Beatles Countdown #77: Within You, Without You

{May 04}

Doug1960s , No Comments

George Harrison’s second of three Indian compositions for The Beatles (and no doubt his best) shows up on our countdown at #77: “Within You, Without You.”

“He’s clear on that song. His mind and his music are clear. There is his innate talent; he brought that sound together.” There’s no one better to introduce the song than John Lennon who described the song as one of George Harrison’s best songs. Indeed, “Within You, Without You” is an overlooked gem on The Beatles’ magnum opus Sgt. Pepper’s. Actually, it’s not just overlooked; it’s often been dismissed as a low point on that album. Crazy, huh? If you compare the song with the rest of the album though, you can get an inkling as to why though. The song plays out like a eulogy of oppressed ideas and the depressing nature makes it stick out compared with the rest of the album. While “A Day In The Life” & other songs tackled dark subjects as well, each had their own brisk section or redemption somewhere within. Harrison tried to do just that by tacking on laughter to the end to “lighten the mood,” but most at the time took that as The Beatles mocking Harrison’s sole songwriting effort on the album which didn’t really lighten any mood. But the song does deserve a ton of praise. It’s easily Harrison’s strongest Indian piece while with The Beatles and the lyrics on spiritual exploration fit in perfectly with the Summer Of Love at the time. In fact, the lyrics so moved famed musician Stephen Stills that he had them carved onto a stone monument onto his yard. I doubt someone would put that effort in for a song described as a “low point” on any album.

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Beatles Countdown #78: No Reply

{Apr 08}

Doug1960s , No Comments

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 #79: Michelle

{Apr 08}

Doug1960s , No Comments

Coming in at #79 is one of Paul McCartney’s most acclaimed & recognizable compositions from 1965’s Rubber Soul: “Michelle!”

One of the most memorable songs from the band’s folk-rock album, the genesis of “Michelle” actually began around 1959 as it was one of the first instrumental pieces Paul wrote. Back then, he wrote all of his songs on his first guitar, a right-handed Zenith that he turned upside down to be able to play. Songs like “I Saw Her Standing There” had their beginnings in this stage of Paul’s songwriting, but “Michelle” stood out as it was his first attempt at playing in a finger-picking style. While he was inspired by the song “Trambone” by Chet Atkins, the style foreshadowed Paul’s future desire to break out of the rock style of writing songs as this style was fairly innovative at the time. Originally called “Instrumental In C,” the song started to get more life during John Lennon’s stay at art school. He would invite Paul & George out to college parties where French culture happened to be a huge trend. Trying to fit in, Paul would sit in the corner playing the song while making up French words to match the song. Years later when prepping for the recording of their first true landmark album, John suggested that Paul pay some serious attention to the composition.

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Beatles Countdown #80: Martha My Dear

{Apr 07}

Doug1960s , No Comments

At #80 is yet another Paul song. If we take a look back at the songs we’ve covered so far, fifteen of them have been by Paul. Fifteen! Now sure, George & Ringo don’t have as much to add to the countdown and maybe we’ll see a lot of John later on, but for right now – Paul is dominating this list. But with songs like the one below, it’s easy to see why. From The White Album, here’s one of the highlights from the first disc: “Martha My Dear.”

“Martha My Dear” is a very catchy song in a music hall style that recounts the lover’s affection for the titular Martha. Now, who is Martha? Well, as we’ve seen in some songs already like Lovely Rita, the song doesn’t always have to be about someone, but here, we can gather some ideas about who the song is about. Since the song’s release, some have speculated that the song is about Paul McCartney’s ex-fiancée Jane Asher who Paul had just recently broken up with. Paul himself has said that some of the lyrics could have been written about her such as the line “…when you find yourself in the thick of it, help yourself to a bit of what is all around you.” However, while fans have speculated, Paul has come outright and stated who the song is about…though he’s said contradictory things. The first identity Paul has said is his sheepdog named Martha. In Many Years From Now, Paul stated that it was about his dog in a very affectionate kind of way. Martha was his first pet and according to John Lennon, Paul was very “cuddly” around the dog. Knowing this, it would be easy to view the song as that. Paul was gone a lot and didn’t want his dog to forget him and plus, “silly girl” seems to fit more to a mischievous dog than a bothersome ex. However, Paul has also stated that the song is about his muse. In A Hard Day’s Write, Paul stated that his dog was named after his muse, the voice in his head that helps him with his music, and that the song was about said muse. Looking at these possible scenarios, the song probably fits in most with his dog, but it could easily be a combination of any of them or perhaps all three. Only Paul really knows and I’m sure he’s forgotten by this point in his life.

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Beatles Countdown #81: It Won’t Be Long

{Apr 07}

Doug1960s , No Comments

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}

Doug1960s , , 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.

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Beatles Countdown #83: Lady Madonna

{Mar 16}

Doug1960s , No Comments

Paul McCartney brings us some old-time boogie-woogie with #83’s slot on the countdown: “Lady Madonna!”

Having seen a picture titled “Mountain Madonna” which had an African woman suckling her kid, Paul was inspired to write this as a tribute to women everywhere shortly before the band’s trip to India. The lyrics describe the titular woman’s journey’s throughout the week though Paul famously leaves out Saturday as he figured it must have been “a real night out.” John had a minor contribution to the song too as he borrowed his famous “see how they run” lyric from “I Am The Walrus” for the song’s middle eight. The upbeat, quirky song was accompanied by a promotional film (or music video) which The Beatles had some expierence with. However, when it came time to shoot for the film, all the band wanted to do was work on and record a new song they had just penned: “Hey Bulldog.” As such, one of the two promotional films features mainly studio recordings & performances, most of which are of that song! Denis O’Dell, who was in charge of the filming, would recall had he had a plan for the film, but all that went out of the window as soon as Paul started playing something new on the piano.

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