Breakfast with Behka and The Beatles Recap: Week of January 19

This week on Breakfast with Behka and The Beatles, we're going in chronological order to finish out the album A Hard Day's Night. 

On Monday, I played "When I Get Home".

Influenced somewhat by the Shirelles, "When I Get Home" is essentially a rock and roll number, but with its unusual chord progressions (changing from major to minor keys and back) it bucks the genre to some extent. Lennon liked this particular ploy, and used it on many of his songs at the time. Typical also of this period of the Beatles is the vocal leap into falsetto. I always enjoyed the line "love her til the cows come home", as well - which was another way John was trying to connect with American listeners by using a distinctly American turn of phrase.

On Tuesday, I played "You Can't Do That".

One of Lennon's semi-autobiographical songs, "You Can't Do That," uses the jealousy theme was re-visited in other Lennon compositions, such as "Run for Your Life" and "Jealous Guy". Lennon played the guitar solo, which he also wrote. With filming due to begin on A Hard Day's Night film director Dick Lester needed the Beatles to provide him with original material ahead of production and "You Can't Do That" was selected as part of the Scala Theatre "live performance" scene in the film, but was dropped for the final cut along with "I'll Cry Instead" and "I Call Your Name."

On Wednesday, I played "I'll Be Back".

The Anthology 1 CD includes take two of "I'll Be Back", performed in 6/8 time, waltz time. The recording broke down when Lennon fumbled over the words in the bridge, complaining on the take that "it's too hard to sing." The subsequent take, also included on Anthology, was performed in the 4/4 time used in the final take. With its poignant lyric and flamenco style acoustic guitars, "I'll Be Back" possesses a tragic air. Unusually for a pop song it oscillates between major and minor keys, appears to have two different bridges and completely lacks a chorus. The fade-out ending is unexpectedly sudden, seeming to arrive half a verse prematurely.

On Thursday, I played "I Feel Fine".

Lennon wrote the guitar riff while in the studio recording "Eight Days a Week". John
Lennon loved technology, and when the feedback was coincidentally recorded during the "I Feel Fine" session, liked the sound of it and placed it at the beginning of the song. Both John Lennon and George Harrison said that the riff was influenced by a riff in "Watch Your Step", a 1961 release written and performed by Bobby Parker and covered by the Beatles in concerts during 1961 and 1962. Paul McCartney said the drums on "I Feel Fine" were inspired by Ray Charles's "What'd I Say".

On Friday, I played "She's a Woman".

The song was Paul's attempt at imitating the vocal style of Little Richard. This is why the song is in such a high register, even for McCartney's tenor range. Some takes of the song (especially recordings of live concerts) feature an extended outro. The structure of the song is fairly simple, with the melody carried mostly by McCartney's voice. His bass and a backing piano produce a countermelody, with Lennon's guitar playing chords on the backbeat. After the first verse, the piano also plays chords on the upbeats. George Harrison plays a bright guitar solo during the middle eight.  "She's a Woman" was a direct influence on Bob Dylan's song "Obviously 5 Believers" which appeared on his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde.

Join me on Monday at 6:00 a.m. and we'll kick off the first track of their next album, Beatles for Sale.

Beatifically yours,
Behka