The Musical Characteristics of

the Beatles

The Government of the Hong Kong

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 Composers/Performers: A Summary 7

3 Five Representative Songs and Song Pairs by the Beatles 8

3.1 “Love Me Do” and “Please Please Me” (1962) 8

3.2 “Michelle” and “Yesterday” (1965) 12

3.3 “Taxman” and “Eleanor Rigby” (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

(Blank Page)

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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 popular music. In 1963 their successes in England as live performers

and recording artists inspired Beatlemania, 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 British Invasion that helped

popularise other United Kingdom 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 albums Revolver (1966) and Sgt.

Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), the Beatles eclipsed even their most gifted

rivals, achieving an eminence in contemporary popular culture which has endured and

seems unlikely to diminish to any great extent in the foreseeable future.”

In 1956, teenager John Lennon (1940-1980) organised an amateur pop group

called the Quarry Men (or Quarrymen), which he named after Quarry Bank High

School in Liverpool, 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.

George Harrison (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 Germany 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 with the Beatles, McCartney had made a name for himself as a

solo guitarist, a pianist, a drummer, and a bass-guitar player as well as a lyricist and

composer. Some skiffle songs featured modal harmonic 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 Gustav Mahler (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 Brian Epstein (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 Parlophone, 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”, the second 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 Elvis Presley and other rock-‘n’-rollers (as they had been

during their Quarry Men days), they turned for inspiration to singer-songwriter Bob

Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman), whose thoughtful, challenging, folk-revival

compositions inspired “You’ve Got to Hide 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

Rubber Soul (1965), their first full-length ‘original’ LP, the group turned for

inspiration to music-hall songs, the art music of India, 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 album 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 Blues, and Dark Side of the Moon (1973), written and

performed by Pink Floyd, another British ensemble, also became classics.

In 1967 Epstein died suddenly, and the following year Lennon met Yoko Ono,

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—Magical Mystery Tour (1967); The Beatles (1968; better-

known as the White Album); and Abbey Road (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 Geoff Emerick. Like Epstein, Martin encouraged the

Beatles to compose more carefully. Unlike his predecessor, Martin also wrote

arrangements—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 recording studio 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 rhythmic rock groove. Modal and other unusual harmonic progressions, the blues,

gospel and doo-wop singing styles, sounds and gestures also associated with other

1950s and 1960s pop artists, the ragas (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: “Till There was You”, 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 Motown 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 the Fab Four 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 1970s 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 gurus, 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 pop music. 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 “Love Me Do” 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,

jazz, 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 “Paperback

Writer”, 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 counterpoint 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

cadences. 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 the Beach Boys,

“Georgia On My Mind” by Ray Charles, and “Back in the USA” by rhythm-and-blues

star Chuck Berry.

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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 ballad: a sentimental

song with several verses, each of them followed by the same chorus. In its blend of

acoustic and electric guitar 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 I will 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 string quartet—two violins, a viola, and a cello—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 jam session. 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, bass guitar, 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 G7 (IV7

in D Major) and then back to D7 (IV7-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-guitar solo reminiscent of Jimi

Hendrix, an even more brilliant guitarist and experimental pop star of the middle and

late 1960s. As a protest song, “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 lonely people”), 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 violas, and two cellos) transforms what might otherwise have

sounded like a Folk Revival number into an art song. So does the skilful arrangement

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

piano, 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

17

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

“Within you without you”. 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

orchestra, 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, “Honey Pie”, 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 Am7 on the word ‘lazy’, then to D7 on the

words “so won’t you please come”, and finally to G on the word ‘home’. In G Major

the sequence is: V7/VI – V7/II – V7 – I.

18

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

blues rock-‘n’-roll number originally recorded in 1957 by Danny and the Juniors, for

example, was performed at the Woodstock 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. American rock, 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 acid rock. 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 little child looking with wonder at the world for the very

first time. This interpretation has also been employed to link both LSD as a substance

19

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)

20

(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 sitar 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 “All You Need is Love” from Magical Mystery Tour,

with a quotation from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2), the ondioline (an

electronic keyboard instrument 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 Yogi during a trip they made to Rishikesh, India, and elsewhere

in 1967.

21

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 rock music (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, experimental rock. 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 “Penny Lane”, 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

22

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 folk

music 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

Summer of Love (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 “Here Comes the Sun”, while traditional

hard-rocking, rhythm-and-blues sounds influenced songs such as “Come Together”. 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.

23

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).

24

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 (London 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 <www.soundscapes.info>, an ezine (or on-line magazine).

Available on-line at

http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/awp-

notes_on.shtml>

25

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; 3rd

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.

26

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.

27

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 / IV7-I / V7-

(IV7)-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”, AA1BA2). 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.

28

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.

29

ballad: in popular music, a slower, more sentimental, and more tuneful song. “Love

Me Tender” and “Yesterday” are ballads, 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 bass

drum 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 opera, 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 musical form of expression with limited vocal and harmonic range but

considerable expressive power. See ‘12-bar blues’, ‘rhythm and blues’, and

‘rock ‘n’ roll’.

30

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.

31

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.

concept album: 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 banjos 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

32

acoustic distortion are produced by mutes (for brass instruments) and pieces of

metal (for prepared pianos).

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-songwriters.

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.

33

glam rock: 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, rockabilly, 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 banjo, 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.

34

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.

35

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 major scale 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 cadence (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,

Chicago, 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-American folk music 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.

punk rock (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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raga: 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 “rock

and roll” 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 minor scale. 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’.