Folk-Rock and Country-Rock Songs
Folk music was popular in the early 1960s, with several successful recording groups, including the Kingston Trio, the Weavers, and Peter, Paul and Mary, as well as solo artists such as Woody Guthrie, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan. The groups used three- or four-part vocal harmonies accompanied by acoustic guitars, while soloists accompanied themselves on acoustic guitars and sometimes with other instruments like the harmonica. In England during the mid-1950s, skiffle music was a popular craze with young musicians, including John Lennon and his band the Quarrymen. Influenced largely by the Scottish singer-songwriter Lonnie Donegan, skiffle music, like folk music, was played on acoustic instruments. In addition to guitars, skiffle also included homemade instruments such as washboards and thimbles, which created a percussive scrapping sound, and tea-chest basses, made with a broom handle and string attached to a wooden tea chest. When the skiffle craze began to fade, the Quarrymen, who in 1958 included John, Paul, and George, began their love affair with rock and roll.
As early as 1964, the Beatles were recording some of their songs using acoustic instruments. At a time when they were well known as a rock-and-roll band, having had huge successes based on their chart-topping singles such as “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” and “Can’t Buy Me Love,” their desire to write new, non–rock-and-roll songs gave birth to a new genre of music called folk rock. Adding drums, electric bass, and electric guitars to folk music’s standard acoustic guitar ensemble is what made folk music rock. This new folk-rock genre was a clear indication of the Beatles’ pioneering spirit to expand their songwriting styles and evolve as a creative band.
“I’ll Be Back,” written for the most part by John, is one of the first folk-rock songs recorded by the Beatles. While Paul played electric bass, John and George put down their electrics and played acoustic guitars. George also played a classical nylon-stringed guitar. Stylistically, “I’ll Be Back” was a sign of things to come and would usher in a folk-rock movement a year later. Harmonically, this song is innovative, going back and forth between major and minor keys, bridged together by a recurring guitar riff played by George. During the verses, a jarring overdubbed acoustic guitar plays against the even rhythm of the song. The bridge has a descending guitar line falling beneath John’s lead vocals as he sings the word I with a long, sustained note that is not in the backing chord. This is unusual and creates a harmonic suspension and uncertainty as John sings he “thought” you would realize. Conflicting lyrics say he wants to go but he hates to leave, which parallels the vacillating major/minor chord exchange. The lyrics “if you break my heart I’ll go, but I’ll be back” pose the question: Coming back for more heartache? The song fades out with harmonic uncertainty as the band continues to play major and minor chords. While John said he’d be back, Paul had different things to say.
“Things We Said Today,” written by Paul, is a brisk-paced song about the future and looking back on things that were said in the present tense. Paul wrote this song in May 1964 while on a yacht cruising the Caribbean Sea with his girlfriend Jane Asher. “Things We Said Today” has a similar chord structure as “I’ll Be Back.” However, with “Things We Said Today,” the verses are based on A minor chords, while the middle bridge of the song shifts to a parallel-modulation A major chord. The song also contains additional major chords in the bridge, which match the more positive lyrics. The identifying sound that makes this song unique is the pronounced open A string plucked by John on an acoustic guitar at the beginning of the song, between the verses and on the ending fade-out. This open string reverberates and sustains over the underlying rhythm. The same note is reinforced on the piano, played by John. George plays electric guitar mixed in with John’s big rhythm-guitar sound. Paul sings the lead vocals and harmony overdubs on “Things We Said Today.” Being on a yacht in the Caribbean Sea would be an ideal place to write a song about the sun. But instead, Paul wrote “I’ll Follow the Sun” at home in Liverpool.
“I’ll Follow the Sun,” one of the first songs that Paul wrote when he was sixteen years old, is about moving on from a failing relationship and seeking brighter times. Sung by Paul, this song demonstrates Paul’s acoustic guitar abilities. John also plays acoustic guitar while George provides a sliding electric guitar solo, mirroring the melody in the verses. Rather than starting on the root chord (usually the first chord of a song that matches the key of the song) the verses in “I’ll Follow the Sun” start on a dominant cord, which is a chord that generally occurs later in a song. This harmonic surprise gets your attention and perks up your ears. The chorus begins on the root chord and then the bridge moves to another chord sequence, with harmony sung by John. Instead of Ringo playing the drums, he provides percussion by slapping out a rhythm on his knees. A musically light song, “I’ll Follow the Sun” is early Beatles folk rock.
A different kind of Beatles song, “Baby’s in Black” has a six-eight time signature and sounds like a moderate folk-rock waltz. George starts the song playing a country-styled, low-string guitar riff, which reoccurs at the end of the choruses and at the end of the song. He also plays the lead guitar solo in the same style. John and Paul sing the harmonizing melody throughout the song. John’s best friend from his Liverpool College of Art days was Stuart Sutcliffe, a talented painter who played bass guitar with the Beatles in 1960 and 1961. While in Germany with the Beatles, Stuart met Hamburg photographer Astrid Kirchherr. The Beatles and Astrid became close friends, and Stuart and Astrid fell in love with each other. Wanting to be with Astrid, Stuart decided to quit the Beatles and stayed in Hamburg. Soon afterward, Stuart experienced severe headaches, and in 1962 he collapsed and died on his way to the hospital. The sad lyrics about “she dresses in black” and “he’ll never come back” can be interpreted as Astrid mourning Stuart’s death.
“I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party,” the B-side to the “Eight Days a Week” single, is written by John. Adding to the folk-rock character of this song is the style of George’s lead guitar solo. The lyrics in “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” are about being stood up at a party. Not wanting to ruin a good time for the others, the rejected character chooses to leave. During the verses, rather than Paul singing the harmony, John harmonizes with himself. This solo Beatle vocal-overdubbing recording technique was used by the Beatles in 1965. Later in their recording career, individual Beatles frequently overdubbed their vocals. Paul sings the high harmony part during the bridge, and even though the lyrics are a downer, the music is quick and bright, as if the song were driving the main character to get moving and leave the party.
Having met Bob Dylan in 1964, the Beatles were aware of what Dylan was doing in the recording studio and with the songs on his 1965 Bringing It All Back Home album. Dylan’s album contained songs played on acoustic guitar and harmonica, plus electrified folk-rock songs. Influenced by Dylan, Lennon wrote the song “I’m a Loser.” This song marks a significant change with John’s songwriting. Not containing lyrics about love and romance, John actually sings that he is not what he appears to be. With Paul harmonizing with him, the song begins with John proclaiming that he is a loser. Most listeners at the time thought that the self-deprecating lyrics of “I’m a Loser” could not be about John. In 1965, John and the other Beatles were perceived to be the antithesis of being losers; in the eyes of the general public, they were the biggest winners in the pop/rock music world. Yet John was telling us that he wasn’t the big winner we believed him to be. Paul plays an up-and-down walking bass line during the chorus and harmonizes with John. After John’s harmonica solo, George picks a lead guitar solo. The song ends with John playing his harmonica and George picking his strings on the fade-out. Another way of feeling like a loser is not getting a response.
“No Reply” is a dramatic song about cheating on someone. Written mostly by John, the rhythm of the song is syncopated. Ringo plays cross stick and hits his snare drum on downbeats and upbeats during the verses. On the chorus, John and Paul scream “I saw the light” and the dramatic lyrics “I nearly died,” with cymbal crashes from Ringo. With the same intensity as the chorus, John and Paul sing the bridge’s lyrics, declaring their love is greater than that of any other guy. Still, there’s no reply, and being replaced by another man cannot be tolerated. Another big rhythm-guitar song, John and George play acoustic guitars, and that’s all George plays because there’s no guitar solo in “No Reply.” Even though there’s no reply, John and Paul want to know what you see.
“Tell Me What You See,” a song written by Paul on the Beatles VI album, is more folk rock than rock and roll. The song is built primarily on John’s rhythm guitar and percussion instruments. Ringo plays the tambourine and claves, and George plays a guiro, a gourd-shaped Latin instrument that makes a clicking sound when scraped with a stick. “Tell Me What You See” showcases harmony and lead vocals sung by Paul and John and also highlights the Hohner Pianet, played by Paul at the end of each chorus and at the end of the song. A clever play with the word part are the lyrics “we will never be apart, if I’m part of you.” The vocal line is rhythmically syncopated during the verses, bouncing in between the even downbeats. After the Beatles sing the words “tell me what you see,” you hear the electric piano followed by drums and bass, a musical answer to the inquiring lyrics. When you open your eyes and ears, what you see and hear are the Beatles. The lyrics “trying to get to you” are the same as the title to a 1956 Elvis Presley single titled “Trying to Get to You,” illustrating how Elvis made a lasting impression on the Beatles.
In 1965, the Beatles continued to develop their rock-and-roll songs. “Ticket to Ride” demonstrates the use of electric guitars and a dynamic syncopated drum track, which makes the song rock and roll. During the same time period, John, Paul, and George wrote several folk-rock songs. Some of these songs do not include drums or electric guitars. A few of them are featured in their movie Help! and accompanying soundtrack album.
In the opening sequence in the Beatles’ second feature-length film, Help!, John plays an acoustic Gibson guitar. However, on the studio recording John plays an acoustic twelve-string guitar. The song “Help!” is written by John as the title song for the movie. While the title is perfectly appropriate for the film in which Ringo clearly needs help escaping from East Indians who are trying to kill him, John was honestly crying for help. No one in 1965 could have known that was the case since the Beatles appeared to be on top of the world. Even though John and the Beatles wanted worldwide fame, John was no longer happy with stardom and felt trapped by his celebrity status. Regardless, “Help!” was a number one hit on record charts throughout the world. Wasting no time, the song begins with an abbreviated chorus and a screaming plea for “help!” During the verses and chorus, John’s voice sounds emotionally pained and exclaims that he’s down and feeling insecure. At the end of the full chorus, articulating the dramatic cry for help, John, along with harmony from Paul and George, sing the highest notes in the song on the word please. Contrary to the “down” lyrics, the music is driven by a quick, bright tempo. George plays a cascading guitar riff at the end of the choruses, which sets up the verses. While it was a perfect song for the movie, “Help!” had a hidden truth for John, who was looking for a way out.
Another folk-rock song in the movie Help! is “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” written and sung by John. He plays a Framus Hootenanny twelve-string acoustic guitar in the song’s film sequence and on the soundtrack album. “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” is believed by some to be about Brian Epstein having to hide the fact that he was homosexual. In Great Britain at that time, it was against the law to be a homosexual, thus one had to hide his love. The introspective lyrics were inspired by Bob Dylan and his song “I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Met),” which contains the lyrics “I can’t understand, she let go of my hand, and left me here facing a wall.” In “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” John sings, “Here I stand, head in hand, turn my face to the wall.” At the beginning of each chorus, John gets your attention by belting out a high-pitched “hey.” Instead of there being a harmonica solo, which would have been appropriate for a folk song, the Beatles do something different. A flute solo occurs during the last chord progression. This is another example of how the Beatles were surprisingly unpredictable and innovative. In addition to playing the tambourine, Ringo plays his snare drum with brushes. The brushed drum sound blends perfectly with John’s rhythm guitar strumming, and on the chorus Ringo plays maracas.
In October 1965, the Beatles finally had a break from their hectic touring schedule and retreated into the recording studio at Abbey Road, where they recorded their Rubber Soul album. Look at the Rubber Soul album cover and you will see what appears to be a stretched, tilted photo of the Beatles. This occurred by accident when photographer Robert Freeman projected an image of the photo on a piece of cardboard and the cardboard tilted backward, thus giving the image an elongated look. You will also see that their hair is longer and that they are dressed in casual clothing and wear brown suede jackets. For the first time on a Beatles album, their name does not appear on the cover. By late 1965 when Rubber Soul was released, their images were so well known that the band’s name was not needed to identify the faces on the album cover. The cover photo indicates that the Beatles’ physical appearances had changed along with the style of their songs. The influence of this landmark album, recorded in about four weeks’ time, popularized the folk-rock music scene that was happening in the United States. Folk-rock songs by Bob Dylan, the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, and the Lovin’ Spoonful dominated the record charts.
The U.K. Rubber Soul album included the songs “Drive My Car,” “Nowhere Man,” What Goes On,” and “If I Needed Someone,” which were released in the United States on the Yesterday and Today album. On the U.S. Rubber Soul album, “I’ve Just Seen a Face” is the first song. This song perfectly tied in with the folk-rock scene that was exploding in America. Written by Paul, this all–acoustic guitar, fast-paced song is about falling in love. The song begins with a descending twelve-string guitar part followed by ascending guitar lines beautifully played by George, who also plays the guitar solo. John also plays an acoustic guitar on “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” and there is no bass part on the recording. Paul harmonizes with himself during the chorus. Ringo plays his drums with brushes and propels the song forward. Only two minutes, seven-seconds long, “I’ve Just Seen a Face” rushes by in a flash, and with “I’m Looking Through You,” Paul sees more than a face.
As demonstrated with the lyrics in Paul’s song “I’m Looking Through You,” his songwriting had evolved beyond love songs. The lyrics in this song are pointed at Paul’s deteriorating relationship with his girlfriend Jane Asher. He felt as though she was no longer the same as she used to be. Jane had a full-fledged acting career that pulled her away from Paul. He was looking through her and saw that Jane had changed. Paul went so far as to say that love disappeared overnight. That’s a far cry from “I give her all my love,” which he sings in “And I Love Her.” John sings harmony with Paul in the “you have changed” choruses and plays a driving acoustic guitar throughout the song. George plays the lead guitar riffs in “I’m Looking Through You.” That’s Ringo playing two notes on the Hammond organ on the first and second beats during the chorus, plus he keeps the rhythm moving along by tapping on a box of matches and hitting his thighs.
“Wait,” written by Paul, has prominent tambourine and maracas throughout the song, played by Ringo. Paul and John sing the lead vocals in harmony in the verses and choruses. In the bridge, it’s solo Paul singing the vocals, with George and John playing pulsating guitars beneath Paul’s voice. The lyrics address separation, feeling lonely, and being away from home. Given the fact that the Beatles were traveling a lot in 1965, the lyrics seem autobiographical. Some of the lyrics in the bridge are “as good as I can be.” If you can’t be good, then what? Not be good? But wait, unless your heart breaks, and if your heart’s strong, then hold on. John and Paul end the harmony-rich “Wait” with “I’ve been alone,” and George caps off the song with low guitar notes. Not willing to be alone, Paul believed that differences between lovers could be worked out.
The optimistic Paul wrote the verses and chorus to “We Can Work It Out.” John wrote the bridge, citing that life is too short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting. At a time when Paul’s relationship with Jane was problematic, he more than likely wrote this song about hoping to work things out with her. In the bridge, on the lyrics “fighting my friend” and “ask you once again,” the song switches to a three-four waltz feel. Released as a double A-sided single along with “Day Tripper,” “We Can Work It Out” has only three Beatles performing on the recording: Paul sings lead vocals and plays bass; John plays acoustic guitar and a harmonium keyboard and sings a lower harmony with Paul on the bridge of the song; Ringo plays drums and the tambourine. Since John plays the guitar and the arrangement didn’t include a lead guitar part, George is not on the recording. In January 1966, “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper” were hits on the U.S. record charts. “We Can Work It Out” was number one for three weeks, and “Day Tripper” hit the number five spot.
The Beatles’ influence on aspiring musicians and newly formed bands was powerful. A lot of those musicians had to have the same guitars that the Beatles played. . . . You finally put together a rock-and-roll band that could play Beatles songs. Your lead guitar player and drummer are from Manchester, England, not far from Liverpool. The bass player is from Manchester, Connecticut, so you think of naming the band the Manchesters. But that doesn’t sound Beatle enough, so you name it the Batles, which is the Beatles minus an e. Kenny, the drummer, has a Ludwig drum set that looks like Ringo’s. Jimmie, the bass player, has a Hofner, like Paul’s, and Lenny, the lead guitar player, has a Gretsch Country Gentleman, like one of George’s guitars. You have to have a twelve-string Rickenbacker like George’s so you can strum full-sounding rhythm chords with the band. So you go to the music store where all the famous musicians buy their instruments—Manny’s in New York City. After riding the train from Hartford to Grand Central Station in Manhattan, when you arrive at the music store on West Forty-Eighth Street, it is jam-packed and bustling with long-haired musicians. The first thing you notice is the wall behind the cash registers. It’s completely covered with band photographs. Your eyes scan the wall and you see photos of the Rolling Stones, the Lovin’ Spoonful, and the Young Rascals. Then your eyes rest and focus on a photo of the Beatles dressed in their collarless jackets smiling at you. You smile back. Getting on with your quest, you look up at hundreds of guitars hanging from elevated racks, and you spot a red sunburst electric twelve-string Rickenbacker. With the utmost care, you take it off the rack and hold it in your hands. It feels like the beautiful guitar should belong to you and was waiting for you to claim it. You take your nylon guitar pick out of your blue jeans pocket and strum the Rickenbacker. It being a semihollow guitar, even without amplification, the twelve strings ring out with a clean, cutting tone. Impressed and excited, you don’t bother to plug it into a nearby amplifier. You are sold, and after haggling with a salesman about the price, with the twelve-string Rickenbacker in its new silver case, you walk down Fifth Avenue to Grand Central Station with a satisfied grin on your face. As you approach the station, you wonder what will be the first song you’ll play on your new guitar. Considering that it’s a Rickenbacker twelve-string, the perfect song pops into your head.
“If I Needed Someone” is a bright, electric Rickenbacker twelve-string song written by George. This song was influenced by the American folk-rock band the Byrds and their guitarist Roger McGuinn. Roger also played an electric Rickenbacker twelve-string and used it on many of the Byrds’ recordings, including “Mr. Tambourine Man,” written by Bob Dylan. The twelve-string guitar riff in “If I Needed Someone” is modeled after the Byrds’ recording of “The Bells of Rhymney,” written by Pete Seeger with words by Welsh poet Idris Davies. In addition to George’s ringing Rickenbacker, “If I Needed Someone” has lush three-part harmony sung by George, Paul, and John. Also notable is Paul’s prominent repetitive bass line during the verses while John’s rhythm guitar chords move up and down the neck. George sings the vocals by himself on most of the first verse and in the bridges. While George didn’t need someone, John needed to write a song for an upcoming recording session.
John was wracking his brain trying to write a song, but he couldn’t come up with anything. At that moment, in terms of writing John was nowhere. Only after stopping and giving up did the song come to him. “Nowhere Man” has a sweeping melody and beautiful three-part harmonies. The sound of the recurring electric guitar riff, played by John and George, is extremely bright, due largely in part to their Fender Stratocaster guitars, which are known for their high-end, cutting tone. John plays the lead guitar solo on his sonic blue Stratocaster, and the three-part vocals match the brightness of the multiple guitar parts. The vocals immediately get your attention as they are isolated without backing instruments at the beginning of the song. In the bridge, Paul and George sing the “ah, la, la, la, la” vocals in harmony behind John’s lead vocals. On the last vocal line, Paul’s voice jumps up to a note higher than what he had sung in previous choruses.
The lyrics in “Nowhere Man” are introspective and philosophical. John brings the listener into the song by saying that the nowhere man is like you and me. After all, sometimes we might feel as though we are nowhere. In the movie Yellow Submarine, animated Beatles sing the song to a busybody character who seems to be going nowhere named Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD. “Nowhere Man” is a fine example of how John’s songwriting had evolved in two years’ time, from writing songs such as “I Feel Fine” to the more insightful “Nowhere Man.”
With so many bands emerging in 1966, battle of the bands competitions were popping up everywhere. . . . Now that your band, the Batles, are playing at the best music clubs in New England and attracting jam-packed audiences, it’s time to enter a battle of the bands competition. You happen to see an advertisement in the local paper announcing a band competition offering to pay the winning band $100. John Jamison, who manages the Thundering Outlaws, is staging the competition and thinks that no one can beat his band. The Batles are one of four bands on the bill. After two local bands perform to lukewarm responses from the audience, it’s time for the Batles to play. Standing in front of the band’s Vox amplifiers and holding guitars exactly like the Beatles had, the Batles open with “If I Needed Someone” and close with “Nowhere Man.” The crowd enthusiastically cheers, while some girls actually scream. Next, the Thundering Outlaws play. They sound okay but don’t get the crowd excited. Jamison comes up to the microphone and asks the crowd to clap after he names each band. The first two bands receive polite applause from the audience. Then he says, “What about the Batles?” The crowd roars with approval. Finally, Jamison asks, “How about the amazing Thundering Outlaws?” The crowd claps, but it is nothing like the reaction the Batles had received. “Well, I guess the Batles win,” said Jamison. You and the band thank the crowd and begin to pack up your instruments. Then you look around the hall and notice that Jamison is nowhere to be found. You go outside and see him sitting in the backseat of a Lincoln Continental with his window rolled down. Running to the car, you say, “Hey, John, where’s our money?” Jamison rolls up the window and the Continental speeds away. What? Your band had won fair and square and Jamison took off like a crook. In retrospect, you should have been wary of Jamison. After all, the name of his band is the Thundering Outlaws. If you needed someone, it was a manager like Brian Epstein who would prevent you from getting ripped off again.
There’s only one song in the Beatles catalog written by John, Paul, and Ringo, and that’s “What Goes On.” John had written an early version of the song when he was with his first band, the Quarrymen. In 1965, the Beatles dug it up and dusted it off. Paul wrote a few extended verses, and Ringo added new words to the original lyrics. The new version, with Ringo singing the lead vocals, became the B-side to the “Nowhere Man” single released in December 1965. This rockabilly-styled song begins with the chorus asking questions about “your heart” and “your mind.” In the verses, Ringo sings about getting torn apart and being lied to. The songs’ lyrics questioning a lover’s cheating behavior could only come from John’s heart and mind. John’s guitar playing stands out in “What Goes On.” He plays a chunky syncopated part predominately on the third and fourth beats. George plays an appropriate country-picking guitar solo. Paul’s bass playing during George’s guitar solo is a moving walking bass line. There’s a lot going on with this obscure Beatles song.
As you can readily hear when listening to “The Fool on the Hill,” one of the songs in the Beatles’ 1967 Magical Mystery Tour film and on the accompanying album, Paul’s songwriting continued to evolve with his use of philosophical lyrics. The song is about a wise man who is considered to be a fool by those who don’t understand him. The sole vocal track is sung by Paul, and he plays nearly all of the instruments. He uses different chords in “The Fool on the Hill,” beginning with a D major 6 chord. When the chorus begins, a minor chord accompanies Paul’s voice. The musical arrangement uses harmonicas and flutes, and Paul adds to the light-spirited song by playing a recorder. In addition to John and George playing harmonicas, so do Ray Thomas and Mike Pinder, two members from the rock band the Moody Blues. There are three flute parts on the song, played by freelance studio musicians. Ringo plays finger cymbals, maracas, and some drums. Just before the song ends, after the words spinning ’round, you can hear a rustling, shimmering sound move across the stereo spectrum. Is that the sound of the world spinning around or a flock of birds flying by? With its unusual chord changes, “The Fool on the Hill” takes folk music to a level that goes beyond simple folk roots.
Several of the songs on The Beatles album, also known as the White Album, are folk oriented. This is due in part to the fact that when the Beatles were in India studying meditation with the Maharishi, they brought acoustic guitars with them. Electric guitars and amplifiers would not have been welcomed or appropriate at a meditation retreat. Staying indoors in your designated hut and meditating every day was the primary activity at Maharishi’s ashram, located in Rishikesh, India, along the Ganges River. But that didn’t mean that John, Paul, and George had to stop writing songs. Far away from the noise and distractions of busy city life, the meditation setting was an ideal place to be creative, focus with no interruptions, and write a new batch of songs.
One of the songs that John wrote in India was “Dear Prudence.” Along with the Beatles, several other musicians and celebrities, including Mia Farrow and her sister Prudence, attended the ashram. John was trying to entice Prudence to come out of her hut and “play,” “greet the brand new day,” and “look around” instead of meditating all of the time. You can hear a noticeable change in the way John plays his guitar on the recording. Musician friend and successful recording artist Donovan had also brought his acoustic guitar to India, and he taught John and Paul a fingerpicking guitar technique. “Dear Prudence” begins with John playing a fingerpicking guitar riff before settling in on a repetitive, drone-like pattern during the first verse. On the chorus and following verses, Paul plays a descending melodic bass line. Background voices float in, contributing to the hypnotic feel of the song. During the “round, round” bridge and the last verse, George plays bright guitar fills between John’s vocals. The “round, round” lyrics are the same as the lyrics in “The Fool on the Hill,” recorded about a year earlier. Listen carefully to the last chorus and you’ll hear that the bass part has become edgier, with a top-end punch to it along with some tasty drumming. But much to everyone’s surprise, it’s not Ringo. That’s Paul playing the drums and playing a rapid tremolo piano part. Paul played the drums because Ringo had temporarily quit the band for a few weeks. John, Paul, and George didn’t want to wait and see if and when Ringo would return, so Paul filled in on drums. While John wanted Prudence to come out of her hut, he was also intrigued about a tiger-hunt incident.
“The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” is a song about tigers and elephants. Written by John when he was in India, the song was inspired by a young, wealthy American named Richard Cooke, who along with his mother had visited the meditation center in Rishikesh. Richard and his mother went out of the compound to hunt tigers while riding elephants. A tiger attacked an elephant and in order to save the elephant, Richard shot and killed the tiger. Hearing about this, John wrote “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” changing Richard’s name to Bill, as in Buffalo Bill. The song begins with all four Beatles singing the chorus, along with Ringo’s first wife, Maureen, and Yoko Ono. The verses are twice as slow as the chorus, and in the verses John tells the story about the tiger hunt on elephants. The end of the song is unusual. What sounds like a bassoon solo is accompanied by a group of handclaps, and then the song abruptly ends.
Yoko was in the studio for the recording of “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” and during most of the 1968 recording of the White Album. Her presence added to the friction going on within the Beatles. Paul, George, and Ringo didn’t want Yoko in the studio, but their protests fell on deaf ears because John insisted that Yoko be with him. Even though John’s first wife, Cynthia, was with him in India, Yoko was sending telegrams to John every day while John was at the ashram. The seeds of love between John and Yoko were planted, and soon after John returned from India, while Cynthia was vacationing with her mother in Italy, John and Yoko consummated their relationship. The impact Yoko had on John was like nothing he had ever experienced. Yoko was an educated conceptual artist who came from a wealthy Japanese family. John was looking for something new, something different, and Yoko satisfied his desires on multiple levels—artistic, intellectual, political, and physical. While Yoko’s constant inclusion in John’s life forever changed him, it also created resentment, further dissent, and division among the Beatles. Many people believe that Yoko broke up the band. While Yoko being in John’s life was a contributing factor, it was the Beatles who ultimately broke up the Beatles. They had grown apart and behaved as separate individuals who wanted to do different things. John, Paul, George, and Ringo no longer worked together as a close-knit band. Even though the Beatles had spent weeks meditating and perhaps finding inner peace, tensions were particularly high while recording the White Album, which caused the group to splinter, and in a number of instances, solo Beatle recordings took place. Such is the case with “Blackbird.”
When Paul was in India, he heard the sound of a blackbird calling, which was the inspiration for writing “Blackbird.” Playing acoustic guitar, singing, and tapping his feet on the recording studio floor, “Blackbird” is a solo performance by Paul on the White Album. The guitar part is influenced by the German baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s composition “Bourrée,” which was written for the lute. Paul’s “Blackbird” takes flight, seeking light and freedom. If Paul had written and recorded this song in 1965, it’s probable that he would have recorded “Blackbird” as a band arrangement with the other Beatles. On the same album, Paul contrasts the poetic “Blackbird” with a gun-slinging “Rocky Raccoon.”
“Rocky Raccoon,” written by Paul while in India, is a parody of a western saloon “show down” gun battle over a girl named Lil—or was her name Nancy? Rocky’s girlfriend had left him for another man. In a hotel room at the saloon, Rocky gets shot by Nancy’s new boyfriend, Dan, but Rocky survives, saying, “It’s only a scratch.” Adding to the grit, Paul’s opening acoustic guitar sounds slightly out of tune. The honky-tonk, sparkling piano part is perfectly played by George Martin. John contributes a lot to “Rocky Raccoon” and sings some background vocals and plays the six-string bass, harmonium, and harmonica. This is the last time John played harmonica on a Beatles song. However, he did return to the harmonica as a solo artist and played it on “Oh Yoko!” on his Imagine album. George’s participation on “Rocky Raccoon” is nominal, only singing some background vocals with John toward the end of the song. Paul shines in the spotlight in “Rocky Raccoon” and has fun spoofing on an Old West folk singer.
Once again it’s solo Paul on the White Album with “Mother Nature’s Son.” Inspired by a lecture given by the Maharishi in India, the song explores the wonders and pleasures of nature. John contributed a few lyrics, but the majority of the song was written by Paul, who sings and plays acoustic guitars, timpani, and distant-sounding drums. George Martin wrote the tranquil brass accompaniment to “Mother Nature’s Son.” If Paul had recorded the song with the other Beatles, it might have sounded something like an updated “I’ll Follow the Sun,” with a more developed guitar part and harmony sung by John and George. While Paul’s song is about Mother Nature, John’s song is about a mother’s child.
Toward the end of 1967, John wrote “Cry Baby Cry,” a song rooted in a driving acoustic guitar played by John with lyrics that come across like a nursery rhyme. John also plays piano and organ on the recording and harmonizes with his own lead vocals. Paul sings a high falsetto vocal part during the chorus, and his bass part in the first verse is unique. He plays a pulsating woo, woo, woo, which fades in and out. The song has some sound effects going on in the background, and a harmonium is played by George Martin. It was during the recording sessions of “Cry Baby Cry” that the Beatles’ recording engineer Geoff Emerick quit. After working with the Beatles for more than two years, Geoff had had enough of the ongoing bickering and outright cursing that was going on among the Beatles.
Even though it is not officially referred to as a Beatles song, at the end of “Cry Baby Cry,” you will hear Paul sing, “Can you take me back?” Paul plays acoustic guitar while John plays maracas and Ringo plays the bongos. On the White Album, this short musical transition segues into “Revolution 9.”
The cover of The Beatles is completely white, including the name “The Beatles” in raised print, thus the name White Album. This double album is the most diversified album recorded by the Beatles, containing a wide range of songs in many different musical idioms, including the bizarre electronic music piece titled “Revolution 9,” created by John. The eclecticism of musical styles is the result of the Beatles exploring other genres as individual writers and recording artists instead of a unified creative team. Geoff Emerick’s departure and Ringo’s temporary split from the band signaled that the Beatles were beginning to fall apart.
In late August 1968 at Abbey Road Studios, while the Beatles were working on “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” Ringo walked out on the band. He said in the Beatles’ 1995 Anthology documentary that he left because he felt like an outsider and wasn’t playing his drums well. So he went to Sardinia and sailed on Peter Sellers’s yacht for a few days. While on the yacht, Ringo asked for fish and chips. He got chips, but instead of fish, it was octopus. The captain of the yacht told Ringo about octopuses and how they make gardens under the sea. Ringo found that to be fascinating, and it inspired him to write “Octopus’s Garden,” a fun country-rock song. The recording of “Octopus’s Garden,” a song on the Abbey Road album, captured a positive spirit with the Beatles. They knew they were recording their final album and gave the songs the energy and attention they deserved. Paul’s and George’s smooth, floating harmonies support Ringo’s lead vocals. Adding to the underwater theme of the song, during George’s lead guitar solo, Paul’s and George’s voices are heavily processed to create a rippling underwater effect. Additionally, George blows through a straw in a glass of milk and makes bubble sounds. John’s contribution is playing a fingerpicking guitar part throughout the song. In the repeat ending chorus, Ringo’s drum fills are perfectly intertwined with George’s lead guitar riffs. It’s George’s lead guitar playing that makes “Octopus’s Garden” a country-rock song. While the sun shines brightly in Sardinia, it occasionally shines in England.
The opening song on side two of the Abbey Road album is “Here Comes the Sun.” George wrote the song in Eric Clapton’s garden with an acoustic guitar on a spring day. When you listen to “Here Comes the Sun,” you will hear its sunny, cheerful nature with overall bright sounds from the guitars and George’s vocals emphasizing that “it’s alright.” In addition to guitars, George also plays a synthesizer part. At the end of the verses and during the “sun, sun, sun” bridge in the middle of the song, rapid successive eighth notes are played on guitars in a combination of three beats followed by two beats. This creates a propelling rhythm and implies that the sun is coming, as if the sun is rising on the horizon. George Martin added a wind and string arrangement to “Here Comes the Sun.” John is not on this recording as he was in a hospital recuperating from a car accident. He was not a good driver and had smashed up his car while driving in the Highlands in Scotland.
Paul performs a solo act again on the short, little, folksy ditty titled “Her Majesty.” Only twenty-three seconds in length, “Her Majesty” was originally part of the medley of songs on side two of Abbey Road, placed between “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam.” Paul wasn’t satisfied with it and asked that it be removed from the album. George Martin instructed studio engineer John Kurlander to never discard anything that the Beatles recorded, so Kurlander put “Her Majesty” at the very end of the master tape of the Abbey Road album. When the Beatles heard a test pressing of the album with “Her Majesty” at the very end, they liked it. Even though the album ends with “The End,” “Her Majesty” is a surprise ending. Right up to the very end of their career as recording artists, the Beatles were still being cleverly innovative.
The song “Two of Us” appears on the Let It Be album, the final album released by the Beatles. Written by Paul, who plays lead acoustic guitar and sings the lead vocals, he has claimed that the lyrics are about him and his wife Linda. Some of them sound like they are. However, during the bridge when Paul sings lyrics about long-term memories, they don’t quite fit with Linda since they had been together for only a little more than one year at the time of the recording. Those lyrics are likely about the longtime career and friendship Paul had with John, as well as verse lyrics about chasing paper and getting nowhere, which appear to reference the troubling business affairs plaguing the Beatles and their company Apple Corps. George plays a lead bass line on his six-string Telecaster guitar, giving the bass part a distinctive sound. At the end of the song, Paul says, “We’re going home” and “better believe it,” a statement that can be interpreted to be about the Beatles leaving each other and going their separate ways. A year after they recorded “Two of Us,” when the Let It Be album was released in May 1970, the Beatles had officially split up. But before they disbanded, John was still writing in the Beatles’ universe.
“Across the Universe,” written and sung by John, is a dreamy song with stream-of-consciousness lyrics. Inspired by John’s wife Cynthia rambling on and on about something, John came up with the lyrics “words are flowing out like endless wind.” Initially recorded and produced by George Martin in February 1968 before the Beatles went to India, the first version of “Across the Universe” appears as the first song on the compilation album Nothing’s Gonna Change Our World, a charity album benefiting the World Wildlife Fund. This compilation album was released in December 1969. The Nothing’s Gonna Change Our World arrangement of “Across the Universe,” which is faster than the two other recordings, begins with the sound of flying birds, and the birds appear again on the fade-out ending. John plays acoustic guitar and electric guitar through a Leslie speaker, Paul and George sing background ahs, and Paul harmonizes with John on the Indian mantra words “jai guru deva om.” George plays a tambura, an Indian stringed droning instrument, and an electric wah-wah-sounding guitar. Paul supposedly plays piano, but it’s buried in the mix, and Ringo plays maracas. Two Beatles fans, Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease, were invited in to the Abbey Road recording studio to sing with John on the words “nothing’s gonna change my world,” singing an octave higher than John. The second released version of the song is on the 1970 Let It Be album, produced by Phil Spector. Phil used the slower-speed recording and added a vocal choir and orchestral strings. He also eliminated all background voices, including Paul’s harmony and his piano track. Thus, Paul was eliminated from this version. In 2003 on the Let It Be . . . Naked album, a third version was released. This stripped-down “Across the Universe” features John singing solo and playing his acoustic guitar with George playing the tambura. Listening to the three different versions of “Across the Universe” reveals the differing arrangements and production techniques that occurred over the course of many years. In a 1970 Rolling Stone interview regarding “Across the Universe,” John said, “It’s one of the best lyrics I have ever written. In fact, it could be the best.” He was never completely satisfied with the 1968 recordings but thought that Phil Spector did a good job on the 1970 version.
George wrote “For You Blue,” a country-blues-folk love song, for his first wife, Pattie. The song features John on lap steel guitar. During John’s guitar solo, George pays John a compliment and says, “Elmore James got nothing on this baby,” a reference to blues guitarist Elmore James. George plays acoustic guitar and sings the lead vocals. Paul plays a “fixed” piano, with paper inserted between the piano strings, creating a brittle percussive sound. Ringo plays the drums, but surprisingly, Paul, George, or John didn’t overdub a bass part. “For You Blue” was the B-side to “The Long and Winding Road,” which was the last single released by the Beatles while John was still living. Due to the number one chart-topping success of “The Long and Winding Road,” “For You Blue” received a lot of radio airplay, and as a result the record was recognized as double-sided A single by the U.S. Billboard record charts.
Tapping back to their early roots and love for skiffle music, the Beatles recorded a short version of the traditional song “Maggie Mae.” One of the songs that John, Paul, and George had played with the Quarrymen, “Maggie Mae” got a new lease on life when the Beatles were recording the “Get Back” sessions, which eventually became the Let It Be album. John and Paul play acoustic guitars and sing while George plays a bass line on his electric Fender Telecaster guitar, and Ringo plays the drums. Making a full circle, starting with skiffle, to rock and roll and rhythm and blues to folk rock to string quartets and brass ensembles and to psychedelic and electronic music, the Beatles ended their recording career by playing what they began with—skiffle and rock and roll.
One could say that “Act Naturally” is the most-definitive Beatles country song. As you had read in chapter 1, “Beatles Roots: Covering American Songs,” “Act Naturally” was originally recorded by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. And the Beatles do act naturally in their movies, as you will read about in the next chapter.
Suggested Listening: “I’ll Be Back”; “I’ll Follow the Sun”; “I’m a Loser”; “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party”; “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”; “Dear Prudence”; “Blackbird”; “Across the Universe”