I think it's pretty-much agreed that the piano bit from In My Life is George Martin:
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/in-my-life-george-martin-piano/
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/latest/in-my-life-george-martin-piano/
Paul McCartney Carpool Karaoke
- Thread starter GaryH
- Start date
If you ever visit London, may I recommend the 'Beatles walks'. There are two different walking tours, the guide takes you around to all sorts of interesting places associated with the Beatles. Both tours end up at Abbey Road studios, the tour guide owns the 'Beatles Coffee Shop' at the exit of the St. John's Wood tube exit near the studio. When you see the famous crosswalk by the studio, you will realize that the Beatles were photo'ed walking AWAY from the studio, knowing that it was their last album together. The crosswalk is very dangerous as there's a roundabout directly behind the photographer, and its hard to tell when some driver will come shooting out towards you. The yellow ball on the post by the crosswalk means drivers are supposed to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk... BTW bring an indelible marker as fans are allowed to write notes on the whitewashed studio wall. Paul McCartney's London home is a few blocks away on Cavendish Avenue. And, there's many birds to be had and great parties there too!
You made me think of my early days in London. English girls took a liking to us funny, goofy Americans.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
Many of you would find this five minute timed quiz entertaining.
https://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/25808/beatles-songs-on-top-500
Here's a hint. While I believe Lennon & McCartney are the greatest songwriters of all-time, Rolling Stone was a bit generous. Some of there early pop ditties were rated very highly and I'm not sure I would even put them on the list. I think Rolling Stone was paying tribute to the Beatles and early 60s nostalgia.
https://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/25808/beatles-songs-on-top-500
Here's a hint. While I believe Lennon & McCartney are the greatest songwriters of all-time, Rolling Stone was a bit generous. Some of there early pop ditties were rated very highly and I'm not sure I would even put them on the list. I think Rolling Stone was paying tribute to the Beatles and early 60s nostalgia.
Re In My Life:
LENNON: It was the first song I wrote that was consciously about my life. [Sings] "There are places I'll remember/all my life though some have changed..." Before, we were just writing songs a la Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly -- pop songs with no more thought to them than that. The words were almost irrelevant. "In My Life" started out as a bus journey from my house at 250 Menlove Avenue to town, mentioning all the places I could recall. I wrote it all down and it was boring. So I forgot about it and laid back and these lyrics started coming to me about friends and lovers of the past. Paul helped with the middle eight.
McCARTNEY:As I recall, he didn’t have a tune to it, and my recollection, I think, is at variance with John’s. I said, ‘Well, you haven’t got a tune, let me just go and work on it.’ And I went down to the half-landing, where John had a Mellotron, and I sat there and put together a tune based in my mind on Smokey Robinson and the Miracles…
I recall writing the whole melody. And it actually does sound very like me, if you analyse it. I was obviously working to lyrics. The melody’s structure is very me. So my recollection is saying to John, ‘Just go and have a cup of tea or something. Let me be with this for ten minutes on my own and I’ll do it’…
I tried to keep it melodic but a bit bluesy, with the minors and little harmonies, and then my recollection is going back up into the room and saying, ‘Got it, great! Good tune, I think. What d’you think?’ John said, ‘Nice,’ and we continued working with it from then, using that melody and filling out the rest of the verses…
So it was John’s original inspiration, I think my melody, I think my guitar riff. I don’t want to be categorical about this, but that’s my recollection… I find it very gratifying that out of everything we wrote, we only appear to disagree over two songs.
PLAYBOY: "When you talk about working together on a single lyric like 'We Can Work It Out,' it suggests that you and Paul worked a lot more closely than you've admitted in the past. Haven't you said that you wrote most of your songs separately, despite putting both of your names on them?"
LENNON: "Yeah, I was lying. (laughs) It was when I felt resentful, so I felt that we did everything apart. But, actually, a lot of the songs we did eyeball to eyeball."
LENNON: It was the first song I wrote that was consciously about my life. [Sings] "There are places I'll remember/all my life though some have changed..." Before, we were just writing songs a la Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly -- pop songs with no more thought to them than that. The words were almost irrelevant. "In My Life" started out as a bus journey from my house at 250 Menlove Avenue to town, mentioning all the places I could recall. I wrote it all down and it was boring. So I forgot about it and laid back and these lyrics started coming to me about friends and lovers of the past. Paul helped with the middle eight.
McCARTNEY:As I recall, he didn’t have a tune to it, and my recollection, I think, is at variance with John’s. I said, ‘Well, you haven’t got a tune, let me just go and work on it.’ And I went down to the half-landing, where John had a Mellotron, and I sat there and put together a tune based in my mind on Smokey Robinson and the Miracles…
I recall writing the whole melody. And it actually does sound very like me, if you analyse it. I was obviously working to lyrics. The melody’s structure is very me. So my recollection is saying to John, ‘Just go and have a cup of tea or something. Let me be with this for ten minutes on my own and I’ll do it’…
I tried to keep it melodic but a bit bluesy, with the minors and little harmonies, and then my recollection is going back up into the room and saying, ‘Got it, great! Good tune, I think. What d’you think?’ John said, ‘Nice,’ and we continued working with it from then, using that melody and filling out the rest of the verses…
So it was John’s original inspiration, I think my melody, I think my guitar riff. I don’t want to be categorical about this, but that’s my recollection… I find it very gratifying that out of everything we wrote, we only appear to disagree over two songs.
PLAYBOY: "When you talk about working together on a single lyric like 'We Can Work It Out,' it suggests that you and Paul worked a lot more closely than you've admitted in the past. Haven't you said that you wrote most of your songs separately, despite putting both of your names on them?"
LENNON: "Yeah, I was lying. (laughs) It was when I felt resentful, so I felt that we did everything apart. But, actually, a lot of the songs we did eyeball to eyeball."
Wow, very poignant interview. If you know the Beatles and the evolution of their music, 1965 when "In My Life" was recorded does indeed mark a point where their style does start to deviate from "pop songs with no more thought to them than that".
Okay, so I didn't know what a Mellotron was. I found this clip of Paul demonstrating the Mellotron. It's kind of goofy sounding until........hang in there until 2:37 where Paul demonstrates a famous intro of a beloved Beatles' song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTKPW92ndUA
Okay, so I didn't know what a Mellotron was. I found this clip of Paul demonstrating the Mellotron. It's kind of goofy sounding until........hang in there until 2:37 where Paul demonstrates a famous intro of a beloved Beatles' song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTKPW92ndUA
Thanks sambuca - what an interesting clip. After watching that clip I saw another clip from that page from John in 1964 possibly playing the same song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USxDXaGeQ3Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USxDXaGeQ3Q
Strawberry Fields Forever is totally a Lennon song- here is the actual Beatles Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtUH9z_Oey8
Not quite totally. The first time John played the song in the studio, Paul used the mellotron to improvise an accompaniment to John's acoustic guitar playing. Paul's contribution became part of the final product.
The scene is described by Geoff Emerick, the recording engineer on "Strawberry Fields," in his memoir Here, There, and Everywhere.
I saw this in Quora Digest:
"If the Beatles couldn't read music, how did they write down the songs and notes they composed for them to remember and for others to play?"
Answered Aug 29, 2017
"They didn’t write them down at all. They remembered them.
In their early years, Lennon and McCartney wrote songs together and one of their rules was that if they wrote a song but then couldn’t remember how it went, they’d junk it. Since they were trying to write songs that were catchy, this rule worked very well. They wrote words down and changed them on the page, and they might scribble guitar chord names above the words, but as far as the tunes and guitar parts were concerned, they just remembered them.
Later, when their songs were going to be published, they were transcribed by other people. George Martin was writing down the melody of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, which is in G, and in the line ‘And I’ve been working like a dog’, he couldn’t figure out what note Lennon was singing; I would characterise it as an untempered F. Martin asked Lennon if it was E or F, and Lennon replied ‘Yeah, one of those.’ He went with F.
Later, they recorded themselves on tape recorders. A bootleg called It’s Not Too Bad contains Lennon’s demo recordings of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, from him poking around on a guitar in a Spanish hotel room when it was barely a song, all the way to the final mixes.
For instrumental parts played by others, Martin wrote arrangements.
The Beatles couldn’t read or write music, not in the 60s at any rate. They might have done well to learn, but they got by pretty well without that particular set of skills."
"If the Beatles couldn't read music, how did they write down the songs and notes they composed for them to remember and for others to play?"
Answered Aug 29, 2017
"They didn’t write them down at all. They remembered them.
In their early years, Lennon and McCartney wrote songs together and one of their rules was that if they wrote a song but then couldn’t remember how it went, they’d junk it. Since they were trying to write songs that were catchy, this rule worked very well. They wrote words down and changed them on the page, and they might scribble guitar chord names above the words, but as far as the tunes and guitar parts were concerned, they just remembered them.
Later, when their songs were going to be published, they were transcribed by other people. George Martin was writing down the melody of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, which is in G, and in the line ‘And I’ve been working like a dog’, he couldn’t figure out what note Lennon was singing; I would characterise it as an untempered F. Martin asked Lennon if it was E or F, and Lennon replied ‘Yeah, one of those.’ He went with F.
Later, they recorded themselves on tape recorders. A bootleg called It’s Not Too Bad contains Lennon’s demo recordings of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, from him poking around on a guitar in a Spanish hotel room when it was barely a song, all the way to the final mixes.
For instrumental parts played by others, Martin wrote arrangements.
The Beatles couldn’t read or write music, not in the 60s at any rate. They might have done well to learn, but they got by pretty well without that particular set of skills."
Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of the Beatles most successful single release - "Hey Jude". Spent nine weeks as #1 song in the U.S. At over 7 minutes in length there was a concern that radio stations wouldn't play it. John with his usual candor - "They will if it's us."
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/...les-most-open-hearted-masterpiece-714736/amp/
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/...les-most-open-hearted-masterpiece-714736/amp/
FYI Paul McCartney is giving a free concert in Central Park of New York City tonight at 8 pm, which is being live-streamed! I am actually in NYC tonight but can’t make the concert.
Looks like the Carpool Karaoke, The Jimmy Fallon appearance, the Howard Stern show, the youtube Grand Central Station show, the stories of what John and Paul did together and meeting God, has worked. Paul has achieved his 1st number one album in 36 years.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/oth...board-200-chart-with-egypt-station/ar-BBNpXdt
It makes you wonder whether the quality of the product is important anymore, or if marketing is what really matters.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/oth...board-200-chart-with-egypt-station/ar-BBNpXdt
It makes you wonder whether the quality of the product is important anymore, or if marketing is what really matters.
Have you listened to the album? I heard a couple of songs and it sounded different than his past work.
You are right. It sounds different from his past work. Less of the classic McCartney "hooks". I think he is trying to appeal to a young crowd. As evidence watch the video for his song "Fuh You." Trying to be a bit Naughty?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWYlWvtEyio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWYlWvtEyio
Paul at CentreBell on 9/20/18 - Magnificent. The world may be filled with hate and divisive politics, but there was only love and togetherness for 15,000 people on a Thursday night in Montreal. You could feel the love the audience had for the performer. The sing along with "Michelle" , the hushed silence for the touching John tribute "Here Today", the group hug for "Hey Jude". Here on display - the healing power of music. I wish I could bottle the feeling and send it out to all the broken hearted people in the world.
http://paulontheruntour.blogspot.com/2018/09/concert-review-hearts-go-boom-for-paul.html
http://paulontheruntour.blogspot.com/2018/09/concert-review-hearts-go-boom-for-paul.html
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