Tag Archives: the beatles

#584: The Beatles – I Want to Hold Your Hand

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Been almost a month since I was last here…. I’m sorry. Can’t say I’ve tried to keep to my earlier statement of doing a blog at least every Sunday. The posts will arrive in due time. Just been suffering from a lack of motivation. Not in a bad way, it’s just work. Weekends have really been reserved for laying down and sleeping.

Recently I decided to listen to all the songs on my phone in alphabetical order during my morning/evening commutes. Only because the shuffle system on iPhones is very poor. In doing so I’ve only properly realised how many songs by The Beatles (that I personally enjoy) begin with the letter ‘I’. There’s a lot of them to come in this ‘I’ series. ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ was the hit that made the four lads huge in the USA, and pretty much everywhere else.

There are some days when I listen to this thing and think it’s just too sappy. The lyrics are too simple and on the nose…. A song like this would never be taken seriously in today’s musical climate. Though the majority it’s just like….. fuck that. This song’s great for all of those reasons. John Lennon and Paul McCartney sing their chests out on this one, singing in unison and in perfect harmony…. The musicality between the four of them is just wild and thrilling but tight and controlled. It rocks without trying too hard. It’s just a good pop song, it can’t be denied.

Again, when it comes to The Beatles and YouTube – it’s very hard to find their official stuff because their record label always takes their music down when you try and upload it. There is an actual video for it; it’s not up just yet. Still, below’s the performance taken from the Ed Sullivan show when John, Paul, George and Ringo appeared on American television for the first time and owned it.

#582: The Beatles – I Should Have Known Better

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Back again after a while. So sorry to anyone who usually reads these. I’m always feeling tired on the weekends now…. Work is fun. My ear that’s been clogged for the past two months cleared up and I can hear again which is great. That’s just a bit of catch up material for those who are wondering what’s going on. This has always been at the back of my mind, and I’ve been thinking about possible different features I could put on here to change things up a bit. Though sticking with what I’ve got going now still doesn’t seem too bad an option for the moment.

With the personal stuff out the way, I can talk about today’s song. Another one by The Beatles, ‘I Should Have Known Better’ is the second track on the band’s third album A Hard Day’s Night. Because YouTube won’t allow Beatles songs on its site, I’ve had to embed the whole Hard Day’s Night film (which is a good watch and very funny) above, though it conveniently starts at the point where the track begins.*

Great tune. Not much I really feel about it. Like most of their early Beatlemania stuff it’s about love and girls and getting girls to love you and thinking about the future when you and the girl are still together. I think what draws me in is John Lennon’s voice. Paul McCartney doesn’t come in and harmonise at any point during the whole thing; it’s all a double tracked Lennon belting out the lines with gusto. In what is a mostly acoustic affair with a bit of harmonica and George Harrison’s guitar solo in the middle, John’s raspy voice carries the whole thing – especially when he breaks into that falsetto in the ‘ask you to be miiii-hi-hi-hiiiiiiine’ part’. Very glorious. A very innocent track with good intentions, I think.

*That video was removed from YouTube.

#577: The Beatles – I Need You

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It was the sixteenth anniversary of George Harrison’s passing this last week, so it’s very fitting that today’s song is one by the singer/guitarist/overall cool guy that he wrote during those hectic years when he was in The Beatles. ‘I Need You’ was the second Harrison-written composition to make its way onto a Beatles album, appearing on the group’s fifth album, Help!, in 1965.

His first try ‘Don’t Bother Me‘ made its way onto With the Beatles, which Harrison more or less described as an exercise to test whether he could actually write a song. It wasn’t too bad. But of course with John Lennon and Paul McCartney writing their stuff, it was always hard to get a word in. Another song of his entitled ‘You Know What to Do‘ was worked on in 1964, though no one seemingly liked it….. It would be two years until Harrison would get his own song on a Beatles album. On Help! he got two, along with ‘You Like Me Too Much‘. Because Apple are a bunch o’tight poops I can’t link those songs for ya, but you can find ’em yourselves.*

I like ‘I Need You’. Simply another love song that The Beatles were so good at doing in that Beatlemania phase. It’s a track of thoughts and feelings when a relationship ends and you’re just left with the weight of the world on your shoulders. It’s not emotionally heavy at all. It’s all upbeat. Has a simple melody that doesn’t take too long to remember. That volume pedal guitar is possibly the musical highlight of it all as it echoes Harrison’s lines. It feels like a brisk bike ride in a park. It’s very easygoing. It’s always good to here George’s voice once in a while.

*Apple aren’t a bunch o’tight poops anymore.

#571: The Beatles – I Feel Fine

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Despite the positive connotations of the song title, there have been two distinct occasions in my life when ‘I Feel Fine’ was in my head and I was struck by a sudden unlucky situation. The first was on a beautiful day; the sun was shining, I was walking out of McDonald’s and it was about the third week into sixth form after successful GCSE results. Things were great. I was feeling fine. I was humming it along the road. It all suddenly dawned on me that my YouTube account that I had used for about three years up to that point may have been terminated whilst I was at school.

You probably laugh, though I was miserable. In fact, I probably spent most of my time for the next two years trying to get it back instead of revising for my A-levels but to no avail. It was like a whole part of my life had just vanished. To be fair, I probably shouldn’t have uploaded official BBC footage on there. But damn, it hit me hard. So two years of sixth form passed, I wasn’t very happy at school – it dawned on me that I had been studying subjects that I didn’t necessarily want to do…. It all affected my performance in my exams.

So on the way to school on A-Level results day, I began to sing ‘I Feel Fine’ again. Just with the hope that my results wouldn’t be too bad. They weren’t fortunately. They coulda been a lot better….. though had they been I probably wouldn’t have got to know the great people I’ve met in the last four years. Funny how things work out.

You don’t wanna know all that though, I’m sure. It’s all about the song. ‘I Feel Fine’ was recorded by The Beatles during the making of their fourth album Beatles for Sale, an LP made during a hectic time where the lives of the four guys were basically small amounts of studio time and large bouts of live performances and touring. It didn’t make it on the album, and was instead released as the precedent single with fellow track ‘She’s a Woman’ as its B-side. It is notable for being one of the first pop songs to include guitar feedback, in this case produced by John Lennon’s guitar as it leaned against Paul McCartney’s bass amp. Lennon was very much proud of this feat. There’s a video which has him talking about it out there somewhere….

For me, I think it’s one of their best singles. It only lasts for two and a bit minutes as a lot of their early ‘moptop’ period singles did…. it’s all about the lyrical melody really. Lennon’s voice sounds fantastic – double tracked with a bit of grit to it. George Harrison and McCartney’s vocal harmonies are on point… I always feel good listening to this one. And that’s what you want from any good song with good vibes.

My iPod #520: The Beatles – Hey Bulldog

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If the terms ‘overlooked’ or ‘underrated’ had to be applied to only one Beatles song for some unexplainable reason, I would think that we would all happily agree on “Hey Bulldog” being a strong contender. The most passionate of Beatles fans will already know of the song’s impressive strengths, but it is one that really doesn’t get that worldwide recognition that a lot of other Beatles songs claim. I may as well try and attempt to tell you why it should.

The song was recorded during somewhat of a blank period in The Beatles timeline. After what was arguably their most successful year in 1967, recording Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour, the group began work again in early 1968 – not with any intent of making another LP, but to lay down some tracks that could be possibly be the next single. “Lady Madonna” ended up being that track with Harrison’s composition “The Inner Light” as the B-Side; “Hey Bulldog” was left on the shelf until it was chosen to be released on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album almost a year later.

Led by a funky piano riff, a powerful drum performance by Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney’s bass which seems to have a life of its own, “Hey Bulldog” is a groovy number about someone who feels unappreciated/depressed. Well, that’s how I feel anyway. The random situations and silly phrases that appear in the lyrics may make you think I am looking to deep into it.

The song was noted by the engineer Geoff Emerick as being the last one in which all four members approached recording with a real enthusiasm; you can really tell when listening to it and watching the making of it in the video above. Lennon and McCartney’s spontaneous exchange at the tail-end never fails to raise a smile, and Ringo’s cheeky ‘yeah?’ after the lyric ‘big man’ is sang is priceless.

There are many highlights here; I could go on forever about them, but you should hear the song for yourself.