10:27 Piggies (pt. 3) – Recycling On The Farm

Let's finish up our discussion of Piggies.

The highlight of the song for me is the way Harrison and Producer/Arrangers Chris Thomas and George Martin recycle and develop themes both large and small. Ticket 4 is in full effect -the intro, outro and solo are all fashioned from the verse melody - and the bridge, constructed from a three note melodic cell, is a primer in Ticket 9.

The intro is little more than the first 5 notes of the verse. The solo is largely the verse melody inverted and 'pedal-pointed' – the verse melody

C Db Eb C, Bb C Db Bb etc

becomes the solo pattern

Eb Db C Eb, Db C Bb Db

Things get really clever in the Coda. First, they restate the intro idea (1:42) before converting the major key tune into the minor (1:44). Then they restates the first bar of the melody exactly in the new minor key (1:47). But there's more clever stuff to come.

The melody finishes with a five note ascending harmonic minor scale (Ab Bb Cb D Eb) over a Bb to Eb chord progression (1:50). Though the Bb is 'out of key' it fits right in under the D note and having 'borrowed' Bb major throughout as the V of V ( Bb is the 5th of Eb which is the 5th of Ab major – the original key) it feels normal. But ending this way gives the impression we've changed key just in time for the final chord. Are we now in Eb major?

No. It's a false ending (Ticket 47) and the icing on the cake is yet another cadence (Eb, Ebmaj7, Eb6, Bb), this time IV – I in the final key of Bb (1:55).

So in the last few bars we changed key three times from Ab major to Ab minor to Eb major to Bb major! And none of it felt forced or disorientating. Genius.

Micro Recycling (Ticket 9)

In the bridge Harrison creates the opening melodic material from 3 notes, each a tone apart (Db Eb F)

F Eb Db F (in their sties with)

While the chords move up a tone, from Bbm to C7, the cell moves down a semitone

E D E C (all their backing). He extends the idea further in the second half

F Eb Db F – in their eyes there's
E D E C - something lacking
F Eb Db F – what they need's a

with the final line becoming an inversion of the initial cell (F Eb Db F becoming Eb F G Eb)

Eb F G Eb – damn good whacking

Pork Scratchings

There's plenty of other things to love here, both 'ticketed' and not

Though the melody is mostly comprised of chord tones the chromatic run up to III7 (0:45) is cheeky as is the fact that it leads to a ii rather than the more common vi or VI.

There's a nice contrast between the sections (Ticket 5) in the way the hooky harpsichord parts (Ticket 3) are kept for 'special occasions' and the bridge's effected vocals and stabbing keyboard chords. Madrigalism (Ticket 49) rears it's piggie head with grunting instruments (and sfx) throughout.

There's contrary motion (Ticket 12) at the end of the harpsichord solo (1:19) and with a 2:04 running time there's definitely no fat on this hog (Ticket 2).

There's an AABA 'no chorus' structure (Ticket 26) and we don't blow all three major chords early (Ticket 7) as you don't hear the IV till the bridge (0:51).

Lyrically good points abound (though verse 1 seem to contradict itself - surely things are getting better if clean clothes are provided?). We have parallel lyrics (Ticket 24) -

have you seen the little/bigger piggies and in their eyes/sties

internal rhymes -

lives/wives with knives

and there is strongly unified lyrical imagery (Ticket 54) because the song isn't really about pigs – remember?

I'll try to fit in one more Beatles song before the new year and a special video. But if I don't see you before then – HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

10:25 Piggies (pt.1) The Once And Future George Martin

Chris Thomas and George Harrison - pork curry?

Piggies is a dark children's ditty, a social commentary about class difference, and a song that inspired the Manson murders.

George Harrison began working on the track in 1966 - the same time as Taxman. And it shares the same dour cynicism that seems to be in Harrison's DNA. The year after it was released Charles Manson took the song as an incitement to murder and his followers used “forks and knives” as murder weapons daubing "death to pigs" in victims' blood on the walls. Understandably for some people this has tarnished the song. Ian McDonald calls the track an “embarrassing blot on [Harrison's] discography” referring to “misanthropy” and “the song's uncharitable karma” (p.317-18).

Walter Everett points out the "Orwellian comparison of pigs to socially horrid though outwardly refined tyrants”. Which comes through in an unused verse -

Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Playing piggy pranks
You can see them on their trotters
Down at the piggy banks
Paying piggy thanks
To thee pig brother

Pig Brother is watching you? The harpsichord was played by co-producer Chris Thomas, Ringo played tambourine and tiny bit of bass drum. Lennon's only contribution was editing a tape loop of pigs grunting.

Lennon grapples with analogue sampling

It was thought that Harrison provided all the vocals including the full-on bass vocal in the last verse but the 50th Anniversary edition reveals that John sang bass and Paul helped out with BVs. (What's up with all the bass vocals recently? Previous song Happiness Is A Warm Gun and next-but-one track I Will feature John and Paul, respectively, doing their best Barry White impression).

George Martin, contributes the wonderful string octet arrangement using the same personnel as Glass Onion (which was tracked at the same overdub session).

We're Not In Esher Any More

The most interesting thing about the genesis of this track is that difference between demo and final recording. Whereas Paul's I Will is a note for note recreation of the demo (apart from the odd flubbed lyrics) almost every aspect that makes so distinctive Piggies was added in the studio.

The song, as originally conceived, is a rustic, chirpy 'down on the farm' folk song complete with asthmatic whistling solo. The White album version is a faux-baroque song whose harpsichord and strings hint at 'Orwellian' grotesque characters. And that is all down to George Martin and the man he was grooming to be his successor - Chris Thomas.

But it started with an accident –

We were working in [studio] number two. I wandered into number one and found a harpsichord...we discussed wheeling the thing in...but Ken Scott said, 'No, we can't, it's there for another session!' So we moved our session into number one instead. George Harrison agreed that my harpsichord idea was a good one and suggested that I play it.

Chris Thomas (in Beatles Complete Recording Session)

Other changes

• The key changed from G (standard tuning), to Ab (played in D and capoed at 6th fret) - the high capo, along with the light vocal, gives it an innocent childish sound.
• Countryside ambience (birds chirping), pig sound effects, grunting celli and bass, and fussy, staccato strings conjure up self important pigs.
• The rising chromatic run before the III7 chord that leads into the bridge and the similar chromatic vocal line on “eat their bacon” that sounds like a hysterical dalek.
• The jokey blues fill (0:56) that is a call back to the cello fill in Yesterday (1:25)
• The pedal point solo that becomes celli/harpsichord duet
• The minor cadence at 1:44 (the demo ends blandly and badly on a sloppy Ab Eb Ab)
• The key change final coda (Eb Ebmaj7 Eb6 Bb).

The Beatles built a bridge between pop and classical music and you can see it in microcosm in the blues riffs played on a harpsichord and the laid back “one more time” followed by the uber classical cadence (and grunting pigs!).

We'll explore some of these great arrangement twist next time.

Background: thanks to Beatles Bible!

10:19 Savoy Truffle – The White Album Is Like A Box Of Chocolates

Critiquing

Allow me to be blunt. This is not a very good song. At least I don't think it is. And I think I have some good reasons.

But

I like the track. And I have a couple of reasons for that too. My reasons? Firstly, it's an interesting recording, with lots going on and it's well played. A perfectly credible album track that holds it's own - more than mere filler. And secondly, I have listened to this album repeatedly from a very young (and largely uncritical) age. We have personal history, Savoy Truffle and I.

But I'm trying to learn the art of songwriting from The Beatles here and that requires me to be critical about what works and why (and what doesn't and why) IN THE SONGWRITING. And if you're reading this blog I guess that's what you're here to do too.

Which is all to say – you may love Savoy Truffle. Great. Try and work out why. Because, like me the real object of your affection may be an arrangement, a recording, a performance or even a life event. Or it may be a polyrhythm, a play on words, an internal rhyme or a dominant substitution. Either way let me know in the comments.

Good Bits

The song as a whole is well played and quite funky for the Beatles, but for me almost everything cool about the song is packed into the first 10 seconds.

We have a very free form feel, driven by the electric piano and lead guitar. The melody starts on 9th degree of the scale and a Lennon edit (ticket 37) means we have a disorientating bar of 3/4 at the start of verses 1 & 2, almost like the song is crashing then rebooting, but the third verse (which has the same lyrics as verse 1) is 4/4 all the way through. Check out the way tangeRINE falls on the one in v1 and on the four in v3. The internal rhyme in the opening line CREAM tangeRINE is beautiful.

The chorus has a menacing rising 5th movement (ticket 32 the legendary James Bond chords) - probably the best chord progression in the whole song, but it's used much more effectively in the chorus of Hey Bulldog (not to mention the instrumental break in the White Album's Glass Onion).

The sax's are another Marmite element – the original session players were horrified by the distorted effect, but I like it and think producer/arranger/keyboard player Chris Thomas* did a great job in writing some hooky riffs.

The overall concept is cool, in a way – a bad boy chocolate lurking in the box ready to take you down! But I'm not sure the execution does it justice.

Bad Sounds

There are a couple of things wrong with this song and they're things we've come across before. First an ugly chromatic melody – just like Harrison's For You Blue and Paul's Maxwell. The verse melody is largely constructed from chord tones ascending from the 3rd to the 5th.

montelimar – G# A A# B
pineapple heart - A# B C C#
coffee desert - B C C# D

and the almost chromatic

know it's good news - B C - D D#

This links up with the chorus in a subtle way, as the ascending chromatic concept reappears in the 'James Bond' chords but elsewhere there are too many chords that don't resolve and too many chromatic notes leaving everything feeling constantly unsettled. Just like Old Brown Shoe. Broadly speaking the song is in E major but the verse resolves to Em and the chorus resolves to G major.

And whatever you think of the sax sound, the drums sound nasty!

Bad Words

Savoy Truffle is a smorgasbord of bad lyrics techniques.

Bad prosody

Putting the emPHAsis on the wrong syLLAble. No one says SAV-oy. They say sa-VOY. When that's your chorus/title you got a problem.

Nonsense

I feel your taste? Listen, do you smell something?

Random change of 'person'

Speaking of which, why does George feel your taste? It's not him with the chocolate issues. It's Eric Clapton. So we've changed person. Unless what he's 'feeling' is the taste of Eric himself. Yuk!

Filler

We all know Ob-la-di-bla-da. But can you show me where you are?

What on earth has this got to do with the song? And though the fact that Harrison is misquoting one of his own band's lyrics (Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da) is nothing too heinous,** he is borrowing (again!) from Lennon's Glass Onion, which self-references five Beatles songs and was recorded less than one month earlier.

Lastly I'm just a little put off by the hectoring tone (as previously heard on Think For Yourself). Nag your friends to freedom? I don't think so.

Time to file this song away. Next time a special post on a special chord sequence!

*that's right – George Martin took a long holiday in the middle of the White Album and a number of tracks were produced or co-produced by George's apprentice Chris Thomas.

**thanks to Rich for pointing out that McCartney does sing "bla-da" at the very end of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.

The Continuing Story Of The Mystery Spanish Guitarist

Blogging through the Beatles catalogue sometimes requires research to really get inside the songs and answer the weird questions that come up. What is that phasing effect on the drums in From Me To You? How many different versions of Get Back are there? What is that horrible ukelele sound on For You Blue? And so on.

Who was the real Bungalow Bill?

Answered nicely by the excellent Beatles Bible site.

Who played 'spanish' guitar on the intro of Bungalow Bill?

More tricky.

• It is a separate piece of tape spliced into the track (just like Lennon's yorkshire “aye-up!” which segues into the next track)
• It's obviously a good player (very fast and technical, though with a slight fluff in the middle). Probably too technical even for Harrison. 
• It's also clearly played with a pick, which would mean it's unlikely to be a classical or flamenco record taken either from the Abbey Road archives (Blackbird/Being For The Benefit...) or a live radio broadcast (I Am The Walrus). 

Beatles Bible (again) states it's a preset on the Mellotron keyboard which sounds far fetched, as it's hard to imagine what use such a sample would be to any working musician. The mellotron (played by Chris Thomas) appears twice on Bungalow Bill (on mandolin and trombone settings) so it would be an easy assumption to make.

But having done some research I can confidently say it is a mellotron! Here's a video with the same 'sample' in action (the mellotron was not a really synthesizer but a tape loop trigger)...

and Paul McCartney does an excellent (if schmaltzy) demonstration of how such ultra specific samples may have been used in a live context. And of course he plays the intro to Strawberry Fields Forever. But then you'd expect him to.

Moral of the story? Always trust Beatles Bible. And never underestimate the weirdness of a keyboard manufacturer.

If you build it, they will strum.

Next time we'll look at the actual song.

10:1 The Beatles (aka The White Album) Introduction

Personally Speaking

It's hard for me to be objective about The White Album (I know it's called 'The Beatles' but that's just going to get too confusing). It is forever linked in my memory with the C120 cassette my older sister had recorded it on and lent me. The fact it was on a C120 marked it out as A VERY SPECIAL ALBUM. I am sure that my love of out of key chord progressions is directly linked to repeated listens as a 10 year old. The chromatically rising 5th in Glass Onion, the descending I to VII in Sexy Sadie, the major to minor and back again movement in Piggies are hardwired into my brain and are as much a part of my musical DNA as they are for the men who wrote the songs. In contrast to Let It Be (a few good songs and a few funny bits) and Abbey Road (never heard the album till I started Beatles Songwriting Academy) I feel like this album is part of me.

That Difficult Ninth Album

When looking at the context it's crucial to understand that this is the follow up to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Since that watershed the band had produced several hit singles, an EP soundtrack to a critically panned TV special, contributed a few filler tracks to a film soundtrack (released after TWA) and a whole library full of unreleased atonal jams. But this was the Beatles finally back in album mode. The 'blank' cover was a very conscious reaction to the Pepper cover. Which means that, whatever it's shortcomings as an album, The White Album is possibly the greatest follow up to a world changing album of all time.

Context

It's well documented that this is the album where the Beatles started to break up but it's good to appreciate the level of fragmentation and loss that they were operating at.

This was, of course, the first album since the death of Brian Epstein. Prior to recording the White Album the band (especially Lennon and Harrison) had seriously entertained the possibility of quitting the music business to become full time disciples of the Maharishi. When that dream died the band started a major corporation instead and also opened (then closed) the Apple Boutique.

Lennon had a mental breakdown (proclaiming himself Jesus Christ at a business meeting), started a relationship with Yoko Ono, got divorced and Yoko suffered a miscarriage before they were both arrested on drugs charges. Feeling marginalised and unloved Ringo quit the band in the middle of recording (on the day Cynthia Lennon sued for divorce) returning two weeks later. Paul split up with Jane Asher after 5 years together. Long time engineer Geoff Emerick walked out due to the acrimonious working atmosphere and George Martin took a month long holiday in the middle of proceedings, leaving inexperienced producer Chris Thomas in charge. Even when George was around the increased workload of making a double album forced the band to work on several tracks at the same time and Martin's failure to be omnipresent further reduced his active involvement on the album.

Growth

Arguably The Beatles pushed more convincingly into different genres than any time before or since. They take a good stab at musique concrete, blues, folk and 1920's jazz while, at the same time recording a track (I Will) that could have seamlessly replaced And I Love Her on the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack.

Rishikesh

Whatever the effects of ashram living on the Beatles spirituality, mental health, long term relationships or digestion, spending a month in India writing songs was undoubtedly the secret ingredient in making The White Album such a triumph. It was the most preparation the Beatles ever gave an album. They even managed some preproduction, demoing 26 tunes.

Is It Really A Solo Album?

It's a common misconception that on The White Album the Beatles recorded separately, but with common purpose (rather like that rash of Kiss albums in the late 70's) – everyone working in their own corner of Abbey Road Studios. The facts don't bear this out.

The band recorded 19 Rishikesh songs*. All bar Wild Honey Pie were later demoed at George's house. Which means that the whole band had multiple opportunities to listen, critique and select most of the album tracks. 15 of the finished tracks feature the whole band including (surprisingly) Piggies, Rocky Raccoon and Honey Pie. In fact there are only 6 truly solo tracks and (surprisingly) I Will is not one of them. Of those 6 solo tracks, only two were written back in the UK.

In Conclusion

Yes, it's sprawling. Yes, it features Ringo's second best composition, and the presence of Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da and Revolution 9 show that songwriting quality control was starting to become lax, but for the songwriter there are a million great lessons ahead.

Let me introduce you to Julia.

*The songs they dropped were Harrison's Circle, Sour Milk Sea and Not Guilty and Lennon's What's The New Mary Jane, Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam and Child Of Nature (which later became Jealous Guy). And sadly, none of the guys wanted to touch McCartney's Junk.