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Beatles Countdown #69: She Said, She Said

{Nov 18}

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Talking more about Revolver, the next song on our countdown was the last minute addition the album by John Lennon. At #69, it’s “She Said, She Said!”

The beginnings of this song actually began in late August 1966. The Beatles had a quick break between touring & recording and Brian Epstein decided to rent them a house in Beverly Hills so they could relax and unwind before embarking on another long period of working. This was a pretty smart idea, but it didn’t turn out as relaxing as planned. Very quickly, the address for the band got out to the adoring public who, of course, had nothing better to do but stalk the Fab Four. 2850 Benedict Canyon Drive (still easy to find) found The Beatles holed up in the house surrounded by security while fans tried to climb up the canyon or rent helicopters just to get a glimpse of their favorite band. They made the best of a bad situation though and began inviting guest after guest to party with them throughout the night at the mansion. Peggy Litpon, Joan Baez, and Roger McGuinn & David Crosby of The Byrds were just some of the people who showed up and it was an acquaintance of The Byrds that would shape this song. Peter Fonda, son of the legendary actor Henry Fonda, was close friends with The Byrds who brought him around for the trip. He had not yet made Easy Rider and actually had a hard time finding work in Hollywood due to his status in the counterculture movement at the time. His views though made him an instant hit in the music world which was at the forefront of that movement. While the band, Fonda, and most of the guests experimented with LSD, Fonda found a very frightened George Harrison in the corner shivering. Apparently, the quiet one thought he was slowly dying due to the effects of the LSD and Fonda tried to comfort him. Having nearly died by shooting himself in the stomach at age 10, Fonda uttered the now-famous line to George Harrison: “I know what it’s like to be dead.” Over-hearing this, Lennon took it as a buzz-kill and retorted with another famous line: “You’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.” Though bothered by the buzz-kill, he would later cultivate the phrases & conversations into a song, with help from Harrison as well, titled “He Said, He Said.” Not sounding a bit right, John changed it to She instead of He and you know the rest…

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Beatles Countdown #73: I Should Have Known Better

{Nov 09}

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A surprise shows up at #73 on the list in the form of the early John Lennon composition famously featured in the movie A Hard Day’s Night: “I Should Have Known Better!”

The song showing up this high is a surprise for me, but Lennon’s memorable performance in the film was probably a very good reason for it. With the band playing cards, Lennon sings & croons in a train’s back-room while star-studded girls gaze on. One of those girls happened to be Pattie Boyd, a young actress that Harrison would take an extreme liking to. She would ultimately become one of rock’s finest muses with “Something, Layla, Wonderful Tonight,” and many more written about her. Fun fact interruption done! Back on topic, the scene in the movie seemed to be a natural moment of ease for the band, but in the studio, that ease ended up taking 22 takes just to lie down in some much needed frivolity for the band. Lennon going off on harmonica rants that had him falling over laughing, completely re-working the song, and I’m sure having a few moments of just lost immaturity. The song didn’t seem to be as natural in the studio, but by the time it came time for the movie, the band obviously delivered. It remains one of the more beloved scenes from their movies to this day.

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Beatles Countdown #74: Love Me Do

{Nov 08}

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Up next on our list is the first single released ever by The Beatles; at #74, it’s “Love Me Do!”

Man, where to start with this song? Well, let’s start with just how did the song come about? Honestly, depends on who you ask! Paul McCartney mostly wrote the song at the age of 16 in 1958 about his then-girlfriend, Iris Caldwell. Paul takes credit for most of the song, but insists that John actually wrote the middle eight…when John himself denied writing any part of it. Literally the only song in The Beatles’ catalogue where Paul tried to give credit to John who wouldn’t take it! Songwriting credit aside, it would be a good four years before the band decided to re-visit what Paul would later call “their most philosophical song.” By this point in ’62, they were playing the clubs in Hamburg, Germany doing mostly rock covers of Little Richard, Ray Charles, and whatever other popular act the audience wanted to hear. “Love Me Do” was the first song the band decided to play as an original and despite some much shaken confidence prior to playing, the audience reacted overly positive to it leading to the band starting to write & perform more of their own hits. More

Beatles Countdown #78: No Reply

{Apr 08}

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John Lennon’s first complete story & the opening track to The Beatles’ fourth album stakes it claim on the countdown at #78: “No Reply.”

Written about a man unable to get in touch with his unfaithful girlfriend & the pain that follows, “No Reply” would be John Lennon’s version of “Silhouettes,” a 1957 hit by The Rays with a similar topic. John had originally written the song for Tommy Quickly, one of Brian Epstein’s artists, but John realized the potential of the song & saved it from becoming one of “The Songs Lennon And McCartney Gave Away.” The song would become John’s first complete story and their music publisher Dick James commented on how Lennon was improving in his songwriting seeing as this song actually resolved itself. Before that, John (and apparently Dick James) had thought that his stories drifted off from the subject matter in a vague open-ending way instead of finishing the story. Lennon would go on to write a bunch of timeless stories with the absence of his songwriting-ADD (i.e. “The Ballad Of John And Yoko”), but “No Reply” definitely started him down that style of songwriting. While it was primarily a Lennon song, Paul would claim that he helped with a few missing elements to the song which was the custom for the duo at the time. John never spoke out against this and his silence must be his concurrence; the two really only disagreed on the credit for three songs in their whole career. Three out of hundreds! More on that later and back to the song…

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Beatles Countdown #81: It Won’t Be Long

{Apr 07}

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Popping back onto the countdown at #81 is John Lennon with the opening track from The Beatles’ second album With The Beatles: “It Won’t Be Long.”

This song is a prime example of The Beatles’ early work. It features distinctive “call and response” singing as John will sing “It Won’t Be Long” followed by George & Paul singing some “yeahs” in the background. The “yeahs” would also be a staple of early Beatles’ work like in “She Loves You” and this one was no exception with the four-letter word being repeated fifty-six times! Even more, the song would feature a descending guitar riff similar to the scaling work Harrison did at the time and also had a pause break near the end to set up a dramatic vocal ending. Clocking in at a little over two minutes as well, the song perfectly portrays the style of songwriting the band had at the time. It also features a bit of world play that Paul & John were enamored with at the time like in “Please Please Me.” While primarily a Lennon composition, Paul helped a bit and was marveled at their chance to do word play as he would later marvel at the line “It won’t be long ’til I belong to you!” So with all the musical characteristics and even a similar word play, it’s pretty apparent that this might be the template for their early works.

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Beatles Countdown #82: Lovely Rita

{Apr 06}

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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.

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Beatles Countdown #84 – She’s Leaving Home

{Mar 16}

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A stunning piece from the masterpiece Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band clocks in at #84: “She’s Leaving Home!”

Though later called “a McCartney song through-and-through,” Paul would himself say that John wrote the song with him. While Paul handled most of the composition, John would add the lyrics to the chorus as well as sustained notes to the music which Paul later said made the song what it is. Paul said he drew his inspiration from a newspaper article about a girl who had run away from home in February 1967 without any of her belongings. The girl was Melanie Coe who, in an ironic (or not) fashion, had actually met the band in 1963 on the TV Show Ready Set Go after winning a competition. Paul himself was the one to award her for her miming skills! At first, Melanie didn’t realize the song was about her though she could see the similarities. After hearing Paul talk about the song in an interview, she was able to piece it together that she was the inspiration to the song. Coincidentally, Melanie said Paul even got most of her life right as she did feel like she was living alone for so many years and her parents had given her everything that money could buy. Kind of weird, huh?

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