I was humming "Mother Nature's Son" on a walk the other day with my wife when she asked why I was singing Frederic Chopin's "Raindrop Prelude". After a perusal of the Chopin score, I can see (and hear) her point - there is indeed a brief melodic similarity (click the graphic to enlarge): No doubt this was unintentional on McCartney's part - although he has been known to steal ("nick" to use his own verbiage) - but it is an intriguing similarity.
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Formal structure of "She's Leaving Home" Intro (ind) 0:00-0:05 Verse 1 0:05-0:50* a 0:05-0:28 b 0:28-0:50 Chorus 0:50-1:17 Verse 2 1:17-2:04 a 1:17-1:40 b 1:40-2:04 Chorus 2:04-2:31 Verse 3a 2:31-2:54* Chorus 2:54-3:21 Coda (chorus) 3:21-3:39 Comments: The verses can be divided into two parts, labeled a and b above. The initial two verses use both halves, but the third and final verse only uses the first half. It seems to be a trademark of McCartney's 1966-67 songs that they fit quite nicely into three iterations of a combination verse & chorus (or verse & middle 8). In this case, it's three iterations of a verse & chorus, with the final repeat halving the verse, but extended the chorus an extra measure.
Formal structure of "Within You Without You" Intro 0:00-0:31* 0:00-0:22 0:22-0:31 Verse 1 0:31-1:15* Verse 2 1:15-1:58* Middle 8 1:58-2:22* Solo/Break 2:22-3:47 Verse 3 3:47-4:33* Middle 8 4:33-4:59 Coda 4:59-5:04* Comments: It is worth noting (once again) that with these Indian-influenced Harrison compositions, the conventional terms of verse, middle 8, chorus, et cetera do not necessarily correspond to how those same terms are used in other more standard Beatles recordings. I retain this verbiage to maintain consistency throughout my analysis of formal structure in all Beatles songs, but despite nomenclature their function in a song such as this one will inherently differ from their functions in other songs. 2-part intro (like [6b] "A Taste Of Honey", [11] "Thank You Girl", [17] "Little Child", [14b] "Roll Over Beethoven", [24] "You Can't Do That", and [31b] "Matchbox", [37] "Baby's in Black", [38b] "Mr. Moonlight", [45] "I Feel Fine", [46e] "Honey Don't", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [62] "Run For Your Life", [63] "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", [65] "Day Tripper", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [79] "Love You To", [81] "Paperback Writer", [82] "Rain, [84] "Taxman", [89] "I Want to Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", [97] "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", [98] "Good Morning Good Morning", [102] "Lovely Rita", and [104] "Getting Better"), in which the first section features a sitar drone and melodic fragments by another instrument (I'm not sure what instrument), and the second section adds percussion and establishes the beat for the rest of the song. Verses 1 and 2 are contiguous (as they were in [1] "Love Me Do", [7] "Do You Want to Know a Secret", [8] "Misery", [9b] "Anna (Go To Him)", [9c] "Boys", [9d] "Chains", [9f] Twist and Shout, [10] "From Me To You", [13e] "Till There Was You", [17] "Little Child", [19] "Not a Second Time", [23] "Can't Buy Me Love", [25] "And I Love Her", [26] "I Should Have Known Better", [28] "If I Fell'', [29] "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You", [31] "A Hard Day's Night", [31b] "Matchbox", [32] "I'll Cry Instead", [35] "Things We Said Today", [40] "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party", [41] "What You're Doing", [42] "No Reply", [43] "Eight Days a Week", [44] "She's a Woman", [44b] "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey", [46d] "Words of Love", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [49] "I Need You", [50] "Yes It Is", [51] "The Night Before", [52] "You Like Me Too Much", [54] "Tell Me What You See", 56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", [56c] "Bad Boy", [57] "I've Just Seen a Face", [59] "Yesterday", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [68] "We Can Work it Out", [71] "Michelle", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [80] "Paperback Writer", [82] "Doctor Robert", [84] "Taxman", [88] "Yellow Submarine", [89] "I Want To Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", [95] "Penny Lane", [96] "A Day in the Life", [99] "Fixing a Hole", [100] "Only a Northern Song", and [101] "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite"). Also, all verses are identical melodically for the first 24 seconds, then they diverge: Verse 1 continues in the same register as the beginning of the verse, but verse 2 jumps to a higher register of Harrison's voice and abbreviates the first verse by omitting one phrase. They still share melodic characteristics and are clearly related (which is why I've opted to analyze them both as verses) but they are not identical. Verse 3, then, is abbreviated further. This will be easiest understood visually, and for that reason I have included a graphic below (click to enlarge). This graphic divides the sections under consideration into four sections: A, B, C, and D. Notice that verses 1 and 3 use melodically identical A sections, with verse 2 sharing the first three of its four notes with the others.
This change establishes the second verse as a slight contrast to the first, thereby diminishing the need for contrast in the middle 8. And indeed the middle 8 is more similar to the verses in this track than is usual for Beatles recordings. The coda consists of a group of people laughing. What this has to do with anything is beyond me... Paul McCartney's "World Without Love" had trouble finding a home. It was rejected by the Beatles, mostly on account of Lennon's dislike of the lyrics (particularly the opening line, "Please lock me away..."), so Paul offered it to Billy J. Kramer, who had recorded 4 other Beatles giveaways already to that point, but Kramer declined for reasons unknown. So Peter Asher, the brother of Paul's girlfriend at the time Jane Asher, requested the song for his newly-formed duo Peter & Gordon. McCartney happily obliged, and "World Without Love" was released on 28 February 1964, and reached number 1 in the British charts the following June. The Beatles never made a recording of "World Without Love", but Paul's brief demo, which he gave to Peter Asher some time in late 1963 or early 1964, surfaced unexpectedly in January 2013. Formal structure of "Getting Better" Intro (chorus) 0:00-0:08 Verse 1 0:08-0:25 Chorus A 0:25-0:44 Verse 2 0:44-1:00 Chorus A 1:00-1:20* Chorus B 1:20-1:40* Verse 3 1:40-1:57* Chorus A 1:57-2:18 Chorus B 2:18-2:36 Coda (chorus) 2:362:48 Comments: 2 part intro (like [6b] "A Taste Of Honey", [11] "Thank You Girl", [17] "Little Child", [14b] "Roll Over Beethoven", [24] "You Can't Do That", and [31b] "Matchbox", [37] "Baby's in Black", [38b] "Mr. Moonlight", [45] "I Feel Fine", [46e] "Honey Don't", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [62] "Run For Your Life", [63] "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", [65] "Day Tripper", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [79] "Love You To", [81] "Paperback Writer", [82] "Rain, and [84] "Taxman", [89] "I Want to Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", [97] "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", [98] "Good Morning Good Morning", and [102] "Lovely Rita") with Martin's piano and Lennon's guitar being part one, then part two consisting of the addition of vocals. This song features two related but different choruses, which I've labeled as Chorus A and Chorus B. Both share identical chord progressions and backing tracks, but the vocals differ from one to the other. They are similar enough to call them the same thing (chorus), but different enough to need distinguishing (chorus A, chorus B). The macro-scale structure of this song may be seen as three iterations of a verse, chorus A, then chorus B, with the first iteration omitting chorus B:
Similarly, the third verse is clearly related to but distinctly different form the previous two verses - though approximately the same duration as the first two verses (it's extended a single measure in the middle), the sung melody is more far-reaching and rambling.
On 2012.12.01 I posted a blog titled "A Three Ring Circus" all about the song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite". I tried to be quite thorough in that post, however I have recently discovered a new and intriguing aspect to this song, and that is what will be discussed in this post. In "A Three Ring Circus", I discussed the text painting of the line "And of course Henry the horse dances the waltz". Observing the original poster that inspired Lennon to write the song in the first place, however, you can see that the horse's name was actually Zanthus, not Henry. "Zanthus" is a bit unwieldy to sing, so it is not surprising that Lennon took liberties on grounds of artistic license (rather similar to Paul McCartney changing the original "Hey Jules" to "Hey Jude"), but there are any number of two syllable names that Lennon could have chosen that would have worked just fine. In addition to being easier to sing, I see two reasons why Lennon might have chosen the name Henry over other equally easy to sing options: (1) "Henry the horse" features alliteration as both nouns start with the letter "h"; and more significantly (2) to avoid confusion between George Harrison and George Martin, the latter was sometimes referred to as Henry - Martin's middle name (Emerick, page 6). And since much of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" was Martin's doing (he played the organ in the break section, was responsible for the calliope collage coda, and is probably behind the ingenious three-part tonal structure), Lennon's selection of the name "Henry" to replace "Zanthus" seems like Lennon's way of acknowledging Martin's contributions to his song. I have never encountered any quotes from either Lennon or Martin to support this idea, but the facts do fit and they seem to fit too well to be coincidence. Though I included a photo of the poster in "A Three Ring Circus", I just now found a better resolution picture (in which you can read the text much more easily) and have included it below. (Click to enlarge.) CITATIONS
Emerick, Geoff and Howard Massey. Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. Gotham Books, published by Penguin Group (USA) Inc., New York, NY, 2006. One of Paul McCartney's earliest songs, "Love of the Loved" was a staple of early Beatles stage repertoire. But instead of recording and releasing it themselves, the band decided to give it to Cilla Black, another Brian Epstein talent, who recorded it under producer George Martin, and released the song on 27 September 1963. Though never officially released, The Beatles did recorded "Love of the Loved" as part of their unsuccessful 1 January 1962 audition for Decca Records. Formal structure in [102] "Lovely Rita"
Intro (ind.) 0:00-0:22* Chorus 0:22-0:33 Verse 1 0:33-0:52 Chorus (ext) 0:52-1:11* Solo (chorus) 1:11-1:22* Verse 2 1:22-1:41 Chorus 1:41-2:11 Coda (ind.) 2:11-2:42* Comments: 2 part intro (similar to [6b] "A Taste Of Honey", [11] "Thank You Girl", [17] "Little Child", [14b] "Roll Over Beethoven", [24] "You Can't Do That", and [31b] "Matchbox", [37] "Baby's in Black", [38b] "Mr. Moonlight", [45] "I Feel Fine", [46e] "Honey Don't", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [62] "Run For Your Life", [63] "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", [65] "Day Tripper", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [79] "Love You To", [81] "Paperback Writer", [82] "Rain, and [84] "Taxman", [89] "I Want to Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", [97] "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and [98] "Good Morning Good Morning"), with the piano and guitar playing the first 4 bars, followed by the addition of chorus vocals, bass, and percussion for the next 4. The second chorus features a three measure extension (the part where the background vocals sing a long descending scalar passage on the word "maid"). Both the intro and coda are musically independent. The solo is based on the chorus. Formal structure of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite":
Intro (verse) 0:00-0:06 D minor Verse 1 0:06-0:37 C minor, D minor Verse 2 0:37-1:00 C minor, D minor Break 1:00-1:29 D minor, E minor Verse 3 1:29-1:53 C minor, D minor Coda (v & m8) 1:53-2:37* D minor, E minor Comments: Verses 1 and 2 are contiguous (as they were in [1] "Love Me Do", [7] "Do You Want to Know a Secret", [8] "Misery", [9b] "Anna (Go To Him)", [9c] "Boys", [9d] "Chains", [9f] Twist and Shout, [10] "From Me To You", [13e] "Till There Was You", [17] "Little Child", [19] "Not a Second Time", [23] "Can't Buy Me Love", [25] "And I Love Her", [26] "I Should Have Known Better", [28] "If I Fell'', [29] "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You", [31] "A Hard Day's Night", [31b] "Matchbox", [32] "I'll Cry Instead", [35] "Things We Said Today", [40] "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party", [41] "What You're Doing", [42] "No Reply", [43] "Eight Days a Week", [44] "She's a Woman", [44b] "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey", [46d] "Words of Love", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [49] "I Need You", [50] "Yes It Is", [51] "The Night Before", [52] "You Like Me Too Much", [54] "Tell Me What You See", 56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", [56c] "Bad Boy", [57] "I've Just Seen a Face", [59] "Yesterday", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [68] "We Can Work it Out", [71] "Michelle", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [80] "Paperback Writer", [82] "Doctor Robert", [84] "Taxman", [88] "Yellow Submarine", [89] "I Want To Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", [95] "Penny Lane", [96] "A Day in the Life", [99] "Fixing a Hole", and [100] "Only a Northern Song"). The coda combines music from the verses and break, both of which use similar chord progressions, so they overlap easily. But since the verses begin in C minor, and the break begins in D minor, one had to be changed to fit the other, so the verses' melody was transposed up a whole step and then could be overlaid on to the break. Lennon's "I'm in Love" was recorded by The Fourmost at Abbey Road Studios on October 1963, under producer George Martin. Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, who had already released four Beatles giveaways by this point, recorded the song, as well, on 14 October 1963, but abandoned the project after 32 apparently unsuccessful takes. It is uncertain who recorded the song first. What is certain is that Kramer never released his version, and The Fourmost released theirs on 15 November 1963. The Beatles never recorded "I'm in Love", but Lennon did record a demo. |
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