The Beatles were not great songwriters

 

Whenever you see lists of the best songwriters, Lennon-McCartney are near the top of the list, if not the top. But, here's one for ya. The Beatles were not great songwriters, certainly not great lyricists. Why do they get deemed as such? I think their whole production appealed to people, the combination of writing, singing, and production. Lennon and McCartney were great singers. And they were innovative in the way they put everything together. But if you dig into the songs, things are not so magical. It's like Wayne Gretsky or Tom Brady. Not the fastest, strongest, or most agile, but very smart about the game.

Here we go. Let's start with their first hit.

Love, love me do

You know I love you

I'll always be true

So please, love me do

Whoa, love me do

OK now, moving on. How about this one?

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

And then there's:

She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah

She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah

She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

You think you lost your love

Well, I saw her yesterday

It's you she's thinking of

And she told me what to say

She says she loves you

And you know that can't be bad

Yes, she loves you

And you know you should be glad

There is no poetry in these lyrics, other than maybe the line “When I say that something.” Yes, the words rhyme, but that's not all there is to poetry. Poetry is word play that makes your heart tingle. It's different than spoken speech. Poetry uses metaphor, symbolism, and unusual imagery to evoke meaning and feeling that goes beyond prosaic speech.

Here's an example of poetry found in rock music, written by Jagger and Richards of the Rolling Stones.

I see a red door and I want it painted black

No colours anymore, I want them to turn black

I see the girls walk by, dressed in their summer clothes

I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

Now that is cool. First you have the image of a red door, not something one sees every day, and a guy who expresses his anger and negativity by wanting it painted black. He wants all colors painted black. That is not prosaic speech. He doesn't just say, “I am angry.” He portrays that with imagery. He evokes a meaning with wonderful word economy. He is angry. He is bitter. Why is his so bitter? The next line gives us a clue. Seeing the sexy ladies in their summer clothes frustrates him sexually. This is conveyed as darkness that fills his head. Darkness is black. He wants everything painted that way. That is four powerful lines of poetry that expresses what maybe most men have felt at some point in their lives, if not every day.

Paint It Black was released in May, 1966 and Love Me Do in 1962, so maybe it's only fair to look at some of the Beatles later work as they were kids who were maturing rapidly. The Revolver Album came out in 1966. The most famous songs on that record are arguably Good Day Sunshine, Eleanor Rigby, Got to Get You into My Life, She Said She Said, Yellow Submarine, and Here, There and Everywhere. Let's look at those.

I need to laugh, and when the sun is out

I've got something I can laugh about

I feel good, in a special way

I'm in love and it's a sunny day

Good day sunshine

Good day sunshine

Good day sunshine

We take a walk, the sun is shining down

Burns my feet as they touch the ground

The last line has a touch of poetic imagery but it's simple observation. It has no bearing on the song. It's an empty song about the wonderful feeling of being in love, a McCartney theme. Silly Love Songs. Here's another one:

I was alone, I took a ride

I didn't know what I would find there

Another road where maybe I could see another kind of mind there

Ooh, then I suddenly see you

Ooh, did I tell you I need you

Every single day of my life

You didn't run, you didn't lie

You knew I wanted just to hold you

And had you gone you knew in time we'd meet again

For I had told you

Ooh, you were meant to be near me

Ooh, and I want you to hear me

Say we'll be together every day

Got to get you into my life

Even though romantic fantasies lead most people to heartache, with McCartney it's all so lovely. This lyric is pretty empty; although the first line ain't bad. I was alone and took a ride to find another kind of mind. That's imagery. We don't normally think of ourselves as looking for other kinds of minds. There is evocative imagery in the first lines.

The whole production is very catchy, with the horns and all. And that's true of many Beatle songs. Take Yellow Submarine:

In the town where I was born

Lived a man who sailed to sea

And he told us of his life

In the land of submarines

So we sailed up to the sun

'Til we found the sea of green

And we lived beneath the waves

In our yellow submarine

We all live in a yellow submarine

Yellow submarine, yellow submarine

We all live in a yellow submarine

Yellow submarine, yellow submarine

What does any of that mean? It's a silly children's song. The idea that we all live in a Yellow Submarine is intriguing at first. But after thinking about it for 50 years, one realizes it means nothing.

Lennon called Here, There, and Everywhere one of his favorite Beatle songs. Yes, it's sung sweetly with soothing harmonies, and the rhyme in the title is intriguing. But what follows?

To lead a better life I need my love to be here...

Here, making each day of the year

Changing my life with the wave of her hand

Nobody can deny that there's something there

There, running my hands through her hair

Both of us thinking how good it can be

Someone is speaking but she doesn't know he's there

I want her everywhere and if she's beside me

I know I need never care

But to love her is to need her everywhere

Knowing that love is to share

The line “Changing my life with the wave of her hand” is poetic but pablum. Once again, it's a silly love song. It's not profound, it's not wise. It's love drug.

Compare to this gem from the Stones, written in 1962:

It is the evening of the day

I sit and watch the children play

Smiling faces I can see

But not for me

I sit and watch

As tears go by

My riches can't buy everything

I want to hear the children sing

All I hear is the sound

Of rain falling on the ground

I sit and watch

As tears go by

It is the evening of the day

I sit and watch the children play

Doin' things I used to do

They think are new

I sit and watch

As tears go by

Once again, great word economy from the Stones. And so evocative. It's evening, when loneliness hurts the most. The singer sees smiling faces, but they are not smiling for him. They are the smiles of strangers who smile at each other. He is left out. I watch as tears go by. What is that? Is the happiness of these strangers tears for him as they are reminders of his loneliness? I'll go with that. It's a mysterious line but it packs a bunch. It's not nonsensical as are so many Beatles lines, particularly those from Lennon.

She said, "I know what it's like to be dead.

I know what it is to be sad."

And she's making me feel like I've never been born

I said, "Who put all those things in your head?

Things that make me feel that I'm mad.

And you're making me feel like I've never been born."

She said, "You don't understand what I said."

I said, "No, no, no, you're wrong.

When I was a boy everything was right,

Everything was right."

I said, "Even though you know what you know,

I know that I'm ready to leave

'Cause you're making me feel like I've never been born."

She said, "You don't understand what I said."

I said, "No, no, no, you're wrong.

When I was a boy everything was right,

Everything was right."

There's so much wrong with that lyric. For one, it is a jumble of nothing. What is this song about? But worse, it's so wordy. Lots of Lennon songs are like that.

Take A Day in the Life. This is arguably the most powerful song from the album always credited as the best of all time in rock.

I read the news today, oh boy

About a lucky man who made the grade

And though the news was rather sad

Well, I just had to laugh

I saw the photograph

He blew his mind out in a car;

He didn't notice that the lights had changed

A crowd of people stood and stared

They'd seen his face before

Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords

I saw a film today, oh boy;

The English army had just won the war

A crowd of people turned away

But I just had to look

Having read the book

I'd love to turn you on

What are reading his journal? Did he put the slightest effort into crafting those words? I guess it's a song about the dark side of fame, but it doesn't teach us anything we didn't know. And most of it makes no sense. “He blew his mind out in a car; He didn't notice that the lights had changed.” That seems profound, but one realizes after thinking it over for half a century that it's random thought. It doesn't mean anything. Lennon admits that the lyrics are based on newspaper headlines. He's a guy at a coffee table reading headlines to us. That is not poetry. And so as not to pile on the abuse, I'm not even getting into the middle part from McCartney about sitting on a bus and dragging a comb across the head.

Still it's a powerful song. Why? Well the singing is top notch. Lennon owed one of the best pop voices ever. And the whole production with the piano that takes off like an airplane and the orchestral finale is titillating to the ears. This is an example of the Beatle magic. The lyrics are weak, but the whole thing works. They were innovative sound makers. But they are shallow.

Here's another one:

Let me take you down

'Cause I'm going to strawberry fields

Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about

Strawberry fields forever

Living is easy with eyes closed

Misunderstanding all you see

It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out

It doesn't matter much to me

Let me take you down

'Cause I'm going to strawberry fields

Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about

Strawberry fields forever

No one I think is in my tree

I mean it must be high or low

That is you can't, you know tune in but it's all right

That is I think it's not too bad

Just random lines, cliches, nonsense. What do strawberries have to do with any of this? It's just imagery. Penny Lane is another song like that. Just images. They're OK. It's a catchy tune. Barbershops and little kids laughing and a man who wears a mack in the pouring rain, a nostalgic memory of a childhood and warm feelings for a neighborhood. It's saccharine. It's not a crime to make such a song, but it's not genius profundity.

Compare to:

You can't always get what you want

But if you try sometime you find

You get what you need

That's wisdom. That's the Stones again, you know the guys who were just a blues cover band according to McCartney. Much of the rest of the lyric gets a bit cryptic, like an attempt to copy the Lennon I am the Walrus style random imagery. Jagger seemed to have a weird insecurity with regard to the Beatles, and that is a shame because in my view he is far more talented. But hard as he may have tried to imitate Lennon, the song still makes sense. It's all about people who don't get what they want.

I saw her today at the reception

A glass of wine in her hand

I knew she would meet her connection

At her feet was a footloose man

It's not clear at first what the footloose (free from ties) man has to do with anything, but the stanza seems to be about a woman who wants one man and is getting another. The latter sits at her feet. He's footloose. Not marriage material for sure. So upon second thought, the footloose man does fit into all this. And we didn't have to wait 50 years to figure it out. Again, great word economy and great imagery, all of which ties into the theme. It should be no surprise that Jagger attended the London School of Economics. For a guy who Don McClean depicted as Jack Flash and the devil, he was damn smart.

You want word economy. Try this:

I can't get no satisfaction

I can't get no girl reaction

'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try

I can't get no, I can't get no

Sexual frustration again conveyed in a few lines. After a few bars, “I can't get no” sums it all up.

The Beatles have their moments. “Well, she was just seventeen. You know what I mean.” Is good. This is good: “And anytime you feel the pain, Hey, Jude, refrain. Don't carry the world upon your shoulders. For well you know that it's a fool Who plays it cool By making his world a little colder.”

There's wisdom there and compassion. Hey Jude is quite good. Eleanor Rigby is another one from McCartney that qualifies as strong writing. Then there's Blackbird.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

As usual with McCartney, it's all so simple. He lives in a simple world. But the song is encouraging. It has lifted me up at times like an affirmation. There's symbolism, effective imagery.

Yesterday is darker, not that a song has to be dark to be good.

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.

Now it looks as though they're here to stay.

Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be.

There's a shadow hanging over me.

Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Believing in yesterday. That's no prosaic speech. It's an unhealthy sentiment, but it's something people do. That's good song writing.

McCartney wasn't bad. But wasn't a genius lyricist. Unfortunately, he's called that so often that he actually published a book of his lyrics as a poetry book. So you saw Blackberry, which is a good lyric, presented as poetry, which it really isn't.

Lennon was a disturbed man and his songs show it.

I am he

As you are he

As you are me

And we are all together

See how they run

Like pigs from a gun

See how they fly

I'm crying

Sitting on a cornflake

Waiting for the van to come

Corporation tee shirt

Stupid bloody Tuesday

Man, you been a naughty boy

You let your face grow long

Means nothing, just a collection of weird imagery. And that's fine. The whole song grabs you, but again that's not because of the lyric. It's singing, creative noise making, and production.

Compare to the Stones again:

Angie, Angie

When will those clouds all disappear?

Angie, Angie

Where will it lead us from here?

With no loving in our souls

And no money in our coats

You can't say we're satisfied

But Angie, Angie

You can't say we never tried

Angie, you're beautiful, yeah

But ain't it time we said goodbye?

The lyric is pure heartache in part because it's so confusing. He loves Angie. Her kisses still taste sweet. She's beautiful. She cries for him. So why should they say goodbye? Is it because there's no money in their coats? Lots of lovers with no money have stayed together. The clouds won't disappear, but that's vague. What specifically is the problem? Is it because there no loving in their souls? Are they incapable of love? That is a tragedy. There's pathos here. It's powerful. And the singing and production are as good as anything the Beatles ever did.

So there's some of it. And I only compared to the Stones, didn't bring in Dylan, Springsteen, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Goffin and other great lyricists. I don't count the Beatles among them. And if you are not a great lyricist, you are not a great song writer. At least pair up with one as Elton John and Carole King did.