The Beatles Lyrics

by Hunter Davies

  They polished it up, quite quickly, and a day or so later, 17 October, went into Abbey Road Studios to record it. They exploded into it, loving the noise and their own excitement. They were helped by the fact that this was the first time they were able to use Abbey Road’s four-track recording system–which allowed mistakes to be erased and the best bits superimposed.

  In that room at the Ashers’ they had already worked out the chords they were going to use, trying out some unusual changes and bridges–something not normally attempted in smooth-flowing pop songs. They also worked on a proper ending instead of the slow fade most pop records went out on.

  The song has several internal crescendos, and descendos–if that is a proper word for going down the scales–as well as lots of their now familiar falsetto oohs. John, as the main singer, is at his most strident and aggressive, almost as shouty as in ‘Twist and Shout’.

  The music, to teenage female ears, might have sounded sexually exciting, but the words are probably the least suggestive and most soppy and simplistic of all their songs to date. They don’t progress from the title, apart from telling us he will be happy if he holds her hand. He even says ‘please’.

  Certainly Brian Epstein must have been pleased, as the lyrics promoted a clean, healthy-living image. Parents could hardly accuse them of being a corrupting influence if all they wanted was to hold a girl’s hand. Har har.

  In real life, of course, in the dressing rooms and hotel rooms, they were already going a great deal further than that. Years later, John admitted he had been furious at the way Brian tidied and prettied up their image in the early days, maintaining that their dressing room on tour had resembled an orgy scene from Fellini’s Satyricon. Their image was bullshit, they were beasts and bastards–or so he alleged, but by that time he was over-compensating, determined to shock. He was rather jealous when the Rolling Stones hit their stride and started getting away with suggestive lyrics and outrageous antics, revelling in being seen as dangerous–the antithesis of those ‘nice’ Beatles.

  You can of course argue that the lyrics were ironic, that he is not longing to hold a hand; the excitement and intensity of the vocals makes it clear he is longing for and expecting a great deal more–which of course many fans, however innocent, would have suspected.

  And they were innocent, in the fifties and sixties, with no active, penetrative sex life for the vast majority of teenagers, whether in the UK or USA. It was pre-Pill, and no one wanted to get pregnant. Before going all the way you had to get married, or at least engaged. In those long-ago, naïve times, holding hands and kissing was as far as it went for most youngsters.

  The song was an instant, astounding hit–and at long last, they had a number 1 in America. Until this point Capitol, their US record company, had not issued their records, so the scale of the success took everyone by surprise. When the news came through in January 1964 the band were in Paris, staying at the George V Hotel after their first appearance before a French audience (who had reacted fairly coolly). By the time they moved on to America the following month, to play The Ed Sullivan Show and their first US concert, they had become an overnight sensation.

  The manuscript below (now in the British Library) was neatly written out for me by Paul in 1967–hence he has added 3/10, as if he is a teacher, marking it. In another version (see next page), also in Paul’s handwriting, the words are the same but the penmanship is shaky, especially on ‘think ‘and ‘to’. It also looks as if he is spelling ‘yeah’ as ‘yea’–as if he was thinking of using the biblical spelling.

  ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, which came out as a single in November 1963–in Paul’s hand, written out neatly for me, hence he added ‘3/10 See me’.

  Oh yeh, 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

  Oh please, say to me

  You’ll let me be your man

  And please, say to me

  You’ll let me hold your hand

  Now let me hold your hand

  I wanna hold your hand

  And when I touch you I feel happy

  Inside

  It’s such a feeling that my love

  I can’t hide

  I can’t hide

  I can’t hide

  Yeh, you’ve got that 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

  Another, earlier version of ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’–in Paul’s hand.

  3

  A HARD DAY’S NIGHT

  Album and singles 1964

  It was the custom in the early sixties when a pop star or group had any half-decent success to stick them in a film so as to cash in on their name and their following. Elvis of course was the brand leader, while Cliff Richard turned out a couple of box office hits, such as The Young Ones (1961) and Summer Holiday (1962). Even minor songsters of the time, such as Adam Faith, Billy Fury and Terry Dene, now barely remembered, made it on to the silver screen. Films must have been cheaper to make in those days–or perhaps they were just quick, low-budget, mass market films, watched by millions who had less competition for their attention than today.

  The Beatles were lucky in that they secured a good, intelligent, vaguely avant-garde director named Dick Lester, who managed to capture their character despite working at a frenetic pace, and a screenwriter, Alun Owen, who was able to reflect a lot of their humour, although there wasn’t much of a plot. It was during the film that George first met Pattie Boyd, a young model who appeared in one scene as a schoolgirl.

  The Beatles wrote seven new songs especially for the film, and came up with a further six for the album. A Hard Day’s Night was their first album to be wholly self-composed. Ten out of the thirteen tracks were John songs–i.e. mainly written by him, and sung by him–an indication that he was still very much the leader, as he had been since the beginning. The songs are all still primarily about love–and why not? In the summer of 1964, John was still only twenty-three, Paul had just turned twenty-two and George was only twenty-one. But with this album the emotions were getting stronger, more revealing, and more care had been taken with the words.

  The title song, and the title of the film, was only agreed upon at the last moment. Until then there had been a number of working titles, including ‘Beatlemania’, ‘Let’s Go’ and ‘On the Move’. The agreed explanation for the unusual title, handed down over the decades, is that it was a Ringo malapropism. ‘It just came out,’ he said in 1964 when the film was released. ‘We went to do a job and we worked all day and night and I came out, thinking it was day, and I said “It’s been a hard day…” I saw that it was dark, and so I added “day’s night”.’

  However, John had used the same phrase in his book In His Own Write in a story called ‘Sad Michael’: ‘There was no reason for Michael to be sad that morning, (the little wretch); everyone liked him (the scab). He’d had a hard day’s night that day.’ The book was published in March 1964, so presumably the story must have been written some time earlier, whereas the date usually given for Ringo coming out with the phrase was April 1964. So did John use it first? Had he forgotten? Or was it just a phrase that he and Ringo had each used at some time. Or did he pinch it from Ringo?

  Anyway, once it was suggested as a title, John went off and wrote the song, knowing it was going to be the title song, kicking off the film and the album, so he wanted to be the lead singer. And boy, did he get both off to a great start.

  One of the many joys for Beatles fans, back in the sixties, was that by listening to their albums so many times you got to know a single introductory chord, which became a friend, a familiar figure of sound that you could recognize in a second and know what was coming. Listening to them on the albu
m, in the order in which the Beatles had intended them to proceed rather than a later, mixed-up compilation, you also knew the moment one song faded, even though all you could hear was nothing but a pregnant pause, what the next song was going to be, and the note on which it would start.

  A Hard Day’s Night probably has the most recognizable opening chord in the entire Beatles canon, possibly in any piece of popular music: a strident, crashing, magnificent, explosive opening chord. It seems a shame, and somehow dehumanizing, to use the technical definition: G eleventh suspended fourth. We will leave all other such descriptions to the music academics. We are here assembled purely for the lyrics.

  A Hard Day’s Night

  The words are quite well thought out. After the opening chorus, John wrote two verses, with the chorus repeated in between, then back to the chorus at the end. Another of the standard formats for a pop song.

  Reading the words now, and probably trying too hard to work out exactly what he is trying to say, it would seem the message is simple: work hard, bring the money home, and you will get marital bliss. There is a slight hint of a chauvinism when he moans that he is working all day for money so she can buy things.

  The lines I am not quite clear about are: ‘And it’s worth it just to hear you say / You’re gonna give me everything.’ Is this her saying ‘Give me all your money?’ Or does he mean that, now he’s handed it over, he knows she’s going give him everything, i.e. hot meal and leg-over?

  Maureen Cleave of the London Evening Standard was one of the first journalists to write intelligently and revealingly about the Beatles. She happened to be interviewing John on the day they were to record the song and went with him to Abbey Road in a taxi. During the journey, John showed her the words of the song, written down on an old birthday card given to Julian–he had recently had his first birthday–with an illustration of a little boy on a toy train.

  ‘I said to him that I thought one line of the song was rather feeble. It originally said, “But when I get home to you, I find my tiredness is through, then I feel all right.” ’ Seizing my pen, John immediately changed the second line of it and came up with the slightly suggestive “I find the things that you do, will make me feel all right”.’

  Maureen remembers the recording session consisting of a lot of humming, ‘They would put their heads together, hum for three hours, and then the song seemed to materialize, as if by magic.

  ‘At the end of the recording session, when almost everyone had left, I saw the card sitting there on a music stand. I asked John if I could have it and he said what did I want it for. I said I wanted it because I’d suggested the alternate line for the song. End of riveting story.’

  Maureen inadvertently went on to cause John and the Beatles quite a bit of bother. Two years later, in March 1966, she published an interview with John in which he remarked that the Beatles were now more popular than Jesus. The quote attracted little comment when it first appeared in the Evening Standard, but four months later it was picked up by an American magazine and the ensuing furore led to radio stations banning the Beatles, and their records being burned all over the Bible Belt. The Beatles finished the tour of America they were then on, but never toured again.

  The lyrics of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ received a deft backhanded compliment when Peter Sellers produced a record in which he recited all the words in the manner of Laurence Olivier declaiming Shakespeare. It was very convincing.

  The manuscript is on show today in the Manuscript Room at the British Library, along with several others on permanent loan from a kind person. The colours of the birthday card train are still remarkably vivid. You can also see where John changed the words at Maureen’s suggestion–though the original words are not totally clear. There is also an amendment towards the end: ‘everything’s right from the start’ was dropped, along with a line that appears to read ‘I hope you realize with my heart’.

  ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, released on the LP, July 1964, in John’s hand. He changed the sixth line, after Maureen Cleave told him it was pretty feeble.

  It’s been a hard day’s night

  And I’ve been working like a dog.

  It’s been a hard day’s night,

  I should be sleeping like a log.

  But when I get home to you,

  I find the things that you do

  Will make me feel all right.

  You know I work all day

  To get you money to buy you things.

  And it’s worth it just to hear you say,

  You’re gonna give me everything.

  So why on earth should I moan,

  ’Cos when I get you alone

  You know I feel okay.

  When I’m home everything seems to be right.

  When I’m home feeling you holding me tight, tight, yeah.

  It’s been a hard day’s night

  And I’ve been working like a dog.

  It’s been a hard day’s night,

  I should be sleeping like a log.

  But when I get home to you,

  I find the things that you do

  Will make me feel all right.

  You know I feel all right,

  You know I feel all right.

  I Should Have Known Better

  This is John doing a straightforward love song, with no moans, no misery. He drives it along by himself, starting with a bit of Dylanesque harmonica to get us in the mood. The music is simple with few chord changes, though John does try a bit of falsetto when he plays with the word ‘mine’, turning into it my-i-ine… as if he has decided to copy Paul.

  The only mystery or unusual feature is the title. It’s as if he was going to write a moany, miserable song about regrets, then thought better of it. There is no regret, once we get into the lyrics–other than that he should have known he would love everything she does, tra la. The song gets few outings today, but I find it charming.

  If I Fell

  One reason why ‘I Should Have Known Better’ did not attract much attention might be that the following track, ‘If I Fell’, is so much richer, deeper and more complicated. This is John’s first ever ballad. ‘It shows that I wrote sentimental love ballads–silly love songs–way back then,’ as he said in 1980. He also admitted it was semi-autobiographical, though few were aware of it at the time. Considered by many–OK, by me at least–as their most beautiful song up to that time.

  It is now clear that he was thinking of leaving his wife for another woman, though Cynthia is not named and no clue is given to the identity of the other woman. He wants to be sure that she will love him more than his present woman–which is a tad presumptuous. How can anyone be sure? There’s an element of gloating in the last two lines, picturing her crying when she learns he is leaving her for someone else.

  The lyrics don’t make clear what stage the new love is at–has he left his present one already, or is he just thinking about it? We know that John was having fairly serious but short-lived affairs by this time, though Cynthia was never aware of it. ‘I was a coward,’ he later admitted. And so his married life trundled on, keeping its secrets.

  The lyrics, however, clearly express John’s personal agonies giving no details, but at the same time giving everything away. They are deceptively simple, making you think about possibly deeper meanings, while the music is equally rich, with some sophisticated chord progressions that reflect the confusion and upheaval in John’s mind.

  The manuscript, in John’s hand, is a clear, clean, version, so probably not the first he scribbled down. Possibly it was written out so that the others could read–and play. He has marked the verses 1 and 2 and has written ‘Into’ at the beginning, suggesting there would no opening chords, just straight into it.

  The words are written on a Valentine card. So typical of John to pick up and scribble on any old scrap that came to hand. Could it have been a Valentine’s card to Cynthia? Now that would have been cruel.

  The manuscript was one of their first lyrics to come up at pub
lic auction; it was sold at Sotheby’s in May 1988 for £8,580. Today it would easily fetch a quarter of a million.

  If I fell in love with you

  Would you promise to be true

  And help me

  Understand

  ’Cause I’ve been in love before

  And I found that love was more

  Than just

  Holding hands

  If I give my heart

  To you

  I must be sure

  From the very start

  That you’re

  gonna love me more than her

  If I trust in you

  Oh please

  Don’t run and hide

  If I love you too

  Oh please

  Don’t hurt my pride like her

  ’Cause I couldn’t stand the pain

  And I

  Would be sad

  If our new love was in vain

  So I hope you see

  That I

  Would love to love you

  And that she

  Will cry

  When she learns we are two

  If I fell.

  ‘If I Fell’, from the LP A Hard Day’s Night, July 1964, in John’s hand.

  I’m Happy Just To Dance With You

  Written mainly by John but given to George so he would have ‘a piece of action in the film’. This might explain why some of the lines sound as if they could have done with being polished up a bit more. No doubt if John had sung it himself, lines such as ‘If somebody tries to take my place, let’s pretend we can’t see his face’ would have been changed.