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| The Beatles – Let It Be Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I'm not sure how John could have dismissed this song in good faith-- it is one of Paul's best, beautifully arranged, great guitar solo, I'm not aware of many songs previous to 1969 that were this powerful. Everyone waited for Paul to top this song as a solo artist and he never was able to. |
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| The Beatles – Nowhere Man Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Only someone as brilliant as John could write a song like this, whose lyric is so devastating that Americans assume it is a political song, about himself, and then include the line "Isn't he a bit like you and me?" It's not about God or Ignorance or Politics or anything like that and that's why it's brilliant-- Lennon wrote it about how ultimately futile our lives are. |
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| The Beatles – Good Morning Good Morning Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I think it's a commentary on how mundane English life was in the 1960s. "Meet the Wife" refers to a BBC program of the time.
Also probably a reflection of John's dissatisfaction with his own life at the time. I think the contrast between day and night was big for him because according to biographies at this time John would do little all day and, record with the Beatles during the evening and then go out on the town. |
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| The Beatles – Child of Nature Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Nice Spanish guitar sound on the bootleg...I think John felt the Maharishi-inspired lyrics were too tame and also John resented the Maharishi after the India trip; the melody was put to good use on "Jealous Guy." |
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| The Beatles – For No One Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Written by Paul about his rocky relationship with Jane Asher. It's sublimely sad tone and beautiful horn solo make it one of the best tracks off "Revolver". |
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| The Beatles – All Things Must Pass Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I don't think it is on Past Masters, but the Beatles actually recorded several takes of the song during the Let It Be sessions which are available on bootlegs. Also George's Feb. 1969 demo is on Anthology 3. I've read that John gave George the line "A mind can blow those clouds away" during these sessions too. The Beatles I think were unsure of how to arrange it; actually the song ended up getting Phil Spectored on the All Things Must Pass Album (the best version is probably George's demo). |
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| The Beatles – Don't Let Me Down Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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I agree with what Paul said some years back about this being a genuine cry for help from John to Yoko, as John was battling drug addiction and dissatisfaction both with himself and the Beatles. |
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| The Beatles – The Night Before Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Who doesn't love the harmonies of the Beatles of this period coupled with the more mature lyrics? This is Paul being inspired lyrically by John and Dylan to write a self-doubting song about a one-night stand. |
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| The Beatles – It's Only Love Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Agree the lyrics aren't bad-- they create a tension that makes the song listenable. Also, you wouldn't hear many other bands in 1965 singing "I get high". I think it sounds right in place on the American Rubber Soul. In particular, it has a similar vibe to "Michelle" and "In My Life", and fits well with the sexual frustration theme of several other Rubber Soul songs from "You Won't See Me" to "Girl". |
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| The Beatles – Tomorrow Never Knows Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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This song is a key part of the reason some people seriously claim that Revolver is the greatest rock album ever. Playing the Taxman solo backwards gave the album a complete feel that the earlier ones might have lacked. Revolver has throughout a surreal contrast between Paul's earnest ballads and John's acid rock vibe. I think the repetition of acid-sounding guitar parts, new for the Beatles, holds the album together though. |
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| The Beatles – Yer Blues Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Facking Hell, I dare you to say that John Lennon doesn't convey the visceral feeling of suicidal depression as powerfully as any "authentic" American blues artist. Also, what do you mean by "authenticity" or "real blues"? If you are going to make a hierarchy on the basis of whether the song comes directly out of some imagined "pure" folk culture or is "merely" an "imitation" of that folk culture, then I would only caution that Lennon was conscious of his appropriation of the genre and made no pretensions to an authenticity he lacked. In fact, almost all of the Beatles music can be characterized as an appropriation of more authentic black music of the American South-- and you can throw in most of rock and roll in that category. But the Beatles and other artists built on and surpassed the old genre in so many ways that you probably would not have even heard of the "authentic" blues if it hadn't been for people like Clapton and the Beatles creating interest in the genre.
I suspect, though, that you just want to sound fashionable by indicating that you have greater knowledge or taste in music.
But if you want to evaluate the song without these artificial categories, I dare you to say this song doesn't rock just as hard as any old blues record; Lennon's vocal on this is just shattering. |
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| The Beatles – Rain Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Would have been a great track on Revolver-- first time the public saw psychadelic imagery in a Beatles song (the rain is" just a state of mind"). |
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| The Beatles – Hey Bulldog Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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The McCartney theory is very interesting and I don't believe I've seen any source make that claim before. The lyrics certainly are consistent with the cold way John treated Paul after the breakup, but that may be deceptive...
If you look only to the lyrics, it's sort of a parody of a children's song, like a scathing way you might describe an actual child. This might be consistent with the notion that John intended the song for "Yellow Submarine." |
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| The Beatles – Fixing a Hole Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Just to note, there is strong evidence that Paul "co-wrote" the song with Mal Evans, so some of the lyrics might be Evans's.
Maybe this explains why, in my view, "Fixing the Hole"'s lyric is too poetic and metaphorical to have been written entirely by Paul.
While Paul was a skilled lyricist in the sense that his best songs told compelling and heartfelt stories, their meaning was usually rather straightforward, i.e. where John often intended double meanings in his lyrics (especially during this period) and sometimes included nonsensical wordplay, Paul didn't really think like that. His idea of wordplay was rather simplistic, like "Hello, Goodbye." That's probably why Paul did not age well as a songwriter; as pop music became more self-aware post-1968 Paul couldn't write "story" songs without seeming trite or facetious. |
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| The Beatles – Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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Even if you believe Lennon's story about the picture, how do you explain the line, "Climb in the back with your head in the clouds/and your gone"? How can you argue that someone as intelligent and self-conscious as Lennon did not mean that as a drug reference? (To compare, recall that Lennon suggested the line "A mind can blow those clouds away" for Harrison's All Things Must Pass to give that song "a little bit of psychadelia").
Lennon intentionally included psychadelic imagery and references on his songs beginning with "Tomorrow Never Knows" (nobody disputes that Lennon took that lyric from a book by LSD guru Timothy Leary). So whether the drug reference in the song title is intentional or not, this is a psychadelic song. |
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| The Beatles – Martha My Dear Lyrics
| 17 years ago
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It was written about Jane Asher. Asher was McCartney's muse in the sense that he wrote many, many songs about her: "For No One," "Things We Said Today," etc. Basically most of his songs from 1965 and 1966 were about Asher. Agree too that McCartney was not over their relationship at this point: "don't forget me," etc. |
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