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One of the things that’s kept Beatles fans captivated was their refusal to stay still and how each album felt like a progression into new territory. That said, as you delve deeper into the structures and configurations of the band’s music across their discography, there are certain tools, tricks, and ideas that they used and repurposed to great effect. In today’s episode, returning guests Jack Petruzzelli (Fab Faux) and Cameron Greider (Sean Lennon) sit down to discuss some of the most notable and how the band helped rock ‘n roll to expand, becoming richer in the process. (Rock, not The Beatles, though there’s that too…)
We discuss Paul’s links to Bach, John’s connection to the blues and more static melodies, and how all the strands of musical history came together to create the vocabulary that we can observe and appreciate in their music.
https://www.rpm-school.com/
Across the Universe has a complicated recorded history. That version played about the 28-29 minute mark is….what? I don’t think I’ve ever encountered it.
btw that was very good stuff about Lennon’s connection with British comedy.
Me too, also the Julia version… love hearing stuff I never heard. Yeah, the can you hear me momma was a cool find… I like how the show ended with it… and then I saw the connection in how it probably must have resonated on John on some level reaching out to his mom no doubt. I mean if you lost your mom like John did there is no way you can be saying this line without some echo of the trauma
Across the Universe has a complicated recorded history. That version played about the 28-29 minute mark is….what? I don’t think I’ve ever encountered it.
btw that was very good stuff about Lennon’s connection with British comedy.
Me too, also the Julia version… love hearing stuff I never heard. Yeah, the can you hear me momma was a cool find… I like how the show ended with it… and then I saw the connection in how it probably must have resonated on John on some level reaching out to his mom no doubt. I mean if you lost your mom like John did there is no way you can be saying this line without some echo of the trauma
Nice episode. Great examples. Could be a topic to go further in that includes Ringo and George Harrison as well. Maybe elaborate on Lennon’s template of song writing and how he copied his own Beatle song structures by the mid 1970s.
Nice episode. Great examples. Could be a topic to go further in that includes Ringo and George Harrison as well. Maybe elaborate on Lennon’s template of song writing and how he copied his own Beatle song structures by the mid 1970s.
What a superb podcast, gents. Totally interesting and astute. When Paul said the middle-8 to From Me To You opened a new door for them as composers, he was spot on- going to the minor etc- used emphatically in the M8 to I Want To Hold Your Hand/ Norwegian Wood etc. There’s content for a great book on the Beatle’s musical vocabulary here. I’m going to listen to this podcast again now- “Can you hear me, mother?”
What a superb podcast, gents. Totally interesting and astute. When Paul said the middle-8 to From Me To You opened a new door for them as composers, he was spot on- going to the minor etc- used emphatically in the M8 to I Want To Hold Your Hand/ Norwegian Wood etc. There’s content for a great book on the Beatle’s musical vocabulary here. I’m going to listen to this podcast again now- “Can you hear me, mother?”
Great show! But one thing…
Paul apparently wrote the chorus to Baby You’re A Rich Man while John brought the more melodically active “beautiful people” verses to the song. John sings the chorus so well that it makes me wish he had sung more songs written by Paul. The same with Every Little Thing.
Another comment… in the last few years I’ve come up with the theory that some of the Beatles’ best hooks involve chromatic descents. “Something” is the most obvious example. But another example is the 2nd bridge in I’ll Be Back (“I thought that you would realize…”), John sustains that long “I” against a descending guitar part. One of my favorite tricks that they did was early on in It Won’t Be Long. In the bridge (“since you left me…”) the root descends automatically with the 5th stays in place so the chords go from E to Eb augmented to D6th to Db7th. It also has contrapuntal harmonies like in Help! I love that song.
“…the root descends chromatically while the 5th stays in place” is what I meant to type. Sorry.
Great show! But one thing…
Paul apparently wrote the chorus to Baby You’re A Rich Man while John brought the more melodically active “beautiful people” verses to the song. John sings the chorus so well that it makes me wish he had sung more songs written by Paul. The same with Every Little Thing.
Another comment… in the last few years I’ve come up with the theory that some of the Beatles’ best hooks involve chromatic descents. “Something” is the most obvious example. But another example is the 2nd bridge in I’ll Be Back (“I thought that you would realize…”), John sustains that long “I” against a descending guitar part. One of my favorite tricks that they did was early on in It Won’t Be Long. In the bridge (“since you left me…”) the root descends automatically with the 5th stays in place so the chords go from E to Eb augmented to D6th to Db7th. It also has contrapuntal harmonies like in Help! I love that song.
“…the root descends chromatically while the 5th stays in place” is what I meant to type. Sorry.
re. the Lennon continuous notes thing. Yes Julia has 18 but it appears that Yer Blues does also.
re. the Lennon continuous notes thing. Yes Julia has 18 but it appears that Yer Blues does also.
Trying to get away from the Beatles because it a big world and life is short, but your show pulls me right back in… fascinating tour of the innerworkings of the magic… you guys are too much! Thank you for this wonderful discussion with the fantastic as always editing!
Trying to get away from the Beatles because it a big world and life is short, but your show pulls me right back in… fascinating tour of the innerworkings of the magic… you guys are too much! Thank you for this wonderful discussion with the fantastic as always editing!
I love the RPM music school, wish I could sign up one day! They should be in high school music classes everywhere if the sociopaths in charge ever get back to funding public schools again.
I love the RPM music school, wish I could sign up one day! They should be in high school music classes everywhere if the sociopaths in charge ever get back to funding public schools again.
I love the RPM music school, wish I could sign up one day! They should be in high school music classes everywhere if the sociopaths in charge ever get back to funding public schools again.
I love the RPM music school, wish I could sign up one day! They should be in high school music classes everywhere if the sociopaths in charge ever get back to funding public schools again.
I hear you mother!
Great show!
I hear you mother!
Great show!
I really enjoyed this segment and have listened to it two or three times. It occurred to me that on “Please, Please Me” Paul’s high harmony remains on a single note (“Last night I said these words …”) while John follows the melody line down the scale. Given that the guests (Jack and Cameron) were discussing the importance of Bach, I was put in mind of the famous Toccata and Fugue in Dm for organ, in which, at the beginning of the fugue, there is a variation between one note, which remains constant, and alternating notes, which descend along the scale (before climbing back up). I remember Paul telling Rick Rubin (in McCartney 3-2-1) that, in the earliest days of their collaboration, he and John admired Bach and thought that all that Bach’s music was missing was a backbeat (“It’d be better,” he recalled them saying). I saw a video in which Paul, explaining how he came up with “Blackbird,” said that he and George used to try and play Bach on guitar, demonstrating one of their attempts and explaining how they got it wrong. When I hear George’s “Piggies,” I hear an echo of the “baroque” strains of “Blackbird”—an echo enhanced by the use of the harpsichord on “Piggies.”
I really enjoyed this segment and have listened to it two or three times. It occurred to me that on “Please, Please Me” Paul’s high harmony remains on a single note (“Last night I said these words …”) while John follows the melody line down the scale. Given that the guests (Jack and Cameron) were discussing the importance of Bach, I was put in mind of the famous Toccata and Fugue in Dm for organ, in which, at the beginning of the fugue, there is a variation between one note, which remains constant, and alternating notes, which descend along the scale (before climbing back up). I remember Paul telling Rick Rubin (in McCartney 3-2-1) that, in the earliest days of their collaboration, he and John admired Bach and thought that all that Bach’s music was missing was a backbeat (“It’d be better,” he recalled them saying). I saw a video in which Paul, explaining how he came up with “Blackbird,” said that he and George used to try and play Bach on guitar, demonstrating one of their attempts and explaining how they got it wrong. When I hear George’s “Piggies,” I hear an echo of the “baroque” strains of “Blackbird”—an echo enhanced by the use of the harpsichord on “Piggies.”