"We Can Work It Out"

I recently heard "We Can Work It Out," and I realized that there's a time signature change in the bridge.  It's mostly 4/4, but it changes to 3/4 for "fighting, my friend" and again at "ask you once again."  At first I just thought, "Oh, there's an-other Beatles song that mixes time signatures."  I learned years ago that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" does this (the verses are in 3/4 and the choruses in 4/4), and I recently discovered that the end of "Mean Mr. Mustard" changes time signatures too.

I got thinking about this later though, and I realized that this change in time signature is significant with regard to the lyrics.  The first couplet of the bridge is "Life is very short, and there's no time / For fussing and fighting, my friend."  In that change from 4/4 to 3/4, there's one fewer beat in a measure, so there's a musical representation of the brevity that's mentioned in the previous line.

"Mean Mr. Mustard"

I recently figured out and notated the bass part for "Mean Mr. Mustard."  I don't really have much to say about it, but I'd like to draw attention to how - apparently without reason - it changes from 4/4 to 3/4 at the end.  I hadn't noticed that until I notated it.

I think there's a drum bit at the beginning, so the song actually starts with an up-beat, but I didn't include that in my notation; I just started it when the bass starts.  As always, there's the disclaimer that I might have something wrong (especially the notes in the last measure, which were a bit difficult to distinguish because the track break between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam" falls in between those last two measures).