Saturday, April 30, 2011

Boys

After listening to "Boys", before I even began doing research, I knew there was something funny about this song. Wikipedia confirmed my suspicion: it's a cover of a song by The Shirelles (a girl band!), making the song therefore a "girl" song. A quote from Paul sort of clarifies the boys' mindset when singing it in spite of that fact. "Any one of us could hold the audience. Ringo would do 'Boys', which was a fan favourite with the crowd. And it was great — though if you think about it, here's us doing a song and it was really a girls' song. 'I talk about boys now!' Or it was a gay song. But we never even listened. It's just a great song. I think that's one of the things about youth — you just don't give a shit. I love the innocence of those days."[wiki] 

So, as I was listening, I realized you could spin it both ways. Either it was a song about guys kissing guys, or it was a song about guys kissing girls. Both interpretations allow for some serious appreciation of boy-smooches, and both versions are okay by me. :)

An interesting fact I learned was that The Beatles recorded this song during a die-hard power session in the studio... they recorded 10 of the 14 songs on Please Please Me all in one day. That's some pretty intense dedication right there, no doubt partially motivated by the expense of studio time. This song was also popular when they performed it as The Quarrymen. (During that time Pete Best--the fifth Beatle--was their drummer. He was replaced by Ringo after two years with John, Paul, and George.) 

I had actually never heard a Beatles song specifically knowing I was listening to Ringo's voice before, so it was an interesting experience for me (all I see by way of info about any song before I hear it is the title and which Beatle sang it). He has the kind of voice that's really fascinating, but somehow difficult to remember in your head afterwards. Maybe it's just because Paul and John sing more of their songs, but even now, right after listening to "Boys", I can't for the life of me "hear" Ringo's voice in my head. I'm sure that it'll happen after hearing more songs, though. At some point, likely towards the end of this adventure, I'll probably start thinking in their voices. :P I am, however, starting to understand why Ringo's my sister's favorite.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Chains

"Chains", a cover The Beatles did of a song originally by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, was the first of two songs on Please Please Me to feature the lead vocals of George Harrison. So we have the debut of George, who seems like no one's favorite Beatle (even my 15-year-old sister likes Ringo the best). I suppose whichever Beatle you like most says a lot about your character; one could probably make a chart featuring four basic personality types and match them with each Beatle (someone no doubt already has). I take it back, though--I know there are plenty of George fans out there. They're simply a bit more quiet, unlike the others. :P

Today's song made me chuckle a little. He says to another woman that he just can't bring himself to cheat on his lover, because she's got (figurative) chains on him. I can't tell which of the possibilities are more likely: one, that he's truly sorry that he can't forgo his own moral code and have an affair, or two, that he's trying to let the other woman down easily, complimenting her charm and attractiveness while stating firmly that he just can't--he's too in love with his own ladyperson. 

Since George sang the lead in this song, if I had to make a judgment, I'd go with the latter. At this point I don't know much about him but he didn't seem like he was the cheating type. (Maybe if someone reads this and knows more about it than I do, they can elaborate in the comments. :) ) It's still a pretty remarkable idea to stick in a song, considering people have been cheating on their significant others since time immemorial (and actually, George's wife Pattie Boyd cheated on him with--and later married--Eric Clapton, one of my favorite artists. Luckily the two of men remained friends and called themselves "husbands-in-law", which says a lot about George as a person).

That's about it for this one... I'll see you guys tomorrow!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Anna (Go to Him)

I'll say right now that I loved this song... both versions of it. I did my research (aka lazy wiki-ing) and learned that the Beatles' version was actually a cover of the original, by Arthur Alexander (and it wasn't the only song of his that The Beatles performed). The Beatles' Anna was much more popular and this brings up some feelings of a possible injustice done to Alexander's beautiful, soulful voice--there are reasons the white singers' version was more successful than the black singer's, maybe the time period and a little bit of racism, maybe because The Beatles were a smash hit followed by thousands of screaming, rabid fans (spiritual ancestors of the Twihards and Bieliebers, perhaps), I can't really say for sure. I can say that Alexander's version hit #10 in the R&B charts (and #68 in the pop charts) so it wasn't a complete injustice. 

Back to the topic, though, I listened to the Beatles version first, then started listening to Alexander's. I honestly can't tell you which version I enjoy more. However, I'll limit myself to the Beatles' version (since that's the whole point). After a somewhat lackluster first two days, the moment this song began, I knew I'd found a good one. The opening notes made me want to bolt into the other room, grab the electric guitar, and learn how to play it immediately. Lennon's voice was also perfect; he relays the pain of the message with his voice without making it obvious or distorting it. The wavery "Anna" in the background was probably my favorite aspect of this song--it kind of foreshadows the groovy stuff they start doing with their music later on. The line, "Anna, just one more thing girl / You give back your ring to me and I will set you free / Go with him" just kills me--such self-sacrificing nobility. It's tempting to quote that sickening cliché (you know the one) but the cynic in me revolts at the idea so I'll instead leave you with a quote from Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club: "Your heart is my piñata."

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Misery

Today's song is "Misery". I gave it a listen (or two--it's a short song) and I have to say, for a song about someone who's supposed to be miserable, it's terrifically upbeat. The Wikipedia article for "Misery" says it was the first Beatles song to be covered by another artist (Kenny Lynch, 1963) and that it was actually written for British artist Helen Shapiro (who never sang it).

A quote from Wikipedia: "According to Lennon, 'It was kind of a John song more than a Paul song, but it was written together.' McCartney was to say: 'I don't think either one of us dominated on that one, it was just a hacking job.'" Paul seemed less than pleased about the result of their efforts, and I have to agree. Not my most favorite song ever, but still not unpleasant to listen to. Another song about young love, this time lamenting a broken heart.

One really interesting thing I picked up on by reading just the Wikipedia article for the song was that the whole Lennon/McCartney thing seems to have been "a thing" since day one. I obviously know about their relationship-slash-competition bromance but I guess I'd always imagined the early Beatles to be bouncing, besuited Brits cheerfully singing their songs and working together harmoniously all the time. They may have had way less tension and disagreement early on than they did later, but creating music with another person can be a very stressful goal to achieve.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I Saw Her Standing There

"I Saw Her Standing There", according to my friendly neighborhood Wikipedia (which will definitely be my go-to guide for Beatles info), was released in 1963 as the B-side of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on their debut album, entitled Please Please Me (originally almost called Off the Beatle Track). It never reached higher than #14 on the Billboard charts, but in 2004 Rolling Stone included it in its list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Not bad, for a B-side.

My impression of the song: It's bouncy, it's catchy, it's about young-love-at-first-sight, what's not to like? It definitely fits in with the early 1960's Beatles style, which was more Beach Boys than Pink Floyd. I laughed at the opening lines, which include the now-infamous phrase "you know what I mean". They certainly came from a more innocent time (though they didn't remain there). :P I enjoyed the idea of their automatic fidelity after only catching a glimpse of each other across a crowded party--it recalls Romeo and Juliet, minus the tragedy, and it's cute and sweet.

Overall I like this song--not my favorite (plus there are a couple hundred more songs to go... it's too early in the game to be choosing favorites!), but in general a pretty sweet song and one that would be totally appropriate at a wedding. :)


Off the Beatle Track

"Someone once asked me, 'Beatles or Stones?' and I answered, 'Stones' because I didn't know anything about life."

That was my status on April 6th, 2011. Today is April 26th, and I've come across an idea that I can't get out of my head. The more I hear of The Beatles and their music, the more I want to make them my musical foundation.
I've decided to start this blog, partly due to my recently acquired hobby of learning how to play a guitar, partly because I watched "Julie & Julia" not long ago, and partly because lately I've been wishing I could do more with my time other than just work and browse the far reaches of the Internet for something interesting to read. It's an Adventure, one I'm hoping will be as worthwhile for you to read as it'll be for me to create.

Every day, I will listen to one song by The Beatles. Each song will be the topic of that day's blog post, and I'll talk about my impression of the music (85% of which will be new to me as I am not well-versed in their music--yet), my interpretation of the lyrics as well as any "official" interpretation, and I'll include some history behind the song if possible (if--let's be honest--Wikipedia or Google gives me something interesting to share :P ).

This is going to be really difficult, for many reasons. One is time--I have an almost-full-time job that exhausts me, and sometimes I can barely resist whining and rubbing my eyes like a small, tired child. According to this website, The Beatles made 208 songs in their career, a pretty daunting number when you're only doing one song per day. I'll try to cover a good portion, if not all, of the songs they went on to create individually as well, so that adds a lot of material (AND that's not even including the songs they made as The Quarrymen--let's not get TOO complicated here). I'll also add a special post each time I complete an album, analyzing my experience with that record's music. Another reason it'll be hard is that I may not have access to every Beatles song ever--I'm mostly limited to what I can find online or borrow from the library. There will be gaps in both the songs as well as my knowledge. I'll probably listen to a song and think it's saying one thing, when it's clearly saying something completely different. I can't avoid these problems, but I can accept they're going to arise and work around them as best I can!

Well, there's my plan, all laid out. I'm going to write the first post today, to get a taste of what I can expect in the future of this blog.

And here we go!