All
right, time to move ahead to the next album in search of unrequited love vs.
mutual love, positioned within the gifted melodic phrasing stanzas written by
my favorite most influential heroes, John, Paul, and George. Next up, I unveil
the tracks about love found listed on one of my favorite releases, the Past Masters Volume 1 CD. The singles!!!
14th LP – Past Masters 1 (Mutual Love Songs / 4 vs. One-Sided / 11)
Track 1 – Love Me Do: An unreciprocated love song by Paul, penned
at the age of sixteen, based on the lyrical portrayal, all three verses plead,
‘So please, love me do.’ Also, lyrics within the bridge, written by John,
uncover the potential of loving someone new.
Background Fun Facts: Written around 1958 inside Paul’s parlor
room on Frothlin Road and inspired by his then girlfriend Iris Caldwell, sister
of Rory Storm. Rumors foretold this title spun from the Elvis Presley film,
Love Me Tender released in 1957, and the beat duplicated Buddy Holly’s, Maybe
Baby hit single released in 1958.
Brian had sent news to Hamburg about an audition for EMI and
requested the lads work on new material clear up to their final show May 31,
1962. Part of the rework modernized McCartney’s Love Me Do arrangement. The key
changed from A to G, easier strumming slowed the tempo some, and because of
Bruce Channel’s newly #1 pop song, Hey Baby, John added harmonica, with hopes
of being the first British Band incorporating the blues sound to their music.
First Recorded on June 6, 1962. When the song carried its melody
through the studio speakers, George Martin couldn’t fathom John singing the title without the word “do.”
You see, after the long drawn out plea of vocalizing, PLEASE, John sang only
two words––“love me,” and skipped the word, “do,” to blow out the notes on his
harmonica. That hideous plan drove Martin crazy and immediately switched the
lead to Paul right then and there inside the sound room. You can hear an
unsettled very nervous Paul slip out the three words just after the first pause
when the music abruptly stops on the Anthology 1 CD, track 22. Pete Best played
the drums for this session.
Second time recorded on September 4, Martin had no idea Ringo
joined the band, but to be safe, the producer hired session drummer Andy White
for a third session rerecording the song on September 11, and Mr. Starr,
feeling rejected, was demoted to playing tambourine. Eighteen takes finally
captured a decent recording. However, version number two graced the A-side on
the single released October 5, 1962, and Ringo couldn’t have been happier. Once
the public fan base received notice, the single began climbing the charts in
just two days and peaked at #17. Click here for a listen to version two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrkrOHn46qk
Note: Version three with Andy White on
drums appears on the Beatles debut LP. The added tambourine is a dead giveaway.
Bonus Track – P.S. I Love You: A unified love song by Paul,
based on the lyric portrayal he sends all his love to her while away, and to
treasure his promise until they’re together, staying in love forever, whether
apart or beside one another. Background Fun Facts: Written in Hamburg, 1961.
This track became the B-side for the lads for single backing Love Me Do. Just to show how fanatic we American Beatle fans are,
this song became a Capitol Records single and reached the top ten Billboard
Charts three years after released in London. By the way, I always thought
George Martin invented the trick of using the bridge of a song as the
introduction (Can’t Buy Me Love), however, hear is the proof Paul started the
unique gimmick.
Track
2 – From Me To You: A one-sided love song based on never knowing how the
singer’s love interest feels toward his promised devotion.
The
highly anticipated, Please Please Me album had arrived at the record shops on
March 22, 1963, soaring the new pop stars to the #1 spot on the UK album chart
and did almost as well across the channel where it peaked at #4 in Germany.
Producer and Manager, Martin and Epstein, conceived an electrifying workable
plan to release a new single every third month and two albums a year performed
by the sensational Beatles. The lads had just completed their country tour with
Helen Shapiro on March 3 and needed a day off. However, management booked a session at Abbey Road for March 5
because Martin wanted a new single. He indeed got what he required.
John
and Paul brought with them to the session, ‘From Me To You, written during the
British National Tour while on the bus wheeling from city to city. Inspiration
poured from the pages of the weekly pop newspaper, New Musical Express, inside
the letters to the editor section known as, “From You To Us.” After the boys had
read a few remarks, the lyrics developed quite easy.
In
closing Track 2, let me add a bit of humor for you. Remember Kenny Lynch; he was the
singer who offered to record ‘Misery’ since Helen Shapiro’s producer rejected
the tune. Anyway, Mr. Lynch heard the lads rehearsing ‘From Me To You’ and
stopped them directly after the harmony falsetto shrilled the word “ooooh” in line with the Isley Brothers gimmick
on ‘Twist and Shout.’ Kenny objected something fierce saying, “You can’t do
that, you’ll sound like a bunch of fairies.” But the lads said, “It’s okay, the
kids will like it.” And in fact, the girls LOVED it. Imagine Kenny Lynch
telling the Beatles what they can’t do, ridiculous and hilarious.
Click
here for Today’s Tune presented at the Royal Variety Performance: https://binged.it/2kCNJn3
Track
3 – Thank You Girl: A mutual love song based on the lyric portrayal the singer
boasts, “I know little girl only a fool would doubt our love.”
Extra
surprising links await you throughout this track’s review, so read on. When in
the course of human events it becomes necessary for one 45 rpm single to have
an A-side with an adjoining B-side, the Beatles determined to record originals
rather than release a familiar cover song. So, to follow their plans, while on
tour with Ms. Shapiro, John and Paul continued to create the type of music that
would soon put the world at the pop stars’ feet in admiration. The working
title for this particular ditty; Thank You Little Girl.
Both
songs EMI pressed on the Beatles newest single received a private live
demonstration between Helen Shapiro and the two songwriters requesting her
opinion as to which one rated the A-side. She picked the same song the boys
favored, ‘From Me To You.’ However, the real intent of writing the lyrics for
Today’s Tune, ’Thank You Girl,’ had nothing but gratitude in mind toward
acknowledging the uncountable female fans who not only purchased their records
but also sent hordes and hordes of cards, letters, and gifts.
Receive
welcomed passage into the Abbey Road Studio dated March 5, 1963, while the lads
recorded alternate takes by clicking
here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyK6nFYH4aU
Incidentally,
American fans got a bonus when this song turned up on the Beatles Second Album.
John played the harmonica during the bridge, and also at the very last measure
to end the song, but when the single version first came out, the harmonica bit
never made it onto the mono mix. Listen to Past Masters Volume 1, track 3, to
hear the emptiness without the added mouthpiece.
Just
for fun, see if you remember these novelty songs.
. .
We
Love You Beatles by the Carefrees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec6HpzJ8gRI
A
Letter To The Beatles by the Four Preps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxXPkFemYUc
Track
4 – She Loves You: A one-sided love song, in that the singer’s friend gets word
the girl he had hurt so badly, almost losing her mind, still loves him.
“You
can’t end a song with a major sixth,” said George Martin, on July 1, 1963,
after he heard the new number written by John & Paul. But the lads
disagreed and claimed it was such a great sound. A sound so spectacular, ‘She Loves You’ held
the title throughout their career as highest selling single released by the
Beatles in their home country, over 1.3 million copies.
A
giddy Mr. Harrison showed up in great spirits that afternoon for reasons this
marked the first recording session he brought along his brand new Gretsch
Country Gentleman guitar, the same used by Chet Atkins. By the way, young
George thought of the mesmerizing harmony idea, and it’s his voice who sings
the sixth while John sings the third and Paul takes the fifth, no not the fifth
amendment, Paul sings the harmony fifth note.
From
start to finish, this song received a John and Paul joint effort with the
composition between June 26 and 27, however,
Paul used ‘Forget Him, sung by Bobby Rydell that charted at #13 in the UK
during May of 1963, as a model. Click Here for a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IKpA__9kTU
John,
on the other hand, worshiped the way Elvis used the words “Mm mm mm, mm mm,
yay, yay, yeah” in ‘All Shook Up,” as a bit of inspiration to adapt the yeah,
yeah, yeah homage. An iconic phrase that forever linked itself with allegiance
to the Fab Four and zoomed their new musical hit right to #1 on the singles
chart–– for the third time in a row. But then again, who first led the way in bringing, yeah, yeah, yeah
to the pop music scene? Remember the Sherman Brothers, famous composers with
the Walt Disney Studio? They wrote a song (Let’s Get Together) for Hayley Mills
featured in the 1961 film, The Parent Trap. Take a listen and see if you can
spot the yeah, yeah, yeah sung by the young starlet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1IyrZZQd0g
Fun
song, right? Okay, ‘back to She Loves You.’ How did America miss the boat
during 1963? While interviewed for the Anthology, Paul recounted the hard shell
to crack on USA soil where ‘Please Please Me’ flopped. ‘From Me To You’
flopped. Even ‘She Loves You’ flopped, but it was no surprise, really, being that no one from England had ever made it
big in the States, huh, except maybe Hayley Mills.
Click
here for a live version of Today’s Tune as George plays his new 6-string axe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoF-7VMMihA
Track 5 – I’ll Get You: A one-sided
love song based on the lyric portrayal has singer reveals, “Well, there's gonna
be a time when I'm gonna change your mind, so you might as well resign yourself
to me, oh yeah.”
Intended for their next A-side single, ‘I’ll Get You’ had the same
beat as ‘From Me To You’ and the lads believed they had another winner ready
for George Martin. In the event that ‘She
Loves You’ didn’t exist as yet and the young songwriters were extremely proud
with what they concocted, ‘I’ll Get You always held a position as one of Paul’s
favorites.
This tune grew from beginning to end in just a two to three-hour
span, written at Aunt Mimi’s home on Menlove Avenue. Paul received a bit of
inspiration from the chord changes found on an early 60’s Joan Baez single
called “All My Trials.” Click here for a listen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIH1KccVlHk
A revamp of ‘All My Trials’ shifted its lyrics into an updated
version called ‘All My Sorrows,' recorded by the Shadows in 1961 and the
Searchers in 63. Click here for those links: Shadows -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFAEo9wkpyA
The Searchers version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5iKZLa9-48
Did you know Paul even performed a version of ‘All My Trials’ in
1990 while on tour, a fabulous rendition, click here for chills up and down
your spine, especially if you’ve listened to the others first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQMJKra1Hk8
Yes, a great song is worth repeating––now watch what you're about
to read closely. The first word on ‘I’ll
Get You’ is what? Right you are. Imagine! And the chords on the first line for
‘I’ll Get You’ are C, Cmaj7, F, and G. Now, did you know the chords on the
first line for Lennon’s fabulous song called, “Imagine” are also C, Camj7, and
Fmaj7? Yep, great songs are worth
repeating.
Track 6 – I Want To Hold Your Hand: A one-sided love song based on the lyric portrayal, “Oh please say to
me, you'll let me be your man.”
This dynamic song first hit the American airwaves December 17,
1963, thanks to a young teenage girl from Washington DC demanding to know why
her favorite radio station wasn’t playing the fabulous pop sensations from
Liverpool. The DJ, Carroll James, made arrangements for a flight attendant from
Britain to supply him a copy of the Beatles newest single and before laying
down the needle onto the plastic, invited the young teenager, Marsha Albert,
inside his studio so she could introduce the new song to the public. For the
day, Mr. James continued to play his new treasure and constantly interrupting
it with the phrase “This is a Carroll James exclusive” so that no one could
tape the song off of the air to use elsewhere.
An uninterrupted tape recording of the song had transferred to a disc jockey in Chicago who also played it on
the air and received great response from their listeners. They, in turn, sent a tape copy of the song
to a radio station in St. Louis who also had the same favorable
experience. This outcry for more all
happened within days of its’ first broadcast.
Background Fun Facts: Written by John and Paul together in September
1963 at Jane Asher’s parents’ home on Wimpole Street, #57. Recorded on October
17, 1963, and for the first time, the control room arranged to use their top of
the line 4-track recording console that usually served more serious
orchestrated symphonic material, never privileged for flash in the pan pop music.
Seventeen takes within the span of about ninety minutes were needed to
get everything just right.
Click Here for a live rendering on British Comedy Television: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46_yYR6tGOI
Track 7 – This Boy: A one-sided
love song based on the singer losing his true love to another boy.
This Boy just so happens to be my all-time favorite Beatles song,
a repeated confession to my audiences every chance I sing it for Happy Hour
venues, private parties, and assisted living communities.
While interviewed in the mid 70’s, John recalls he gave himself an
exercise to write a three-part harmony number the band could showcase centered
around a single microphone and dazzle the females. The song began its birth on
a September 1963 afternoon around 1:00 pm. Two hours later, he finished the
piece using substantial influence from Smokey and the Miracles, “I’ve Been Good
To You,” released as the B-side from their 1961 top forty single, “What’s So
Good About Goodbye.” Click Here to compare it with ‘This Boy.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1WlhgbqG3g
Lennon brought his new song to George Martin on October 17, 1963,
and the exceptionally trained musician/producer refined the third-part notes using a piano for young
Harrison to learn his bit. After fifteen takes, recorded between 9 and 10 pm,
Mr. Martin felt satisfied with the performance. He then reset the winning track
spooled to the middle of the last verse for two final overdubs that consisted
of Harrison adding the octave guitar parts that descend the scale near the
finish.
For a fly on the wall experience in the studio, listen to the
lad’s record take 1 here: https://binged.it/2lE3uLH
Tracks 8 & 9 are I Want To Hold Your Hand, and She Loves You remakes only sung in native German
language. Moving on.
Track 10 – Long Tall Sally: A one-sided
love song based that Uncle John cheats on Aunt Mary.
This energized McCartney-led romp em sock em of Little Richard's rock 'n'
roll classic captured perfection in a
single take during the sessions for A Hard Day's Night. The tune was originally
released by Little Richard in March 1956
and was a staple of The Beatles' live set from 1957 right up to their final
show in San Francisco in 1966 - the most enduring of any of their songs.
John shares a thought, “Little Richard was one of the all-time
greats. The first time I heard him a friend of mine had been to Holland and brought
back a 78 with Long Tall Sally on one side, and Slippin'
And Slidin' on the other. It blew our
heads - we'd never heard anybody sing like that in our lives and all those
saxes playing like crazy.”
John Lennon
Anthology
The group had played with Little Richard in England and Hamburg
during the early 1960s, and McCartney was especially proud of his ability to
mimic his hero's vocal delivery. Listen to what frustrated Paul as he grips
about authenticity, “One of the things I didn't like about the film Backbeat is
that they gave Long Tall Sally to the John character. I was not amused. I
always sang that: me and Little Richard.”
Paul McCartney
Anthology
It is possible some considered “Sally” for
inclusion in the film, nicely fitted during the live finale, but the film
required a certain play length and having only original compositions rather
than cover songs made better sense. By the way, John plays the first
guitar solo, then George dazzles our head bopping emotions on the second solo.
Track 11 – I Call Your Name: A one-sided love song based on the
singer’s heartthrob left him.
Originally intended for Billy J. Kramer as the B-side to his
single, “Bad To Me, John shares some insight, “That was my song. When there was no Beatles and no group. I just
had it around. It was my effort as a kind of blues originally, and then I wrote
the middle eight just to stick it in the album when it came out years later.
The first part had been written before Hamburg even. It was one of my first
attempts at a song.”
John Lennon, 1980
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Click Here for this song heard on the BBC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PuDDaEDm6g
Take a listen to Bill J. Kramer’s single here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc9w6OryY_I
Click Here for a fabulous alternate take recorded by The Beatles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMZT7mwTalk
Track 12 – Slow Down. A one-sided love song based on the singer
wants one more chance to try and save their romance, but she can’t be faithful.
This right out of the gate hard rocker had been a part of The
Beatles' live repertoire between 1960 and 1962, and the group had stopped
playing it by the time they revived it during the A Hard Day's Night sessions.
An old favorite of John’s written and released by Larry Williams. Specialty
Records, who was known for signing Little
Richard, signed Williams to the label to be groomed as Richard's replacement
since he was leaving music to pursue his ministry at the time. After
scoring a respectable #11 hit on the Billboard R&B charts with his first
release, "Just Because," he hit
it big with his second Little Richard-like single "Short Fat
Fannie." It peaked at #1 on the R&B charts and #5 on the pop
charts in the US. Slow Down turned out to be Williams B-side on the 1958 single
Dizzy Miss Lizzy, another song the Beatles covered.
Take a listen to the beat that grabbed John: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHuJAC_XbhQ
Now, listen to the Beatles recorded July 1963 for Pop Go the
Beatles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PuDDaEDm6g
Track 13 – Matchbox: Not considered a love song at all.
When researching dominate recording artists that inspired The
Beatles in their formative years, the name Carl Perkins pops up quick.
"There have only been two great albums that I listened to all the way
through when I was about sixteen," John Lennon recalled in 1980.
"One was Carl Perkins's first or second, I
can't remember which...I really enjoyed
every track." McCartney described Perkins as "our big hero, who
had written 'Blue Suede Shoes.'" When they all came up with
pseudonyms during their brief Scotland tour backing Johnny Gentle, George
Harrison came up with the name Carl Harrison in tribute to Carl Perkins.
It was John Lennon who first purchased a copy of "Matchbox," which
was Britain's second long-awaited Carl
Perkins single. John bought the single upon release in 1957 at the age of
16, having purchased his first single "Blue Suede Shoes / Honey
Don't" the year before.
Matchbox had been Pete Best's solo vocal spot in The Beatles' live
shows from 1961 and was taken over by
John Lennon when Ringo joined the group. Come July 1963 The Beatles recorded Matchbox for the
radio show Pop Go The Beatles, with Ringo Starr singing and comes included on the
Live At The BBC collection. While the group considered which songs to record
for their third long player, A Hard Day's Night, Matchbox had consideration as
intended to be Ringo's feature on the album but was later deemed surplus to
requirements, and so it appeared on the Long Tall Sally EP. George
Martin couldn’t deny he fancied just Beatles originals showcase the new album,
so scrapping away any cover songs brought joy.
Click Here for Carl Perkins singing his composition,
Matchbox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYBIx58rH_0
Click Here for Ringo singing Matchbox on the BBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_1ao_HzJKw
Track 14 – I FELL FINE: A
mutual love song based on lyrics such as, “I’m in love with her, and “she’s in
love with me.”
The Beatles were scrambling to find a song that was good enough to
release as an end-of-the-year single for 1964.
Lennon explains: "Going into
the studio one morning I said to Ringo, 'I've written this song but it's
lousy,' but we tried it, complete with riff, and it sounded like an A-side, so
we decided to release it just like that." The song John was describing
above was "I Feel Fine," which wound up ending 1964 with a great big
bang.
Background Fun Facts: Written in October 1964 by John while off
work inside his home, he basically
perfected the new guitar riff intro. However, Mr. Lennon finished the song on
October 6 during down time recording ‘Eight Day’s A Week,’ of which you can
hear Lennon pick the iconic expression of notes between takes. The bridge
section received minor changes through Paul’s input.
Back in the very early sixties, the Beatles added a favorite song
of John’s to their playlist called, ‘Watch Your Step’ released in 1961 by Bobby
Parker, the very song that influenced John’s dynamic guitar riff heard on
Today’s Tune.
Click here and listen to ‘Watch Your Step.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvtabNAb_wE
For those who haven’t a clue how the strange feedback shrieks from
the tune’s onset, one of George Martin’s handy engineer brings us to light. In
his book "Here, There And Everywhere," Geoff Emerick gives us an
interesting detail that clarifies the origin of the introductory sound on the
record. "Norman (Smith) later
explained to me that they had discovered that sound purely by accident at a
previous session, the night they recorded 'Eight Days A Week.' It was just serendipity: during a break, John
had leaned his guitar against his amp but had neglected to turn down the volume
of the pickup. Just at that moment, for
no particular reason, Paul had plucked a low 'A'
on his bass and, from across the room, the sound waves set John's guitar
feeding back. They loved the resultant
howling, so much so that Lennon had apparently been fooling around with the effect
ever since. And with his new song,
entitled 'I Feel Fine,' he was determined to immortalize the sound on
record...years before Jimi Hendrix ever started doing it."
Paul suggested the beat used throughout the drum set follow the
style heard on the hit single, ‘What’d I Say,’ released by Ray Charles in 1959,
of which Ringo had proven to the other lads he could certainly match the same
finesse Mr. Charles’ drummer achieved.
Click here for ‘What’d I Say’ then watch and listen to the
drummer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr_rj8KC-Qs
Click here for ‘I Feel Fine’ take 1, played in A as Lennon strains on the high notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QynKQXK_dsI
Track 14 – She’s A Woman: A mutual love song based on the singer
claims, “She is happy just to hear me say that I will never leave her, she
don't give boys the eye. She gives him all her loving.”
As to the style of the Today’s Tune, McCartney gives us some
detail in the direction of his inspiration on writing ‘She’s a Woman,’ and I
quote. "Like 'Can't Buy Me Love,'
this was my attempt at a bluesy thing.
We always found it very hard to write the more rock'n'roll things. It seemed easy for Little Richard to knock 'em off, penny
a dozen, but for us it wasn't quite so easy, being white boys who'd not been to
a gospel church in our lives. So instead
of doing a Little Richard song, whom I admire greatly, I would use the style I
would have used for that but put it in one of my own songs, so this was about a woman rather than a girl. Bluesy melody is quite hard to write, so I
was quite pleased to get that."
Another big Influence, especially
how John attacks the chord progression intro, came from the 1964 rocker,
‘Sugar Bee’, released by the Sir Douglas Quintet. Believe it or not; the
Quintet grew their inspiration to write, ‘She’s About A Mover’ from none other,
then Paul and John’s ‘She’s a Woman––turnabout is fair play.
Click here for Sugar Bee and note the close comparison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBdWoE_nqM0
Lennon recalls his assistance creating the new piece, "We had
one verse, and we had to finish it off quickly.
That's why it's got such rubbishy
lyrics. That's Paul with some contribution from me on lines, probably. We put in the words 'turns me on.' We were so excited to say 'turn me on' - you
know, about marijuana and all that...using it as an expression." It was only five weeks before this date that
The Beatles smoked pot for the first time, being introduced to it by Bob Dylan
during their first meeting with him at the Delmonico Hotel in New York City
while on tour.
Click here for a seat inside the Abbey Road control room while the
lads tackled the new session, this time without George, to record She’s A
Woman, takes 1 – 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8_AzxE4eFM
Click here for take 7 that shows promise, but then the three
mop-tops veer off improvising with a unprompted jam session.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLNKKKAw9uI
Track 16 – Bad Boy: Not a love song at all.
Notice issued
in urgency from EMI Studios that the Beatles needed to pick up the pace
and record a couple of songs came by request from America. The Beatles were
especially grateful to Capitol Records in the US for finally agreeing to release
their records in the States.
Therefore, if they were requesting more material, The Beatles wouldn't hesitate
to oblige. The easy thing to do at this short notice was to unearth two
favorite stage songs from their early Hamburg/Cavern days, both of these being
songs originally recorded by one of John's favorite rockers, Larry
Williams. "Bad Boy," which
mimicked many features of "Yakety Yak," such as the topic of an
adolescent who constantly needs to be told "now, junior, behave
yourself" and a recurring low voice reminiscent of the Coasters'
"don't talk back" which repeats "he's a bad boy." Unfortunately,
the song failed to make any dent on the charts, and neither did the other three
singles he released on Specialty in 1959. The label then did decide to drop
Williams from their roster, but it was more because of his conviction of
dealing narcotics in 1960. "Bad Boy" did get released on 78 and
45 RPM on the London label in Britain where John Lennon took notice of it and,
being a fan of The Coasters as well as Larry Williams, added it to The Beatles
repertoire in early 1960.
From Capitol Headquarters’ hot pursuit, John chose two relatively
unknown tracks, "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "Bad Boy," per the
rush, rush demand from the American record label in Hollywood, California.
Click here for William’s original record: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQRbeunfbDE
Track 17 – Yes It Is: A one-sided
love song based on the singer’s confession, “I could be happy with you by my
side, ‘If’
I could forget her, but it's my pride. His heart can never love another as much as he loved her.
The first Beatles song of 1965 to touch a nerve was the B-side to
their first British single "Ticket To Ride." This moving ballad
was entitled "Yes It Is" which, although not directly stated, implies
the death of a former love while desiring to move on with his life. Such
was the impact of the song that George Harrison was quoted at the time saying
"I prefer this one. It should have been the major side."
Cynthia Lennon, John's wife at the time, also stated, "This is my favorite
Beatles track so far." One of my favorites too, in that ‘This Boy’ holds
title as my all-time favorite song, ‘according to John, ‘Yes It Is’ was a
remake of ‘This Boy.’ There are obvious similarities, of course, such as the
waltz-like time signature, the intricate three-part harmonies in the
verses and solo vocal with harmonized background vocals during the bridge, and
the standard four-chord doo-wop sequence in the verses. The differences
between the two songs are equally obvious, such as the mature substance of the
lyrics, the more adventurous chord changes and the unusual number of measures
per section, the latter element being predictably Lennon.
Although some in The Beatles' camp loved the song, John
continually dismissed it. He would scoff at the lyric "for red is the color that will make me blue,"
explaining this as an example of the song's "double-Dutch words."
Track 18 – I’M Down: A one-sided love song based on the singer’s
love interest could care less if she lies, finds humor in his hurt feelings,
and tells him to keep his hands to himself.
When The Beatles triumphantly returned to tour the US in August of
1965, the similarly sounding “I’m Down” replaced “Long Tall Sally” as their
closing song and remained to be the case throughout the rest of their touring
career into late August of 1966. With only a few exceptions, such as
their final show at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on August 29th, 1966,
“I’m Down” was proudly displayed by the group as the final word at their
concert performances.
“That’s Paul…with a little help from me, I think,” stated John
Lennon in 1980. Paul corroborates this by saying, “I’m not sure if John
had any input on it, in fact, I don’t
think he did. But not wishing to be churlish, with most of these I’ll
always credit him with 10 percent just in
case he fixed a word or offered a suggestion. But at least 90 percent of that would be mine.”
Paul wrote the song at 57 Wimpole St. in London where he lived
with his current girlfriend Jane Asher and her family. Since The Beatles
were back in their home territory from April through June of 1965, having
completed their remote filming for the movie “Help!” by that time, the song emerged during these months.
To say that it was an easy song to
write is nonsense. In fact, they
were trying to write a song like this for quite a long time. “We spent a
lot of time trying to write a real corker – something like ‘Long Tall Sally,’”
Paul was quoted as saying in October of 1964. He continues, “It’s very
difficult. ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ was the nearest we got to it. We’re
still trying to compose a Little Richard sort of song. I’d liken it to
abstract painting. People think of ‘Long Tall Sally’ and say it sounds so
easy to write. But it’s the most difficult thing we’ve attempted.
Writing a three-chord song that’s clever is not easy.”
I’m Down Live in Germany, 66: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFs5ybuBPcE
I’m Down Live in Atlanta, 65:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f27RoArwar0
And the song the Beatles played last on their final concert in San
Francisco’s Candlestick Park was––Long Tall Sally.
Once again, just like my composition lyrics linked to the love
songs I’ve written, unrequited love dominates the majority pieces.
Next week takes us through another amazing
run of hit singles that soared up the pop charts where I’ll unveil the
tracks about love, found listed on the Past Masters
Volume 2 CD of which completes and brings to a close this fifteen-album series.
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