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KEY C Major METER 4/4 FORM Intro -> Verse -> Verse -> Refrain -> Verse -> Refrain -> Interlude -> Refrain -> Outro (w/ complete ending) GENERAL POINTS OF INTEREST
- Perhaps the only thing that's more astonishing than Ringo's officially releasing a song for the first time in 1968 is the evidence that the song already existed, at least in part, four or more years earlier.
- Seek out the BBC Radio first-ever "Top Gear" programme broadcast on July 16, 1964 (where were *you* on that date?), where you can listen to Ringo and Paul not just discussing the song with host Brian Matthews, but even hear them singing a few sample bars. In that context, you could imagine the song being delivered as a rocking bluesy number, in the manner of "Can't Buy Me Love." But wait four years, slow down the tempo, add a part for fiddler, and voila: we have it served up all countrified and back woodsy, as if it ever could be any other way.
- The harmonic vocabulary is limited to the blues trio of I, IV, V.
- The bluesy flat 3rd scale degree (Eb) shows up in the tune of both verse and refrain; near the very end of the section, in both cases.
- The instrumental texture is quite thick (you might say "muddy"), the result of many overdubs, and special processing effects. For a Beatles track, it's conspicuously *UN*varied throughout.
- The obbligato part for country fiddle is an inspired effect and nicely executed.
- Ringo's solo vocal part sounds auto-double-tracked throughout, as well as artifically sped up. Seek out, BTW, the mono White Album where this track is mastered a full half-step higher (and consequently runs faster) than the stereo version.
- The track is bracketed at both ends by noodling; i.e. by a piano on the way in, and by the fiddle on the way out. This is a novel studio effect that falls somewhere on the spectrum between suggesting a live performance and exploitation of the recorded album medium.
SECTION-BY-SECTION WALKTHROUGH
- The piano noodling of the intro is capped off by some attention grabbing drum fills, and then followed by four measures of vamping on the C Major, I, chord.
- The verse is unusually long and a prime-numbered 19 measures in length.
|C |- |- |- | C: I |F |- |- |- | IV |G |- |- |- | V |F |- |- |C |- |- |- | IV I
- I'd parse the lyric into four phrases, the final one of which is both elongated and asymmetrical (7 measure length!) in a manner unusual for our genre. The latter effect helpfully counteracts the otherwise almost deadly, unvarying and slow-paced harmonic rhythm.
- The refrain section is also an elongated paragraph, this time a full 24 measures in length.
|C |- |- |- |
I
|F |- |- |- |
IV
|C |- |- |- ||(1 extra measure in final refrain!)
I
|G |- |- |- |
V
|F |- |- |- |
IV
|C |- |- |- |
I
- The music parses into 6 phrases even in length. The lyrics, though, while they start off with two phrases that follow the music, switch to some kind of free verse for the remainder of the section. The vocal phrases become increasingly interjectory, thus providing continually larger amounts of space between phrases for the obbligato part.
- The final refrain adds one odd measure at the end of the third phrase, a gesture that resonates with the odd "missing measure" in the third phrase of every verse.
- Ringo counts in a stage whisper from 1 to 8 during the final four measures of the penultimate refrain. Then the beat suddenly stops for a few short seconds before drum fills, quite reminiscent of the intro, remind us that we've got a few more miles to go.
- While the overall form of the track is pretty much standard, the sequence of a double refrain at the end is unusual, and also risky in terms of flirting with boredom; hence, I believe this pause serves to grant some helpful breathing room between the two refrains. I encourage you to ponder the compositional mystery of how effectively such a gesture articulates form in spite of its brief duration and seeming insignifigance.
- Check out the infamous Peter Sellers tape version of this track, on which a reprise of the first verse appears in between the final two refrains. You can clearly hear for yourself the boredom risk inherent in THAT path.
- The instrumental outro grows directly out of the final refrain.
|F |- |G |- |I |- .....
IV V I6->5
4->3
- Some people will parse the harmonic content of measure 5 as though it were a IV-I plagal cadence, but I urge you (as I always do when we run into one of these) to hear the downbeat chord as simply a double appogiatura to the I chord.
- That final chord is sustained the equivalent of at least four measures but your mind stops keeping track of this as soon as the steady beat ceases.
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
- This song provides an object lesson on how an almost painfully simplistic ditty can still be redeemed by virtue of an imaginative arrangement and delivery.
- The fact that Ringo should opt for this in his first outing should not surprise us. If you look at some of the evidence from the Get Back sessions, you might conclude that this kind of thing is the limit of what the poor lad is capable of. Check out the bootleg audio fragments of "I Bought a Picasso" and "Taking A Trip to Carolina," as well as a scene in the film where Ringo struggles in real time to hack out a decent bridge section for "Octapus's Garden" literally with help from his friends.
- On the other hand, you might argue that Ringo's mates didn't do very much to bring him along in the musical department. Review the list of songs for which they assigned him the lead singer! Not just the covers, but the L&M; originals as well: whether it's "I Wanna Be Your Man," "Yellow Submarine," or even the ill-fated "If You've Got Trouble," you might start to think they had some subconcious desire to keep him conditioned to a steady diet of simple strains. Who knows? If you're Paul's grandfather, you might even say this was all part of "their cruel unnatural treatment." Yes, I know that's ridiculous hypothesis, but I have difficulty with self control when a movie quote just seems to fit. :-)
Regards,
Alan ([email protected])
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"I've written a good one, you see, but nobody
wants to record it." 020198#142
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Copyright (c) 1998 by Alan W. Pollack
All Rights Reserved
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