Friday, March 20, 2026

"If I Needed Someone"

I was thinking about "If I Needed Someone" yester-day and realized that it may indicate some of Chuck Berry's influence.  The lines "Carve your number on my wall / And maybe you will get a call from me" bear some resemblance to the lines "She could not leave her number, but I know who placed the call / 'Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall" in Berry's "Memphis" (which the Beatles were obviously familiar with since they covered it on the BBC).  Both pairs of lines involve a telephone call and writing or carving on the wall.