seem to have been performed a half-step below concert pitch (reflecting the different tonics chosen in recording “Can’t Buy Me Love”? to accommodate George’s sore throat? simply for lack of reference? To my knowledge, the Beatles’ tuning methods have never been discussed). Pitch was restored, new instruments in hand, by the time of the February 16 Sullivan rehearsal. The pitch idiosyncracy does not seem to be due to the mastering of bootlegs at incorrect speeds, a common problem. 11. The Höfner bass, with gold-plated metal parts, was McCartney’s third. It sold at auction by Bonhams in Tokyo for $202,955 on March 22, 1997 (Beatlenews roundup 1997a, 6). 12. The February 16 rehearsal is interesting for Lennon’s heavy overplaying of the new guitar — both in volume and in experimental arpeggiations, as in the intro and coda of “This Boy.” 13. McGuinn discusses the twelve-string in Somach et al. 1989, 210. 14. Mytkowicz 1987, 103. See also pp. 87, 94, 100, and 101 in the same issue of Guitar Player, and R. Smith 1987, for more information on this instrument, which was made in December 1963. For Harrison’s discussion on tuning this instrument, hear the August 20, 1964, interview on Beatles 1985e. 15. Roberts 1964a. 16. Six-string guitars are also prone to beats among themselves; note particularly the “wow” effect that comes from the sustained final chord in the EMI release of the Beatles’ “Matchbox” as the different guitars go in and out of tune. 17. See Beatle news 1964, 29, and Marchbank 1982, 110, 112. 18. Beatles 1985a. 19. The musical portion of “Around the Beatles” is seen in Beatles 1985d; the Shakespeare scene is on Beatles 1986b. Portions of “Around” and the NME concert are presented on Beatles 1995d and 1996c, respectively; they appear in their entirety on Beatles 1985b and 1990a, respectively. 20. The BBC recordings from February 28, March 31, and May 1 feature pre-EMI stage numbers, 1963 hits, and recent nonfilm songs “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “You Can’t Do That,” and “I Call Your Name.” Newer releases plus the still-unrecorded “Kansas City” / “Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey” were introduced in BBC sessions on July 14 and July 17; all are heard on Beatles 1993c. In addition, a July 19 taping of “If I Fell” for Blackpool television is available on Beatles 1993e.

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Notes to Pages 217– 22

21. McCartney World Tour 1989, 47. Lester’s brief was to shoot, cut, and dub the film as fast as possible, before the stars were to become pop-world has-beens (Pritchard and Lysaght 1998, 161). 22. The entire film is included in Beatles 1964j. Also on the CD, along with the feature film itself, are Owen’s original script, with all ad-libs and cuts indicated, a long cross-indexed commentary by Bruce Eder, biographical information on cast and crew, trailer, and so on. For good information on the film’s genesis and production, see particularly commentaries 14 –15, 24 – 25, 31– 32, and 51– 52. For details on the shooting schedule, see Lewisohn 1992, 148 – 58. The film is also available on VHS format, Beatles 1964i. The Hard Day’s Night story is told in Shenson 1995. 23. McCartney has revealed that in 1963, the Beatles had been approached to do a musical film, The Yellow Teddy Bears, but its director insisted on providing compositions for the Beatles to perform. The Beatles waited for a better offer. See McCartney 1994, xi. 24. Shepherd 1964b, 15. 25. Beatles 1964j, commentaries 31– 32. 26. For a thorough but sometimes wrongheaded postmodern Finnegans Wake– inspired parsing of Lennon’s two collections of 1964 – 65, see Sauceda 1983. 27. The quotes come from Dowlding 1989, 304, and Golson 1981b, 183 – 84, respectively. Lennon derided the song’s opening line, “Please lock me away,” but he himself wrote and sang the line “If I could get my way, I’d get myself locked up today” in “I’ll Cry Instead,” recorded by the Beatles the following June. McCartney’s hermetic sentiment is echoed in Paul Simon’s “I Am a Rock,” a Top-Five hit for Simon & Garfunkel in 1966; perhaps this explains John’s joke about “Peter and Garfunkel.” 28. Paul is quoted in Spizer 2000a, 149. John attributes both “Nobody I Know” and “I Don’t Want to See You Again” to Paul alone in Golson 1981b, 204. 29. The process is documented in Braun 1995, 82– 83. 30. Hear one McCartney demo on Beatles 1991a. For Lennon’s comments, see Golson 1981b, 184, and Robertson 1991, 20. For information on the Strangers, see Engelhardt 1998, 476. 31. Kramer 1991, notes. Legend has McCartney supplying the final high note (see Winn 1999b, 17). 32. See Shepherd and Dean 1966, 31/21, 32/22. For John’s and Paul’s thoughts on “Can’t Buy Me Love,” see Golson 1981b, 182 – 83, and Miles and Marchbank 1978, 80. 33. The leaking of some of Ringo’s hardest cymbal and snare playing onto a vocal mike (only appreciable in a stereo mix) has led to bizarre speculation that an anonymous drummer added drumwork to this track in mid-1964. There can be no basis to the story. See Southall 1982, 96, Schwartz 1990, 206, Weinberg 1991, 68 – 69, and Sussman 1992, 16. 34. In addition, a solo played with the basic tracks was punched out (recorded over) by a third Gretsch recording, which doubled the first overdub’s solo at the unison. The solo played with the basic tracks, although deleted, can be heard leaking onto the rhythm track — see especially “Guitar III” at D+7 (1:20 –1:21). Thus three identical guitars, all attempting a single line, are heard in the solo. George’s Gretsch solo from Take 1 is married to the rest of Take 2 in Beatles 1995d. 35. McCartney requested that Gaye’s “Pride and Joy” (April 1963) be played on New York radio on February 9, 1964. In early April, Lennon expressed high regard for Gaye’s “Can I Get a Witness” but said that he was more interested in exploring exotic harmonies (see “She Loves You” and “If I Fell”) than writing twelve-bar numbers (Roberts 1964b, 3); “if I found a new chord, I’d write a song round it. . . . Sometimes the chords got to be an obsession and we started to put all unnecessary ones in.” McCartney countered, “I don’t think the stuff you do chordwise is quite as important as the tune and the words and the feel of the song” (Roberts 1964c, 11).

Notes to Pages 222 – 25

Whereas the rhythm section maintains straight eighths throughout “Can’t Buy Me Love,” the vocal and lead guitar are usually highly syncopated against them; in a number of May 1999 posts to the rec.music.beatles newsgroup, Ian Hammond points to the swing rhythm here as a precursor to McCartney’s many explorations of 12 8 meter in 1966 – 67. The syncopation has also been noted in Pollack 1992a. 36. Terence O’Grady notes with insight the contrast between (pentatonic) R&B and (major) “uptown” tonal styles in “Can’t Buy Me Love” and five other LennonMcCartney songs of 1964 (O’Grady 1975, 238 – 39). 37. Martin 1979, 133. See also Pritchard and Lysaght 1998, 133 – 34. For structural balance, the chorus is also the basis of the song’s coda. 38. Stereo mixes of Takes 2 and 3 are heard on Beatles 1991n. 39. This statement conflates quotations of Lennon in Golson 1981b, 204, and Miles and Marchbank 1978, 79. John could not have known Pickett’s work before 1965; he is more likely thinking of the equal-eighths/stop-time rhythm on II7 in Marvin Gaye’s “Hitch Hike” (December 1962) that emphasizes the Vf9 in “You Can’t Do That.” Both of Gaye’s early-1963 hits, “Pride and Joy” (admired by McCartney) and “Hitch Hike,” were backed by the Vandellas and produced by Mickey Stevenson. 40. Coleman 1964a, 10. The composition seems to have grown directly out of George’s and John’s experimentation with their new Rickenbackers. 41. This observation is based on Riley 1988, 45 – 46, and Cott 1982a, xix. 42. Take 6, a rejected set of basic tracks with John’s guide vocal and a fully composed yet weak guitar solo, appears on Beatles 1995d. Capitol apparently used its only available mono mix of “You Can’t Do That,” refurbished by Dave Dexter with awful fake-stereo rechanneling and reverb, for the April 10 stereo release of The Beatles’ Second Album in the United States. The true stereo mix would only appear in the United Kingdom and continental Europe in July. 43. Ensemble in the penultimate bar, where Paul’s bass doubles George’s line, is always tight, even when Fs is given a fermata. Concert films show Paul directing (with the neck of his bass) the placement of Fn, Fs, and (leading unison bows) G. Note that the Wise score is missing accidentals for Fns for all parts in this crucial bar. 44. Coleman 1992, 372. 45. Harry 1977, 82. 46. In his May 25, 1999, post to the rec.music.beatles newsgroup, “McCartney Swings,” Ian Hammond notes that not only are the A- and B-sides both from the twelve-bar mold but they also both feature the utterance of their titles following stop-time accents. The vocal syncopation, not a major factor in 1963, is likewise an attribute of both sides. Alan Pollack finds strong vocal syncopation to be notable in several of Lennon’s early-1964 songs (Pollack 1992j). 47. The [025] trichord is expressed as both d – g – fn (A+4 [0:13 – 0:14]) and — in two harmonic functions — c – bf– g (A+5 [0:15 – 0:18] and A+11 [0:26 – 0:27]). 48. Riley 1988, 112. 49. s5 at B+1 seems an inspired setting for the word “green,” which sustains the most amplified high (“raised”) partials of any vowel. See fig. 33 in Slawson 1985, 155. 50. Hear the June 11, 1964, press conference on Beatles 1981b and an interview of September 4, 1964, on Beatles 1986d. In the first opportunity to perform the song live (April 26), Lennon anxiously begins his solo while the others properly go into the first bridge, leading to one of the group’s worst extant concert flubs since attaining fame. 51. See Golson 1981b, 183, and Dowlding 1989, 70. McCartney recalls writing the song, including the bridge, on his own in the Ashers’ music room (Miles 1997, 108, 122– 23). 52. Take 2 from February 25 is heard on Beatles 1995d; we hear drums, bass, Lennon’s Jumbo, and Harrison’s Ricky 12. The electric outtake is highly different from the Latin released version: in the former, Harrison arpeggiates four-string

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Notes to Pages 225 – 29

chords with damped pizzicato through the second and third verses rather than the legato three-string picking in the released version. The Rickenbacker solo resounds in “Please Please Me”– like octaves from the singly stopped third and fourth strings rather than in the single line as heard on the delicate Ramírez. As with several of the soundtrack songs, two mono mixes of “And I Love Her” were released, with less vocal double-tracking in the U.S. versions than heard in U.K. releases. As a further anomaly, four bars were edited from the ending of most mixes, but they remain intact in the German EMI release of Something New, heard on Beatles 1964n. 53. Ringo spoke on June 25, 1964 (Beatles 1981b). 54. The version recorded on February 25 begins with a sustained, open E chord, providing a context for the verse’s opening in Csm not allowed in the more mystifying final version. 55. The truck driver’s modulation is almost unknown in the British Invasion repertoire but is used in Herman’s Hermits’ “A Must to Avoid” (1965). 56. In the final cadence, a neighboring II (Gm) pivots to become a neighboring IVf to D, an effect borrowed in Chad & Jeremy’s “A Summer Song” (August 1964). Alan Pollack finds irony, reflective of the song’s “bittersweet” ambiguity surrounding major and minor centers, in the concluding Picardy version of the relative minor, a device he relates to the ending of “A Taste of Honey” (Pollack 1989a, 1991). 57. Wagner 2000. 58. J. Goodman 1984, p. 107. Aside from its role in relation to the song’s tonal structure, the melody is marked by strong syncopation (complementing the rhythm in the claves), appoggiaturas to chordal roots (A+2 [0:11]) and fifths (A+8 [0:23], B+7 [1:03]) and its form-defining range (the verse’s melody spans an eleveth, b – e2, while that of the bridge —John’s?–– is contained within a sixth, fs1– ds2). 59. Both of John’s vocals overlap with the harmonica, so some tape-to-tape transfer must have been required. 60. Alan Pollack provides this insight: “The slowing of the harmonic rhythm [at A+7– 8] adds nice ballast, just as the return of the I –V oscillating harmony [at B–1– 2] adds symmetry” (1990a). 61. V7/VI is amplified in importance by the entrance in C–1 [0:38] of the Ricky 12, which rings out the chord changes in a much more dramatic manner — akin to a continuo’s articulation of harmony in a recitative — than was possible with the Country Gent, let alone the Jumbo and classical guitars with which George had previously performed this technique. The V7/VI chord had had a similar functional role in “Ask Me Why” (at A+8 there), moving into the verse’s last phrase rather than into the bridge. A related voice-leading story appears seven months later in “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party.” 62. Harrison seems happy to incorporate this song’s emphasis of 6 with his favored added sixth chord, as his solo features the sonority on both V (D+8 [1:41–1:42]; the score is in error) and I (D+9 [1:43 –1:46]). 63. Tim Riley points out a closely related precedent for this falsetto treatment in “Ask Me Why” (Riley 1988, 48). 64. I am indebted to Ben Vaughan and Steve Afek for an understanding of the function of the suspension in emphasizing g1 over the previous g2. 65. Composers’ sketches for all four except “We Can Work It Out” were found on tapes in the possession of a one-time Beatle chauffeur and auctioned at Sotheby’s. The recordings, detailed in note 225 for chapter 2, are found on Beatles 1992b. For John’s comments on “If I Fell,” see Golson 1981b, 204. 66. The complementary blend of Paul’s sweet, yearning line with John’s hurt, strained line in the finished arrangement and in other early Beatle songs is a point made in Riley 1988, 103, and in Brown and Gaines 1983, 27. John Covach pointed out in a 1994 discussion that the “If I Fell” draft’s lead-in resurfaces in “Imagine” (Lennon 1971).

Notes to Pages 230 – 35

67. The Melodica part was played several times over twenty-one seconds in the Plaza Hotel in February 1964 –– at the time “If I Fell” was germinating, as captured in Beatles 1990b. Recall Lennon’s chromatic descent in the “It Won’t Be Long” bridge and other passages. 68. Take 15, used in the mixes, includes a bad break in McCartney’s voice on “vain” in the second retransition, which was replaced in mono editing by the flawless performance of the first retransition. The blemish remains in the less-painstaking stereo mix. Baur 2000 notes that “Ringo taps out the ride rhythm with the tip of the stick on a tightly closed hi-hat.” This restrained approach contrasts with the snappy snare rudiment that serves as an introductory and retransitional lead-in. 69. Perhaps because its tonal structure is so convoluted, the phrase rhythm of the introduction is a very square 4+4. Joshua Rifkin has commented on the odd phrase rhythm in the verse and the verse-bridge combination in Rifkin 1968, 119. 70. Hartman’s idea is from May 1999 correspondence. 71. Golson 1981b, 204 – 5. 72. The mono mix fades abruptly on the final chord to avoid the live yet inadvertent “Road Runner”– like glissando from the Country Gent that peeks from the end of the stereo mix. 73. McCartney’s bass scales in quarter notes, A+1– 4 (0:07) and C+7– 8 (1:36 –1:39), provide a new way of articulating the root and fifth of each triad, in a manner more tied to the bridge of “Lady Madonna” (1968) than to any 1964 composition. 74. Alan Pollack makes a similar point as to similar harmonic structures in the chorus and bridge and points to the bass —walking through the chorus, stable in the verse — as a major part of the fabric responsible for contrast. Pollack also has interesting ideas as to the instrumental coda, a gesture he finds reminiscent of “Please Please Me” and “It Won’t Be Long” (1992h). 75. Golson 1981b, 204; see also 176. McCartney claims that he cowrote the song with John. His description of the derivation of the progression from E to gsm at B+1 shows both authorial intent and an innocence of diatony: “We knew that in E if you went to an A-flat minor, you could always make a song with those chords; that change pretty much always excited you” (Miles 1997, 163). 76. The fact that George plays guitar only in the intro (in a manner so dissonant against the ensemble as to be at the brink of the opening of “A Hard Day’s Night”) suggests that perhaps he did not have time to devise a part before recording was re7 [0:26]) probably precluded quired. John’s expert playing here (including a jazzy V+5 the necessity for additional guitar. Haste is also suggested in Paul’s bass line, which doubles the vocal — a rare event after this album — at A+1 (0:07– 0:08) and the corresponding passage in the bridge, C+5 (0:50 – 0:52). 77. See Golson 1981b, 180, for Lennon’s comments. 78. Dave Dexter added echo for the American stereo, but not mono, release of The Beatles’ Second Album. 79. The guitar’s use of the lowered 3 as a s2 -functioning lower neighbor to 3 in an ostinato pattern looks ahead to “Day Tripper” (1965), which also makes structural use of the Ger65. 80. Lennon claimed in one of his final interviews that he made a “deliberate and conscious” attempt to play a Jamaican ska rhythm (a style that he explored in the 1970s) under this solo (Lennon, Ono, and Peebles 1981, 173). The same rhythm underpins the bridge in the Beatles’ performance of “I Forgot to Remember to Forget,” recorded at the BBC on May 1. 81. Alan Pollack notes similarities between the fades of “I Call Your Name” and “Don’t Bother Me” (1992c). 82. Golson 1981b, 185. In commentaries 31– 32 of Beatles 1964j, it is Shenson who remembers suggesting the title to John. Shenson tells the same story of Lennon writing the song overnight (Pritchard and Lysaght 1998, 164), but Lewisohn says

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Notes to Pages 235 – 42

Lennon had three days to write the song; see Lewisohn 1988, 43. If the song had been written overnight, it was two weeks before recording was to begin; Paul mentioned the title in trailer footage shot on April 3 (Winn 1998b, 22). Eartha Kitt had a B-side called “I Had a Hard Day Last Night” in 1963 (Clayson 1992, 269n4). Some sources hold that “A Hard Day’s Night” replaced “I Call Your Name” in the soundtrack, but evidence suggests that “You Can’t Do That” was the number dropped. 83. Lennon provides this rationale in Golson 1981b, 185. McCartney is already singing the bridge alone in Take 1, as heard on Beatles 1995d. Takes 2– 4 and 6 – 9 are heard on Beatles 1994r (but EMI’s Take 1 is the same as the booted Take 2). 84. Editing has obscured some of the recording procedure: the piano/guitar solo track includes a second Jumbo part, and a tenor-register guitar line appears on this track following the solo, as far as B+1 (1:33 –1:34). 85. Lewisohn 1988, 43. Twenty years later, George describes the chord to an interviewer as an “F [chord] with a G on the first string” (Harrison 1984). 86. The verse ends on Bn, not on Bf; the SRDC structure of the twelve-bar verse (4+4+2+2) allows a chromatic D-gesture (B+1– 2 [0:17– 0:20]) to break the pentatonic grip. As for “You Can’t Do That,” Alan Pollack (1992b) finds comparisons “unavoidable. Note the way in which the bridge opens with a dramatically sustained melodic note (on the word ‘home’— the longest duration in the whole song) that is followed by a resumption of a chatter rhythm.” 87. Flanagan 1990, 46. 88. Mellers 1973, 44 – 45. 89. Nicol remained the butt of Beatle jokes as long as the group stayed together. In one January 1969 Apple Studio session Paul is heard reminding the others of how Nicol did not come in — and then crashed in the wrong place — after the bassist’s count-off to “She Loves You” in the first Copenhagen show (Beatles 1991h; the Hillegom video shows him still hopelessly lost at that point the next day). Tapes reveal his work at these shows to be very heavy-handed. For information on Nicol’s background, see Lewisohn 1992, 138, 160. In Oceania, the Beatles were supported by Johnny Devlin & the Devils. Devlin says that McCartney added some ideas to his song “Won’t You Be My Baby,” recorded for RCA, probably in January 1965 (Engelhardt 1998, 120). 90. For the stereo United Artists LP release, the Beatles’ selections appear in mono, but Martin’s instrumental arrangements are heard in stereo. United Artists had exclusive rights to a soundtrack album, but a competitive EMI issued six film songs on singles and another one on Something New. EMI probably reasoned that as the film was released with a mono soundtrack, they would do well to maintain rights to all stereo mixes. The mono mixes on the “stereo” UA record were retained unaltered when Capitol pressed the record with its own label beginning in August 1980. 91. Perhaps erroneously, Perkins (1932– 98) recalls that the Beatles worked up “Sawdust Dance Floor,” “Your True Love,” and “Sure to Fall (In Love with You)” during his June 1 visit (Engelhardt 1998, 371); Lewisohn mentions no records of such tapings. Other stories have Perkins and the Beatles together recording “Blue Suede Shoes,” “Honey Don’t,” “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” and “Your True Love” for acetates on this date, but no such tapes have circulated. Perkins’s work with all four Beatles was released on Perkins 1996; the most recent Perkins-Beatles connection is McCartney’s cover of Perkins’s “Movie Magg” for his Run Devil Run album. Although Lennon “gave” “Matchbox” to Ringo in 1963, he still sang “Honey Don’t” as late as 1964. 92. Marshall 1998, 45. 93. Golson 1981b, 205, Miles and Marchbank 1978, 79. The song was used for a prologue to A Hard Day’s Night when redistributed in 1982. 94. The odd proportions are already established in Take 1, even though the song

Notes to Pages 242 – 53

is there performed in 86 (and is also marked by Rickenbackers played by both Lennon and Harrison); in Take 3, B+5 – 6 [0:36 – 0:39] is repeated. Basic-track Takes 1– 2 are heard on Beatles 1995d, overdub Takes 12–15 on Beatles 1996c. 95. Golson 1981b, 183; recall that Shannon took “From Me to You” into the American charts in June 1963. 96. Whereas the singer has been thrown over in “Runaway,” in “I’ll Be Back” it is Lennon who has run away and who threatens to do so again. George recorded “Runaway” with the Traveling Wilburys in 1990. 97. Perhaps the minor-key chaconne bass figure influenced Harrison’s choice of nylon-string guitar. When asked about his taste in music on June 25, 1964, he said, “I like classical on a guitar” (Beatles 1981b). 98. The high degree of mixture in “I’ll Be Back” is not repeated in much nonBeatles rock music but for the Zombies and the Turtles. 99. Lennon’s comments are found in Golson 1981b, 205. 100. The elision, the melodic use of f6–5 in the verse, the VI – I beginning of the chorus, and the central poetic theme all make “Any Time at All” seem somewhat of a knockoff of “It Won’t Be Long.” 101. Lennon again erroneously credits Pickett as an influence; see Golson 1981b, 205. 102. A more distant reference to “I’ll Be Back” is heard in the bridge of “When I Get Home” (D), which features the alternating I –VI – I –VI progression (1:16 – 1:23) that John has been hearing in “Runaway.” 103. Shepherd 1964c, 9. In “Things We Said Today,” McCartney’s strumming of the minor chord on acoustic guitar and his vocal arpeggiation remind me of Dylan’s “Masters of War” (1963), although the lyrics are worlds apart. 104. See Engelhardt 1998, 55, re McCartney’s role as one pianist and Johnny Person as the other. Also see Wiener 1992, 21. About this time, Paul is said to have contributed to another artist’s record, playing tambourine on his friend Alma Cogan’s “I Knew Right Away,” released as a B-side on October 30, 1964. I have not heard this recording, but Kristofer Engelhardt says no tambourine is audible (1998, 98). 105. Black’s Liverpool and London repertoires are given in Harry 1982, 80 – 81. She says that McCartney, who attended her “Anyone Who Had a Heart” session, wanted to try something similar to Bacharach’s number (“Hit-trick” 1964, 1). 106. Wiener 1992, 22. 107. “Till There Was You” was added in Las Vegas and “Kansas City” in, naturally, Kansas City (Lewisohn 1992, 169, 171). 108. Davies 1968a, 204. 109. Coleman 1964b, 8 – 9. 110. Both BBC sessions can be heard on Beatles 1993c, with a few outtakes on Beatles 1993a, and three songs possibly from a Christmas show are heard on Beatles c. 1994d. 111. The haste in the final days may have been required by more care having been needed in the early stages than could have been anticipated. Among the first seven songs attempted, entire sessions on “Mr. Moonlight,” “Leave My Kitten Alone,” “Every Little Thing,” and “What You’re Doing” went unused. While forty-six hours of studio time were devoted to the arranging and recording of this LP, single, and Christmas greeting (and more than seventeen hours more to their mixing and editing), “it was EMI’s policy during the early 60s to allocate a maximum of three recording sessions to each album” (Buskin 1987, 42). 112. See details in Wiener 1992, 101– 3, 130 – 31, 182, and 213. One documentary album, a two-record set including interviews, The Beatles Story, peaked at #7 for four weeks in January 1965. 113. Beatles 1985a. 114. Beatles 1986c.

401

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Notes to Pages 253 – 57

115. Harry 1977, 12. 116. For the composition credit, see Golson 1981b, 214. 117. John is seen manipulating this knob in a photograph appearing on the upper right corner of Beatles 2000a, 159, which is captioned as having been shot during the making of Beatles for Sale. In later years, the Beatles would talk of this technique having been used when the volume/tone pedal could not be adequately controlled, but I believe from the sonic record that George had John turn the knob in “Baby’s in Black” and that the pedal was probably used for all related 1965 effects. 118. Beatles 1986c. 119. Wenner 1971, 29. Personal identity is given as the central theme of all of Dylan’s work in Day 1989, 1. In a Stockholm interview from October 24, 1963, McCartney had expressed the same sentiment as would Lennon, saying of the frequent early-Beatle use of pronouns: “We try to do that, you know, to make it personal. . . . When we sing the thing about ‘I love you,’ it’s easier than singing something about the cat that lives on the hill, man” (Beatles 1994e). This was four years before the recording of Paul’s “Fool on the Hill.” 120. Wenner 1971, 124 – 26. 121. Lewisohn 1988, 53. 122. Thanks to rec.music.beatles friend Tom Hartman for pointing out in May 1999 correspondence that Lennon dropped his J-160 six-string for the twelve-string between Take 2 and Take 3. In the same correspondence, Hartman goes on to say that Harrison uses the middle toggle position here and on “Baby’s in Black” and “Honey Don’t,” blending his two pickups for a “Surfer Girl” / “Fun Fun Fun” quality that is made a bit more hollow by the Vox amps. Takes 1– 8 are heard, a half-step slow, on Beatles 1994r. 123. Pollack 1992e. Pollack also makes interesting points regarding a “disingenuously ‘primitive’ impression” caused by the uncomfortable dissonance of the vocal melody against its accompaniment in the verse, focusing on the g1 sustained over D and F chords in B+6 – 7 (0:18 – 0:19, at “should never”), “reminiscent of something we saw back in ‘I’ll Cry Instead.’ ” 124. Both “A Hard Day’s Night” and “I’m a Loser” (at B+3 [0:14]) use the F9 chord, “with a G on the first string,” in the context of G major. 125. The eventual intro appeared only in Take 3; Take 1 was a false start and Take 2 went directly into the verse following a fully metrical, twice-heard II –V progression, the second time accompanied by the sung title. Likewise, the coda in Take 2 was merely a repeated vamp on II –V, whereas Take 3 introduced the eventual idea, a repeated instrumental passage (D–E, with no overdubbed harmonica) that fades out. Takes 1– 2 are heard on Beatles 1991m, and Take 3 is on Beatles 1991n. The modal quality of the fVII –V cadence had been given a more pronounced metric accent in McCartney’s “All My Loving.” 126. Although John is heard singing solo in the eventual retransition, a film of the Beatles performing this song on “Shindig!” (taped October 3, 1964, heard on Beatles 1990a) shows Paul singing this line (with his descant part?) off-mike. 127. Like the intro and coda, the solos at D and E reach maturity in Take 3 (Beatles 1991n), suggesting that a good deal of work was deemed necessary following Take 2 (1991l). Takes 1– 7 are heard on Beatles 1994r. 128. The theme of tears hidden behind a smiling mask, perhaps introduced to the rock audience in the Platters’ “The Great Pretender” (1955), is repeated in Smokey Robinson’s “I Wish It Would Rain” (1968) and “The Tears of a Clown” (1970). Lennon deflates any seriousness in his performance of “I’m a Loser” for the BBC on May 26, 1965, when he sings, “beneath this wig I am wearing a tie.” The clown image may stem directly from Dylan, who sings of crying clowns in “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (1963) and “Like a Rolling Stone” (1965), and such a strong “loser” sort of self-disparagement goes back at least to Jerry Lee Lewis’s Tennesseetwanging “Fools Like Me” (1958).

Notes to Pages 257– 65

129. The mention of a bulldog in the bridge, and the piano work there, look forward to “Hey Bulldog” (1968). 130. Miles 1997, 108. Paul calls the song “my attempt at the next single” (Miles 1997, 174). He has said elsewhere that the song was finished in Atlantic City on August 30 (Beatles 1984a). 131. The song is called Paul’s first of the LP in Golson 1981b, 214. It has been asserted that the Ricky 12 is Lennon’s Jetglo 325 –12 (which he purchased c. May 1964), but this has not been substantiated; see Crowley 2000. Harrison was absent from the recording of basic tracks, but Lennon’s Jumbo is the only guitar remaining from that session; the twelve-string was overdubbed the following day. Perhaps “What You’re Doing” is intended instead in such assertions. 132. The leaden parallel fifths, their heaviness underlined by the timpani, are probably the factor that leads Yes to create a proto – heavy metal sound in their 1969 cover version. 133. Contrary to the score, the piano does not play in A+1– 4/7–10. 134. Miles and Marchbank 1978, 80. 135. The fact that John chooses to duet with himself in the verses here and in “Eight Days a Week,” rather than harmonize with Paul, was brought to my attention by Tom Hartman in May 1999 correspondence. 136. Pollack 1992d. 137. The “inventive rhyming” in “What You’re Doing” is noted in Turner 1994, 70. McCartney’s irregular rhyme scheme in “I’ve Just Seen a Face” (1965) will be seen in chapter 4 to be positively poetic. 138. Golson 1981b, 184. “Silhouettes” entered Billboard’s Top Ten twice in 1957, with different artists; the Rays took it to #3. Other than the storyline, the song (not a U.K. hit before 1965) has no appreciable rehearing in “No Reply.” 139. See Leigh 1984, 170, regarding the Quickly situation. 140. Mellers 1973, 50. Recall the major-major IV7 heard in “I’ll Be Back.” 141. Smith 1988, 201. On other occasions, Paul attributed the title to Ringo, perhaps mistakenly. John’s references to “Eight Days a Week” seem to confuse that song with “Eight Arms to Hold You,” the provisional designation for the Beatles’ second film. 142. Allan Kozinn (1995a, 105) notes that the guitar’s first string remains open through the introductory progression. Thus in Take 5, both E and Fs sustain throughout, one or both of them dissonant at all times. An edit involving parts of Takes 1, 2, and 4 and all of Take 5 is heard on Beatles 1995d. 143. Alan Pollack likens the 1 bass pedal underneath a tonic-expanding chord progression, in the intro and coda, to the same technique in a Bach prelude (1989b). 144. The Lydian IIs is adopted by Traffic (“Glad”) and the Moody Blues (“Minstrel’s Song”). 145. The three opening guitar parts are transcribed, clearly showing George’s boogie pattern, in Buk 1994, 60. The author thanks Chris Klimecky for bringing this to his attention. 146. Miles and Marchbank 1978, 80. The opening riff can be heard on October 6, between takes of “Eight Days a Week” (Lewisohn 1992, 173). The song is also tied together around Ringo’s fourth-beat rim shots and repetitive cymbal pattern. Paul has said, “the drumming is basically what we used to think of as ‘What’d I Say’ drumming. There was a style of drumming on ‘What’d I Say’ which is a sort of Latin R&B that Ray Charles’s drummer Milt Turner played on the original record and we used to love it” (Miles 1997, 172). 147. Golson 1981b, 184. Lennon could have achieved a similar buzzing effect, exciting the same harmonics, by striking the A string of his Jumbo and then lightly touching the string at one-sixteenth of its length, midway between the first and second frets. 148. Rowland 1990, 34. Lennon recalls (Beatles 2000a, 160) that the Allman Brothers used the same riff; he is probably thinking of “One Way Out” (1972).

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Notes to Pages 265 – 80

149. See a facsimile of the “I’m in Love” manuscript in Sotheby’s 1984, Lot #348. 150. Takes 6, 7, and 9 are heard on Beatles 1991m; Take 5 on 1991n. 151. Golson 1981b, 184. Miles says Paul conceived the song on October 8, while walking to the studio (1997, 173). 152. Take 1 of “She’s a Woman” is heard on Barrett 1983; Takes 2– 5 and 7 and Takes 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7 of “I Feel Fine” are heard on Beatles 1994r. The long jam in “She’s a Woman” features numerous bass glisses that occasionally appear elsewhere before 1968 but are not really characteristic of McCartney’s playing before the White album (“Dear Prudence,” etc.). As with other mono British A- and B-sides, both “I Feel Fine” and “She’s a Woman” were marred by Dave Dexter, who added excessive echo to the mono American masters, which then became the basis of reprocessed mixes for the “stereo” release of Beatles ’65. An echo-drenched mono “I Feel Fine” mix is rush-released on the stereo continental album Beatles’ Greatest. Past Masters, Vol. 1 presents a rarely heard true stereo mix of “She’s a Woman,” whereas “I Feel Fine” had appeared in true stereo as early as 1966, for A Collection of Beatles Oldies. 153. While most of Paul’s vocal part falls within the a – a1 octave, the coda repeatedly accents the high cs2. An older McCartney transposes the song down a fourth for McCartney 1991b. Alan Pollack (1992g) is perceptive in recognizing McCartney’s progressive degrees of vocal improvisation through the song, steadily becoming “freer, louder, and more extroverted.” It is instructive to compare the simple form and involved melodicism of “She’s a Woman” with the opposite emphases of Ray Charles’s “I Got a Woman.” 154. The multihead tape-echo system produces better-defined (yet cavernous) multiple attacks than does EMI’s more natural basement echo chamber. 155. Lewisohn 1988, 12. 156. “I’ll Follow the Sun” was included in EMI’s two-LP set Love Songs (Beatles 1977c). A structural voice-leading graph, showing the song’s highly conventional initial ascent and interrupted 3-line, is in Wagner 1999, 62. 157. “Flamboyant” is the term used in Raver 1965a, 2. The mural photo session is documented in Freeman 1983, 49. 158. “Beatles for sale” 1964, 9. Four 1. Lennon and Harrison had both seen Donovan on TV by February 1965 (Coleman 1965c, 13). In January 1966 Donovan released a tribute to his friends, “For John and Paul.” 2. Lennon 1965, 10. 3. Grevatt 1966a, 3. 4. See Coleman 1965a, 3, reproduced on the sleeve for the single “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” See also Shelton 1986, 330 – 39. Dylan’s incredible popularity in Britain is attested to by the Melody Maker LP chart of June 12, 1965, which places Dylan product at #1, #2, and #7, a feat never even achieved by the Beatles. More than a million Dylan records sold in Britain alone between March 1965 and January 1966. See Raver 1966a, 2. 5. Fellow Los Angelinos the Turtles also borrowed from Dylan, with their “It Ain’t Me Babe.” 6. It was the post-Beatles spelling of the Byrds’ name that led Lennon to suggest “the Cyrkle” as the name for a Brian Epstein-managed group in 1966 (Harry 1982, 135). 7. Lennon is quoted in Coleman 1965b, 8, and other information comes from Raver 1965b, 2. 8. John speaks about Paul’s efforts in Golson 1981b, 185, although he misspeaks as to the title.

Notes to Pages 280 – 88

9. Coleman 1965c, 13. The “film bosses” were producer Shenson and director Lester; they received a tape of the eleven songs on February 22 (Lewisohn 1988, 56). See also McCartney’s film-location comments to Derek Taylor on Beatles 1987c. 10. Beatles 1987c. 11. Harrison is quoted in Beatles 1986e; the second quote comes from Coleman 1965c, 13. 12. Miles 1997, 193. The Byrds pay tribute to this song, quoting its title, in “Artificial Energy” (1967). 13. Mulhern 1990, 26. 14. The Stones use the pedal in “Please Go Home” (1966). 15. This sonority was brought up in Hartman 1999. 16. Pollack 1992i. 17. Harrison recalls his basing his ostinato on Lennon’s rhythm part and Starr’s basing his syncopations on the Ricky 12 (White 1996, 89). 18. Note also John’s characteristically expressive vocal ornaments on the words that may best exclaim his frustration, “mad” and “free” (A+5 – 6 [0:17, 0:48]), and his descending slide into the chorus on the correspondingly overcome “oh!” (A+8 [1:42]). 19. Miles 1997, 194. 20. Tim Riley points out that the bridge moves to the realm of fantasy (Riley 1988, 143). The surprising modulation to C enters a fantasy world as surely as does another modulation in “Penny Lane” two years later. The enjambment from chorus to [bridge] is discussed in Winn 1985, 497. 21. Forte 1987b, 93. 22. Golson 1981b, 205. 23. In February 1996, Harrison recalls the difficulty he had arranging his vocal part around those of Lennon and McCartney: “Sometimes I’m up, and sometimes I’m down, and sometimes it moves in an unfathomable way, because it’s basically just trying to avoid hitting the same notes the others are on” (White 1996, 88). Joe Brennan (2000) has learned that EMI first released its 1965 stereo mix of “Yes It Is” in 1986 for a promotional tape for Heineken; this mix was widely booted on Beatles 1987b. The same mix appears on Past Masters, Vol. 1, despite a tape defect noted by Brennan (a drop-out on the word “I” at A+3 [0:13]) that is not present in the fourtrack session tape. 24. Takes 1–11 and 14 are heard on Beatles 1994s. 25. Everett 1986, 363. Riley notes the role of pride in “Yes It Is,” the fact that the color scarlet connotes betrayal, and that Lennon shows hints of paranoia (Riley 1988, 133 – 34). The theme of redintegration is recognized by Dai Griffiths in connection with Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” (but it might as well have been the Classics IV’s “Traces”) as “the old theme — these foolish things remind me of you” (Griffiths 1999, 418). 26. Coleman 1965c, 13. 27. Pollack, 1992f. 28. Baur 2000. 29. Martin must have played the Steinway on the basic tracks for the intro but then overdubbed his piano parts for the duet break and coda later in the day. 30. Pollack 1992k. 31. Hammond 1999b. 32. Golson 1981b, 206; see also Wenner 1971, 124. 33. Take 5 is heard on Beatles 1996a; this clarifies the sonority of Harrison’s Ramírez. Could Martin’s idea for the flute doubling be traced to the use of piccolos for a similarly arched tune in Johnny Keating’s “Theme from Z Cars,” a British TopTen hit released in April 1962? 34. Lewisohn 1988, 55. 35. Coleman 1965c, 13; see also J. Goodman 1984, 107.

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Notes to Pages 288 – 97

36. Pete Shotton takes credit for suggesting the use of “Hey!” to open the chorus (Shotton and Schaffner 1983, 122). But in “I’ll Cry Instead,” John sings “I’m gonna hide myself away — hey!” 37. Schaffner 1977, 47. 38. Lennon might have heard the I –fVII – IV– I progression in Martha & the Vandellas’ “Nowhere to Run,” also released in February 1965. The progression had been played previously by the Beatles, in their cover of the Everly Brothers’ “So How Come (No One Loves Me)” (1960), but only as a superficial cadential ornamentation. 39. Coleman 1965c, 13. 40. Coleman 1965c, 13, 20. 41. Baur 2000. 42. Golson 1981b, 205 – 6. 43. An early mono acetate of “You’re Going To Lose That Girl,” with an abandoned Harrison solo and without piano or bongos on the fourth track, may be heard on Beatles 1985b. If the bent notes in the solo sound tortured (particularly in relation to McCartney’s relative ease in his recent Casino leads), it could be a matter of string gauge on the newly purchased Stratocaster. Harrison once said, “There weren’t any light gauge strings around. We always had heavy gauge and by Take 20 it was pretty hard on the fingers” (Foster 1997, 118). And while Rubber Soul is often thought of for its Strat sound, the Strat is played completely without note bends on both “Drive My Car” (George’s bass-doubling Strat part, that is, not Paul’s Casino solo) and “Nowhere Man.” The bends in the “Run for Your Life” solo (and in that of “Day Tripper” as well) are thought to be done on Harrison’s Casino. 44. Warwick 2000. 45. Mellers 1973, 54. 46. Engelhardt 1998, 387– 88. The soulful alternate parenthetical notes in B+3 were sung on March 30. Correspondent Ian Hammond notes the presence of Phil Spector in both “What You’re Doing” and “That Means a Lot.” 47. The Beatles were also supposedly given copies of a book on Hindu philosophy published by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (the group’s guru in 1967– 68) during filming. See Reck 1985, 99. 48. Lennon was to have delivered a third essay collection in February 1966, but only one poem was written; “The Toy Boy” appeared in the December 1966 issue of McCall’s. 49. The respective quotes are from Miles 1981, 56; and Golson 1981b, 187. 50. A facsimile of Lennon’s manuscript is seen in Davies 1968a, 209. The lyrics ring of Dylan’s “My Back Pages” (September 1964). 51. George’s Gretsch parts (generally those of “Guitar I”) were recorded as such: at A, he played the opening five bars (0:11– 0:17) an octave lower than shown in the basic tracks, and then where written (for a resulting octave doubling) during the overdub, which also included the eighth-note break (which ends on a whole note A at B+1 [0:11]). The guitar is next heard in the chorus (D [0:31– 0:50]), where his “She’s a Woman”– style backbeat chords were done on the basic tracks and the descending line (“Guitar III”) and eighth notes were overdubbed. At E (1:31–1:41), Harrison chimes in the basic tracks (he also chimes open perfect intervals in the coda: Fs– cs– fs at Coda+1 (2:09) and A– e – a at Coda+3 [2:12]). Although not indicated in the Wise score, Paul plays a few 1963-style dotted-rhythm double stops at C+3 – 4 (0:23 – 0:26). Takes 1– 9 are heard variously on Beatles 1990e, 1988f, and 1991m, and Takes 1–13 are heard on Beatles 1994s. Once the recording was complete with vocal and lead guitar overdubs, it seems as if Lennon must have had a change of heart about one word (“but” becoming “and” in C+1 [0:21]) and one vocal rhythm (“changed my mind” becoming less rushed at C+6 [0:27]) that were very deliberately altered in a double-tracked remake. The original version went out in stereo mixes, and the remake (with only the

Notes to Pages 297– 302

new vocal tracks replacing those on a copied four-track master) was used in the more exposed (through film, single, and the dominant LP) mono releases. Another celebrated anomaly is Dave Dexter’s rill-less splicing of the fifteen-second opening from George Martin’s “James Bond” spoof from the Help! soundtrack to the beginning of “Help!” for the U.S. album releases. 52. Sheff 1981, 86. 53. Alan Pollack finds a similar underlying urgency in the lack of challenge to the centricity of the pitch center, A: “perhaps this unusual unrelieved closedness is intentional and actually part of what makes the impact of the song so strong. The music underscores the single-mindedness of the message contained within the lyrics” (1989c). 54. See Miles 1997, 199. McCartney claims authorship of the countermelody in Beatles 2000a, 171. 55. Riley 1988, 139. 56. II –fVII comes from “Yes It Is,” A+4 (0:15). 57. Pollack 1993a. 58. The same style is recaptured in Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Travelin’ Band” (1969). 59. Gambaccini 1976. 60. Take 1 of “I’m Down,” lacking backing vocals, naturally, is heard on Beatles 1996a. 61. McCartney World Tour 1989, 8. 62. See Davies 1968a, 352, and Salewicz 1986, 173. The Beatles themselves are responsible for two of the most demented treatments of “Yesterday,” one in their 1965 Christmas fan-club record, in which the group sends up the tune with silly offthe-cuff four-part “harmonizations” (along with parodies of Scottish folk songs, Barry McGuire’s “Eve of Destruction,” and the Four Tops’ “It’s the Same Old Song”), and the second in McCartney’s 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street, at the end of which he plays a Perkins-like version of the song in the character of a busker at an underground station. 63. Gambaccini 1976, 17–19. 64. J. Goodman 1984, 107. In private correspondence of January 2001, Ian Hammond points out to me the uncanny structural relationships between “Yesterday” (composed in G major) and Ray Charles’s 1960 release “Georgia on My Mind,” performed in G. The unusual chords are identical in both songs through the downbeats of the respective fourth measures, and continue similarly beyond that. The Beatles are not known to have covered “Georgia,” but they certainly knew it for some time before they referred to it in “Back in the U.S.S.R.” Hammond relates the new awareness in “Yesterday” of a loss of innocence (reverberating that in Lennon’s “Help!”) to the nostalgia for home expressed in “Georgia.” 65. Miles and Marchbank 1978, 71. The line Paul sang as filler was “Scrambled eggs, oh, my baby, how I love your legs” (Somach et al. 1989, 144). 66. Lennon is quoted in Dawson 1965, 3; Martin in Lewisohn 1988, 59. 67. McCartney World Tour 1989, 78. See facsimile (on loan to the British Museum) in Davies 1968a, 264. 68. Turner 1994, 83; Coleman 1995, 6 – 20. 69. Golson 1981b, 187. 70. McCartney’s memory is presented in Miles and Marchbank 1978, 71; see also Coleman 1995, 20, 43. Martin is quoted in Lewisohn 1988, 59. 71. Lewisohn 1988, 59. 72. G. Smith 1995, 90. 73. Regarding the vocal leakage in these three bars, see Buskin 1987, 42. The string players are named in Lewisohn 1988, 59. 74. The verse of “As Tears Go By” repeats the Beatlesque progression I – IIs– IV–V, with the same Lydian IIs that concludes “Yesterday.” As if in homage to “Yes-

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Notes to Pages 302 –12

terday,” Leander and Richard wrote a new arrangement of “As Tears Go By,” recorded with Richard’s twelve-string acoustic guitar and — entering only after the first verse — string quartet behind Jagger’s vocal for the Stones’ LP Out of Our Heads (October 1965). 75. Paul instructs his bandmates on the transposition, still fully expecting their performance in the arrangement, just prior to the taping of Take 1, as heard on Beatles 1996a (where the rhythm of his strumming betrays a Dylan influence not present in the master). 76. Hastings 1994. 77. Mellers 1973, 54 – 55. 78. The cadential role of A+1 is noted in Cooke 1968, 112. 79. Hastings 1994. A middleground graph in seen in Wagner 1999, 115. 80. Golson 1981b, 187. 81. The MS is shown in Sotheby’s 1984, 32. The third verse included some lines later recast, beginning “Though it’s true that you and I are blue, baby blue,” and continuing, “through my plight the sight of you is bright . . . tight / Write the slights away, we’ll make it up girl.” 82. The backing track can be better imagined by comparing the master with Take 2 (Beatles 1996a). 83. Also taped the same day were most of the tracks of Lennon’s “Wait,” which would be reserved for completion later in the year. Ringo recorded and released a version of “Act Naturally” performed along with Buck Owens in 1989. Ringo’s having found the disc is documented in Beatles 2000a, 173. 84. The Beatles attended few mixing sessions before mid-1965. See Lewisohn 1992, 10. 85. Beatle news 1965b, 29. 86. Curran 1999, 38. 87. See “Epstein halts” 1965, 5. A restored Shea performance of “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby” is heard on Beatles 1996a. 88. See Beatles 1995c for the group’s conflicting recollections of the meeting with Elvis. 89. C. Lennon 1978, 155. For details on the Beatles’ first LSD experiences, see Brown and Gaines 1983, 174; Wenner 1971, 73 – 79; and C. Lennon 1978, 144. 90. See “Byrds go for Bach” 1966, 3. Harrison recalls buying his sitar at a London shop called “Indiacraft” (Beatles 1995c). 91. See Martin 1979, 179 – 89. 92. Brown and Gaines 1983, 197– 98. 93. O’Grady 1979, 93. 94. Wenner 1971, 83. Regarding the album’s title, hear McCartney characterize Take 1 of “I’m Down” as “plastic soul, man, plastic soul,” on Beatles 1996a, and see Lewisohn 1988, 69. 95. See Everett 2000, 276 – 78, 288 – 91, for an analysis of Jamerson’s most expressive bass lines. 96. For Ringo’s assessment of his partner’s bass playing and on their rhythm partnership, see Garbarini 1982, 48, and Weinberg 1991, 186. 97. Eerola 1998, 45 – 47. 98. Heinonen 1998a, 97. 99. McCarthy 2000. 100. Beatles 1986d. 101. Golson 1981b, 162. It seems as though John atones for the jealous anger of “Run for Your Life” in his later “Jealous Guy,” as surely as “Woman” updates “Girl” and “Watching the Wheels” rewrites “I’m Only Sleeping.” 102. Riley 1988, 170. 103. Wenner 1971, 116. 104. Take 1 can be heard on Beatles 1994s, Take 5 on Beatles 1993a.

Notes to Pages 312 –17

105. Wagner 2000. Wagner 1999, 261, presents a graph of the song’s voice leading. 106. Sotheby’s 1984, 48. 107. Wenner 1971, 126 – 28. 108. See McCartney World Tour 1989, 78, and hear BBC 1990. “It” is presumably sex. See also Miles 1997, 270, where McCartney says that “Norwegian wood” is a reference to the pine interior of Peter Asher’s room. 109. Rorem 1968, 106. 110. Harrison later referred to his first sitar as a “crummy” instrument (Harrison 1980, 52). He bought a finer sitar in India in July 1966 and began study of Hindustani music in September – October of that year. For engineer Norman Smith’s recollections of the difficulties in recording the highly transient peaks while preserving “the sonorous quality,” see Lewisohn 1988, 65. The sitar also saw nonIndian use in rock music by the Stones, Traffic, and many others by 1967. See a description of the sitar in the appendix. 111. See Schaffner 1977, 50; Shelton 1986, 375. 112. McCartney World Tour 1989, 114; see also Dowlding 1989, 114. 113. Glazer 1977, 35 – 36. While both “Respect” and “Drive My Car” are in D major, Dunn’s part in the verse alternates arpeggiations of V and IV chords for six bars before going to I, whereas the Beatles move these arpeggiations to six bars alternating I and IV before moving to their strident V7 chord. 114. George credits Paul with this guitar dub in Forte 1987b, 94. 115. In June 1999 correspondence including his file of a digitally edited introduction, Andrew Lubman makes a convincing case for hearing a metrical intro in 4 , beginning on an upbeat eighth, but this requires hearing the bass syncopated 4 unnaturally over the barline, somewhat like Ringo’s crashes in “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Despite his argument, the bass drives me to hear two pickup eighths to a bar of 34, followed by bars of 58 and 24, very much like the arrangement in the Wise score. 116. Golson 1981b, 187– 88; see also Dowlding 1989, 109. 117. James 1968c, 24. 118. Careful listening reveals that both that guitar and tambourine drop out for a dotted-eighth value at A+1– 2, third time (1:50; it happens again at 2:32). From listening to the session tape (Beatles 1994s), it becomes apparent that a tape operator spoiled the attack of one of Harrison’s guitar notes, perhaps in the cueing of an overdub. When the misshapen note was punched out, the tambourine came out with it. Martin probably knew that in the monophonic mix (which, on the monaural single, was the only projected release at the time of mixing) the extraction in the doubled guitar part would not be noticeable. McCartney’s bass also loses track of the guitar’s articulation and then goes its own way melodically, in the coda. It has been suggested that Harrison opens the track with his Gibson ES-345 in stereo, or that there is a single guitar doubled through artificial double-tracking, but after the first four bars, it becomes obvious that two different instruments are at work. Takes 1– 3 are heard on Beatles 1994s. 119. The ostinato of octave-doubled guitars will become characteristic of Cream (“Sunshine of Your Love”) and Led Zeppelin (“Good Times Bad Times,” “Heartbreaker”). The slow-tempo rising scale against a sustained harmony would reappear in Alan Price’s organ introduction to the Animals’ “Don’t Bring Me Down” (May 1966). 120. Welch 1965. In fact, the vocal line repeated despite the chord change in A+1 and A+5 does resemble the same event in “Pony,” a summer-1965 R&B hit that is also in E major. 121. The role of the A7 “Ger 65” chord of “Day Tripper” in particular, and parallel seventh chords in general, was the focus of an interesting debate on the Society for Music Theory’s pop-analysis online discussion list involving myself, David

409

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Notes to Pages 317– 24

Feurzig, David Carson Berry, Daniel Harrison, Allan Moore, John Covach, Dave Headlam, and Shaugn O’Donnell in November 1999. 122. Joy Schroder has pointed out to me how appropriate the metrical extension of the verse’s third phrase is to the line “it took me so long to find out.” 123. The guitar scale has the important contrapuntal function of articulating the obligatory register’s fs2, 2 (A+12), which had only been implied in previous arrivals on V. 124. Harrison 1980, 90. An autograph facsimile of “If I Needed Someone” is given on p. 91. The original lyric at the beginning of E is “Leave your number on my wall,” much less evocative than the final version. 125. Somach et al. 1989, 212. 126. Harrison confirms the capos in Forte 1987b, 94. 127. Harrison disapproved of the Hollies’ version; see “Beatles after” 1965, 5. 128. Golson 1981b, 163 – 64. Lennon also credits Dylan as inspiration on p. 189. 129. The draft MS is housed in the British Library. The completed lyric is on display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland. 130. Shotton says that Lennon confided the two identities to him. Shotton and Schaffner 1983, 67. 131. Golson 1981b, 188 – 89. 132. See John’s recollections in Wenner 1971, 128, and Golson 1981b, 188 – 89. Paul’s memories are conveyed in Gambaccini 1976, 19; J. Goodman 1984, 107; and McCartney World Tour 1989, 82. 133. Miles 1997, 277– 78. See also Golson 1981b, 148 – 49. John was reported (Raver 1965c, 2) to have bought his Mellotron in November 1965, but perhaps he already owned it in October, when the song was probably composed. 134. See Lewisohn 1988, 65, and Martin’s comments during a videotaped 1993 press conference at EMI (Martin 1979, 134). 135. McCartney bought the home for his father in 1964 (Miles 1997, 210). His partly erased draft is heard on Beatles 1993a; it consists of Paul strumming guitar while singing with some echo. The key sounds below Df, but the guitar may be tuned low, as it is recorded in D with no capo. 136. Golson 1981b, 188. 137. Certainty as to the odd track distribution set forth earlier is provided by a rough mix of only the first three tracks heard on Beatles 1993a. The EMI harmonium (five octaves, C to c4, with eighteen stop knobs and bellows pedals) is seen in “Inside” 1983, 14. Takes 1 and 2 are heard on Beatles 1994s. A mono acetate of Take 2, including initial overdubs but no vocals, is heard on Beatles 1994g. 138. Riley 1988, 175. McCartney says it was “Harrison’s idea to put the middle into waltz time, like a German waltz” (Miles 1997, 210). In a January 2001 letter, Ian Hammond tells me he hears a premonition of Henry the Horse in this waltz. 139. Golson 1981b, 203; see also Davies 1968a, 274 – 75. 140. Schaffner 1977, 50. 141. Lewisohn 1988, 13. Tom Hartman alerted me to the doubled Strat part in May – June 1999 conversations. 142. So says Lennon; Golson 1981b, 206. 143. McCartney is quoted in Davies 1968a, 309; the attic room is recalled in Miles 1997, 108. 144. A second organ take is heard in the center for one chord at C–2 (1:34) and on the right beginning at D+7 (2:17). The Casino also has outbursts in some verses (B) that comment on the lyrics as does the Country Gent in “She Loves You.” The track’s most celebrated anomaly, however, is the pair of false starts in the guitar that are not edited from the introduction for the American stereo vinyl release. The full Take 4, without fade, is given in Beatles 1999a; an alternate stereo mix is heard on Beatles 1999c.

Notes to Pages 325 – 33

145. Atkins and Gretty are mentioned in Miles 1997, 272– 73; see also Somach et al. 1989, 144. 146. Gambaccini 1976, 69. 147. Lennon mentions Simone in Golson 1981b, 148 – 49; his manuscript for the bridge is seen in Davies 1968a, 279. 148. Pollack 1993b. 149. Lewisohn 1988, 13; White 1990, 148. McCartney sometimes credits Wilson’s bass playing on Pet Sounds with the inspiration for this discovery, but that LP was not released until eight months after “Michelle” was recorded. 150. Mulhern 1990, 20. 151. The accidental on the third beat of C+4 is in error. 152. Mellers 1973, 63. 153. The 1968 figures are found in Davies 1968a, 352; the 1981 total is given in Okun 1981. 154. Beatles 1985e; see also Golson 1981b, 188. “Waiting for the tides of time” is Starr’s line. 155. Aspinall 1966a, 6. 156. Take 2 is heard in full on Beatles 1990e and 1999b. Take 1, aborted as a false start after some faulty guitar work from Lennon, is heard on Beatles 1999c. 157. The use of fuzz bass was likely encouraged by the Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (June 1965), wherein Brian Jones’s fuzzed guitar duplicates Bill Wyman’s bass line in fifths and fourths above. Originally tied to gritty R&B, the fuzz sound was gradually taken over throughout the pop realm, notably by Paul Burlison and Link Wray in the 1950s, Jeff Beck, Dave Davies, Jimi Hendrix (early user of the Maestro fuzz box), Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page. One unlikely source is AnnMargret’s 1961 record “I Just Don’t Understand,” full of heavy lead-guitar distortion that is ignored in the Beatles’ cover. 158. Actually, although this song was George’s, the main issue of chat between takes was truly the comical holding-forth of John and Paul. During the intervals while a tape operator would locate passages to cue playbacks for overdubbing, these two joked about John’s body odor and several recent television events. John recalled one song from the Beatles’ first LP by singing “Do you want to hold a penis, doowah-ooh” and extemporized another line, “Lukewarm baby got a custard face.” At one point, Lennon shouted that Martin was a fool for not sending the guide vocal along with the rhythm tracks to their studio monitor speaker; Harrison taunted, “I wonder if Ron Richards is free tomorrow,” whereupon Martin sent an immediate jolt of loud feedback screaming through Studio Two. A 15'32" tape of practicing and chat from this session is heard on Beatles 1991n and is continued for another 3’55” on Beatles 1994f. The chat is all that is left on the tape after the individual phrases have been removed for editing of the master. 159. Two quotes are conflated here; one from Golson 1981b, 215, and one from Wenner 1971, 72 – 73. Lennon’s MS, part of the John Cage “Notations” Collection at Northwestern University, is reproduced in Campbell and Murphy 1980, 63. 160. Mellers 1973, 65. 161. Dowlding 1989, 119. 162. Miles 1997, 108, 271. 163. Wenner 1971, 130. Paul claims to have written the stigmatic, work-related “pain and pleasure” and “break his back” lyrics (Miles 1997, 275). Billy Joel’s “Only the Good Die Young” (1977) features a more humorous frustration over Roman Catholic morality. 164. John reveals the intent here in Wenner 1971, 97. 165. Dowlding 1989, 121. McCartney later correctly recalls a compressor brought in to create the intimate effect (Miles 1997, 275). A mono monitor mix of Take 2, made before vocals or the “bouzouki” guitar were added, already deletes the twelve-string guitar from the first two verses; this may be heard on Beatles 1994g.

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Notes to Pages 334 – 35

166. Miles 1997, 119 – 20. 167. In Miles 1997, 278, McCartney recalls writing “Wait,” and Lennon is apparently silent on this issue. We guess at Lennon’s compositional role from his leading vocal line in the verse and chorus. 168. Oddly, “Yesterday” is introduced with Paul miming several bars of his recording (sounding in F), which is spliced directly, without transition, to Faithfull’s mimed performance in A. A full list of artists and repertoire is given in Lewisohn 1992, 204, but substitute “A Hard Day’s Night” for “From Me to You.” A related program, called “The Lennon and McCartney Songbook,” was taped on August 6, 1966, and broadcast on BBC Radio August 29 of that year; on that show, John and Paul discussed fifteen cover versions of their songs. 169. Use of this Gibson in Beatle recordings has not been documented. It is a thinline electric double-cutaway maple archtop with f-holes and sunburst finish, with two humbucking pickups and double-parallelogram inlays on the neck. 170. Film plans were announced during a Toronto press conference of August 17, 1965, in Dawson 1965, 3; and in “Beatles after” 1965, 5. 171. The fee is given in Lewisohn 1992, 182.

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INDEX OF NAMES, SONGS, ALBUMS, FILMS, AND WORKS OF LITERATURE

Abbey Road, 125, 179, 212, 310, 311, 340, 341, 360 “Across the Universe,” 49, 208, 341, 359 “Act Naturally,” 81, 208, 296, 304, 305, 306, 307, 330, 335, 408n83 Afek, Steve, 398n64 “African Waltz,” 118 Aftermath, 274 Ager, Milton, 67 “Ain’t She Sweet,” 48, 50, 53, 63, 66 – 67, 68, 87, 95, 97, 100, 187, 207, 214, 376nn97, 101, 378n29 Ain’t She Sweet (French EP), 115 Ain’t She Sweet (LP), 214 “Ain’t That a Shame” (“Ain’t It a Shame”), 21, 49, 64, 86 “Alabammy Bound,” 21 Albéniz, Isaac Manuel Francisco, 111 Aldo, Steve, 335 Alexander, Arthur, 56, 70, 81, 115, 141, 145, 153, 192, 204, 379n36, 385n144 “All Along the Watchtower,” 255 “All Day and All of the Night,” 275, 373n55 “All I Have to Do Is Dream,” 24, 88, 122 “All I’ve Got to Do,” 68, 72, 120, 133, 136, 151, 161, 184 – 85, 189, 190 – 91, 192– 93, 195, 202, 359, 360, 379n36, 392n250 “All My Loving,” 49, 51, 64, 65, 69, 72, 97, 120, 127, 160, 183, 184 – 85, 189 – 90, 195, 196, 201, 202, 207, 215, 250, 272, 286, 342, 360, 364, 379n36, 387n171, 394n20, 402n125 All My Loving (EP), 391n232

“All My Trials,” 390n220 “All Over Again,” 89 “All Shook Up,” 22, 50, 76, 87, 146, 389n209 “All Together Now,” 209, 220 “All You Need Is Love,” 49, 207, 284, 340, 341, 345, 360 “Alley Oop,” 119 Allison, Jerry (see also the Crickets), 66, 120 Allman Brothers, 403n148 “Almost Grown,” 55, 89 Alpert, Herb, 279 “Alright, Okay, You Win,” 47, 89 Alsopf, Kenneth, 319 Alstrand, Dennis, 182 “Always and Only,” 247 “And I Love Her,” 49, 63, 136, 182, 196, 207, 216, 217, 225 – 27, 230, 233, 234, 238, 239, 242, 243, 246, 248, 271, 334, 342, 350, 366, 398n52 “And Your Bird Can Sing,” 209, 235, 320, 359 Andrews Sisters, 175 “Angel Baby,” 96, 141, 375n87 Animals (see also Price, Alan; Valentine, Hilton), 215, 275, 276, 278, 286 – 87, 355, 409n119 Ann-Margret, 141, 411n157 “Anna (Go to Him),” 49, 63, 68, 70, 72, 120, 121, 124, 141, 142, 150, 153 – 54, 155, 158, 164, 191, 192, 204, 209, 379n36, 383n111, 393n9 “Another Beatles Christmas Record,” 252, 401n111 “Another Girl,” 208, 267, 280, 282, 284, 285, 292, 305, 334, 337, 357, 359 Another Side of Bob Dylan, 276

433

434

Index “Any Time at All,” 161, 208, 238, 246, 248, 249, 364, 401n100 “Anyone Who Had a Heart,” 248, 274, 327, 401n105 “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” 215 “Apache,” 90, 98 – 99, 100, 194, 378n33 Applejacks, 221, 274 “Are You Lonesome Tonight,” 96 Argent, Rod, 354 Armstrong, Louis, 279 Arrive Without Aging, 314 “Artificial Energy,” 405n12 “As Tears Go By,” 302, 407– 08n74 Asher, Jane, 218, 258, 323, 332, 339, 371n22, 393n6, 397n51 Asher, Margaret, 218, 339, 393n6 Asher, Peter (see also Peter and Gordon), 216, 218, 219, 409n108 Asher, Richard, 218, 393n6 “Ask Me Why,” 25, 26, 68, 72, 83, 116, 117, 123, 126, 127, 136 – 37, 140, 158, 164, 193, 196, 205, 208, 233, 271, 359, 374n70, 383nn116, 117, 393n1, 398nn61, 63 Aspinall, Neil, 35, 101, 329 Astaire, Fred, 368n7 Atkins, Chet (see also the Country Hams), 12–13, 173, 256, 324, 347, 348, 373n51, 411n145 Atlanta ’65 - Munich ’66 - Seattle ’64, 251, 306 “Auld Lang Syne.” See The Beatles’ Third Christmas Record “Auntie Gin’s Theme” (see also “I’ve Just Seen a Face”), 34, 299 Autry, Gene, 119 Avalon, Frankie, 215, 273 Aznavour, Charles, 325 “Baby Blue,” 89 “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care,” 89, 268 “Baby It’s You,” 64, 68, 115, 123, 136, 141, 142, 143, 153, 155 – 57, 158, 160, 183, 196, 246, 353, 379n36 “Baby Let’s Play House,” 20, 22, 24, 64, 86, 95, 242, 312, 370n15 “Baby Take a Bow,” 38 “Baby You’re a Rich Man,” 210, 341 “Baby’s in Black,” 29, 179, 208, 250, 252, 254, 267, 269, 271, 296, 305, 306, 320, 335, 402nn117, 122 Bach, Johann Sebastian, 16, 320, 343, 403n143 Bacharach, Burt 156, 157, 401n105 Bachelors, 279 “Back in My Arms Again,” 386n160 “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” 358, 407n64 “Bad Boy,” 49, 55, 65, 68, 74 – 75, 89, 110, 209, 281, 296, 299 “Bad to Me,” 68, 164, 168, 169 – 71, 203 Baez, Joan, 390n220 Bailey, Robert, 179 – 80 Baird, Julia, 368 – 69nn6, 12 “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” 76, 146, 164 – 65, 210, 341, 359, 384n131 “La Bamba,” 385n148

Bannister, Matthew, 384n122 Barber, Adrian (see also the Big Three; Cass and the Cassanovas), 137, 167, 378n21 Barber Band, the Chris, 26 Barbirolli, John, 122 Barrett, John, 260, 392n248 Barrett, Richard, 101 Barron Knights, 279 Barrow, Tony, 32 Bassey, Shirley, 248 Baur, Steven, 120, 176, 286, 290 – 91, 363, 365, 380n75, 389n206 “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” 22, 24, 57, 72, 87, 138, 375n91 Beach Boys (see also Johnston, Bruce; Wilson, Brian; Wilson, Carl), 215, 276, 278, 288, 367n2 Beat Brothers (see also Sheridan, Tony), 95, 100, 102 Beatals, 46 “Beatle Bop” (see also “Cry for a Shadow”), 378n32 “Beatle Greetings,” 160 Beatlemania with the Beatles, 390n222 Les Beatles (French EP), 100 The Beatles (a. k. a. the White album), 117, 125, 311, 340, 341, 404n152 The Beatles Anthology (video), Volume One, 121, 137, 372n30, 380n74 The Beatles Anthology (video), Volume Two, 168, 203, 258, 260 The Beatles Anthology (video), Volume Four, 305, 446 The Beatles Anthology, Volume 1, 42– 44, 58, 104, 237, 248, 257, 261, 262, 267, 340, 380n65, 381n89 The Beatles Anthology, Volume 2, 54, 289, 292– 94, 306, 314, 324, 330, 340 The Beatles Anthology, Volume 3, 117, 340 The Beatles at Shea Stadium, 307 The Beatles at the BEEB, Volume 13, 296 The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, 307 The Beatles Beat, 198 “The Beatles Christmas Record,” 181, 185 Beatles Come to Town, 182 Beatles for Sale, 123, 211, 213, 248, 251– 52, 353 – 69, 270, 271, 272, 303, 311, 339, 340, 401n111, 402n117 Beatles for Sale (EP), 252 Beatles for Sale No. 2 (EP), 252 Beatles’ Greatest, 198, 389n204, 392n248, 404n152 The Beatles Hits (EP), 390n224 The Beatles Live in United Kingdom, 1962–65, 306 The Beatles’ Million Sellers (EP), 336 The Beatles No. 1 (EP), 390n224 The Beatles’ Second Album, 214, 340, 387n169, 389n204, 397n42, 399n78 Beatles VI, 281, 299, 305, 340, 341 Beatles ’65, 252, 340, 404n152 The Beatles Story, 340, 401n112 “The Beatles’ Third Christmas Record,” 308, 407n62 The Beatles vs. The Four Seasons, 214 The Beatles with Tony Sheridan and Their Guests, 214

Index Beatmakers (see also Gerry & the Pacemakers), 167 “Beautiful Dreamer,” 69, 91, 115, 140, 142, 386nn155, 168 “Because,” 359 Beck, Jeff (see also the Yardbirds), 150, 411n157 Beecham, Thomas, 122 Beethoven, Ludwig van, 47– 48, 343 “Begin the Beguine,” 48, 56 “A Beginning,” 117 “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite,” 365, 410n138 “Bells of Rhymney,” 318 Belmonte, Phil, 265 Bennett, Roy, 74 Bernie, Ben, 99 Bernstein, Leonard, 292, 367n3 Bernstein, Sid, 206 Berry, Chuck, 19, 22, 29, 40, 42, 53, 54, 55, 65, 71, 76, 79 – 80, 82, 85, 94, 98, 107, 109, 128, 136, 141, 142, 145 – 46, 150, 186, 187, 241, 253, 254, 267, 272, 273, 274, 277, 370n102, 379n50 Berry, David Carson, 410n121 “Besame Mucho,” 37, 59, 69, 76, 96, 103, 110 –13, 117, 127, 136, 138, 165, 379 – 80nn51, 52, 65 Best, Mona, 40, 82, 91 Best, [Randolph] Peter, 23, 82– 85, 91, 92, 101, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 129, 353, 371n28, 377nn2, 6, 378n21, 380n74 “Better Luck Next Time,” 88 Beyond the Fringe, 117 Big Brother & the Holding Company, 236 Big Three (see also Barber, Adrian; Cass and the Cassanovas; Hutchinson, Johnny), 39, 119, 159, 166, 167, 378n21 Bilk, Acker, 100 “Bill and Ben” (television theme), 115 Binaural, 82 “Birthday,” 146, 187, 284, 292, 365 “Bits and Pieces,” 275 Black [Priscilla White], Cilla, 167, 168, 169, 221, 248, 274, 278, 327, 401n105 Black Combo, the Bill, 189 – 90, 250 Black Jacks (John Lennon’s duo; also see Shotton, Pete), 21 “Blackbird,” 15, 219 Blackjacks (Pete Best’s group; see also Newby, Chas), 82– 84, 91 Blonde on Blonde, 277 “Blowin’ in the Wind,” 255, 321 “Blue Angel,” 382n108 “Blue Monday,” 80 “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” 50, 58, 71, 86 “Blue Suede Shoes,” 22, 64, 86, 109, 400n91 “Bluejean Bop,” 87 Bob Dylan, 276 Bond, James, 296, 407n51 Bonds, Gary “U.S.,” 97 “Bony Moronie,” 88, 135 “Boppin’ the Blues,” 87, 110 Boult, Adrian, 122 “Boys,” 96, 104, 110, 119, 124, 125, 134, 141, 142, 143, 146, 150, 154, 155, 158, 165, 183, 189, 195, 208, 214, 250, 384n126, 385n145

Bradford, Janie, 75 Brahms, Johannes, 229, 343 Bramwell, Tony, 253 Brando, Marlon, 374n76 Braun, Hans-Walther, 374n70 Brennan, Joe, 405n23 “Bring It On Home to Me,” 71, 116 Bringing It All Back Home, 277 Brown & His Bruvvers, Joe (see also Oakman, Peter), 52, 81, 94, 113, 116, 134, 253, 349, 376nn97, 107 Brown, James, 279 Brown, Ken (see also Stewart Quartet, the Les), 23, 40 Brown, Peter, 308 – 09 Brown, Roy, 66 “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man,” 42, 54, 87 Burgess, John, 308, 371n20 Burlison, [David] Paul, 73, 173, 234, 373n52, 411n157 Burnette, Dorsey, 73 Burnette, Johnny, 16, 40, 73, 91, 99, 173, 234, 373n52 Burns, Jim, 195 Burtnett, Earl, 36 Burton, James, 173 “Bus Stop,” 274, 334 “Buzz Buzz A-Diddle-It,” 96, 122 “By the Way,” 167 “Bye Bye Love,” 22, 47, 55, 76, 87, 127 Byrds (see also Clark, Gene; Crosby, David; McGuinn, [Roger] Jim), 215, 277, 278, 307– 08, 318, 404n6, 405n12 Byrnes, Rohan, 386n162 “C’mon Everybody,” 89, 93 Calder, Tony, 302 Caldwell, Iris, 372n33 Caldwell’s Raving Texans, Al (see also Storm, Rory), 39, 119 “California Dreamin’,” 277 “Can I Get a Witness,” 396n35 “Can’t Believe You Wanna Leave,” 88 “Can’t Buy Me Love,” 54, 72, 124, 160, 190, 207, 210, 213, 216, 217, 218, 220, 221– 23, 224, 226, 236, 238, 248, 250, 252, 265, 266, 267, 271, 272, 305, 306, 310, 314, 321, 342, 359, 395nn10, 20, 396n32, 397nn35, 36 Cannibal & the Headhunters, 306 Cannon, Freddie, 122 Cantrell, William, 77 Capehart, Jerry, 394n17 Caravelles, 215 Carmichael, Hoagy, 34, 36 “Carol,” 68, 89, 98, 105, 109, 160, 370n10 Carroll, Lewis [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], 218, 374n76 Casals, Pablo, 122 Casey, Howie (see also Derry & the Seniors), 46 Casey, Kenneth, 99 Cash, Johnny, 173

435

436

Index Cass & the Cassanovas (see also Barber, Adrian; the Big Three; Hutchinson, Johnny), 39, 167 “Catcall.” See “Catswalk” “Cathode, Ray” [Martin, George], 118 “Cathy’s Clown,” 47, 56, 76, 90, 113 “Catswalk” (“Catcall”), 25, 26, 85, 98, 129 – 30 “Cayenne,” 25, 26, 42– 45, 46, 371n26, 374n74 A Cellarful of Noise, 382n103 Chad & Jeremy, 398n56 “Chains,” 70, 110 –11, 116, 120, 121, 122, 125, 141, 142, 143, 146, 154 – 55, 158, 179, 183, 363, 385n146 Channel, Bruce, 116 Chapman, Norman, 20, 23, 47 Charles, Ray, 40, 47, 71– 72, 93, 128, 141, 374n72, 403n146, 404n153, 407n64 “Chicago,” 12 Chiffons, 215 Chopin, Frederic François, 247 Christie, Lou, 279 “Christmas Day”/”Yesterday.” See The Beatles’ Third Christmas Record Clapton, Eric (see also Cream, the Yardbirds), 150, 275, 411n157 “Clarabella,” 47, 69, 74, 96, 116, 160, 391n238 Clark Five, the Dave, 217, 275, 277, 278, 295 Clark, Dick, 206 Clark, Gene (see also the Byrds), 277 Clark, Petula, 278 Classics IV, 405n25 “Claudette,” 88 Claunch, Quinton, 77 Clayton Skiffle Group, the Eddie, 39, 119 Clock, 52 CHOBA B CCCP, 80 Coasters (Billy J. Kramer’s group), 167, 346 Coasters (Lieber - Stoller vehicle) (see also Nunn, Bobby), 40, 52, 64, 71, 75, 78, 97, 107, 110 –11, 130, 180, 236, 379n51 Cochran, Eddie, 16, 22, 36, 40, 44, 80, 85, 94, 98, 147, 173, 189, 348, 373n51, 374n72, 394n17 Cocker, Joe, 345 Cogan, Alma, 401n104 “Cold Turkey,” 266 Cole, Nat “King,” 395n5 Coleman, Ray, 22, 31, 281, 289 – 90 A Collection of Beatles Oldies, 198, 389n204, 404n152 Collins, Albert, 74, 75 Collins, Judy, 302 “Come Go with Me,” 24, 53, 58, 63, 65, 87, 150 “Come On People,” 26, 43 “Come Together,” 49, 76, 207 The Complete BBC Sessions, 107, 117, 140, 296 The Complete Hollywood Bowl Concerts, 306 Comstock, Bobby, 81 Condon, Richard, 335 “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” 359 Cooke, Deryck, 179 Cooke, Sam, 71 Cookies, 122, 141, 146, 154, 155, 385n146

“Cool Water,” 16 Copland, Aaron, 367n3 “Coquette,” 89, 175 “Corrine, Corrina,” 89, 92 Cotton Show, The Mike, 252 Country Hams (see also Atkins, Chet; Cramer, Floyd; Wings), 368n9 Country Joe & the Fish, 277 Covach, John, 398n66, 410n121 “Crackin’ Up,” 90, 122 Cramer, Floyd (see also the Country Hams), 12–13, 373n51 Cream (see also Clapton, Eric), 150, 409n119 “Creedence Clearwater Revival,” 407n58 Cribbins, Bernard, 118 Crickets (see also Allison, Jerry; Holly, Buddy), 37, 38, 46, 71, 78, 95, 122, 169, 375n85 “Crinsk Dee Night,” 160 “Crippled Inside,” 53, 272 Cropper, Steve, 275, 330 Crosby, [Harry Lillis] “Bing,” 36, 131, 151 Crosby, David, 277, 307– 08 “Cry for a Shadow,” 25, 26, 63, 84, 94, 95, 97–100, 107, 109, 193, 214, 330, 378nn29, 32 “Cry Me a River,” 369n19 “Crying, Waiting, Hoping,” 55, 70, 72– 73, 84, 89, 103, 107–10, 122, 133, 160 “Cumberland Gap,” 21, 22, 24 Curtis, King, 107, 306 Cyrkle, 387n185, 389n212, 404n6 The Daily Howl, 15, 46 Dale, Dick, 379n33 “Dance in the Streets,” 89, 114 “Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairies,” 353 Dankworth, Johnny, 118 Darin, Bobby, 375n91 “Dark Town Strutters Ball,” 90 David & Jonathan, 329 David, Mack, 156, 157 Davies, Dave (see also the Kinks), 282, 373n55, 411n157 Davies, Idris, 318 Davies, Ray (see also the Kinks), 275 Davis Group, the Spencer (see also Winwood, Steve), 275, 278, 355 Davis, Rod (see also the Quarry Men), 21, 22, 23, 372n32 “Dawn (Go Away),” 316 “A Day in the Life,” 32, 121, 209, 210, 288, 342, 347, 360 “Day Tripper,” 121, 133, 146, 153, 164, 207, 274, 281, 308, 309, 316 –17, 318, 331, 335, 336, 337, 342, 399n79, 406n43, 409 –10n121 “Daydream,” 277 “Deaf Ted, Danoota, (and me),” 218 Dean, James, 41 “Dear Prudence,” 404n152 “Dear Wack,” 160 “Dedicated Follower of Fashion,” 275 Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich, Dave, 279 Dell-Vikings, 24

Index Derry [Wilkie] & the Seniors (see also Casey, Howie), 39, 46, 82, 85, 90 – 91, 122 DeShannon, Jackie, 250 “(There’s a ) Devil in His Heart,” 70, 78, 110, 116, 136, 141, 184 – 85, 186, 187, 190, 193, 195, 196, 386n168, 391n232 “Devil Woman,” 373n57 Devlin & the Devils, Johnny, 400n89 Dexter, Jr., Dave, 205, 206, 384n126, 389n204, 391n232, 397n42, 399n78, 404n152, 407n51 “Diamonds,” 141, 194 Dichterliebe, 225 – 26 Diddley, Bo [Ellas McDaniel], 16, 122, 236, 274 Dietrich, Marlene, 137, 141 “Dig a Pony,” 360 “Digging My Potatoes,” 92 “Dinah,” 36 Disney, Walt, 151 Dixie Cups, 278 Dixon, Willie, 274 “Dizzy Miss Lizzie,” 69, 74, 88, 109, 114, 116, 146, 160, 209, 296, 299, 305, 306 “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” 275 “Do You Want to Dance,” 88, 284, 385n148 “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” 25, 26, 70, 72, 74 – 75, 110, 120, 123, 142, 143, 151– 52, 153, 158, 167– 68, 170, 207, 214, 230, 234, 271, 358, 384nn126, 127, 385nn136, 152, 387n182, 411n158 “Doctor Robert,” 209, 358 Dodd, Ken, 274, 278 Domino, [Antoine] Fats, 21, 36, 40, 42, 44, 80, 85, 94, 175, 373n51 “Don’t Be Cruel,” 55, 71, 87, 146, 375n91 “Don’t Bother Me,” 51, 63, 70, 174, 184 – 85, 193 – 95, 203, 229, 271, 330, 331, 364, 390n225, 393n262, 399n81 “Don’t Bring Me Down,” 409n119 “Don’t Ever Change,” 55, 63, 115, 121, 122, 161, 169, 383n111 “Don’t Fight It,” 309 “Don’t Forbid Me,” 87 “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” 51, 96 “Don’t Let Me Down,” 208, 358 “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying,” 56, 90, 167 “Don’t Lie to Me,” 388n195 “Don’t Pass Me By,” 173, 388n196 “Don’t Worry Baby,” 276 “Don’t You Rock Me, Daddy-O,” 22, 37 Donegan, Lonnie, 20 – 21, 22, 36, 40, 74, 369n1, 370nn5, 7, 11, 15, 373n51 Donovan [Leitch], 275, 279, 282, 404n1 Doonican, Val, 279 Doors, 236, 302 Dorsey, Jimmy, 111 Dorsey, Lee, 316 Double Fantasy, 351 Douglas, Craig, 37, 39, 217 “Down the Line,” 88 Dozier, Lamont, 275 Dr. Feelgood, 56

“Dream Baby (How Long Must I Dream),” 57, 69, 110, 114, 115, 116, 375n91, 386n155 Drifters, 56, 81, 236 “Drive My Car,” 49, 133, 209, 308, 309, 312–13, 314 –16, 317, 322, 336, 337, 406n43, 409n113 Duane Eddy, 373n52 Dubin, Al, 111 Duncan, Johnny, 21 Dunn, Donald “Duck,” 309, 315, 409n113 Dupree, Cornell, 394n3 Dykins, John “Twitchy,” 14, 368n12 “Dylan, Bob” [Robert Zimmerman], 254 – 56, 271, 276 – 77, 279, 288, 296, 313, 314 –15, 321, 401n103, 402nn119, 128, 404nn4, 5, 405n25, 406n50, 408n75, 410n128 The Early Beatles, 214, 340, 384n126 “Early in the Morning,” 89 Eckhorn, Peter, 85, 93 The Ed Sullivan Shows, 306 Eddy, Duane, 36 – 37, 40, 42, 43, 44, 98, 122, 154, 159, 173, 188, 330, 373n52, 380n74, 388n199 Eder, Bruce, 396n22 Eerola, Tuomas, 310 –11 “Eight Arms to Hold You,” 280, 296, 403n141 “Eight Days a Week,” 179, 207, 252, 258, 262– 64, 269, 270, 271, 282, 333, 342, 403nn135, 141, 146 “Eight Miles High,” 277 “1822!,” 160 “Eleanor Rigby,” 35, 49, 150, 207, 315, 336, 340, 360 Elgar, Edward, 122 Ellington, Edward “Duke,” 326, 363 Elliott, Ramblin’ Jack, 216, 255 Eltham, Stuart, 125 Emerick, Geoff, 125, 257, 381n89, 389n204 “The End,” 358 Epstein, Brian, 15, 26, 82, 83, 102– 03, 113, 114, 116 –17, 118, 126, 151, 159, 166 – 69, 170, 181, 193, 206, 213, 221, 251, 270, 274, 289, 296, 307, 311, 371n27, 379n43, 380n58, 381n92, 382n103, 383n112, 387nn177, 182, 185, 390n225, 394n4, 404n6 Epstein, Clive, 166 “España Cani.” See “Spanish Fire Dance” Evans, Malcolm, 35, 129, 289 – 90, 333 “Eve of Destruction,” 407n62 Everly Brothers (see also Everly, Don; Everly, Phil), 22, 36, 40, 47, 53, 56, 71, 76, 78, 85, 106, 122, 133, 163, 187, 254, 271, 279, 370n5, 373n51, 379n36, 406n38 Everly, Don (see also the Everly Brothers), 71, 76 Everly, Phil (see also the Everly Brothers), 71, 76 “Every Little Thing,” 208, 251, 258 – 59, 264, 269, 271, 360, 401n111 “Everybody’s Ever Got Somebody Caring,” 378n25 “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby,” 48, 70, 96, 98, 109, 140, 151, 160, 189, 208, 252, 267, 268, 269, 305, 306, 365, 400n91, 408n87 “Everyday,” 29, 49, 53 – 54, 55, 88 Exciters, 250

437

438

Index “Exodus,” 128 Extracts from the Album A Hard Day’s Night (EP), 239 Extracts from the Film A Hard Day’s Night (EP), 239 “Fabulous,” 47, 87 Faith, Adam, 37– 38, 39, 118, 125, 134 Faith, Percy, 390n225 Faithfull, Marianne, 279, 302, 335, 412n168 “Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It),” 69, 96, 137, 138 – 39, 165, 376n96, 384n125, 386n168, 394n17 Fame’s Blue Flames, Georgie, 238, 278 Farlowe, Chris, 274 “Farmer John,” 379n51 Fascher, Fred, 138 Fascher, Horst, 138 Fenoulhet, Paul, 66, 74 “Ferry Cross the Mersey,” 167 Feurzig, David, 409 –10n121 “Fever,” 89, 91, 107 Fields, Gracie, 368n7 Finnegans Wake (see also Joyce, James), 396n26 First Live Recordings, Volume 1, 138 First Live Recordings, Volume 2, 138 “The First Time,” 38 The First U.S. Visit, 255 “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue,” 12, 34 Flannery, Joe, 371n27 Fletcher, Tim, 377n4 “Floating,” 389n211 Fonda, Peter, 307 Fontaine, Eddie, 101 Fontana & the Mindbenders, Wayne, 274, 279 “A Fool for You,” 86 “Fool #1,” 101 “The Fool on the Hill,” 209, 402n119 “Fools Like Me,” 89, 402n128 “For John and Paul,” 404n1 “For No One,” 76, 321, 358 Ford, John, 119 Ford, Mary, 16, 40, 44, 369n20 “Forget Him,” 174 – 75, 219 Formby, George, 345, 381n94 “Fortune Teller,” 188, 391n239 Fortunes, 279 Foss, Lukas, 367n3 Foster, Stephen Collins, 91 4 by the Beatles (EP), 214, 252 Four Jays (see also the Fourmost), 167 The Four Pennies, 279 Four Seasons, 276, 278, 316, 367n2 Four Tops, 275, 278, 309, 407n62 Fourmost (see also the Four Jays; O’Hara, Brian), 52, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 172– 73, 274, 375n89, 387n180 “4th Time Around,” 314 –15 Freddie & the Dreamers, 252, 274, 277, 278 “Free As a Bird,” 375n87 Freeman, Robert, 394n11 Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, 255, 276 “Freight Train,” 22

“The Frightened City,” 96, 147, 378n32 Frith, Simon, 176 “From a Window,” 168, 221– 22 From Britain with Beat, 255 “From Fluff to You,” 160 “From Me to You” (see also “From Us to You”), 49, 51, 64, 80, 83, 84, 116, 121, 123, 124, 135, 137, 161– 65, 166, 168, 169, 170, 173, 177, 178, 179, 181, 183, 202, 205, 207, 213, 214, 215, 216, 234, 270, 291, 359, 377n116, 379n36, 381n85, 384n133, 385n153, 386nn155, 162, 164, 387n174, 393n9, 401n95, 412n168 “From Us to You,” 160 Fuller, Jesse, 255 “Fun, Fun, Fun,” 276, 402n122 Furtwängler, Wilhelm, 122 “Fury, Billy” [Ronald Wycherley], 46, 374n77 Gabor, Zsa Zsa, 314 Gallagher, Rory, 352 Gallup, Cliff (see also Vincent, Gene), 348 “The Game of Love,” 274 The Garage Tapes, 193, 326 Garry, Len (see also the Quarry Men), 22, 23, 37, 369n19, 370n10 Gauldin, Robert, 179 Gaye, Marvin, 222, 275, 316, 396n35, 397n39 “Gentle, Johnny” [Askew, John], 20, 25, 47, 371n20, 374 – 75n79 George Martin and His Orchestra Play Help!, 299 “Georgia on My Mind,” 407n64 Gerry & the Pacemakers (see also the Beatmakers; Marsden, Gerry), 39, 126, 159, 166, 167, 169, 217, 274, 279, 375n89, 381n92, 387n178 Gershwin, George, 50, 91 Gershwin, Ira, 50, 91 “Get Back,” 49, 207, 342, 384n131 “Get It,” 272 “Get Off of My Cloud,” 274 “Getting Better,” 209, 242, 354, 358 Gilmore, Voyle, 251, 307 Ginsberg, Allen, 46 “Girl,” 76, 209, 225, 308, 310, 314, 333 – 34, 336, 346, 359, 408n101 “Girl of My Dreams,” 370n5 Give My Regards to Broad Street, 301, 370n11, 407n62 “Give Peace a Chance,” 207, 347 Gjerdingen, Robert, 310 “Glad,” 403n144 “Glad All Over” (Roy Bennett - Sid Tepper - Aaron Schroeder; recorded by Carl Perkins), 63, 70, 73 – 74, 80, 88, 109, 160, 189, 193, 376n107, 386n168 “Glad All Over” (Mike Smith - Dave Clark; recorded by the Dave Clark Five), 275 “Glass Onion,” 284 Go Cat Go!, 190 “Go Now,” 275 “God Only Knows,” 276 Goffin, Gerry, 73, 111, 141, 384n121 “Goin’ Out of My Head,” 128

Index Going Down to Golders Green, 260, 294, 295 “Golden Slumbers,” 365 “Gone Gone Gone,” 90, 91 “Good Day Sunshine,” 53, 134, 260, 284, 287, 333 “Good Dog Nigel,” 218 “Good Golly Miss Molly,” 24, 74, 88, 92, 135, 146, 274 Good, Jack, 253 “Good King Wenceslas.” See “The Beatles Christmas Record” “Good Morning Good Morning,” 168, 359 “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” 66, 86, 146 “Good Times Bad Times,” 409n119 “Good Vibrations,” 276 Goons (see also Sellers, Peter), 117, 160 Gordy, Jr., Berry, 75, 185, 275 “Got My Mind Set on You,” 80 “Got to Get You into My Life,” 248, 315, 360 – 61 Gottfridsson, Hans Olof, 374n70, 378n28, 380n57 Gracie, Charlie, 47 Grateful Dead, 236 Graves, Harry, 119 “Great Balls of Fire,” 50, 62, 88, 376nn95, 108, 389n209 “The Great Pretender,” 388n193, 402n128 “Greensleeves,” 14 Gregg, Brian (see also the Tornados), 350 Gretty, Jim, 41, 99 –100, 110, 325, 411n145 Griffiths, Dai, 127, 405n25 Griffiths, Eric (see also the Quarry Men), 22, 23, 36, 370n5 “A Groovy Kind of Love,” 274 “Guitar Blues,” 255 “Guitar Boogie,” 16 “Guitar Bop.” See “Moovin’ and Groovin’“ Gunter, Arthur, 312 Guthrie, Woody, 255, 277 Haggard, Merle, 119 Haley, Bill, 22 “Hallelujah! I Love Her So,” 42, 44, 47, 53, 63, 69, 87, 138, 147, 371n26 Hammond, Ian, 287, 380n77, 382– 83n110, 384n131, 385n136, 397nn35, 46, 406n46, 407n64, 410n138 “Hanky Panky,” 277, 375n91 Hanton, Colin (see also the Quarry Men), 22, 23, 26, 37, 40, 110, 370n5, 371n23 “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” 271, 360 “A Hard Day’s Night,” 58, 109, 110, 133, 151, 160, 188, 196, 207, 213, 216, 223, 235 – 38, 239, 242, 247, 248, 250, 253, 256, 258, 266, 270, 271, 272, 283, 288, 305, 306, 335, 342, 360, 399n76, 400n82, 402n124, 412n168 A Hard Day’s Night (LP), 123, 195, 213, 216, 225 – 38, 239, 241– 48, 252, 253 – 54, 266, 270, 272, 311, 330, 340, 341 A Hard Day’s Night (film), 176, 213, 215, 216, 217, 238, 241, 271, 350, 396n22, 400n93 “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” 255, 288, 402n128 Harding, Neil, 371n23 Harris, Jet (see also the Shadows), 38 – 39, 141, 194, 380n51

Harris, Rolf, 118, 141, 182 Harrison, Daniel, 410n121 Harrison, Harold (George’s father), 36, 373n49 Harrison, Harry (George’s brother), 36, 37 Harrison, Louise French (George’s mother), 36, 42 Harrison [Caldwell], Louise (George’s sister), 36, 351 Harrison, Pete (see also the Rebels), 36, 37 Harry, Bill, 40, 101, 193 Hartman, Tom, 231, 283, 393n8, 402n122, 403n135, 410n141 Hatch, Tony, 174, 175 “Have a Banana!,” 160 “Have I the Right,” 275 Hawkins, Jalacy, 327 Hawkins, Ronnie, 98, 109 Hayes, Elton, 391n237 “He’ll Have to Go,” 47, 90, 376n96 Headlam, Dave, 410n121 “Heart Full of Soul,” 275 “Heartbeat,” 375n85 “Heartbreak Hotel,” 21, 57, 86 “Heartbreaker,” 409n119 Heath, Ted, 36 “Heavenly,” 90 Heinonen, Yrjö, 310 –11 “Hello Goodbye,” 59, 207, 284, 324, 341, 342, 360 “Hello Little Girl,” 25, 26, 33 – 34, 43, 49, 50 – 51, 52, 53, 55 – 56, 57– 58, 68, 76, 78, 84, 85, 103, 114, 167, 169, 234, 372n44, 375n89, 379n46, 387nn178, 180 “Hello Mary Lou,” 389n213 “Help!,” 76, 125, 178, 185, 189, 195, 200, 207, 254, 255, 281, 296 – 99, 305, 306, 315, 335, 340, 342, 346, 359, 360, 383n110, 393n1, 407nn51, 64 Help! (LP), 211, 236, 272, 280 – 305, 307, 311, 330, 334, 336, 339, 340, 341, 347, 352, 354, 407n51 Help! (film), 256, 281, 291, 295 – 96, 346, 354, 407n51 “Helter Skelter,” 146, 358 Hendrix, Jimi, 128, 150, 411n157 “Her Majesty,” 49 “Here Comes the Sun,” 361 “Here, There and Everywhere,” 24, 51, 104, 292, 295, 358, 359 “Here Today,” 16, 24, 76, 272 Herman’s Hermits, 274, 277, 278, 398n55 “Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop,” 86 “Hey! Baby,” 63, 115, 116, 375n87, 386n168 “Hey Bulldog,” 146, 209, 341, 403n129 “Hey, Good Lookin’,” 50, 86, 98, 109, 129 “Hey - Hey - Hey - Hey” (see also “Kansas City”), 51, 70, 96, 121, 138, 160, 252, 267, 268, 269, 300, 395n20 “Hey Jude,” 34, 51, 81, 164, 207, 284, 340, 341, 342 Hey Jude, 340 “Hey Let’s Twist,” 115 “Hi Heel Sneakers,” 378n25 “High Class Baby,” 38

439

440

Index “High School Confidential,” 89 Highway 61 Revisited, 277 “Hippy Hippy Shake,” 39, 70, 74, 92, 114, 116, 127, 129, 140, 146, 160, 169, 274 “(Marie’s the Name) His Latest Flame,” 64, 101, 137, 379n36 “Hit the Road Jack,” 101, 112, 119 “Hitch Hike,” 397n39 Hodgson, Charlie, 374n70 Hoffmann, Dezo, 388n197 “Hold Me Tight,” 48, 69, 101, 120, 124, 128, 142, 146, 174, 182, 184 – 85, 186 – 87, 188, 190, 192, 195, 209, 325, 391n235 Holländer, Friedrich, 138 Holland, Brian, 275 Holland, Eddie, 275 Holland / Sweeden [sic] Super Live . . . I, 238 Hollies, 82, 168, 274, 278, 334, 410n127 Holloway, Brenda, 306 “Holly, Buddy” [Charles Hardin] (see also the Crickets), 22, 26, 29, 31, 33, 37, 38, 40, 42, 46, 47, 51– 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 63, 65 – 66, 71, 72, 73, 76, 82, 85, 91, 107, 108, 120, 122, 131, 133, 165, 169, 173, 189, 254, 267, 268, 271, 272, 289, 369n19, 372n30, 375n85, 376n107, 385n139 Hollywood Bowl Complete, 251 “Home,” 86 “Honey Don’t,” 47, 55, 68, 109, 115, 161, 188, 208, 252, 253, 267, 268, 269, 346, 392n242, 400n91, 402n122 “Honey Hush,” 90, 91 “Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance,” 288 “Honey Pie,” 233, 360, 368n7 Honeycombs, 275, 278 “The Honeymoon Song (Bound by Love),” 53, 69, 90, 114, 120, 160, 164, 189, 388n198 “Hong Kong Blues,” 36, 105 “Honky Tonk Blues,” 86 “Hot as Sun,” 25, 27, 29, 208, 372n36, 375n93 Houghton, Len, 36 “Hound Dog,” 21, 87, 146 “House of the Rising Sun,” 275, 276 “A House with Love in It,” 87 “How about That,” 38 “How Do You Do It?,” 68, 125 – 26, 127, 131, 167, 180, 201, 381nn89, 94, 386n168 “How High the Moon,” 86, 369n20 “(Baby) Hully Gully,” 47, 90, 92, 284 Hutchinson, Johnny (see also the Big Three; Cass & the Cassanovas), 23, 119, 167 “I Am a Rock,” 396n27 “I Am the Walrus,” 76, 200, 208, 284, 345, 354, 358 “I Call Your Name,” 25, 27, 50, 55, 63, 133, 168, 169, 179, 216, 234 – 35, 240, 268, 270, 271, 360, 372– 73n44, 395n20, 399n81, 400n82 “I Can’t Explain,” 215, 288 “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” 309 “I Don’t Care If the Sun Don’t Shine,” 47, 86 “I Don’t Know,” 26, 42, 43

“I Don’t Want to See You Again,” 219, 396n28 “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party,” 132, 179, 196, 208, 251, 252, 258 – 60, 269, 271, 272, 287, 398n61 “I Fancy Me Chances,” 25, 27, 28 – 29, 55 “I Feel Fine,” 48, 146, 161, 196, 207, 213, 236, 252, 253, 259, 265 – 66, 269, 270, 272, 296, 305, 306, 335, 342, 388n194, 401n111, 404n152 “I Feel So Bad,” 97 “I Forgot to Remember to Forget,” 50, 70, 86, 116, 160, 217, 399n80 “I Get Around,” 276 “I Got a Woman,” 49, 65, 68, 71– 72, 86, 160, 189, 209, 210, 376n104, 404n153 “I Got Rhythm,” 50 “I Got Stung,” 89 “I Got to Find My Baby,” 55, 68, 90, 104, 116, 160 “I Had a Hard Day Last Night,” 400n82 “I Just Don’t Understand,” 68, 72– 73, 98, 101, 134 – 35, 160, 224, 411n157 “I Knew Right Away,” 401n104 “I Know,” 96, 378n25 “I Like It,” 381n92 “I Lost My Little Girl,” 25, 27, 31– 32, 55, 371n25 “I Me Mine,” 341, 375n81 “I Need You,” 208, 280, 282– 83, 284 – 85, 305, 318 –19, 330, 352, 360 “I Need Your Love Tonight,” 47, 89 “I Put a Spell on You,” 326 – 27 “I Really Love You,” 101, 105, 151, 385n136 “I Remember,” 90 “I Remember You,” 51, 69, 70, 76, 116, 138, 150, 203, 386n168 “I Sat Belonely,” 218 “I Saw Her Standing There,” 25, 26, 32, 48, 51, 53, 63, 69, 84, 94, 97, 110, 124, 125, 129 – 30, 131, 133, 136, 138, 140, 142, 143, 145 – 50, 154, 158, 160, 161, 163, 164, 176, 178, 183, 187, 192, 195, 206, 207, 215, 250, 272, 317, 342, 365, 372n41, 376n96, 384nn126, 127, 131, 133, 385n152, 387n182, 389n209 “I Shall Be Released,” 255 “I Should Have Known Better,” 49, 110, 132, 133, 165, 176 – 77, 179, 202, 208, 216, 226 – 29, 230, 235, 238, 239, 248, 259, 270, 271 “I Threw It All Away,” 255 “I Understand,” 274 “I Wanna Be Your Man,” 53, 54, 110, 136, 160, 168, 183, 184 – 85, 188, 193, 195, 196, 209, 215, 240, 272, 305, 306, 353, 391n239, 394n2 “I Want a Guy,” 145 “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (see also “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand”), 51, 61, 64, 82, 84, 103, 104, 125, 162, 164, 165, 176, 177, 178, 180, 181, 183, 185, 189, 192, 197– 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 212–13, 215, 216, 218, 221, 246, 250, 270, 286, 342, 359, 387n171, 388n193, 389nn204, 206, 390n224, 393nn6, 8, 394nn18, 20, 409n115 “I Want to Tell You,” 331 “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” 172 “I Was Made to Love Her,” 128 “I Will,” 63, 221, 285, 360

Index “I Wish It Would Rain,” 402n128 “I Wonder If I Care as Much,” 47, 53, 76, 87, 379n36 “I’d Have You Anytime,” 255 “I’ll Always Be in Love with You,” 44, 54, 63, 68, 72, 90, 371n26 “I’ll Be Back,” 54, 63, 112, 192, 196, 208, 238 – 46, 247, 248, 267, 271, 358, 401nn96, 98, 102, 403n140 “I’ll Be Doggone,” 316 “I’ll Be Leaving,” 26, 43 “I’ll Be on My Way,” 52, 55, 68, 101, 135, 160, 167, 169 – 70, 387n182 “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise,” 104 “I’ll Cry Instead,” 207, 223, 238, 239, 241– 42, 246, 248, 254, 271, 272, 286, 365, 396n27, 402n123, 406n36 “I’ll Follow the Sun,” 25, 27, 29, 33 – 35, 42– 43, 49, 55, 69, 85, 106, 164, 169, 208, 252, 267, 268 – 69, 271, 282, 320, 325, 359, 372n44, 404n156 “I’ll Get You,” 49, 64, 84, 110, 116, 120, 123, 135, 164, 174, 178, 180, 181, 201, 208, 214, 220, 271, 291, 359, 360, 389nn204, 219 “I’ll Give You a Ring,” 128 “I’ll Keep You Satisfied,” 112, 168, 169, 170 – 71 “I’ll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin’),” 47, 86, 97, 386n168 “I’m a Boy,” 275 “I’m a Hog for You,” 89 “I’m a Loser,” 160, 176, 208, 250, 252, 254 – 57, 258, 269, 271, 272, 288, 303, 305, 306, 342, 346, 360, 402nn124, 128 “I’m Down,” 49, 51, 73, 210, 281, 296, 299 – 300, 301, 305, 306, 335, 393n1, 407n60, 408n94 “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday,” 90 “I’m Gonna Love You Too,” 87, 133 “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You),” 49, 50, 63, 69, 86, 110, 120, 121, 134, 138, 160, 376n95 “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You,” 208, 216, 233 – 34, 239, 248, 271, 359, 360 “I’m Henry VIII, I Am,” 92, 376n97 “I’m Hurtin’,” 382n108 “I’m in Love,” 25, 27, 51, 52, 68, 110, 136, 164, 167, 168, 169 – 73, 178, 179, 193, 265, 371n19, 372n32, 387n180, 388n195, 404n149 “I’m in Love Again,” 36, 87, 110 “I’m Into Something Good,” 274 “I’m Looking through You,” 133, 209, 308, 317, 323 – 26, 327– 29, 336 “I’m Only Sleeping,” 76, 209, 359, 360, 408n101 “I’m So Tired,” 360, 361 “I’m Talking about You,” 53, 57, 68, 74, 115, 138, 140, 145 – 46, 379n50, 386n155 “I’m Telling You Now,” 274 “I’m the Greatest,” 304 “I’ve Been Thinking That You Love Me,” 25, 27 “I’ve Got a Feeling,” 32, 76 “I’ve Just Fallen for Someone,” 25, 28, 371n20 “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” 34, 208, 296, 299, 303, 305, 337, 346, 403n137

Ian [Edwards] & the Zodiacs, 39 “If I Fell,” 49, 51, 68, 151, 170, 177, 193, 196, 208, 216, 229 – 33, 234, 237, 238, 239, 243, 247, 248, 250, 270, 271, 286, 292, 320, 335, 342, 358, 390n225, 395n20, 396n35, 398nn65, 66, 399n67 “If I Needed Someone,” 146, 209, 308, 309, 313, 318 –19, 321, 330, 335, 336, 358, 410n124 “If I Were Not Upon the Stage,” 368n7 “If Not for You,” 255 “If Tomorrow Ever Comes,” 25, 27, 29 – 30, 55 “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody,” 92, 115, 116, 122, 129 “If You’ve Got Trouble,” 280, 289 – 90, 304, 313, 320 Ifield, Frank, 106, 384n120 “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai,” 225 – 26 “Imagine,” 389 – 90n220, 398n66 Imagine, 53 In Atlanta Whiskey Flats, 251 In His Own Write, 15, 213, 218, 235, 254, 255, 319, 396n26 “In My Life,” 76, 176, 179, 200, 209, 255, 271, 308, 309, 313, 319 – 21, 336, 337, 340, 342, 354 “In Spite of All the Danger,” 20, 25, 26 – 27, 37, 55, 65, 371n23 “Incense and Peppermints,” 379n33 Ink Spots, 59, 95 “The Inner Light,” 209, 341 “Instant Karma (We All Shine On),” 207, 381n78, 392n255 Introducing the Beatles, 214, 394n255 Introspective, 107, 140 Isley Brothers, 39, 53, 161, 385n148 “Isn’t It a Pity,” 105 “It Ain’t Me Babe,” 404n5 “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” 39 “It Won’t Be Long,” 49, 50, 53, 68, 105, 106, 120, 133, 173, 176, 184 – 85, 188 – 89, 192, 195, 196, 202, 204, 209, 235, 243, 266, 271, 360, 379n36, 390n225, 399nn67, 74, 401n100 “It’ll Be Me,” 88, 137, 146 It’s a Beautiful Day, 236 “It’s a Long, Long Way to Tipperary,” 48 “It’s for You,” 168, 221, 248 – 50, 254, 271, 295 “It’s My Life,” 215 It’s Not Too Bad, 319 “It’s Now or Never,” 90, 205, 380n52 “It’s Only Love,” 34, 49, 209, 296, 299, 303 – 04, 305, 310, 346 “It’s So Easy,” 37, 89, 373n55 “It’s the Same Old Song” (The Beatles’ Third Christmas Record), 407n62 It’s Trad, Dad, 217 Ivy League, 277 Jackson, Jack, 22 Jackson, Michael, 367n2 Jackson, Tony (see also the Searchers), 350 Jagger, Mick (see also the Rolling Stones), 274, 302, 408n74

441

442

Index “Jailhouse Rock,” 21, 22, 55, 88, 135 “Jambalaya (On the Bayou),” 39, 49, 96, 373n62, 378n25 Jamerson, James, 309, 332, 408n95 James, Carroll, 206 James, Dick, 126, 153, 159, 193, 261 James, Ian, 22 James & the Shondells, Tommy, 277, 375n91 Jay & the Jaywalkers, Peter, 392n260 “Jealous Guy,” 223, 408n101 Jeanie & the Big Guys, 388n195 “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,” 91 Jefferson Airplane, 236, 277 “Jenny, Jenny,” 47, 87 Jets (see also Sheridan, Tony), 91 Jim Mac Jazz Band (see also McCartney, James), 12 “Jingle Bells.” See Another Beatles Christmas Record Joachim, Joseph, 343 Jodimars, 391n238 Joel, Billy, 411n163 “John Henry,” 21, 22, 80 John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band, 16, 254 – 55, 264 John Lennon’s Original Quarry Men Get Back, 370n7 Johnny & the Hurricanes, 374n76 Johnny & the Moondogs (see also the Quarry Men), 20, 37, 46 Johnny & the Rainbows (see also the Quarry Men), 46 “Johnny B. Goode,” 22, 58, 69, 88, 160, 370n10, 394n2 Johns, Glyn, 28, 372n34 Johnston, Bruce (see also the Beach Boys), 276 Jolly What! The Beatles & Frank Ifield on Stage, 214 Jones, Brian (see also the Rolling Stones), 392n260, 411n157 Jones, Davy, 82 Jones Brass Ensemble, the Philip, 301 Jones, Tom, 278, 292 Jordanaires, 71, 78, 95 Joyce, James (see also Finnegans Wake), 218 “Julia,” 360 “Junk,” 272 “Just a Rumour,” 160 “Just Because” (Bob Shelton - Joe Shelton - S. Robin; recorded by Elvis Presley), 53, 86, 135, 374n77, 376n97 “Just Fun,” 25, 27– 28, 55, 372n31 “Just Like Me,” 287 Justis, Bill, 36 Kaempfert, Bert, 93, 95, 114 “Kansas City,” 51, 70, 96, 104, 110, 121, 138, 150, 160, 165, 208, 214, 252, 267, 268, 269, 378n28, 381n78, 395n20, 401n107 von Karajan, Herbert, 122 Kay, Connie, 363 Keating, Johnny, 405n33 “Keep Looking That Way,” 25, 26, 371n25 “Keep on Running,” 275 “Keep Your Hands off My Baby,” 68, 140, 141, 142, 146, 160

Kelly, Brian, 91 Kern, Jerome, 55 Kestrels, 141, 216, 384n123, 387n182 Kidd & the Pirates, Johnny, 84, 98, 116 King, B. B., 282 King, Ben E., 56, 128 King, Carole, 73, 111, 141, 384n121 King Crimson, 236 Kinks (see also Davies, Dave; Davies, Ray; Quaife, Pete), 275, 277, 278, 282, 286, 351, 373n55 Kirchherr, Astrid, 374n70, 377n10 Kitt, Eartha, 369n19, 400n82 Klein, Alan, 134 Klimecky, Chris, 403n145 The Knack—And How to Get It, 296 Knox, Buddy, 141, 369n19 “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand,” 203, 213, 262, 393n4 “Kon Tiki,” 38 Koobas, 335 Kooper, Al, 354 Korsyn, Kevin, 389n218 Koschmider, Bruno, 82, 91, 94 Kramer [William Howard Ashton] & the Dakotas (see also Maxwell, Mike), Billy J., 52, 159, 166 – 68, 169, 170 – 73, 220 – 21, 234, 235, 274, 279, 346, 372– 73n44, 387nn182, 183, 388nn190, 194, 195 Krupa, Gene, 363 “Lady Madonna,” 49, 207, 324, 341, 361, 399n73 Laine, Denny (see also the Moody Blues), 215, 275 Langham, Richard, 125, 150 “The Last Time,” 274 “Last Train to Clarksville,” 312 “Last Train to San Fernando,” 22 Latin ala Lee, 107 Lavern, Roger (see also the Tornados), 355 “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” 47, 49, 88 “Lazy River,” 34, 87 Leach, Sam, 91, 92, 93, 102, 378n21 Leander, Mike, 302, 408n74 Lease, Russ, 388n197 “Leave My Kitten Alone,” 96, 250, 257, 267, 401n111 Led Zeppelin (see also Page, Jimmy), 307, 354, 409n119 Ledbetter, Huddie (“Leadbelly”), 20, 216, 240, 255, 370n14, 371n23 Lee, Brenda, 141 Lee, Peggy, 15, 40, 47, 91, 107, 128, 141, 182, 395n5 Left Banke, 302 “Lend Me Your Comb,” 50, 53, 54, 69, 76 – 77, 88, 120, 129, 134, 140, 376n112 Lennon, Alfred (“Alf,” “Freddie”), 13 –14, 369nn12, 15 Lennon [Twist], Cynthia Powell, 35, 121, 151, 307 Lennon, Jack, 14 Lennon, Julia Stanley, 13 –14, 20, 21– 22, 24, 37, 131, 151, 368 – 69n12, 370n5, 373n54 Lennon, Julian, 369n4, 390n225

Index Lennon, Pauline Jones, 368n12 Lennon, Sydney, 369n12 Lerner, Sammy, 138 Lester, Richard, 217, 235, 296, 335, 396n21, 405n9 “Let It Be,” 207 Let It Be (LP), 79, 311, 340, 341 Let It Be (film), 27, 29, 78, 80 “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear,” 21, 88, 175, 374 – 75n79 “Let’s Stomp,” 141, 378n25 Levis, Carroll, 37, 373n55 Lewis & the Playboys, Gary, 278 Lewis, Jerry Lee, 37, 40, 73, 76, 91, 93, 97, 135, 137, 142, 173, 287, 300, 376n108, 402n128 Lewis, Rudy, 141 Lewisohn, Mark, 27, 182 Lieber, Jerry, 59, 65, 74 Das Lied von der Erde, 392n255 “Like a Rolling Stone,” 277, 402n128 “Like Dreamers Do,” 25, 26, 52, 53, 55, 69, 72, 84, 85, 94 – 95, 103 – 04, 114, 150, 221, 379n46, 386n168 Lincoln, A. B., 125 Lindsay-Hogg, Michael, 253 Little Anthony [Gourdine] and the Imperials, 128 “Little Child,” 51, 53, 98, 116, 120, 133, 146, 184 – 85, 187, 188, 195, 196, 209, 391n232 Little Eva [Boyd], 141, 146, 163 “The Little Girl I Once Knew,” 276 “Little Queenie,” 47, 55, 69, 74, 76, 89, 105, 109, 120, 140, 145, 150 “A Little Rhyme,” 160 “Little” Richard [Penniman], 19, 22, 24, 40, 47, 51, 66, 71, 73, 74 – 75, 85, 91, 94, 101, 128, 129, 147, 234, 266, 267, 272, 274, 300, 378n23 “The Little White Cloud That Cried,” 16 “Little White Lies,” 370n5 Live at the BBC, 160 – 61, 169, 217, 340 Live! At the Hollywood Bowl, 340 Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962, 66, 138, 140 Live From the Sam Houston Colosseum, 306 Live in Italy, 305 Live in Melbourne 1964 and Paris 1965, 239, 305 Live, Live, Live, 305 Liverpool May 1960: John Paul George and Stu, 29, 42, 63 Livesey, Rob, 377n4 “Livin’ Lovin’ Wreck,” 96, 135 Livingston, Alan, 206 “The Loco-Motion,” 116, 141, 146, 163, 379n36 London, Julie, 369n19 “Lonely Room,” 330 “Lonesome Tears in My Eyes,” 68, 73, 96, 99, 110, 120, 160, 164, 189, 376n107 “Lonesome Town,” 89 “The Long and Winding Road,” 207 “Long Black Train.” See “Mystery Train” “Long Tall Sally,” 22, 40, 47, 51, 70, 74, 86, 92, 104, 110, 138, 150, 156, 160, 165, 183, 196,

209, 215, 216, 234, 240, 250, 253, 296, 300, 305, 306, 332, 378n25, 385n153 Long Tall Sally (EP), 213, 238, 239, 267 “Look at Me,” 392n255 “Looking Glass,” 25, 26, 27, 29, 371n25 Lordan, Jeremiah, 99 “Lost John,” 370n7 “Lotta Lovin’,” 47, 88 “Love,” 262 “Love Is a Swingin’ Thing,” 115, 141, 287 “Love Is Strange,” 87, 122 “Love, Love, Love,” 97, 284 “Love Me Do” (see also “P.S. Love Me Do”), 25, 26, 28, 32, 49, 56, 58, 64, 69, 76 – 78, 83, 110, 115, 116, 117, 120, 123, 125, 126 – 27, 128 – 29, 135, 140, 142, 143, 145, 158, 159, 161, 192, 205, 207, 214, 216, 262, 272, 371n22, 372n43, 380n65, 381n91, 382n101, 383n110, 385n152, 386n162, 390n225 “Love Me Tender,” 54, 63, 87, 92, 93, 376n97 “Love of My Life,” 53, 89, 106, 163, 379n36 “Love of the Loved,” 25, 26, 51, 59, 69, 101, 103, 105 – 07, 114, 168, 169, 291– 92, 371n28 Love Songs, 314, 340, 404n156 “Love These Goon Shows!,” 160 “The Lovely Linda,” 208 “Lovely Rita,” 209, 260, 287, 303 Lovin’ Spoonful, 53, 277, 278 Loving, Gene, 206 “Loving You,” 88 Loving You, 370n14 Lowe, John “Duff ” (see also the Quarry Men), 23, 26, 37, 371n23 Lubman, Andrew, 409n115 “Lucille,” 47, 63, 70, 73, 74 – 75, 87, 91, 98, 101, 146, 160, 376nn107, 109 “The Luck of the Irish,” 255 “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” 76, 156, 209, 248, 320, 358 Lumpy Gravy, 379n33 Lynch, Kenny, 141, 153, 161, 168, 385n141, 386n160, 387n182 Lynn, Vera, 141 “Mack the Knife,” 375n91 “Maggie May,” 22, 24, 28, 304 Magical Mystery Tour (EP and CD), 311, 340, 341, 345 “Magical Mystery Tour” (TV film), 341 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 406n47 Mahler, Gustav, 392n255 “Mailman Blues,” 86, 110 “Mailman Bring Me No More Blues,” 96 “Main Title Theme (Man with the Golden Arm),” 116 “Mama Said,” 115, 141, 375n87, 379n36, 386n168, 392n255 Mamas and the Papas, 277, 278 Mancini, Henry, 335 Manfred Mann, 275, 278, 354, 355 Mann, William, 192, 204, 393n8 “Maria,” 292

443

444

Index Marini, Marino, 388n198 Marionettes, 335 Marsden, Beryl, 335 Marsden, Gerry (see also Gerry & the Pacemakers), 39, 82, 215, 346, 373n62, 375n89, 378n27, 381n92, 390n225 Marshall, Paul, 383 – 84n120 Marshall, Wolf, 240 – 41 Martha & the Vandellas, 279, 397n39, 406n38 “Martha My Dear,” 361 Martin, Dean, 28, 279 Martin, George, 34 – 35, 52, 83, 116 –18, 123 – 26, 129, 131, 135, 136, 142, 150, 151, 153, 156, 158, 160, 161– 62, 167, 168, 169, 175, 182, 184, 187– 88, 191, 194, 197, 205, 213, 218, 222, 233, 234, 236, 240, 246, 248, 251, 256, 260, 261– 62, 268, 270, 274, 281, 287, 289 – 90, 292, 297, 299, 300, 301, 304, 308, 312, 316, 320, 322, 327, 329, 330, 331– 32, 339, 353, 364, 371n20, 377n115, 380nn65, 66, 381nn83, 89, 92, 382n108, 383n117, 384nn125, 126, 385n138, 387n183, 391nn230, 232, 392n253, 400n90, 405nn29, 33, 407n51, 409n118, 410n134, 411n158 Marvelettes, 52, 145, 275 Marvin, Hank (see also the Shadows), 38 – 39, 98 Masked Melody Makers (see also McCartney, James), 12 “Masters of War,” 255, 401n103 “Match Box Blues,” 240 “Matchbox,” 44, 63, 69, 84 – 85, 87, 91, 92, 99, 109, 110, 116, 140, 160, 207, 238, 239, 240, 265, 266, 395n16, 400n91 Maxwell, Mike (see also Kramer & the Dakotas, Billy J.), 388n190 “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” 49, 153, 219, 324, 340, 368n7 Mayall, John, 150, 282, 316 “Maybe Baby,” 49, 53, 55, 88, 375n85, 379n36 “Maybe I’m Amazed,” 208 “Maybelline,” 53, 63, 76, 79, 80, 86 McCarthy, Len, 311 McCartney, 27, 375n93 McCartney, Gin, 34, 150, 299 McCartney, James (see also the Jim Mac Jazz Band; the Masked Melody Makers), 11–14, 22, 24, 35, 48, 103 – 04, 321, 368nn4, 6, 7, 410n135 McCartney, Linda Eastman See, 369n20 McCartney, Mary Mohin, 11–12, 31 McCartney, Michael (see also the Scaffold), 11, 22, 31, 42, 43, 48, 169, 368n2, 370n12, 382n107 McClinton, Delbert, 116 McCoys, 279 McDevitt, Chas, 21 McGear, Mike. See McCartney, Michael McGuinn, [Roger] Jim (see also the Byrds), 215, 277, 307– 08, 318, 395n13 McGuire, Barry, 407n62 McNally, John (see also the Searchers), 349 “Mean Mr Mustard,” 340, 360 “Mean Woman Blues,” 47, 88 “Medley, Phil” (Berns, Bert), 158

Meehan, Tony (see also the Shadows), 38 – 39, 141, 194 Meet the Beatles, 212, 214, 340, 389n204 Melbourne / Vancouver Super Live #4, 251 Mellers, Wilfrid, 55 – 56, 58, 237– 38, 262, 302, 329, 332, 385n143 “Mellow Yellow,” 275 “Memphis,” 53, 68, 80, 90, 92, 103, 107, 109, 114, 116, 120, 160, 379n50 Menlove Avenue, 14 The Mersey Sound, 182, 390n225 Merseybeats, 274 “Michelle,” 32, 35, 51, 99 –100, 173, 208, 229, 274, 308, 309, 312, 320, 324 – 29, 331, 332, 336, 342, 346, 360, 388n196, 390n225, 411n149 Mickey [Baker] and Sylvia [Vanderpool], 122 “Midnight,” 176, 394n14 “Midnight Shift,” 87, 91, 189 “Midnight Special,” 49, 64, 130, 370n14 A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 217 “Mighty Man,” 96 Milander, Colin (see also Sheridan, Tony), 378n21 “Milkcow Blues,” 86 Miller, Glenn, 175 Miller, Roger, 279 Mimi, Aunt. See Smith, Mary “Minstrel’s Song,” 403n144 Miracles (see also Robinson, [William] Smokey), 128, 275, 319 “Misery,” 51, 64, 68, 72, 120, 123, 124, 135, 142, 143, 152– 53, 158, 161, 167, 169, 187, 196, 214, 246, 354, 379n36, 384nn125, 126, 127, 385nn139, 143, 152, 387n182 “Miss Ann,” 56, 74, 88, 110 Mister-Twist (French EP), 100 Mitchell, Guy, 91 Mods and Rockers, 182 Mojos, 274 “Momma, You’re Just on My Mind,” 255 “Monday, Monday,” 277 “Money (That’s What I Want),” 68, 74 – 75, 78, 90, 92, 103, 114, 140, 183, 184 – 86, 187, 194, 195, 196, 209, 236, 316, 391n232 Monkees, 312 “Monkey in Your Soul,” 267 Monro, Matt, 118, 302 Monroe, Vaughn, 16 Monteverdi, Claudio, 367n3 Montez, Chris, 159, 385n152 Montgomery, Wes, 135 Monty Python’s Flying Circus, 217 Moody Blues (see also Laine, Denny), 82, 215, 275, 279, 335, 389n211, 403n144 “Moonglow,” 48, 92, 375n81 “Moonlight Bay,” 221 Moore, Allan, 410n121 Moore, Scotty, 17, 97, 109, 135, 154, 173, 189, 312 Moore, Tommy, 20, 23, 46, 47 “Moovin’ and Groovin’,” 42, 44, 88, 374n73 “More Than I Can Say,” 96, 378n25 Mortimer, Al, 73

Index Mothers of Invention (see also Zappa, Frank), 236, 277 Moulding, Colin (see also XTC), 392n260 “Move It,” 38, 39, 42, 51, 90 “Movie Magg,” 86, 98, 109, 400n91 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 343 “Mr. Moonlight,” 68, 115, 138, 151, 210, 250, 252, 257– 58, 269, 401n111 “Mr. Tambourine Man,” 277 “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” 274 “Mull of Kintyre,” 389n202 Murray, Mitch, 125, 167, 381nn92, 94 Murray, Rod, 41, 369n18 The Music Man, 15, 107 “A Must to Avoid,” 398n55 “Mustang Sally,” 309 “My Back Pages,” 406n50 My Bonnie (W. German LP), 100 “My Bonnie (Lies Over the Ocean)” [“Mein Herz ist bei dir nur”], 78, 83, 84, 95, 96, 97, 100, 102, 151, 205, 207, 214, 378nn29, 30 “My Girl,” 309, 316 “My Sweet Lord,” 105, 312 “Mystery Train,” 49, 55, 64, 86, 372n32 Nelson, Rick, 40, 47, 173, 389n213 Nerk Twins, 20, 46, 102 “New Orleans,” 96 Newby, Chas (see also the Blackjacks), 23, 91, 93 Nicol, Jimmy, 238, 400n89 “The Night Before,” 208, 267, 280, 286 – 87, 305, 358, 361 1967–1970, 340 1962–1966, 198, 322, 340, 341 “19th Nervous Breakdown,” 274 “99 Won’t Do,” 309 “96 Tears,” 277 “No Flies on Frank,” 218 “No Other Baby,” 370n7 “No Reply,” 49, 133, 177, 208, 221, 223, 248, 251, 261– 64, 269, 271, 360, 364, 403n138 “Nobody But You,” 116 “Nobody I Know,” 25, 27, 219 – 20, 247, 371n19, 372n32, 396n28 “Nobody’s Child,” 49, 84, 95, 96, 97, 100, 214 “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),” 49, 209, 308, 313 –14, 315, 336, 346, 358, 409n108 “Not a Second Time,” 33, 49, 68, 72, 123, 184 – 85, 187, 191– 93, 195, 196, 201, 209, 285, 379n36, 391n232, 392nn254, 255, 261, 393n8, 394n18 Not a Second Time, 255 “Not Fade Away,” 375n85 “Nothin’ Shakin’ (But the Leaves on the Trees),” 50, 58, 70, 89, 101, 140, 160 “Nowhere Man,” 207, 260, 277, 308, 309, 313, 322– 23, 324, 329, 333, 335, 336, 340, 342, 345, 359, 406n43 Nowhere Man (EP), 336 “Nowhere to Run,” 406n38 Nunn, Bobby (see also the Coasters), 75, 111 Nurmesjärvi, Terhi, 132, 197

O’Donnell, Shaugn, 410n121 O’Grady, Terence, 188, 309, 397n36 O’Hara, Brian (see also the Fourmost), 167 O’Shea, Tessie, 14 Oakman, Peter (see also Brown & His Bruvvers, Joe), 349 “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” 81, 236 “Octopus’s Garden,” 185 – 86 “Oh, Can You Wash Your Father’s Shirt.” See Another Beatles Christmas Record “Oh! Darling,” 164, 360 “Oh, Pretty Woman,” 306, 316 “Old Brown Shoe,” 341 “Old Fashioned Millionaire,” 369n19 Olympics, 47 “On Broadway,” 236 1, 198, 340 “The One after 909,” 25, 27, 28 – 29, 34, 43, 47, 53, 78 – 80, 85, 110, 120, 124, 129 – 30, 137, 146, 147, 161, 164, 170, 176, 208, 371n26, 377n116, 386n156 “One and One Is Two,” 167, 168, 220 – 21 “One Track Mind,” 101 “One Way Out,” 403n148 “Only a Northern Song,” 104, 360 “Only a Pawn in Their Game,” 255 “Only the Good Die Young,” 411n163 “Only the Lonely,” 382n108 Ono, Yoko, 14, 16 “Oo You,” 209 “Ooh! My Arms,” 161 “Ooh! My Soul,” 70, 72, 74, 89, 110, 114, 150, 160 “Ooh, Ooh, Ooh,” 378n25 “Open Up Your Lovin’ Arms,” 113, 116, 117, 375n87, 386n168 Orbison, Roy, 84, 114, 131, 159, 167, 189, 229, 271, 278, 306, 316, 369n19, 382n108 Ould, Alan, 382n101, 390n221 Out of Our Heads, 408n74 “Out of Time,” 274 “Over the Rainbow,” 90, 101, 390n225 Overlanders, 274 Owen, Alan, 217, 396n22 Owens, Buck, 81, 119, 304, 408n83 “Oxford Town,” 255, 321 “P.S. I Love You” (see also “P.S. Love Me Do”), 25, 26, 38, 69, 83, 116, 117, 123, 126, 127– 28, 129, 158, 165, 169, 174, 187, 207, 214, 271, 360, 361, 380n63, 381n91, 382nn99, 100, 101 “P.S. Love Me Do,” 382n101 Paar, Jack, 212 Page, Jimmy (see also Led Zeppelin), 411n157 I Pagliacci, 257 Paintings, 16 “Paperback Writer,” 146, 207, 210, 264, 265, 289, 341 Paramor, Norrie, 152 Paramounts, 335 Parkening, Christopher, 350 Parker, Bobby, 265 – 66, 316 Parnes, Larry, 46 – 47

445

446

Index “Party,” 88 Past Masters, 64, 198, 340, 341, 382n101, 404n152, 405n23 Paul, Les, 16, 26, 40, 44, 369n20 Paul McCartney, Composer / Artist, 16 Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio, 368n7 “Peaches and Cream,” 90 “Peanut Butter,” 167 Pearl Jam, 82 Pedersen, Ingrid, 369n12 “Peggy Sue,” 22, 24, 53, 73, 88, 105, 120, 370n10, 375n85, 392n242 “Peggy Sue Got Married,” 372n30, 375n85 Pender, Mike (see also the Searchers), 253 “Penny Lane,” 49, 207, 286, 319, 320, 324, 340, 341, 358, 360, 405n20 “Peppermint Twist,” 115 Perkins, Carl, 16, 22, 28, 36, 40, 44, 49, 52, 53, 54, 56, 63, 71, 76 – 78, 80, 85, 91, 98, 107, 109, 128, 134, 150, 173, 189, 190, 193, 240, 254, 256, 266, 267, 271, 272, 287, 400n91, 407n62 Perkins, Jay, 71, 76 – 78 Perkins, Luther, 173 Perlman, Itzhak, 367n3 Person, Johnny, 401n104 Pet Sounds, 276, 411n149 Peter & Gordon (see also Asher, Peter; Waller, Gordon), 218 – 20, 221, 275, 277, 278, 336, 396n27 Peterson, Oscar, 316 Petty, Norman, 66 Philips, Sam, 275 Phillips, Percy, 26 “Pick a Bale of Cotton,” 371n23 Pickett, Wilson, 223, 275, 309, 397n39, 401n101 “A Picture of You,” 50, 70, 116, 117, 386n155 “Piggies,” 284 Pinkard, Maceo, 99 “Pinwheel Twist,” 25, 26, 85, 371n27, 377n3 Pitney, Gene, 279, 292 Plastic Ono Band, 16, 207, 264 Platters, 388n193, 402n128 “Please,” 131 “Please Go Home,” 405n14 “Please Mr. Postman,” 52, 56, 65, 68, 101, 114, 116, 120, 141, 184 – 86, 195, 196, 208, 261, 297, 375n87, 390nn222, 225, 391n231 “Please Please Me,” 25, 26, 38, 54, 65, 69, 76, 80, 83, 116, 121, 123, 124, 126, 131– 36, 137, 140 – 41, 142, 143, 151, 155, 158, 159, 161, 162, 164, 165, 166, 169, 173, 177, 183, 188, 200, 201, 202, 205, 207, 214, 215, 216, 218, 220, 260, 287, 290, 292, 297, 342, 358, 360, 382nn95, 108, 383nn112, 116, 385nn139, 152, 153, 387n174, 398n52, 399n74 Please Please Me, 83, 123, 142– 59, 169, 186, 195, 212, 311, 340, 354, 381n91, 384n126, 385n150, 387n182, 390n224 “Poison Ivy,” 236 Pollack, Alan, 127, 165, 178, 256, 258, 283, 286, 287, 299, 326, 397n46, 398nn56, 60, 399nn74, 81, 400n86, 402n123, 403n143, 407n53

“Polythene Pam,” 361 Pomus, Doc, 59 Poole & the Tremeloes, Brian, 82, 275, 279 “Poor Little Fool,” 47, 89 Porter, Cole, 55, 56 Poulenc, Francis, 367n3 Power, Duffy, 387n182 Presley, Elvis, 17, 19, 21, 22, 26, 28, 36, 40, 44, 47, 52, 53, 56, 59, 63, 71, 72, 76, 78, 80, 81, 85, 94, 95, 97, 109, 128, 135, 137, 175, 186, 205, 229, 242, 273, 274, 278, 307, 312, 316, 370n14, 374n77, 374 – 75nn79, 91, 376nn97, 103, 380n52, 389n209, 408n88 Preston, Billy, 380n58 “Pretty Flamingo,” 275 Price, Alan (see also the Animals), 355, 409n119 Price, Charles Gower, 78, 182, 385n144 “Pride and Joy,” 396n35, 397n39 Proby, P. J., 279, 292 “Puff,” 141 Purdie, Bernard, 394n3 “Put It There,” 368n7 “Putting On the Style,” 20, 22, 24, 49, 69, 86, 370 – 71nn5, 15 Quaife, Pete (see also the Kinks), 351 Quarry Men (see also the Beatals; Davis, Rod; Garry, Len; Griffiths, Eric; Hanton, Colin; Lowe, John “Duff ”; the Moondogs; the Nerk Twins; Shotton, Pete; the Silver Beatles; the Silver Beats; the Silver Beetles; Smith, Bill; Vaughan, Ivan; Whalley, Ivan), 11, 16 –17, 19 – 24, 26, 35 – 37, 39, 40 – 46, 52, 57, 58, 63, 64, 76, 78, 80, 110, 216, 254, 269, 310, 329, 368n6, 369n19, 370nn5, 7, 14, 15, 372n32, 374nn65, 70 Quarry Men and Beatles, Puttin’ on the Style, 138, 140 Quarrymen Rehearse with Stu Sutcliff [sic], 42 “Quarter to Three,” 97, 375n87 ? & the Mysterians, 277 Quickly, Tommy, 167, 168, 169, 248, 251, 261, 403n139 “Railroad Bill,” 22, 24, 87 “Rain,” 121, 208, 284, 289, 341 “Raining in My Heart,” 53, 89, 131, 385n139 Ram, 24 Ramírez III, José, 350 “Ramona,” 24, 86 “Ramrod,” 44, 48, 89 Rareties [sic], 116 Rarities, 340 “Raunchy,” 36 – 37, 88, 122, 373n52 “Rave On,” 373n55, 375n85 Ravel, Maurice, 117 Rawls, Lou, 71 Ray, James, 122 Ray, Johnnie, 16, 369n19 Rays, 403n138 “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” 309 “Ready Teddy,” 87 “Rebel-’Rouser,” 89, 122

Index Rebels (see also Harrison, Pete), 37 Recorded Live in Australia, 1964, 239 “Red Hot,” 69, 71, 96, 98, 109, 129, 137, 138 “Red Rubber Ball,” 389n212 “Red Sails in the Sunset,” 29, 47, 63, 69, 90, 138 Redding, Otis, 275, 315 Reed, Les, 168, 169 Reel Music, 340 “Reelin’ and Rockin’,” 55, 88, 378n25 Reeves, Jim, 47, 275, 278 “Reminiscing,” 66, 70, 73 – 74, 116, 129, 140, 376n107 Remo Four, 167, 168, 282 “Respect,” 315, 409n113 Revere & the Raiders, Paul, 277, 287 “Revolution,” 207, 340 Revolution, 326 Revolver, 53, 211, 236, 265, 310, 311, 318, 340, 341 Richard III, 335 Richard, Cliff (see also the Shadows), 37– 39, 118, 141, 215, 273, 279, 373nn57, 60 Richard[s], Keith (see also the Rolling Stones), 274, 282, 302, 408n74 Richards, Renald, 72 Richards, Ron, 125, 126, 131, 168, 274, 292, 308, 318, 411n158 “Ride Your Pony,” 316, 409n120 “Riding on a Bus,” 160 Rifkin, Joshua, 367n3, 399n69 Righteous Brothers, 250, 276, 278 Riley, Tim, 76, 101– 02, 153, 155 – 56, 190, 297, 312, 398n63, 405nn20, 25 Rimbaud, Arthur, 276 “Rip It Up,” 24, 55, 87 Riser, Paul, 275 Rivers, Johnny, 279 “Road Runner,” 70, 96, 140, 399n72 Robbins, Elizabeth “Bett,” 12, 22, 107 “Robertson, John” [Peter Doggett], 153 Robinson, [William] Smokey (see also the Miracles), 71, 141, 185, 204, 275, 316, 392n250, 402n128 “Rock and Roll Music,” 48, 74, 76, 88, 98, 109, 160, 208, 252, 253, 267, 268, 269, 305, 306, 378n28 Rock and Roll Music, 340, 384n126 “Rock Island Line,” 21, 22, 64, 146, 369n1 Rock ’n’ Roll, 80 Rodgers, Jimmie, 16, 36 Roe, Tommy, 159, 215, 385n152 “Roll Over Beethoven,” 39, 62, 63, 70, 74, 87, 92, 110, 114, 116, 120, 123, 129, 138, 140, 150, 160, 183, 184 – 85, 186, 195, 207, 214, 215, 250, 376n102, 379n50, 390n222, 391n232 Rolling Stones (see also Jagger, Mick; Jones, Brian; Richard, Keith; Watts, Charlie; Wyman, Bill), 168, 188, 217, 272, 274, 277, 278, 280, 282, 392nn254, 260, 405n14, 408n74, 409n110, 411n157 Romero, Chan, 39 Ronettes, 276 Rooftop Singers, 81, 141, 216

Rorem, Ned, 313, 367n3 “Roses Are Red (My Love),” 85, 116 “Rosetta,” 387n180 Rubber Soul, 54, 123, 125, 211–12, 272, 276, 281, 304, 308 – 34, 335 – 36, 339, 340, 352, 354, 406n43, 408n94 Rubenstein, Artur, 122 “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” See The Beatles’ Third Christmas Record Run Devil Run, 54, 80, 92, 370n7, 400n91 “Run for Your Life,” 146, 209, 223, 242, 308, 312–13, 315, 317, 319, 322, 331, 336, 360, 406n43, 408n101 “Runaway,” 53, 96, 112, 243, 245, 379n36, 401nn96, 102 The Running, Jumping, and Standing Still Film, 217 “Russell, Bert” (Berns, Bert), 158 Rydell, Bobby, 174 – 75 Ryder & the Spirits, Mal, 330 “Sabre Dance,” 48 “Sad Michael,” 235 Sadler, Barry, 278 “(When) The Saints (Go Marching In),” 49, 83, 84, 86, 95, 97, 100, 209, 214, 384n131 “Sally,” 368n7 “Sally Ann,” 134 Sam [Moore] and Dave [Prater], 275 Sam the Sham & the Pharoahs, 277, 279 “San Francisco Bay Blues,” 53, 89, 92 “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” 274, 411n157 “Save the Last Dance for Me,” 81, 96 “Sawdust Dance Floor,” 400n91 “Say Mama,” 90 Scaffold (see also McCartney, Michael), 169, 368n2 Schaffner, Nicholas, 288 Schnabel, Artur, 122 Schroder, Joy, 410n122 Schroeder, Aaron, 74 Schubert, Franz, 367n3 Schumann, Robert, 225 – 26, 367n3 Scott, Johnnie, 288 Scott, Ken, 125 “Scrambled Egg[s]” (see also “Yesterday”), 34, 299, 300, 407n65 Searchers (see also Jackson, Tony; McNally, John; Pender, Mike), 168, 217, 253, 274, 277, 278, 349, 350 “Searchin’,” 64 – 65, 69, 73 – 74, 75, 78, 88, 103, 110, 114, 147, 376n107, 379n51 Seeger, Pete, 255, 318 Seekers, 278, 307 Segovia, Andres, 350 Sellers, Peter (see also the Goons), 117, 217, 335 “Send Me Some Lovin’,” 87 Sennett, Mack, 217 “September in the Rain,” 53, 69, 101, 103, 104, 110 –11, 113, 114 “September Song,” 48, 90, 106, 377n9 Sessions, 257, 324, 381n89 “Set Fire to That Lot!,” 160 “Sexy Sadie,” 358, 359

447

448

Index “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” 209, 287, 358 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 212, 255, 269, 296, 310, 311, 336, 340, 341, 342, 347 “Sha la la la!,” 160 Shadows (see also Harris, Jet; Marvin, Hank; Meehan, Tony; Richard, Cliff; Welch, Bruce), 38 – 39, 46, 65, 97– 98, 130, 141, 147, 176, 194, 301, 373n60, 378n32, 380n51, 394n14 “Shake a Hand,” 86 “Shake, Rattle & Roll,” 86 “Shakin’ All Over,” 84, 90, 98, 377n2 Shangri-Las, 276, 279 Shankar, Ravi, 307– 08 Shannon & the Strangers, Mike, 220, 396n30 Shannon, Del, 243, 279, 387n174, 401n95 Shapiro, Helen, 83, 141, 152– 53, 159, 161, 217, 384n123, 385nn139, 140, 141, 386n160 “Sharing You,” 116, 375n87, 386n168 Shaw, Sandie, 278 “Shazam,” 96, 98 “She Came In through the Bathroom Window,” 359 “She Don’t Care about Time,” 318 “She Loves You” (see also “Sie Liebt Dich”), 49, 51, 61, 64, 84, 100, 110, 123, 125, 131, 141, 150, 151, 161, 165, 170, 172, 173, 174 – 81, 183, 188, 189, 193, 196, 201, 203, 205 – 06, 207, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 218, 221, 224, 226, 234, 235, 246, 250, 257, 262, 270, 271, 285, 286, 297, 321, 342, 358, 359, 360, 364, 386n162, 387n172, 388n200, 389nn202, 204, 206, 209, 390n224, 393n8, 394nn18, 20, 396n35, 400n89, 410n144 “She Said She Said,” 134, 297, 307, 364 “She Said, ‘Yeah’,” 89 “She’s a Woman,” 51, 110, 136, 160, 196, 207, 213, 242, 253, 261, 266 – 67, 271, 284, 287, 296, 305, 306, 335, 404nn152, 153, 406n51 “She’s Got It,” 74 “She’s Leaving Home,” 49, 179, 209, 315, 333, 358 “She’s Not There,” 275 “Sheik of Araby,” 70, 72, 97, 98, 103, 113, 114 “Sheila,” 70, 74, 116, 120, 129, 138 Shenson, Walter, 217–18, 335, 399n82, 405n9 Sheridan, Tony (see also the Beat Brothers; the Jets; Milander, Colin), 25, 78, 82, 83, 85, 91, 94 – 95, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 114 –15, 371n21, 372n32, 378nn21, 27 “Shimmy Like Kate,” 70, 74, 96, 116, 120, 138 Shirelles, 56, 81, 127, 128, 141, 155, 187, 287, 316 “Short Fat Fannie,” 87, 135 “A Shot of Rhythm and Blues,” 68, 94, 109, 115, 136, 146, 160, 386n168 Shotton, Pete (see also the Black Jacks; the Quarry Men), 16, 21– 22, 23, 29, 319, 406n36, 410n130 “Shout,” 53, 90, 216 –17, 379n36 “Sie Liebt Dich,” 210, 213, 395n7 “Silhouettes,” 261, 403n138 Silkie, 289 Silver Beatles, 46, 47

The Silver Beatles: The Original Decca Tapes (1 January 1962) and Cavern Club Rehearsals (Early 1962), 55, 107 Silver Beats, 46 Silver Beetles, 20, 46 Simon & Garfunkel (see also Simon, Paul), 219, 278, 396n27 Simon, Paul (see also Simon & Garfunkel), 396n27 Simone, Nina, 326 – 27 Sinatra, Frank, 278, 395n5 Sinatra, Nancy, 278 “The Singer Not the Song,” 392n254 “Singing the Blues,” 87, 91, 130 Skylar, Sunny, 112 “Slippin’ and Slidin’ (Peepin’ and Hidin’),” 87 “Slow Down,” 64, 68, 73, 74 – 75, 88, 92, 161, 208, 238, 239, 240 – 41, 257 Small Faces, 278 Smeaton, Bob, 372n30 Smith, Arthur, 16 Smith, Bill (see also the Quarry Men), 22, 23 Smith, George, 14 Smith, Mary Elizabeth Stanley (“Mimi”), 14, 15, 21, 346, 369nn12, 15 Smith, Norman, 121, 122, 123, 125, 150, 182, 194, 323, 381n87, 387n183, 409n110 Snow, Hank, 119 Snow White, 151, 234 “So How Come (No One Loves Me),” 96, 114, 160, 189, 406n38 “Soldier Boy,” 127 “Soldier of Love (Lay Down Your Arms),” 68, 70, 115, 134, 160, 178, 204, 379n36 “Some Day My Prince Will Come,” 234 “Some Days,” 26, 42, 43, 44, 59, 69 “Some Other Guy,” 68, 74, 101, 115, 121, 129, 140, 160, 167, 223, 378n28, 380n59, 381n78 Some Time in New York City, 15 “Somebody Help Me,” 275 “Someone Else’s Baby,” 38 “Someone, Someone,” 275 “Something,” 76, 207, 331, 360 Something New, 239, 340, 341, 398n52, 400n90 “Somewhere,” 292 Sommerville, Brian, 382n103 Sondheim, Stephen, 292 Songs, Pictures and Stories of the Fabulous Beatles, 214 Sonny [Bono] & Cher [LaPierre], 278 Sounds Incorporated, 167, 168, 252, 306 Souvenir of Their Visit to America (EP), 214 A Spaniard in the Works, 15 –16, 296, 396n26 “Spanish Fire Dance” [“España Cani”], 47, 127– 28, 375n81 “Spanish Harlem Incident,” 313 Spector, Philip, 106 – 07, 276, 406n46 Spellman, Benny, 188, 391n239 Spirit, 236 Spizer, Bruce, 181, 394n4 “Sport and Speed Illustrated,” 15 Springfield, Dusty, 278 Springsteen, Bruce, 161

Index Stafford, Jo, 141 Stagecoach, 119 “Stairway to Heaven,” 354 “Stand By Me,” 92, 153, 375n87 “Star-Spangled Banner,” 128 Starkey, Maureen Cox, 280 Starr, Kay, 128 “(Just Like) Starting Over,” 80, 271 State Fair to Hollywood, 251 “Stay,” 90, 150, 375n87 Steely Dan, 267 Steinem, Gloria, 389n208 “Step Inside Love,” 168 Stereos, 151, 385n136 Stevenson, Mickey, 397n39 Stewart Quartet, the Les (see also Brown, Ken), 40 “Sticks and Stones,” 96, 374n77, 378n25 Stockhausen, Karlheinz, 16 Stoller, Mike, 59, 65, 74 Storm & the Hurricanes, Rory (see also Caldwell, Al; Walters, Lu), 39, 40, 91, 119 – 20, 371n23, 373n61, 386n168 “The Stranger,” 38 “Strangers in the Night,” 95 Strawberry Alarm Clock, 379n33 “Strawberry Fields Forever,” 49, 104, 121, 195, 200, 208, 230, 255, 284, 297, 319 – 20, 322, 340, 341, 360 Strong, Barrett, 316 “Stuck on You,” 47 “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” 404n4 Sullivan, Ed, 206, 213, 215, 224, 277, 300, 301, 305, 306, 373n57, 388n197, 389n208, 395n10 Summer Holiday, 215 “Summer in the City,” 277 “A Summer Song,” 398n56 “Summertime,” 48, 83, 88, 91, 248, 378n25 “Sun King,” 358 “Sunny Afternoon,” 275 “Sunshine of Your Love,” 409n119 “Sunshine Superman,” 275, 282 Supremes, 275, 278, 309, 386n160 “Sure to Fall (In Love with You),” 47, 53, 56, 69, 76 – 78, 86, 98, 103, 107, 129, 160, 190, 217, 376n112, 400n91 “Surfer Girl,” 402n122 “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” 276 “Surrender,” 380n52 Sutcliffe, Stuart Fergusson Victor, 20, 23, 41– 46, 85, 91, 92, 93, 319, 349, 374nn69, 76, 377nn6, 9, 10, 20, 378nn21, 25 “Swanee River,” 114, 380n57 “Sweet Georgia Brown,” 84, 96, 98 – 99, 114 –15, 155, 214 “Sweet Little Sixteen,” 49, 68, 74, 88, 114, 138, 160, 374n77, 376n102 “Sweet Sue,” 36 Swinging Blue Jeans, 36, 39, 46, 168 – 69, 274, 279 Sylvester, Victor, 14, 36 “Take Good Care of My Baby,” 70, 73 – 74, 101, 103, 109, 110, 114, 151, 180, 201

“Take Out Some Insurance on Me, Baby,” 63, 84, 95, 96, 100, 214 “Take This Hammer,” 92 A Talent for Loving, 335 “Talkin’ World War III Blues,” 255 “Tammy Tell Me True,” 115, 390n225 “A Taste of Honey,” 63, 69, 120, 123, 129, 140, 142, 150, 151, 158, 160, 183, 194, 196, 376n96, 382n104, 384n127, 385n152, 398n56 “Taxman,” 195, 287 Taylor, Derek, 318, 382n103, 389n208, 405n9 Taylor, James, 219 Taylor & the Dominoes, Teddy “King Size,” 39, 137, 140 Tchaikovsky, Peter, 353 “Tears,” 274 “The Tears of a Clown,” 402n128 Teddy Bears, 56 “Teenage Heaven,” 89 “Tell Me If You Can,” 25, 28, 371n21, 372n32 “Tell Me What You See,” 209, 280, 289 – 91, 295, 305, 340 “Tell Me Why,” 51, 196, 209, 216, 233, 234, 239, 248, 271, 330 Temperance Seven, 118 Temptations, 275, 279, 309, 316 “Tennessee,” 76 – 77, 86, 376n112 Tepper, Sid, 74 “Tequila,” 53, 54, 88, 104 – 05, 265 Terry, Sonny, and Brownie McGhee, 40, 92 “Thank You Girl,” 63, 84, 116, 120, 121, 123, 125, 136, 160, 161, 165 – 66, 183, 205, 207, 214, 377n116, 386 – 87nn169, 172, 393n1 “That Means a Lot,” 280, 291, 292– 95, 297, 299, 301, 310, 311, 406n46 That Means a Lot and 24 Other Tracks, 294 “That Would Be Something,” 208 “That’ll Be the Day,” 20, 22, 26, 37, 42, 47, 51, 58, 63, 65 – 66, 68, 88, 95 – 97, 165, 371n23 “That’s a Nice Hat (Cap)” (see also “It’s Only Love”), 34, 299, 303 “That’s All Right (Mama),” 47, 49, 69, 86, 109, 160, 189, 374n77 “That’s My Life (My Love and My Home),” 369n15 “That’s My Woman,” 25, 28, 372n32 “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin,” 44, 46, 59, 68, 87, 375n93 Them, 279 “Theme for a Dream,” 114, 115, 386n168 “Theme from Z Cars,” 405n33 “There’s a Place,” 25, 26, 49, 50, 65, 116, 121, 123, 124, 127, 133, 136, 142, 143 – 45, 150, 158, 165, 193, 196, 208, 214, 291, 360, 384n127, 387n182 “Things We Said Today,” 160, 168, 193, 208, 213, 230, 238, 239, 247, 248, 250, 251, 261, 262, 271, 292, 358, 365, 401n103 “Think for Yourself,” 209, 308, 309, 313, 330 – 31, 336 “Think It Over,” 37, 89, 97 “Thinking of Linking,” 25, 27– 28, 371n25, 372n30

449

450

Index “The Third Man” Theme (“Harry Lime Cha-Cha”), 48 “Thirty Days,” 49, 86 “This Boy,” 50, 63, 65, 68, 76, 82, 84, 109, 133, 150, 154, 179, 183, 185, 196, 197– 98, 200, 204 – 05, 207, 213, 215, 270, 285, 286, 342, 360, 389n204, 393n5, 394n14, 395n12 This Is the Savage Young Beatles, 214 Thorne, Ken, 305 “Three Coins in the Fountain,” 390n225 “Three Cool Cats,” 40, 50, 53, 70, 78, 89, 97, 103, 107, 110 –12, 379n51 “Three Steps to Heaven,” 90 Three Stooges, 296 “Three-Thirty Blues,” 90, 98, 380n74 “Thumbin’ a Ride,” 97 Thurber, James, 218 “Ticket to Ride,” 51, 146, 160, 176, 207, 267, 280, 281– 84, 289, 296, 305, 306, 313, 320, 335, 342, 394n2 “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport,” 141 “(’Til) I Kissed You,” 379n36 “Till There Was You,” 15, 41, 53, 69, 76, 92, 98, 99 –100, 103, 106, 107– 08, 110, 114, 116, 120, 124, 127, 140, 151, 160, 164, 182, 183, 184 – 85, 190, 195, 196, 208, 215, 230, 325, 350, 380n52, 401n107 Tillekens, Ger, 383n115 “Time,” 96 “Time Beat,” 118 “Time Will Bring You Everything,” 89 The Times They Are A-Changin’, 255, 276 “Tip of My Tongue,” 25, 27, 116, 136, 168, 169, 371n19, 372n32, 388n189 “To Know Him Is to Love Him,” 50, 68, 84, 89, 103, 106 – 07, 111–12, 114, 120, 129, 140, 141, 160, 204, 291, 394n14 “Tomorrow Never Knows,” 195, 313, 332, 340, 360 “Tonight Is So Right for Love,” 90, 203 “Too Bad about Sorrows,” 25, 27– 29, 55, 372n31 “Too Many People,” 24 “Too Much Monkey Business,” 55, 62, 68, 74, 76, 80, 87, 136, 146, 160, 376nn95, 102 “Torchy,” 115 Tornados (see also Gregg, Brian; Lavern, Roger), 350, 355 Townshend, Pete (see also The Who), 215 “The Toy Boy,” 406n48 “Traces,” 405n25 Traffic (see also Winwood, Steve), 403n144, 409n110 “The Train Kept a-Rollin’,” 234 “Trambone,” 324 “Travelin’ Band,” 407n58 Traveling Wilburys, 256, 401n96 “A Treasury of Art and Poetry,” 369n18 Troggs, 275, 278 “True Love,” 56, 105, 115, 376n96 “Tryin’ to Get to You,” 26, 50, 115 Tubb, Ernest, 119 Tucker, Sophie, 14

Tug of War, 16, 24 “Turn Around, Look at Me,” 394n17 Turner, “Big” Joe, 40 Turner, Milt, 403n146 Turtles, 401n98, 404n5 “Tutti-Frutti,” 47, 74, 86, 92, 186 “Twelve-Bar Original,” 54, 308, 330 20 x 4, 258 “Twenty Flight Rock,” 22, 24, 88, 110, 146 20 Greatest Hits, 340 “Twist and Shout,” 15, 39, 69, 92, 103, 110, 116, 120, 121, 124, 127, 129, 138, 142, 146, 156 – 58, 161, 164, 181, 183, 186, 196, 202, 203, 207, 213, 214, 215, 218, 234, 250, 252, 300, 305, 306, 384nn126, 133, 385nn148, 149, 153 Twist and Shout (EP), 390n224 “Two of Us,” 292, 295 Twomey, Kathleen, 77, 134 Undertakers, 274 Unit 4+2, 279 Unplugged (The Official Bootleg), 53, 66, 80 Unsurpassed Masters, Volume 7, 314 “Up on the Roof,” 141 Ustinov, Peter, 117 “Vacation Time,” 89 Valens, Richie, 385n148 Valentine, Hilton (see also the Animals), 215 Vaughan, Ben, 398n64 Vaughan, Ivan (see also the Quarry Men), 22, 23, 24, 326 Vaughan, Jan, 326 Vee, Bobby, 369n19, 376n107 Velazquez, Consuelo, 112 Ventures, 98 Vertical Man, 382n101 Vincent, Gene (see also Gallup, Cliff ), 19, 22, 39, 40, 44, 46, 47, 72, 80, 82, 85, 94, 95, 114, 116, 119, 128, 168, 348, 369n17 Vinton, Bobby, 141, 278 Vipers Skiffle Group, 21, 40, 118, 370n7 Vollmer, Jürgen, 377n10 “Wabash Cannonball,” 22 Wagner, Naphtali, 190, 225 – 26, 234, 259, 312 Wagner, Richard, 179 “Wait,” 32, 177, 209, 287, 296, 308, 310, 313, 321, 334, 336, 359, 408n83, 412n167 “Waiting for a Train,” 36 “Wake Up in the Morning,” 25, 27, 29 – 30, 55 “Walk, Don’t Run,” 53, 63, 90, 98, 112 “Walk Right In,” 141 Walker Brothers, 278 “Walkin’ Back to Happiness,” 152– 53 “Walking in the Park with Eloise,” 12–13, 35 “Walking My Baby Home,” 16 Waller, [Thomas] Fats, 128 Waller, Gordon (see also Peter & Gordon), 218, 219 Walls and Bridges, 15 Walters, Lu (see also Storm & the Hurricanes, Rory), 91

Index “Waltz in Orbit,” 118 “Warm and Beautiful,” 137 Warren, Harry, 111 Warwick, Jacqueline, 141, 291 Washington, Dinah, 113, 128, 141 “Watch Your Step,” 97, 265 – 66 “Watching the Wheels,” 408n101 Watts, Charlie (see also the Rolling Stones), 274 Wayne, John, 119 “The Wayward Wind,” 87 “We Are in Love,” 38 “We Can Work It Out,” 32, 133, 207, 229, 242, 274, 281, 308, 317, 320, 321– 22, 323, 331, 335, 336, 342, 360, 393n1, 398n65 “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” 215, 287 “We’ll Gather Lilacs in an Old Brown Shoe.” See The Beatles’ Third Christmas Record “We’re Gonna Move,” 24, 88 “Wear My Ring around Your Neck,” 375n79 “Webb, Bernard” [Paul McCartney, “A. Smith”], 336 – 37 “Wedding Bells,” 87, 374n77 “Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine,” 24 Weedon, Bert, 37, 373n53 “Weep No More My Baby,” 90 Weisman, Benjamin, 77, 134 Welch, Bruce (see also the Shadows), 38 – 39, 65, 98, 301 Welch, Lenny, 141, 150, 151 “Well . . . (Baby Please Don’t Go),” 89 “Well, Darling,” 26, 43, 46 “Well Well Well,” 392n255 Wells, Mary, 251, 275, 278 Westberry, Kent, 73, 135 Whalley, Nigel (see also the Quarry Men), 22, 23 “What a Crazy World We’re Living In,” 81, 114, 116 “What Do You Want,” 38 “What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?,” 90 “What Goes On,” 25, 161, 173, 209, 308, 313, 329 – 30, 336, 337 “What People Want Is a Family Life,” 368n7 “What You’re Doing,” 49, 124, 146, 209, 252, 260 – 61, 264, 269, 271, 332, 352, 401n111, 403nn131, 137, 406n46 “What’d I Say,” 47, 93, 96, 116, 119, 379n46, 403n146 “What’s the Reason I’m Not Pleasing You?,” 80 “What’s Your Name,” 115, 116 “When Everybody Comes to Town,” 255 “When I Get Home,” 51, 208, 238, 246 – 47, 248, 271, 401n102 “When I’m Sixty-Four,” 12, 25, 27, 35, 49, 55, 81, 85, 325, 368n7, 372n29, 374n70 “When My Little Girl Is Smiling,” 115, 151, 379n36, 392n255 “When You’re Smiling,” 24, 86 “Where Have You Been (All My Life),” 68, 115, 140 “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” 359 “Whispering,” 36 The “White album.” See The Beatles

White, Andy, 126, 381n91, 383n112 White, Robert, 316 White, Timothy, 13, 72– 73 Whiteman, Paul, 36, 104 The Who (see also Townshend, Pete), 215, 236, 275, 277, 278, 288 “Who Shot Sam,” 379n51 “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” 47, 88, 93 “Why (Can’t You Love Me Again),” 63, 78, 94, 95, 97, 100, 210, 214 “Wild Cat,” 44, 47, 69, 90, 376n102 “Wild in the Country,” 85, 97 The Wild Ones, 374n76 “Wild Thing,” 275 Wilkin, Marijohn, 73, 135 “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” 96, 117, 141, 187 Williams, Allan, 40, 46 – 47, 82, 85, 91, 93, 102, 137, 374n77, 377n2 Williams, Barney, 156, 157 Williams, Sr., Hank, 16, 98, 109, 373n62 Williams, Larry, 40, 74 – 75, 128, 240, 299, 300 Williams, Taffy, 369n12 Wilson, Brian (see also the Beach Boys), 276, 411n149 Wilson, Carl (see also the Beach Boys), 215 Wilson, Jackie, 316 Wilson, Nancy, 395n5 Wings (see also the Country Hams), 275, 299, 351, 368n9 Wings at the Speed of Sound, 137 Wingspan, 340 “Winston’s Walk,” 25, 26, 371n25, 374n70 Winters, Mike and Bernie, 216 Winwood, Steve (see also Davis Group, the Spencer; Traffic), 355 Wise, Fred, 77, 134 “With a Girl Like You,” 275 “With a Little Help from My Friends,” 128, 361 “With God on Our Side,” 255 With the Beatles, 84, 100, 103, 107, 123, 159, 182– 95, 212, 253 – 54, 311, 339, 340, 390nn222, 224, 391n232 “Within You without You,” 342 “Woman” (Lennon for Double Fantasy), 408n101 “Woman” (McCartney for Peter & Gordon), 336 – 37 “Won’t You Be My Baby,” 400n89 “Won’t You Please Say Goodbye,” 25, 27, 29 – 30, 55, 254 Wonder, Stevie, 128, 279, 367n2 “Wonderful Land,” 38 Wonderwall, 168 “Wooden Heart” [“Muss I Denn zum Staedele Hinaus”], 53, 96, 105 Wooler, Bob, 16, 39, 92, 110, 373n60, 377n15, 378n32, 387n183 “Wooly Bully,” 277 “The Word,” 209, 287, 308, 309, 313, 331– 32, 336, 340, 361 “Words of Love,” 29, 47, 49, 52, 55, 76, 87, 116, 173, 208, 252, 267– 68, 269 Working Classical, 340

451

452

Index “The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise,” 44, 46, 53, 69, 86, 110, 374n72 “A World without Love,” 25, 27, 218 –19, 220, 275, 371n19, 396n27 “Worried Man Blues,” 22 “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” 276 Wray, Link, 411n157 “The Wrestling Dog,” 218 Wright, Gary, 345 Wyman, Bill (see also the Rolling Stones), 411n157 XTC (see also Moulding, Colin), 392n260 “Ya Ya,” 101 Ya-Ya (W. German EP), 114 “Yakety Yak,” 89, 384n131 Yardbirds (see also Beck, Jeff; Clapton, Eric), 150, 252, 275, 279 “Yeah, ’Cause You’re a Surefire Bet to Win My Lips,” 378n25 “Years Roll Along,” 25, 26, 371n25 Yellen, Jack, 67 “Yellow Submarine,” 207 Yellow Submarine (LP), 311, 340, 341 Yellow Submarine (film), 12, 117 Yellow Submarine Songtrack, 322, 331 The Yellow Teddy Bears, 396n23 “Yer Blues,” 150, 255, 309, 359 Yes, 403n132 “Yes It Is,” 51, 177, 178, 203, 208, 280, 281, 285 – 86, 288, 296, 359, 360, 405nn23, 25, 407n56 “Yesterday,” 34, 49, 113, 128, 133, 179, 193, 207, 246, 296, 299, 300 – 03, 305, 306, 311, 319, 320, 325, 329, 335, 337, 340, 342, 361, 407– 08nn62, 64, 74, 412n168 Yesterday (EP), 305 “Yesterday” . . . and Today, 340 “You Are My Sunshine,” 29, 49, 56, 86 “You Better Move On,” 115 “You Can’t Catch Me,” 55, 80, 86 “You Can’t Do That,” 53, 54, 58, 110, 179, 196, 208, 213, 216, 217, 218, 223 – 24, 235, 236, 238, 242, 248, 250, 256, 260, 266, 267, 272, 312, 360, 363, 395n20, 397nn39, 42, 400nn82, 86 “You Can’t Hurry Love,” 309 “You Don’t Understand Me,” 90, 129, 375n87 “You Gave Me the Answer,” 368n7

“You Know My Name (Look Up the Number),” 59, 341 “You Know What to Do,” 248 “You Like Me Too Much,” 209, 248, 280, 286, 287, 305, 318 –19, 330, 333, 359 “You Must Write Everyday,” 26, 43, 46, 69 “You Never Give Me Your Money,” 236, 284, 359 “You Really Got a Hold on Me.” See “You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me” “You Really Got Me,” 275, 373n55 “You Were Meant For Me,” 86 “You Win Again,” 88, 91, 287 “You Won’t See Me,” 179, 209, 308, 309, 332– 33, 334, 336 “You’ll Be Mine,” 25, 26, 42, 43, 52, 58 – 62, 63, 69, 75, 105, 164, 371n26 “You’ll Know What to Do.” See “You Know What to Do” “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” 167 “You’re Driving Me Crazy,” 118 “You’re Going to Lose That Girl,” 51, 141, 177, 208, 247, 280, 291– 93, 295, 305, 337, 358, 361, 406n43 “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” 405n25 “You’re My World,” 274, 327 “You’re Sixteen,” 119 “You’re So Good to Me,” 276 “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” 49, 208, 280, 287– 89, 292, 301, 305, 320, 321, 340, 342, 346, 364 “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” 49, 56, 65, 68, 110, 120, 121, 125, 141, 160, 162, 183, 184 – 85, 187, 195, 204, 379n36 “Young Blood,” 50, 54, 58 – 59, 64, 70, 78, 87, 110, 114, 116, 129, 145, 160 Young, Roy, 23, 114, 380n58 Young Rascals, 276, 279, 306 “Your Feet’s Too Big,” 63, 69, 96, 104, 116, 140 “Your Mother Should Know,” 359, 368n7 “Your True Love,” 49, 53, 87, 189, 400n91 Zak, Albin, 319 Zappa, Frank (see also the Mothers of Invention), 277, 379n33 Zombies (see also Argent, Rod), 275, 279, 354, 401n98