The Beatles: Note By Note

Dizzy Miss Lizzy closes Help! by going back to the Beatles’ roots. It was an old stage favorite, a Larry Williams rocker they had known for years, and the last cover they would ever record. For this episode of our Beatles podcast, it also gives us our first official "Beatles last" as we work our way through the catalog.

We talk about why the recording feels so relentless, and how the song comes across differently when they play it live. And this episode storytime is John Lennon’s second book, A Spaniard in the Works.

We cover:

-Larry Williams' version and René Hall’s original guitar riff

-King Size Taylor and the Dominoes and the Beatles’ early stage repertoire

-Capitol’s request for more material and the May 10, 1965 “Larry Williams session”

-George Harrison’s doubled, repeating guitar line and our "axe to grind" theory

-The Beatles’ 1965 Atlanta performance

-The Beatles’ final BBC session, The Beatles Invite You to Take a Ticket to Ride

-The two-night Hollywood Bowl composite and John Lennon’s later Toronto performance with Eric Clapton

-Would another song have been a better closer for Help!

-John Lennon’s second book, A Spaniard in the Works

Website: https://www.notebynoteseries.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/NoteByNoteSeries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notebynoteseries

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Beatles lecture series, we are looking at Yesterday, a song built around the longing to return to a past that can’t be recovered. We examine how the lyrics move from a changed world, to a changed self, to a broken relationship, and how the music supports this emotional weight.

We also explore the melody, harmony, form, and George Martin’s string arrangement and how they work together to create the song’s sense of nostalgia and loss. A new lecture series feature, we explore George Martin's handwritten score note by note to discover the subtle details that give Yesterday its character.

Website: https://www.notebynoteseries.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/NoteByNoteSeries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notebynoteseries

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yesterday may be the most popular song The Beatles ever recorded, but it's surprising just how unusual its story really is. On this episode of our Beatles podcast, we are joined by Kenyon’s longtime friend and former songwriting partner Kyle Hopson. We look at the song as a piece of Beatles history and a case study in how songs actually come into the world.

What makes Yesterday feel so universal? How did it expand the boundaries of what a Beatles record could be? Did Paul actually rewrite an earlier song?

We cover:

-Paul McCartney’s dream, Scrambled Eggs, and the long development of the song

-John Lennon’s possible role in completing the song

-Billy J. Kramer, Chris Farlowe, Brian Epstein, and whether Yesterday was always destined to be a Beatles song

-Delia Derbyshire, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Ray Cathode, and Paul’s interest in an electronic arrangement

-George Martin, the string quartet, and the original handwritten score

-The recording session, detuned guitar, orchestral overdubs, and Paul’s solo performance

-George Martin Orchestra arrangement of Yesterday

-Possible connections to The Night Before, Georgia on My Mind, and Answer Me, My Love

Website: https://www.notebynoteseries.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/NoteByNoteSeries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notebynoteseries

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Beatles lecture series, we are looking at I’ve Just Seen a Face, a song that captures the head-spinning rush of love at first sight. We examine how Paul combines deceptively simple musical and lyrical materials to create the song’s breathless and frenetic energy. Beneath the surface, its overlapping patterns continually pull against one another, while rising and falling gestures mirror the exhilaration of suddenly being swept off balance by another person.

Website: https://www.notebynoteseries.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/NoteByNoteSeries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notebynoteseries

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever realized that another person will change your life forever? Author Ian Leslie joins us to talk about I’ve Just Seen a Face and his book, John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs. Together, we use Paul’s breathless love song to explore chance, recognition, conflict and the mixture happiness and sadness that can exist in a single moment.

Could this song tell us something about Paul in 1965 or maybe about what he saw in John Lennon years earlier?

We cover:

-Ian Leslie’s John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs

-This song's origins

-John and Paul’s creative and emotional relationship

-Love at first sight, fate, and chance

-The acoustic arrangement and rapid-fire vocal phrasing

-Take 3 from Anthology 4

-The opening of Rubber Soul

-A legendary recording session, Paul's Event Horizon

Check out Ian Leslie:

https://www.ian-leslie.com/

Website: https://www.notebynoteseries.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/NoteByNoteSeries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notebynoteseries

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Beatles lecture series, we analyze Tell Me What You See. We look at the way the lyrics gradually reveal that this promise is actually an attempt of persuasion. Musically, we explore Paul’s melodic contours, the song’s recurring question-and-answer phrases, and how its simple harmony takes on a more modal character. We also compare blues-inflected and warmer pop sounds, and how the unusual instrumental middle section develops the song’s Latin-influenced character.

Website: https://www.notebynoteseries.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/NoteByNoteSeries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notebynoteseries

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of our Beatles podcast, musician, singer, songwriter and obsessive album listener Caro Kelley joins us for Tell Me What You See. Caro has spent a lot of time not just listening to music, but rating and ranking it and she brings that perspective to a song that Paul McCartney himself dismissed as not particularly memorable. Would you call this a filler track?

For our storytime, we have a remarkable firsthand account of the Beatles actually working out the song in the studio with George Martin. Melody Maker journalist Ray Coleman was there as they rehearsed, argued over what was wrong, experimented with percussion, added the electric piano and tried to find a sound they admitted they couldn’t yet define.

Tell Me What You See opens up bigger questions about singing, intimacy, imagination and why a song can become more interesting the closer you get to it.

What we cover:

- Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s conflicting memories of who wrote “Tell Me What You See”

- John and Paul’s unusually loose rhythmic phrasing

- Ringo Starr’s drum break

- Paul McCartney’s Hohner Pianet C

- A British post-war religious motto

- A possible connection to Elvis Presley’s “Trying to Get to You”

- Ray Coleman’s February 1965 Melody Maker article

- George Martin’s orchestral version of “Tell Me What You See”

Follow Caro Kelley:

https://www.instagram.com/caro_kelley

Website: https://www.notebynoteseries.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/NoteByNoteSeries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notebynoteseries

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Beatles lecture series, we look at the music and lyrics of George Harrison’s You Like Me Too Much. The uneasy relationship at the center of the song seems caught in a cycle: one person threatens to leave, but neither quite manages to end things. Musically, George builds that uneasy feeling into the song. The harmony repeatedly avoids landing on a firm resolution. We explore how these techniques make the verse unusually effective, and how George was already developing some distinctive songwriting instincts. But not every part works equally well. The middle eight introduces a collection of melodic, harmonic, and lyrical ideas that struggle to develop the song’s central premise. Finally, we look at the barrelhouse piano intro, instrumental break, and outro, and how George Martin’s arrangement helps frame the song and give its wandering structure a sense of unity.

Website: https://www.notebynoteseries.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/NoteByNoteSeries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notebynoteseries

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of our Beatles podcast, Peter and Kenyon look at George Harrison’s You Like Me Too Much, an overlooked Help! track that turns out to have more going for it than its reputation suggests.

It is an entry point into the bigger story of how the Beatles worked. How arrangements took shape in the studio, how imperfect performances still made it onto finished records, and what happened when someone other than John or Paul started finding their own songwriter voice.

We talk to Anne (BeatlesResearchSociety) to sort through the song’s unusual piano parts and surviving session notes. In the end, we find out what's going on with this song and why it's important in the Beatles catalog.

What we cover:

- The writing and recording of “You Like Me Too Much”

- George Martin’s session notes and the disputed piano parts

- The song’s unusual piano-and-guitar solo

- George Harrison’s development as a songwriter

- The different UK and US releases of Help!

Follow Beatles Research Society:

https://www.instagram.com/beatlesresearchsociety

Website: https://www.notebynoteseries.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/NoteByNoteSeries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notebynoteseries

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Beatles lecture series, we dive into the music and lyrics of It's Only Love. Lennon begins with a unique rhyming scheme, but somehow manages to build a story within this constraint. Musically, John develops a number of melodic and rhythmic ideas that he reuses throughout the song in different ways. What can seem like a slight Beatles song turns out to be an interesting example of how a songwriter can create unity from a few simple ideas.

Website: https://www.notebynoteseries.com

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/NoteByNoteSeries

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notebynoteseries

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.