Tag Archives: before

#920: The Beatles – The Night Before

‘The Night Before’ was one of the first few tracks of the Beatles where I heard it and thought, “Wow, these Beatles people aren’t actually too bad.” It was 2009. Earlier that year I downloaded Sgt. Pepper just to see how it was the greatest album ever as I had read in a lot of places. I thought the songs were just all right. The mixing didn’t do them much justice. So I kind of left the Beatles aside and pursued other things. But later that year their whole catalogue was released alongside The Beatles: Rock Band, all on the same day, and VH1 Classic was showing a “Beatlemania” slot that dedicated about 30 minutes of air time to Beatles music videos. Seeing those pretty much sent me down a bit of a spiral. I haven’t stopped being a Beatles fan since then.

Representing ‘The Night Before’ was its little section cut out from the Help! movie. The closest I can get to showing you that clip is via the video below, which uses alternative audio and switches some camera shots around. But seeing the four members actually ‘playing’ together, seeing how happy they were alongside the general catchiness and upbeat tone of the music was a bit of a revelation. Before then I’d only ever properly heard of the Beatles through the news and “Oh, how great they were” and all that, so the usual reaction would be “Well, how good could they have been really?” And with ‘The Night Before’ I was swayed to the other side that little bit. Then in that “Beatlemania” slot, ‘Penny Lane’ played and that was that. Went to search for those songs on YouTube on the daily.

You could definitely argue that it’s very difficult for a Beatles track to be considered ‘under the radar’, but I think in this case this song might just go under that category. There’s not a lot of people out there who you could say “Ah, man, “The Night Before”, that’s song’s great,” and expect a reciprocated response from. Except Beatles fans, and even then they might not listen to anything before Rubber Soul. I’ll always hold it dear though. For that sentimental value as described above, and because it’s just a good song. Paul McCartney belts out his lines, George Harrison and John Lennon harmonise in response. There’s an electric piano which makes it sound a lot smoother. Ringo Starr’s banging away on the drums. I think there’s meant to be a sense of sadness to the song, but I can’t help but feel good when it’s on.

#722: Arctic Monkeys – Leave Before the Lights Come On

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I don’t think there wasn’t a time in 2006 when Arctic Monkeys weren’t on everyone’s lips. The band released Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not in January of that year after months of online hype, remarkable live performances and two #1 singles to their name. It became the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history. Everyone loved them. They released an EP a few months later which didn’t chart but included some songs that they had recorded in the meantime. Then their original bassist Andy Nicholson left and was replaced by Nick O’Malley who still plays with them today.

Their first single with O’Malley on board was ‘Leave Before the Lights Come On’, a track recorded way after the band’s debut album was done but one that Alex Turner stated could have been on the record because it followed similar themes that many of the album tracks had. I was eleven years old when this track was released. 2006 was one of the greatest times of my life. World Cup ’06, last year of primary school, it was a good summer. I remember ‘Leave Before the Lights” video making its rounds on MTV2 UK on the daily. That’s how I got to know the song. A woman gets a man’s attention by looking like she’s about to jump off a building. The man ‘saves’ her, she gets a bit too attached to him, he gets angry at her, and then she runs back to the building where she sees drummer Matt Helders walking past. The cycle continues. It’s more a little film accompanying the music than your standard band performance.

Very similar to the songs on Whatever People Say, particularly ‘From Ritz to the Rubble’, ‘Leave Before the Lights’ is the song that exploring the mix of feelings that may arise the morning after a one night stand. “How did I get here?” “She didn’t look like that last night…” “I should probably get out of here quickly.” Among others. It’s classic Alex Turner observational lyricism that he was especially good at in that early era of the band. I also feel it’s one of the group’s best musical performances from that time too. Both Turner and Jamie Cook’s guitars interlock with one another, Turner will play some guitar fills while Cook plays rhythm and vice versa, Matt Helders keeps a strong hold on the drums and O’Malley fits into the group dynamic like a glove straight away. The song’s ending instrumental breakdown is one of the best musical moments by the band in their discography, I think.

It was the first single of theirs that didn’t get to #1 in the UK charts. It peaked at #4. And for a song that doesn’t appear on an album of theirs, I think it still holds up very well today.

My iPod #84: Green Day – Before the Lobotomy

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To this day, I am still not sure what the concept of “21st Century Breakdown” is. I know that it includes two characters, Christian and Gloria, and I also believe that those are the same characters that are embracing on the album cover. So is it like a love story? Is it supposed to be some sort of survival of two lovers in a shitty period of time? That’s really all I can deduce from it.

“21st Century Breakdown” was somewhat the “Relapse” for Green Day. It was released in 2009 – five years after releasing “American Idiot” in 2004. It was an exciting time for Green Day fans, including myself. I wasn’t really impressed with “Know Your Enemy” though, it was a bit repetitive and it didn’t strike me as much as “American Idiot” did as a first single.

That didn’t stop me from eventually downloading the album though. It is a straight-forward punk rock album: Guitars in full force in both ears with the bass and drums in the centre, a few overdubs here and there and guitar solos. Yeah, it’s good.

“Before the Lobotomy” starts off quietly for the first minute or so, describing how people feel down and how there seems to be no signs of hope, “Laughter, there is no more laughter. Songs of yesterday now live in the underground” But the song then picks up, turning into more of a rocker in the middle alternating between 7/4 and 4/4 in time signature. I can’t remember the last time Green Day used that in a song. It’s nice though, it keeps things going quickly. The end reprises the first verses of the song though, reminding everyone that society still sucks.

I like this song. Listen to it, you may like it too.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.

My iPod #83: Razorlight – Before I Fall to Pieces

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Ah. The third single from Razorlight’s second album from 2006.

I like this song, no matter how many people may not like Johnny Borrell’s voice or as a person. The song was released as a single in December 2006, months way after the actual album was released.

I had actually heard the song before it was released as a single. In primary school, I had a friend and we were into the same music and we would talk about songs that were out and whatever. Baring in mind, we were about eleven at the time. He had this huge musical library on his computer, and I would always request songs for him to send to me through MSN. I don’t know if that annoyed him or not, because I asked for a lot of music. I will just assume that he was cool with it. He invited me around his house one time, so he probably was.

The video always confused me though. I have no idea what’s going on. It probably should have just been a perfomance video. It does feature Guy Pearce, and Scorpio from Gladiators though.