"I'm a Loser"

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A couple weeks ago, I learned the bass part for the choruses of "I'm a Loser," and I noticed something about the fifth and sixth measures:

This is the same phrase that starts the verses in "Tell Me Why."  The only difference is the key.  "I'm a Loser" is in G major, and "Tell Me Why" is in D major.  So the phrase in "Tell Me Why" is a fourth higher, but the intervals are the same:

"Tell Me Why"

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I haven't been doing much work on learning the songs (mostly because I've had difficulty distinguishing the parts), but when I listened to A Hard Day's Night yester-day, I thought the bass part to "Tell Me Why" would be pretty easy to figure out because it sounded pretty much like a scale with a few back-tracks.  It didn't take too long to figure out, and then I referenced The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook for the chords (although I played the opening part as just E minor chords, not E minor 7ths as the book says; it goes between E minor 7ths and A majors, and that's a difficult transition to make quickly).

I'm still suspicious about the last note in the bass part at the very end of the bridge ("Well, I'm beggin' on my bended knees…").  I played an E note, but the chord above it is a D major, so I probably have that wrong.

"Tell Me Why"

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I listened to an Elvis album this morning, and part of "Don't Be Cruel" sounded vaguely familiar:

Baby, if I made you mad
Something I might have said

It has a fairly strong resemblance to some lines from "Tell Me Why":

If it's something that I've said or done
Tell me what, and I'll apologize

I'd been transcribing the songs on that Elvis album, so after I discovered the similarities of those lines, I looked for others.  Elvis' "Sittin' home all alone" seems to have inspired the Beatles' "But you left me sittin' on my own."  The syllable count is different, but they even rhyme ("alone"/"own").

There are also some similar lines in Elvis' "My Baby Left Me":

Yes, my baby left me
Never said a word
Was it something I done
Something that she heard

Elvis was one of the Beatles' inspirations, so it makes sense that there'd be some elements of his music in their songs, but I'd never realized that there were phrases that are so similar.

A Hard Day's Night

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After I listened to A Hard Day's Night last week, I noticed some connection among "A Hard Day's Night," "Can't Buy Me Love," and "Tell Me Why."  Working on transcribing the lyrics yester-day helped in fleshing it out.

"A Hard Day's Night" and "Tell Me Why" present opposite outcomes of the same situation.  In "A Hard Day's Night," the speaker/singer says, "It's worth it just to hear you say / You're gonna give me everything / So why on Earth should I moan?"  There's gift-giving (or even just the promise of gift-giving), so there's no grumbling or animosity, unlike in "Tell Me Why":

Well, I gave you everything I had
But you left me sittin' on my own
Did you have to leave me oh so bad
All I do is hang my head and moan

Here, there's also giving "everything," but now there is cause to "moan" because the affection isn't reciprocated.

"Can't Buy Me Love" presents the same sort of idea ("I'll get you anything, my friend / If it makes you feel alright"), but it also complicates the idea with the titular line: "Money can't buy me love."

Taken together, it seems to present the view that giving "everything" can certainly help a romantic relationship, but it's not the essential element.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that there's also "She gives me everything" in "And I Love Her."