This is the 19th Beatles song I've written about. 11 of them are John Lennon songs, eight are Paul McCartney songs. Even of their solo material, I highlighted three of John's songs, one of Paul's.
But my lord, I love the Paul songs so much that it makes up for the deficit.
"Your Mother Should Know" has to be one of the coolest examples of taking a four-beat time signature but warping it through measure after measure of oddities. On a first impression, you don't seem to hear anything close to a basic four-beat. Listen while counting, and you may be surprised to learn that nearly the entire song is a four-beat. Paul McCartney spends an inordinate number of measures to land his phrases, building an architecture that suspends resolution for an impressive amount of time.
I haven't spent enough time this year talking about vocal harmony! I feel like harmony has mostly fallen out of style now. You can hear it in selective places, but groups used to build their identities around it, groups like the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Simon and Garfunkel; later on there was Elliott Smith, and even Nirvana were underrated harmony writers. I think Grizzly Bear are acknowledged to be the “harmony band” in today’s scrolling menu of musical brands. It can't be overlooked how catchy the harmonies are in the chorus of "Your Mother Should Know." They move in a cool parallel way, responding to Paul's main vocal, bending up to resolve into the right chord just in the nick of time. Great vocal harmony songs have by far the best replay value for singing along with in the car; you can always find a new line of your own to add.
After counting up the Beatles song's I've covered, I got curious about who my mainstays have been, and so here's a breakdown of the top number of songs I've written about by artist:
Beatles/John/Paul: 23
Led Zeppelin: 18
The Strokes/Julian Casablancas: 18
Beck: 14
Nirvana: 12
Elliott Smith: 11
Radiohead: 11
Soundgarden: 11
The Doors: 11
Basically the big ones you'd expect from a guy of my generation.
Hey, if I'm picking classical composers, I like Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart too.
When I'm picking a character in Mario Kart, I take Mario.
My favorite Star Wars character is Luke Skywalker.
The main characters are my cult obsessions.