You Can’t Do That, written by John Lennon, was the B-side of the Can’t Buy Me Love single and was included on the A Hard Day’s Night album.

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First released in the UK and US as the b-side of ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘You Can’t Do That’ was a typically confrontational song written by John Lennon.

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Wikipedia

"You Can't Do That" is a song written by John Lennon[3][4][5] (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and released by the English rock band the Beatles as the B-side of their sixth British single "Can't Buy Me Love".[6] It was later released on their third UK…

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You Can’t Do That – recorded in early 1964 – can be seen as the start of a sequence of songs in which Lennon’s lyrics deal with his own jealousy, possessiveness (e.g., Run For Your Life, Jealous Guy) and insecurity (e.g., I’m A Loser, Help!). In his later songs he recognizes these as weaknesses, but in the earlier ones, like this, he presents them as justified – almost an admirable or romantic trait. Although I think (from film and TV) that such attitudes were fairly widespread at the time, they were rarely expressed as bluntly in song lyrics. These feelings which, as the song says, he found difficult to control were certainly part of his character.

I tried repeatedly to reassure him but it made no difference: John was provoked to fury if another boy paid any attention to me, however innocent.

He was incredibly jealous of any boy who came near me and wouldn’t hesitate to warn them off. Not long after we got together we went to a party at another student’s flat. There was plenty of loud music, beer and cider, and we were having a good time until a very tall student I recognised from the sculpture department came over and asked me to dance. Before I could answer all hell broke loose as John, in a blind fury launched himself at the guy. (excerpts from John by Cynthia Lennon)

In some earlier posts in this series we’ve seen that Lennon, having been exposed to Bob Dylan’s writing and having had influential conversations with journalists Ken Allsop and Maureen Cleave, consciously moved toward more introspective lyrics in the mid-Sixties. I’m A Loser – written later in 1964 – is normally cited as one of the earliest examples. Perhaps it was a more gradual process, or perhaps in You Can’t Do That Lennon was not (consciously) writing about his own feelings but about what he then saw as a universal and natural expression of masculinity; jealousy as part of the same boy-girl dynamic celebrated in love songs, an irregular verb conjugated: I want to hold your hand, she loves you, you can’t do that.

Maybe the lyrics have not aged well, but there’s something authentic and heartfelt in them. They’re honest, coherent and catchy, but what I really love about this song is the music and the way it is matched to the emotions the lyrics express.

There’s a constant dissonance going on throughout the verse, an irritation or frustration. George Harrison’s riff (prominent in the intro and outro sections, but also played under the verses) is full of chromatic wiggles and the rhythm guitar and bass parts are approach the G7 chord on the downbeat from F#7 a half beat before, the overall effect is as if alternating between Gm7 and G7 (at least that’s how I hear it). It gives the song a sense of unbalanced urgency.

 The bluesy verse uses the flat seventh scale degree (F-natural) with a traditional consistency that makes for some bracingly dissonant collisions with the F-sharp contained in the D-Major chord (as in “I told you before”), but both flavors of the third (scale) degree are used (B-flat and B-natural) and this lends a colorful bi-modal tang. (Alan W Pollack’s notes)

I also really like the intensity of the call and response backing vocals in the chorus, the way Lennon sings fla-a-a-t, and the harmonies in the bridge section. And the cowbell.

According to John Lennon, the arrangement was inspired by Wilson Pickett:

“That’s me doing Wilson Pickett. You know, a cowbell going four in the bar, and the chord going chatoong!” (Lennon, interviewed by David Sheff)

You can hear some similar chords and groove for example in R.B. Special by Wilson Pickett, and it’s true that when you listen out for them you can find some of the elements of You Can’t Do That in Pickett’s sound. His band often uses a horn section and/or piano, so the sound the Beatles ended up with was really quite different and distinctive. Even when they are consciously inspired by other artists, they tend to sound original.

I think the combination of dissonant music, imaginative arrangement and (perhaps unconsciously) revealing darker lyrics is a great Beatles record and was an early and promising sign of the direction their writing would take from the mid to the late sixties.