Tag Archives: white album

#812: The Beatles – Martha My Dear

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Not so long after John Lennon finishes wailing about happiness being a warm gun on The Beatles’ White Album comes ‘Martha My Dear’. The track is virtually a solo Paul McCartney venture. He plays all the instruments on there bar the violins, trumpets and all the other ‘classical’ instrumentation. Those were arranged by the band’s producer George Martin. The song is also notable for being about McCartney’s dog who he owned at the time. I’ve seen that a lot of people don’t take it seriously for that reason and jokingly categorise it under the ‘granny shit’ label that Lennon had reportedly said about some of McCartney’s material.

But really, I think it just goes under the list of great songs that the man wrote. Another great melody as per usual. And that piano run is hard to play. I’ve tried. There’s a lot of skipping and jumping from note to note while trying to maintain the timing. I’ve also liked how the song always keeps moving and changing. McCartney sings along with the piano and violins for the first verse/chorus(?), then the horns come in for the “hold your head up” section to add some oomph, and then takes off with the “take a good look” bridge. It’s hard to label the song’s parts. There’s not really a chorus because the piano lick is kind of the main refrain of it. It’s just one nice melody after the next, with a nice instrumental walk-in-the-park section.

So a guy just wanted to write a song about his dog. There’s no problem with that. Have you seen the pictures of Paul and Martha? It seems that they were very close. A lot of credit has to go to George Martin on this one too. His arrangement for the additional instruments make this track a lot more dramatic than it has any right to be. This would be the beginning of Side 2 if you were listening to it on vinyl. I think I’ve got to say that that side may be my favourite on the double album. The run from ‘Martha My Dear’ to about ‘Rocky Raccoon’ is one of their strangely gratifying moments on any of the band’s albums.

#761: The Beatles – Long, Long, Long

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Out of the four George Harrison songs that appear on The Beatles’ White Album, I would probably say that ‘Long, Long, Long’ is my favourite out of them. To that you’ll probably wonder, “Well, what about ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps?’“. And to that I’ll answer, I’ve never really enjoyed that track and I think that what ended up on the album pales in comparison to the demo that appeared on Anthology 3. ‘Piggies’, I like quite a bit, and ‘Savoy Truffle’ I feel neither here nor there about. Harrison wrote at least seven songs that could have been included on the double album, but as long as Lennon-McCartney were together he could never get a proper look in. Thankfully, ‘Long, Long, Long’ did make it considering it was one of the last songs the group made during the album sessions.

Coming in after the noisy ‘Helter Skelter’ on the tracklist, ‘Long, Long, Long’ has a much more dynamic approach, leading off with soothing acoustic verses backed by a ghostly organ played by Paul McCartney which are then followed by emphatic drum fills from Ringo Starr at occasional intervals. The song was written during the time the group were in India in the early part of 1968 for their Transcendental Meditation course and, according to Harrison, is about finding God, believing in him, wondering why did took so long to do so and never letting him go now that he has Him in his life. Though if you’re not into that sort of stuff, you can take it as a standard love song.

The band, excluding John Lennon who was doing God knows what somewhere else, pretty much pulled an all-nighter to get this song done. A session outtake that was made available on the 50th Anniversary issue of the album sees Harrison in somewhat high spirits but you can sense the tired atmosphere. He cracks jokes before the take and goes on a rambling monologue as the take leads to nowhere. He also messes up the intro, but gets right into it after a split second. I’ll link that below. It is certainly a song best suited for the night time or when it’s time to sleep, but the ending where every instrument rises to climactic roar is sure to wake you right up again.

#601: The Beatles – I’m So Tired

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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.

#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.

My iPod #513: The Beatles – Helter Skelter

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After reading a magazine in which Pete Townshend of The Who described the band’s most recent single “I Can See for Miles” as the ‘loudest, and dirtiest track [they’d] ever done’, Paul McCartney took it upon himself to listen to it and decide whether the track lived up to the adjectives. For him, it did not. Finding it too ‘straight’ and ‘sophisticated’, he wrote a song in response that would really get the people going and to also hush the critics who only saw him as the one who wrote the ballads and sillier songs in The Beatles. The result? “Helter Skelter”, possibly the most manic track the group committed to tape and found on the group’s self-titled album from 1968.

The four men from Liverpool give it to you raw for the four and a half minutes the song lasts for. Whilst Ringo pounds on the crash cymbals and provides regular drum fills here and there for the track’s duration, John provides an ugly, murky sounding but appropriate bassline with George and Paul play feedback-laden rhythm guitars present but which also take a backseat in the song’s mix. Really, the highlight of the track is McCartney’s wild vocals; he melodically shouts and howls throughout, falling into fits of laughter at some points as he fails to control himself. The production is that unpolished that subtle things that would be left out on any other track are left in, such as Paul’s random utterances (2:57-3:09) and John randomly shouting and chanting “Fanny Craddock” before baaing like a sheep (2:37-2:55). They’re very strange, but only add to its chaotic atmosphere.

The version you hear on the album was the last of a staggering eighteen takes, and even if they wanted to try it one more time the chance that they would get it as perfect as they did would be quite slim. Plus, the blisters on Ringo’s fingers would have hindered him from trying one more time anyway.