Revolver

Revolver Deep Dive Part 2: Eleanor Rigby

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Revolver

Side One, Track Two

“Eleanor Rigby” Lives On

 

by Jude Southerland Kessler and Simon Weitzman

 

Through 2023, the Fest for Beatles Fans blog will be delving into the fine details of The Beatles’ astounding 1966 LP, Revolver. This month network TV director, producer, and author, Simon Weitzman – best known in The Beatles’ World for his beloved film A Love Letter to The Beatles: Here, There, and Everywhere –  joins John Lennon Series author Jude Southerland Kessler for a fresh, new look at a track that literally changed all we had come to know about The Beatles! Simon is co-author, with Paul Skellett, of four remarkable Beatles books: Eight Arms to Hold You, All You Need is Love, The Mad Day Out with Tom Murray, and The Beatles in 3D. We’re thrilled to have Simon with us this month and in person, in just a few days, at the New York Metro Fest for Beatles Fans!

 

What’s Standard:

 

Date Recorded:

The Home Demo was recorded by Paul in late March 1966 at Ringo’s flat in Montague Square (Winn, 7)

 

First EMI session, 28 April 1966, Studio Two

5 p.m.- 7:50 p.m. (Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 77)

 

Second EMI session, 29 April 1966, Studio Three

5 p.m. – 1 a.m. (Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 77)

 

Third EMI session, 6 June 1966 in Studio Three (control room only)

7 p.m. – 12 a.m. (Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 82)

 

Tech Team

Producer: George Martin

Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Second Engineer: Phil McDonald

 

Stats: On 28 April, a professional string octet (members listed below) recorded 14 takes. On 29 April, as John C. Winn tells us in That Magic Feeling, “Paul added his lead vocal on track 4, and then he, John, and George harmonized for the choruses on track 3.” (p. 24) That evening, the tape recorder was slowed a bit to achieve a higher pitch when played at regular speed. Finally, on 6 June (spilling over into the small hours of 7 June), Paul re-recorded his vocal, employing a unique concept provided by Martin. Martin had suggested Paul “sing the chorus in counterpoint to his final vocal refrain.” (Winn, That Magic Feeling, 24)

 

Instrumentation and Musicians:

Paul McCartney, the composer, sings lead vocal.

John Lennon sings backing vocals.

George Harrison sings backing vocals.

String Octet including violinists Tony Gilbert (first violin) Sidney Sax, John Sharpe, and Jurgen Hess; violists
Stephen Shingles and John Underwood, and cellists Derek Simpson and Norman Jones. Musical arrangement by George Martin. (Hammack, 136)

 

Sources: Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Chronicle, 219, Lewisohn, The Recording Sessions, 77, Martin, All You Need is Ears, 199, Emerick, Here, There, and Everywhere, 127, Rodriguez, Revolver: How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, 167-169, Davies, The Beatles Lyrics, 144-149,  Margotin and Guesdon, All the Songs, 326-327, Winn, That Magic Feeling, 7 and 24, Hammack, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, 136-137, Turner, A Hard Day’s Write, 104-105, Riley, Tell Me Why, 184-185, Spizer, The Beatles for Sale on Parlophone Records, 213, Spignesi and Lewis, 100 Best Beatles Songs, 93-95, McCartney, Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, 157-163, Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 118-119 and 151, Shotton, John Lennon: In My Life, 123-124, and MacDonald, Revolution in the Head, 162-163.

 

What’s Changed:

 

Absolutely Everything!!! If you knew nothing at all about The Beatles, and heard “Love Me Do” followed by “Eleanor Rigby,” you would vow that those two songs were not composed by the same band! Even if we juxtaposed 1965’s “Help!” against 1966’s “Eleanor Rigby,” the differences would still be myriad and vast. The second track on Revolver truly changed so much that we know about The Beatles. It was a dramatic 180-degree pivot. Here are just a few of the meteoric changes:

 

  1. Instrumental Personnel – Paul sings the lead vocal while John and George sing back-up, but nary a Beatle plays an instrument on this track. The instruments are manned by a professional string octet, but not by John, Paul, George, and Ringo. That is certainly “something new”!

 

  1. Instruments – four violins, two violas, two cellos. And that is all. To quote Clang: “Shocking!”

 

  1. “A Complete Change of Style” – This quote regarding “Eleanor Rigby” (and “Tomorrow Never Knows”) is from Sir George Martin. And of course, he said it perfectly. Both songs propelled us headlong into “the new direction.” Prior to Rubber Soul and Revolver, Beatles music had been upbeat if not always optimistic. Even songs expressing crushing depression (such as “I’ll Cry Instead” and “Help!”) sound hopeful, if not downright joyous.

 

But “Eleanor Rigby” is unabashedly a song about painful isolation from which there is no glimmer of rescue. In The Beatles’ catalog, this is a revolutionary theme and sound. As Tim Riley observes in Tell My Why: “The ‘ah’s’ aren’t soothing, they’re aching, and the sudden drop in the cellos after the first line sinks the heart along with it.” Yes, “Misery” was a song of heartbreak but left open the possibility that the wayward girl would “come back to me.” And in “Girl,” the bickering couple only suffer through their troubles because they’re still very much in love.

 

But the world of “Eleanor Rigby” is a place in which “no one was saved.” In Revolver: How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, Robert Rodriguez points out that even “Yesterday” holds more hope than “Eleanor Rigby.” He observes: “’Yesterday’ bore obvious commerciality with its time-honored theme of love gone wrong. But ‘Eleanor Rigby’ was a somewhat unsettling composition devoid of traditional romanticism, calculated to stir rather than to soothe.”

 

  1. Contested Authorship of Lyrics – The lyrics of only one other Beatles song – “In My Life” – has been claimed by both John and Paul. Through the years, Paul has always claimed full authorship for “Eleanor Rigby.” In Paul McCartney, The Lyrics, he goes into great detail about several “old ladies” he encountered in his youthful Bob-A-Job-Week chores – ladies who inspired the character. And Paul adds that Eleanor Bron might have reinforced the concept of using “Eleanor” as the character’s name. Then he states, “Initially, the priest was ‘Father McCartney’ because it had the right number of syllables. I took the song out to John at that point, and I remember playing it to him, and he said, ‘That’s great, Father McCartney.’ He loved it. But I wasn’t really comfortable with it because it’s my dad – my Father McCartney – so I literally got out the phone book and went on from ‘McCartney’ to ‘McKenzie.’” (pp. 157-163)

 

However, in the 1980 Playboy Interviews, John Lennon told David Sheff, “Yeah, ‘Rigby.’ The first verse was [Paul’s], and the rest are basically mine…we were sitting around with Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall, and he said to us, ‘Hey, you guys, finish up the lyrics.’…and I was insulted that Paul had just thrown it out of the air. He actually meant he wanted me to do it, and of course, there isn’t a word of theirs in it because I finally went off to a room with Paul and we finished the song.” John then goes into great detail about the writing process of “Rigby,” even stating that “when [he] stepped away to go to the toilet,” George and Paul were working on “Rigby” in his absence, and they came up with the line, “Ah look at all the lonely people.” When he returned, John says, “They were settling on that.” He says that he heard it, loved it, and remarked, “That’s it!” (pp. 118-119)

 

Later in the same interview, John restated his contribution to “Eleanor Rigby,” calling it “Paul’s baby, but I helped with the education of the child.” (p. 151)

 

However, in his book, John Lennon In My Life, Pete Shotton revealed a very different account of the song’s creation. Pete says that he and about 8-10 other people (including Ringo) were spending an evening in John’s home Kenwood when Paul arrived. McCartney presented those gathered with a set of lyrics for “Eleanor Rigby,” and said, “I’ve got this little tune here. It keeps popping into me head, but I haven’t got very far with it.”

 

Pete says, “We all sat around, making suggestions, throwing out the odd line or phrase…[When] Paul got to the verse about the cleric, whose name he had down as ‘Father McCartney,’ Ringo came up with the line about ‘darning his socks in the night,’ which everybody liked.” However, Pete says that he objected to the cleric’s name and pointed out to Paul that fans might think it is Jim McCartney having to darn socks, lonely and all alone. And when Paul agreed, Pete goes on: “…I noticed a telephone directory lying around and said, ‘Give us that phone book, then, and I’ll have a look through the Macs.” And he did. After finding and rejecting the humorous name “McVicar,” Pete says that he asked Paul to “try Father McKenzie out for size, and everyone appeared to like the lilt of it.” (Shotton, 123)

 

Then, according to Pete, Paul told the gathered group: “The real trouble is I’ve no idea how to finish this song.” Ideas and suggestions were thrown out at random. And Pete claims that he suggested having Eleanor die and having Father McKenzie perform the burial. Pete states that he said, “That way you’ll have the two lonely people coming together in the end – but too late.” (Shotton, 124) It was a concept, Pete tells us, that Paul seemed to endorse, but an ending that John did not care for one bit.

 

Quite a different tale! So, where does the truth lie? Who wrote what and when and why?

 

The only thread that is consistent in all accounts is that Paul took the song to John and somehow the two of them – alone or with other people – finished the lyrics as a joint effort. All other details vary, depending upon the teller of the tale. Rarely does this scenario occur with a Beatles song. Credits are shared; nods are given. But the history of “Eleanor Rigby” is much like the record’s namesake, aloof and unknown.

 

  1. Recording Techniques – When Paul McCartney told new EMI engineer Geoff Emerick that he wanted the strings on “Eleanor Rigby” “to sound really biting,” Emerick was a little intimidated. How could he achieve that? In his book Here, There, and Everywhere, Emerick tells us that he devised an outrageous plan to close-mic the strings. He explains: “String quartets were traditionally recorded with just one or two microphones placed high, several feet up in the air so the sound of bows scraping couldn’t be heard.”

 

Defying this unwritten rule, Geoff close-miked the instruments. It was a bold act of genius. And the result was precisely what Paul wanted! Not only did the strings supply melody but they also supplied percussion. And their “harsh realism” brought the strident authenticity of a callous world into this lonely and tragic song. (More on this in Simon Weitzman’s “Fresh, New Look” interview below.)

 

One final note…According to The Beatles, “Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name.” But in 2023, almost 60 years from her appearance in the world of The Beatles, Eleanor lives on. By the mid 2000’s, the song had been covered by over 200 musicians. Ray Charles, for example, hit No. 35 on the Billboard charts with his version of the song. In 1969, Aretha Franklin’s take on the number shot to No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. But these two icons are not alone in their respect for the song. Hundreds of other groups recorded their own tributes to Father McKenzie, all the lonely people, and yes, to Eleanor. In 2023, Eleanor is still with us…living on.

 

A Fresh, New Look:

 

We’re thrilled to have Simon Weitzman with us this month for a close and personal examination of “Eleanor Rigby.” Apart from his other many credits, listed earlier in the blog, Simon is working on a documentary about Beatles PA and Rolling Stones Tour Manager, Chris O’Dell. He’s also completing his wonderful film, A Love Letter to The Beatles: Here, There, and Everywhere, which you will be able to enjoy at the New York Metro Fest for Beatles Fans. Taking time out of his hectically busy schedule to discuss “Eleanor Rigby” was a real treat for the Fest staff. Thank you, Simon!!!!

 

Jude Southerland Kessler: Hi Simon, thank you “ooover and oover and oover again” (whoops, wrong band!!) for giving us the gift of your time. We know you’re incredibly busy, so I’ll dive right in. Simon, the 1966 addition of young Geoff Emerick to the production team at EMI certainly made Revolver an edgier, more experimental LP. Please tell us a bit about Emerick’s clever method of making the orchestral segment “hard-biting,” as Paul had requested him to do.

 

Its production is as exquisite as it is different. Paul was a forward-thinker and was amenable to George Martin’s suggestions that classical music be employed. Despite initial misgivings, Paul wisely followed Martin’s lead and brought classical influences firmly into the 20th century. It was familiar ground for George Martin; it enabled him to take a leap of faith with Paul and really push the strings in the recordings, whilst taking inspiration from Bernard Herrmann, who himself innovated the modern film compositions that were to shape cinema throughout the century. Indeed, “Eleanor Rigby” has a soundscape that would very comfortably sit in a number of movie soundtracks today.

 

“I was very much inspired by Bernard Herrmann…[he] really impressed me, especially the strident string writing. When Paul told me he wanted the strings in ‘Eleanor Rigby’ to be doing a rhythm, Herrmann…was a particular influence.”

  • George Martin as quoted in The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn, 77

The sound revolution in “Eleanor Rigby” was further extended by the youthful influence of sound engineer Geoff Emerick. Emerick loved classical music but wasn’t bound by the rules and containment of his predecessors. He was more in tune with Paul’s desire to take what was known from the genre and move it into the contemporary music of the time…in effect, making classical acceptable to the pop genre and vice versa. To achieve this – as Jude noted – Emerick brought the microphones closer to the players, managing to isolate each string in a way that hadn’t been done before, This caused some of the more purist musicians some discomfort during the recordings. You just didn’t do that to musicians in session; well, not until now.  As Emerick clearly stated in his book Here, There, and Everywhere: “On ‘Eleanor Rigby’ we miked very, very close to the strings, almost touching them. No one had really done that before; the musicians were in horror.”

 

The combination of Emerick’s soundscape enthusiasm mixed with Martin’s more orthodox approach worked perfectly to create something that sounded filmic, classical, and modern, all at the same time – just as Paul had always seen it in his mind’s eye.

 

Kessler: Simon, please give us your thoughts on the imagery of the desolate woman and the desperate priest whom no one could hear and whom no one drew near. What do they say to you? Is there hope in this song?

For me, “Eleanor Rigby” is about the mask we put on when we are in social situations and the personas we invent to create our own self-worth. The line: “Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door” is a face we all wear when we leave our homes and try to interact and connect with the world. “Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been, lives in a dream” for me, translates as the daydream in which most of us live as we look at what we perceive to be what we should be doing with our lives…and what we perceive everyone else is doing with theirs, as well as being the outsider who is always trying to conform.

 

“Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear, no one comes near. Look at him working, darning his socks in the night when there’s nobody there, what does he care?’” Again, for me the song concentrates on the lifelong search for our self-worth and ultimately, the things we do to satisfy our own perception of achievement. We are conditioned to do things that are recognized. We are educated to believe that the things we do to create our own self-worth don’t count if no one else is watching or listening. Perhaps Paul was also thinking about the apparent futility of everything. Perhaps he, too, was asking, “Does any of it matter?” and “Why are we conditioned to think like this?”

 

“Eleanor Rigby, died in the church and was buried along with her name, nobody came. Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave, no one was saved.” These final words remind us that we are all ultimately alone. Although in this case, Father McKenzie – whose life is as lonely as Eleanor’s – is at least there to see her over to the afterlife. There is ultimately someone there to see us through, even if it is after we have passed, if only to acknowledge our existence.

 

Then, there is the final chorus: “All the lonely people, where do they all come from?” This speaks to me and to all of us, I believe, at some stage of our lives, or a lot of stages in our lives. “All the lonely people, where do they all belong?” Where do any of us belong? It’s such a clever observation of the human condition and our need to find our place in the world. It addresses our belief that we only count if we are recognized by others…when the reality is discovering and being at one with our self-worth, however our life turns out. That is ultimately what it’s all about.

 

Kessler: Finally, Simon, why does this song appeal to you, personally?

 

This is a song that I very much identify with as an only child and as someone who lives on his own. Ultimately, we are all ‘lonely people,’ but what Paul McCartney (possibly together with John) tapped into is the ultimate loneliness of us all. Even if we are successful, we are unsure. If we are unsuccessful, we feel remote from those who seemingly find success easier. “Eleanor Rigby” is also about the lives we lead, despite the isolation we encounter in life. It is a song that speaks to so many people, even if they aren’t hardcore Beatles fans.

 

It’s a song that has always made me think. Very few of us get through life without anxiety and self-doubt. I do get very lonely. I suffer from anxiety and issues of self-worth, perhaps like so many of us in this Beatles family. And perhaps that’s why this family exists and why it is so successful…because it is one of the few places in life where we do belong, where we are amongst our own kind and where we can embrace individuality and encourage each other. It feels like this song was designed as a “shout out” to everyone looking for themselves.

 

We all have to go through life trying to exude a confidence we probably don’t have. Look at musicians like Adele, who suffer from imposter syndrome. I think we all suffer from imposter syndrome, unless we lack the humanity that anchors us to the reality of our short lives in the vastness of eternity. It doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank, how good looking you are perceived to be, or what circles you move in – isolation is the biggest challenge we encounter in life, and it is easy to get lost. Look at the unfortunate people who are homeless and struggle to be seen at all by so many of us. Everyone deserves to be seen.

 

I wonder if Paul ever imagined that the fans of The Beatles would still be together after all these years and that the music and the legend of the group would create such a strong family bond?  Yet, here we are. We are very lucky to have our Beatles family. It’s what keeps many of us sane and gives us a community to feel comfortable with. I think our Beatles community has a bond stronger than The Beatles ever anticipated. It has been the catalyst that unites us and helps us get through the tough times, and songs like “Eleanor Rigby,” for me, remind us where we all are and how lucky we are to have each other. A place where we can belong, be valued, and not feel so lonely.

 

Kessler: Simon, truer words were never penned! Thank you for being an integral part of this special look at “Eleanor Rigby”! We can’t wait to see you in just a few days at the New York Metro Fest for Beatles Fans!

For more info on Simon Weitzman, HEAD HERE or follow him on Facebook HERE or on LinkedIn HERE

 

For more information on Jude Southerland Kessler and The John Lennon Series, HEAD HERE

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Revolver Deep Dive Part 1: Taxman

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Side One, Track One

“Taxman”… in Which Everybody Gets a BIT of Money

 

by Jude Southerland Kessler and Bruce Spizer

 

Through 2023, the Fest for Beatles Fans blog will explore the complexities of The Beatles’ revolutionary 1966 LP, Revolver. This month, taxman-by-day (a.k.a. corporate tax attorney) and Beatles music authority in all other hours, Bruce Spizer, will provide our “Fresh New Look” at this song, penned over five decades ago.

 

Bruce is an integral part of our Fest Family and is the author of The Beatles Are Coming!, Beatles for Sales on Parlophone Records, The Beatles Story on Capitol Records (Parts 1 and 2), The Beatles on Apple Records, and The Beatles Swan Song. In recent years, he has created the insightful Beatles Album Series, including The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper: A Fan’s Perspective, The Beatles White Album and the Launch of Apple, and his latest release, The Beatles Rubber Soul to Revolver. For our February blog, Bruce joins Jude Southerland Kessler, author of The John Lennon Series, for exciting, in-depth coverage of the opening track of this important and pivotal LP.

 

 

What’s Standard:

 

Date Recorded: 20-22 April 1966

Time Recorded: Work done on the 20th followed work on “And Your Bird Can Sing.” That session, in its entirety, was from 2:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m.

On 21 April, work took place between 2:30 p.m. – 12:50 a.m.

On 22 April, work took place between 2:30 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.

Studio: EMI Studios, Studio 2

 

Tech Team

Producer: George Martin

Balance Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Second Engineer: Phil McDonald

Stats:

 

On 20 April, four tracks were recorded. Only two were completed. (Rodriguez, 126)

 

On 21 April, eleven rhythm tracks (electric guitars, bass, and drums) were recorded. George overdubbed two vocal tracks, with backing vocals from John and Paul. Ringo added a tambourine. Paul recorded the incredible lead solo. John and Paul sang the rapid falsetto “Anybody got a bit of money” lines. Paul’s count-in is present. (Winn, 13)

 

On 22 April, a reduction mix of Take 11 combines both vocal tracks onto one track of a new tape. That is referred to as Take 12. The newly-available track is then filled with a cowbell. The falsetto line, “Anybody got a bit of money” is erased. The “Mr. Wilson/Mr. Heath” bit is added. Some errant guitar notes are erased. Another “rasping lead guitar solo,” as Beatles guru Mark Lewisohn phrases it, was added by Paul. (The Beatles Recording Sessions, 76) John C. Winn points out that it was, “spliced on to the main body of the song and George’s final ‘me’ at the end of the song.” (14)

Editing was done on 27 April and 16 May.

 

Instrumentation and Musicians:

George Harrison, the composer (with assistance from John Lennon) sings lead vocals and plays one of three guitars that he had available. These guitars were, according to Hammack’s Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, either the 1961 Fender Stratocaster, the 1964 Gibson SG Standard, or the 1965 Epiphone ES-230TD Casino. (129)

John Lennon, lyrical contributor, sings backing vocals, and some sources have John manning the tambourine.

Paul McCartney, plays bass on his 1964 Rickenbacker 4001S bass and provides the lead solo on his Casino electric guitar (Hammack, 130). Paul also provides backing vocals with John.

Ringo Starr plays his 1964 Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl Super Classic drum set; he also mans the cowbell and most sources say the tambourine as well.

 

Sources: The Beatles, The Anthology, 197, Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Chronicle, 218-219, Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, 76, Spizer, The Beatles Rubber Soul to Revolver, 22-35, Rodriguez, Revolver, How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, 126-129, Hammack, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual, Vol. 2, 129-131, Margotin and Guesdon, All the Songs, 324-325, Winn, That Magic Feeling, 12-13, Emerick, Here, There, and Everywhere, 126, Turner, A Hard Day’s Write, 102-103, Riley, Tell Me Why, 182-183, Spignesi and Lewis, 100 Best Beatles Songs, 147-149, MacDonald, Revolution in the Head, 160, Davies, The Beatles Lyrics, 142-143, and Babiuk, Beatles Gear, 178-185.

 

What’s Changed:

 

  1. A Harrison Album Opener – Almost always, John Lennon had been afforded the honor of opening his band’s LPs. He’d done so on With The Beatles, Beatles for Sale, A Hard Day’s Night, and Help! On The Beatles’ first LP Please Please Me, the opening track was a collaborative effort (“I Saw Her Standing There”) that introduced the lads to the listening world. But not until the band released Rubber Soul did Paul McCartney motor into the opening slot with “Drive My Car.” Traditionally, one expected Lennon to kick albums off, but of course, one could readily accept Paul at the helm. George had been accustomed to one-sies (and rarely, two-sies) at the mic on each long-playing record. Now, to be selected to open the record was a rather revolutionary honor for George.

 

Indeed, in Revolver: How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, Rodriguez points out that “Not only would [Harrison] get an unheard-of three songs on the album, but he had the first cut as well. It was an honor that left him ‘dead chuffed’…” And George handled this nod with aplomb. (128) Note: As Bruce Spizer will point out, Rodriguez is referring to three original songs on an LP and not counting cover songs sung by George.

 

In his book, Here, There, and Everywhere, new Revolver Engineer Geoff Emerick commented, “I thought George’s strongest song on Revolver was ‘Taxman,’ and George Martin must have agreed, since he decided to put it first of the album – the all-important spot generally reserved for the best song, since the idea was to try to capture the listener immediately.” Emerick and a host of other Beatles music experts cite the extremely clever lyrics as the song’s strongest feature. Part of that charm came from…

 

  1. A Lennon/Harrison Collaboration – By 1966, Beatles fans were accustomed to John’s collaborations with Paul and to John writing songs such as “Do You Want to Know A Secret” and “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” for George. But this time, George penned the album’s opening track by himself and then approached John for a bit of assistance.

 

Years later, John stated, “[George] came to me…I didn’t want to do it. I thought, ‘Oh no, don’t tell me I have to work on George’s stuff. It’s enough doing my own…But because I loved him and didn’t want to hurt him, [I] said okay.” (Margotin and Guesdon, 324) In Beatles Lyrics, Hunter Davies points out that to enhance “Taxman,” John added the lines: “…if you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat. If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat.” Davies says, “John’s input made [‘Taxman’] wittier and smarter and the finished lyrics were much better.” (142) In his extraordinary work, Revolver: How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, Robert Rodriguez concurs to some degree. He states that Harrison had already crafted strong lyrics, but says, “It was John who gave the already-biting lyrics some extra sting.” (126) Beatles music experts also point out that this section was re-written in a call-and response-pattern, and it certainly revealed a band angst, a general feeling of resentment towards the British income tax system (which was taking over 90 percent of their income), not just from George’s perspective but from all of The Beatles.

 

  1. A Change in Engineers – Just before the group began to record Revolver, long-time engineer, Norman Smith was replaced by Geoff Emerick. As Andy Babiuk points out in Beatles Gear, Emerick “was a young engineer, eager and willing to experiment. Emerick had worked on Beatles sessions as far back as A Hard Day’s Night in 1964, but now he joined George Martin’s production team as chief engineer to help translate The Beatles’ ever-expanding musical ideas.” (178) And Babiuk states that with Emerick on board, the watchword for Revolver was “experimentation.” (178)

 

For example,  in “Taxman,” there are not one but two count-ins. George clearly voices what is ostensibly “the real thing” as part of the song. Yet in the background, Paul is speaking the actual count-in. Not only does the verbal count-in reflect back to the first song of their first LP, but the dual count-ins (one real and one “for show”) function symbolically, perhaps representing the fans’ fantasy version of The Beatles’ life spread atop the surface of the harsh, underlying real world in which John, Paul, George, and Ringo actually lived and breathed. The juxtaposition of the dual count-ins signals a new level of creativity and a new depth of meaning in each song on Revolver.

 

Harrison also wryly employs the popular “Batman!” theme shriek for a hero when decrying the band’s actual anti-hero, the “Taxman!” Rodriguez points out that the “Batman!” theme was well-known in England in 1966, having been covered in an instrumental by the Markettes and later by The Who. So, using the comic theme, Rodriguez suggests, is George’s way of “giving his listeners a wink [and]…letting them [know] that, real tax issues aside, his rant shouldn’t be taken at face value.” (Revolver, How The Beatles Reimagined Rock’n’Roll, 127) It’s a tacit joke between the artists and the audience. Thankfully, Martin and Emerick were open to such crafty ideas, and without a blink, they found a way to “make it so.”

 

  1. Unique Subject Matter – George Martin readily admitted that the songs on Revolver were “far more varied than anything [The Beatles had] ever done before.” (Spizer, The Beatles Rubber Soul to Revolver, 23) And it wasn’t only the boys’ music that was innovative! The song themes themselves were sweepingly different. Instead of the traditional “moon, croon, spoon, June” songs, Revolver frankly discussed death, loneliness and isolation, loss, drug usage, and yes, taxes.

 

George commented, “’Taxman’ was when I first realized that even though we started earning money, we were actually giving most of it away in taxes. It was and is so typical. Why should this be so? Are we being punished for something we have forgotten to do?” (Davies, The Beatles Lyrics, 142)

 

By 1966, The Beatles’ eyes were wide open. They were no longer young, green boys, fresh on the scene. The new “studio Beatles” were sophisticated world travelers who had learned how to wrangle with the music industry’s “big cigars,” fans, governments, and press…and to survive. They had faced near-death experiences, complicated personal relationships, and yes, even financial worries. As Hunter Davies points out, “Brian Epstein [had] tried a few tax-saving devices – sheltering one million with a financial wizard in a tax haven in the Bahamas. The money disappeared…” (The Beatles Lyrics, 142) The Beatles of Revolver have learned a thing or two, and on their 7th LP, they tell us about it.

 

  1. Paul Takes the Lead – In our next section, Bruce Spizer will discuss Paul’s remarkable lead guitar work, but we must note here that having Paul rather than George play the lead solo in the middle and at the end of “Taxman” was a landmark moment. From Revolver on, the vastly talented McCartney would increasingly begin to assume roles traditionally allotted to the other three.

 

A Fresh, New Look:

 

Who better to give us all a unique and insightful look at “Taxman” than our own Fest Beatles music expert, Bruce Spizer?! (And let us not forget that in addition to being a Beatles author/historian, Bruce is Board Certified in Taxation by the Louisiana Bar Association, making him a “Taxman” by trade.) In his latest book The Beatles Rubber Soul to Revolver, Bruce reminds us that when Revolver was released, Melody Maker observed that there are “still more ideas buzzing around in The Beatles’ heads than in most of the pop world put together.” (31) Let’s chat with Bruce about those incredible ideas and innovations in “Taxman.”

 

Jude Southerland Kessler: Bruce, the fact that a George Harrison composition opens Side One of Revolver is significant in many ways. Tell us about this interesting new development in Beatles music history and why it matters.

 

Bruce Spizer: George had always been intimidated by John and Paul when it came to songwriting. Who wouldn’t be? He had to wonder at first if his songs were good enough to be on a Beatles album. And it only got worse when The Beatles phased out cover versions of songs from their stage act as album material. Any song George got would eliminate a Lennon-McCartney composition, so it had to be good.

 

Although George had received co-writer’s credit for coming up with the guitar solo on Paul’s early composition “In Spite Of All The Danger” and wrote the Hamburg days instrumental “Cry For A Shadow” with John, John and Paul decided to exclude George from their songwriting team. Harrison would have to go it alone. He got his first proper song, “Don’t Bother Me,” on the group’s second U.K. album, With The Beatles. After being shut out for the next two albums, he had two songs each on Help! and Rubber Soul. But on Revolver, he not only had three songs, but was given the all-important opening track, a show of confidence from George Martin and his fellow band mates.

 

This validation of his songwriting ability encouraged George to write more songs and to push for having them included on The Beatles albums. He had four songs included on The White Album and two of the best songs on Abbey Road. George no longer lacked the confidence to write songs and was even beginning to push to have more of his songs being included on the group’s albums. When George realized during the Get Back sessions that he could not get his songs recorded when limited to two or three songs per album, the seed was planted for him to put all of his own songs out on a solo album, leading to his excellent LP All Things Must Pass.

 

So, the placement of “Taxman” as the lead track of Revolver is significant because it contributed to George’s growing confidence as a songwriter, and it forced John and Paul to recognize that George’s songs were worthy of inclusion on Beatles albums even if it meant fewer songs written by John and/or Paul.

 

AMERICAN NOTE: While fans only familiar with The Beatles’ core catalog of British releases will tell you that Revolver is the first Beatles album to open with a George song, that is not quite correct if one counts songs in which George is the lead vocalist. Capitol’s April 1964 release, The Beatles’ Second Album, opens with George singing lead on Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven.”

 

BRITISH NOTE: While Revolver is the first British album containing three George compositions, it is not the first to have three George lead vocals. I want to tell you the answer, but I need you to think for yourself. Don’t bother me with asking for clues. The answer is With The Beatles, on which George sings lead on his own “Don’t Bother Me,” Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” and the obscure girl-group song by the Donays, “Devil In His Heart” (gender changed in the lyrics and title to “Devil In Her Heart”).

 

Kessler: A comparison of the opening of “Taxman” and the opening of “I Saw Her Standing There” on Please Please Me produces some interesting similarities and differences. In Revolution in the Head, for example, Ian MacDonald says that the differences in these two introductions clearly symbolize “a new start in The Beatles career.” How so?

 

Spizer: In my book The Beatles Rubber Soul to Revolver, I compare the two openings as follows:

 

“Revolver opens with a slow, lazy “One, two, three, four, one, two” count-in by George augmented by tape sounds and a cough. Paul’s original count-in for the song’s backing track can be heard as well, just as Harrison ends his count. It is a far cry from Paul’s youthful, exuberant “One, two, three, faaa!” count-in that preceded “I Saw Her Standing There,” the opening track on the group’s first Parlophone LP, Please Please Me, and the second song on Capitol’s Meet The Beatles! LP. In comparing those early albums to Revolver, the music and lyrical themes that follow are as different as the count-ins.”

 

Looking back, Paul’s “One, two, three, faaa!” count-in to the lead track on the Please Please Me LP was a stroke of genius on the part of George Martin. He wanted to get The Beatles’ first album off to a memorable and rousing start with what he described as a “potboiler,” so he chose “I Saw Her Standing There,” a high-energy rocker. He edited Paul’s count-in from Take 9 (with the volume increased) to the opening of the master take of the song. It was the perfect introduction to a great 14-song set of performances taken from The Beatles’ stage show.

 

In my upcoming book, The Beatles Please Please Me to With The Beatles, I discuss how the Beatles and George Martin selected the songs for the first LP:

 

“With only a single day available, Martin knew time was an issue. ‘I asked them what they had which we could record quickly, and the answer was their stage act.’ This would consist of a mix of Lennon-McCartney original compositions and cover versions of songs by other artists.”

 

Although Martin had ruled out recording The Beatles in concert at the Cavern, he wanted to capture that sound in the studio. In my upcoming book I write:

 

“Engineer Norman Smith placed the microphones further from the amplifiers than what was normally done so that they would pick up not only direct sound from the amplifiers, but also the ambient sound of the room. This gave the songs a more raucous sound, resembling what was heard at the group’s live performances.”

 

By 1966, the boys had grown up. They and George Martin were no longer looking for that “live-in-concert” sound. As stated on the back cover to The Beatles Rubber Soul to Revolver:

 

“With Revolver, The Beatles were looking for more color in their recordings, trying new instruments and techniques. But they were not using studio wizardry to cover weaknesses; they were looking for new sounds to enhance their already brilliant songs.”

 

In effect, the studio became an instrument all its own for The Beatles to experiment with. The whirling tape sounds heard in the introduction to “Taxman” foreshadow the role that recording tape would play on the album – new techniques such as artificial double-tracking, varispeed recordings, backwards tape recordings and tape loops. Although many of these tape tricks are heard throughout the album, it is the album’s final track, “Tomorrow Never Knows,” that takes full advantage of the techniques that the Abbey Road engineers used so effectively on the album.

 

The Beatles’ next few projects continued to take advantage of the studio, although The Beatles briefly attempted to get back to the sound of their Please Please Me LP during the Get Back project, foregoing overdubs and other tape effects and going for a “live-in-the-studio” sound, culminating with their famous rooftop concert, where their sound bounced around London buildings instead of studio walls.

 

Paul’s fast and youthful count-in on “I Saw Her Standing There” is appropriate for an album whose ten new songs were quickly recorded in 14 hours on a single day by a group referred to as “the boys.” George’s slow and mature-sounding count-in on “Taxman” is equally appropriate for an album recorded in 300 hours over a two-and-a-half-month span by a group of maturing young men whose musical abilities were evolving at a mind-numbing pace.

 

AMERICAN NOTE: Americans who bought the Vee-Jay album Introducing The Beatles, which featured 12 of the 14 songs appearing on the Please Please Me LP, were literally short-changed on the opening. Engineer Roger Anfinsen, who worked at Chicago’s Universal Recording Studios, prepared mono and stereo masters of the Vee-Jay album in late June 1963. Either on his own or following instructions from Vee-Jay, Anfinsen edited most of Paul’s count-in at the beginning of the tape, perhaps thinking it did not belong on the album. Thus, both the mono and stereo versions of Introducing The Beatles open with Paul shouting “Faaa!”

 

Kessler: Although George wrote the lyrics to this song with some assistance from John  Lennon, many music experts call “Taxman” a “true group effort.” Do you agree with this observation, and if so, why?

 

Spizer: I guess people call “Taxman” a “true group effort” because John assisted George with the lyrics, Paul contributed a great lead guitar solo, and all four Beatles play on the song. That was not always the case on Revolver. No Beatle plays on “Eleanor Rigby,” and Paul and Ringo are the only Beatles playing instruments on “Good Day Sunshine” and “For No One.” John also does not play an instrument on “Love You To” or “Here, There And Everywhere.” But over half the songs on the album have all four Beatles fully participating.

 

Nonetheless, when the album came out in 1966, Melody Maker astutely noted that “The Beatles individual personalities are now showing loud and clear,” with only a few of the LP’s songs really being Beatle tracks. “Most are Paul tracks, John tracks, George tracks, or in the case of ‘Yellow Submarine,’ Ringo’s track.” George’s fascination for Indian music and Paul’s liking of classical music effects clearly come through. Out of George’s three songs on the album, “Love You To” and “I Want To Tell You” are clearly “George tracks,” while “Taxman” is more of a group effort.

 

As for Paul playing the guitar solo, that had to have been an awkward moment for George. After all, he was the group’s lead guitarist, and it was his song. But the final result was well worth it. According to Paul: “George let me have a go for that solo because I had an idea. I was trying to persuade George to do something…feedback-y and crazy. And I was showing him what I wanted, and he said, ‘Well, you do it.’” Although George may have capitulated with a taste of resentment and sarcasm, he was later appreciative, saying: “I was pleased to have Paul play that bit on ‘Taxman.’ If you notice, he did like a little Indian bit on it for me.”

 

George allowing the band’s bass player to usurp his guitar solo on his own composition shows that George put the group and the quality of the song ahead of his ego. Now that’s a group effort!

 

AMERICAN NOTE: While the British version of Revolver has 14 tracks, the Capitol version only has 11 songs. This is because Capitol placed three of the British album’s songs on an earlier release, Yesterday And Today. Unfortunately, all three of these songs, “I’m Only Sleeping” “And Your Bird Can Sing” and “Doctor Robert,” were songs with John on lead vocal. This gave Americans the impression that John had contributed very little to the album.

 

Kessler: Revolver firmly established The Beatles as recording artists rather than a stage band or a touring band. Tell us about some of the techniques used on “Taxman” that would have been difficult to duplicate on stage.

 

Spizer: Before Revolver was released, Paul was quoted as saying about the album: “They’ll never be able to copy this one!” He was most likely thinking of songs like “Eleanor Rigby,” “Love You To,” “Yellow Submarine,” and “Tomorrow Never Knows,” and to a lesser extent, “For No One” and “Got To Get You Into My Life.” “Taxman” is actually one of the album’s songs that could have been played live; however, it would not have sounded like the album track unless you had an extra guitar player for the song’s solo and people adding tambourine and cowbell. And, of course, you’d need great musicians to handle Paul’s stop-and-start bass guitar riff working in tandem with Ringo’s energetic drumming, not to mention George’s distorted rhythm guitar and Paul’s aggressive guitar solo.

 

The Fest loves Bruce…and we sincerely appreciate his sharing insights on “Taxman” with us. You can meet Bruce in person, get a copy of his book, and hear him speak throughout the weekend at the

 

New York Metro Fest for Beatles Fans, 31 March – 2 April at the Hyatt Regency, Jersey City

 

For more information about Bruce and his books HEAD HERE

 

Follow Bruce on Facebook HERE 

 

Join Bruce Spizer on “She Said She Said” as he talks about The Beatles Rubber Soul to Revolver

 

For more information about Jude Kessler and The John Lennon Series, HEAD HERE

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Revolver Deep Dive: Talent is the best weapon

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If Frank Sinatra is correct and “success is the best revenge,” then surely “talent is the best weapon.” And for The Beatles, their ever-emerging and morphing talent was exhibited most effectively in their 1966 album, Revolver. Revolver shattered almost everything that fans and critics had come to think of as “classic Beatles.” It launched us all into an era of new sounds, new techniques, new topics and ideas. Even the LP’s clever title conjured up myriad novel images:

 

images of rotating turntables,

circular doors opening to new avenues,

opinions pivoting as the world revolved from comfortable “she loves you” yesterdays to thought-provoking “tomorrow never knows” futures.

 

Opening up and provoking thought: That is exactly what The Fest for Beatles Fans blog will be doing over the next 16 months as we begin to explore the genius and artistry of Revolver, track-by-track. We will study each song in depth and ask our own Fest authors and experts to share their insights into the 14 songs of 1966 that introduced us all to “the studio Beatles.” We will examine these innovative tunes and lyrics with the help of Bruce Spizer, Jay Bergen, Christine Feldman-Barrett, Dr. Kit O’Toole, Laura Cortner and Dr. Bob Hieronimus, Erin Torkelson Weber, Bob Wilson and Don Jeffries, Debbie Greenberg, Susan Shumsky, Ivor Davis, Melissa Davis, Bill King, and me, Jude Southerland Kessler.

 

Each month, I will research and present what the Beatles music experts have to say about “who played what and how and when and where” on that month’s selected track – presenting that information in our “What’s Standard” section of the Fest Blog. Then, the innovations of each song will be covered in the “What’s Changed” section. Finally, I’ll interview a guest Beatles author/expert, asking that individual to answer 4 in-depth questions about “the song of the month.”

 

We’ll begin this study in February with a look at “Taxman.” Guest Expert Bruce Spizer, who recently released the already best-selling book The Beatles Rubber Soul to Revolver, will kick things off. Already, Bruce and I are both hard at work, preparing the blog for you. We’re hoping that the information we uncover will provide a “Fresh New Look” at a song that may have been penned by George Harrison (with some help from John Lennon) but took all four Beatles to perfect. We hope we can serve up some food for thought about the exciting opening track on this great LP.

 

Because that, after all,  is the theme of Revolver. It was, in essence, the modern “shot heard round the world,” signaling freedom from past convention in favor of a “band-new,” independent  beginning. It was the decisive break between the stage band we had come to love so dearly and the studio band that would amaze us (no maybe) over and over again – with songs that would be almost impossible to be performed on a stage. Revolver encouraged us to stop, pay attention, and listen…very carefully. And over the next 16 months, that is what we will do.

 

The Fest for Beatles Fans cordially invites you to join us in this trek through the best music of 1966, brought to you via the genius of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and the magnificent sound artists led by Sir George Martin at EMI studios.

 

Soon, we shall begin. Stay tuned.

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Thoughts on Rubber Soul as we wrap our track-by-track deep dive

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For the last year and a half, our Beatles family of experts/authors have worked in concert to explore (track-by-track!) the phenomenal, pivotal LP that was Rubber Soul. To discuss which instruments were used on which songs, who played what, and how each song was created in studio, I spent hours poring over Beatles music studies (listed at the end of this blog). During that process, I found that (on several occasions) music experts were 180-out from one another; rarely did all of the authorities agree on the guitar used or who performed each part of the song. Working diligently to suss out the “facts and stats” for each song track discussion, I think we all discovered new schools of thought and began to look at Rubber Soul with a revitalized vision

 

A plethora of our Fest For Beatles Fans experts donated their time to answer interview questions that provided “A Fresh, New Perspective” on each track, and I hope you agree with me that their insights permitted us all to see these great 1965 songs in a better light. We heard from Kenneth Womack, Bruce Spizer, Al Sussman, Susan Ryan, Robert Rodriguez, Janet Davis, Jim Berkenstadt, Lanea Stagg, Jerry Hammack, Piers Hemmingsen, Sara Schmidt, Tom Frangione, David Bedford, and Scott Freiman. Then, professional artist Rande Kessler re-examined the creative cover of the LP while Terri Whitney created a poem to Rubber Soul that touched our hearts.

 

It was a wonderful series of thought-provoking Fest Blogs, and we thank each person who contributed to this study.

 

But…there is still so much to discover about Rubber Soul, as we approach its 60th Anniversary in 2025. For decades Revolver was regularly touted as “the transitional LP” that signaled the end of the touring years and ushered in the “studio years.” But progressively, music experts pointing to Rubber Soul’s  transition toward world music influences, its radical change in attitudes toward women, its shift from simple “moon-June-croon” love songs to intricate songs about complicated relationships, and its move toward intricate instrumentation as the transition point in The Beatles’ careers. Recently, Milwaukee journalist Bobby Tanzilo stated, “While the world glorifies Sgt. Pepper, many die-hard fans credit 1965’s Rubber Soul for kicking off The Beatles’ experimental phase.” The LP is gaining greater prominence and stepping into its own.

 

If you somehow missed the Fest Blogs on this unique album, I invite you to go back and enjoy them right here on the Fest For Beatles Fans website. They began in January 2021 and ended in August 2022. If you’ve digested all of the blogs as we went along, here is a bit of additional reading to enjoy:

 

The Beatles: Rubber Soul to Revolver, Bruce Spizer, 2022. The latest release in Spizer’s Beatles Album Series is thorough, interesting, and perceptive. Spizer not only traces the genesis and development of these two records with his signature accuracy, but he also calls upon respected Beatles authors to cover their fields of expertise. Piers Hemmingsen writes about the Canadian reception for these two remarkable LPs. Al Sussman provides the historical backdrop for their creation. Frank Daniels tells us about 1966 in film and comics. And Bill King, the creator of Beatlefan magazine gives us a chapter on “Summer of ’66: A Quiet Revolution.” As always, Bruce Spizer also provides priceless fan remembrances about the impact of Rubber Soul and Revolver upon the lives of ordinary people. With superb photos that you’ll find nowhere else, Spizer’s examination of The Beatles’ 1965 and 1966 LPs is extraordinary.

 

This Bird Has Flown, The Enduring Beauty of Rubber Soul, Fifty Years On, John Kruth, 2015. Kruth’s book is a thorough study of Rubber Soul, artfully highlighting the many aspects of the record that are propelling it into the limelight again in recent years. In an interview with OnMilwaukee.com, Kruth stated, “Rubber Soul is so rich – the first time George uses the sitar – on “Norwegian Wood,” Paul employs jazz chords on “Michelle,” John evokes Weill and Brecht on “Girl,” Ringo sings country on “What Goes On” on the Brit pressing. {And] Paul’s “I’ve Just Seen a Face” seemed to spell out everything I was searching for in a love relationship, overtly as romantic as it was.” In meticulous but very interesting detail, Kruth guides Beatles fans through each Rubber Soul track with care and attention to detail. You will enjoy this book and learn so much from it!

 

The Beatles as Musicians, The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul, Walter Everett, 2001. If you are a serious music student or aficionado, this book is for you. Everett breaks down each track into its component parts. A respected Beatles scholar and lecturer, Everett delves into music theory, instrumentation, lyrics, and recoding techniques. A classic work, this book will never go out of style.

 

Finally, I could not have approached this “long and winding” blog series of blogs without the scholarly work of authors who for five decades have poured over Rubber Soul and lauded it for its creativity, style, and content. So, sincere “thank you’s” are definitely in order to these distinguished historians, Beatles music experts, and biographers for their exemplary work:

The Beatles, The Anthology

Paul McCartney, The Lyrics

Mark Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Chronicle

Bill Harry, The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia

Bill Harry, The John Lennon Encyclopedia

Kenneth Womack, Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of The Beatles

Kenneth Womack, Maximum Volume, The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin

Kenneth Womack, The Beatles Encyclopedia

Bruce Spizer, Beatles for Sale on Parlophone Records

Bruce Spizer, The Beatles Rubber Soul to Revolver

John C. Winn, Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles Recorded Legacy, Vol. 1

Phillipe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon, The Beatles, All the Songs

Jerry Hammack, The Beatles Recording Reference Manual

Steve Turner, A Hard Day’s Write

Stephan J. Spignesi and Michael Lewis, 100 Greatest Beatles Songs

Andy Babiuk, Beatles Gear

Ray Coleman, Lennon

Tim Riley, Tell Me Why

Tim Riley, Lennon

Barry Miles, The Beatles Diary, Vol. 1

Barry Miles, Paul McCartney, Many Years from Now

Keith Badman, The Beatles: Off the Record

Philip Norman, Shout!

Philip Norman, John Lennon: the Life

Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head, The Beatles Records and The Sixties

Chuck Gunderson, Some Fun Tonight: The Backstage Story of How The Beatles Rocked America: The Historic Tours of 1964-1966

David Sheff, The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Walter Everett, The Beatles as Musicians, The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul

Wilfrid Mellers, Twilight of the Gods: The Music of The Beatles

 

Thank you, as well, to Nicole Michael of 910 Public Relations and Rande Kessler for carefully editing each blog before it went to press. And huge thanks to Danny Abriano of The Fest For Beatles Fans for posting each blog with rare and interesting photos that brought the subject to life!

 

Most of all, my deepest thanks to Mark, Carol, Michelle Joni, and Tilly Lapidos for permitting us to study this ever-evolving record with such intensity for so many months. It was a joy to bring our Fest Family of noted authors together for a project of this magnitude. You believed in us and gave us a great forum. We so appreciate it!

 

I hope you all have enjoyed  reading this as much as we, the authors, have enjoyed compiling it. Stay tuned to our Fest For Beatles Fans website, Facebook page, and Instagram page as we will continue to keep you on the cusp of Beatles scholarship.

 

Shine On!

Jude Southerland Kessler

Author, The John Lennon Series

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Tomorrow Never Knows: All Together Now!

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In one of my favorite books on The Beatles and Liverpool, Liverpool: The 5th Beatle, author P. Willis Pitts says, “If The Beatles had not been from disparate cultures, they might not have survived. Ethnically, the four Beatles represented four very different facets of Liverpool in a microcosm. And this not only kept them together for so long, but was what made their music so juicy and colorful.”[1]

 

Never is that more obvious than in “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

 

Ringo, the earthy boy from The Dingle who unpretentiously coined remarkable idioms, gave us the clever title, “Tomorrow Never Knows.” When asked for the fourteen millionth time what the future would hold for The Beatles, Ringo (the actual working-class hero) shrugged and said, “Tomorrow never knows.” And instantly John logged the phrase in, just as he did with Ringo’s earlier wry observation about “a hard day…er, day’s night.” Like any author worth his salt, Lennon captured le mot juste (the best phrase) from his Scouse friend and eventually used it. (As John always said, “When you steal, steal from the best!”)

 

Furthermore, in the musical web that is “Tomorrow Never Knows,” Ringo’s drumming guided the group expertly through the complicated, interlocking sound. As Willis-Pitts so astutely observes, “Ringo laid it down, and unlike most drummers of the modern era, did not blend with Paul in that symbolic marriage of drummer and bassist…Ringo laid it down for the whole group.”[2] In “Tomorrow Never Knows,” Starr’s sound formed the unshakeable foundation upon which this otherwise unfettered and mystical song was constructed.[3]

 

Paul – the prim Allerton row house PR man for the group – provided the friendly introductions that propelled John to write the song. In 1966, Paul introduced John to Barry Miles and John Dunbar who ran London’s Indica bookstore. Here, John (initially in search of Nietzsche’s works) was handed a copy of Timothy Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.[4] Glomming hungrily onto this Cliffs Notes version of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, (Tim Riley refers to it as “a shortcut” to the ancient practice, a “trip guide”[5]) John conceived the idea of writing a musical equivalent to Leary’s work.

 

Paul’s part as “co-inspirator” for the song isn’t his only role, however, in the life of “Tomorrow Never Knows.” As Riley wisely observes in Tell Me Why, “Ringo and Paul…lay down a feverish groove beneath the chaos as noises, backwards guitars, and birds swoop all around them.”[6] Furthermore, the sixteen tape loops made by The Beatles which fill the song’s entirety were made in Paul’s home on his Grundig recorder. Paul introduced the others to his technique (as Sir George Martin explained it) of “moving the erase head and putting on a loop [so that] he could actually saturate the tape with a single noise. It would go round and round, and eventually the tape couldn’t absorb any more…”[7] McCartney’s technique was adopted by the others; The Beatles were given an assignment to create their own, and voila![8]

 

Though we are told that the spirited boy from Speke, George Harrison, did not play a large role on this track (other than performing guitar on his loops), “Tomorrow Never Knows” would have been virtually impossible without George. It is George who first dragged his mates into Eastern mysticism. In fact, in The Beatles Anthology, George questioned whether John truly understood the immensity of the lyrics in “Tomorrow Never Knows.” George said, “I am not too sure…John actually fully understood what he was saying. He knew he was onto something when he saw those words and turned them into a song. But to have experienced what the lyrics in that song are actually about? I don’t know if he fully understood it.”[9] And then George went on to explain the song in great detail. The philosophy behind the song was Harrison’s wheelhouse.

 

Whether or not John grasped the fullness of Leary’s words or the philosophy housed in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, our Woolton upper-middle class intellectual – John Lennon – penned a tribute to both that is accurate, poetic, and moving. With a wisdom that knew what to include and what to leave out, John lifted up the most pertinent points and linked them logically and artistically. From that opening line that initially fascinated him,

 

“Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream; this is not dying…”

 

to the magnificent conclusion of the song, John walked the listener carefully through the process of 1) eliminating all conflicting outside thoughts, 2) focusing solely upon meditation, 3) allowing spiritual healing to occur, and finally, 4) facing death with the certainty of a new beginning, not a sad ending.[10]

 

Furthermore, without ever allowing the melody to become laborious or monotonous, John created a true Indian song, based upon one unvarying chord. As George Harrison observed, “Indian music doesn’t modulate…you pick what key you’re in, and it stays in that key…[and] “Tomorrow Never Knows” was the first [song] that stayed there; the whole song was on one chord.” Creating a song in this manner and yet making it palatable and memorable for non-Indian listeners was, in itself, a musical coup. Once again, John Lennon proved himself the equal of any songwriter. His work is brilliant.

 

P. Willis Pitts points out that “[The Beatles’] songs worked, more or less, because each piece was only part of a fragment, part of a whole. Like an exploded diagram of a functional machine, these separate productions were an indication of how Beatles’ songs worked.”[11] No part could function without the other, and it took the amalgam to make a classic.

 

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the final song on Revolver, “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Working together as The Boys gradually began to face “an ending” which will be “the beginning” for their solo careers, they all created a masterpiece and faced the hard days’ nights to come with a faith that whispered, “In the universe as a whole, all will eventually be well.”

 

[1] Willi-Pitts, Liverpool: The 5th Beatle, 117.

[2] Willis, Pitts, 118.

[3] In The Beatles Anthology, p. 210, Ringo comments, “I was proud of my drumming on ‘Tomorrow Never Knows,’…I was quite proud of my drumming all the way through, really.”

[4] Miles, Many Years from Now, 290-291 and Riley, Lennon, 303.

[5] Riley, Lennon, 304.

[6] Riley, Tell Me Why, 199.

[7] Turner, A Hard Days’ Write, 116.

[8] In The Beatles Anthology, 210, George says, “Everybody went home and made a spool, a loop.”

[9] The Beatles, The Beatles Anthology, 210.

[10] See George Harrison’s brilliant explanation of the song’s lyrics in The Anthology, 210.

[11] Willis-Pitts, 118.

Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series: www.johnlennonseries.com

 

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations — @910PubRel on Twitter and 910 Public Relations on Facebook.

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Paul McCartney: Into His Life

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As we continue looking at Side Two of Revolver, we thought it might be fun to compare and contrast two of Paul’s love songs…we’d love to hear from you about the similarities and differences you perceive!

 

Revolver is a Paul-centric LP. No doubt about it. It is the first of The Beatles’ LPs in which Sir Macca (and not the former “Leader Beatle,” John Lennon) dominates,  singing, and thus having composed, six of the 14 tracks. (Really, seven, if you count his predominate influence on “Yellow Submarine”).

 

John Lennon was the real-life “Ancient Mariner.” Like Coleridge’s weathered protagonist, Lennon always grabbed you by the elbow, and began to tell you his tragic life’s story. In “I’ll Cry Instead,” his BBC cover of Smokey Robinson’s “You Really Got A Hold On Me” (to which John adds the telling word, “Mother”), “If I Fell” or “I’m A Loser,” John is consistently bemoaning about Julia’s absence in his life and his consuming heartbreak over her loss…or perhaps, as he sees it, his inability to keep her.

 

“Beatle Paul” is just as thematically consistent. From early on, he composes songs about his struggling (and later, failing) relationship with Jane Asher. On Side One of Beatles For Sale, he reminds Jane in “I’ll Follow the Sun” that:

 

“One day, you’ll look to see I’m gone,

But tomorrow may rain, so I’ll follow the sun.

One day, you’ll know I was the one,

But tomorrow may rain, so I’ll follow the sun.

And now the time has come,

And so my love, I must go…

And though I lose a friend, in the end you will know…”

 

Then, on Side Two of Beatles for Sale, he tries a tougher tack, saying in “What You’re Doing”:

 

“You got me running…and there’s no fun in it…

Why would it be so much

To ask of you what you’re doin’ to me!?”

 

Over and over, in “We Can Work it Out,” “You Won’t See Me,” and “I’m Looking Through You,” Paul sings to Jane Asher of his frustration, of  his need for her to “be there” for him. In fact, our Fest Blog examined that theme earlier this year when we studied the lovely “Here, There, and Everywhere.”

 

Now, here on Revolver’s Side Two, Paul speaks to Jane again, first in the uplifting “Good Day Sunshine” where he praises her for being with him on a sunny day, and then in the dark and poignant ballad, “For No One” and finally, in the brass-accompanied riot that is “Got to Get You Into My Life.” All three Side Two songs express Paul’s longing, in meter and verse, for his lady.

 

“Got to Get You Into My Life” – though admittedly a double entendre – a crafty nod to Paul’s use of marijuana – is in a basic, literal sense his mission statement.

 

“And then, suddenly, I see you!

Did I tell you I need you?

Every single day of my life!”

 

Song after song, ballad after ballad, Paul has been telling Jane (and hence, all of us) one thing: “Got to get you into my life.” And, the fact that Jane has justifiably resisted and sought her own very successful theatrical career has only inspired Paul to continue penning attention-getting poems set to music for her.

 

By 1966, however, it has become fairly obvious to them both that the relationship isn’t working. In fact, when Paul begs her to come home, “she takes her time and doesn’t feel she has to hurry…she no longer needs him.”  They’re at irreconcilable odds, really.

 

Perhaps, a clue to their unresolved issues is to be found in the way in which “For No One” was recorded. Because the entire song is Paul and only Paul. George and John are not needed. Ringo will play percussion…but Paul alone – the center of attention – will sing and perform his composition on the Steinway grand. Perhaps that is why for Jane Asher:

 

“… in her eyes, you see nothing,
No sign of love behind the tears
Cried for no one…

A love that should have lasted years.”

 

With the wrong instruments, “For No One” could have come off as “whiny and cheesy.” Instead, the composition (with the phenomenal clavichord work of Sir George Martin and the breath-taking French horn touches of Alan Civil) is elegant and deeply tragic on several levels. Because not only are Paul and Jane falling apart, but The Beatles are beginning to unravel as well.  When we hear those last words: “There will be times when all the things [they] said will fill your head. You won’t forget [them],” we somehow flash to the eroding friendship between John, Paul, George, and Ringo. We sigh.

 

And so, in the guise of his former, chipper self, Paul makes one last attempt on Revolver to woo Jane back again. Not discounting the very popular “marijuana theory” (which certainly exists on one level), in “Got to Get You Into My Life,” Paul expresses undiminished determination to get Jane into his life. He jauntily and emphatically speaks to her in hopes that the visions prevalent in “For No One” will never come to be. McCartney sings:

 

“What can I do, what can I be?

When I’m with you, I want to stay there!

And you know I’ll never leave…and if I do,

I know the way there!”

 

Here interestingly, Paul speaks his soul to Jane in an ear-catching new way, via a SOUL song! As Dr. Kit O’Toole, author of Songs We Were Singing: Guided Tours Through The Beatles Lesser Known Tracks has stated:

 

“The horns [in “Got to Get You Into My Life”] were a remnant of the band’s original idea to record Revolver at Stax Records in Memphis. They had long emulated the bass and drum sounds found on American soul records, and they wanted to extend that. So they recruited guitarist Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG’s to produce Revolver, and they asked Brian Epstein to “make it happen.” But all the Memphis studios wanted exorbitant fees to host The Beatles, so the boys ended up back in Abbey Road. But the soul sound still intrigued them, so “Got to Get You into My Life” is their interpretation of the genre.”  

 

“Got to Get You Into My Life” is one of Paul’s final attempts to catch Jane’s ear and to express his soul’s need for her lifelong companionship.

 

“You want her, you need her…

And yet you don’t believe her

When she says her love is dead:

You think she needs you.”

 

Both “Got to Get You Into My Life” and “For No One” are the swan songs for a love that could not survive. However, on 15 May 1967, when Paul met Linda Eastman in London’s Bag O’Nails, his long-deferred dream became reality. He got her into his life, and in that moment, everything changed.

Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series: www.johnlennonseries.com

 

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations — @910PubRel on Twitter and 910 Public Relations on Facebook.

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Something We Can Smile About

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Over the last few months of 2016, we began taking a look at the songs on Revolver…and reminding ourselves why it was such a pivotal LP for the lads. Together (combining our Fest blog and your comments) we scratched beneath the surface of the music and lyrics to uncover new insights. Just as the year ended, we neatly completed our examination of Side One.

 

Now…

 

…perfect for the beginning of a brand-new year with myriad possibilities is “Good Day Sunshine.” Wisely selected to kick off Side Two of Revolver, this buoyant ditty expresses all the optimism contained in every “chance to begin again.” Martin employed its bright melody and uplifting lyrics to woo Beatles fans into the second half of the LP. After the anger rife in “Taxman,” the loneliness pervading “Eleanor Rigby,” and the deeply somber nature of “She Said She Said,” Paul McCartney’s “Good Day Sunshine” offered listeners something heartening, something upbeat, something to laugh (or smile) about.

 

Furthermore, for those fans who (by the close of Side One) were despairing that The Beatles they knew and loved had vanished – morphing into Revolver’s highly-engineered group of complex musicians – this song provided a return to The Beatles of yore. This is the way young John and Paul used to sound when they performed in Liverpool College of Art’s Room 21 at lunchtime. This is the sound of The Beatles, live at the BBC. This is the unplugged sound of The Beatles of old. And fans were glad of it.

 

Although both John and Paul admitted that Paul wrote 95 percent of “Good Day Sunshine,” the number is, without a doubt, highly influenced by John. But not John Lennon this time: the inspiration came from John Sebastian.

 

Over in America, Sebastian, the Greenwich Village-based lead singer and songwriter for The Lovin’ Spoonful, was hitting America for six! In 1965, he’d scored with “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice” and swiftly followed up with “Do You Believe in Magic?”  Then in ’66, he had another big, big, BIG hit: “Daydream.” So, the very observant James Paul McCartney handily employed Sebastian’s easy-does-it, lazy-days techniques in his new composition, “Good Day Sunshine.”

 

In keeping with the Spoonful genre, the Revolver song’s lyrics were lighthearted and happy-go-lucky:

 

“She feels good! She knows she’s lookin’ fine!

I’m so proud to know that she is mine!”

 

That’s about as simple and content as a lyric line can get. Spoonful-esque! But remembering Russell Reising’s caveat that on Revolver, “there are no silly love songs,” savvy listeners long suspected that somewhere in this McCartney number, there was a deeper, hidden meaning. In the volume, All the Songs, the collaborative authors suggested that when Paul sang, “I feel good in a special way,” he might have been slyly alluding to his Revolver era fascination with marijuana. If this is true, then “Good Day Sunshine” was the predecessor to “Got to Get You Into My Life,” and both songs boasted a second level of meaning. (“More here than meets the eye!”)

 

But honestly, for original, old-time Beatles fans, added incentives to enjoy “Good Day Sunshine” were not necessary. All of the traditional “fab” ingredients were already present in the mix. The Beatles’ winning love song formula was there. George Martin’s honky-tonk piano lead was expert. The Lennon/McCartney backing vocals were spot on. And, as Robert Rodriguez pointed out in his insightful book, Revolver: How The Beatles Re-Imagined Rock’n’Roll, Ringo’s “cymbal splashes and added percussion touch-ups, such as handclaps” were welcome custom. Finally, the entire offering was infused with McCartney magic.

 

Sometimes less truly is more. And this unadorned, joyful ditty proves that rule. Fans who were bewildered and confused by “She Said She Said” were – after singing or toe-tapping along with “Good Day Sunshine” – pulled back into the fold. They leaned in once again, hovering over the turntable and listening…just as George Martin had predicted they would. They reconnected.

 

Then…the second selection on Side Two began and Revolver, once more, took a dark and unexpected turn! What was it? And to whom was that next song written?

 

See you next time for “And Your Bird Can Sing.”

1. For those unfamiliar with this British phrase, “hitting someone for six” means making an impact. It originate in cricket when a player hits six off the bowling.

2. Turner, Steve, A Hard Day’s Write, 112-113.

3. Reising, Russell, “Vacio Luminoso,” 127.

4. Rodriguez, Revolver: How The Beatles Re-Imagined Rock’n’Roll, 144.

Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series: www.johnlennonseries.com

 

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations — @910PubRel on Twitter and 910 Public Relations on Facebook.

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I Know What It’s Like…

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“I know what it’s like to be dead…I know what it is to be sad…”

 

John Lennon was the master of understatement. In a few, simple words, he could summarize a powerful idea, minimizing the emotion behind it. (To wit, “All we are saying is ‘Give peace a chance.'”) He could present a great concept unobtrusively, giving it a chance to be mulled over and accepted.

 

And that is exactly what John is doing in “She Said, She Said,” the compelling closer song to Side One of Revolver.

 

Possibly no one who ever lived better understood “what it’s like to be dead” and “what it is to be sad.” At age 4½, his parents bitterly wrangled over which of them was to have custody of John. Fred Lennon wanted to take his son away to New Zealand to live with him, and Julia Lennon wanted her son to be reared in Liverpool.

 

Whether Fred and Julia put the boy in between them and made him choose one or the other (the traditional point of view, and the version John always recited) or whether Fred and Julia came to an amicable agreement about John’s care (as Fred’s friend, Billy Hall told Mark Lewisohn…though admittedly, Hall was not actually in the room when this discussion took place), the fact of the matter is, Fred exited John’s life. And Julia – for extremely complicated reasons of her own – did return John to Liverpool but dropped the boy that afternoon at her sister Mimi’s house, where John was to live permanently. And, Julia reluctantly walked away to live a life of her own.

 

Over the next few years, as John struggled to adapt (and was – no wonder! – expelled for misbehavior from Mosspits Infant’s School), he thought quite a bit about his vanished parents. Fred’s frequent letters to his son were destroyed by Mimi, who claimed (and perhaps truly believed) that she was creating stability for the child.

 

Therefore, John – in essence – thought his father was, at first, angry with him. And then later, missing in action. And finally, perhaps dead. Even though John reveled in the love that his wonderful Uncle George provided – clung to that love like a life raft – the boy still longed for his father. And with each silent, passing year, John understood better and better what it was like to be dead. What it was to be sad.

 

Similarly, John’s mother, Julia, – though living only a couple of miles away, in Spring Wood – honored Mimi’s request to minimize intervention into John’s life. Julia was rarely seen, and even when she was, the reunion was brief. But it was enough for John. As Fred’s memory slowly faded, Julia’s did not. He ached for his mother. And John tried everything he could think of (good behavior, bad behavior, wit, talent, and imagination) to reach her…to no avail.

 

The only constants in John’s young life were his decorous Aunt Mimi and his beloved Uncle “Ge’rge.” But the summer before John turned 15 years old – when he most needed a male role model and a best mate – kind, funny, gentle Uncle George was taken from him forever. And, as John roared and flailed in the throes of unstoppable hysteria, he knew once again what it was like to be dead…what it was to be sad.

 

You probably know the rest of the story: how Julia returned at this crucial moment in her son’s life and offered herself as his best friend (not his mum, of course…he already had a mother in Mimi). Julia became his constant companion and John, her shadow. She encouraged the teenager to “sag off school” and bike to her house for ginger beer, sweet cakes, and rock’n’roll. She taught her son to play guitar; she spun her Buddy Holly and Elvis records for him. She gave him the gift of extemporaneous laughter. And in the magic of the moment, Julia whispered to the boy that he had “music in bones.” She said, she said that he was destined to form a band – to see his name in lights, to shine on. And for a time, all was well.

 

But on 15 July 1958, Julia was hit by a drunk off-duty policeman and killed. And in that instant, John changed. He had lost his father, his uncle, and now his mother – twice. And now, in a deep, violet darkness of the soul, John came to understand intimately what it was like to be dead…what it was to be sad.

 

That, of course, explains August of 1960: The Beatles, happily en route to Hamburg, stop at the Arnhem War Memorial for a snack and a smoke. Manager Allan Williams urges all of the boys out of the minibus for a roadside picnic and photograph. But John will not exit. He refuses to “muck about” in a graveyard…to smile and chit-chat in the presence of death. And so, alone, John broods on the bus, shaken by his surroundings. And though Williams berates the boy for his obstinacy, John turns a deaf ear. Because even on his best of days, John remembers what it’s like to be dead, what it is to be sad. And he does not take it lightly.

 

Now…substitute the name “Peter Fonda” for “Allan Williams.”
Substitute “Hollywood gala” for “Arnhem War Memorial.”
Substitute “August 1965” for “August 1960.”
And having made those few changes, the backstory for “She Said, She Said” emerges:

 

At an August 1965 Hollywood gala, John blanches when Peter Fonda “rambles on” about his first-hand knowledge of death. Rattled, John flash-fires at the American film star and silences him forthwith…not because Fonda is downing John’s drug-induced mellow, but because Fonda is trampling on sacred ground. Introducing the topic of death as party prattle – as idle chatter – is not, to John’s way of thinking, simply “irritating.” The American star has been grossly inappropriate. He has opened old wounds, and John is left panting for air.

 

John swiftly quells the subject, and the party moves on. But the damage has already been done, and in the months that follow, John can never shush the lingering, whispering memories that Fonda’s casual party boast (“I know what it’s like to be dead!”) engendered. The phrase haunts Lennon. And so, just as John in the past had transformed many other wounds and torments into music, he begins to weave Fonda’s hellish echo into something unforgettable as well. John begins to write “She Said, She Said.”

 

But this time, however, John isn’t writing just for himself and about himself. He begins to compose the tragic tale of all four Beatles in the year of our Lord, 1966. And the story isn’t easy to convey…

 

You see, in 1966, The Beatles were living under a dome of stress that would have collapsed most organizations and failed most friendships. The beleaguered boys were getting ready for yet another World Tour, despite the fact that they’d grown bitter and cynical about the grueling experience. Brian Epstein’s heavy-handed influence. which had always held them on course was slipping away, and the boys were arguing with one another – heavily involving themselves in drugs as pressures all about them were mounting.

Unfeeling “takers” were attacking them from all sides: screaming fans who didn’t hear them when they sang; journalists and paparazzi who didn’t see how very bored and tortured the boys were, and unfeeling powers-that-be at Capitol, EMI, and Northern Music who didn’t care that The Beatles were utterly exhausted. To all of these users and shakers, the four boys were virtually invisible. It was a harsh reality.

 

Indeed, John, Paul, George, and Ringo began to feel as if they “had never been born,” as if only “The Collective” – the band known as The Beatles – really mattered. The four unique individuals who had once comprised the group had, somewhere along the line, been sacrificed (in true Help! fashion), “jolly with a knife!”

 

This is John’s message in “She Said, She Said.” In simple terms, he conveys each of The Beatles’ feelings. He speaks in muted understatement, presenting his friends’ great hopes and even greater fears as they face the end of touring and the beginning of “the yet-to-come.”

 

This anguished song is pure performance art, a vivid medium through which John can offer listeners the graphic opportunity to see, hear, feel, and experience what he and Paul and George and Ringo were enduring. As the song swirls up and up to confusion and clamor, each of us is given the chance to ride out the mania, to understand. We are privy to madness.

 

“She Said, She Said” is a rare sortie into the most intimate emotions of The Beatles in 1966…and into the solitary, broken life of John Lennon, for whom death and sadness were familiar escorts. Of this John sings, as Revolver finds the playout grooves and Side One concludes. Of course, on the flip side, there was more to come.

Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series: www.johnlennonseries.com

 

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations — @910PubRel on Twitter and 910 Public Relations on Facebook.

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It’s just a Submarine, dammit! (or is it?)

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The Beatles were very lenient with the public’s interpretations of their songs.

 

In fact, only one or two times did the lads insist that the public’s comments about their lyrics was “dead wrong.” Toward the end of his life, John Lennon was adamant that “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was not about LSD! (And Paul McCartney backed him up on this). Similarly, Paul once said, “Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything! But when someone suggests that “Can’t Buy Me Love” is about a prostitute, I draw the line! That’s going too far.” (1)  But other than these two exceptions, as a rule, The Beatles welcomed the public’s multi-colored explanations of Beatles lyrics. In fact, they came to expect it.

 

I can just imagine Paul “laying in bed in the Asher’s garret,” (2)  working on the lyrics for “Yellow Submarine.” I can almost see the glimmer in his eye as he imagines what the “average Jill or Joe,” the scholarly professor, and the protester are going to make of his “simple children’s song.” It must have amused him.

 

The thing is…every single Beatles LP included a song for Ringo. And this is Ringo’s Revolver song, written in his tight vocal range and fitted for his “down-to-earth,” genuine personality. Ringo possessed a gentleness that appealed to many people, including children. (Hence, his work as Mr. Conductor on Shining Time’s (Series One) Thomas the Tank Engine show and his I Wanna Be Santa Claus CD years later). Paul’s placing of Ringo in the classic role of storyteller for “Yellow Submarine” was ideal. It worked.

 

But almost as soon as the LP was released, critics began to offer up far-flung, complex explanations of the magical song’s “deep and hidden meanings.” Here are just a few:

 

  • 1.) Sir Paul’s Explanation – Paul says he was trying to create “a story, a sort of [tale of] an ancient mariner, telling the young kids where he’d lived.” Tim Riley points out that Paul wanted to create a song “suited to the drummer’s humble charm,” (3) an enchanted story of a lovely life beneath the sea. To accomplish this, Paul’s original tale was populated by many submarines of vivid colors, but as McCartney honed the story, it became the narrative of one yellow submarine and the magical people aboard this legendary vessel. (4)

 

In fact, Paul told author Barry Miles, “I was thinking of it as a song for Ringo, which it eventually turned out to be…I quite like children’s things; I like children’s minds and imagination. So it didn’t seem uncool to me to have a pretty surreal idea that was also a children’s idea. I thought also, with Ringo being so good with children—a knockabout-uncle type—it might not be a bad idea for him to have a children’s song, rather than a very serious song. He wasn’t that keen on singing.” (5)

 

In short, on Side One of Revolver – a highly complex, intense compendium of thought-provoking songs – Paul’s concept was to offer up a simple ditty with “short words…which would be picked up quickly and sung by children.” (6) It was to be a breath of fresh air, as it were.

 

  • 2.) Donovan’s Story – During the writing of Revolver, Donovan and McCartney were close friends, in the habit of dropping in on one another at a moment’s notice to share their latest compositions. Donovan says, “One of the songs Paul played for me was about a yellow submarine, but he was missing a line or two. He asked me if I’d like to make a contribution. I left the room and came back with ‘sky of blue and sea of green.'” (7) And with an insider’s eye on the song’s composition, Donovan goes on to say that he felt Paul was using “Yellow Submarine” to convey the story of The Beatles.

 

Indeed, on the 2 May 2014  Howard Stern Show, Donovan stated: “It’s not really a submarine; it’s really about the life that [The Beatles] had been forced into living inside their own lives in the white tower called ‘Beatle fame’ and not really having any contact with reality out there anymore…you know, we are insulated from the outer world.” Donovan believed that “the friends aboard the submarine” were The Beatles’ entourage and close friends/associates, and that the sea was the protective bubble surrounding the group, encasing them while at the same time, cutting them off from life at large.

 

  • 3.) The Drug Innuendo Theory – In the summer of 1966, a popular drug had been released in New York: Nembutal capsules which were large, elongated, bluntly-rounded, and yellow – thus acquiring the nickname “Yellow Submarines.” But McCartney – who had no problem admitting that he used marijuana and enjoyed it – resisted the implication that his song celebrated the new drug. Paul insisted that the only “yellow submarines” he’d ever tasted were sugary Greek sweets that had to be dropped into water to be consumed. (8)  As the drug culture loudly contended that The Beatles were giving them a “secret nod of approval,” Robert Christgua of Esquire magazine vehemently refuted this claim. He wrote:  “I can’t believe that The Beatles indulge in the simplistic kind of symbolism that turns a yellow submarine into a Nembutal or a banana—it is just a yellow submarine, dammit!” 

 

  • 4.) The Political Statement Philosophy – Because a submarine is, as Robert Rodriguez has aptly pointed out, “a piece of military equipment,” (9) it was only moments after the song’s release that radicals began applauding The Beatles for the strong anti-Vietnam statement espoused in “Yellow Submarine.” In fact, one imaginative reviewer wrote: “The Yellow Submarine may suggest, in the context of The Beatles’ anti-Vietnam War statement in Tokyo this year, that the society over which Old Glory floats is as isolated and morally irresponsible as a nuclear submarine.” (10) Jumping on the bandwagon in droves, various 1966-1967 protest groups embraced “Yellow Submarine” as their anti-war anthem. But none of The Beatles seconded this notion or gave it credence.

 

Naturally, there are other wild-eyed theories out there, some as far-fetched as the notion that the song proves John Lennon’s obsession with phallic-symbols (echoed by John’s submarine bath scene in A Hard Day’s Night). But since John had nothing to do with the writing of “Yellow Submarine,” this argument rather collapses under its own weight, doesn’t it?

 

So…what say you? Which theory do you believe? Paul proclaimed, “I knew ‘Yellow Submarine’ would get connotations, but it really was a children’s song.” (11) Or was it? Send us your thoughts, opinions, and ideas, and we’ll share them with one another. Furthermore, if you have a theory we haven’t discussed, send that along as well! We’d love to hear from you!

 

The measure of a great work of literature is that decades after its creation, the work’s depth of meaning is still being debated and discussed. Paul might have set out to create a unpretentious, light-hearted song, but for The Beatles, a masterpiece was always the final destination. And so it is here as well.   

1. The Beatles, The Anthology, 114.
2. Turner, A Hard Day’s Write, 198, and Riley, Tell Me Why, 187.
3. Riley, Tell Me Why, 188.
4. Turner, 108.
5. Miles, Many Years from Now, 286-287.
6. Turner, 108.
7. Turner, 108.
8. Turner, 109.
9. Rodriguez, Robert, Revolver: How The Beatles Re-Imagined Rock’n’Roll, 140.
10. Doggett, Peter, There’s a Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars, and the Rise and Fall of the ’60s, 107–108.  
11. Turner, 109

Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series: www.johnlennonseries.com

 

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations — @910PubRel on Twitter and 910 Public Relations on Facebook.

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Love You To…????

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This phrase I understand: “Love you, too!” (Meaning: “Love you, also.”)

 

And yes, I grasp the vaguer meaning of this phrase: “Love you two.” (As in: “I love John first, but I love you two”).

 

But now, consider the curious phrase: “Love you to…” — It’s a quandary! It’s an unfinished preposition waiting for a following noun. (As in: “Love you to death!” or “Love you to pieces!” or “Love you to the end of time!”)

 

Or… it could be an unfinished infinitive waiting for a following verb. (As in: “Love you to love me.” Or “Love you to listen.” Or “Love you to comprehend what I’m saying”).

 

But as George Harrison’s title stands – without any other nouns, verbs, or explanations to complete it – the phrase is incomplete, unclear, and ambiguous. And really, that is where George Harrison was when he penned this 1966 song. Recently returned from a trip to India where he had begun sitar studies under Ravi Shankar and the study of the Hindu religion, George was an excited newbie. He was completely enthusiastic, but green – an amazed young man muddling through the murky waters of a complex, new faith and an equally complex mode of musical expression. George was a bit overcome.

 

Recently married to Pattie Boyd, George wanted to make this song a love ballad for his wife. He really did! But the tenets of his new faith kept pulling at him, sternly reminding him that:

 

A lifetime is so short,
A new one can’t be bought…

The brevity of existence kept bothering George, niggling at him – and those beliefs transformed his love song into a serious warning refrain: a song about living not only for today, but also living a life worthy of the hereafter.

 

George tried to shrug off his feelings of impending doom: of death at his back, of time running out, of life slipping away, but in “Love You To,” he failed to escape that weighty influence. Even when employing his famous, droll Harrison humor to minimize the song’s grim overtones, the boy’s wit was still dark:

 

Love me while you can,
Before I’m a dead old man!

 
he said. Despite his best efforts, George’s love song kept slipping into a sermon. No matter what George tried to say (or sing), his bride’s ballad kept circling back around to one all-important message: Life is short; time is limited; live prudently! Or in George’s adaptation:

 

Each day just goes so fast
I turn around, it’s past…

 
It was a bit depressing. As the song neared its close, George struggled to find something to smile about, to celebrate.

 

Well, a bit before The Beatles’ time – when the poets of the Middle Ages felt death pressing down upon them, they decided that the wisest thing to do was to carpe diem…to “seize the moment!” They decided to make hay while the sun shines! To quote Medieval poet Robert Herrick’s words, “Gather ye rosebuds while you may!”

 

And in 1966, George reached the same conclusion. He decided the very same thing. At the end of his song, he advised Pattie (and all of us) to go for the gusto! To grab happiness while you can! To smile while you still have teeth!

 

Make love all day long!
Make love singing songs!

 

he advised us. It was the only viable solution to mortality that George could offer.

 

By The Summer of Love (1967) when George released “Within You, Without You” as the opener for Side 2 of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, both his faith and his acumen on the sitar had reached a higher plane. By then, he was able to speak with more depth and wisdom. But here on Revolver, George is clearly grappling with a vast belief system and an intricate musical genre, so he falls back on immediate gratification as a ready, easy solution.

 

Or maybe…maybe George’s answer was, in fact, the very best solution anyone could offer.

 

In 1967, John Lennon would so famously tell the world that, “Love is all you need.” And here, George is voicing the exact same sentiment. In light of death, aging, and fleeting existence, the youngest Beatle turns to Pattie and to us, advising everyone to cling tightly to love. Sage advice, I think. Perhaps our kid wasn’t such a newbie after all.

 

Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series: www.johnlennonseries.com

 

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations — @910PubRel on Twitter and 910 Public Relations on Facebook.

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