"And I Love Her"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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I watched the A Hard Day's Night movie on Sunday when I started this project (so I already had some things to think about), but to-day was the first day of listening to the album.  Because I found so many things to write about, I think I'm going to separate things and just go by song.  This also gives me some time to research and compare a few things.

Of what I discovered listening to the album to-day, I think the most interesting is the comparison between "And I Love Her" and Buddy Holly's "Listen to Me," which Holly co-wrote with Norman Petty.

Some of the phrases in "And I Love Her" are right out of the chorus of "Listen to Me":

I told the stars you're my only love
I want to love you tenderly
Those same bright stars in Heaven above
Know now how sweet sweethearts can be

The "tenderly" shows up in the lines "She gives me everything / And tenderly."  "And I Love Her" also uses the "bright stars" image, coupled with "know[ing],"  and the same rhyme scheme as Holly's chorus (albeit with an extra line) in the last verse (which is repeated again at the end):

Bright are the stars that shine
Dark is the sky
I know this love of mine
Will never die
And I love her

So "And I Love Her" bears some lyrical resemblance to Holly's song, but - like "Listen to Me" - it also plays around with double-tracking the voices.

In "Listen to Me," Holly uses double-tracking (or, rather, a lack thereof) to emphasize certain lines.  Each of the verses is double-tracked, but one of the vocal tracks changes into a harmony during each "listen closely to me," which not only provides emphasis, but is also a sort of musical joke based on the word "listen."

McCartney's voice is double-tracked throughout "And I Love Her," except for the first two lines of that last verse ("Bright are the stars that shine / Dark is the night").  I should note that it's the verse that precedes the solo, not the repetition.

Because those lines aren't double-tracked, further emphasis is put on the lines that follow ("I know this love of mine / Will never die / And I love her") when the double-tracking resumes.  As in Holly's song, the double-tracking provides a sort of extra-textual highlighting that lends more weight to those convictions.