“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