Formal structure of "Yesterday"
Intro (verse) 0:00-0:05 Verse 1 0:05-0:24 Verse 2 0:24-0:41 Middle 8 0:41-1:01 Verse 3 1:01-1:19 Middle 8 1:19-1:39 Verse 4 1:39-1:56 Coda (verse) 1:56-2:06 Comments: In a manner similar to [46] "I'll Follow the Sun", the formal layout of "Yesterday" is very simple and straightforward, just like the music.
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“It took me six weeks to write the song," Lennon said in a 1980 interview with David Sheff of Playboy magazine. "I was writing it all the time I was making the film. And as anybody knows about film work, there's a lot of hanging around. I have an original tape of it somewhere. Of how it sounded before it became the sort of psychedelic-sounding song it became on the record” (page 154). The original tape Lennon refers to is a series of six recordings, the first take of which will be discussed here. A recording of that first take may be found in this YouTube video from 0:27-1:14. A transcription of this first take is below. (Click the picture to enlarge.) Note: In many instances, the rhythms have been simplified for the sake of visual simplicity. True to his description, the recording contains just Lennon's vocals and guitar playing, and consequently is very light in nature - far removed from what "Strawberry Fields Forever" would eventually become, and rather evocative of the warm, breezy summer nights in the south of Spain. This very first version also reveals the lyrics that would ultimately become the second verse nearly in tact - save for the very first line.
The chord progression for the first half of the song will change greatly, but quite the opposite for the second half - just one additional chord will be added. That being said, everything else (including verse 1, verse 3, the introduction, the coda, and the chorus - with it's title lyrics) had yet to be written. There is, in fact, no mention of Strawberry Field at all in this initial version - no doubt why the song was originally called "It's Not Too Bad".
CITATIONS Scheff, David. All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. St. Martin's Griffin, New York, NY, 1981. Formal structure of [58] "I'm Down":
Verse 1 0:00-0:06* Chorus 0:06-0:21* Verse 2 0:21-0:27 Chorus 0:27-0:41 Solo 1 0:41-0:59* Verse 3 0:59-1:06 Chorus 1:06-1:19 Solo 2 1:19-1:36* Chorus 1:36-1:55 Chorus 1:55-2:12 Chorus/Coda 2:12-2:32* Comments: Begins with verse, like [15] "All My Loving", [19] "Not a Second Time", [29b] "Long Tall Sally", [42] "No Reply", and [46b] "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby". Dual solos, like [29b] "Long Tall Sally", [38] "I'm a Loser", [46b] "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby", [46e] "Honey Don't", and [56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy". Verse and chorus combine to form a 12 bar blues pattern (though the chorus is extended through repetition of the final two measures, so it's actually a 14 bar blues). The final chorus fades out, and thus functions as a coda. On 29 August 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California, the Beatles played the final concert of what would be their very last performance tour. Many people thought the end of touring would be the demise of the band. John Lennon was one of them. "But I was really too scared to walk away. I was thinking, well this is like the end really. There's no more touring" (Anthology, Episode 6).
With touring no longer a concern, all four Beatles found themselves with a great deal of time on their hands. So, Paul undertook the project of writing music for the film The Family Way; George vacationed to India to take sitar lessons from Ravi Shankar; Ringo stayed at home – something the Beatles rarely did due to their grueling schedule – so he could spend time with his wife and their 1-year-old son, Zak; and John flew to Spain to act a minor role in Richard Lester's film How I Won the War. "I said yes to Dick Lester that I would make this movie with him and I went to Almería Spain for six weeks just because I didn't know what to do. What do you do when you don't tour? There's no life" (Anthology, Episode 6). The film is a black comedy about an inept and fictional regiment during World War II. It was intended as an anti-war protest - something that would dominate Lennon's own actions in the subsequent years - due to the escalating conflict in Vietnam. Lennon plays the role of Musketeer Gripeweed. The appearance of a Beatles has ensured its historical survival, but it seems otherwise forgettable. (It's available via instant streaming on Netflix as of February 2013.) Having acted in both A Hard Day's Night and Help! (both of which were also directed by Richard Lester), Lennon knew roughly what to expect. However, acting as an individual in a film is very different from acting as a band in a film and Lennon, notoriously impatient, quickly found himself quite bored. So he kept a guitar nearby to help pass the time between takes. It was in Spain, during the filming, that he began work on the song that would eventually become "Strawberry Fields Forever", originally titled “It's Not Too Bad”. CITATIONS Beatles. The Beatles Anthology. DVD. Apple Corps Limited, 2003. Formal structure of [57] "I've Just Seen a Face":
Intro (ind) 0:00-0:11 Verse 1 0:11-0:23 Verse 2 0:23-0:35 Chorus 0:35-0:44 Verse 3 0:44-0:55 Chorus 0:55-1:03 Solo 1:03-1:15 Chorus 1:15-1:23 Verse 4 1:23-1:35 Chorus 1:35-1:43 Chorus 1:43-1:51 Chorus/Coda (verse) 1:51-2:05 Comments: I debated long and hard about calling the contrasting section a middle 8 or a chorus. Clearly it does contrast the verse (the primary characteristic of a middle 8), but it's not unheard of to substitute the chorus as the contrasting section. Middle 8s also frequently employ a harmonic shift (different or unusual chords) to emphasize their contrasting nature. In this case, I do not find a sufficient degree of harmonic contrast to justify calling this section a middle 8. Moreover, the section is used so frequently that the term chorus seems better suited to its structural function (middle 8s are generally heard twice per song - not six times, as is the case in this one). Like [166] "One After 909" and [94] "When I'm Sixty-Four", [46] "I'll Follow the Sun" was written well before the Beatles rise to fame. In a home session from 1960, the Quarrymen (they weren't the Beatles yet) recorded the tune, with McCartney singing lead, backed by a few guitars, some sort of percussion, and possibly a bass guitar. This version can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgluqHpapIk.
The song wouldn't be released, however, until more than four years later in December 1964 with the release of Beatles for Sale. This later version can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06RnXuZplyY. By the time of its commercial relase, the song - while still recognizable - sounded nothing like what it did in 1960. The 1960 version exudes bouncy, youthful enthusiasm, while the 1964 version features a more delicate, mature, and slightly weary sound. Structurally, the two featured completely different Middle 8s, with the former lyrics "Well, don't leave me alone, my dear, have courage and follow me my dear[?]"; and the latter lyrics "And now the time has come, and so my love I must go. And thought I lose a friend, in the end you will know." In no other single song is the Beatles development and progress more clearly heard than in "I'll Follow the Sun". Formal structure of [56c] "Bad Boy":
Intro (ind) 0:00-0:07 Verse 1 0:07-0:42 Verse 2 0:42-1:17 Solo 1:17-1:39 Verse 3 1:39-2:14 Coda 2:14-2:20 Comments: Each section except the intro is a 12 bar blues pattern. Perhaps the shortest coda of any Beatles song: a single chord. The Beatles made a total of five trips to Hamburg between 1960-1962, and it would be difficult to over-estimate the impact of those trips. John Lennon once said, “I grew up in Hamburg, not Liverpool” (Anthology, page 45), and sure enough, all five boys – who ranged in age from 17 to 22 – did a lot of growing up during those visits. The band as a whole grew, as well. As a result of the sheer quantity of time spent performing (they played for 6, 7, 8 hours a night, 7 days a week), the Beatles greatly improved their stage presence. "That's where we found our style," said George Harrison in the first espisode of The Beatles Anthology film. "We developed our style because of this fellow there - he used to say, "You've got to make a show for the people" and he used to come up every night yelling "Mach schau!". So we used to mach schau, and John used to dance around like a gorilla and we would all dance around and knock our heads together, and things like that". Also as a result of their grueling performance schedule, Hamburg was the Beatles introduced to drugs, specifically an amphetamine called Preludin. "The waiters always had Preludin (and various other pills, but I remember Preludin because it was a big trip) and they were all taking these pills to keep themselves awake, to work these incredible hours in this all-night place. And so the waiters, when they'd see the musicians falling over with tiredness or with drink, they'd give you the pill. You'd take the pill, you'd be talking, you'd sober up, you could work almost endlessly - until the pill wore off, then you'd have to have another" (Anthology, page 50). Similarly, the inevitable and frequent repetition of songs over the countless hours performing functioned as practice time, and all five musicians' technical facility on their instruments dramatically increased as a result. “I couldn't believe how much they'd changed since I'd last heard them play,” said Lennon's wife Cynthia after the Beatles returned from first Hamburg stint, “After so many hours of performing in Germany, they'd improved beyond all recognition. They'd gone from good to fantastic and the fans screamed with delight” (Lennon, page 62). But one bandmember lagged behind the others. While not a bad bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe never had the ability nor the determination to be a professional musician. He much preferred painting, at which he was exceptionally talented. As the other four Beatles improved by leaps and bounds, Stu realized it was time to call it quits, symbolically handing over his bass to Paul, who would forever more be the Beatles bassist. Stuart Sutcliffe, of course, wasn't the only bandmember change. Though Ringo Starr wouldn't join the band permanently for another few years, it was in Hamburg that he befriended John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison. At the time, Ringo was the drummer in the band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, who coincidentally had a similar job playing clubs in Hamburg. Though all four men were born and raised in Liverpool and knew of each other, it wasn't until their simultaneously gigs in Germany that the four bonded as companions. When this happened, Pete Best's days as a Beatle were numbered. Hamburg was also the location of the Beatles' first commercial recordings. The famed German record producer Bert Kaempfert attended one of their shows and was sufficiently impressed to invite the band to record as the backing group for singer Tony Sheridan. The Beatles ecstatically accepted the offer and recorded rock versions of "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" and "When the Saints Go Marching In". The single “My Bonnie”/“The Saints” was released in Germany, but the Beatles were not credited. Beatles sounds awfully similar to the word 'peedles', which is German schoolyard slang for male genitalia. Thus, the very first commercially released Beatles recording is actually credited to Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers.
Lastly, it was in Hamburg when the Beatles finally got their own recording break: an audition for George Martin of Parlophone Records, a division of Electric and Music Industries Ltd (EMI). On 9 May 1962, the band's manager, Brian Epstein, cabled the Beatles with the good news: “Congratulations boys. EMI request recording session. Please rehearse new material” (Spitz 312). CITATIONS Beatles. The Beatles Anthology. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, CA, 2000. Beatles. The Beatles Anthology. DVD. Apple Corps Limited, 2003. Lennon, Cynthia. John. Crown Publishers, New York, NY, 2005. Spitz, Bob. The Beatles: The Biography. Little, Brown and Company, Time Warner Book Group, New York, NY 2005. Formal structure of "Dizzy Miss Lizzy"
Intro (verse) 0:00-0:22 Verse 1 0:22-0:43 Verse 2 0:43-1:04 Solo/Break 1:04-1:25* Verse 3 1:25-1:47 Solo/Break 1:47-2:08* Verse 4 2:08-2:29 Verse 5 2:29-2:57 Comments: Two solos. The only other Beatles recordings to date to use multiple solos are [29b] "Long Tall Sally", [38] "I'm a Loser", [46b] "Everybody's Trying to be My Baby", and [46e] "Honey Don't". With all four Beatles preferring to do their own thing rather than work together, the last thing they wanted to do was another film. But they were under contract to complete three feature films (Magical Mystery Tour didn't count), and so when the notion of a cartoon was proposed – in which they wouldn’t have to act, or shoot scenes, or even record dialogue (actors were hired to provide the Beatles' voices) – they pounced. Of course, they still had to provide a soundtrack, and that generated no more enthusiasm than the film itself did. So they cobbled together a collection of previously released songs, rejects from other albums, and tunes thrown together in the studio. “It'll do for the film” John Lennon would say after a session they all knew was sub-par (Norman, page 326). The Beatles' 6 tracks on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack constituted the A-side of the album. But the real star of Yellow Submarine is only heard on the B-side, which feature orchestral tracks written George Martin. One track heard in the film, but not released until the Beatles Anthology shares striking similarities with the French composer Maurice Ravel's 1912 ballet Daphnis et Chloe. Here's the Ravel original (pay close attention to around 1:30). By writing this material, Martin is drawing a parallel between late 19th and early 20th century French Impressionism and 1960's pop psychedelia – both of which thrive on color. Take, for example, a Monet canvas. That same image in black and white loses a substantial amount of significance. (Lack of color is partially what doomed the premiere broadcast of Magical Mystery Tour, which likewise needs color to make any sense out of the surreal and psychedelic imagery.)
In writing this music and making that connection, then, George Martin - and not the Beatles - is the real star of Yellow Submarine. CITATIONS Norman, Philip. Shout! The Beatles in their Generation. Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 1981. |
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