beatles | Every Moment Has A Song

Quora: What was Paul McCartney’s most intricate bassline in ‘The Beatles’?

20 Feb 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: beatles, george harrison, paul mccartney, something

(Answered by Thomas Luton)

Paul McCartney was arguably the most musically gifted out of all 4 Beatles. As the groups bassist, he used this ability to create wonderfully intricate and melodic bass lines.

Perhaps his most intricate bass lines are found on the last Beatles album ‘Abbey Road’. You have to remember that by this point in 1969, the Beatles were at the absolute pinnacle of their musical ability after producing several incredible albums.

Abbey Road is a masterwork of production and musicality and Paul’s bass lines reflect his abilities as a bassist. I think this is reflected in the song ‘Something’, maybe George Harrison’s magnum opus.

An incredibly written love song , ‘Something’ is a beautiful ode to love and commitment. Although the song was written by Harrison, I would recommend listening to Paul McCartney’s incredibly melodic and interesting bass line.

Busy and richly melodic, this bass line emerges as one of the most prominent features of the track. Although accused of some, including Harrison himself, of being too busy, I think it clearly reflects Paul’s incredible creativity and ability as a bassist.

Quora: In the song ‘I Am The Walrus’, I’ve noticed that there is some sort of dialogue in the middle and at the end of the song which sounds like it comes from some sort of show or movie. Where exactly did The Beatles get the clips from?

05 Feb 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: beatles, i am the walrus, john lennon

(Answered by Max Gretinski)

John Lennon happened to be present (on September 29, 1967) when the first mono mixes of the song were being made. He decided at one point to switch on the radio, and to mix in a broadcast of whatever was playing at the time. It happened to be a radio performance of Shakespeare’s King Lear, with John Gielgud playing Lear.

When the radio switched on, the play was at Act IV, scene vi. Oswald eventually dies in that scene.
In the earlier portion, they mix the radio in only at the end of lines:

“I am the egg man.” (mix in radio)
“They are the egg men.” (mix in radio)
“I am the walrus. Goo goo goo joob.” (mix in radio)

The lines that got mixed in are the ones that appear highlighted here.

During the song’s fade, Lennon simply had them mix in the radio from a certain point on. We hear a fight, and then …

They fade the song out just after the line, “Sit you down, father; rest you” — which creates a rather appropriate ending.

Quora: What is the “Norwegian Wood” Lyric Referring to in the Beatles Song of the Same Name?

29 Jan 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: beatles, norwegian wood

(Answered by Ely Matawaran)

John Lennon, who was the main writer of the song with McCartney as co-writer, said to Playboy in 1980 that it was about an affair he was having:

“I always had some kind of affair going, so I was trying to be sophisticated in writing in such a smoke-screen way that you couldn’t tell.”

When asked about the title itself, he answered:

“I don’t know how the hell I got to ‘Norwegian Wood'”

Sir Paul McCartney:

“John told Playboy Magazine that he hadn’t the faintest idea where the title came from but I do.

“Peter Asher (of Peter and Gordon, brother of Jane Asher and roommate of McCartney in their house) had his room done out in a wood, a lot of people were then decorating their places in wood, Norwegian wood.

“It was pine really, cheap pine. But it’s not as good a title, “Cheap Pine, Baby”…

“So she makes him sleep in the bath and then finally in the last verse I had this idea to set the Norwegian wood on fire as revenge, so we did it very tongue in cheek.

“She led him on, then said, ‘You better sleep in the bath’.

“In our world, the guy had to have some sort of revenge. It could have meant I lit a fire to keep myself warm, and wasn’t the decor of her house wonderful?

“But it didn’t, it meant I burned the fucking place down as an act of revenge, and then we left it from there and went into the instrumental.”

NOTE: Norwegian Wood was a landmark recording being one of the first Western pop songs to feature the sitar, an Indian instrument played by George Harrison, which would soon become an integral part of psychedelic sound.

9 of The Best Beatle Intros

01 Jan 2024 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: beatles

(via CultureSonar) BY ADAM LEADBEATER

An often underappreciated element of the Beatles’ songwriting is their seemingly effortless ability to craft a truly memorable ‘intro.’ The art of writing a timeless song opening is a masterful skill. The Fab Four were particularly expert in doing so throughout their eight years together.

The band’s finest introductions are typically iconic in their own right, innovative for their time, and often acts of musical genius in and of themselves. Here are nine of the best intros by the Fab Four.

I Saw Her Standing There (1963)

One of the most simplistic yet impactful Beatles intros appears immediately on track one of their debut album Please Please Me.

Paul McCartney’s sharp and purposeful count of “One, Two, Three, Four!” injects raw energy into this relentless rock and roll classic.

The bouncing bassline and clanking guitar work are pure magic, perfectly setting the scene for the rest of the band’s first LP and also their formative years.

A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

“A Hard Day’s Night’s” intro is all about a single sound. This title track from the Beatles’ third album opens with a very distinctive note, created using a combination of twelve-string electric guitar, an acoustic six-string, bass, and piano. Strummed aggressively and left to ring out, the exact chord has become the subject of much speculation over the years.

“It is F with a G on top,” George Harrison would finally confirm in 2001. “But you’ll have to ask Paul about the bass note to get the proper story.”