"There's a Place"

Yester-day, I figured out the chords for "There's a Place" and noticed some interesting ones in the bridge.  The song is in E major, but the chord progression for the bridge is:

|: C# minor | F# major

E major | G# major :| C# minor

(This is basically what The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook lists, too.)

The F# major and G# major are a bit out of place, since both contain accidentals (the A# in F# major and the B# in G# major).  Normally in E major, the chords built on F# and G# are minors, but I think it's significant that these two chords are major.

The lyrics for this section are:

In my mind, there's no sorrow

Don't you know that it's so

There'll be no sad tomorrow

Don't you know that it's so

Minor chords are often perceived as sad, but since "there's no sorrow" and "there'll be no sad tomorrow," these normally minor chords are transformed here into major chords.

"There's a Place"

The most significant thing I noticed when I listened to Please Please Me a couple days ago is in "There's a Place."  For most of the song, John Lennon and Paul McCartney are singing in harmony, but McCartney drops out so that only Lennon sings the line "When I'm alone."  That this line lacks a harmony part (unlike the others surrounding it) illustrates that being "alone."

Similarly, the line "Like, 'I love only you'" is sung only by Lennon (with McCartney and George Harrison singing "ah"s behind it), and there's a connection between this single voice and the exclusivity of "only you" in the line.