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The Musical Characteristics of

The Government of the Special Administrative Region Education Bureau 2009

The Musical Characteristics of the Beatles Michael Saffle

 Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced in any form or by any means, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Content

1 The Beatles: An Introduction 1

2 The Beatles as /Performers: A Summary 7

3 Five Representative and Pairs by the Beatles 8 3.1 “ Me Do” and “” (1962) 8 3.2 “Michelle” and “Yesterday” (1965) 12 3.3 “” and “” (1966) 14 3.4 “When I’m Sixty-Four” (1967) 16 3.5 “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” (1967) 18

4 The Beatles: Concluding Observations 21

5 Listening Materials 23

6 Musical Scores 23

7 Reading List 24

8 References for Further Study 25

9 Appendix 27

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1 The Beatles: An Introduction

The Beatles—sometimes referred to as the ‘Fab Four’—have been more influential than any other popular-music ensemble in history. Between 1962, when they made their first recordings, and 1970, when they disbanded, the Beatles drew upon several styles, including rock ‘n’ roll, to produce rock: today a term that almost defines today’s . In 1963 their successes in as live performers and recording artists inspired , which calls to mind the Lisztomania associated with the spectacular success of Franz Liszt’s 1842 German concert tour. In 1964 their visit to the United States launched the so-called that helped popularise other ensembles. Although the Beatles began mostly as cover artists and club jobbers, they eventually established themselves as the most compositionally original ensemble of all time. Ian MacDonald summarises their influence in these words: “With their groundbreaking Revolver (1966) and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club (1967), the Beatles eclipsed even their most gifted rivals, achieving an eminence in contemporary which has endured and seems unlikely to diminish to any great extent in the foreseeable future.”

In 1956, teenager (1940-1980) organised an amateur pop group called the Quarry Men (or Quarrymen), which he named after Quarry Bank High School in , an industrial and shipping city on the west coast of England and the Beatles’ ‘home town’. Paul (later Sir Paul) McCartney (1942- ), another Liverpudlian—as citizens of Liverpool are called—joined the band the following year. (1943-2001) joined in 1958. The Quarry Men mostly played skiffle: a mixture of 1930s Black and folk musical styles. During the Folk Revival of the 1950s, White performers in and the United States also played skiffle, but the style became especially popular in Great Britain. For the most part, skiffle bands consisted of one or more singers, most of whom doubled as instrumentalists. Skiffle songs were

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supported by simple three-chord accompaniments played on harmonica, acoustic guitar, and washboard or drums.

Few of the Quarry Men’s skiffle performances were recorded, but the style left an imprint on Harrison, Lennon, and especially McCartney. If nothing else, skiffle called upon every band member to improvise and play several different instruments. As members of the Quarry Men, Lennon played the guitar, the harmonica, and sang, while McCartney and Harrison both played guitar and percussion and also sang. By the end of his career , McCartney had made a name for himself as a solo guitarist, a , a drummer, and a bass-guitar player as well as a lyricist and . Some skiffle songs featured modal progressions and other folk- like devices, all of which appear in many of the Beatles’ later and best-known works. Both Lennon and Harrison established reputations for themselves as innovative harmonists, and some of McCartney’s harmonic progressions have been compared favourably with those of such classical European composers as Franz Schubert (1797- 1828) and (1860-1911). Finally, skiffle may have inspired Lennon’s pragmatic approach to melodic composition. Less talented as a singer than McCartney, Lennon wrote more repetitive tunes with narrower vocal ranges; “Yellow Submarine” contains a good example of such tunes. Lennon also specialised in setting his own ingenious and often poetic lyrics to music. Often considered, rightly or wrongly, the group’s best composer, Lennon was unquestionably its best lyricist.

In August 1960, bass guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe (1940-1962) and drummer Pete Best (1941- ) joined Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison to form the Beatles. For the next two years the group mostly performed in and around Liverpool, although they also made four trips to Hamburg, Germany, where they played at clubs in the Reeperbahn district, a disreputable part of Hamburg. In December 1961, Sutcliffe left the ensemble and McCartney took his place as bass guitarist for the ensemble. Around the same time (1934-1967), a Liverpool music-shop owner, heard the

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Beatles and became their manager. On behalf of the ensemble, Epstein secured a recording contract with , a subsidiary of EMI run by producer George (later Sir George) Martin (1926- ). Epstein also replaced Pete Best with drummer Ringo Star (born Richard Starkey; 1940- ). Himself a musician of talent, Epstein encouraged Lennon and McCartney to experiment with new ways of organising their musical ideas. In 1963 “Please Please Me”, song the group recorded for Parlophone, rose to the top of the British singles chart. From then on, the Beatles remained one of the world’s best-known pop ensembles. After touring England, they arrived in New York City on 9 February 1964 to one of the most remarkable receptions in musical history. Appearances on television led to careers as movie stars for all four Beatles, and both A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and Help! (1965) were received with enthusiasm by film critics and audiences alike.

During the mid-1960s, the Beatles began to develop in new musical directions. Influenced less and less by and other rock-‘n’-rollers (as they had been during their Quarry Men days), they turned for inspiration to singer- Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman), whose thoughtful, challenging, folk-revival compositions inspired “You’ve Got to Your Love Away” and several other Beatles songs. Ensemble members also began to use marijuana and other psychotropic substances, including LSD. After producing comedy songs and soul numbers for (1965), their first full-length ‘original’ LP, the group turned for inspiration to music-hall songs, the art , and memories of their own childhood experiences. They also experimented with the possibilities of altering musical sounds through electronic recording techniques, and they added a wide variety of instrumental sounds to many of their most successful later numbers. In Revolver and especially in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band , the Beatles produced complex assemblages of songs in contrasting styles that, even individually, could no longer be performed ‘live’. Sgt. Pepper’s became perhaps the most widely acclaimed concept in history, and its purported coherence as a kind of song cycle

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stimulated similar projects. Among these, Days of Future Passed (1967), written and performed by the Moody , and Dark Side of the Moon (1973), written and performed by , another British ensemble, also became classics.

In 1967 Epstein died suddenly, and the following year Lennon met , who later became his wife. Increasing dissention—fuelled in part by the marriages made by several band members to ‘outsiders’ like Ono, in part by Lennon’s increasing dislike of McCartney—finally led McCartney to break with the group. Fortunately, three additional albums— (1967); The Beatles (1968; better- known as the White Album ); and (1969)—were released before the group disbanded in 1970. Each ‘Beatle’ went on to enjoy a performing career of his own, but none of them reached either the financial or the artistic heights they managed to achieve together.

The Beatles achieved unprecedented success primarily as composers of beautiful and sophisticated songs. Each of their numbers embodies at least one (and sometimes more than one) ‘historical’ style as well as one or more band members’ brands of melody, harmony, and—often—musical humour. In addition to the talents of Lennon and McCartney, who produced most of the original music the ensemble performed and recorded after 1963, the Beatles profited from Harrison’s skill as a composer. They also profited from the advice of EMI producer Martin, and from the technical knowledge of engineer . Like Epstein, Martin encouraged the Beatles to compose more carefully. Unlike his predecessor, Martin also wrote —which, although based on sketches made by individual band members, made use of his keen sense of instrumental colour and skill as an orchestrator. Emerick taught the Beatles how to use the as an instrument in its own right; his instruction was of special importance in Abbey Road , one of the late 1960s most successfully engineered rock products.

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No one style or musical ‘gimmick’ appears in every Beatles’ number, not even a rock groove. Modal and other unusual harmonic progressions, the blues, gospel and doo-wop styles, sounds and gestures also associated with other 1950s and 1960s pop artists, the (or scale-like patterns) of northern Indian art music, and musique concrète are some—but by no means all—of the musical devices they employed at one time or another. Early in their career the Beatles even covered a Broadway show tune: “”, a well-known song from The Music Man by Meredith Wilson, which opened in New York City in 1957 and was later made into a motion picture. Although the devices and styles associated with these influences were later incorporated into only a few of the ensemble’s recordings, most of them became ‘Beatles trademarks’: sounds forever associated with the songs they helped make famous.

Some critics consider the style that most frequently and thoroughly influenced the Beatles’ overall output. Motown, a Black nickname for Detroit (America’s foremost car-manufacturing city, and known for that reason as ‘motor city’ or ‘mo-town’), is also an abbreviation for Tamla Motown—later renamed the Motown Record Corporation: one of the most successful labels in pop history. Berry Gordy, Jr., who launched Motown in 1958 and hired most of its star performers, helped popularise the Motown sound: a sophisticated blend of catchy tunes, rock-groove percussion patterns, and clever song layouts. Among Motown numbers covered by the Beatles in 1963 was “Please Mr. Postman”, originally recorded by the Marvelettes. Like many other earlier Beatles hits, it was released as a single: a 45rpm phonorecord containing just one song on each side. After 1965 concentrated on album- length recordings. “Michelle”, for example, was never released as a single; instead, it appeared for the first time on Rubber Soul .

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The Beatles acknowledged their debts not only to Motown, but also to Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, music-hall song-and-dance numbers, and a variety of other stylistic sources. At the same time, they transformed the musical gestures they borrowed from others into songs unique to themselves and their era. The 1960s have been called the ‘decade of the Beatles’, and in several important respects it was precisely that. Finally, the Beatles’ legacy was taken up during the and 1980s by many other musicians, including Engelbert Humperdink, who covered several Beatles songs.

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2. The Beatles as Composers/Performers: A Summary

The Beatles began as club entertainers and ended as cultural , iconic representatives of the ‘60s’ as an era of political protest and experimental lifestyles. They began as skiffle performers who covered rock-‘n’-roll numbers written by other artists; they ended as composers of album-length ‘statements’ full of exotic instrumental sounds, allusions to psychedelic experiences, political messages, and parodies of old-fashioned pop songs. After 1964 they gave few public performances; instead, they retreated to the recording studio, where they increasingly drew upon technological innovations and arty instrumental arrangements. The albums they created, especially Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band , made the LP (and later the full-length CD) the medium of choice for commodified . More or less abandoning rock ‘n’ roll, the Beatles gave the world a cluster of hybrid masterpieces (as well as a few failures) that established ‘rock’ a virtual synonym for global popular music.

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3 Five Representative Songs and Song Pairs by the Beatles

3.1 “” and “Please Please Me” (1962)

“Love Me Do” was the Beatles’ first singles-chart hit song, although it failed to reach top-10 status even in Great Britain. It was also one of the first Mersey sound songs heard throughout England as well as in the United States. Coined in 1961, the term ‘Mersey sound’, sometimes incorrectly given as ‘Mersey beat’, refers not only to songs—many of them skiffle numbers—written or performed in Liverpool (located on the Mersey River), but to songs by Liverpool artists that combined elements of folk, , and rock ‘n’ roll.

In “Love Me Do” a simple syncopated rock groove supports repetitive lyrics about adolescent love, a favourite Beatles subject. Lennon and McCartney sing together in close harmony, much of the time in parallel thirds. (Another example of close harmony is the four-bar unaccompanied vocal introduction to “”, a somewhat later Beatles song.) Overall, Lennon’s and McCartney’s performances in “Love Me Do” are straightforward and unassuming, but it is their use of oblique punctuated by open fourths and fifths that struck early 1960s listeners as fresh and innovative. Nevertheless, “Love Me Do” is less energetic than many numbers recorded by other contemporary artists. There are no vocal interjections or forceful rhythmic statements of any kind. Only once, in fact, in “Love Me Do”—at the very end of the second break, in which the melodic line is played entirely on the harmonica—does Starr employ the cymbals as well as the snare and bass drums that make up the standard rock-‘n’-roll set or battery. Even the use of quarter-note triplets in the opening harmonica hook to “Love Me Do”, which provides rhythmic variety, momentarily weakens the on-going rhythmic pulse.

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Several aspects of “Love Me Do” suggest folk or skiffle more than rock ‘n’ roll. These aspects include brief harmonica solos, the use of modal inflections, and plagal . An example: the song begins in G Major, but the three-note descending harmonic line F (not F ) / E / D produces a moment of Mixolydian colour. F also appears frequently in the song’s melody; F , the leading tone in the key of G Major, only becomes important in conjunction with the word ‘love’ in the phrase ‘Someone to love’. Other chromatic inflections are more blues or jazz-like than modal. The word ‘do’, for example, is sung in measure 10 on B (instead of B). When the phrase is repeated in measure 11, the word ‘oh’ is ornamented C / D / C. Many blues singers ‘flat’ the third, fifth, and seventh degrees of the scale, as the Beatles do in this song. The third, fifth, and seventh degrees of G Major are B, D, and F ; as blue notes they become B , D , and F. Finally, plagal or subdominant chord progressions contribute to the song’s less emphatic, more wistful character. The song’s introduction, for example, begins with I-IV-I as a harmonic progression. Rock ‘n’ roll more often features dominant-tonic (I-V-I) progressions, which have a more emphatic and ‘final’ character.

One unusual feature of “Love Me Do”, and a feature that reappears in many later Beatles songs, is an asymmetrical melodic structure. The verse consists of three pairs of measures (bars 1-6), followed by three more measures of ‘Please’ (bars 7-9), followed by two measures in which we hear the last of ‘please’ as well as the refrain “Love me do” (bars 10-11). In the last of these measures (bar 11) the two-measure harmonica hook reappears, linking this verse with the verse that follows:

bars 1-2: Love, love me do! you bars 3-4: Know I love you. I’ll bars 5-6: Always be true, so bars 7-9: Please --- bars 10-11 Love me do! [harmonica solo]

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Another feature of “Love Me Do” characteristic of many Beatles songs is air. Also known as ‘verbal space’, the term ‘air’ refers to vocal silences between melodic statements. In much of this song Lennon and McCartney don’t sing at all, and when they do sing they rarely sustain notes for more than a moment; the single exception is the word ‘please’. The overall impression left today by “Love Me Do” and other early Beatles numbers is one of innocence. In this and other songs there is love but no explicit sexuality, and the music is characterised by fresh chromatic inflections and unassuming vocal artistry rather than parody, pastiche, or complex harmonic progressions.

Other early Beatles songs resemble “Love Me Do” in several of the ways described above. “Please Please Me”, the second number the group recorded for EMI, is a more energetic and complex song with a rock edge. Like “Love Me Do”, this song employs the harmonica. In the introduction to “Please Please Me”, however, the hook is played in unison by the harmonica and the lead guitar, producing a metallic sound that suggests a calliope. Associated with carnivals and outdoor fairs, the calliope is unmistakably a ‘fun’ instrument, and the opening of “Please Please Me” is light- hearted and lively. Reverb in the electrically amplified guitar part contributes to this effect.

“Please Please Me” also includes chromatic ornaments in the vocal line as well as shouted interjections. Although less forceful than the coon shouting of the youthful Elvis Presley, the Beatles’ repeated statements of ’oh yeah!’ alternate with repeated statements of ‘come on’, creating a call-and-response effect associated with several kinds of Black American music, including gospel. Furthermore, “Please Please Me” is more harmonically adventurous than “Love Me Do”. The instrumental coda, or last two measures of “Please Please Me”, features a striking pair of mediant harmonic progressions, a sound that became popular in European art music during the 1830s and 1840s. In moving first from E Major to G Major (I-III), then to C Major (III-VI), and

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finally back to E Major by way of B Major (V-I), the very end of this hit song seems almost to have been copied from music written by the revolutionary French composer Hector Berlioz (1803-1869). Berlioz often ended symphonic movements with similarly striking progressions. The very existence of a coda in a 1960s pop song, much less one as imaginative and striking as this one, itself makes “Please Please Me” somewhat unusual as an early 1960s pop single. Most contemporary songs concluded with fadeouts that allowed radio DJs to ‘interrupt’ the songs’ long, drawn-out endings with observations of their own or with advertisements for sponsors’ products. “Please Please Me”, on the other hand, ends as it began: emphatically and distinctively.

Several later Beatles songs also resemble “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me” without imitating them. One of these songs is “Yellow Submarine”, which combines a childlike tune that repeats the words ‘We all live in a yellow submarine’ over and over with witty examples of musique concrète : water sounds, the sounds of ship machinery, and so on. Unlike the Beatles’ ‘innocent’ early skiffle numbers, however, “Yellow Submarine” is a self-conscious parody (or send-up) of childlike Folk Revival songs, including “Puff the Magic Dragon”, recorded in 1963 by Peter, Paul, and Mary. In its use of nautical terms and references to the sea, a centuries-long British preoccupation, it also gently mocks English naval institutions. In other words, the Beatles’ use in “Yellow Submarine” of pre-recorded sound effects, naval terminology and enthusiasms, and a short passage scored for military band transform a playful if repetitive children’s tune into a sophisticated stylistic pastiche. Other pastiche songs from the Beatles’ later years include “Back in the USSR”, a hard- hitting rock contribution to the so-called White Album (1968). In “Back in the USSR”, pre-recorded airplane sounds are superimposed over musical and verbal references to several American folk and pop songs, including “California Girls” by , “Georgia On My Mind” by , and “Back in the USA” by rhythm-and-blues star .

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3.2 “Michelle” and “Yesterday” (1965)

Although often identified as ‘rock’, even in the absence of a rhythmic groove, “Michelle” is actually a foxtrot: a two-step dance popular in England and the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. It is also a : a sentimental song with several verses, each of them followed by the same chorus. In its blend of acoustic and sounds, “Michelle” resembles “Yesterday” and other more emphatically tuneful Beatles numbers.

“Michelle” consists of an introductory chord progression played by acoustic guitar over a chromatically descending bass line: from an F minor triad to a F minor chord with added major seventh, to a F minor chord with added minor seventh, to a B minor chord with added second, and finally to a C Major (dominant) chord that resolves with the first word of the vocal line in F Major. The introduction is followed by a ‘chorus’ that consists of four phrases (respectively 6, 6, 10, and 6-measures long) followed by a refrain that begins with the words ‘And say’. An added delight is the ‘translation’ into French of the second 6-bar phrase, in which the final syllable is not simply sustained (as in the English version) but emphasises the downbeat in bar 12:

I bars 1-2: Michelle, ma belle, bars 3-5: These are works that go together well, my Michelle. --- bar 6: [air] II bars 7-8: Michelle, ma belle, bars 9-11: Sont des mots qui vent trés bien ensemble, trés bien en- bar 12: -semble.

Unlike most pop songs, in which the bridge (here bars 13-22) appears at most twice and often only once, the bridge in “Michelle”—which begins ‘I love you I love you I love you’—is repeated three times.

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“Michelle” features a harmonic device associated with Schubert’s Lieder : that of shifts between tonic-major and tonic-minor chords. This F Major song begins in F minor (see above) and remains in F minor whenever the melody moves to A instead of A. Throughout the first 6-bar phrase, for instance, the syllables ‘belle’, ‘to-‘ (in together), and ‘Mi-“ (in the last ‘Mi-chelle’) are sung as A s. At the very end of the song, however, just as at the very beginning of the melody, the accompaniment plays A (natural), giving the girl’s name an unexpected brightness. Although the melody is sung throughout by McCartney, it is accompanied some of the time by the other three Beatles in the form of sustained doo-wop chords on the syllable ‘Woo’. Finally, “Michelle” resembles “Love Me Do” and other early Beatles numbers more closely than many mid-1960s listeners realised. At the very beginning of the 10-bar bridge, for example, the words ‘love you I love you I’ are sung as quarter-note triplets, and other triplets are found in the instrumental bridge and the coda. Furthermore, the bridge’s second phrase begins with a C / D / C ‘blue’ ornament on the words “that’s all I …” In combination, these features are remarkably effective. At one and the same time, “Michelle” seems to be a standard pop ballad with a foxtrot beat, an understated 1960s sentimental ‘hit’ supported by a rock groove, and a pastiche of skiffle and Schubertian melodic and harmonic gestures.

“Yesterday”, another song by Lennon and McCartney, and one sung by McCartney altogether as a solo, is widely considered even more beautiful than “Michelle”. Released as a single in 1965, “Yesterday” is slower and more plodding rhythmically; its melody has a wider range and is more repetitive overall. “Yesterday” is accompanied by a classical —two , a , and a —as well as by acoustic guitar; unlike “Michelle”, it altogether lacks drums or other rhythm instruments. Harmonically, “Yesterday” resembles “Love Me Do” in its plagal cadences and more widespread use of vocal ornaments, including an accento that begins the melody on G (in F Major) instead of F. Associated in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European vocal music with expressions of pain, the accento in

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“Yesterday” fulfils the same expressive function; it ‘crushes’ downward, creating a momentary dissonance and expressing regret at the loss of the girl who ‘went away’ for some unknown reason. Finally, the bridge in “Yesterday” features a characteristic late-Beatles device: stepwise chord progressions. The words ‘had to go’ in the phrase “Why she had to go I don’t know, she wouldn’t say” are accompanied successively by D minor, C Major, and B Major triads, although incomplete ones. A fondness for parallel chord progressions was a characteristic gesture not only of later Beatles songs, but also of Harrison’s work as an independent composer-performer.

3.3 “Taxman” and “Eleanor Rigby” (1966)

By the time they had reached Revolver in 1966, the Beatles were beginning to think of albums as something more than mere collections of previously released singles. Earlier pop LPs often had ‘themes’: some of Elvis Presley’s LPs, for example, were soundtrack albums, collections of songs recorded for or featured in particular motion pictures. The placement of songs in Revolver and especially in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band , however, was more than random. Generally the Beatles ‘opened’ each of their later albums with hard-hitting, emphatic numbers; the second numbers on these albums were usually gentler and less rhythmically intense. “Taxman” and “Eleanor Rigby” together exemplify this strategy. They also exemplify aspects of both the Beatles’ earlier and later styles, including modal inflections, blue notes, pre-recorded sounds and electronic distortion, the use of non-pop instruments, stepwise harmonic progressions, and topical lyrics: in these cases (respectively), the oppressiveness of taxation and the loneliness of big-city life.

“Taxman” begins with a spliced-in or pre-recorded count-off that suggests we’re listening to an informal . Not only is this count-off ‘fictional’; it is also distorted to make Harrison’s voice sound ‘odd’. (The actual count-off, heard quietly in the background, is by Lennon, recorded without distortion.) Melodically, “Taxman” consists of a double-tracked vocal line in which Harrison sings with himself

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to an accompaniment provided by heavily amplified guitars, , and drums. Although ostensibly in D Major, the melody contains nothing by Cs (instead of C s) and is heavily syncopated. The sudden shift from a dominant-seventh chord on D to a C Major triad ( VII in D Major, and a substitute subdominant chord in that key) on the syllable “tax” in the phrase “’cause I’m the tax-man” is strikingly effective, utterly unexpected, and essentially plagal. The music then moves from that chord to G 7 (IV 7 in D Major) and then back to D 7 (IV 7-I from G to D), suspending the harmony between D Major and the G Major tonic chord that never seems finally to ‘arrive’. A heavily amplified guitar break after the second verse provides an opportunity for McCartney to perform a chromatically inflected lead- reminiscent of , an even more brilliant guitarist and experimental pop star of the middle and late 1960s. As a , “Taxman” is both intensely angry and hopeless; instead of a coda, the music fades out at the end of a second guitar break.

Except for its message of heartfelt anger and hopelessness, “Eleanor Rigby” is altogether different. Unlike “Taxman”, this song lacks a rock groove or any percussion part; there is no percussion part, no guitars, and nothing like a skiffle, blues, or pop lyric. Instead, “Eleanor Rigby” tells the story of two people: an aging woman without a family who dies unmourned, and the priest who presides over her meaningless funeral. The song’s organisation is simplicity itself: an opening hook with words (“Ah, look at all the ”), the reappearance of that hook as the second part of a chorus performed between each of three verses, and a short coda. The use of a string octet (four violins, two , and two ) transforms what might otherwise have sounded like a Folk Revival number into an art song. So does the skilful that subtly shifts the number and complexity of contrapuntal accompanying figures from verse to verse. The two-note figure C / B alone shifts the harmony back and forth from C Major to E minor. Except for a few added sevenths and passing notes, the song is based entirely on those two chords. With songs like “Eleanor Rigby” the Beatles seemed to have left rock ‘n’ roll behind. But not for long: Revolver not only began

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with “Taxman” but included “Got to Get You Into My Life”, a much more straightforward pop effort, as its next-to-last number.

3.4 “When I’m Sixty-Four” (1967)

One of the more ‘popular’ numbers on Sgt. Pepper’s , “When I’m Sixty-Four” is not rock at all. Instead, it suggests the world of vaudeville and the English music hall of the 1920s and 1930s. The music is scored for clarinet and bass clarinet as well as , guitar, electric bass, and percussion. Instead of a rock groove, the song moves to a slow foxtrot beat. Its subject is as unusual (from the perspective of rock ‘n’ roll) as its music: love among older, working-class men and women!

Harmonically, “When I’m Sixty-Four” is much less sophisticated than “Taxman”. Except for a sung bridge that begins in A minor on the words “Every summer we can rent a cottage”, and except for a few minor subdominant and secondary dominant chords (F minor and D Major in C Major), “When I’m Sixty- Four” is a three-chord song. It begins with a short but formal introduction that ends with a vamp: a simple rhythmic figure that can easily be repeated if the musicians considered it necessary. Vamps were important to vaudeville and music-hall performers, because applause or other audience noise often interrupted introductions, requiring them to be extended until the musicians were ready to continue. It also ends with a four-bar coda rather than a fade-out.

One interesting feature of “When I’m Sixty-Four” is its melodic line, which often rises ‘above’ the chords that support it, adding sevenths, ninths, and even thirteenths to the triads played by the accompanying instruments. Another feature is the use of chromatic passing and ornamental notes. In phrases such as “Will you still be sending me a valentine”, the music moves from B to C, C , and D, then at the end of the phrase from B to B to A: all this over a G Major triad in the accompaniment. Another unusual feature: although the entire song was recorded in the key of C, it

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appears on the Sgt. Pepper’s album in the key of D . Electronic transposition of this kind makes the music sound thinner and gives McCartney’s vocal solo a slightly tremulous, old-fashioned sound, one that suggests the acoustic 78rpm phonorecords of the early twentieth century. The D that begins “when I’m Sixty-Four” on the album also links this song harmonically with the preceding, more experimental number “”. In spite of this link, however, the contrast between that song and “When I’m Sixty-Four” is even more violent musically than the contrast between “Taxman” and “Eleanor Rigby” on Revolver .

Another interesting feature of “When I’m Sixty-Four” is the presence of clarinets. Employed in early jazz ensembles as well as the European symphony , clarinets have a distinctive sound that later jazz artists considered too ‘sweet’ for their more dissonant music-making. The presence of clarinets in virtually any pop number today guarantees that the number will today be received as old- fashioned, out of date. Saxophones, on the other hand, have remained popular in pop and jazz ensembles, although they were never accepted as standard instruments by European and North American classical composers.

Until Sgt. Pepper’s was released as an album in 1967, no rock ensemble had ever performed or recorded anything like “When I’m Sixty-Four”. The Beatles, however, later recorded several similar numbers, all of them composed by McCartney. One of these songs, “”, was included in the White Album , the Beatles’ longest and most stylistically varied collection of musical material. “Honey Pie” is even more playful—some people would call it campy—than “When I’m Sixty-Four”. Its rich, ‘historical’ chord progressions include sequential secondary dominants. One example is all that can be cited here: From Em7 – beginning in the chorus on the words

“I’m in love but I’m” – the music moves to Am 7 on the word ‘lazy’, then to D 7 on the words “so won’t you please come”, and finally to G on the word ‘home’. In G Major the sequence is: V 7/VI – V 7/II – V 7 – I.

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Retro songs we just beginning to be performed by some rock ensembles in the late 1960s. Most of these songs were covers. “At the Hop”, a slightly modified 12-bar -‘n’-roll number originally recorded in 1957 by Danny and the Juniors, for example, was performed at the Festival in 1969 by Shanana, an ensemble that spoofed or ridiculed earlier pop-music styles. The Beatles’ later retro numbers, on the other hand, were original compositions. Furthermore, both “When I’m Sixty-Four” and “Honey Pie” dealt with more-or-less realistic scenes from everyday British life: saving money toward retirement, for instance, or travelling to the United States to ‘make good’ as a movie star. , on the other hand, has always been almost entirely about two subjects: sex and drugs. “At the Hop”, is ‘about’ little else except teenage love. So has most British rock, although albums like Dark Side of the Moon have dealt with other, quite different issues as well.

3.5 “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (1967)

One of the Beatles’ best-known songs, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is an excellent example of psychedelic or . The first letters of “Lucy”, “Sky”, and “Diamonds” spell out ‘LSD’. For this reason the song has been understood as referring to the sensory distortion associated with lysergic acid diethylamide, a powerful and often dangerous hallucinogenic. This drug was often referred to as LSD or acid by 1960s hippies and other drug users. The lyrics to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” suggest an acid trip or distorted sensory experience; they refer to “tangerine trees”, “marmalade skies”, “rocking-horse people”, “plasticine porters with looking-glass ties”, and other bits of surreal fancy. Lennon claimed that his young son Julian had painted a picture in school of a girl called Lucy in a sky full of diamonds, and that the song was inspired by that picture. Perhaps. Or perhaps the picture was merely a way of imbuing the song’s lyrics with a double meaning: to ‘take acid’, according to some people, is to become like a looking with wonder at the world for the very first time. This interpretation has also been employed to link both LSD as a substance

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and the Beatles’ song ‘about’ that substance (if, indeed, it is about it), with Jesus’ call to his disciples to “become as little children” before entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Certain some 1960s music fans accepted “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” as a spiritual statement.

In one respect, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is quite simple: the refrain on the song’s title repeats the words over and over, always accompanied by a simple G Major / C Major / D Major (I-IV-V) progression in the key of G Major. This repetition is almost hypnotic in its sameness. In other respects the song is quite sophisticated. The use of studio recording techniques, especially the heavy reverb and double- tracking applied to Lennon’s vocal solo, creates a wavy, heard-through-water vocal effect that suggests the unreality of the various people and objects ‘seen’ in the lyrics. More interesting, perhaps, are shifts between meter, employed for the song’s verses, and meter, employed for its chorus or refrain. The heavy drum beats that establish the rhythm of the song’s refrain seem to move the music from a dreamier world into a more emphatic but also hypnotically repetitive one. Most of these devices were used by other acid rockers during the later 1960s and early 1970s.

In at least one way, however, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is more sophisticated than other acid-rock numbers. The entire song is built upon a harmonic pattern similar to patterns elaborated upon in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century chaconnes by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and his contemporaries. This pattern, which modulates from A Major to G Major and back, was identified by critic Alan Pollack as

A– F– B – C– G– D– A A: I– VI– III– ------IV– I B (V– I) G ( III– IV– I– V)

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(A similar diagram appears in Allen Moore’s book on Sgt. Pepper’s , one of a large number of books devoted primarily or exclusively to this groundbreaking album.) In this pattern, the refrain is identified as “G– D–“(I-V in G Major). Whatever the origins of this pattern, it helps create a tape-loop effect as the song is repeated over and over again. The pattern thus gives this famous Beatles’ number harmonic coherence as well as sameness of a special kind.

One other aspect of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is characteristic of many later Beatles numbers as well as of some other of their acid songs, including “Strawberry Fields Forever”. This is the use of Indian instruments. In “Lucy” the instrument of choice is the tambura; in “Strawberry Fields” it is either the or the swarmandel or both. (Harrison played all of these ‘exotic’ instruments.) Still other, mostly Western instruments employed in later Beatles songs include the piccolo trumpet (together, in the coda of “” from Magical Mystery Tour , with a quotation from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2), the ondioline (an electronic that produced the unusual oboe-like sound in “Baby You're a Rich Man”, also from Magical Mystery Tour ), the Lowery electric organ (played by McCartney in “Lucy” so as to sound like a celeste) and many other numbers. The Indian instruments especially, when linked with sonic distortion, suggest an exotic and timeless spirituality that calls to mind the Beatles’ search for ‘truth’ with the Maharishi Mahesh during a trip they made to , India, and elsewhere in 1967.

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4 The Beatles: Concluding Observations

Throughout their career, the Beatles were associated as composers and performers with musical devices infrequently or never used by other rock musicians. In their earliest recordings, for example, they employed modal harmonies and close harmony featuring open fourths and fifths, and they frequently used the harmonica as a descant or contrapuntal instrument. Until the mid-1960s, in fact, they covered songs created by others, even as they increasingly performed songs of their own creation. By 1965 they had begun experimenting with shifting meters, descending bass lines, stepwise harmonic progressions, and chords previous unheard in (including the VII). Later they introduced both ‘classical’ and Indian instruments, experimented with sound effects of various kinds, and employed nostalgic, political, and psychedelic lyrics of innovative kinds. At the same time they continued to borrow sounds originally associated with skiffle, doo-wop, and rock ‘n’ roll as well as a host of other pop styles.

As they developed, especially in the recording studio, the Beatles gradually replaced playful pop with more serious, . What they produced was far more variegated than anything produced by other 1960s performers. Unlike Elvis Presley, for example, who almost always sang about ‘adult’ sexual excitement or abandonment, the Beatles—especially in their earlier years—sang about reciprocated youthful love, often between men and women of the British working class. Later, however, the Beatles increasingly addressed disaffected young people: those who disagreed with the social, sexual, and political values of their parents. At the same time, the Beatles drew directly on middle-class English values. Among their most successful songs are “”, a fanciful description of live in a suburban Liverpool street, and “Strawberry Fields Forever”, the title of which refers to a Salvation Army Children’s Home located around the corner from Lennon’s boyhood home in Liverpool’s Woolton suburb. The monument erected in Manhattan’s Central Park to

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commemorate Lennon’s murder in December 1980 is known as the Strawberry Fields Memorial. Even the Mixolydian figures in “Love Me Do” may derive from Celtic heard by Lennon and McCartney as children, rather than from other and more ‘classical’ sources.

Throughout his career Elvis sported more or less the same long hair and sideburns, although the costumes he wore during the later 1960s and 1970s became increasingly garish. The Beatles began as ‘average’ Liverpudlian working-class teens who appeared on stage during the early 1960s in sports jackets and ties, or—in imitation of Elvis—in leather jackets and longer hair. By 1968, however, every Beatle had been photographed in costumes ranging from military uniforms to tie-dyed ‘hippie’ shirts, love beads, and moustaches or beards. These last facts would be unimportant without the music they produced, but the clothes and trinkets they wore eventually contributed to that music’s popularity and to its association with 1967’s (when Sgt. Pepper’s was released) and with psychedelic art. Eventually, in fact, “Yellow Submarine” became the title of an animated motion picture (1969) featuring the Beatles in their most colourful outfits. Yet the Beatles never altogether gave in to faddishness . Abbey Road , their last original album, included such ‘traditional’ love songs as “”, while traditional hard-rocking, rhythm-and-blues sounds influenced songs such as “”. In fact, the Beatles in certain respects—especially musically—appeared to become somewhat more ‘mainstream’ as their career neared its end. Songs like “Ob-La-Di Ob- La-Da” from their later years is all about the joys of conventional married life. It is possible to consider the song ironic rather than straightforward, but other of their songs also extol everyday 1960s British life .

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5 Listening materials

All of the recordings by the Beatles mentioned in this essay, with only one important exception— “Honey Pie” from The Beatles (also known as the ‘ White Album ’)—can be found on the anthologies identified below. Several other Beatles songs mentioned in passing, including “Till There Was You”, also are not included in these anthologies:

The Beatles / 1962-1966 (EMI 0777 7 97036-37 2).

The Beatles / 1967-1970 (EMI 0777 7 97039-40 2).

6 Musical Scores

Every song ever recorded by the Beatles, at least after “Love Me Do”, their first hit, is available in print, transcribed by Tersuya Fujita and several other Japanese musicians, as The Beatles Complete Scores (Hal Leonard Corporation 1989).

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7 Reading List

Useful and easy to read books and websites devoted to the Beatles and especially to their musical styles include the following:

McKeen, William. The Beatles: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT 1989). Summarises the Fab Four’s career and identifies almost everything of importance written about them prior to the late 1980s. Easy to read and use.

Mellers, Winfred. Twilight of the Gods: The Beatles in Retrospect ( 1973). A useful summary of the Beatles’ musical career, complete with detailed examples and explanations.

Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (London 1988). Identifies not only every song the Beatles ever recorded, but provides dates and details about alternate recordings, outtakes, and discarded recorded material.

Pollack, Alan W. “Notes on … Series”. Identifies and describes in musical terms every Beatles song, original or covered, and provides information about its key, instrumentation, harmony, layout, recording history, etc., etc. Perhaps the best place to go for information about individual Beatles numbers. Published in conjunction with , an ezine (or on-line magazine). Available on-line at http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/awp- notes_on.shtml >

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8 References for Further Study

Hundreds of books and articles about Beatles as musicians have appeared in print. These do not include biographies of the band as well as individual band members, histories of their concert tours, accounts of their influences on popular culture, and so on. Many of them are quite technical. The following volumes are devoted to ‘Beatles basics’ not discussed in the selections identified above:

Braun, Michael. Love Me Do: The Beatles’ Progress (Harmondsworth 1962; reprinted 1995). A readable and informative discussion of the Beatles’ early career and recordings.

Coleman, Ray. John Winston Lennon, 1940–1966 and John Ono Lennon, 1967–1980 (both London 1984). A carefully researched and written biography of the individual still considered by many critics to have been the most important Beatle.

Davies, Hunter . The Beatles: The Authorised Biography (London 1968; 3 rd edition 1992). The best general introduction to the Beatles’ career and evolution as composer-performers.

Everett, Walter. The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through “Rubber Soul” (Oxford University Press 2001). Possibly the best discussion of individual early Beatles numbers in terms of their links with later recordings. Examines a host of musical devices in detail; concludes with a useful bibliography.

Martin, George with William Pearson. Summer of Love: The Making of Sgt. Pepper (London 1994). How it all began, with personal reminiscences and observations about the Beatles’ impact on 1960s social and cultural attitudes.

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Moore, Allan F. The Beatles: “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (Cambridge University Press 1997). A brief but sophisticated survey of opinions about this album, together with careful musical discussions of each of its numbers.

Norman, Philip. Shout! The Beatles in their Generation (London 1982). Another useful Beatles survey volume that includes information about the 1960s, acid rock, and so on.

Salewicz, Chris. McCartney (New York 1986). A biography up to the later 1980s of Lennon’s songwriting partner and possibly the most innovative Beatle in terms of musical style.

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Appendix Glossary

Each of the terms defined below appears in either or both of the chapters on Elvis and the Beatles.

VII: in any major or minor key, a major triad built upon the lowered seventh degree (i.e., leading tone) in that key. Virtually unknown in pop music prior to the Beatles.

12-bar blues: the standard blues chorus. Harmonically it consists of: I-I7 / IV 7-I / V 7-

(IV 7)-I. Verbally, it usually consists of three lines of text, the first two similar or identical to each other. “Hound Dog” is a good example of a 12-bar blues. 16-bar chorus: a musical period consisting of four 4-bar phrases in an AABA (in the

case of “It’s Now or Never”, AA 1BA 2). A common layout for pop songs, especially when preceded or followed by a verse. 32-bar chorus: a musical period consisting of four 8-bar phrases in an AABA configuration. The most common layout for pop songs prior to rock ‘n’ roll. 45rpm (also 45s): 45 revolutions per minute. The speed of most pop singles (7-inch phonorecords) manufactured during the 1950s and 1960s. 78rpm (also 78s): 78 revolutions per minute. The speed of most albums (12-inch phonorecords) manufactured between the late 1910s and the late 1940s. See also ‘LP’. accento : a Baroque vocal ornament in which a melodic line begins on a higher tone before dropping to the adjacent lower tone. “Yesterday” by the Beatles begins with an accento on the first syllable of the title word. acid trip: the experience a man or woman undergoes after taking LSD. acid rock (also acid rocker): a style of late 1960s music that artistically simulates or at least refers to LSD and acid trips. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is an example of acid rock; as its composers and performers, the Beatles could be said to have been acid rockers—but only in relation to songs of precisely that kind.

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acoustic: without electrical amplification. Originally, all guitars were acoustic instruments. added ninth: a note nine steps above the root of a given triad and added to that triad. A C-Major chord with an added ninth would consist of the notes C, E, G, and D a fifth above the preceding G. added second: a note one step above the root of a given triad and added to that triad. A C-Major chord with an added second would consist of the notes C, D, E, and G. added seventh: a note seven steps above the root of a given triad and added to that triad. A C-Major chord with an added major seventh would consist of the notes C, E, G, and B. A similar chord with an added minor seventh would consist of C, E, G, and B . added thirteenth: a note thirteen steps above the root of a given triad and added to that triad. A C-Major chord with an added thirteenth would consist of the notes C, E, G, and F a seventh above the preceding A. air: vocal silences in pop songs. Elvis left little air in most of his recordings, while the Beatles left more in many of their skiffle numbers. album: a synonym for LP. See also ‘CD’. amplification: electronic enhancement or magnification of sound. See also ‘acoustic’. arrangement: a version of a musical composition to be performed for a certain collection of instrumental and vocal forces. A song with guitar accompaniment, for example, might be arranged for brass band. art song: a song composed by a classical or romantic European or European-American ‘master’. Also, a song that aspires to similar refinement of musical style. Some Beatles songs have been called art songs. asymmetric melodic structure: any melodic structure composed of phrases of dissimilar lengths. Instead, of a ‘32-bar chorus’, for example, a melodic period consisting of two 7-bar and two 9-bar phrases. backup: in popular music, a collective term for instrumental and/or vocal accompaniment. One vocalist, for example, sings the ‘lead’ and the others ‘back her up’ with non-melodic material.

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ballad: in popular music, a slower, more sentimental, and more tuneful song. “Love Me Tender” and “Yesterday” are , whereas “Hound Dog” and “Taxman” are not. baritone: in vocal music, the male voice with a range lying somewhat below that of a tenor and somewhat above that of a bass. Also, the range of such a voice. Elvis Presley sang baritone. bars: measures of music. Every melodic phrase or compositional passage is composed of one or more bars. bass: in some pop ensembles as in classical European orchestral music, a low-pitched, four-string member of the viol family. Bill Black played the bass in some of Elvis Presley’s early recordings. See also ‘bass guitar’ below. bass guitar: an electric instrument employed by rock musicians especially to support individual notes in harmonic progressions and to add counterpoint to otherwise chordal musical structures. In both respects, the bass guitar functions in ways similar to the solo continuo instrument (cello or viola da gamba) employed in Baroque music. battery: another name for percussion instruments as a group. In popular music, a battery consisting of one or more snare drums, one or more cymbals, and a is more often referred to as a set or kit. Beatlemania: the enthusiasm expressed by admirers of the Beatles especially during the early and mid-1960s. Often reserved for describing the behaviour of groupies at concerts and other ‘personal’ encounters. bel canto : Italian for ‘beautiful voice’ or ‘beautiful singing’. Mostly used in conjunction with Italian , although some pop singers (Elvis Presley, Mario Lanza, etc.) also sang bel canto effectively. Black: African American. Used to describe certain musical styles as well as the people who invented them. blue notes: flatted or lowered notes employed in blues, jazz, and other pop forms. Usually refers to the third, fifth, and seventh degrees of the musical scale. blues: a Black of expression with limited vocal and harmonic range but considerable expressive power. See ‘12-bar blues’, ‘’, and ‘rock ‘n’ roll’.

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break: see ‘instrumental break’. bridge: in a standard 32-bar or ‘AABA’ tune, the third or ‘B’ 8-bar phrase. Also the instrumental solo that separates one verse, stanza, or chorus from another. British Invasion: during the early 1960s, the introduction of pop music and musicians from England, either in person or by way of recordings, into the United States. The success of the Beatles during their 1964 American tour contributed enormously to the overall impact of the British Invasion. Broadway show tune: any song written for one or more musical comedies performed in theatres located on or close to Broadway in midtown Manhattan. Also: songs similar in style to such tunes. call and response: musical or other situations in which one voice or voices are answered by a different voice or voices. Associated originally with gospel. calliope: a kind of organ, formerly steam-powered but now usually electric. Associated with circuses, carnivals, and other outdoor European and American entertainments. Calliopes produce harsh, metallic musical sounds. campy (also camp): playful in a sarcastic, exaggerated manner. CD: a common abbreviation for ‘compact disk’, a form of commercial digitalised musical recording. See also ‘album’ and ‘LP’. celeste (also celesta): a small keyboard instrument outfitted with metal bars that produce bell-like sounds when struck. Unknown in Western music until the 1890s, when Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky employed it in his Nutcracker ballet. chaconne: a variation form in which a single chord progression defines each in a series of subsequent statements or variations. chest voice: singing with the support of the diaphragm. Chest voice employed in bel canto and other forms of classical vocal music as well as in Broadway musical comedy. chorus: in popular music, the material that follows one or more verses. See also ‘32- bar chorus’ and ‘refrain’. chromatic (also chromatic inflection): moving melodically by half instead of whole steps. Also, chords containing one or more notes bearing sharps or flats. Sometimes considered the ‘opposite’ of diatonic.

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close harmony: ensemble singing based on triads, parallel thirds and sixths, and other ‘closer’ intervals and chords. Originally a doo-wop and gospel term. club: in popular music, a place of entertainment where pop music can be heard, often ‘live’. The Beatles performed in Hamburg and Liverpool clubs during the very early 1960s. clustered upbeat: one or more notes or syllables that function together in anticipation of a downbeat that begins a subsequent measure or section of music. coda: Italian for ‘tail’. Any passage of music appended to the end of a longer composition. : an LP or CD devoted to a single idea, story, or theme. Unlike most albums, concept albums are created as compositional wholes. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band remains the most famous concept album in history. coon shouter: a singer, Black or White, who vigorously sings or even shouts out the lyrics to certain kinds of African American music. count-off (also count down): The numbers spoken to establish the tempo of a pop song immediately before that song begins. counter-culture: collectively, people with eccentric attitudes or habits. Also, the values of such people. In 1960s America, this term was applied mostly to anti-Vietnam War protestors and other individuals who disagreed with certain commonly held American political, social, and cultural values. country (also country-western): hillbilly music. Country musical ensembles often include and mandolins as well as guitars. cover: to perform or record a song composed by someone else.

Deep South (sometimes South): in the United States, the geo-political and cultural area south of the so-called Mason-Dixon Line and east of Texas. This area includes the states of Florida, Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, but the term ‘Deep South’ is sometimes reserved especially for Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. distortion: any form of alteration to a pre-existing or ‘pure’ musical sound. Reverb, wobble, and amplification are all forms of electronic distortion. Forms of

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acoustic distortion are produced by mutes (for brass instruments) and pieces of metal (for prepared ). dominant: the fifth degree of a scale, or a chord built on such a note. In C Major, G is the dominant note, a G-Major triad the dominant chord. doo-wop: a kind of Black vocal music, often sung without musical accompaniment and in close harmony. double: to perform on more than one instrument or sing more than one part. A guitarist, for example, may also be able to double as a percussionist. double-track: to record the same piece of music twice, then play back both recordings at more or less the same time. After being double-tracked, singers such as Elvis Presley or Paul McCartney can ‘sing with themselves’. downbeat: the first beat of a given melodic phrase, musical passage, or composition.

Elvis impersonator: a singer or actor who dresses up and pretends to be Elvis Presley. fadeout: to gradually reduce the volume of a musical passage, either by playing or singing it more and more softly, or by decreasing its volume electronically. Also: the conclusions of many pop songs in which the music gradually fades out, becomes too soft to be heard. falsetto: a synonym for head voice. To sing without the support of the diaphragm and especially to sign very high notes without such support. folk music (also folk song): any musical statement that sounds as if it were ‘traditional’ or ‘ethnic’ in origin. Sometimes used in opposition to ‘classical’ or ‘popular’ as a form of musical expression or culture. Folk Revival: a movement throughout Europe and North America, began as early as the 1890s but especially widespread during the 1940s and 1950s, when both authentic and simulated folk songs were performed as entertainments. Bob Dylan began his career in the early 1960s as one of the last but most influential Folk-Revival singer-. fusion (also fusion music): in popular music, rock combined with jazz, or sometimes with folk. Many fusion bands include trumpets, trombones, saxophones, and other jazz instruments as well as electric guitars and other rock instruments.

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: from ‘glamour’. In popular music, a form of rock largely defined by the elaborate costumes and makeup worn by its performers. Elvis came close near the end of his career to appearing in public as a glam rocker. gospel: in music, certain performing traditions and tunes associated with American religious music and especially with African American Protestantism. Gospel singers often improvise on familiar melodies, ornamenting them elaborately. They also sometimes sing in close harmony; in this respect, gospel resembles doo-wop. goth (or Goth style): in popular music, rockers who dress in black costumes made of leather and wear heavy chains as ornaments or belts, outrageous makeup, facial piercings, etc. Grand Ole Opry: an American radio programme broadcast every week from Nashville, Tennessee, since 1925. As an institution, the Opry has more or less defined hillbilly, , and country-western musical styles for post-World War II audiences. groove: see ‘rock groove’. groupies: musical camp followers. Often used to refer to young women who follow rock musicians, attend their concerts, and otherwise consort with them. Occasionally used to refer to young men who do similar things. harmonica: a small, hand-held mouth organ. In popular music, harmonicas are associated especially with folk, hillbilly, and skiffle. head voice: see ‘falsetto’. hillbilly: residents, Black or White, of America’s eastern mountains. Also the music made by those residents, either in reality or as simulated in performances and recordings. Hillbilly music is generally considered ‘low-class’ entertainment, often home-made. In fact, much of it derives from Scots-Irish immigrants to Appalachia as well as from Black musical sources. Characteristic hillbilly instruments include the jug, the , and the washboard bass. hippies: young people in 1960s America who used LSD, wore psychedelic clothing, lived together in experimental communities, etc. Often used as an insult.

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honky-tonk (also honky-tonk piano): a tinny piano sound associated with bars and other ‘low’ institutions of American cities and towns, as opposed to rural hillbilly music. Honky-tonk piano refers not merely to poorly tuned upright pianos played in such places, but to the kind of music often played on them. hook: a musical phrase or sound placed near the beginning of a song to attract attention. instrumental break: see ‘break’. ironic commentary (also ironic or irony): to comment on or present anything in a self- conscious and often critical manner. jam session: an informal and private rehearsal or performance, as opposed to a public concert. jobber: see ‘club’. label: the name a recording company uses to market music: Sun, Parlophone, Motown, etc. leading tone: the tone lying immediately below the tonic of any scale. In C Major, B is the leading tone. Lieder : German for ‘songs’ (the singular is ‘Lied ’). The art songs composed in Germany especially during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Schubert and Mahler were among the most famous Lieder composers. LP: an abbreviation for ‘long-playing’. 12-inch, 33rpm phonorecords are LPs. Today sometimes also used for CDs. LSD: an abbreviation for lysergic acid diethylamide, also known as ‘acid’, a powerful and dangerous hallucinogenic lyrics: the words of a song, as opposed to its music.

Mandolin: a small, guitar-like instrument featured in many country-western ensembles.

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mediant progression: an harmonic progression ‘by thirds’. In C Major, a mediant progression might be from I-III (C Major to E Major), or from I-iii (C Major to E minor). melody (also melodic structure): a tune, usually consisting of several phrases organised into one or more periods. The melody of “Michelle” is the part sung by McCartney on Rubber Soul . Mersey sound: refers not only to songs written or performed in Liverpool (located on the Mersey River), but to songs by Liverpool artists that combined elements of folk, jazz, and rock ‘n’ roll. Early Beatles numbers, including “Love Me Do”, are examples of the Mersey sound. Mixolydian: in music, one of the eight Medieval church modes or scale patterns. The ascending Mixolydian scale ends with a whole step instead of a half step (G – A – B – C – D – E – F – G), whereas the standard ends with a half step (G – A – B – C – D – E – F – G). modal harmony: harmony based on scales other than those identical in structure to standard major and minor scales. In a Mixolydian harmonic passage, for example, the minor triad D/F/A would precede the major G/B/D to form a modal dominant-tonic (v-I). Motown (also Motown sound): the label distributed by the Motown Recording Corporation, as well as the music produced and marketed as ‘Motown’. Many Motown artists performed together in small groups, singing and playing rock or doo-wop numbers characterised by lively rhythmic figures and distinctive structural patterns. music-hall songs: in popular music, topical and occasionally risqué songs associated with lower-class theatrical entertainment in England between the later nineteenth century and the 1950s. musical device: any definable way of momentarily manipulating musical material. Counterpoint is a musical device; so is reverb; so is chromatic harmony. Sometimes referred to disparagingly as ‘gimmicks’. musique concrète : French for ‘hard’ (i.e., non-musical) music. Any ‘natural’ sound recorded and introduced into an ‘artificial’ musical composition. The airplane noises at the beginning of the Beatles’ “Back in the USSR” are examples of musique concrète .

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ninth: see ‘added ninth’. North: in the United States, the geo-political and cultural area north of the so-called Mason-Dixon Line. Also, any place outside the South, especially the Deep South. Often used in reference to such urban areas as Manhattan, Boston, , etc. oblique counterpoint: a kind of contrapuntal motion in which one voice or part remains fixed on a given note while another moves away from that note. Oblique counterpoint was originally employed in Medieval music, especially in organum; for this reason it often sounds ‘antique’ or ‘exotic’, especially when used in popular music. ondioline: a monophonic vacuum tube instrument composed of a single oscillator and a small eight-octave touch sensitive keyboard. Uncommon. open fourths, fifths (also parallel fourths, fifths): notes sung or played a fourth or fifth apart, without the addition of thirds or other musical intervals. In C Major, the notes D/A moving directly to the notes E/B would be considered parallel fifths. ornament, ornamented: in music, additional or extraneous notes added to a familiar tune or pre-existing composition. An accento is an ornament; so are passing notes used to link portions of existing melodies. parallel harmony: chords moving in parallel motion. In C Major, the triad C/E/G moving directly to the triad D/F/A would be considered parallel harmonies. parallel thirds: voices or parts moving together at the interval of a third. In C Major, the pair C/E moving directly to the pair D/F would be considered parallel thirds. parody: a word with several somewhat different meanings. To ‘parody’ something often means simply to ridicule it. At the same time, many musical parodies consist of pre-existing material reworked into new forms. First used as a musical term to define the parody masses and motets of Renaissance Europe, in which pre-existing compositions were recomposed to serve new musical and cultural purposes. “Back in the USSR” utilises both kinds of parody: it pokes

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fun at “California Girls”, a Beach Boys song, even as it incorporates part of the song within its own melodic structure. pastiche: any cultural artifact composed of fragments or sections in different, often extremely different styles. period (also musical period): a group of phrases forming a complete melodic statement. One form of musical period is the 32-bar chorus. Another is the 12-bar blues. persona : from the Latin for ‘mask’. A persona is the individual one shows the outside world, as opposed to one’s inner self. Elvis Presley’s stage persona was that of a vibrant, playful, occasionally cruel singer. In his private life, by contrast, Elvis was often sorrowful, angry, or generous as a son, friend, or business associate. phonorecord: a disk on which music or other sounds are recorded acoustically rather than digitally. LPs, 45s, and 78s are all phonorecords, whereas CDs are digital recordings. piccolo trumpet: a small trumpet used today mostly in performing Baroque music. plagal cadence: a IV-I rather than V-I chord progression. Often associated with religious music, especially hymns. popping: repeating one note over and over, often quickly. A term used in conjunction with Irish and Irish- as well as pop songs of certain kinds. pre-recorded sound: see ‘musique concrète ’. psychedelic: see ‘LSD’, ‘acid’, ‘acid trip’, etc. psychedelic art: paintings or other visual forms of expression associated with LSD. Yellow Submarine (1969), an animated movie based on Beatles songs, features illustrations made by Peter Max, a 1960s painter and illustrator. (also punk rocker): a form of music characterised by extreme harmonic and melodic simplicity, high electrically amplified volume, and social protest or anger. Punk began in the early 1970s; the term is often used to refer to such British bands as the Sex Pistols. radio DJ: an abbreviation for ‘disk jockey’. A man or woman who plays recordings (or disks) during radio broadcasts. A term associated mostly with popular music in 1950s and 1960s America.

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: in North Indian music, any exotic scale as well as the music constructed using such a scale. Ragas are modes, each with its own tuning system and cultural associations. race music: in America and especially in the Deep South, anything composed or performed by African Americans or suggestive of them. Rhythm and blues was ‘race music’ until Elvis and other White (and Black) performers transformed it into rock ‘n’ roll. receive (also reception): in aesthetics, the opinions expressed about a given individual, art work, or artistic style. Elvis was initially received as a sexual icon; later, the reception granted him by music-lovers also embraced his religious faith and family values. refrain: a melodic statement that reappears anywhere in a song, often between or after the chorus. Also used by some people as a synonym for ‘chorus’. retro: not merely old-fashioned, but backward-looking. Retro art and music are deliberately and often playfully antique. “Honey Pie” is a retro song rather than an actual example of 1920s popular music. reverb: an abbreviation of ‘reverberation’. In popular music, the result of electronic manipulation that makes music sound ‘larger’ or more distant, and to create echo-like effects. rhythm and blues: a Black term for rock ‘n’ roll. Also rock ‘n’ roll as performed by Black artists. rock (also rock music): a difficult term to define. Today, virtually a synonym for popular music. In the 1960s, the term ‘rock’ was often used to distinguish the more complex blend of musical styles and sound effects created by artists such as the Beatles from that of the less complex blend of styles and effects employed by artists such as Elvis Presley. rock groove: any continuous syncopated rhythmic accompaniment in rock ‘n’ roll or related musical idioms. Without a groove or backbeat, at least until the Beatles transformed popular music, any given song cannot possibly be ‘rock’. rockabilly: a blend of rock ‘n’ roll and hillbilly musical styles and devices. Many rockabilly bands, for example, employ banjos or pianos as well as guitars and drums.

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rock ‘n’ roll: a White term for rhythm and blues. Also, rhythm and blues as performed mostly by White artists. This term is sometimes also used to distinguish the more ‘authentic’ and vital recordings of Elvis and Chuck Berry from the “” of later, more commercialised and less exciting artists and ensembles, including Elvis impersonator Ricky Nelson. second: see ‘added second’. secondary dominant: harmonically, the dominant of a dominant (or other chord) in any key. In C Major, a D-Major triad would be considered the dominant of G Major, itself the dominant of the home key. set: see ‘battery’. seventh: see ‘added seventh’. single: a 45rmp recording. Sales information for many of the songs recorded by Elvis Presley and by the Beatles before 1965 appeared on singles charts; to have a ‘hit’, Elvis or the Beatles would need to rank near the top of such charts. sitar: a large Indian lute-like instrument outfitted with sympathetic strings and movable frets. skiffle: a musical style that originated in both Black and White circles and employed folk sounds as well as instruments such as the harmonica. The Beatles began as skiffle artists. song cycle: a carefully arranged and integrated collection of songs, often one that tells a story or makes a particularly consistent musical statement. A term used mostly in connection with certain collections of Lieder by classical composers such as Schubert. Sgt. Pepper’s has often been considered a song cycle rather than a mere collection of songs. soundtrack album: any LP or CD that contains the music from a particular musical comedy or motion picture. South: see ‘Deep South’. spliced-in: an antique term for cutting and pasting one piece of recorded magnetic tape into another piece. Anything added electronically or digitally to a pre-existing musical recording. Some of the ship and water sounds used in “Yellow Submarine” were spliced into the music the Beatles themselves sang and played.

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steel guitar: an amplified guitar often played lying on a table instead of held in the hands. Its sound is often associated with hillbilly or rockabilly music. stepwise chord progression: a progression, say, from I-II or from II-III in a given key. stylistic gestures: any device employed in part (as opposed to all) of a musical composition. subdominant: the fourth degree of a major or . Also, any triad built on that scale degree. With regard to some Beatles songs, see also ‘substitute chord’ below. substitute chord: a chord used to function as another. Often the minor submediant triad is used as a substitute for the dominant triad in pop music. subtext: something suggested but not explicitly explained. One possible subtext for the lyrics to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is an acid trip. Summer of Love: a term invented by Time magazine to define the summer of 1967 in terms of LSD, and San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury residential district, where many hippies lived that year in counter-cultural communities. The most famous musical ‘product’ of or associated with the Summer of Love was Sgt. Pepper’s . surreal: fantastic, dreamlike. swarmandel: a kind of Indian harp. Uncommon in Western music. tambura (or tamboura): a small lute-like instrument from India. Similar instruments, including the tamburitza from the Balkans, can be found in countries around the world. tape loop: originally a piece of magnetic recording tape spliced to itself so that it could play endlessly without having to be rewound. Anything musical fragment or sound played over and over in a mechanical manner. three-chord songs (also: three-chord players): songs employing only tonic, subdominant, and dominant (I / IV / V) chords. Often used to refer to rock ’n’ roll music and the individuals who perform it. thirteenth: see ‘added thirteenth’. tipping: moving between two adjacent notes, often rapidly. See also ‘popping’. tonic: the first degree of a major or minor scale.

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topical song: a song with lyrics that discuss or refer to a current event or situation. “Taxman” is a topical song insofar as it refers to the British system of taxation, actual politicians involved with that system (including former Prime Minister Wilson), etc. transposition: to move a musical statement from one key to another. vamp: in popular music, a short, repeatable musical figure usually placed at the end of a song’s introduction. vaudeville: a form of entertainment, usually a variety show, popular throughout late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Europe. Vaudeville songs were pop songs associated with such shows. verse: in popular music, either: a) the lyrics of a song; or b) the melodic period that precedes or follows the chorus or refrain. vocal break: the point in any singer’s range above which he or she cannot sing using chest voice. Shifting quickly between chest and head voice (or falsetto) produces an effect known as yodelling. vocal range: the range, from lowest to highest, that a given singer can sing. Sometimes

restricted to chest voice.

washboard bass: a primitive instrument that lends rhythmic support in skiffle and hillbilly ensembles. Occasionally actually fashioned from a washboard, a device used for scrubbing clothes to get them clean. White: Caucasian American. See also ‘Black’. yodel: see ‘vocal break’.

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