1960’s Critical Listening

THE BEATLES

The Beatles were a rock band that formed in the 60’s, they were a big figure in the British invasion movement which took the world by storm. The band was from Liverpool England. Unfortunately the band split up in the 70’s which was musical wound. The band band members John Lennon (vocals and guitar), Paul McCartney (Piano and vocals), Pete Best (drums), George Harrison (lead guitar and vocals), Stuart Sutcliff (bass and vocals). The beetles went on to win many music awards and nominations. As well as multiple spots for number one on the the top 100 list.

I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND

INFO: This song featured in the beetles album ‘1’ which had many other songs you know today such as ‘hey Jude’. The song was nominated for record of the year in 1965, but did not win.

LYRICS

Oh yeah, I’ll tell you something
I think you’ll understand
When I say that something
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand

Oh please, say to me
You’ll let me be your man
And please, say to me
You’ll let me hold your hand
You’ll let me hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand

And when I touch you I feel happy
Inside
It’s such a feeling that my love
I can’t hide
I can’t hide
I can’t hide

Yeah, you got that something
I think you’ll understand
When I say that something
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand

And when I touch you I feel happy
Inside
It’s such a feeling that my love
I can’t hide
I can’t hide
I can’t hide

Yeah, you got that something
I think you’ll understand
When I feel that something
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand
I wanna hold your hand

This song instruments in this song are of a stereo typical rock song, we have; drums, bass guitar, 2 electric guitars and 2 vocals. This song was written in the key of G major and at a BPM of 129 which is quite fast for it’s genre. The song is also written in 4/4 common time, which is no surprise at all. This song has two main harmonies, one comes from the chords which are played on the electric guitar, and the other harmony comes from the backing vocal of the other singer. Both harmonies that are used are very simple to use in a song, as the harmonies work off each over very easily. The song it’s self isn’t that crazy and their isn’t much to talk about. The structure of the song is; verse, verse, bridge, chorus, bridge, chorus. This structure is also very popular in rock music even today.

The song has clapping on the beat, which is often used to get listeners interacting with the music, in this song the rhythm of the claps is very catchy. The lyrics in the song are about the happy feeling of being in a relation ship, they wrote the song in a major key so they could convey this happy mood for the song. The drums play high hats in a constant quaver pattern throughout the chorus. The texture in this song is thick due to it’s moderately thick, it doesn’t have that much instruments playing but the loud dynamics make it seem thicker. The melody in this song is repetitive and memorable, making it catchy. The melody doesn’t move in big intervals, usually it moves in 1 to 3 note intervals. But in the chorus it is sometimes 5, this is a big jump for a melody.

TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS

info: was released in 1966 in the album the beetles, unfortunately the song gained no recognition award wise. The song has loops of noises that are not instruments such as noises similar to birds. These looped noises create a hard to follow and disorientating listening experience, making it a very physcadelic track. The genre of this song is rock, clarified by it’s instruments and tempo.

lyrics

Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream
It is not dying
It is not dying
Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void

It is shining
It is shining
That you may see the meaning of within
It is being

It is being

That love is all, that love is everyone
It is knowing
It is knowing

That ignorance and hate may mourn the dead
It is believing
It is believing
But listen to the colour of your dream

It is not living
It is not living
All play the game, existence to the end
Of the beginning

Of the beginning
Of the beginning
Of the beginning
Of the beginning
Of the beginning
Of the beginning

The drum kit in the song plays a lot of high hats that are often used in other physcadelic rock songs, because it creates a chaotic and disorientating sound if it is used a lot. The song doesn’t have much harmony in it, in fact a lot of it is the opposite. The song uses a lot of loops that repeat throughout the song, one of which is a trumpet section that goes off key to the song. One other loops the song uses is a bird or seagull noise, that you can hear repeated throughout the song. I would class this song as part of the physcadelic rock genre, due to it’s chaotic instrumentals and vocals. The vocals are under a old fashion TV vocal effect which gives the vocals a hazy tone to them. The key of this song is F major and the BPM is 116 and has a time signature of 4/4 which are both average for a rock song. The texture of this song is full to the brim of sounds this is mostly because of the loops and the guitar, both of these sounds are so loud and distracting that if we began to add more it would become very hard to follow, more hard than it already is. At the very end of the song the dynamics lower and the song fades to an end. The melody of the song isn’t the most noticeable thing in this song, that is taken by the loud trumpet loop, which is unusual because usually the melody is the main attraction.

The song starts with a bass synth which stays on the same note, the only thing we get to harmony with the melody in this song is the backing vocal which stays for a short period of time half way through the song. However the melody is very repetitive and memorable. All the instruments in this song are; vocals, backing vocal, drums, electric guitar, trumpet loop and the seagull loop. The lyrics they wrote are about telling us as the listeners to surrender our mind to the song, which tells me they wrote this song inspired by the theme of hypnotism, which is believable due to it’s disorientating loops. The structure of this song is very unusual because it has no chorus, which is very very common in music and seen as something that has to be there. the structure of this song is; intro, verse 1, vers2, verse 3, instrumental, verse 4, verse 5, verse 6, outro. Through this structure we can tell the song only moves forward and has no plans to move back, maybe this is a reflection on the lyric “float down stream”, as a stream only flows one way and never goes back.