Formal structure of [153] "I'm So Tired":
          Verse 1    0:01-0:24
          Verse 2    0:24-0:47
          Chorus   0:47-1:07
          Verse 3   1:07-1:29
          Chorus   1:29-1:48
          Coda (ch)  1:48-2:03

Comments: Here, too, we find a very structurally simply song. That being said, I did ponder whether the chorus should be labeled as a middle 8 instead. One characteristic of choruses is that they are often sung by many people singing in unison  (hence the term chorus) - think of "Yellow Submarine", "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", or "Hey Jude", for examples. In "I'm So Tired", Paul supplies harmony vocals, but only Lennon sings lead - there is no chorus to speak of - which suggests middle 8 might be the better term. But, another characteristic of choruses is the increased energy, which is certainly the case here. Conversely, a characteristic of middle 8s is differing harmonies to provide contrast with the verses. In "I'm Only Sleeping", the section in question uses the chords A, E, and D - all of which were also used at at least twice in each verse, and therefore are hardly contrasting with the verse. All of this is to say that there is some degree of ambiguity in the terminology, but I find chorus to be the better fit of the two labels.

The three-note guitar anacrusis accounts for the fact that there is no introduction, but the verse doesn't start until 0:01.

Verses 1 and 2 are contiguous (as they were 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", [135] "Sexy Sadie", [138] "Mother Nature's Son", [139] "Yer Blues", [140] "Rocky Raccoon", [143] "Dear Prudence", [144] "Glass Onion", [145] "I Will", [149] "Honey Pie", and [152] "Long Long Long").

The macro-scale formal design may be seen as three iterations of verse + chorus, with the first iteration omitting the chorus (resulting in the contiguous verses described in the above paragraph), all followed by the coda, which is simply an extension of the chorus:

Formal structure of [152] "Long Long Long":
          Intro (v)     0:00-0:10
          Verse 1        0:10-0:42
          Verse 2        0:42-1:14
          Middle 8     1:14-1:40
          Verse 3 (ext.)   1:40-2:31
          Coda (ind.)  2:31-3:05

Comments: This is another that is very simple structurally.

Verses 1 and 2 are contiguous (as they were 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", [135] "Sexy Sadie", [138] "Mother Nature's Son", [139] "Yer Blues", [140] "Rocky Raccoon", [143] "Dear Prudence", [144] "Glass Onion", [145] "I Will", and [149] "Honey Pie").

Verse 3 incorporates an extension of 7 additional measures and 19 extra seconds that connects the final verse to the coda.

Formal structure of [151] "Martha My Dear":
          Intro (v)    0:00-0:19
          Verse 1      0:19-0:38
          Middle 8   0:38-1:00
                Extension  1:00-1:20*
          Solo (v)      1:20-1:40
          Middle 8    1:40-2:03
          Verse 2      2:03-2:22
          Coda           2:22-2:28

Comments: The first middle 8 is extended by 20 extra seconds, but a listener does not realize it's an extension until the middle 8 is repeated without the extension later on in the song. This extension is also highlighted by the first use of percussion to that point in the track.

The macro structure of "Martha My Dear" is (roughly) palindromic. This follows [33] "I'll Be Back", [93] "Strawberry Fields Forever", [94] "When I'm Sixty-Four", [97] "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", [98] "Good Morning Good Morning", and [136] "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", all of which also employed palindromic formal designs (and [57] "I've Just Seen a Face", and [114] "All You Need Is Love", which both employed inverse palindromic structures). I say "roughly" because the intro is somewhat lengthy (19 seconds) while it's palindromic counterpart, the coda, is quite brief (6 seconds); and because the first middle 8 is extended, which does not correlate to a strictly palindromic formal design because the second middle 8 is not similarly extended.

Formal structure of [150] "Savoy Truffle":
          Intro/Tag     0:00-0:05*
          Verse 1           0:05-0:28
          Chorus           0:28-0:36

          Tag                  0:36-0:40*
          Verse 2          0:40-1:03
          Chorus           1:03-1:12

          Middle 8        1:12-1:27

          Solo (v)          1:27-1:51
          Chorus           1:51-1:59

          Middle 8       1:59-2:15

          Verse 3          2:15-2:46
          Chorus           1:51-1:59
          Chorus/Coda  2:46-2:54*


Comments: At just four measures in length, this is one of the shortest choruses in all of Beatles music. In fact, I debated whether or not to classify it separately from the verse, but given the repetition of lyrics and the use of different chords, I conclude that they are different enough to justify the above labeling.

The coda is simply that brief chorus repeated an extra time, resulting in contiguous choruses (like [44b] "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey", [58] "I'm Down", [73] "Think For Yourself", [90] "Good Day Sunshine", [113] "It's All Too Much", [114] "All You Need Is Love", [117] "Blue Jay Way", and [133] "Cry Baby Cry").

The tag's function is textbook at the beginning - it serves as an introduction, and also a "structural glue" to hold together the different sections. But after the second time, it is never heard again. Why is uncertain, although I can guess that it would have felt less lean with additional tags before the solo or verse 3.

Looking at the macro structure of "Savoy Truffle", then, it can be divided in two, with each half being further broken down into two iterations of a particular structural pattern:

Formal structure of [149] "Honey Pie":
          Intro (ind)    0:00-0:39
          Verse 1          0:39-0:52*
          Verse 2          0:52-1:06*
          Middle 8       1:06-1:19
          Verse 3         1:19-1:33
          Solo/Break 1 (v)  1:33-1:46*
          Solo/Break 2 (v)  1:46-1:59*
          Middle 8      1:59-2:12
          Verse 4        2:12-2:26
          Coda (v)      2:26-2:40

Comments: Here's another to use contiguous verses, with verses 1 and 2, just as the Beatles had done 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", [135] "Sexy Sadie", [138] "Mother Nature's Son", [139] "Yer Blues", [140] "Rocky Raccoon", [143] "Dear Prudence", [144] "Glass Onion", and [145] "I Will".

Everything is structurally very standard except for the solo/breaks, which are somewhere between the two categories. The guitar solos for a few seconds at the start of the first solo/break (which implies the section is a solo), but then dies away for the second half of the section, leaving no soloist and just the rhythm section (suggesting the section is a break). Solo/break 2 uses saxophones (implying a break) and McCartney improvises vocals, so it might be thought of as a vocal solo. In any case, the structural labeling is ambiguous.

Regardless of nomenclature, however, there clearly are two of them, and both are based on the verse's chord progression. Multiple solos is not terribly rare in Beatles music ([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" all used multiple solos, of which only [38] "I'm a Loser" used the multiple solos contiguously), but this is just the second (behind [88] "Yellow Submarine") to use two breaks, and the first to use them contiguously.

Formal structure of [148] "Happiness is a Warm Gun":
          Part A (fingerpicking)    0:00-0:44
                0:00-0:14   "She's not a girl who misses much..."
                0:14-0:44   "She's well acquainted with the touch..."

          Part B (waltz)    0:44-1:13
                0:44-0:59   instrumental
                0:59-1:13   "I need a fix cuz I'm going down..."

          Part C (mother superior)   1:13-1:34

          Part D (doo-wop)  1:34-2:44

Comments: Many songs on The White Album are fascinating for their novelty. The term "novelty" is often used in a negative context - to call something a "novelty song" is to dismiss it as inferior in quality. There are several Beatles songs - and mostly Paul's - that can easily be dismissed as such ("Rocky Raccoon" comes to mind, along with "Wild Honey Pie", and "Why Don't We Do It In the Road"). But it is without any such negative connotations - and actually, it is with great interest, respect, and enthusiasm - that I call "Happiness is a Warm Gun" novel in denotative sense of "something unusual or new; different from anything prior".

The music is comprised of four macro sections that contain few musical similarities. Part A is defined by a particular finger-picking pattern that was quite popular with the Beatles at this time (other songs from the same album to use this particular fingerpicking pattern were "Julia", "Blackbird", "Dear Prudence", "I'm So Tired", and "Cry Baby Cry"). Part B is defined by the use of triple meter (three beats to the bar), which in this case produces a somewhat "waltzy" feel. Part C is defined by irregular time signatures and the lyrics "Mother Superior jumped the gun", which are heard a total of six times. And Part D is defined by the use of 1950's Doo Wop cliches - including the ubiquitous "Doo Wop" chord progression (more on this when I do my harmonic analysis of "Happiness").

Cohesion within each structural section is achieved through immediate repetition of a particular motif or chord progression. The overall structure of the song, then, has less to do with motivic cohesion than it does with intensity and density (which can be thought of somewhat crudely as the number of notes heard per second) of sound - the first section is the calmest and least dense, the second and third sections build the intensity and density, and the fourth and final section is the most intense and most dense. This notion of building intensity over the course of an entire piece is sometimes called an "orchestrational crescendo", and does have classical precedent: Maurice Ravel's Bolero is the most famous example; the first movement of Dmitri Shostakovitch's 7th Symphony is another. In "Happiness is a Warm Gun", the intensity and density build through the first three sections until the climax (like a gun firing?) in the all-out Doo Wop of the final section.

Formal structure of [147] "Piggies":
          Intro/Tag    0:00-0:05
          Verse 1          0:05-0:21
          Tag                  0:21-0:26
          Verse 2           0:26-0:43
          Tag/Trans.   0:43-0:48
          Middle 8        0:48-1:06
          Break (verse)  1:06-1:21
          Tag                  1:21-1:26
          Verse 3          1:26-1:41
          Coda 1
                    extended tag   1:41-1:53
          Coda 2
                    strings         1:54-2:00
                    sfx                 2:00-2:03

Comments: Though everything else is pretty standard, the tag in "Piggies" is particularly interesting. This tag is brought back a total of five times throughout the two-minutes song, each time slightly varied, and with a different structural function. The first tag (0:00-0:05) is expository and, obviously, introductory. It prepares the verse that immediately follows. The second tag (0:21-0:26) is an iteration of the first with one tiny change in notes: The fourth note D-flat switches to an A-flat. The third tag, however, is quite different: It ends on a C7 instead of an E-flat the way the two previous tags had. This propels the music into the next structural section, the middle 8. The fourth tag (1:21-1:26), like the second, is nearly identical to the first, both in notes and function. Finally, the fifth tag starts similarly to all of the others, but is extended (four measures instead of two) through the use of mode mixture before concluding the first coda by cadencing on the dominant (E-flat).

"Piggies" also uses two codas, something the Beatles had done previously in [120] "Hello Goodbye", and [126] "Don't Pass Me By".

Formal structure of [146] "Birthday":
          Intro/Tag (v)    0:00-0:22     A major
          Verse 1                 0:22-0:43     A major
          Break (drums)  0:43-0:56     A major
          Transition          0:56-1:10     (E major)
          Middle 8             1:10-1:28       C major
          Tag (verse)       1:28-1:48       A major
          Break (guitar) 1:48-1:55       (transitional)
          Middle 8            1:55-2:12       C Major
          Verse 2 (ext)   2:12-2:35        A major
          Coda (ind.)       2:35-2:42      A major

Comments: "Birthday" has an unusual and fascinating structure.

The verses, which are often one of the primary formal sections of a pop song, in this case carry significantly less structural weight because the two verses (and really it's the same verse heard twice - the lyrics are identical each time) are heard first at the beginning and once again at the end, and nowhere in between. The only other Beatles song to date that do anything similar is [97] "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", but "Pepper" employed a very deliberate formal design (it's palindromic) while "Birthday" is anything but deliberate - the novel and unpredictable structure yields no obvious patterns, which helps provide the song with an improvisatory feel, much like [111] "All Together Now". Additionally, the second verse features a one-measure extension at the very end, that helps segue to the coda.

Tonally, it uses two keys a minor third apart (A and C) - something the Beatles had done previously on [48] "Another Girl", [55] "You're Going to Lose That Girl", [91] "Here There and Everywhere", [96] "A Day in the Life", [103] "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", [122] "Lady Madonna", and to a much lesser extent [90] "Good Day Sunshine". In this case, the middle 8s are both in C major, while the rest of the song is in the "primary tonic" of A major.

Bridging these sections, of course, are a series of transitions. After the first verse, a drum break leads to a transitional passage ("Yes, we're going to a party, party...") that culminates in the middle 8, with it's new tonality. That transition is implemented again but in a very different way at 1:48. This time instead of a drum break followed by a transition, the bass and lead guitar play the break. But despite the switch in instrumentation, the structural function is the same: they both lead to the middle 8. (Consideration of how these two transitions function tonally will be saved for a later harmonic analysis blog.)

Partly in preparation for the debut of a new presentation at the Wethersfield Library (515 Silas Deane Highway, Wethersfield, CT) on 13 February 2014 titled "A Hard Day's Night: The Music & The Movie", and partly due to a comment on my 25 October 2013 harmonic analysis of [28] "If I Fell" by Tommy Leonardi, this blog will be a detailed consideration and history of John Lennon's ballad "If I Fell".

"If I Fell" was recorded by the Beatles in EMI studios on 27 February 1964, when they did 15 takes. Some time prior to that, however, Lennon recorded a home demo that in some ways is very similar to the finished product, and in other ways is very different.

Comparing this demo side-by-side with the version found on the album, the demo is a half-step higher pitched (it's in E-flat) than the release (which is in D major). Why is anybody's guess. Accounting for that change of key, the last chord of the first verse is different (vi in the demo, I in the release). The last two beats of the middle 8 are different (referring to the words "So I", which in the demo use a pattern Lennon would use again some years later in "Imagine", which is entirely absent from the finished product). Lyrically, the two are almost identical (and the few differences, I suspect, are more the result of Lennon confusing different verses rather than any intentional revisions). And, lastly, the codas are very different.

The demo coda uses the four chords that open each verse (E-flat, F minor, G minor, F minor) in a slightly altered rhythmic pattern, heard a total of four times, as Lennon (presumably) improvises vocals over those chords. The release, however, uses different chords (even accounting for the key change) and reprises the opening lyrics from the introduction (although melodically they are very different).

Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing the date on this home recording, although logic would suggest prior to 27 February 1964, given that that's the day the band recorded the tune in the studio. But even that is questionable due to the fact that the intro was absent from the first 10 takes (Lewisohn, page 40). If the intro was written before the studio recording of the song, why is it absent from the first 10 takes? Why take it out? The obvious answer would be that when they started work on the song, the intro had not been written yet, they realized it needed a little something that the beginning, and therefore wrote it in the studio between takes 10 and 11. But then what of Lennon's demo? It seems highly unlikely that John would have recorded a demo after finishing recording it in the studio - that would, after all, defeat the very purpose of the demo. I suppose the demo could be forged (this wouldn't be the first time), but I suspect it is legitimate.

Further complicating things, Paul McCartney has recently claimed the introduction was his idea - not Lennon's (Q magazine, May 2013), which seems to support Lewisohn's observations, but contradict Lennon's demo. But at the same time, P McC is notorious for rewriting history. On the other hand, Paul used a half-step modulation in "And I Love Her" (from C-sharp minor to D minor) that is similar to the modulation between the introduction and body of "If I Fell" (E-flat minor to D major). Perhaps Paul, pleased with the half-step key change he had just used in "And I Love Her", reprised the concept (but inverted - going down rather than up) for the intro to "If I Fell". But there, again, how do you account for Lennon's demo?

Bottom line: Unfortunately, the only conclusion that can be drawn given this evidence is that we simply don't know when the intro was written, nor who wrote it.


CITATIONS
Lewisohn, Mark. The Beatles Recording Sessions. Harmony Books, New York, NY, 1988.