Formal structure of [140] "Rocky Raccoon":
          Intro (v)   0:00-0:06
          Verse 1     0:06-0:30
          Verse 2     0:30-0:54
          Verse 3     0:54-1:19
          Verse 4     1:19-1:43
          Verse 5 (abbr.)    1:43-1:56
          Middle 8     1:56-2:18
          Verse 6       2:18-2:42
          Verse 7       2:42-3:06
          Middle 8    3:06-3:32

Comments: This novel song has an equally novel structure: 7 verses ties "Rocky Raccoon" with [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows" for the most in any Beatles song to date. 

Counting verses as 8 measures (4 bars plus a repeat), all the verses are the same length except for verse 5, in which there is no repeat (4 bars instead of 8).

In addition, verses 1-5 are contiguous, as are verses 6-7. While it's common to find Beatles songs in which the first two verses are contiguous ([1] "Love Me Do", [7] "Do You Want to Know a Secret", [8] "Misery", [9b] "Anna (Go To Him)", [9c] "Boys", [9d] "Chains", [9f] Twist and Shout, [10] "From Me To You", [13e] "Till There Was You", [17] "Little Child", [19] "Not a Second Time", [23] "Can't Buy Me Love", [25] "And I Love Her", [26] "I Should Have Known Better", [28] "If I Fell'', [29] "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You", [31] "A Hard Day's Night", [31b] "Matchbox", [32] "I'll Cry Instead", [35] "Things We Said Today", [40] "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party", [41] "What You're Doing", [42] "No Reply", [43] "Eight Days a Week", [44] "She's a Woman", [44b] "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey", [46d] "Words of Love", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [49] "I Need You", [50] "Yes It Is", [51] "The Night Before", [52] "You Like Me Too Much", [54] "Tell Me What You See", 56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", [56c] "Bad Boy", [57] "I've Just Seen a Face", [59] "Yesterday", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [68] "We Can Work it Out", [71] "Michelle", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [80] "Paperback Writer", [82] "Doctor Robert", [84] "Taxman", [88] "Yellow Submarine", [89] "I Want To Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", [95] "Penny Lane", [96] "A Day in the Life", [99] "Fixing a Hole", [100] "Only a Northern Song", [101] "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", [105] "Within You Without You", [111] "All Together Now", [114] "All You Need Is Love", [116] "I Am the Walrus", [122] "Lady Madonna", [126] "Don't Pass Me By", [128] "Blackbird", [129] "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey", [135] "Sexy Sadie", [138] "Mother Nature's Son", and [139] "Yer Blues"), it is much less common to find Beatles songs with contiguous verses other than verses 1 and 2. In fact, "Rocky" is just the 10th such example, behind [19] "Not a Second Time" (in which verses 1 and 2 are contiguous, as are verses 3 and 4), [31b] "Matchbox" (in which the first three and last two verses are contiguous), [56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 4-5), [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows" (in which verses 1-3 are contiguous, as are verses 4-7), [80] "Paperback Writer" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 3-4), [84] "Taxman" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 3-4), [95] "Penny Lane" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 4-5), [96] "A Day in the Life" (in which verses 1-3 are contiguous), [129] "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey" (in which all three verses are contiguous), and [135] "Sexy Sadie" (in which verses 1 and 2 are contiguous, as are verses 3 and 4).

John Lennon was never very fond of the Paul's song "One and One is Two". In an interview with Playboy magazine in December 1980, he said of the song, "That's another of Paul's bad attempts at writing a song" (Scheff, page 184). Given the distaste, it is no surprise that it was given instead to Mike Shannon and The Strangers, who released their version of the song on 8 May 1964.

Although the Beatles never recorded the song, McCartney recorded a demo in early 1964.

CITATIONS
Sheff, David. G. Barry Golson, ed. The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon & Yoko Ono. Berkley Books, New York, NY, 1983.

Formal structure of [139] "Yer Blues":
          Intro (pick-up)  0:00-0:03      52 bpm
          Verse 1        0:03-0:32      52 bpm
          Verse 2        0:32-1:01      52 bpm
          Middle 8      1:01-1:11      100 bpm
          Verse 3        1:11-1:30       52 bpm
          Middle 8      1:30-1:40     96 bpm
          Verse 4        1:40-2:00     52 bpm
          Middle 8     2:00-2:09      100 bpm
          Verse 5        2:09-2:27       100 bpm
          Solo #1         2:27-2:54      100 bpm
          Solo #2        2:54-3:18      100 bpm
          Verse 6       3:18-3:46        52 bpm
          Coda (v)     3:46-3:59        52 bpm

Comments: The intro is more of an anacrusis than an independent section, but since it lasts 3 seconds, I have to account for that some how and the obvious choice is to call it an introduction despite its lack of structural weight.

"Yer Blues" is only the second Beatles song to date to use at least six verses ( [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows" was the other, and it uses seven verses). Two of those six are contiguous: verses 1 and 2 (which is very common among Beatles songs, precedents being [1] "Love Me Do", [7] "Do You Want to Know a Secret", [8] "Misery", [9b] "Anna (Go To Him)", [9c] "Boys", [9d] "Chains", [9f] Twist and Shout, [10] "From Me To You", [13e] "Till There Was You", [17] "Little Child", [19] "Not a Second Time", [23] "Can't Buy Me Love", [25] "And I Love Her", [26] "I Should Have Known Better", [28] "If I Fell'', [29] "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You", [31] "A Hard Day's Night", [31b] "Matchbox", [32] "I'll Cry Instead", [35] "Things We Said Today", [40] "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party", [41] "What You're Doing", [42] "No Reply", [43] "Eight Days a Week", [44] "She's a Woman", [44b] "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey", [46d] "Words of Love", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [49] "I Need You", [50] "Yes It Is", [51] "The Night Before", [52] "You Like Me Too Much", [54] "Tell Me What You See", 56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", [56c] "Bad Boy", [57] "I've Just Seen a Face", [59] "Yesterday", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [68] "We Can Work it Out", [71] "Michelle", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [80] "Paperback Writer", [82] "Doctor Robert", [84] "Taxman", [88] "Yellow Submarine", [89] "I Want To Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", [95] "Penny Lane", [96] "A Day in the Life", [99] "Fixing a Hole", [100] "Only a Northern Song", [101] "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", [105] "Within You Without You", [111] "All Together Now", [114] "All You Need Is Love", [116] "I Am the Walrus", [122] "Lady Madonna", [126] "Don't Pass Me By", [128] "Blackbird", [129] "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey", [135] "Sexy Sadie", and [138] "Mother Nature's Son".)

What is unusual, however, is to have contiguous solos. In fact, "Yer Blues" is just the second Beatles song to date (behind [38] "I'm a Loser") to use contiguous solos, and just the seventh Beatles song to date (behind [29b] "Long Tall Sally", [38] "I'm a Loser", [46b] "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby", [46e] "Honey Don't", [58] "I'm Down", and [119] "The Fool on the Hill") to use multiple solos anywhere in the same song.

Lastly, the structure of the song is reinforced by a tempo change during the middle 8s (which is retained into verse 5). The verses (except verse 5) are all approximately 52 beats per minute, while the middle 8s are roughly 100 bpm. The exact tempo rate fluctuates through the song from roughly 94-108 bpm, but it's clearly about twice as fast. This change helps articulate the structure of the song.

Beatlemania is not without precedent. The most obvious historical example of mass hysteria inspired by musical performance prior to the 1960's is Lisztomania, so named for the revolutionary Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt (1811-1886), as recounted in Alan Walker's biography:
"Liszt arrived in Berlin just before Christmas 1841. ... His first recital took place in the Berlin Singakademie on December 27. ... The clamour which erupted shook the Singakademie to its foundations and set the tone for the rest of his stay. It was at Berlin that 'Lisztomania' swept in. ... The symptoms ... bear ever resemblance to an infectious disease, and merely to call them mass hysteria hardly does justice to what actually took place. His portrait was worn on brooches and cameos. Swooning lady admirers attempted to take cuttings of his hair, and they surged forward whenever he broke a piano string in order to make it into a bracelet. Some of these insane female 'fans' even carried glass phials about their persons into which they poured his coffee dregs. Others collected his cigar butts, which they hid in their cleavages."

This last sentence is confirmed by author Alan Kozin, who wrote in the preface of his Beatles biography:
"I was nine years old when 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' and 'She Loves You' began to be heard ceaselessly on American radio ... I was devoting my own musical energies to classical music, and was studying the piano with a woman whose father had been a pupil of Liszt - and who kept a collection of Liszt's cigar butts, framed in her studio."

But, of course, some aspect of Beatlemania did reach unprecedented levels. And this was not because of the music itself, but rather the product of the media and the technology at the media's disposal. Had the radio and television existed in the 1840's, perhaps Lisztomania would have been every bit as big as Beatlemania was a century later.


CITATIONS
Kozin, Alan. The Beatles. Phaidon Press Limited, London, UK, 1995.

Walker, Alan. Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years, 1811-1847. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, 1983.

Formal structure of [138] "Mother Nature's Son":
          Intro          0:00-0:19
                    slow (v)           0:00-0:08
                    in tempo (v)  0:08-0:19
         Verse 1        0:19-0:37
                    Tag           0:37-0:42
                    Tag           0:42-0:48
          Verse 2       0:48-1:05
                    Tag           1:05-1:11
          Middle 8    1:11-1:33
          Verse 3      1:33-1:49
                    Tag            1:49-1:54
          Middle 8    1:54-2:16
          Verse 4       2:16-2:33
                    Tag           2:33-2:38
          Coda (tag)  2:38-2:47

Comments: "Mother Nature's Son" is yet another Beatles song to use a two-part introduction (following [6b] "A Taste Of Honey", [11] "Thank You Girl", [17] "Little Child", [14b] "Roll Over Beethoven", [24] "You Can't Do That", [31b] "Matchbox", [37] "Baby's in Black", [38b] "Mr. Moonlight", [45] "I Feel Fine", [46e] "Honey Don't", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [62] "Run For Your Life", [63] "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [79] "Love You To", [81] "Paperback Writer", [89] "I Want to Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", [102] "Lovely Rita", [104] "Getting Better", [105] "Within You Without You", [110] "Baby, You're a Rich Man", [114] "All You Need Is Love", [125] "Revolution 1", [126] "Don't Pass Me By", [130] "Good Night", [131] "Ob-la-di Ob-la-da", and [134] "Helter Skelter" ), with the first section being a slow guitar passage that resembles a progression used in the middle of each verse, and the second section establishing the quicker tempo of the rest of the song.

The first verse is followed by a double tag - something I have not found in any other Beatles song to date.

Counting a tags as part of the verse (or at least a sub-section of the verse, as opposed to an entirely independent structural component), the first two verses are contiguous (as was the case previously in [1] "Love Me Do", [7] "Do You Want to Know a Secret", [8] "Misery", [9b] "Anna (Go To Him)", [9c] "Boys", [9d] "Chains", [9f] Twist and Shout, [10] "From Me To You", [13e] "Till There Was You", [17] "Little Child", [19] "Not a Second Time", [23] "Can't Buy Me Love", [25] "And I Love Her", [26] "I Should Have Known Better", [28] "If I Fell'', [29] "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You", [31] "A Hard Day's Night", [31b] "Matchbox", [32] "I'll Cry Instead", [35] "Things We Said Today", [40] "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party", [41] "What You're Doing", [42] "No Reply", [43] "Eight Days a Week", [44] "She's a Woman", [44b] "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey", [46d] "Words of Love", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [49] "I Need You", [50] "Yes It Is", [51] "The Night Before", [52] "You Like Me Too Much", [54] "Tell Me What You See", 56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", [56c] "Bad Boy", [57] "I've Just Seen a Face", [59] "Yesterday", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [68] "We Can Work it Out", [71] "Michelle", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [80] "Paperback Writer", [82] "Doctor Robert", [84] "Taxman", [88] "Yellow Submarine", [89] "I Want To Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", [95] "Penny Lane", [96] "A Day in the Life", [99] "Fixing a Hole", [100] "Only a Northern Song", [101] "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", [105] "Within You Without You", [111] "All Together Now", [114] "All You Need Is Love", [116] "I Am the Walrus", [122] "Lady Madonna", [126] "Don't Pass Me By", [128] "Blackbird", [129] "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey", and [135] "Sexy Sadie").

Lastly, the coda is based on the tag.

Nearing the end of the filming of the movie we now know as Help!, director Richard Lester discovered a problem. "Our original title was Help, Help, and the lawyer said it had already been registered and you mustn't use it" (Soderbergh, page 52). Alternative titles included Beatles Two and later Eight Arms to Hold You (referring to the oriental deity statue in the film, but also playing on the notion of all four Beatles holding the same woman), until the band complained about having to write such a title song. So returning to the original title, Lester omitted the second word and added an exclamation point to get around the legal concerns, and the movie had its title.


CITATIONS
Soderbergh, Steven and Richard Lester. Getting away with it : or, The further adventures of the luckiest bastard you ever saw. Faber and Faber, London, UK, 1999.

Formal structure of [137] "Hey Jude":
          Verse 1       0:00-0:26
          Verse 2      0:26-0:55
          Middle 8    0:55-1:33
          Verse 3      1:33-2:02
          Middle 8    2:02-2:39
          Verse 4      2:39-3:09
          Coda/Chorus  3:09-7:08

Comments: No intro, just starts right up with the first verse (as did [15] "All My Loving", [19] "Not a Second Time", [29b] "Long Tall Sally", [42] "No Reply", [46b] "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby", [58] "I'm Down", [61] "Wait", [68] “We Can Work it Out”, [76] "Girl", [85] "I'm Only Sleeping", [95] "Penny Lane", [118] "Flying"), and [120] "Hello Goodbye").

Furthermore, the first two verses are contiguous (as was the case in [1] "Love Me Do", [7] "Do You Want to Know a Secret", [8] "Misery", [9b] "Anna (Go To Him)", [9c] "Boys", [9d] "Chains", [9f] Twist and Shout, [10] "From Me To You", [13e] "Till There Was You", [17] "Little Child", [19] "Not a Second Time", [23] "Can't Buy Me Love", [25] "And I Love Her", [26] "I Should Have Known Better", [28] "If I Fell'', [29] "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You", [31] "A Hard Day's Night", [31b] "Matchbox", [32] "I'll Cry Instead", [35] "Things We Said Today", [40] "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party", [41] "What You're Doing", [42] "No Reply", [43] "Eight Days a Week", [44] "She's a Woman", [44b] "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey", [46d] "Words of Love", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [49] "I Need You", [50] "Yes It Is", [51] "The Night Before", [52] "You Like Me Too Much", [54] "Tell Me What You See", 56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", [56c] "Bad Boy", [57] "I've Just Seen a Face", [59] "Yesterday", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [68] "We Can Work it Out", [71] "Michelle", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [80] "Paperback Writer", [82] "Doctor Robert", [84] "Taxman", [88] "Yellow Submarine", [89] "I Want To Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", [95] "Penny Lane", [96] "A Day in the Life", [99] "Fixing a Hole", [100] "Only a Northern Song", [101] "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", [105] "Within You Without You", [111] "All Together Now", [114] "All You Need Is Love", [116] "I Am the Walrus", [122] "Lady Madonna", [126] "Don't Pass Me By", [128] "Blackbird", [129] "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey", and [135] "Sexy Sadie").

Lastly, and most significantly, the independent coda/chorus is the largest coda of any Beatles song to date, lasting 240 seconds long and comprising more than half (56.1%) of the song's duration. In fact, the coda is so substantial that the first 3 minutes of the song might well be interpreted as an anacrusis to the last 4 minutes of the song, rather than the other way around.

Both Paul McCartney's "P. S. I Love You" and John Lennon's "Please Please Me" employ a particular technique known as oblique motion, where one voice remains on a single note while the other voice moves (ascending, descending, or a combination).

In "P. S.", this oblique motion can be heard three times on the words "be in love with you" at 0:11-0:13, 1:01-1:03, and 1:33-1:35.

Paul's higher melodic vocals move from note to note, while John's lower vocals remain stationary on a low A.

Lennon borrowed the technique (but inverted) for "Please Please Me", heard twice in each of the three verses for a  total of six times at 0:08-0:12, 0:15-0:19, 0:35-0:39, 0:42-0:46, 1:20-1:24, 1:27-1:31.

Lennon's lower melodic vocals move from note to note, while Paul's upper vocals remain stationary on a high E.

Both Beatles' use of oblique motion likely comes from the song "Cathy's Clown" by the Everly Brothers, who sing using oblique motion thrice in each of the three verses for a total of nine times, heard at 0:08-0:11, 0:16-0:19, 0:32-0:35, 0:56-0:59, 1:04-1:07, 1:20-1:23, 1:44-1:47, 1:52-1:55, and 2:08-2:11.

In this one, Don Everly sings the descending melodic vocals, while brother Phil holds a sustained high E.

Formal structure of [136] "While My Guitar Gently Weeps":
          Intro (v)    0:00-0:14      A minor
          Verse 1      0:17-0:50       A minor
          Middle 8   0:50-1:24       A major
          Verse 2      1:24-1:58       A minor
          Solo (v)     1:58-2:30       A minor
          Middle 8   2:30-3:04      A major
          Verse 3      3:04-3:37      A minor
          Coda (v)     3:37-4:44     A minor

Comments: The structure of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is very clear, helped in part by the dialogue between the parallel major and minor, which recalls the band's use of the same modal juxtapositions in [35] "Things We Said Today", [63] "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", and [71] "Michelle".

The solo replaces a verse (everything is the same except that the solo guitar is heard in place of the lead vocals), however I cannot consider it contiguous verses. That being said, however, counting the solo as verse, the structure of the song is palindromic.