Beatles: A Song-a-Day
-
170: You Like Me Too Much
You Like Me Too Much is a Harrison composition from the Help! album. It was his third Beatles original – Don’t Bother Me featured on With The Beatles, and he also had another (better) song on Help! – I Need You. So this was the first time George Harrison had contributed more than one song…
-
171: Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine was a track on the Beatles revolutionary and mind-blowing Revolver (isn’t the album title a great example of their flair for double – and triple – meanings). It was also one A side of a double-A sided single (with Eleanor Rigby), and a prominent feature of the eponymous film and LP. The beatlesbible.com…
-
172: It’s Only Love
It’s Only Love is a Lennon song from the Help! album. It’s interesting to read (via the beatlesbible.com article) that Lennon thought that “it was a lousy song. The lyrics were abysmal. I always hated that song.” I listened to it a few times while preparing this entry, before reading the article and quotes. Melodically…
-
173: She’s A Woman
She’s A Woman was originally released as the b-side of I Feel Fine, but I mainly know it from Live At The Hollywood Bowl and from playing it as one of several Beatles covers we did as a band during my school days. She’s A Woman was introduced (according to setlist.fm) to the Beatles live…
-
174: Thank You Girl
This was a relatively early Lennon-McCartney collaboration originally intended as a single to follow up the Beatles first UK number 1, Please Please Me. It wound up as the B-side to From Me To You. It’s interesting that Lennon and McCartney were already intentionally writing songs to fulfil specific functions. In this case the song…
-
175: Act Naturally
Appearing on the Help! album, Act Naturally was one of the last covers included on the Beatles original official releases. By this stage in their career, the available recording and production technology had improved significantly and Act Naturally is also helped by a unironic/sympathetic arrangement – although it’s a Country & Western “pastiche”, the Beatles…
-
176: Misery
This is an early Beatles era Lennon-McCartney collaboration from their first album Please Please Me. It’s a nice song, with coherent simple lyrics, tight clear backing track, distinctive melody and unison vocal. The piano from George Martin makes the bridge stand out a little. It’s a classical-sounding part that adds a bit of drama. It’s…
-
177: Dig A Pony
Dig A Pony, though not one of my favourites, is interesting musically. It’s an example of the unique raw sound the Beatles developed on the Let It Be album – where all four Beatles, plus Billy Preston, are playing simultaneously with little or no studio “trickery”. For all the weaknesses of the project they did…
-
178: For You Blue
For You Blue is a Harrison composition appearing on Let It Be. It seems a bit lightweight lyrically, and musically it is a 12 bar blues, so it might seem like more of a impromptu jam than a fully developed song. But watching some out-takes from the Get Back sessions its clear that the Beatles…
-
179: Not A Second Time
Not A Second Time is a Lennon song from With The Beatles. In line with the overall sound of the album this is a influenced by Motown. Lennon said: “To me, I was writing a Smokey Robinson or something”. I think you can see with this song and the album as a whole, that the…
-
180: Baby You’re A Rich Man
This is a lively psychedelic sibling of its A-side All You Need Is Love and cousin to With A Little Help From My Friends and Hey Bulldog with perhaps second cousin relationship to It’s All Too Much and Only A Northern Song, all songs written and recorded around the same time. Baby You’re A Rich…
-
181: Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby
I have a soft spot for this Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby. I love the cheeky, light-heartedly bragging tone. Seems like a great fit for George’s witty, ironic and sort-of-but-not-quite humble personality. It wouldn’t work at all for Paul McCartney, right? I also think it has a really nice authentic rock’n’roll sound and a…