Many of us can confidently say we know every Beatles song. And indeed, that may be true in that we’ve heard every track on every studio album of theirs. But as decades of studying the Beatles have proven, you can only know their songs once you know their songs. Musician and YouTuber david bennett He has made it his project to acquire knowledge of the second kind and is working on his own series. unbeetleshare it with the public. In each UnBeatled video, he analyzes just one song — “Help!” “The sun has arrived” “Penny Lane” And so on, at a level of detail that requires not only being broken down into component tracks, but also examining demos and unreleased takes recorded in the studio.
This process can reveal a lot about the Beatles’ songwriting process, as Bennett explains: Video at the top of the post. In 20 minutes, he covers 11 songs, but the selection isn’t necessarily limited to the group’s universally acclaimed songs.
Take the first “Yellow Submarine” as an example. Lyrically, melodically, and metrically, this early recording differs from the version we know (and love or not), starting with an idea by John and further shaped by Paul through its iterations. Another of John’s musical seeds is “Everybody Had a Hard Year.” This fingerpicking pattern (originally learned from Donovan in India) is also heard on “Julia” and “Dear Prudence”, and is developed into the middle section of “I’ve Got a Feeling” with different chords.
Such interconnections are the reward for listening closely and deeply to the Beatles canon. And certain songs turn out to be a world of their own. For example, “Strawberry Fields Forever” was assembled from two completely different recordings, with tempo and pitch adjusted to match along the way. One of those takes includes producer George Martin counting within the orchestra, the pitch of which suggests the members were originally playing in a different key than we hear. As Bennett points out, the use of “varispeed”, a relatively novel technique at the time, became a de facto standard in the Beatles’ studio process, and the layering and coordination of such techniques itself became an important part of their songwriting process. It contributed greatly to their signature “A vibrant, psychedelic, eerie sound”: pursued by many bands over the past 60 years, but never truly replicated.
Related content:
How John Lennon wrote the Beatles’ greatest song, ‘A Day in the Life’
‘Tomorrow Never Knows’: How the Beatles invented the future with studio magic, tape loops and LSD
Is “Rain” the perfect Beatles song?: New video explores the groundbreaking innovations of the 1966 B-side
“Strawberry Fields Forever” Demo: The Making of a Beatles Classic (1966)
How the Beatles experimented with Indian music and pioneered a new rock’n’roll sound
How George Martin defined the Beatles’ sound: From string quartets to backward guitar solos
Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages and cultures. he is the author of the newsletter books about cities books as well Home page (I won’t summarize Korea) and korean newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter. @Colinbemust.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
