Tag Archives: the beatles

#597: The Beatles – I’m Looking Through You

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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.

#595: The Beatles – I’m Happy Just to Dance with You

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So when George Harrison wasn’t too confident in his songwriting in the earlier years of The Beatles’ musical reign in the 60s, John Lennon and Paul McCartney would write songs for him to perform the lead vocal on. They did that on Please Please Me with ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret?‘, and two albums later did so again with ‘I’m Happy Just to Dance with You’.

The song is the fourth track on A Hard Day’s Night and is the only song Harrison takes lead vocal for on the album. Both Lennon and McCartney didn’t think much of it. Lennon was quoted as saying he never would have sung it himself. Still what is considered a throwaway by the two main songwriters has always been up there for the best songs on the album in my eyes.

It lasts for just under two minutes but it sure has a melody that can stick. Paul McCartney plays a bassline that never seems to stay in one place; John plays an unusual rhythm guitar pattern in the verses that jolts along with the rhythm. Harrison’s voice suits it perfectly and it was probably for the best that neither Lennon nor McCartney sung it. Though their backing vocals – aided by hefty natural reverb – are greatly utilised. They add a sense of mystery I feel. Especially along with those chord changes in the chorus.

It’s a track about wanting to dance with a girl and blanking anyone who tries to interrupt. Not a lot of depth to it, but it doesn’t sound dated one bit.

#590: The Beatles – I’m a Loser

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So on the day that couples are loving it up, surely to go on a date somewhere or other to look in each other’s eyes and display how much they care with an act of affection, the song that follows the last post is The Beatles’ “I’m a Loser”. Mainly written by John Lennon, the track is about the end of a relationship and maintaining a happy appearance whilst feeling like you’re dying inside. This one is for the lonely people. The irony hasn’t been lost here.

Appearing as the second number on Beatles for Sale, an album where the band started incorporating more introspective elements into their repertoire, “I’m a Loser” is just one of the tracks that were to be influenced by Lennon’s meeting with Bob Dylan in the summer of 1964. The track is carried by its prominent acoustic rhythm and folk elements that The Beatles were to further develop down the line.

#588: The Beatles – I’ll Follow the Sun

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So it goes that ‘I’ll Follow the Sun’, the fifth track on the Beatles’ second album of 1964 Beatles for Sale, had been one that Paul McCartney had saved up since he was sixteen up to that point. That album was created during a time when the group were constantly touring and barely had any free time to themselves; when they did have that time, it would be used for working and going into the studio and recording more songs. McCartney and Lennon didn’t have as much time to write original material together too, so the former pulled this particular track out to get things moving forward.

‘I’ll Follow the Sun’ sees McCartney writing about the end of one relationship and looking on to the next one with a sense of optimism and wonder, whilst the lady who is left behind doesn’t know what she’s lost until it really hits. It’s a good tune with a great melody as is typical in a lot of McCartney songs. Very mellow with subtle knee-slapping percussion from Ringo Starr and a rhythm guitar in the right channel that has such a smooth tone to it, either played by Harrison or McCartney. In comparison to the ‘shake-it-up-baby-now’ good time music of their previous albums, ‘I’ll Follow the Sun’ – and Beatles for Sale as a whole – signified a change in musical style that would only continue to evolve as the group continued to work together.

Here’s Paul playing the song live with his band in 2005, ’cause why not.

#586: The Beatles – I Will

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Out of all the love songs The Beatles ever did – and they wrote a lot of those – there’s something about ‘I Will’ that strikes home more than any other. No loud electric guitars are present, nor can any drums by Ringo Starr be heard in the sub-two minutes the tack lasts for. Instead, it’s an acoustic jam with bongos and cymbals and Paul performing the song’s ‘bass’ with his mouth.

It’s all very cutesy, But it comes from a pure place. John and Paul could always write a good song about love out the wazoo during the Beatle years – at least when they properly wrote songs together – though here it seems that Paul has really found the one, assuming that the song is about a lady, and that’s cool.

Initially I don’t think I really cared for this track that much when I first heard it. Must have been about seven/getting to eight years ago now. It comes near the end of the first CD of The Beatles and there are so many memorable tracks that precede it…. it just didn’t make too much of an impression. Couldn’t tell you when/where/how it happened, though I must have heard it one day and it all clicked. It’s a good melody, you can’t deny it.