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Beatles Countdown #82: Lovely Rita

Apr 06

Doug1960s john lennon, paul mccartney, the beatles No Comments

Paul’s streak on The Beatles countdown continues at #82 with a bouncy, loveable track from Sgt. Pepper’s: “Lovely Rita.”

“Lovely Rita…meter maid!” The opening words of the song set the pace for the song with its great melody. You can’t hear those words and not enjoy singing along to one of the best tracks on one of the best albums of all time. Written originally as an anti-authority song, Paul changed it to a love song about a meter maid. At the time, the English simply knew the maids as “traffic wardens” and Paul himself learned of the term by reading a newspaper article about a retired meter maid named “Lovely Rita.” The phrase struck him as overtly sexual and he would later say in the Anthology “…to me a ‘maid’ was always a little sexy thing: ‘Meter maid. Hey, come and check my meter, baby.’” Later, a meter maid named Meta Davies would claim Paul wrote this song for her after giving him a traffic ticket, but Paul would dismiss that claim like many others. Another possible meaning of the song was as part of the infamous Paul Is Dead hoax which states that Paul was distracted by Rita while driving which led him to speed off to his death. It’s a shock the “hoax” got so much attention and momentum as it did. The song might have had another meaning as well, but let’s look at the music itself first.

The music itself is a sprightly number with a bunch of memorable musical ideas. Besides a bouncy piano solo by George Martin, the song also features a very unique “kazoo orchestra”. John, Paul, & George all grabbed some combs, put toilet paper (that was stamped with the words “PROPERTY OF EMI”) over it, and blew through the comb to imitate the whizzing sound of a kazoo. Cool, huh? Another cool musical idea in the song has to be the outro that follows the line: “give us a wink and make me think of you.” What follows is a bunch of groans, heavy breathing, and wails most likely by John. While it’s definitely weird to hear, does it fit the song? Well, here is where the other meaning of the song comes into play though I will preface it by saying this is just a theory by myself & a small amount of other fans. Could the song be about masturbation? Think about it for a second. Paul himself said it was “sexy & sultry” and the last line before the section does say “give us a wink and make me think of you.” Starting to make a little sense or did I just upset a whole slew of people fond of the simple love song? Well, think about this then. Paul himself might not have written it about it as he’s never said it despite being very open about his song meanings. However, John himself might have had the thought in his mind when recording his part in the outro. John had an infamously sick sense of humor at time and liked to include random sex references into songs (the “wet dream” reference in “I’ve Got A Feeling” being a prime culprit). So maybe Paul wrote it about masturbation & told John or maybe John took it upon himself to make it that; either way, the outro gives an auditory image of someone having a fun time thinking of Rita. Why don’t you take a listen and make your own conclusion? I assure you that weird outro aside, the song is a great one that is overlooked on a jam-packed album so it’s great to see it show up here.

Song: Lovely Rita
Album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Year: 1968

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