Tag Archives: through

#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’.

#1181: R.E.M. – Shaking Through

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The “How I Came to Know and Love Murmur” story is one I’ve told many a time in the past. It’s probably written in every post for the songs I’ve talked about from there so far. Written one way or another, the point remains the same. It’s the trouble when an album and nearly all the tracks click with you immediately. If you’re gonna write a blog about them like me, the origin stories between songs aren’t going to vary by any wide margin. So “I heard the album in one go and it was immediately a favourite” is the best you can get out of me. It’ll be the same for ‘Sitting Still’ when that comes around, which will be sooner than you think.

I’m very sure the album’s tenth song, ‘Shaking Through’, was another one that I understood – in terms of feeling, gauging the lyrics not so much – on the first try. The track is tremendously upbeat and carries on a musical theme on the album that consists of holding back on providing the chorus, just for a little while to get another verse in, so that when it eventually hits it comes as this cathartic release. And that release is matched by the belted-out melody of the chorus lyric. “Shaking through/Opportune”. Not sure what it means. This whole period of R.E.M. was Michael Stipe coming up with anything on the spot, whether it made sense or not. But kinda just looking over them, I’ve come to see the track as a celebration of good things to come. One of hope, optimism and opportunity. I just get that sense about it.

Well, I guess that’s all I’ve got to say about the track, really. I guess I’ll just list a few things about the track that perk my ears. Bill Berry switches from striking the hi-hat to striking the ride cymbal during the choruses. That’s something. Usually drummers would just decide to stick to one or the other. Not him, though. The “in my life” bridge where Stipe’s then joined in by a bunch of overlapping vocals is goosebump-inducing. Everyone likes a key change, especially when it’s done right, and it is done so for the song’s final-final chorus. And just when you think it’s over, there’s an unrelated looping instrumental that brings the song to a proper close. The band always liked instrumentals on their albums, didn’t they? ‘Shaking Through’ was recorded for the Chronic Town EP that preceded Murmur in 1982, but left off. The ‘lyrics’ aren’t as fleshed out. I don’t think it’s as good as how it eventually turned out. But the feeling is still all there.

#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.