I’m sorry that nobody voted for Wait, The Word, or What Goes On. They’re easy to forget when you’ve got such heavy-hitters surrounding them, but they are really good songs. There’s a dark undercurrent in The Word that elevates it from a proto-All You Need is Love to something really interesting and a little tense. And I never realized how complex What Goes On is until I played it on Rock Band. It’s one of the more difficult guitar tracks!
“You won’t see me.” One night near closing time in a tavern I didn’t hang out in often a grizzled old guy with a guitar came in and asked me if I’d buy him a beer. We had a few and talked and he told me he’d been on the streets of this town for years and years scratching by playing guitar and singing on the street. After closing he asked if I wanted to hear a song. I said he didn’t need to but he insisted. So he sat down on step and played this song. He kept up the up beat tempo and sang in a gravelly yet clear voice. It was beautiful.
In My Life is probably my second favorite Beatles song of all time (after Dear Prudence). And I absolutely love harpsichord…though apparently it’s actually a piano played an octave low and then sped up for the final recording.