Monday, May 31, 2010

"A Hard Day's Night" / The Beatles

I'm looking back over the playlist I compiled for last Friday night's music trivia session at my college reunion. (A quick shoutout to all you MHTs that I pestered to check out my blog!) A lot of the tracks I played for you are songs I've written about here -- like "The House of the Rising Sun," "For Your Love," "Along Comes Mary," "Walk Away Renee," "California Dreaming," "Wild Thing," and my top five singles of all time, "The Letter," "She's Not There," "Happy Together," "If I Fell," and "Wouldn't It Be Nice." (And just for you, Liz: "Have I the Right?") I'll even throw in my write-up on "Concrete and Clay," a selection that seemed to stump you all on the one-hit wonders part of the quiz. Click on the highlighted titles to find those blog posts and let me know what you think.

And by the way, I'm still scandalized that none of you knew who Graham Parker is. However, I look upon this as a learning opportunity and direct your attention forthwith to my recent Graham Parker marathon.

But enough links. (If you want any more, just click on any artist's name in the cloud of labels in the column to the right -- the bigger the name, the more blog posts I've written on that artist.)

I was shocked to discover, when I began to trawl through my own posts, that I had never written about "A Hard Day's Night." Oh, I've written briefly about the Hard Day's Night album, but never about this wonderful song itself. I suppose it's because I try very hard not to write about the Beatles too much -- it would be way too easy to make this a total Fab Four blog. And you know me, I never do things nice and easy.



Forgive the scratchy visuals on this clip from A Hard Day's Night; there's another version on YouTube with better film quality, but it's a full 10-minute clip that sucks you right into the movie, and that's way too distracting. ("Who's the little old man?" George asks Paul, and I'm a goner.) Last spring my daughter and I tramped around Marylebone Station, where many of these opening scenes were shot, and I swear I expected the lads to come running down that alley any minute, screaming girls in hot pursuit.

The title A Hard Day's Night was chosen first for the movie, long after the script was written, when the Beatles were already in the thick of filming. It came from a phrase John Lennon had used in his book In His Own Write, but he'd picked up the phrase in the first place from Ringo, who had a Yogi Berra-like penchant for memorable phrases that defied grammar and logic. On the set one day, producer Walter Shenson pulled John and Paul aside and asked them to write a song to match the movie's title -- a crazy request, given their hectic lives at the time. Shenson himself knew it was too much to ask. And yet ten hours later, John and Paul had whipped something together, its lyrics scribbled on a matchbook cover. "Now don't bother us about songs anymore," Lennon grumbled as he sent Shenson away with his new #1 hit movie theme song.

The most brilliant thing about this song? You know what I'm going to say. It's that opening chord, a single aggressive discordant clang that simultaneously packs up and then releases all the hassles of his day. What is this loud, grating, messy chord? You won't find it on any chord chart; the gods must have gotten involved, dictating which finger should land on which fret. The main thing is the fierce attack, striking those guitar strings for all they're worth.

It's a wonderful movie opener, but it also works for AHDN as a a stand-alone song -- a simple thing about a guy coming home to his girlfriend/wife after a tough day at work, and finding comfort in her arms. For a couple of guys who'd never had a proper job in their lives, it's amazing how Lennon and McCartney nailed the perspective of a weary working stiff. He's been working like a dog, and for one reason only: to get her money to buy her things. While on one level -- the level that made it safe for BBC radio play -- it's about domestic comforts, relaxing in the safety of hearth and home, on another level of course it's all about sex. ("And it's worth it just to hear you say, / You're gonna give me everything" . . . "Cos when I get home to you, / I find the things that you do / Will make me feel all right.") John Lennon throws in just enough of a groan on "everything" and "feel all right" to make sure we know what he's really after.

Naturally John had to sing this one. Who else could have conveyed all the pent-up frustrations and anger of a working day? He's not wheedling or charming anybody (those would be Paul's departments); he's bone-tired, still spoiling for a fight, and his need for her is raw as an open wound. When his voice lifts yearningly in the bridge -- "When I'm home / Everything seems to be right / When I'm home / Feeling you holding me tight / [key change] / Tight, ohhh!" -- well, baby, better put that steak-and-kidney pie back in the oven, because you won't be eating right away.

16 comments:

mervap said...

Ms. Holly, you can write about The Beatles anytime at all! You're positively right about this song's ability to encapsulate the feeling from an entire day. Ya' know, I'd always thought it was Paul singing the bridge?

Holly A Hughes said...

I believe you're right -- with the doubled vocals, the switch-off is subtle, but Paul's voice does take the lead there. (All the better for yearning and flattering.) With the key change, the melody might have been too high for John; quite possibly Paul wrote this bridge, too -- it's a more Paul-like melody, that's for sure.

Still, their voices are similar enough to seem like one continuous protagonist. It's as if Paul's contribution is a mood fluctuation -- a sigh of relief as our "hero" collapses into his armchair and kicks off his shoes. But then John's voice returns, and the randiness picks up again.

ssspune said...

Oh, Holly, another good one! And I love your Tina Turner reference, too.

Holly A Hughes said...

Hehehehee. Trust you to pick that up!

LizM said...

Thanks for "Have I the Right?"!! It's been in my brain ever since Friday night, and I don't mind at all!
Love the blog, and I'm now a regular!
:) Liz

LizM again said...

Dang me! I was so excited to reply that I forgot to comment on the blog itself, and A Hard Day's Night... leaving me in danger of losing my Beatles cred entirely. So to make up for it, here's a tidbit about that famous opening chord: http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2008/11/beatles-hard-days-night-mystery-chord-solved/

Natsthename said...

Um, for the record, I have loved Parker since Howlin' Wind, and Squeezing Out Sparks is one of my favorite albums ever!

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

Ah, it's been a long, long, long time ... favorite amongst my favorites -- and now you've made it new again. Great song, great commentary.

Vivalabeat said...

Although I can't remember this (I was 2 months old) the opening chord was the first thing written by Lennon & McCartney I heard in my life. :) I don't listen to the Beatles a lot recently but when I feel like doing it the first album that comes to my mind is A Hard Day's Night.

Holly A Hughes said...

Viva, you prove my point about parents imprinting good musical taste on their children at an early age. ;)

Nat, I urge you to catch up on Graham's post-Sparks catalog -- it's a revelation!

Hard Day's Night really is a wonder of a song -- it's one of those I come back to, thinking "Oh, one of the big hits, how obvious," and then I'm blown away all over again.

There are bands whose only good songs are the hits; there are bands whose best songs are the obscure back track stuff; and then there's the Beatles, who knocked it out of the park pretty much every time....

Natsthename said...

I have others of Parker's, including the most recent two releases. They all contain some gems, though I don't always love every song. I'll be a fan forever. (Beatles 4ever, too!)

wendy said...

We're on each other's blogs at the same time! :)

By some coincidence, I have been listening obsessively to the American CD of AHDN back and forth to work all week. Well, singing, really.

Most of the cuts, including AHDN itself, are still an amazement to me. How did they compose songs that revealed themselves like actual speech - they were so 'in the language' in lyrics and in the rhythms of the lyrics, remarkably free of the contrivances that yell out "this is a song, people!" I don't think I'm expressing this clearly, but over and over I notice this.

And John, more often than not, is the best at pulling this off.

Holly A Hughes said...

Funny that you'd be listening to the US version. I'm forever hooked on that one -- even the corny instrumentals.

I love your observation about their lyrics. Someone recently pointed out to me how many of the early Beatle songs had "you" or "me" or "I" in the title. I don't know whether it was John or Brian Epstein who had this revelation, but they very consciously framed their songs to seem like conversations directly with the listener -- usually assuming the listener was a teenage girl who'd identify 100% with the female "you" of the title. Forget about scene setting or color details; they went for lyrics that were thoroughly conversational, and as generic as possible, to forge an immediate connection with the listener. Later they'd get more into the poetry of their lyrics, but this early stuff WAS totally "in the language."

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

Last night I finally watched the 2006 movie Across the Universe for the first time. This flick had opened to "mixed reviews" as they say in the biz, and I did not have high expectations.

Yet it was a fine movie, and primarily because the director & screenwriter understood precisely the very conversational sensibility of the lyrics of which you guys speak. The Beatles songbook does lend itself to a musical: Who knew?

But the film opens with the Lennon-ish character asking "Is there anybody going to listen to my story all about the girl who came to stay?" ... and we're off.

Holly A Hughes said...

Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised by that film too. I expected to be outraged that other people were singing all the Beatles songs, but absolutely every cover version was interesting, and didn't just try to reproduce the Beatles version. The lead-ins were a bit artificial -- like when the girl "came in through the bathroom window"! -- but even that became part of the movie's charm, like solving a riddle. It did assume you'd know the songbook very well!

wendy said...

Holly, I was smoking the drapes. It was the UK version I was listening to. When you mentioned instrumentals, I said "wha?" and looked up the difference. As for Across the Universe, I haven't seen it but I do know that the young people I work with have become hard core Beatles fans because of it.