5.3 WORKSHEET 5

Now let's go to the music journal for our Beatle entries. There are thousands of books written on the Beatle's music. I will draw from some of them to give you more information about each song, as each song has its own story.

A Hard Day's Night

Title. The movie title track song, written by John, came from something Ringo said: "We went to do a job, and we'd worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, 'It's been a hard day …' and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, '… night!' So we came to 'A Hard Day's Night.'"

Opening chord. The song begins with a chord that makes the song instantly identifiable, and was the subject of musicians' discussions as to what exactly that chord was. Randy Bachman, a rock musician with hits through the years, discusses that chord here:

OPENING CHORD TO A HARD DAY'S NIGHT Links to an external site.

Here it is, for your journal:

45. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT - THE BEATLES Links to an external site.

Norwegian Wood

The song, written primarity by John, from the great album Rubber Soul, features an exotic instrument from India, called a sitar, played by George Harrison. He saw the instrument on the set of the movie Help!, and became fascinated with it. He sought out the leading player of that instrument, Ravi Shankar, took lessons from him, and they became lifelong friends. This is the first time ever that instrument was used in a Western rock recording. To get a sense of what the sitar looks and sounds like, watch this clip of George Harrison taking a sitar lesson:

GEORGE HARRISON, SITAR LESSON Links to an external site.

For our journal:

46. NORWEGIAN WOOD -THE BEATLES Links to an external site.

In My Life

Many choose this song as John's greatest composition. Also from the album Rubber Soul, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "In My Life" number 23 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time," as well as fifth on their list of the Beatles' "100 Greatest Songs".

47. IN MY LIFE - THE BEATLES Links to an external site.

A Day In The Life

One of the most significant albums in rock's history is Sgt. Pepper. It increased interest in the album as a piece of art, rather than a routine collection of songs. This last track of the album, A Day In The Life, is a collaboration of separate John and Paul parts, with the Paul part in the middle. One of the peculiar sounds on the track is the orchestral buildup before Paul's middle part, where each instrument is instructed to play from the lowest possible note to the highest, within a certain time frame. The result is an ominous, swirling crescendo that ends in an alarm clock ringing, and Paul beginning his section. The orchestral buildup is repeated once more, at the end, followed by all 4 Beatles hitting a piano chord as hard as they could, with the microphones up, so the sound would last as long as possible.

A DAY IN THE LIFE - THE BEATLES Links to an external site.

Here Comes The Sun

George, being the youngest Beatle, also had to contend with being in a group with the powerful writing team of John and Paul. His continued songwriting efforts eventually paid off, and his later compositions earned him high respect. One of the other two songs on Abbey Road, "Something," was called by Frank Sinatra "the greatest love song in the last 50 years." Here is George's own words as to how he wrote the song:

"Here Comes the Sun" was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen. Anyway, it seems as if winter in England goes on forever, by the time spring comes you really deserve it. So one day I decided I was going to sag off Apple and I went over to Eric Clapton's house. The relief of not having to go see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I walked around the garden with one of Eric's acoustic guitars and wrote "Here Comes the Sun".

49. HERE COMES THE SUN - THE BEATLES Links to an external site.

Medley: Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End

In music, a medley is a piece of connected parts. This collection of connected songs are all Paul written, and appears at the end of the last album the Beatles recorded. It was kind of their farewell. All four Beatles solo at the end. NOTE: START THIS VIDEO AT 10:59:

50. GOLDEN SLUMBERS/CARRY THAT WEIGHT/THE END Links to an external site.