The Beatles: Recolver Flashcards
When we’re The Beatles around?
1960s
Popular culture revolution
What was their sound?
Distinctly British sound
Used:
Simple melodies
Clever lyrics
Standard song forms
Rhythmic guitar work
Who was known as the fifth Beatle?
George Martin
What opened up new artistic opportunities in the early 1960s?
Four-track recorders
What did the primitive four-track recorders lead to?
Ingenuity
Experimentation
Starteli invention
What does Revolver (1966) combine?
Indian influences
Psychedelia
Musique concrète techniques (different:
Ways
Speeds
Backwards
Spliced
Looped
Superimposed (playing over top))
How did ‘Eleanor Rigby’ break popular musical conventions?
Musically
Lyrically
What is ‘Eleanor Rigby’ about?
Downbeat images of the death of a lonely spinster
How is ‘Eleanor Rigby’ sung?
Dispassionate English accent
Devoid of vibrato
Precisely enunciated
Describe the strings in ‘Eleanor Rigby’
Striking
More usually found in classical music
What is the instrumentation of ‘Eleanor Rigby’?
Vocals
Backing vocals
String ensemble (doubled):
4 violins
2 violas
2 cellos
What was the score for ‘Eleanor Rigby’ based partly on?
Describe the score
Psycho score
Intro
Verse/Refrain x2
Bridge (intro)
Verse/Refrain
Outro/Coda
Where does the melody of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ mainly lie?
Dorian mode (seconds degree) on E
How does the melody of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ mainly move?
With what type of occasional leaps?
Stepwise motion
Major/minor third
How fast if the harmonic rhythm in ‘Eleanor Rigby’?
Slow
How many chords is ‘Eleanor Rigby’ based of?
What are these chords?
2
Em and C
What type of song is ‘Here, There and Everywhere’?
A ballad
What is the tonality of ‘Here, There and Everywhere’?
What does it also pass through?
G major/Bflat major
Relative minor (Em)
Tonic minor (Gm)
What instrumentation is particularly prominent in ‘Here, There and Everywhere’?
Backing vocals
Notice the different guitar sounds in ‘Here, There and Everywhere’
How is a mandolin sound created at one point?
How is a horn-like timbre created?
When is it created?
By being played through a Leslie cabinet
My means of the volume pedal
In the final bars
What form is ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ in?
Extended AABA (aka ballad form or 32-bar song form)
Describe the A sections of ‘Here, There and Everywhere’
Main section
Each section similar in melody
But usually different in lyrical context
How are the B sections different from the A sections of ‘Here, There and Everywhere’?
Musically and lyrically, providing melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and/or textural contrast
Often in a different key
What do the different A and B sections of ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ provide?
Change in mood of the song
Wha this different about the AABA form in ‘Here, There and Everywhere’?
Sections don’t always have 8 bars
What is the full structure of ‘Here, There and Everywhere’?
Intro
A
A
B
A
B
A
Outro
Wha this ‘I want to tell you’ about?
The avalanche of thoughts that are hard to write down or say
Describe the elements of the lyrics in ‘I want to tell you’
Hindu outlook from George Harrison’s fascination with Eastern and Indian philosophy
Allusions to different levels of being
Karmic references to time
Give 2 examples of references to time in the lyrics to ‘I want to tell you’
When?
Followed by what?
‘I’ll make you maybe next time around’
‘I could wait forever, I’ve got time’
In the final lines
Melisma in the fade out
What is the structure of ‘I want to tell you’?
Intro
Verse
Verse
Bridge
Verse
Bridge
Verse
Outro (fade out)
How could ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ be described?
Anarchic soundscape
Collage rather than a song
Wha rare the lyrics in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ adapted from?
What was this about?
Book ‘the psychedelic experience: a manual based on the Tibetan book of the dead’
Psychedelic perspective
What is ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ an attempt to capture?
The experience of LSD
What did Lennon say he wanted ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ to sound like?
The Dalai Lama singing from the highest mountain top
How was the eerily detached sound created in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’?
When was it used?
Putting the vocals through a revolving Leslie cabinet and using automatic double tracking (ADT) to double the vocal image
Final verse
What are the sounds of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ like?
Musique concrète (early form of electronic music)
Modifying the tapes: changing pitch by altering speed for example
What is the structure of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’?
Intro
X3 verse
Instrumental
X4 verse
Outro
Wha two element suggests a mediative state in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’?
C mixolydian melody
Rises and falls over
C drone
What is the basis of the ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ rhythm track?
Tambura drone
Guitar
Bass
Drums
Organ
Piano
Tambourine
How was the drum sound recorded in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’?
Playing mainly on a pair of slack-tuned tom-toms
That were damped, compressed and recorded with a massive echo
How were the tape loops created in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’?
Recording different sounds then treating the sounds in various ways:
Speeding them up
Slowing them down
Playing backwards
Splicing them
Wha this loop 1 the sound of in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’?
Distorted laughter
How many tapes were used in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’?
5
What does loop 5 form in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’?
First few bars of the central instrumental break
What is in the second part of the instrumental in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’?
Guitar solo cut up and run backwards
