“The Beatles” Essay
Kippen – Beatles MUS321
5. 1964–65: Beatles For Sale & Help!
Implications of “She’s a Woman”
Bob Dylan
Marijuana
The Achievement of A Hard Day’s Night Film
Album: a musical success
New sounds
Riff song
Harmonic complexity
Melodies
Phrasing
Instrumentation
Textures
Beatles For Sale
The covers
· Carl Perkins: “Honey Don’t” and “Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby”
· Roy Lee Johnson’s “Mr Moonlight”, Chuck Berry’s “Rock And Roll Music”
· Leiber-Stoller’s “Kansas City” (1952), and Little Richard’s “Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!” (1958)
· Buddy Holly’s “Words of Love”
The originals
Paul
· “I’ll Follow The Sun”
· “What You’re Doing
Collaborations
· “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party”
· “Every Little Thing”
“Eight Days A Week”
· The fade-in
· The hook: changing chords over D pedal –
· Dadd9 … E/D … G6/D … Dadd9
Lennon’s contributions
· “No Reply”
· “I’m A Loser”
· “Baby’s In Black”
Lennon’s state of mind?
“No Reply”
“I’m A Loser”
I'm a loser, I'm a loser
And I'm not what I appear to be
Of all the love I have won or have lost
there is one love I should never have crossed
She was a girl in a million, my friend
I should have known she would win in the end
I'm a loser, and I lost someone who's near to me
I'm a loser, and I'm not what I appear to be
Although I laugh and I act like a clown
Beneath this mask I am wearing a frown
My tears are falling like rain from the sky
Is it for her or myself that I cry?
I'm a loser…
What have I done to deserve such a fate
I realize I have left it too late
And so it's true, pride comes before a fall
I'm telling you so that you won't lose all
I'm a loser…
Word painting
Lennon’s marriage
Disillusionment
Unhappiness
“Fat Elvis”
Effective harmonic ostinato underpins verses: G … D … F … G (NB: F = ♭VII)
Dylan’s influence on Lennon’s lyrics?
Verdict on the album?
Studio as workshop
First half of 1965
Filming for movie Help! (released July 29, 1965)
Singles: “Ticket To Ride” (April 9), “Help!” (July 23)
Help! (soundtrack album) released August 6
“Ticket To Ride”
“Yes It Is”
Filming of Help!
Plot summary
Help! .. the soundtrack album
“Help”
“The Night Before”
“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”
“I Need You”
“Another Girl”
“You’re Gonna Lose That Girl”
“Ticket To Ride”
“Help!”
Lyric
Eight-bar intro
Guitar break
Verses: McCartney devised second vocal part as counterpoint to main melody
Bridge draws on chords of the intro (but doubles its length) – Bm G E7 A7
“Stop time”
Ends with an A6 colouring effect (cf. “She Loves You”)
“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”
· Dylan’s folk inspiration
· Setting
· Prominent use of I – V – ♭VII – I (F chord in G major)
· Suspensions (D sus)
· Harmonies have folk-modal implications
· John Scott, flutes
The Hidden Gem?
“You’re Gonna Lose That Girl”
· Word painting
· Backing vocals serve two functions
· Varied phrase lengths, interesting and unpredictable harmonies
The verdict on the movie?
McCartney’s contributions
· “The Night Before”
· “Another Girl”
· “I’ve Just Seen A Face”
· … and “Yesterday”
“Yesterday”
McC’s first great lyric?
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be,
There's a shadow hanging over me.
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.
Why she had to go I don't know she wouldn't say.
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.
Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play.
Now I need a place to hide away.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
Poetic and sophisticated: internal rhymes, vividly portrays the vulnerability of the singer
Did The Beatles try to hide it?
George Martin knew it needed a different, more intimate treatment
Compromising the Beatle image?
Gaining new audience?
Scoring
· Melody
· Appoggiaturas emphasize the internal rhymes
· Walking bass line in bridge avoids root positions
· Suspensions / additions show considerable sophistication in harmonic thinking
· McCartney worked with George Martin on string arrangement
McCartney’s growing role
“Another Girl
Learned from George Martin very quickly
McCartney’s audacity
Harrison’s contributions
· “I Need You”
· “You Like Me Too Much” (with McC and GM on keyboards)
Syncopated melodies