Dude. So, Paul McCartney performed A Day in the Life live.
Whoa.
According to Rolling Stone, where I read it before immediately zipping over to YouTube, it’s the only time a Beatle has performed the song live. McCartney seemed to have gotten his hands on the original orchestral orgasm to use in the performance. Yoko Ono is in the audience, and she isn’t screaming bloody murder, so I can only assume that he cleared it with her first. (In the same Rolling Stone issue, there’s a picture of Paul, Yoko and Olivia Harrison together on a different occasion. Are Paul and Yoko friends or something now? I think it has been a couple of years since she last sued his ass, but I’m still mildly frightened.)
Most amazing of all? It doesn’t make me want to throw things across the room. Even though Paul flubs a line . . . since the one he flubbed is his own. (Dork.) That is, until he decides to replace the last verse of the song inexplicably with a cover of Give Peace a Chance. I don’t know WHAT to make of that.
A Day in the Life is, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many others, the greatest Beatles song ever. It’s quite possibly my favorite song ever. It might just be the best fucking song ever, period. Yup, I said it. It’s sheer brilliance, a beautifully John-dominated Lennon/McCartney. It might be Lennon’s greatest song-writing moment. It is also, again in my opinion, quite possibly the best Lennon vocal. (For me, it’s an impossible toss up between A Day in the Life and Stand By Me. The vocals for the two are both so natural and yet both so different.) I can’t help but close my eyes and be carried away every time I hear it. Something about John’s voice in this song, I can’t put my finger on it, but it just makes me want to weep. It’s impossibly lovely, and strangely heartbreaking. Lennon gets most of his credit for song-writing, but Christ do I think that he was an amazing singer.
Because I can’t not include it, the original track, with the awesome, surreal original promotional video. It’s footage from the night that they recorded the orchestral part of the song.
I’ve been having quite the stressful week. But the Beatles? They always make it better. So you’ll just have to deal with the gratuitous Beatles videos. (Or thank me!) It’s also really noteworthy that Paul McCartney has done something Beatles-related — more specifically, something John-related — and I don’t really feel the desire to punch him. What the hell, Macca? You really seem to have toned down the insufferable douchiness these past couple of years. If you actually get the fucking Beatles remasters out in the near future, I just might have to stop hating on you so much.
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Honestly, I wasn’t wowed by it – though it is a fucking amazing song, I think it’s one of the few songs where the recording’s going to be better than a live version (and obviously, better when it’s not just Paul). That said, I actually did like the Give Peace a Chance at the end. I mean it seems clear why he’s choosing to do the song *now*, and that drives it home.
Oh yeah — I mean, I’m unconvinced that The Beatles themselves could have topped the recorded version by performing it live. Actually, their recordings were usually better than their live performances, which is impressive because especially in the early days, they were an excellent live band and always amazed me with their ability to pull off really complex melodies. But they were perfectionists in the studio, and George Martin was an amazing producer, so it’s going to be difficult to meet or ever exceed that in a live setting.
But I think that as far as things go, Paul did a very competent job.
I didn’t mind Give Peace a Chance in general, it just didn’t seem to fit with A Day in the Life at all, the transition didn’t really work, and I would have greatly preferred it if he had just finished the damn song. My feeling on why he did it was as some sort of acknowledgment that it was a tribute to John, that it was primarily John’s song, and he wasn’t trying to usurp credit for it or anything. But he also could have done the same thing by finishing A Day in the Life and adding Give Peace a Chance as a little coda at the end. Like maybe fading out of the final crashing chord or something.
“McCartney seemed to have gotten his hands on the original orchestral orgasm to use in the performance.”
Re-read that sentence and tell me if that wasn’t a Freudian typo, love. :)
This pretty much blew my mind this morning. Thanks.
Nope! “Orchestral orgasm” is how George Martin has always referred to it, along, I believe, with at least some of the Beatles themselves. (I’m thinking that this might have been how John described the sound to George Martin, that he wanted it so build up like an orgasm. Don’t have the time to go through every Beatles book I own right now and verify, though.) I always thought that it was an excellent, accurate description and have never heard a better one for it.
Unless you meant my use of the phrase “gotten his hands on” in the same sentence as the word “orgasm”? To which I could only say that the simultaneous thought of Paul McCartney and actual orgasms makes me go “Ewwwwwwww.”
Hey why the hell not.
Thank you for this.
I love the Beatles so much.
. . . Why the hell not what, Lynn?
Word.
Pop Feminist, I’m glad you saw this! I almost emailed it to you :) I’m still waiting on the rest of your You Don’t Like The Beatles . . . WTF? series!
Thanks for linking those. Brilliant.
But you really shouldn’t be surprised when people used to getting their way display irritating selfishness ;)
And, I think it’s kind of best when Give Peace a Chance is used as an addendum. On it’s own, it’s really blindingly annoying. Great sentiment, horrible execution.
I actually play A Day in the Life alongisde Good Morning Good Morning and the reprise of Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
A Day in the Life is the last song in the three-song medley.
I’m on it! I’m on it! In the meantime, have you seen this? Love Letters to the Beatles is the greatest. book. ever.
http://popfeminist.blogspot.com/search?q=letters+to+the+beatles%3A+revolutionary+texts
What do you think of Imagine?
I like the way you always mark the anniversary of John’s murder with a tribute post – he was taken too soon
What do I think of Imagine? Well, like any good Lennon fan, it’s one of my favorite songs. I like how John always described it for what it was in interviews — a socialist manifesto, but dressed up real pretty so that the masses can easily digest it. It’s funny how so many people fail to actually get the song. But I do think it’s quite brilliant, in addition to being an impossibly lovely piece of music, that he truly managed to capture in such a short time the sources of all real conflict in the world — in order: fear of the unknown, nationalism, religion and greed/jealousy.
There are three songs that I can listen to when things feel really hopeless that make me feel like things are going to be okay: Imagine, Let it Be, and Lennon’s version of Stand By Me. Good old Lennon and McCartney.
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