Beatle lyrics

[joepee]

I'm ready to take the heat for this one...but do you think The Beatles ever got to the point where they thought, "We can write down any **** out of our heads and people will still think it's great!" ? An inside joke, if you will.

I know Lennon was a Lewis Carroll fan, and had a penchant for the sounds of words placed carefully and poetically together.

But do you think...wink, wink, nudge, nudge, they ever gave it a try???? Just to test the mania of the fans?????

[1965]

I definitely think they did. Especially John.

[jps]

I know Lennon ... had a penchant for the sounds of words placed carefully and poetically together.

Jon Anderson said in Yesspeak the very same thing about his own writing.

[revolver323]

I know Lennon ... had a penchant for the sounds of words placed carefully and poetically together.

Jon Anderson said in Yesspeak the very same thing about his own writing.

Lennon: "Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday.
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long."

Anderson: "A seasoned witch could call you from the depths of your disgrace,
And rearrange your liver to the solid mental grace ..."

I guess they both did.

[beefandbones]

Also the "***** ***** *****" backing vocals on 'Girl'... that was certainly an inside joke!

Their early lyrics are pretty dippy, but that was standard for the era. They became more and more attentive to lyrical content over time, making strides as they went, and I think that their attention to lyrical detail peaked around Revolver and bled into Sgt. Pepper. By Magical Mystery Tour, though, they began getting lazy (Your Mother Should Know that you could have spent more time on those lyrics, Paul) and, in my opinion, the white album signals a major decline in the quality of their lyrics. I'd be surprised if Bungalow Bill or Honey Pie underwent any major revisions a la In My Life or Eleanor Rigby.

But during that time there was a school of thought that you should honor your instinct, that your first thought is the 'purest' and even if it doesn't make literal sense you can interpret (any ol') phrase to have deeper meaning. So I'm not sure either John or Paul intentionally 'put one over' on the audience by writing 'poor' lyrics - at the time of composition, they probably thought the lyrics were great, even if they might have re-evaluated the lyrics in retrospect. I think John was particularly susceptible to that line of reasoning. Which isn't to say it's all bad, of course. 'Strawberry Fields Forever' is brilliant writing, but 'Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey' is just not.

[wj350]

I think Lennon even said as much in one of his many post-Beatles interviews. He loved putting lyrics in just to spool people up. OTOH, other than their early Beatlemania days when they were under pressure to crank out songs constantly, I think they took the songs as entire compositions very seriously.

Bill

[beefandbones]

It's true, John did say words to that effect in a few interviews, post-Beatles. I'm always a little reluctant to really trust anything John says about the Beatles, post-Beatles, because whatever his artistic or personal temperament of the time tends to dramatically color his answers. I think he usually meant what he said at the time he was interviewed, but he usually tried to distance himself from his former bandmates, and tear them down in the process, and he usually came across as being very angry. After the Beatles, he seemed to cherish ripping the Beatles as just another pop group ,or scam artists or something (perhaps because interviewers only ever wanted to ask about the Beatles) when the general consensus amongst 99% of the world is that, actually, they were really pretty good.

But it's true that John, of all of them, had a tendency to intentionally wind up the fans, Glass Onion being another good example of that. I don't think, though, that he was being cynical when he wrote the lyrics to, say, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

[deaconblues]

In addition, you have to consider the pressure put upon them by other groups of the day. Noone could get away with nonsense for too long while other people were making great music at the same time. It's easy to see how the Beatles were influenced by groups like The Byrds, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, and Jimi Hendrix.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Agreed that "Glass Onion" best represents this topic...that was very intentionally pointed toward all the conspiracy theorists and freaks out there.

I talk about the Beatles a lot on songwriting forums. The Beatles were musicians first and lyricists second...I don't think there was ever a song written that didn't start with a musical feel first. In Country music, it seems most writers start with a completed set of lyrics before they compose the song...I doubt the Beatles ever tried that. So when lyricists talk about the Beatles, I always tell them to forget it...the lyrics were informed by the groove and what was on their minds at the time, and that's why it all ties together so well.

Here's a very serious bit of lyric:

Quando para mucho mi amore de felice corazón
Mundo paparazzi mi amore chica Verdi parasol
Presto obrigato tanta mucho cake and eat it carousel

[tennis_nick]

Could you point me in the direction of said songwritting forum?

[tennis_nick]

FOr what it's worth, I believe I heard Paul say somewhere that most of the time, the lyrics and music would all fall together at the same time.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Could you point me in the direction of said songwritting forum?

Sorry I don't have all the links on this computer, but try to look up Muse's Muse, Tunesmith, Just Plain Folks, Songwriting Forums and TAXI. There are lots of others.

[beefandbones]

"She's a big teaser, she took me half the way there" is also a pretty mischievous lyric. Particularly as it's sung.

[beatlefreak]

And it's exactly what you think it means.

[tennis_nick]

And it's exactly what you think it means.

Ran out of cab money halfway home?