‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’ is the twelfth track on The Beatles’ fifth album Help!. When nearing the end of the album, the listener is provided with two mainly acoustic numbers sung by Paul McCartney. ‘Yesterday’ is the second of them. But while that song mourns the loss of a relationship, ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’ captures the promising outlook of one that has a great chance of being successful.
It starts off with an intricate oscillating 6/8 timed intro of guitars that rise and fall before changing into the driving standard time verse where McCartney starts his vocal. His vocal take consists of very wordy lyrics, phrases that fall into the next with some internal rhyming and syncopation that help the track maintain its propelling momentum throughout. Chorus is good too. The “Falling, yes I am falling” line is one that is delivered with so much joy – it’s hard to not to feel just a bit happier from listening to it.
It’s quick and really easy listening to the ear. That seems to be a bit of motif throughout Help!. It’s an album that’s made of a lot of songs where the structure and instrumentation are very simple and straight to the point. ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’ isn’t necessarily a major favourite of mine on there but when it starts playing it’s hard to skip.
‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ is the eighth song on The Beatles’ final album Let It Be, opening the second half of the record if you own it on vinyl. I think everyone knows the story behind the making of it. If not, I’ll try and lay down some knowledge for you.
The Beatles spent five months working on what became their self-titled double album in 1968. It was released in November of that year. They took a short break and the four members did whatever they wanted in that time. As soon as January 1969 arrived they were back in the studio, mostly because of Paul McCartney’s eagerness to start work again. John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr didn’t particularly want to be there and the group had a miserable time in the first few days. The month went on, internal relationships sort of got better (thanks to the inclusion of keyboardist Billy Preston in their sessions and a change in studio), just enough that they were able to record an album’s worth of songs and play what was to be their final live performance on the roof of their Apple Corps headquarters. During that concert, ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ was played twice and the first take of it is the version you hear on the album.
The rooftop concert is the obvious highlight of the Let It Be film; it’s practically the only time that you see the four members really enjoying themselves when playing together. There are a ton of recordings you can find on YouTube of the band going through ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ in the studio and the magic just isn’t there. But it’s on the roof where the song comes alive. Paul McCartney melodically roars throughout the entire track and George Harrison’s spiking lead guitar on the right hand side helps to really move the track along. It’s also the last track in which McCartney and Lennon equally share their lead vocal. Lennon had worked on his own song called ‘Everybody Had a Hard Year’ in the latter stages of 1968 and through some wise decision-making it was incorporated into McCartney’s song.
To whoever may be reading this you should definitely try and watch the Let It Be documentary. Not particularly for any action that happens because there’s not a lot of it, but it hits when the concert segment gets going and the group start performing. These were four people who weren’t genuinely happy throughout most of the film for the past hour. But for the 20 minutes that portion of the film lasts for, they put their all into their performance. It’s a real joy to see.
By the end of January, they didn’t have much faith in what they had recorded and decided to start work on what would become Abbey Road instead. Let It Be could have been a lost album. It’s good that it wasn’t. We wouldn’t have this great song otherwise.
The Beatles went to Rishikesh in India in order to rediscover who they were as individuals and as a group in February 1968. Over there they wrote a large number of songs; the majority of them were released on their self-titled album later on in the year. One of them was today’s subject ‘I’m So Tired’, written by John Lennon who was suffering from bouts of insomnia whilst pining for Yoko Ono.
The song was recorded on the same day as ‘The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill’ though isn’t as
jovial in spirit. ‘I’m So Tired’ is a slow burner in comparison, one that grows in intensity from verse to chorus via its apt instrumentation and probably Lennon’s best vocal takes on the whole album. It’s very passionate but also very pained in its expression. A lot of John’s most powerful Beatles lead vocal performances are on the White album, thinking about it. He could turn a winding meandering vocal into a shout of pure frustration at the drop of a hat. Very much like he does here. It lasts for only two minutes but it has substance.
It has been said and verified by many that John Lennon liked to sleep. When the Beatles took their rare breaks during their constant touring schedule, Lennon would take the time reading, writing, and sleeping – usually whilst under the influence of drugs. Paul McCartney would have to wake him up so they could get their songwriting sessions started. ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ is his dreamy ode to the activity…. and the lack of physical activity in general.
The song is the third on the band’s 1966 album Revolver. My personal favourite. Considered their best work by some. The track is driven by hazy acoustic guitars played by both Lennon and George Harrison, McCartney does his thing on the bass as usual, and a great emphasis is placed on the cymbals of Ringo Starr’s drum to further enhance the misty soundscape. One notable highlight is the backward electric guitar part that Harrison reportedly wrote and then recorded in an intense five hour session. Now it’s standard practice to put backwards music in a song to jazz things up, I can only imagine that in the 60s it must have really blown some people’s minds. Or at least made them question what was going on.
Rubber Soul was The Beatles’ sixth album overall; it was also the second of two albums by the group released in 1965 with Help! arriving in stores only a few months earlier. Rubber is usually seen as the point where the four lads deviated from their love-centric light-hearted pop hits and began making music that required attentive listening. Their aim was to make an album which flowed, had direction, and where all songs that were listed were important to its structure. They succeeded. This was the look of a band with confidence.
Another Beatles song beginning with “I” or “I’m”, ‘I’m Looking Through You’ is the tenth track on Rubber Soul. Paul McCartney wrote it. It seems that he was going through some relationship troubles during this time in The Beatles. He and Jane Asher had been an item since 1963. She was a successful actress in her own right though McCartney wished she was at home a lot more of the time. During the making of Rubber, he wrote this track, ‘We Can Work It Out’, and ‘You Won’t See Me’ – all of which were about his frustration with the whole situation.
Out of the three, ‘I’m Looking Through You’ is the most brisk. It’s very acoustic driven and moved by some knee-slapping percussion and active bass playing. I think it’s notable that it mirrors ‘You Won’t See Me’ in that both tracks concern a sense of disappearance. Musically, you can say it’s upbeat. Has a major key throughout, the somewhat jubilant electric guitar lead and keyboard vamps in the instrumental breaks add to its somewhat cheerful demeanour. The lyrics are a real downer though. Another case of ‘happy music with sad lyrics’ in the musical history books. Sorry to just dismiss it as that. It is that dynamic between the music and lyrics that make it another thoroughly enjoyable song in the Beatles catalogue. You can’t go wrong with Rubber Soul.
Below is another take of the track that was worked on but ultimately discarded. It’s a lot slower but still has the same emotional impact.
The Music in My Ears 
