"Octopus's Garden"

I listened to Abbey Road yester-day because it was the anniversary of its release, and I noticed a small feature in "Octopus's Garden."  In the line "We would sing and dance around," "around" is sung with a melisma (B C# E), musically giving a sense of movement.

"Michelle"

I was thinking about "Michelle" this morning, and I realized that the French lines aren't quite the same as the English.  Essentially, the lines "Michelle, my belle / These are words that go together well" are translated into French as "Michelle, ma belle / Sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble" (although I'm not sure whether it's really "my" or "ma," since they sound similar when sung).

A more literal translation of the French would be:  "Michelle, my belle / Are some words that go very well together."  To match the English exactly, it would be something like:  "Michelle, ma belle / Ce sont mots qui vont bien ensemble."  In English, it's simply "well," but in French, it's "very well" ("très bien").

"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"

I've written twice before about possible influences on the lyrics of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," but yester-day I think I found yet an-other.

Years ago, I noted the similarity between "Gather 'round, all you clowns" and "Come gather 'round, people, wherever you roam" from Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'," and more recently, I discovered a resemblance between "Here I stand, head in hand" and "Baby, here I stand before you with my heart in my hand" from Chuck Berry's "Confessin' the Blues."

I listened to Another Side of Bob Dylan yester-day (because it was originally released on 8 August 1964) and noticed the lines "I can't understand / She let go of my hand / And left me here facing the wall" in "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)."  These bear some resemblance to "Here I stand, head in hand, turn my face to the wall."  While the structure is a bit different, the rhymes are the same:  "(under)stand," "hand," and "wall" (later rhymed with "all" in Dylan's song, "small" in the Beatles').  Both even have "face/facing (to) the wall."

The Beatles Anthology quotes Lennon saying that "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" is from his "Dylan period," so the resemblance between it and "I Don't Believe You" seems to have more merit than its similarity to "Confessin' the Blues," although Lennon could have had both in mind (either consciously or not) while he was writing.

"Please Please Me"

Recently, I listened to a two-CD set of the Everly Brothers.  I noticed that for the first two lines of the verses in "Since You Broke My Heart," the harmony part is only a single pitch.  A few days later, I remembered that "Please Please Me" also has this feature.  When I lookt into the resemblance a bit more this morning, I discovered that there's even more to it:  both songs are in E major, and both single-pitch harmony parts are sung to E notes.

According to the liner notes of the Everly Brothers set, "Since You Broke My Heart" was recorded in 1959.  This is a few years before "Please Please Me," so the chronology allows for such an influence, and the Beatles' live on the BBC cover of "So How Come (No One Loves Me)" illustrates their familiarity with the Everlys.  The liner notes of the Everly Brothers set even mention Paul McCartney specifically:  "there was equally no question that the likes of Paul McCartney had been hugely influenced by their Fifties output."

According to Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (p. 20), "Please Please Me" was originally a Roy Orbison-type song.  Lewisohn quotes George Martin's description of it as "very dreary... very slow [with] bluesy vocals."  Martin "told them that the song could be much better if they increased the tempo and worked out some tight harmonies."  Apparently, whether consciously or not, the Beatles patterned their harmonies for this particular song on the Everlys' in "Since You Broke My Heart."

"Love Me Do"

I was thinking about "Love Me Do" this afternoon and realized a small ambiguity in the repeated line "Love, love me do."  The first "love" could be either an imperative (as the second "love" is) or a vocative.

"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"

I recently listened to a 3-CD set of Chuck Berry and discovered that the first line of the Beatles' "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" has a strong resemblance to the first line of Berry's "Confessin' the Blues" (written by McShann and Brown).  Excepting one, all of the words in the first half of the line "Here I stand, head in hand, turn my face to the wall" also appear in the line "Baby, here I stand before you with my heart in my hand."

I've written before about how one of the lines in "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" seems to demonstrate Bob Dylan's influence, but the similarity between these two lines and the fact that both are the first line seem to indicate Berry's influence, which is obvious elsewhere in the Beatles' catalogue.

"She Said She Said"

I listened to Revolver earlier this week, and I was thinking about "She Said She Said" yester-day and realized a small thing about it.  In the repeated line "Ev'rything was right," the three syllables of "Ev'rything" are each sung to a different pitch (F Eb D), musically giving a sense of breadth.

"Got to Get You into My Life"

I listened to Revolver this evening and noticed a couple things in "Got to Get You into My Life."

At first, I noticed just that "day" in the line "Say we'll be together ev'ry day" is sung with a melisma (D A B), musically giving a sense of number (for "ev'ry").

When I read through the lyrics again, I discovered some ambiguities.  In "Ooh, did I tell you I need you / Ev'ry single day of my life" at the end of the first/third verse, the time element ("Ev'ry single day") could modify "tell" or "need."  At the end of the second verse, the lines "Ooh, and I want you to hear me / Say we'll be together ev'ry day" could be taken together or separately:  "We'll be together ev'ry day" could be what "me" is saying (in which reading, I think "say" would be a participle) or "Say we'll be together..." could be a stand-alone clause (where "say" is an imperative verb).

"Back in the U.S.S.R."

Yester-day, I was thinking about how the first verse of the Beach Boys' "California Girls" is an example of a rhetorical catalogue, and that - in turn - got me thinking about the bridge of "Back in the U.S.S.R." which is a nod to the Beach Boys both lyrically and musically (I think I read somewhere that Mike Love suggested the pastiche to them while in India).  In "California Girls," there are four types of girls, but there are only two in "Back in the U.S.S.R.":  "the Ukraine girls" and "Moscow girls."  I'm not sure if two really constitutes a catalogue, but I thought I'd mention it at least.

This also gives me the opportunity to note two other allusions in the song.  The title seems inspired by Chuck Berry's "Back in the U.S.A." and the line "That Georgia's always on my my my my my my my my my mind" seems to be a reference to "Georgia on My Mind," probably most famously performed by Ray Charles.  Because Georgia is also a country that was once in the U.S.S.R., there might also be something of a pun there.

"Come Together"

I recently got the 2-CD version of the 50th anniversary edition of Abbey Road.  I listened to it for the first time a few days ago, and I realized that "Come Together" exhibits anaphora.  Throughout the song, there are various lines with the same structure:

He got joo joo eyeball 

He got toe jam football 

He got monkey finger 

He got Ono sideboard 

He got feet down below his knee 

He got early warning 

He got muddy water

(I had to reference The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook for the lyrics, although I'm not sure those are completely accurate either.)

The use of anaphora here emphasizes the amount of things that "old flat top" has.

"Sexy Sadie"

In the line "Just a smile would lighten ev'rything" in "Sexy Sadie," "ev'rything" is sung with a melisma (D B E D E G), musically giving a sense of breadth.

"Don't Pass Me By"

I listened to the 50th anniversary edition of The Beatles (the 3-CD version) over the last two days and noticed a couple things.

In the two "does it mean you don't love me anymore" clauses in "Don't Pass Me By," the "-more" of "anymore" is sung with a melisma (E C), so while it's negated ("not... anymore"), there's a musical sense of continuation.