Tag Archives: the beatles

#1190: The Beatles – She Said She Said

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Another contender for one of my favourite songs of all time. I think I’ve said that for only two other songs on this site. Good luck trying to find them. For any Beatles fans reading, were you just as disappointed in the 2022 remix of this track as I was? Having been such a fan of ‘She Said She Said’ since 2009 when I first listened through Revolver, I was really hoping that Giles Martin would pull through with a new mix that packed as much of a punch as the 2009 remaster. I was quite disappointed when that new version came through though. I’m not even going to embed it, I was that sad about it. Almost every other song on the 2022 Revolver remix got a better treatment. Even though the original mix is laid out in a way that modern listeners can’t stand, I’ll take it any day over the new one.

Story goes the Beatles were holed up in a rented house in Beverly Hills and invited a couple guys from the Byrds and Peter Fonda over one day. They all took LSD and, while under the influence, Fonda began telling George Harrison that he knew what it was like to be dead in an attempt to somehow comfort him. Harrison thought that he himself was dying, but it was most likely the drug making him feel that way. John Lennon overhearing Fonda saying this got quite annoyed, remarking “You’re making me feel like I’ve never been born” and asking him “Who put all that shit in your head?” Fonda was asked to leave the party, eventually. But the whole ordeal was enough of a spark of inspiration to get a song down. Phrases from the conversation were almost used verbatim as the lyrics. The original “He” in the title became “She”, and the song was eventually recorded, the last one to be, for inclusion on Revolver.

So what makes this an “all-time” favourite of mine, you might be asking? Well, simply put, I like everything about the song. The tone of the guitars provide this bright, summery feel. Ringo Starr’s drumming is some of the best he ever put down to tape, and I’ve always got a kick out of the emphatic cymbal crashes on the “making me feel like I’ve never been born’ phrases. The decrease in volume of those in the 2022 mix play a part in why it’s worse than the original. John Lennon sings the track really well. The delivery of the first “She saaaaaid” has such a rousing quality to it, and the tone of his vocal is generally pleasant to my ears. And I still remember how sort of surprised I was when I found out that the harmonies were done by Harrison. I thought it was Lennon doing all the vocal work initially. Harrison’s voice sounds very similar. Always appreciate the transition between the “She said you don’t understand…” section to the “When I was a boy…” bridges. Just a little subtle time change there, but it’s enough to make the track stand out that little bit more. And the great double-time ending as Harrison echoes Lennon’s lines with the cymbals crashing away into the fade out. There’s a lot of things there for me. And the whole song is only under two-and-a-half minutes. Bands today could do with a song like it.

#1187: The Beatles – She Came in Through the Bathroom Window

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Well, this track comes as a bit of a weird one to talk about. It’s The Beatles. ‘She Came in Through the Bathroom Window’ is from Abbey Road. Everyone likes that album. When I think about it, it’s not the one I return to when I want to hear a Beatles album in full. That would probably go to Revolver or Rubber Soul or something. But I won’t argue that it has some of the band’s best songs on there. ‘She Came in…’ is a part of the medley that makes up the majority of Abbey Road‘s second half, kinda closing out its first part, and was performed in one take alongside ‘Polythene Pam’ whose closing solo segues right into the introduction.

For the longest time I looked at the medley with a bit of a side-eye. Blasphemous to say, I know. This was the masterstroke that marked the ending of the Beatles’ recording career. But seeing as it was made up of tunes that John Lennon and Paul McCartney had in the can going back to 1968, the album was released in Autumn 1969, I used to see it as the guys sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel for material and shmushing them together. Although I appreciate it a lot more these days, I do usually have that feeling lurking in the back of my mind. As a result, I like some of the parts more than the whole. And I can’t say that I have a deep, deep connection with this particular tune other than I found myself singing it to myself whenever I was out shopping or in the shower. If I was singing it in those situations, that probably means I’ve liked it somewhere along the line.

‘She Came in…’ was inspired by a real-life incident where a fan broke into Paul McCartney’s London home, literally through the bathroom window while he was out. The parts about being ‘protected by a silver spoon’ and sucking her thumb ‘by the banks of her own lagoon’ I have no idea about. Only McCartney could tell you if he asked him. But being a grandmaster of melody that he is, he makes the whole two minutes the song goes on for sound rather good. I guess he just let his imagination run wild about this particular person, wondering what she does as a job and what her aspirations may be. It’s all a bit up in the air, this one, regarding the lyrics. But regarding the harmonies, the backing vocals, Harrison’s guitar licks, the sort of half-time tempo McCartney’s bass takes for the second verse. That’s all good, good stuff. One of my highlights out of the so-called ‘Long One’.

#1178: The Beatles – Sexy Sadie

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Beatles fans know there was a point where things for the band would never be the same again. Well, more than a few points, to be fair. The death of their manager Brian Epstein in August 1967 is one that can be brought up. But for the purpose of this post, I’ll bring up another. The trip to India in 1968. Before they left, they made ‘Hey Bulldog’ and ‘Lady Madonna’. According to their engineer, everyone seemed to be in great spirits. The group went to India for their Transcendental Meditation course under the tutelage of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Then they came back to the UK, began work on what became the White Album, and as we all know, they weren’t liking each other quite as much anymore. A few things happened on that India trip, one in particular was the inspiration behind the song in question today.

‘Sexy Sadie’ was originally titled ‘Maharishi’. John Lennon wrote the song and had every intention of releasing it under the original name before George Harrison implored him not to and provided the alternative title. While on the TM course in India, Lennon heard through the grapevine that the Maharishi had been making moves on some of the female students, acting in a very un-Maharishi way. Turned out this may have not even been true and was just a rumour started by a hanger-on of the band. Nevertheless, Lennon was angered and immediately disillusioned, completely lost faith in whatever he felt he was being taught and wrote the song in response. Lack of better words, it’s a diss track. So whenever the phrase ‘Sexy Sadie’ is said, just replace it with ‘Maharishi’ and you gain a little more understanding.

I really enjoy the way John Lennon sings this track. Think it may be one of his most underrated performances. The vocal melody’s one that continuously rises and fall, contrasting between his falsetto and his natural voice, stretching out syllables and elongating vowel sounds seemingly with little effort. And alongside you get the backing vocals of him, McCartney and Harrison throughout, piping up with “wah-wah-wahs” and “see-see-sees”, culminating in the part where they all sing the last line, which in turn falls into the song’s outro. That was also meant to be much longer, by the way. Must have been edited down for space on the LP. You can hear the track’s unedited ending section below. Would have been cool if it was left in, but the song’s great all the same. And that’s White Album out of here. No more songs to come. But click on the little “white album” tag below and you can read about all the songs I like from there.

#1143: The Beatles – Run for Your Life

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I don’t care what anyone says. I really like this song. The Beatles’ ‘Run for Your Life’ has gained a bit of a stink amidst the Internet community in recent years. People hear the song’s first line and are immediately shocked. Appalled. “I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man.” Gasp. “What? Oh, my God.” Then come the rest of the lyrics that detail this girl’s low survival rate at the hands of the song’s narrator who will kill her if she even dare tried to leave him. It strikes a chord. Then add in the whole ‘John Lennon beat women back in his day’ statement (which is true and is bad, but the guy’s dead – can’t get any more cancelled than that) and people have a field day with criticising it. Then there’s the argument that it doesn’t bring the most satisfying end to the band’s Rubber Soul album. That’s a notion I would be fine with agreeing with if I cared that much.

The track was the first to be recorded for the album in October 1965. Not much is known of how John Lennon came to write the words, but the opening line (stated in the above paragraph) was taken from the Elvis Presley song ‘Baby Let’s Play House’. I assume that everything that followed was made just to match the tone of that source of inspiration. Backing up the threatening lyrics is an upbeat performance by the four band members. Lennon’s vocal performance is one that I thoroughly enjoy too. He’s backed up by the harmonies of McCartney and Harrison on the choruses, which aid in building that sort of tension within the song, that’s then resolved in the slide guitar and rhythm guitar riff that arrive after each iteration. A piercing bluesy guitar solo adds the icing on the song’s cake. In the end, George Harrison really liked ‘Run for Your Life’. Lennon not so much. He would later state that it was his least favourite Beatles song. In fact, I’d probably say the reason the track was chosen as the album closer was because he thought it was the worst one out of all the songs they’d recorded for the album, rather than thinking it would be a good way to finish things off.

I dunno. I think at the end of the day, it’s just a song and shouldn’t be taken so literally. I mean, are there people living today who could very much hold the values and ideals held by the narrator of the song? I wouldn’t doubt it. And that sucks. But at the same time, it’s so outrageous coming from the Beatles that you almost sort of have to laugh at it. Is Lennon writing about himself? Don’t think you can objectively say no. But I think once people learn about Lennon’s history, they hear the track and judge the dude’s character solely based on it. A whole hypocrisy argument comes in because Lennon was the peace guy, even though this song was written years before he became the figurehead of that specific movement. Maybe it’s me who’s making a big deal out of all of this. I’m just writing about what I’ve seen, I swear. Whatever view you may hold on it, I’m gonna carry on listening regardless.

#1137: The Beatles – Rocky Raccoon

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When I first heard ‘Rocky Raccoon’ by the Beatles for the first time, I want to say I had a reaction that was very similar to this YouTuber’s. Coming up as the third round in that animal “trilogy” on the White Album after ‘Blackbird’ and ‘Piggies’, it had me thinking this song was going to be a song about a raccoon. Interesting to say the least, but we’ll see how it goes. Then Paul McCartney comes in with the exaggerated Southern drawl in the introduction. I thought it sounded too silly. I made fun of it a bit, was ready to dismiss the whole thing entirely. But then, McCartney starts singing for real, and I was sort of spellbound. I don’t think I realised that I liked the song that much until I started singing it spontaneously a period of time afterwards. Goes to show, you’ve got to give every song a chance.

‘Rocky Raccoon’ isn’t about an actual raccoon, by the way. Doesn’t stop me from imagining these anthropomorphic creatures acting out the song’s storyline. Set in the Wild West with those cowboy hats and everything, very clear imagery. Anyway, that’s what the song is importantly, a story. It’s pretty much spelled out in the lyrics. The titular character checks into a hotel to get revenge on a man (who calls himself Dan) who’s ‘stolen’ his girlfriend. The girl’s name is Lil McGill, but everyone knows her as Nancy. Rocky Raccoon challenges Dan to a showdown. Dan shoots him quick on the draw and Rocky loses. Rocky recovers miraculously fast and goes back to the hotel to lick his wounds. And at points of this storytelling come some jumpy, upbeat honky-tonk piano breaks (provided by George Martin) to really tie the pieces together.

I don’t know how Paul McCartney does it. The melody used throughout his so simple, but so memorable. Almost like a lullaby. Shouldn’t be surprised as the guy’s pretty much a master of melody, so much so it left a lot of his peers and bandmates stumped. But a song with a name like ‘Rocky Raccoon’ could go badly so easily. Good thing it was McCartney who wrote it. Also without it, we wouldn’t have Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy. That’s a movie series I’m not very keen on myself. But what I’m getting at is that its influence and legacy goes out farther than just music. The track is very Paul, but you’ve got to hand it to the other bandmembers for their contribution the song’s sound. George Martin’s aforementioned piano performance livens up proceedings, and to reinforce the country-western vibe, John Lennon provides a harmonica part for what would be the final time on a Beatles recording.