The Beatles and musical history: "I Will Always Be in Love with You"

Among the lesser known songs recorded by the Beatles in the spring or summer of 1960, they did a "jazz standard" called "I Will Always Be in Love with You". According to one source I found, it was first done by somebody named Morton Downey in the late '20s, but it's been speculated that the Beatles learned it from the version by Fats Domino.

This song is an example of The Beatles performing songs that predate the rock 'n' roll era, which are mostly pop tunes on the jazzy side, and reflect the influence of the music their parents knew. In particular, there's some possibility that Paul's father, who performed in a jazz band, taught him the song- or it could very well have been John's mother, who knew some chords on the banjo.



From the sounds of it, John was trying to imitate Elvis.

Unfortunately, for the life of me, I cannot find any recorded version available to listen to that predates the Beatles version anywhere, so I guess if you wanna hear it, you'll have to buy some Fats Domino collection... which makes me dubious about it being called a "standard". I managed to hear at least a sample of it on Allmusic's entry for Bear Family's Out of New Orleans, which I recommend for completists like me. I'm not so sure if the Beatles were trying to copy it, what with the Elvis stutter, but I don't see why they couldn't have learned it from his version...

Of course, if you're desperate, there are a couple covers on YouTube made after 1960.

The Beatles and musical history: "Matchbox"

And so now we come to one of The Beatles' biggest influences: Carl Perkins. Carl Perkins is considered one of the many pioneers of rock 'n' roll, and is essential listening for any rockabilly fan. George Harrison was a particularly big fan of his, and his early guitar-playing style shows that Perkins' style was a strong influence- an admiration that lasted throughout his career, and clearly expressed by his involvement with the 1985 Carl Perkins special Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session, where he played alongside with his hero.

The Beatles would play many of his songs early in their career, and "Matchbox" is the first that was recorded, as part of the 1960 home recordings.



Interestingly, Carl Perkins partially derived the song from Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Match Box Blues". If you can make out his thick accent, you'll notice the opening lines from "Matchbox" make up the second verse:

Early Beatles chord structures

One thing I'm beginning to notice about songs by the Beatles from approximately 1962 to 1965- the moptop era, more or less- is that they use the iii chord far more often than any other music writers I know.

For those of you who have a basic knowledge of music theory, you may remember that the iii chord is the least used diatonic chord in major keys. For those who don't know, the iii chord is the second chord in these examples, the first chord representing the root or key of a song: E to G#m, A to C#m, D to F#m, etc.

So perhaps this is one of the reasons why their tunes from this period sound so unusual compared to all other forms of pop music. Being rather unfamiliar with how chords other than the I, IV, V, and iv chords worked under normal circumstances (not to say that I didn't try to go beyond them...) until recently, even I never really thought of using the iii chord.

The "vintage versus reissue" debate makes me go ARRRRGGGHH

Seriously- how is it that a dinky little synthesizer marketed as a toy have enough indie-cred to spark debates over which version is better?

I'm talking, of course, about the Stylophone. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a small synthesizer that was literally played with a stylus, sold in the late '60s and '70s. It's most famous usage can be heard on David Bowie's "Space Oddity", and apparently it's been recently used by Jack White. I came to learn about it because I read that during the Let It Be sessions, The Beatles played with one for a few minutes.

OMG TEH BEATLES TOUCHED IT

...So anyway, I've been wanting one because I love vintage electronic keyboards, especially ones that the Beatles breathed on- so here I am listening to people play it on YouTube... and apparently there are those who say that the vintage ones are better.
This really, really surprises because you'd think something as cheap and simple as a Stylophone would be easy to recreate, analog or digital. I just wish I could get a new one and have it done with, instead of worrying about whether or not it's tone is accurately recreated. I hope at the very least it's "close enough". I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering it's still essentially sold as a toy for cheap, and it's not particularly iconic, unlike the Mellotron.

UPDATE: Okay, I found some guy on a forum who happened to have both a vintage one and a reissue. Comparing the two, he said that the reissue sounded a bit more complex and not so much raw electronic buzzing. That might actually be an advantage to us, because that would expand its potential uses... it'd be a lot cheaper, anyway.

The Beatles and musical history: "You'll Be Mine"

"You'll Be Mine", released on Anthology 1, is clearly not a song that's not meant to be taken seriously. John and Paul sing in ridiculous operatic, falsetto, and faux-bass voices, and the songs ends in a burst of laughter.

Nevertheless, it does suggest some of what The Beatles were listening to- namely, doo-wop. Doo-wop is probably the oldest genre to survive through the '50s, having beginnings in the early '40s- in fact, the group that could be considered the fathers of the genre, the Ink Spots, are who "You'll Be Mine" is often compared to.
Doo-wop is a somewhat loose term, having not been coined until the early '60s when it had already been around for a while and making lots of hit records. Stereotypically, doo-wop groups are African-American vocal harmony groups whose consist of a lead tenor being backed by a baritone, countertenor, and of course, a bass vocalist, making frequent use of meaningless hum-like syllables like "shooby-doo-wah" and "ba-dum" and "wah-ooh". It has roots in gospel and blues with pop thrown in for good measure, probably having its genesis in four or five guys singing at a street corner, to romanticize the genre's image a bit. Of course, doo-wop does not necessarily have to have a twelve-bar form or consist of I-vi-IV-V chords, because doo-wop is a surprisingly flexible genre from what I've observed, having lots of moods, tempos, and chord structures available.
Of course, I don't really know how easily The Beatles could've heard the Ink Spots' records, since they didn't really exist by the late '50s, but I guess anything's possible. Nevertheless, its a common facet of doo-wop music to have a middle where the bass singer speaks a monologue, which is what I'm guessing to be John sends up when speaking of his love's "National Health eyeball". I don't see who else it could be, with such a nonsensical phrase.

So there you go- The Beatles were flavored with a sprinkling of doo-wop! Why else would they use "shooby-doo-wop" on "Revolution 1"?

By the way, since there isn't really any other place to mention it, there's an incomplete fragment of an unknown song from the 1960 home recordings. It's a curious, somewhat jazz-ish number from what can be heard, with an unusual ascending chord structure utilizing diminished chords that makes me doubt that it's one of their compositions, with a "ba ba ba" vocal by Paul. Then again, I did read an interview once where one of them said that they would learn a new chord and write a song around it, so who knows? It's just that I don't believe I've heard them use diminished chords any anywhere else, besides "Because" and "Old Brown Shoe". Anybody got some examples?

UPDATE: I now recall that "Like Dreamers Do" utilizes a diminished chord, so I guess it's not such a stretch after all.

The Beatles and musical history: "Movin' and Groovin'" and "Ramrod"

As far as I know, these two are the only instrumental covers the Beatles performed besides "Raunchy". All others from their early days I'm aware of were original compositions- "Cry For a Shadow", "Catswalk", "Hot As Sun", "Winston's Walk", and "Looking Glass" are the ones I can name off the top of my head. But still, it just goes to show that instrumentals were a sizable part of their repertoire before they became famous.

Duane Eddy, as I mentioned before, is one of the biggest names in early instrumental rock. Because of his frequent use of low notes on his guitar, tremolo effects, and later baritone guitar, I think of him as the father of the spaghetti western theme. You know, that low twangy sort of sound you might associate with high noon duels and ghost trains? Duane Eddy released "Movin' and Groovin'" and "Ramrod" on two separate singles in 1958.
The Beatles did their versions of these two songs in 1960. They seem to be played right after the other, which is why I'm putting them in the same article. Unfortunately, I can't find any videos of their versions, so anyone who's interested will have to search for a download of a bootleg. Try Demonoid, and look for Purple Chick's Strong Before Our Birth.

In the meantime, here's the original version:

The Beatles and musical history: "One After 909"

This is the Beatles song that took the longest to surface on an official recording (unless you count "I Lost My Little Girl"). "One After 909", as we can see, dates back to at least 1960, and wouldn't be properly recorded and released until a full decade later.



I've read that "One After 909" was John and Paul's attempt at a "train song". Trains are a popular subject in American music, and can be found in all sorts of early genres, including but not limited to folk, country, bluegrass, blues, rhythm 'n' blues, and rock 'n' roll. While I certainly haven't heard any songs about trains quite like "One After 909", I can't help but admit that it feels like a train song. Go figure.
According to one book I have, A Hard Day's Write, it was inspired by skiffle train songs, like Lonnie Donegan's version of "Rock Island Line". "Rock Island Line" is of course a HUGE folk song, first recorded by Lead Belly- a man who can be considered to be one of the roots of just about everything. Of course, "One After 909"- even in this early version- certainly became something more than skiffle.

The Beatles and musical history: "Hallelujah, I Love Her So" (plus "Well, Darling")

The reason I include two songs in this entry is because there isn't much to say about "Well, Darling". It's another twelve-bar blues, but the only thing that indicates that it's anything more than another improvisation with vocals is the harmonized chorus consisting of the words "well, darling". Otherwise, all approximately five minutes of it sound made up. My guess is that it was the germ of a song that was never finished, and they were attempting to make something of it while the tape was going.



"Hallelujah, I Love Her So", on the other hand, is a cover of a popular song that The Beatles couldn't hope to match with the songwriting skills they had at the time. One version of theirs is included on Anthology 1. "Hallelujah" was written by Ray Charles, and released in 1956. Ray Charles is one of the most important figures in rhythm 'n' blues, inspiring a great many rockers.
Now, this is just my personal opinion, but one thing I've always found odd about Ray Charles is that I keep hearing him described as "rock 'n' roll" when not one song of his I've heard could truly be described as such (except perhaps "What'd I Say"). There's plenty of blues in his music, but his biggest hits sound very much to me like swing music, making me think that he has more to do with Fats Waller than Blind Lemon Jefferson. Heck, some of them sound very sweet and almost... middle-of-the-road. I dunno if it's because I'm unfamiliar with his lesser known and/or earlier recordings, but I do admit that he has plenty of soul (dig that swingin' sound!), and certainly more so than Dr. John.

EDIT: Having watched a documentary about Ray Charles, I take it all back. He had more soul and groove in his hair follicles than most people have in their whole bodies.

The Beatles and musical history: "Cayenne" and other instrumentals

It is often said that a rock band's live performance skills are measured by their ability to be spontaneous. This does not necessarily mean that they must know how to improvise, especially since so many great bands go without such things, but the ability to think on one's feet and cook up something great on the spot with no room for going back and fixing a mistake is, in my opinion, one of the truest tests of a musician's abilities. Even if you play a song straight, just that ounce of liveliness- as opposed to soullessly churning out a carbon copy of a previous performance- is what separates a good live band from a bad one.
Unlike other legendary bands from the '60s, such as Cream and Hendrix, The Beatles have never been known to be a jam band. This is mainly because once they became famous, they couldn't afford to play extended versions of their favorite rockers anymore, like they used to in their Hamburg days. Although unfortunately no recordings of hour-long renditions of "What'd I Say" are known to exist, a variety of unreleased recordings give us a taste of what we may be missing- although none seem to be quite as good as the stories say they were when they played live.



Of all the Beatles-penned instrumentals recorded in Paul's bathroom in the spring of 1960- which are of particular interest because they contain the only known recorded performances by Stuart Sutcliffe on bass- "Cayenne" is the only one to have a proper title. I honestly don't know where the name came from- my guess is that Paul listened to the tape during the making of Anthology and said "Oh yeah! That's 'Cayenne'." I suppose the only reason that it could be distinguished from the rest is because it's in a minor key.
It does stand out from the rest of the instrumentals for precisely that reason- while the rest are of a decidedly bluesy flavor, likely being centered around major chords and the minor pentatonic scale, "Cayenne" employs minor chords except for the V chord- making the chords i, iv, and V- while the lead guitar, curiously, uses mostly Dorian mode. It's highly unlikely that George knew this- all he knew, I'm sure, is that it sounded good. Occasionally, particularly for the V chord, he'll use a major seventh rather than a dominant seventh. At one point, he even strums a minor-major seventh-add 9 chord, which is famous for ending the James Bond theme- and Dr. No would not be released for another two years! Where he got the chord is a total mystery.
George later goes into some standard blues licks, and at one point he seems to run out of ideas and starts using the chromatic scale. It's doubtful that he knew the word "chromatic" at the time- he probably was thinking "this note is one fret away from the last".

The Beatles and musical history: "In Spite of All the Danger"

"In Spite of All the Danger" is the very first original composition that The Beatles recorded, although it certainly isn't the first song they ever wrote (that would be Paul's "I Lost My Little Girl"). Now that we've reached their original songs in this series, we'll be making comparisons to other songs that inspired them. We'll also find that it isn't always clear what inspired the song- often, its really only easy to determine that sort of thing when one of the Beatles actually describes the process.
Also, despite the amount of songs they wrote, performed, and admired from '58-'62, not all of them were recorded until much later. Despite this, I feel that it'd be less confusing and paint a much clearer picture of their early days to write about them early on, instead of writing about them after I've gone through a number of their solo albums.

For example: I plan to write about the cover songs and early compositions found on the Let It Be sessions, John Lennon's Rock 'n' Roll, Paul McCartney's Снова в СССР and Run Devil Run and other miscellaneous solo efforts after I write about The Beatles' 1960 home recordings and before moving on to the Tony Sheridan recordings- which is the approximate time period in which these songs entered The Beatles universe, so to speak.

"In Spite of All the Danger" is notable because it's the only song credited to McCartney/Harrison, although Paul himself has said that he wrote it himself and George just played the solo. I wouldn't be surprised if George came up with the song's particular fretwork, though. The song is sort your typical slow tempo doo-wop-ish, country-ish number that many a 1950s white singer within the rock/pop spectrum would sing- I've read once that it might be an attempt to emulate Elvis' "Trying to Get to You". Let's make a comparison, shall we?

The Beatles and musical history: "That'll Be the Day"

As it is likely known to any good Beatles fan (that is, anyone who has bought Anthology 1), The Beatles, still known as The Quarrymen but now including Paul and George, recorded in a studio for the first time in 1958. "That'll Be the Day" is one of two songs they recorded.

"That'll Be the Day" wasn't Buddy Holly's first professional recording by far, nor was it the first released, but it was his first hit, and it made him a huge star on both sides of the Atlantic. Buddy Holly's earliest recordings are pure country, moving on to pure rockabilly, but 1957 seems to be when he found his own unique voice and style, which I personally describe as a crossover from rockabilly to straightforward rock 'n' roll. Buddy Holly's creativity and incredibly diverse use of little more than three chords in the key of A made him an innovator, and likely the first singer-songwriter of rock 'n' roll.
Buddy Holly's music had a tremendous influence on The Beatles, and they would perform and record several more of his songs throughout their careers. John emulated his style in his early days, often wearing glasses like his, and an early version of his song "Hello Little Girl" clearly shows his influence. Heck, Paul even bought his song catalogue not too long ago!

The Quarrymen version of "That'll Be the Day" is pretty much a straight copy of the original, showing that they could learn songs better than they used to. I read once that they once thought that all of his songs were in the key of C, rather than A, and played them like that for a while- but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

Anyway, if "Baby, Let's Play House" wasn't rock 'n' roll enough for you, perhaps this song is. Even so, there are some that are even more rock 'n' roll than this...
So now we've got skiffle, rockabilly, and rock 'n' roll. Obviously, it'll diversify later.

When The Bee Gees Greatest Hits is greater than that pretentious Sgt. Pepper garbage

Wanna see the saddest people in the world? Go to Amazon, click your way to a masterpiece, and check out the 1-star reviews. Then look at what they give raving reviews to.

I seem to recall one of the most disturbing ones I found was this ugly obese man whose entire wishlist consisted of sex toys. D:

The Beatles and musical history- "Baby, Let's Play House"

In addition to "Puttin' on the Style", another song by the Quarrymen was known to be recorded: Elvis Presley's "Baby, Let's Play House".



After listening to it more closely, I notice that they don't get the chords or the melody right. If it weren't for the words, you wouldn't be able to tell that it was "Baby, Let's Play House". But you know we ought to give John a break, since he was still playing his guitar tuned like a banjo and was probably only beginning to learn songs by ear...

Elvis Presley recorded and released "Baby, Let's Play House" on Sun Records in 1955. Any decent Elvis fan should know about it, since it was one of his earliest hits, and the first to enter the national charts. Weirdly enough, I'm more familiar with a live version on one of my rockabilly collections.

Elvis is one of the most famous rock stars around the world, and quite possibly the first '50s rocker that anyone gets introduced to. John and Paul took cues from his singing voice, especially Paul, which is particularly apparent in The Beatles' audtion for Decca. Elvis' band was one of the pioneers of rockabilly, and by extension rock 'n' roll, and guitarist Scotty Moore's style likely informed George's playing style. Paul has recorded several versions of "That's All Right, Mama" throughout his career.
In particular, John lifted the line "I'd rather see you dead, little girl" for his song "Run For Your Life", and George pretty much just rewrote the lyrics for his unreleased song "Goin' Down to Golder's Green" in 1970.

The Beatles = your musical history education

In continuation of my endless praise for The Beatles, I ask this question: how diverse were The Beatles? Few bands come anywhere close- you'd be best off listening to, say, the works of a studio musician, or The Knickerbockers, or maybe The Lemon Pipers. Even then, the only musician I can think that explored more forms of music than The Beatles is Frank Zappa.

Case in point: there are generally two camps of Beatle-wannabe bands... the kind who loves their recordings from '62-'65, and the kind who loves their recordings from '66-'69. It's usually the hard-rocking pop rock, power pop or even Britpop bands with moptops that like their early stuff, while slightly more sophisticated and experimental psychedelic acts like their later stuff. A good example of the latter is The Apples in Stereo, although bands like them are just as likely to be inspired by The Electric Light Orchestra. There were a lot more of these sort of bands in the 70's, such as Tin Tin, Grapefruit, and Klaatu, and many of them were even mistaken for The Beatles and released on Beatle bootlegs! I notice that the main thing that joins these two camps together is the Revolver album- which makes sense, since it was pretty much a transitional album.

My point here is that these two main periods of their commercial career are so different that fans can be divisive about it.

In many ways I wish The Beatles made more music than they did, which is one of the main reasons why I collect bootlegs. Basically, I want more of the same- so I look for more. This led me to believe something early on in my life: if The Beatles liked it, I like it.

You can pick any song you wish, whether they wrote it or not, learn about the history behind it, and there you have it! Another world opened up to you. I intend to discuss just this very thing throughout the blog, and I shall begin with the very first song performed by The Beatles ever recorded.

Not everyone knows it, but "In Spite of all the Danger" isn't the first song they performed that ever got recorded. Instead, it is truly remarkable to learn that the legendary concert on the day that John first met Paul had been recorded by someone with a portable tape recorder! Remember, the only member we're familiar with that was in the group then was John, and the band was called the Quarrymen.

How The Beatles Played Rock 'n' Roll

First of all, let me get something out of the way: I haven't read the book How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll by Elijah Wald. I've only read the LA Times review of it. So this is technically a rebuttal to the review of the book.

So don't wag your finger at me, 'cause I openly admit it.

It has often been said that history is made by subjective historians, who pick and choose what's important and what's not. I believe that in most cases there is a justification for that, because we can't really say what it is that's important in an era until after the fact. It's been my observation that a lot of important things happen without the public knowing about it. Case in point: my mother has told me that I know infinitely more about The Beatles than anybody could have possibly known in the Sixties, when they were still together.

It has also been said that people become more famous and/or important after they die. This includes Van Gogh, Galileo, and even Jesus.

So the only real value of knowing what people thought was important THEN is knowing the time period's context and state of mind. But in the end, it is the people that made a real impact on culture that matter, and I couldn't really care less what the squares thought or liked. Name a rock band that takes inspiration from Pat Boone. Instead, you'll find a lot more bands taking inspiration from- who else?- The Beatles.

Do Beatles songs ever make a musical good?

As far as I'm concerned, Across the Universe is Sgt. Pepper the movie with a way bigger budget and a marginally better cast and script. And a whole lot of digital pitch correction.

I really don't care for Julie Taymor's work in general, from what I've seen of it.

And Bono, God, why did it have to be Bono??