Lennon, McCartney and Taylor? - The Beatles Uncredited Co-Writers

We were the biggest nickers in town. Plagiarists extraordinaire.
Paul McCartney
(Musician Magazine, Feb 1985, p.62)

Though they were not as bad as Led Zeppelin the fab four's back catalogue has more than it's share of music and lyrics that were begged, stolen or borrowed. For the most part the boys have been ready to admit it in print. But just not the kind of print found on royalty cheques. Here's a long overdue tribute to the unsung backroom boys (and girls). Maybe you'll be amazed...

A Day In The Life

(Lennon/McCartney/Doran)

Lennon said “I knew the line had to go 'now they know many holes it takes to ____ the Albert Hall'. It was a nonsense verse really, but for some reason I couldn't think of the verb. What did the holes do to the Albert Hall?” Terry Doran, the Beatles favourite 'man from the motor trade' (and the maraca player on Strawberry Fields Forever) said “fill the Albert Hall”
(The Beatles: Davis p.299)

All You Need Is Love

(Lennon/McCartney/Bach/Rouget de Lisle/Manone/Unknown)

Both the intro and the outro quoted from previous written music - The French National Anthem (La Marseillaise), composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, Greensleeves, J.S. Bach's Invention No. 8 in F major and Glenn Miller's arrangement of In The Mood, which in itself was a wholesale theft of Wingy Manone's Tar Paper Stomp.

Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite

(Lennon/McCartney/Sousa/Unknown)

The lyrics, taken almost wholesale from an advertisement Pablo Fanque's Circus, were probably written by someone in the circus and chopped up 'samples' of John Phillip Sousa marches featured in the middle section.

Can't Buy Me Love, Help, She Loves You

(Lennon/McCartney/Martin)

George Martin displayed his unerring genius for musical development and pop catchiness by composing the intro sections for each of these songs.

Come Together

(Lennon/McCartney/Berry)

The line “Here comes old flat top” and the general melody were consciously stolen from Chuck's song Catch Me If You Can. Though Paul McCartney attempted to disguise this by changing the feel, Berry's publisher, Morris Levy, sued Lennon anyway and won.

Eleanor Rigby

(Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Martin/Shotton/Starr)

The only song (apart from Dig A Pony and Flying) that features all four Beatles as co-writers, George and Ringo contributed “all the lonely people” and “darning his socks” respectively. School friend and Quarrymen washboard player, Pete Shotton suggested bringing Eleanor & Father McKenzie back in the last verse and George Martin came up with singing the bridge over the final chorus.
(Revolution In The Head p.204)

Golden Slumbers

(Lennon/McCartney/Dekker)

Paul used 17th century dramatist Thomas Dekker's words almost unchanged for the Abbey Road track.

If I Needed Someone

(Harrison/McGuinn)

When George Harrison heard The Byrds cover version of The Bells of Rhymney he loved Roger McGuinn's 12 string riff so much he lifted it entirely for his Rubber Soul track.

George was very open about it, he sent [the record] to us in advance and said, 'This is for Jim' - because of that lick.
Rolling Stone magazine 


I Saw Her Standing There
(Lennon/McCartney/Berry)

McCartney admits the bassline was 'borrowed' from Chuck Berry's song I’m Talking About You
Many Years From Now (p.94)

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

(Lennon/McCartney/Taylor)

Beatles publicist Derek Taylor brainstormed lyrics with Lennon for the first section contributing the “lizard on the window pane” and “velvet hand” lines.

The Inner Light

(Harrison/Li)

The lyrics are taken wholesale from chapter 47 of the Tao Te Ching, written c400 BC by Lao Tzu (The philosopher formerly known as Li Er)

Michelle

(Lennon/McCartney/Martin/Vaughan)

Ivan Vaughan, the man who introduced Paul McCartney to John Lennon, also introduced Paul to french via his language teacher wife Jan who co-wrote the lyrics with Paul at Jane Asher's family home in 1965. Paul said “Years later I sent her a cheque around. I thought I better had because she's virtually a co-writer on that. From there I just pieced together the verses”.

During the recording session George Martin composed the melody that George Harrison played in the solo.
Paul McCartney: (Many Years From Now)

Ob La Di Ob La Da

(Lennon/McCartney/Scott-Emuakpor)

Journeyman Jimmy on the floor with his pet dog

“Ob la di ob la da - life goes on bra” was conga player Jimmy Scott-Emuakpor's catch phrase. So he understandably miffed when it surfaced in a hit song (especially as Jimmy had played on an early version). He sued McCartney, but after being taken to prison for unpaid alimony, Scott agreed to drop his case in return for McCartney footing his huge legal bills.
MTV, Power Pop, Marco On the Bass

Piggies

(Harrison/Harrison/Lennon)

George's mum Louise came up with the lyric, "What they need's a damn good whacking" and John added "Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon".
Beatles Bible 

Run For Your Life

(Lennon/McCartney/Gunter)

Arthur Gunter wrote Elvis' hit Baby Let's Play House which contained the lyrics “I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man”. 11 years later so did John Lennon's Run For Your Life. Coincidence? Nope.

Savoy Truffle

(Harrison/Taylor)

When he wasn't holding John's hand, Derek Taylor also helped out George with the bridges adding "You know that what you eat you are".

She Said She Said

(Lennon/Harrison)

Curing writer's block with acupuncture?

Harrison said “I was at [John's] house one day and he was struggling with some tunes. He had loads of bits, maybe three songs, that were unfinished, and I made suggestions and helped him to work them together so that they became one finished song - She Said She Said. The middle part of that record is a different song”.

Following an argument with Lennon, Paul stormed out of the studio, leaving the band to record the final Revolver song without him. Meaning Paul is credited as a co-writer on a song that he neither wrote nor played on while Harrison isn't!

Something

(Harrison/Taylor)

...but a different Taylor! American singer/songwriter James Taylor released Something In The Way She Moves in 1968 on his self titled debut album, which appeared on a small indie label called Apple. In 1969 George Harrison appropriated it as a title and opening line. Ironically Taylor had intended to call his song I Feel Fine, after the final line in the chorus, but didn't want to nick someone else's title!

Taxman

(Harrison/Lennon)

John helped George finish off the lyrics to this song “[throwing] in a few one-liners to help the song along” and name-checking prime minister Harold Wilson and opposition leader Edward Heath.
David Sheff: All We Are Saying 


We Can Work It Out
(Lennon/McCartney/Harrison)

Harrison provided one of the highlights of the track - the idea of doing parts of the bridge in waltz time.

 Yellow Submarine

(Lennon/McCartney/Donovan/Krier/Helmer)

Donovan wrote the line, “sky of blue, sea of green” at Paul's request and Geoff Emerick and George Martin chopped up a recording Georges Krier and Charles Helmer's brass band tune Le Rêve Passe beyond recognition.

(Revolution In The Head p.206)

The Worst Of George Harrison

 

Hi there folks, the good news is that I have started work on the next post, but sadly it's not finished yet. So here's a video I put together a while back but buried in the post as I was convinced EMI would yank it off the net as soon as I put it up. But it's still there. So just in case you missed it, here's a genuine remix of All You Need Is Love. The stems (which I think were created for the rock band game) are doing the rounds online and there in all it's grisly glory is George's violin track. Enjoy. If you can.

11:13 Part Two Of Us

Last time we had a quick overview of the lyrics arrangement but the main interest in Two Of Us is the odd things happening to the rhythm and meter.

Firstly the verse melody has an interesting shape. Melodies often have structure that repeats at the beginning - AAB (Can't Buy Me Love – verse) or ever other part ABAB (the verses of Help, We Can Work It Out) or ABAC (verse Here Comes The Sun). But Two Of Us melody repeats in the middle, and then adds an extra part on the end the second time around.

ABBC
ABBCD

A Two of us
B riding nowhere
B spending someone's
C hard earned pay

A You and me
B sunday driving
B not arriving
C on our way
D back home

This gives the song a catchy stuck record/hiccup feel.

We get more repetition in the chorus melody with an AAB structure

A We're on our way home
A We're on our way home
B We're going home

Chords

Interesting as that is, the chords are where it's all happening for me.

We have a verse in G and (mostly) 4/4 but the chorus is (mostly) 3 / 4 and the bridge returns to 4/4 but is (mostly) in Bb major. So that's a time change (Ticket 15) AND a key change (Ticket 45) between section.

More than just simple time changes though, the verse and chorus time signatures keep switching in a way I've come to call the 'Lennon edit' (Ticket 37) where you basically cut any extra beat or bar that has no vocals (the end of every line of verse on All You Need Is Love is the prime example). I'm not saying there was originally something there that was cut, simply that Lennon often was impatient to get to the next line and had no desire to wait for the next 'correct' moment.

So in the verse we have

(4/4) G, G, (2/4) G, (4/4) C C/B, Am7
(4/4) G, G, (2/4) G, (4/4) C C/B, Am7, G

and the chorus is

(3/4) G, D, G, D, G, (2/4) C (4/4) G 

After quite a boring transition where everything stops, leaving the drums to build up on their own, we slam into the new key. The bridge then goes from Bb major (Bb Dm Gm) to C major (Am) back to G major (via the D major chord that acts as a V chord). You could argue that the key of C major is really A minor, but as both the chord and melody at “farther than the” repeat almost exactly a tone higher for “road that stretches” it sounds like the key is rising.

Two minor but cool points of interest are the chords following the words

(C) on (C/B) our (Am7) way back (G) home

which is ticket 36 and the stop to emphasis the key word 'home' at the end of the chorus (Ticket 30).

Next time we'll untangle the mystery of the Get Back track.

    

She Said She Said (10 Beatles Songs Featuring Female Vocalists)

(this post has been updated Nov 15, 2011)

I would never have female voices on a Beatles record 

– Paul McCartney (Many Years From Now p.575)

...apart from Marianne Faithful, all our wives, 2 fans, 1 girlfriend, 2 choirs and an orchestra...

More than any other song The Long And Winding Road epitomises the whole clash of vision, and lack of reality that killed the Let It Be album. Before we take a closer look, let's dispel one of the arguments Paul had for why he hated the recording. He claimed that female vocals were somehow anathema to the Beatles sound. However there are nine other songs where he was quite happy to include the ladies...

1) 14 voice female choir - The Long And Winding Road

This is the one that provoked Paul's odd comment, glacial operatic oohs and ahhs. lady style mushiness to the power of 14.

2) Linda McCartney - Let It Be

The lovely Linda join Paul and George for overdubbed oohs on a song inspired by a dream about Paul's mother.

3) 14 voice female choir (Spector version) Lizzie Bravo & Gayleen Pease (Wildlife version)  - Across The Universe 

The same set up as The Long And Winding Road didn't annoy Paul as much, presumably because Across The Universe was an old Lennon 'b side' rather than a new McCartney ballad. On the original version Lizzie & Gayleen became probably the most famous Beatles fans (after Charles Manson) after they were plucked from their vigil at the Abbey Road gates to contribute some childishly squeaky vocals to the chorus (which Spector wisely deleted). 

4) Yoko Ono & Maureen Starkey - The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill

Not only do a wife and future wife contribute BVs, but Yoko sings one line of lead vocals “Not when he looks so fierce”. Lennon follows this with “...his Mummy butted in”. Feel free to discuss any irony in the statement “his Mummy butted in” in the comments section.

5) Pattie Harrison & Yoko Ono - Birthday

Another wife duet on McCartney's written in the studio rocker.

6) Members of Session Orchestra - Hey Jude

The 36 classical musicians booked for this session famously became the knights who sing “Na” after the Beatles doubled their rates in exchange for backing vocals on the longest fade out in history.

7) The Mike Sammes Singers – Goodnight

The middle of the road vocal group add some gooey love mush to Lennon's song for Julian. This time Phil Spector has an alibi, being 3000 miles away from Abbey Road at the time. I accuse George Martin in the studio with the lead piping.

8) The Mike Sammes Singers - I Am The Walrus

George Martin employs one of the UK top vocal groups. Lennon gets them to sing “Everybody's got one” and “Umpah Umpah, stick it up your jumper”

9) Marianne Faithful, Pattie Harrison & Jane Asher - All You Need Is Love

Joining everyone and his brother in the studio for the live TV broadcast before 400 million viewers. Keith Moon played hi hat.

10) Marianne Faithful & Pattie Harrison - Yellow Submarine

The first sighting of women in the Beatles Boys club. This means that the most recorded woman on the Beatles songs is – Pattie Harrison!

Next time I'll try to unpack why everyone hates The Long And Winding Road.