The Beatles' Singles: Penny Lane

[00:00:07][music] Okay. Hi, James.

[00:00:20]>> Hi, Vinnie.

[00:00:21]>> And hi, everybody else that's uh joining in on us. Uh we're going to have some fun with uh Penny Lane today.

[00:00:29]And uh I guess uh James, why don't we just go right into it and give your little sort of preamble to the song.

[00:00:37]>> My little preamble before we get to the meat and potatoes. Yes. So for those in in the know andor interested, the first recording session for what became Penny Lane, which I believe the original working title was untitled, uh was on Thursday 29th of December 1966. And so I'm going to take this from the Beatles recording sessions or whatever that book is called by Mark Lewis. Um, which I'm sure he would be uh he would be cringing at because it's so out of date now. He wrote this decades ago. There's so much more research. But anyway, good enough for our purposes. He writes, "Interviewed in November 1965, Paul McCartney mentioned that he'd been toying with the idea of writing a song called Penny Lane because he liked the poetry of the name. Penny Lane was and still is the name of a road in the suburb immediately to the south of Liverpool city center close to where the Beatles grew up. It took another year for Paul to actually write the song, but with its description of the shops and the people in the blue suburban skies, his penny lane was a fine counterpoint to John's Strawberry Fields Forever.

[00:01:41]Quite why both men in their typically different ways should choose to write songs about Liverpool at this point in time when neither had lived there for more than 3 years is not known. But together, the two songs would form a dynamic se dynamite seemingly thematic February 1967 single release. Although of course at this time both were intended for the in the works album, not a single. One of the most distin distinctive aspects of Penny Lane would be its keyboard sound. And this entire evening, Thursday, 29th December 1966 session saw the recording of these parts. The most important contribution was the main piano piece. So Paul took great care in perfecting this, recording six takes until he was satisfied, although only the fifth and sixth were seen through to completion. This piano went on to track one of the four track tape. Happiest with the sixth take, he then began to apply the overdubs, working alone in the studio. Onto track two of the tape went another piano played this time through a Vox guitar amplifier with added reverberation to give an entirely different sound. Onto track three went yet another piano played at half speed and then speed it up on replay to give another different effect. A tambourine was also shaken for this overdub. So I guess that means the tambourine was also sped up.

[00:03:01]Interesting. Superimposed onto track 4 were two tone two-tone high-pitch whistles from a harmonium. Again fed through a vox guitar amplifier. Various strange percussion effects, one of them sounding at times like a machine gun.

[00:03:17]and extremely fast and sometimes drawn out symbol notes. This was as far as the recording went at this stage. The song was picked up again on the 30th of December where the next step was to mix these four tracks down to one and then begin the overdubbing process all over again. Two rough mono remixes were made of the recordings done so far. And then he gives a couple of paragraphs to talk about some of the other work they were doing at the time on When I'm 64 and Strawberry Fields Forever and making the remix um that mono and stereo mix for that and etc. And he ends this uh this date Thursday 29th December with further proof that the Beatles recordings had become considerably more complicated of late need not be supplied. [laughter] >> Well said.

[00:03:59]>> There you go.

[00:04:00]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:02]>> Yes. This was a very producy stage for the Beatles, you know, slapping on the colors and Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:10]One thing I'll always regret is that this double aside, Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane were not included on on Sergeant Pepper. I think it it would have added some sort of uh I don't know.

[00:04:24]It it they're just so perfect for the record, you know. I of course agree with you because these are masterpiece songs that have the thematic thing going on that would have worked so well on this album. Of course, it would have made an all-time great album, even greater. But you know what? I'm going to defend the album because uh Sergeant Pepper was never one of my favorite albums. It was it was all right. It's got some good songs, but it was never one of my favorite albums until the 2017 50th anniversary remix came out. And I don't know if it was the remix or just hearing it again in a different format, a different time, in a different context, but it really blew me away. It was especially I think the remix really brought out the bass >> on this album.

[00:05:11]>> It's so amazing. And um it really gave me a different perspective and I really started to appreciate Sergeant Pepper to the point where now I I still think Abby Road is my favorite. But now number two with you know Revolver Sergeant Pepper I could probably go either way. I I really really think it's a fantastic album.

[00:05:30]>> Yes, of course it would be better with these songs on it but it is what it is and you end up getting the best double A side ever released. Right.

[00:05:38]>> Yeah. Yeah. And uh God knows with modern technology like the penny lane I listen to to today was remastered and you know uh all the goodies really come out dimensionally then you know.

[00:05:50]>> Yeah.

[00:05:50]>> So uh yeah I get what you're saying. Um I don't know why maybe I should give that uh remaster another listen because I'm still not I don't know why Peppers doesn't really completely do it for me and I just don't know why. There's great Don't get me wrong. I mean, there's incredible stuff there. I don't feel like that New York Times uh critic I I sent you the article to just just about pan the whole thing.

[00:06:16]>> Don't forget to put that in the description for folks out there who might want to read it.

[00:06:20]>> Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's that's a good idea. I I have the link, right? Good.

[00:06:23]Yeah. Yeah, I'll do that.

[00:06:25]>> Yeah. An interesting uh contemporaneous, right? 1967 review in the New York Times.

[00:06:29]>> Contemporaneous. Yes, sir.

[00:06:31]>> And it's not uh it's not a fawning review.

[00:06:35]>> Yeah. So, um, we're about to discuss just what we discussed before the show started, which is the four on the floor piano. But before I do that, I want to talk about a certain chain of custody that sort of happens in the pop airwaves.

[00:06:53]Um, when I was listening, in fact, you know, I could have spent like a couple extra hours researching Penny Lane. Instead, I found myself a couple of extra hours researching Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys [laughter] >> really >> because I I felt a connection, right? I felt that there's a connection between these songs >> and uh I started listening to all this stuff and uh >> uh I I found out that uh Good Vibrations was indeed released before Penny Lane, right? And I I found out that in fact a lot of the motivation behind uh Paul's writing style in Penny Lane was from Good Vibrations, right? So if you listen to Good Vibrations, you're going to hear that dink dink dink, but it's faster. It's like dink. Uh uh jeez, I I I don't you know, I should have all the research I did did on it. I uh [music] >> [music] >> So anyway, that goes on very similar to Penny Lane. All right.

[00:08:03]>> Uh so I that's why I'm I was really happy to to discover that oh Paul was influenced by this because I heard it. I heard it really clear. And then when you hear the the Piccolo trumpet solo, right?

[00:08:18]Uh they're doing the Beach Boys, that really super high falsettto, you know.

[00:08:24]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:25]>> And that is totally Beach Boys. 1,000% Beach Boys influence right there.

[00:08:31]>> Uh >> which Brian Whistler should have been proud of. He really should have, >> you know.

[00:08:38]>> All right. First, I want to say this one thing. I have a good auditory imagination. So, when I was a kid, I wouldn't listen to records to figure out the chords of song. I'd listen to what was in my head when I, you know, kind of replaying in my head. And when I'd play Penny at Lane, first of all, I did it in C, but it's in the oddball key of B, whatever. But I'll do it in B. But what I heard was [singing and music] showing photographs, [music] right? Like that.

[00:09:10]But upon discovery, I found out that what we're hearing in the keyboard, the right hand of the keyboard is going uh [music] which is actually [music] Yeah. That's even reminiscent of Beach Boys in a lot of >> music. I was just thinking that sounds beachy when you isolated like that, doesn't it? Yeah.

[00:09:35]>> So, what now? I I was going these like is it is it an E? That second chord is that an E chord? Is it a a C sharp minor would which would both be the likely candidates. [singing and music] All right. The other one [singing] that was what I settled on, but it's still every time I listen it didn't sound right. And then prior to the show we discovered, oh, okay, wait a second.

[00:10:05]This is a B. and then [music] a B suspended fourth. So we're talking about two chords. Now if I sang the song without the bass part, you hearing photographs [music] of every head [singing] and so on, right? It doesn't quite fill in, but I have to do the bass part an octave higher because I can't won't get the low note on the guitar itself. But he's he plays um against this. [music] This bass part starts in a high register [music] and then he goes to [music] right down to the low. Um, and by the way, that's another thing. If you listen to good vibrations, the sound of the bass, [music] the actual tonal color, the tone quality of the bass is something Paul also picked up on.

[00:11:08]All right. If you listen if you AB the two songs, you'll hear the real influence and that was the great Carol K playing bass on that. So, uh anyway, okay. So, um so we have this chain of custody so far.

[00:11:25]We have Good Vibrations and we have Penny Lane. And then one thing that always I there's a song by the turtles [music] called uh Eleanor.

[00:11:35]And I always thought the ending of the song was a total rip of Penny Lane. You sing Penny Lane, right? And they sing uh Eleanor.

[00:11:46]>> No, they sing uh uh it's the same line as the Beatles. And and of course with Penny Lane, you had the sustained chord going. Penny Lane, right?

[00:11:57]>> They do the same thing. They sustain a chord.

[00:12:00]>> All right. So there's there's a third element in the chain right there is uh I don't think those guys were consciously trying to do Penny Lane, but they were consciously trying to course be as good as the Beatles. And honestly, that's a great song. They did a great job with some of their songs truly. Uh it's just that nobody had the prolific quality that the Beatles had. You know, I could I could claim uh songs from the Mamas and the Papas and Jimmy Webb and all these other people as being just as great as Beatles songs, but the thing was the output. The difference is the output. The Beatles just really put it out there. So anyway, um, [singing] [music] [singing] now my voice is in too high a register for you to hear the effect that the bass would have had, but point being that when you do these two chords, [music] so what it's sounding like is we're going from B [music] to G sharp minor >> [music] >> to C sharp minor but uh wait [music] right it's suggesting [music] and even uh like in the Wikipedia article about it they said it was a 1625 but the thing is they're not saying the they're not talking about the details.

[00:13:35]>> No, >> it's an implied 1625 because the bass is moving like that. If you just hold it like this, it's not going to sound like the song. [music] >> It's not going to do it. So, uh, yeah.

[00:13:47]So, there's that little bit. Uh, yeah. I'm glad I brought up the song Eleanor and Good Vibrations because it really like this was an era where there was like a a kind of reaching for that incredible sound that we get from Pet Sounds and from Sergeant Pepper, you know. So, we have that. Um, yeah. So, I I think my my main point in that is simply that we have actually two chords, but it sounds like four because of the bass movement.

[00:14:22]Right.

[00:14:23]>> I never you so I never consciously picked up on that, but when you were playing that bass line, I knew I was like, I'm hearing something. And when you say it's the 1625 Oh, yeah. Right.

[00:14:34]>> Yeah.

[00:14:37]>> Now, for viewers that don't know the term, audiate means musical imagination or auditory imagination, right? Um, so as a kid when I heard Eleanor Rigby, right, Elanor Rigby, when I heard Penny Lane, um, not only did I omit certain things, but I added certain things as well. And if I could sit and talk with Paul McCartney, I'd say to him, why did you make this choice? Because to me, there was a few obvious choices that did not happen.

[00:15:10]Okay.

[00:15:11]All right. So, let's go.

[00:15:15][music] [singing] [music] Pleasure to know. Uh oh. Sorry.

[00:15:23]Wait. Where am I? I'm B. [music] Wait.

[00:15:25]Oh, sorry. Ba. [laughter] [music] [singing] [music] Now, when we get there, the bass goes Right. Listen to that again.

[00:15:49][singing and music] [music] Right.

[00:16:00][music] Now, the funny thing is he hits an A note and that's what I filled in on the bass. All right. So, [singing and music] D.

[00:16:14]So now if he had hit that A note, we would have gotten a chromatic line, [music] right? But instead, it's kind of awkward because that and I always wondered that it it's that's something that Paul wouldn't have missed that chromatic line, but yet he and I'd love to pick his brain like, "Dude, why, you know, why'd you choose that?"

[00:16:46]Uh, secondly, when we get to the modulation to the next key, the song is in two keys. You know, if we want to talk about the form, it's basically a a b a a b a a b and then kind of a uh b and another b, but in a different key.

[00:17:04]They modulate up. All right. So, the song is in the key of B major for the verses and A major for the choruses. One of those classic whole step modulations that they were into. Okay.

[00:17:18]So, um, I'm gonna show you what I used to audiate in my head. Okay. So, uh, [singing] so first this [music] [singing] now we're going to go to the chorus.

[00:17:34][music and singing] Then he lane, right? That sound pretty fluid, right? It didn't sound bad or anything, but what they they again he's missing out on a line because he went [music] All right. He went from the F sharp sus 4 to F sharp. So we [music] get a B and A sharp. And if we had suspended the E, we would have gotten but he goes [music] which was to me that was in and in my mind that was going on in the song. I mean that's the way I heard it in my head. So whenever I played the song, I'd always go, [music] >> which uh yeah, it's just very surprising because >> can I speculate as to why he might have done that? Because you're absolutely right. It would be much more maleifuous, much more fluid if it did that um descent. But I think that moment is not meant to be maleifous. I think it's meant to be like a wake up, you know, it's coming here.

[00:18:40]>> It's meant to put you in the face a little bit. Yeah, that that's that's a good point because even the bass d right it's kind of okay we're going to cut here and yeah so yeah but that could have still happened with uh [music] da da da it could have still happened the cut but maybe he felt it was too noty or something because to me it just seemed like the obvious choice you suspended this chord why don't you suspend the next chord down you know Yeah. So, uh, so you notice I'm kind of picking at the song here. You know how much I love the song. It's one of my top 10 favorite Beatles songs, but I'm picking at it on purpose, you know, because I don't want to over glorify the song either, you know. Um, it's actually when I looked at it, I realized this is not a very complicated song whatsoever.

[00:19:39]If you take the, you know, when again you put the, you know, this is one of the problems I have as a as a guitar teacher is somebody says, "Teach me to play this song," and you have the guitar part, but then you have five other instruments laying over it and somehow you have to kind of get that all onto one guitar, you know?

[00:19:58]So, uh, the way I did that when I played it, I used to even fake the bass part.

[00:20:03]It was easier in C. I can't really do it in B, but you know that sort of thing. But the the basic bones, I didn't want to go through all the trouble through the entirety of the song. I would do it to kind of show off for a moment and then go into the regular chords. [music] >> [music] >> All right. Uh, so that is a 1625.

[00:20:44]All right. And that's the way I played it and that's what Wikipedia says is but when you when you deconstruct it, it's actually not it's just more suggestive of 1625.

[00:20:54]>> Well, it's like in the arrangement of it, right?

[00:20:57]Together, right? Like um you often talk about was it Beethoven hitting a Hendricks chord or something, but it's like you know in seven different instruments, right?

[00:21:06]>> Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Bach did a number really wild kind of avancard chords that he used to sneak in. I know that Beethoven is going to come up in a minute. A little bit later actually. Um we can talk about the trumpet solo and the P. Oh well, you know, wait a second.

[00:21:23]There's more production stuff. Let me go through the chords first. Okay. So what we have is a 1625 and B which amounts to uh B [music] Gsharp minor C sharp minor Fsharp B C sharp minor [music] Now the analysis here we're in the key of B major and suddenly we make a sudden jump to the minor key [music] of B minor. So that's called parallel minor. When you're in a major key like B and you change that root chord to a minor chord like B minor, that's considered uh uh a parallel change. All right? Moving from a parallel a parallel key is a minor key to a major key or a major key to a minor key with the same root which is B.

[00:22:13][music] All right. Uh so um now as is the case with [music] minor keys you have all this chromatic latitude meaning chromatic meaning note not no note note note note not no note down in steps like that. So what if he were to have gone to the A in the bass [music] [music] and just for argument sake since he sings that A note I'm going to say it's a B minor 7. All right because he does sing the minor 7. So here is the triad B minor right here. these three notes.

[00:22:52][music] When I put an A in the bass, some would call it B minor over A, meaning B minor with an A base. Um, but I call it B minor 7. It doesn't really matter much in this case. B minor 6 [music] because we're dropping that seven down a half step. Then G major 7 rather than calling it a B minor flat 6, which is not the I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me to you could call it B minor over G or B minor with a G bass, but really you're forming a G major 7 here. All right. So again, uh 1 6 2 5 1 6 1 minor 7 one minor 6 [music] and this would in in the key of B minor. This would be the flat 6 major.

[00:23:40]I won't go into that, [music] but it's doing a harmonic minor move here.

[00:23:46]There's only one key in which you could find a major chord [music] going down a half step to a dominant 7. Only one kind of scale type does this, and that is the harmonic minor scale. Whenever you hear this, [music] you know you're in harmonic minor.

[00:24:02]Melodic minor does not do that. Okay?

[00:24:05]And natural minor doesn't do that.

[00:24:08]So if I now I believe they just play an F sharp 7 there but it I mean just an F# uh [music] major there but it really doesn't matter because it's functioning like F# 7. So let me play through there.

[00:24:20]Uh [music] [music] now it's not purely an F sharp 7 because we have the suspension first then the suspension resolves [music] and then they suspend again and then resolve and then of course we're back to the key of >> [music] [singing] [music] >> So what happens there? All right. This is the linking chord. This is so beautiful the way this all works. And I think this is one reason why the Beatles use whole step modulations because there's so many there's a couple of chords in both keys that overlap.

[00:25:16]>> Okay. So, one revelation here is that when you're modulating down one whole step, the fourth the four chord in the original key is the five chord in the new key.

[00:25:29]>> Right. Exactly.

[00:25:30]>> And so what do they do to come back?

[00:25:33]>> All right. Well, we know that the F sharp 7, first of all, is the five chord that takes us to B, right?

[00:25:40]So, we're going from D. [music] [music] So, now, does that have a familiar ring to you somehow?

[00:25:53]>> It does sound par uh parallel relative to me. Yes.

[00:25:56]>> Bingo. Because if I were to play the F sharp up here, up up here, uh, [music] >> the Aolan ascent right there.

[00:26:12]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:13]>> So, that's where it comes from, but I don't know if I could actually use the theory for it, but it is an aolon ascent. In other words, it sounds like the parallel relative switch, but it would it. There's probably some connection or the other. Uh, yeah. Okay.

[00:26:37]All right. Let's Let's think about this for a sec. So, I'm in the uh Oh, wait.

[00:26:42]We're in the key of A, though.

[00:26:47]Yeah. It's Wow. It's kind of It's too much of a stretch. I mean, if we thought from the key of B that that move from D [music] to F sharp 7 would make sense, but we're in the key of A at this point.

[00:27:00]>> So, it's very very tricky the way that happens.

[00:27:05]I uh I'll you know what?

[00:27:09]>> Okay. So, is it possible that rather than a No, that doesn't make sense. I was going to say rather than a modulation, maybe it's an umbrella key or you know that we've switched into >> Yeah, I see what you're saying. And it's not that though. It really isn't that.

[00:27:23]>> No.

[00:27:24]>> But you know, when I was first developing the theory, >> I I was thinking that there's a connection not only between uh the two keys that I had set up originally for the music theory, but there's a connection also between two keys a whole step apart. And I have yet to crack that nut. But there's something to that, too.

[00:27:43]All right. So >> once we crack that, we get Penny Lane.

[00:27:46][laughter] >> Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

[00:27:49]Um, all right. One thing I I I didn't mention is uh first of all, the song is not even slightly reminiscent of John Lennon except in one way. Do you have any idea what that might be? It'd be it'd be a stretch for you to guess it, but >> Well, it starts on the first note singing right away.

[00:28:23]>> Bingo. That's it.

[00:28:24]>> Yeah, >> that's it. There's no introduction to the song, which Sean does in all the time, right?

[00:28:30]>> Yeah.

[00:28:31]>> Now, I'm again, I'm going to pick at the song here. What I don't like is the way the vocal comes in. It's clunky to me because he has the bass going penny lane. Uh in in in penny [clears throat] lane in penny lane there is a bar. And it would have been much better if he just did a single in penny lane. There is penny penny lane there is yeah uh something similar. But this is it just seemed too fast and too clunky and too weird uh for me, you know.

[00:29:08]But the song to me, the song is such a treat. I just adore it so much. You know that, James. And um should we talk about the trumpet solo?

[00:29:17]>> Now, we could uh All right, let's talk about the trumpet solo. There might be something else I might want to get into regarding that, but let's let's Yeah, let's talk about the trumpet solo.

[00:29:26]>> Okay, I can provide the uh the background story-wise to this solo. Um, there was an article about it a couple years ago when Paul McCartney asked an English trumpeter to play the painfully high Penny Lane piccolo trumpet solo.

[00:29:39]Uh, picture this. Paul McCartney watching TV in a mostly most ordinary scene and happening across footage of the English orchestral trumpeter David Mason performing a Bach Brandon Brandenberg concerto. So inspired he becomes that he knows he just must invite him to play on a new Beatles song he's percolating on. That's how the story of the notoriously high piccolo trumpet solo on Penny Lane starts. And then there's the rest of the information in this um article. But uh it goes on to quote um the the the trumpeter himself, David Mason. I took nine trumpets along and we tried various things by a process of elimination, settling on the Bflat piccolo trumpet. Uh we spent three hours working it out. Paul sang the parts he wanted. George Martin wrote them out. I tried them. But the recording actually the actual recording was done quite quickly. They were jolly high notes.

[00:30:30]Quite taxing. But with the tapes rolling, we did two takes as overdubs on top of the existing song.

[00:30:37]>> Jolly high notes. How British of them.

[00:30:39][laughter] That's [clears throat] one way to put it.

[00:30:42]>> Well, you know, I don't know how true it is, but one story I heard was that he complained that the note wasn't actually in the range of the piccolo trumpet.

[00:30:50]Right.

[00:30:52]And uh James, you know, in the on our one-on-one talks and our guitar lessons, you've heard this story a million times, but I got I gota I got to tell it for the sake of the listening audience is that my Beethoven story, right? There's a uh Beethoven wrote a cello concerto and he had one of the top chists of his uh neighborhood [laughter] come and uh play the piece for him. And the guy is looking at the at the music and uh he notes to Beethoven Ledwick this this note you can't even play it on the on the cello it's not there and he goes but it must be like that and you know I thought of that when I thought of Paul like you know like the Dave Mason going oh well the notes not there but it must be [laughter] oh by the way let's talk about the actual phrasing of the trumpet if I was thinking that Paul actually did write those lines and according to what you just read, he hummed those lines. And this is really remarkable when you think about it.

[00:32:01]There's all those quick triplet figures.

[00:32:04]Uh it's actually really surprisingly good and very surprisingly classical as well. That that that melody came out of his mind, you know. Um, >> it is certainly possible, to be fair, we weren't in the room, but it's possible that he had a slightly less intricate version of that melody and George Martin kind of spruceed it up with triplet figures and what have you.

[00:32:30]>> Or or Dave Mason himself.

[00:32:32]>> Or David Mason. Yeah, >> true.

[00:32:33]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. True. True. Yeah.

[00:32:37]>> But at any rate, it does. Yes, you can definitely tell once you find out, oh, this is basically Bach converted to the Beatles. Yeah. Okay. makes sense.

[00:32:47]>> You know, uh I was never a big fan until years later, but the guy's pretty pretty genius. I have to admit it. Um I just recently watched the Rick Biano interview with Billy Joel, pop songwriter Billy Joel. And Billy was name dropping a lot of people. Not not in a pretentious way. He just, you know, people he's met along the way. And he happened to mention, you know, they were they brought up the song I love you just the way you are. And Paul McCartney had commented to him, uh, I only wish that I had written that song.

[00:33:21]And Billy Joel said exactly my sentiment, too. First of all, he was like he said to Rick, can you imagine like Paul McCartney, you know, and he he just shook his head and said, the guy is a consumate melodist.

[00:33:37]And that's the way I think of Paul. his he his melodies are just remarkably fluid and they're just so natural crazy brilliant.

[00:33:52]All right. So I think uh I'm going to bring >> musically to state about the solo as in terms of the the melody itself.

[00:34:03]>> The melody itself is all dietonic. you know, >> it's uh dietonic, meaning it's just following the scale notes of the key.

[00:34:12]When it changes key, he changes with it.

[00:34:15]So, it goes from major to minor in that part of the solo. Um, now I'm going to bring something up that you might find interesting. All right, we're going to talk about the vocals, right? And I'm I'm trying to remember when this moment hit me, but I believe it was in high school, which doesn't make sense to me because I don't remember music being piped in uh through the speakers when we were having lunch or whatever in high school, but I seem to place myself there. And I'm hearing the song Penny Lane. And when it comes in summer meanwhile back the in summer it sound I thought it it sounded like John there's a little bit of listen to it there's a rasp in the voice right like a John Linen style rasp and um the other line I sit and meanwhile back that other line too I did a quick search and it is it's John sing that one little line which I don't know that was a fun little >> you know I've never even questioned question that I I think I've just always assumed it was John.

[00:35:22]>> Oh, you did? All right. Yeah, I I uh to me it was like a revelation when I heard it. I thought it was all Paul, you know.

[00:35:28]So, but uh only other thing maybe to comment on. Um first of all, I want to talk about the lyric uh Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes. I love that. I absolutely love that. You know, I remember in the 70s this uh nice guy folk music dude uh John Denver, right? Run country roads and all those nice woodsy songs.

[00:35:56][laughter] I remember I had a a bandmate back in high school that said, "Oh, I'm going to write a John Denver song. Trees, [music] mountains, lakes." [laughter] >> Yeah.

[00:36:13]Anyway, he's saying, "You fill up my senses."

[00:36:18]>> And I thought that's such a crappy, not poetic way of saying something, you know, I mean, I get his intention, but to say if he were to say, "You are in my ears and in my eyes." That that is so intimate. That's, you know, I just love that turn of a phrase.

[00:36:36]>> He definitely has a poetic voice in this song. And the nurse selling poppies from a trey who feels she's as if she's in a play as she is anyway.

[00:36:44]>> Yeah, there's definitely So, yes, this is definitely a psychedelic song.

[00:36:49]>> Oh, without question.

[00:36:50]>> At least part of that is of course the lyrical content.

[00:36:53]>> I think the lyric and and that's about psychedelia that I didn't mention with when we were talking about Strawberry Fields is on psychedelics certain sounds become like cartoon sounds. Like when a car rushes by, it'll sound like vroom like it would, you know, in a cartoon.

[00:37:10]You could even see the the letters spelled out V R O, you know. Uh, and a big like a lot of things I remember in my experiences like traffic and stuff like that would sound like trumpets.

[00:37:25]And when you listen to some of the trumpet stuff in Strawberry Fields and this too, there it is. It's very evocative of an LSD trip. It's very very subtle, but it it truly is evocative. Um there's something about the way the sounds are organized that that evoke it and it's a whole art form unto itself to to do that to actually evoke that sense, you know.

[00:37:52]Um what's the line? Do you know an offan for a fish and finger pies?

[00:37:59]>> Uh yes. I What what does that mean? Um I believe it is a dirty reference to a type of um sexual activity that young people might undertake. But >> Right. Right. Finger pie.

[00:38:12]>> Right. Right. Right. Which is typical like you know the Beatles sing tit tit and girl, you know.

[00:38:17]>> Right. Right.

[00:38:18]>> Uh they always you know they were they made those references. Then they got more kind of outfront. Why don't we do it in the road? But you know, [laughter] but yeah. Um, let me see if there's any point I missed here.

[00:38:37]I will just back up what you're saying about the sort of psychedelic nature of some of the soundsscape. And yeah, listening today to some of the uh the isolated percussion track and things, some of the sounds really are just bizarre. And I guess you kind of subconsciously kind of know that they're there when you hear the final mix, but it really does make me wonder why. Why did they even think to put that sound in there in that way? Like it's just it sounds so random and so weird and so left field.

[00:39:08]>> You kind of just accept it when it's in the finished mix. But >> well, that's part of the psychedelic thing. And again, it's a very very subtle thing. I don't even know if they consciously did this, but when you listen to the song, when it goes from verse to verse, >> sometimes you'll hear that uh that that kind of high-pitch piano that sounds like a uh harps accord [clears throat] and then you'll hear a piano the next time around instead doing more legato notes.

[00:39:32]>> Every time they do a verse, something like a different element is added in.

[00:39:36]And that is also very LSDish because like in other words if I hear that exaggerated vroom sound from a car and then I hear another car go by, right? If I have any sense at all, I go, "Oh, it was just a car."

[00:39:50]>> And you'll hear it in that moment, you'll hear it like a regular car, you know? So, there's this kind of >> acid is very strange drug. remember when when um when George was talking about their trip and they left uh the club and he's driving 10 miles an hour in his Mini Cooper >> and he said [clears throat] it was so strange because one minute everything to be just like it seemed to be just normal and then the next minute all of a sudden you're flooded with these wild hallucinations and stuff. That's the way it was. And I think the Beatles somehow managed to evoke that sense of going in and out of these states, you know.

[00:40:27]So I think that you know there's something to that. I want to talk about um the end of the song and and I told you about my little joke I used to play on people with this song but and [music and singing] so we're in the key of my eyes.

[00:40:43]Now beneath the blue suburban skies I [singing] sit and meanwhile [music] back instead of going to a verse now he sings Penny Lane again but in the new key of B. Penny Lane is in my ears.

[00:40:57]So, I remember when uh not too long ago, I maybe uh well, it was long ago, but uh I used to get together parties with people who knew Beatles songs and I'd have a guitar and I'd do Penny Lane and this is what I do. I trick them into singing the chorus higher and higher and higher and higher until it became impossible. So, it's like I'll I'll demonstrate. Here's the original key.

[00:41:21][singing and music] pain is in my ears and in my eyes.

[00:41:29][singing and music] Beneath the blue suburban skies I sit and lean while [singing and music] knock is in my ears and in my eyes. Now it should end right around here.

[00:41:42][singing and music] And this is what I do. I sit [singing] and wow I keep getting higher.

[00:41:55][singing] I sit [music] and wow back and I keep going higher and higher and higher until people like finally figured it out what's happening. I can't sing this anymore. [laughter] >> Yeah, it's a good trick. Well, it could just keep going forever. Why not? It could it could just keep cycling around and old step modulations.

[00:42:19]So yeah, that's Penny Lane, man. Um and that's this that's Vinnie. That's the Vinnie imagination with music.

[00:42:27]>> Is that the least subtle um McCartney modulation?

[00:42:37]>> I don't know. That's a question I'd really have to That's one of those things that you keep in the back of your mind and then you hear a song go, "No, this one >> because John certainly did some amazingly in-your-face modulations like Mr. Kite and stuff like that." But >> Oh, Mr. Kite is nuts. Mr. Kite is really nuts modulating because he's modulating a minor keys and whole steps. It's just so weird to do that.

[00:42:59]>> Yeah. Like it's definitely in your face.

[00:43:02]But M Paul usually very maleifluous.

[00:43:05]>> Very maleifluous. But to me, the modulation, even though it's a big one, is beautiful. It's just really gorgeous when it goes to that D to the F sharp.

[00:43:15]At least I think so. Um, so you know, uh, real quick, getting back to the four on the floor piano de, right? Uh, there are some somewhat modern bands that I've heard that I'd go, "Oh, they sound a little like the Beatles." And I couldn't figure out why.

[00:43:32]And then I realized they're doing that on the piano. And this all really came from uh from Brian Wilson. And the reason why you do four on the floor piano is because it's like um if I were to do if I didn't know how to strum, right, on guitar, right, but I could form chords, you know, penny if I just did penny lane is in my [music] ears [singing] and in my eyes just one two it would uh be easier to sing at the same time. you wouldn't have to juggle any uh coordination with your muscles. But if you're doing a complex rhythm, it's hard to sing. So the same with the piano, especially the piano. If you do a complex rhythm on a piano and try to write some music, it's gets harder because now you're fussing with the rhythm and learning how to play that instead of the melody. Right. So yeah.

[00:44:24]Well, you know, I'll differ with your analysis there because Howard Goodall reliably informs me from Brian Wilson, but Little Richard, who had the amazing innovation of putting eight beats in a bar, but Paul McCartney was the genius who put four beats in a bar. [laughter] >> Yeah, I don't know what that was about, but >> for people who don't know, I'm referencing Howard Goodall's BBC presentation on S Sergeant Pepper's Musical Revolution. So, we'll put that in the description. People can check it out. It's a great analysis of Sergeant Pepper generally, but that was a bit weird.

[00:44:58]>> Yeah. Yeah. I I I'll cut him slack for that bit of kind of like what, you know, like it's like saying the Empire State Building is tall. Oh, you know, uh but I'll cut him slack because he has the same passion that I have for this song.

[00:45:15]Uh Penny Lane, he he gets it. It's like it's just so brilliantly written. Uh, you know, I could not find the quote. I I hate AI sometimes because it can't figure out what you're trying to ask it.

[00:45:27]Um, I was trying to find there was a quote. It may be from Ian McDonald's book, but about Paul's song for no one, and it was described as somebody the like the composition itself was like somebody making masterful chess moves from one section to the next. And I tried to find the quote. I can't find it. But I feel this way about Penny Lane, too. If you listen, give it a good close listen, you know. Um, and listen to the color changes that happen. You know, Paul even said he was going for a clean sound in these days, right? He wanted a clean sound, which means, which I think meant to him, all the colors of the song must stand out on their own, you know?

[00:46:14]Uh but listen to like compare a verse to another verse and listen to what the changes are, you know, just absolutely.

[00:46:22]And by the way, not not to to put aside his bass playing in this is is wonderful. It's just like the melodic baselines in this are just wonderful.

[00:46:32]To be fair, this is one of those songs that I was never a huge fan of growing up and I always preferred Strawberry Fields, but you convinced me to listen to it and relisten to it over the years and I have a much deeper appreciation for it. I find for my taste, the thing that makes me appreciate the song the most is listening to the just the piano track.

[00:46:54]>> Huh. Yeah. I once I can appreciate it on that level because there just does seem to be too much flowery kind of orchestration going on. But just the chords themselves are good.

[00:47:06]>> Yeah, it's funny. Um, right now I'm on kind of a a Beach Boys Brian Wilson thing and I just today I was well I was working with a student on some on some song and then I said, "Well, this reminds me of uh California Girls and I figured out the chord progression to the intro, which for some reason on a guitar you can't make it sound like the song.

[00:47:31]It It's weird. Uh [music] this chord uh uh [music] [singing] [music] there's a seventh in there, but it doesn't sound like the one they're doing. And I tried also I tried putting the seventh in bass. [singing and music] That doesn't do it. But uh anyway, that led me on to this guy is more into jazz and doesn't really, you know, have a thing for pop music. And uh I I went through the entire song and showed him how brilliant the chord movement is in that song. It's just amazing. Uh and I said, "Have you heard Good Vibrations?"

[00:48:19]And he said, "Uh, no." I said, "I'm going to send you a a clip of Good Vibrations." And today I was looking at uh some of the breakdowns and stuff like that of that song. And uh that's one of those songs where if you separate out different parts like you know like you said isolate parts you'll find that oh my god that's in there you know and that adds to the texture of the song. It's really it's cool. It's very cool and Paul was good at that. Yeah.

[00:48:47]Anyway, that's it for the night I suppose. James, what do you think?

[00:48:51]>> I think we've probably covered the bases here.

[00:48:55]But if anybody has anything else to add, please let us know in the comments.

[00:49:00]>> Yeah, if they do, in fact, damn, I there was some question I did have that I wanted to leave for the viewers, and I can't remember what it was. Maybe it'll come to me and I'll I'll pin it.

[00:49:11]>> Here's my question. Have people out there been to Penny Lane?

[00:49:16]I did take the bus tour, the magical mystery bus tour a couple years ago in Liverpool and we did go to Penny Lane and caught the picture. So >> that's awesome. Yeah, >> it was it was it was nice to put a place to the song.

[00:49:29]>> Yeah, that's wonderful. Did you also see Strawberry Fields or >> Sure did. Yeah, >> that's amazing. It's amazing how those are now historical places, you know.

[00:49:38]>> Yeah.

[00:49:40]Yeah. My kids uh probably failed to appreciate it as much as I did, but uh >> one day they'll they'll look back. You know, I was just looking at that quote, that famous quote from Brian Wilson, talking to some guy named Larry, and he said, like, I tell you, Larry, in the year 2000, the kids are still going to be listening to the Beatles. Think of how long ago that was. And it's really true. It's really true. Yeah. And and they're even still being discovered by young people today. So, >> you know, I was just thinking today, just on a final note, so I was uh thinking today from the perspective of someone who would be a, you know, skeptical like, okay, the Beatles, wow, what a hot take. You like the Beatles, whatever. And I have to concede, yeah, it's not exactly the most original musical take, but whatever. But I was I was consciously thinking, you know, it is impossible for anyone in the at least in the western developed world, hey, even in Japan, to have not heard a Beatles song in their life, even if they didn't know it was a Beatles song, you have heard it. And I was thinking about, you know, even here in Japan, it's it's on there's music versions and convenience stores and restaurants. I went to a ramen restaurant that just played just Beatles, infinite [laughter] beat of like all their songs mixed together. It's crazy. Um, and as so I was thinking this and then I stepped into a convenience store like 10 minutes later and there was, you know, there was a a cover version of uh uh Got to Get You into My Life.

[00:51:14]>> Wow. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:51:15]>> It's ubiquitous and for a reason. Damn it.

[00:51:20]>> Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. The for a reason. I mean, those once you hear Once you hear a Beatles melody, it's hard to get rid of it. is very recognizable.

[00:51:30]>> Exactly. All right. Well, um I'm looking forward to the next time we do this.

[00:51:36]>> Yes. And we must discuss offline or well online, but uh discuss what it's going to be.

[00:51:42]>> Yeah. Up there. Thank you.

[00:51:45]>> All right. Thank you.

[00:51:47]>> All right, everybody. Have a good uh day or night, wherever you're viewing from, and we'll see you again. Take care.

[00:52:04]>> [music]