The Beatles (band): Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''And in the end~~ ~~

{{quote|''And in the end

The love you take~~ ~~

The love you take

Is equal to~~ ~~

Is equal to

The love you make''|"[[Grand Finale|The End]]"}}

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* [[Broken Record]]: "Wild Honey Pie" ("HONEY PIE! HONEY PIE!") and "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?", widely considered to be [[Incredibly Lame Pun|White]] [[Album Filler]].

** Also from "[[The White Album]]":

** ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' contained a few seconds of audio in the usually-empty runout groove of the record. On players that didn't have automatic pickup arm return (fairly common for cheaper players in the 1960s), this would loop forever, or until you got sick of it and turned it off.

** The lyrics of the last four minutes of "Hey Jude" consist entirely of "Na, na na, na na na na, na na na na, Hey Jude" being repeated. Nineteen times.

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** "[[Spelling Song|O-U-T spells out]]" - "Christmastime is Here Again"

** "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band":

{{quote| But I thought you might like to know~~ ~~

{{quote|But I thought you might like to know

[[Department of Redundancy Department|That the singer's going to sing a song]] }}

* [[Careful with That Axe]]: The creepy screaming on "Revolution 9", Ringo's quite unsettling "I'VE GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS" at the end of "Helter Skelter", and John Lennon's full-throated scream (after a blistering opening guitar riff) on the single version of "Revolution".

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* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: John Lennon is suspected to have been one of these.

* [[Comically Small Bribe]]: In 1976, ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' producer Lorne Michaels jokingly offered the ex-Beatles $3,000 to reunite and appear on the show.

{{quote| "Here it is right here. A check made out to you, The Beatles, for $3,000. All you have to do is sing three Beatles songs. ''She loves you, yeah yeah yeah.'' That's $1,000 right there. You know the words, it'll be easy."}}

{{quote|"Here it is right here. A check made out to you, The Beatles, for $3,000. All you have to do is sing three Beatles songs. ''She loves you, yeah yeah yeah.'' That's $1,000 right there. You know the words, it'll be easy."}}

** According to John Lennon in a 1980 interview, Paul was visiting John in New York City (during one of their very few friendly meetings post-breakup) and they were actually watching SNL. Apparently, they strongly [[What Could Have Been|considered going down to the studio]] but decided not to.

** George did show up in a subsequent episode in 1976, wherein he demanded the money. "$750 is pretty chintzy."

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** Of course, even in their "mass-marketed pop band" days the Beatles wrote original material and played their own instruments, which doesn't really fit this trope.

* [[Insult Backfire]]: All four were skilled at giving smart assed answers to criticism, but Paul may have achieved the crowning moment at a 1965 press conference:

{{quote| '''Reporter:''' In a recent article, Time magazine put down pop music. And they referred to "Day Tripper" as being about a prostitute, and "Norwegian Wood" as being about a lesbian. I just wanted to know what your intent was when you wrote it, and what your feeling is about the Time magazine criticism of the music that is being written today.~~ ~~

{{quote|'''Reporter:''' In a recent article, Time magazine put down pop music. And they referred to "Day Tripper" as being about a prostitute, and "Norwegian Wood" as being about a lesbian. I just wanted to know what your intent was when you wrote it, and what your feeling is about the Time magazine criticism of the music that is being written today.

'''Paul:''' Well, we were just trying to write songs about prostitutes and lesbians, that's all. }}

* [[Intercourse with You]]: "Please Please Me," "A Hard Day's Night," "Drive My Car", possibly "Revolution 9," "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?", and others.

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* [[Misogyny Song]]: Amazingly, they have two notable ones:

** "You Can't Do That" (from the ''[[A Hard Day's Night]]'' soundtrack) is from the POV of a jealous, possessive boyfriend who does not like his woman talking to any other men at all...

{{quote| ''If I catch you talking to that boy again,''~~ ~~

{{quote|''If I catch you talking to that boy again,''

''I'm gonna let you down, ''~~ ~~

''I'm gonna let you down, ''

''And leave you flat''~~ ~~

''And leave you flat''

''Because I told you before, OH,''~~ ~~

''Because I told you before, OH,''

''You can't do that.'' }}

** ...though, it's pretty tame in comparison to "Run for Your Life" (from ''Rubber Soul''). At its heart, the message of this song is that if you decide to end a relationship with the singer, he will brutally murder you if you don't escape him first.

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* [[Surreal Music Video]]: "Strawberry Fields Forever".

* [[Take That]]: George Harrison's "Only a Northern Song" is a swipe at Lennon and McCartney's publishing company, Northern Songs Ltd. Harrison wrote it to express his dissatisfaction over being screwed over on royalties from his own compositions. (The following year George would found his own publishing company, Harrisongs Ltd.)

{{quote| "It doesn't really matter what chords I play/What words I say/What time of day it is/Cause it's only a Northern song".}}

{{quote|"It doesn't really matter what chords I play/What words I say/What time of day it is/Cause it's only a Northern song".}}

** George certainly loved this trope, as his opening song on ''Revolver'', "Taxman", is a giant take that against Harold Wilson's supertax.

{{quote| "Don't ask me what I want it for/Ah ah, [[Harold Wilson|Mr. Wilson]]/If you don't want to pay some more/Ah ah, [[Edward Heath|Mr. Heath]]."}}

{{quote|"Don't ask me what I want it for/Ah ah, [[Harold Wilson|Mr. Wilson]]/If you don't want to pay some more/Ah ah, [[Edward Heath|Mr. Heath]]."}}

*** Actually, John wrote the part with Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. George went to John for help on "Taxman" durind a period of time when Paul had a grudge against George for a publicly unknown reason.

* [[Textless Album Cover]]: ''Abbey Road''

* [[This Is a Song]]: "Only a Northern Song"

* [[This Loser Is You]]: "Nowhere Man"

{{quote| "Doesn't have a point of view/Knows not where he's going to/Isn't he a bit like you and me?"}}

{{quote|"Doesn't have a point of view/Knows not where he's going to/Isn't he a bit like you and me?"}}

* [[Three Chords and the Truth]]: Much of their early stuff in particular was based around simple three-chord melodies; they started experimenting with various other formats later.

** Some of their later work -- on [[The White Album]], for example -- reverted to this format. They rarely did "folksy" acoustic songs in their early days, and so some of these later songs probably represent this trope more accurately.