"The Long and Winding Road" was released both on Let it Be, and Let it Be ... Naked, however they're similar enough (sharing an identical formal layout, and approximately similar timings) that there is no need to show timings for both. (Parenthetically, the Naked version is slightly faster paced, so by the end of the song it's nearly 4 seconds ahead of the original.)
Formal structure of [165] "The Long and Winding Road": Intro/Tag 0:00-0:07 Verse 1 0:07-0:43 Tag 0:43-0:50 Verse 2 0:50-1:27 Middle 8 1:27-1:41 Tag 1:41-1:48 Verse 3 1:48-2:25 Break/Solo (m8) 2:25-2:39 Tag 2:39-2:46 Verse 4 (abbr.) 2:46-3:20 Coda/Tag 3:20-3:38 Comments: The tag in this song is textbook except that it precedes each verse (it's more usual for it to follow the verse). The biggest difference between the two versions of the song is the organ solo in Naked, which replaces the strings break in Let it Be. In both cases, the music is based on the middle 8. Counting the solo as a middle 8, then, the macro-scale structure of the song may be seen in two parts: the first a tag + verse (which is immediately repeated), the second a middle 8 + tag + verse (also immediately repeated), before concluding with a coda based on the tag.
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Much like [160] "Get Back", "Let it Be" is unusual in the Beatles catalog because it was released three different times: as a single, as part of Let it Be, and Let it Be ... Naked. This post will observe and analyze all three different versions, which share similar structures if not exact timings. Formal structure of [164] "Let it Be":
Comments: "Let it Be" uses contiguous choruses, something only 10 Beatles songs have used up to this point. [44b] "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey" used four contiguous choruses, but they were two different choruses (Chorus #1, Chorus #1 again, Chorus #2, Chorus #2 again); [58] "I'm Down", [73] "Think For Yourself", [90] "Good Day Sunshine", [113] "It's All Too Much", and [114] "All You Need Is Love" all used three contiguous choruses, with the third doubling as the coda; [117] "Blue Jay Way" uses four contiguous choruses, with the fourth doubling as the coda; [150] "Savoy Truffle" used two contiguous choruses, with the second doubling as the coda; [154] "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" uses four contiguous choruses immediately prior to the coda; and [133] "Cry Baby Cry" uses three contiguous choruses immediately preceding a musically independent coda, which is the same pattern used in "Let it Be".
Even more rare is the use of contiguous tags. At some point I will have to revisit my earlier formal analyses and include tags (I only started identifying tags about half way through), so I cannot say conclusively what other Beatles songs to date also feature contiguous tags. But only "In My Life" comes to mind off the top of my head. The macro-scale formal layout of "Let it Be" can be seen as two parts: the first comprised of a verse + a chorus (indicated below in red), the second of a verse + multiple choruses. In the middle are the two contiguous tags, and bookending the entire structure is the introduction and coda. While "For You Blue" appears on both Let it Be and Let it Be ... Naked, their formal structures are identical and their timings are 3 seconds off (the first 3 seconds of silence from the track on Let it Be is omitted on Naked) - close enough not to need both spelled out here.
Formal structure of [163] "For You Blue": Simple Verse (12 bar blues) Introduction 0:00-0:13 musically independent from the rest of the song Verse 1 0:13-0:35 Verse 2 0:35-0:57 Solo 1 0:57-1:20 Solo 2 1:20-1:42 Verse 3 1:42-2:05 Verse 4 2:05-2:32 Comments: "For You Blue" is another that uses contiguous verses. While it's very common to find other Beatles songs that follow verse 1 immediately with verse 2 ([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" are all examples), it is somewhat uncommon to find contiguous verses other than verses 1 and 2. In fact, "For You Blue" is just the 13th to do so, 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), [135] "Sexy Sadie" (in which verses 1 and 2 are contiguous, as are verses 3 and 4), [140] "Rocky Raccoon" (in which verses 1-5 are contiguous, as are verses 6-7), [143] "Dear Prudence" (in which verses 1 and 2 are contiguous, as are verses 3 and 4), and [157] "Dig a Pony" (in which verses 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and 5 and 6 are contiguous). In addition to contiguous verses, there are also contiguous solos. While a handful of Beatles songs to date have featured multiples solos ([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", and [160] "Get Back"), the only one to use contiguous solos was [38] "I'm a Loser". Formal structure of [162] "Dig It":
Fade in 0:00-0:15 Full volume 0:15-0:39 Fade out/Speaking 0:39-0:50 Comments: Yet another novelty song with an appropriately novel structure, "Dig It" is an excerpt from a larger jam session. Within it's 50-second framework, there are no verses, choruses, middle 8s, tags, solos, or any other standard formal designation to speak of. I have therefore analyzed it in terms of volume, which neatly divides the track into thirds. We do, however, hear a particular four-chord progression (F, B-flat, C, B-flat) repeated over and over again - a total of 10 times. At the end, overlapping the fade out is Lennon's falsetto Goon-style speaking that simultaneously concludes "Dig It" and introduced the subsequent and title track of Let it Be. Formal structure of [161b] "Maggie Mae":
Anacrusis 0:00-0:02 Verse 0:02-0:25 Middle 8 0:25-0:40 Comments: This one's another novelty song with an appropriately novel structure. "Two of Us" is found on both Let it Be and Let it Be ... Naked. They share formal structures, but the timings are different due to the inclusion of studio chatter in the introduction of the album, which was omitted on Naked. Formal structure of [161] "Two of Us":
Comments: This one's pretty simple and straight-forward structurally. I debated over whether or not to divide the verse into a verse and chorus where the meter changes to triple, but chose not to because despite using the same lyrics each iteration it simply doesn't have enough of an energy increase to justify that labeling.
The use of a tag is textbook - it introduces the first two verses, and returns in the coda. "Get Back" is unusual in the Beatles catalog because it actually exists in three similar but slightly different versions: as a single, on the album Let it Be, and on the 2003 re-make album Let it Be ... Naked. Since all three versions share formal designs, this blog will compare all three side by side. Formal structure of [160] "Get Back":
Comments: Setting a new Beatles record, "Get Back" is the first to use three different solos. Several previous recordings used two ([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"), but "Get Back" is the first to use three. All three versions of "Get Back" feature the same three solos: the first and third guitar solos played by John Lennon, the second an organ solo by Billy Preston. Two macro-scale patterns are at play in "Get Back": the first being the combination of verse + chorus, the second being the combination of solo + chorus + extension. Both appear twice, as illustrated below. Right in the middle is Preston's keyboard solo, all of which is bookended by the introduction and coda.
Formal structure of [159] "Don't Let Me Down": palindromic Single Introduction 0:00-0:06 based on riff from middle 8 Chorus 0:06-0:27 statement (4 m) restatement (4 m) Verse 1 0:27-0:57 statement (4 m) restatement (4 m) Chorus 0:57-1:22 Middle 8 1:22-1:47 Chorus 1:47-2:10 Verse 2 2:10-2:41 Chorus 2:41-3:06 Coda 3:06-3:35 Naked Introduction 0:00-0:05 based on middle 8 Chorus 0:05-0:30 statement (4 m) restatement (4 m) Verse 1 0:30-0:54 statement (4 m) restatement (4 m) Chorus 0:54-1:18 Middle 8 1:18-1:41 Chorus 1:41-2:06 Verse 2 2:06-2:30 Chorus 2:30-2:54 Coda 2:54-3:19 based on chorus Comments: "Don't Let Me Down" was not included on the album Let it Be, but it was released as a single, and was included on Naked. Though they share formal layouts, the two released versions do show substantial timing differences - the single is much slower than the version released on Naked, accounting for these discrepancies. In both versions, the formal design is palindromic structure with middle 8 serving as the keystone. This makes the song the 8th Beatles track to date to employ a palindromic structure, behind [33] "I'll Be Back", [74] "The Word", [93] "Strawberry Fields Forever", [94] "When I'm Sixty-Four", [97] "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", [98] "Good Morning Good Morning", [136] "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and [151] "Martha My Dear", (and the inverse palindromic formal designs of [57] "I've Just Seen a Face", and [114] "All You Need Is Love")
I am tempted yet again to call the guitar lick that opens the song and reappears frequently throughout a tag, but in this case it just feels better to include it as part of the section it follows. This is due in large part to the phrasing, which merges the lyrics and the potential tag, which is very different from past songs' tags, where the tags feel more independent and bridge two phrases rather than conclude a phrase like this one does. Formal structure of [158] "I've Got a Feeling":
Intro (v) 0:00-0:06 Verse A 1 0:06-0:41 Verse A 2 0:41-1:16 Middle 8 1:16-1:30 Verse A 3 1:30-2:05 Verse B 1 2:05-235 Transition 2:35-2:40, 2:40-2:45 Verse A & B 2:45-3:09 Coda (trans) 3:09-3:38 Comments: Unlike "Dig a Pony", "I've Got a Feeling" is identical in formal design on both Let it Be and Let it Be ... Naked. The timings are within a second or two of each other (the version on Naked is ever so slightly faster, accounting for the minute discrepancy), so there is little point is listing both. The only significant difference is that the studio chatter at the end of the track on the original album is omitted on the remake. "I've Got a Feeling" is just the 4th Beatles song so far to use multiple verses in the same song (precedents being [116] "I Am the Walrus", [144] "Glass Onion", and [156] "Julia"). Verse A is clearly dominant over verse B, being heard three times independently compared to verse B which is heard only once independently. In a Beatles first, the two verses are then combined - heard simultaneously - which functions as the structural climax of the song. The transition is a total of four bars, divided evenly. I am tempted to call some of the transitional material a tag, but it simply is not prominent enough to justify that labeling. Regardless, the coda uses the same chromatic guitar triplets that were used in the transition. "Dig a Pony" is the first in my series of structural analyses to be included on the album Let it Be. As a result of Paul McCartney's 2003 remake, Let it Be ... Naked, in addition to the fact that some of the songs from the album were also released as singles, means that there are as many as potentially three different versions of the same songs. Fortunately, with most of the tracks, the structures are identical, even if the timings are not. Where applicable, I will include multiple columns to illustrate the differences between the multiple versions. Formal structure of [157] "Dig a Pony":
Comments: This is one where structurally the song is identical on the two albums. The only thing that is different is the timing because Naked omits the studio chatter heard at the very beginning of Let it Be. The macro-scale formal design in both instances can be seen as three iterations for two consecutive verses + a chorus, with a solo inserted between the second and third such iterations, all bookended by an introduction and coda:
This pattern, of course, employs contiguous verses three separate times: verses 1 and 2, verses 3 and 4, and verses 5 and 6. While it's very common to find other Beatles songs that follow verse 1 immediately with verse 2 ([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" are all examples), it is somewhat uncommon to find contiguous verses other than verses 1 and 2. In fact, "Dig a Pony" is just the 12th to do so, 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), [135] "Sexy Sadie" (in which verses 1 and 2 are contiguous, as are verses 3 and 4), [140] "Rocky Raccoon" (in which verses 1-5 are contiguous, as are verses 6-7), and [143] "Dear Prudence" (in which verses 1 and 2 are contiguous, as are verses 3 and 4).
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