The Beatles Bible - Topic: medley(s)?

exarctly on medley(s)?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 03:18:55 +0000

Great thoughts... and the fact that the Golden Slumbers brings back older melodies is a very relevant point, as is the fact that silence can be considered a musical effect. Add to that the fact that The Beatles themselves obviously consider all the songs to be part of the medley. So I accept it as a medley. Though, I still think that technically the definition of a medley may be violated by having the silence, as I think of medley as something consisting of a string of continuous pieces put together. So, maybe I would have preferred a cross fade ...

Long John Silver on medley(s)?

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:03:22 +0000

Zig said

Long John Silver said
One question, who plays 2:48 guitar part:

sorry for off topic but i found it silly to open a topic just for this part.

I always assumed it was George. It has the same sound as that found in 'It Don't Come Easy'.

BOT: To me, the medley begins with 'Because' and ends with 'The End'. I do find the theory of two separate medleys interesting, however.

Yeah it was probably George. I was wondering though, which part John plays?

sky090909 on medley(s)?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:43:26 +0000

exarctly said
You know, I have a hard time calling all the tracks from 'never give me your money' to 'the end' one medley. Seems to me that the medley already completely resolves and dies after She Came in through the Bathroom Window. Then a second medley from Golden Slumbers to The End happens.

Maybe I am too picky. I get the point. But anyone else ever think this?

I think this too. For me the first medley begins with "Sun King" and ends with "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window". The second one begins with "Golden Slumbers" and ...

vonbontee on medley(s)?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:36:51 +0000

Absolutely. How lucky are we that John never got his way and had his songs segregated by side?

mja6758 on medley(s)?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:59:06 +0000

I always feel like Because is part of the medley. To me it feels like a prologue. Then you head into the medley proper, with its intake of breath at the end of Bathroom Window before the build-up to the climax. And then there's that funny little postscript at the end. One of the most sublime sides of music ever recorded.

vonbontee on medley(s)?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:41:59 +0000

In my more insane moments, I've imagined that "Here Comes The Sun" and "Because" feel sad and excluded - stuck on Side Two but not allowed to participate in the medley(s), and not allowed to cross the street to play with the bad kids on Side One either!

Zig on medley(s)?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:38:04 +0000

Long John Silver said
One question, who plays 2:48 guitar part:

sorry for off topic but i found it silly to open a topic just for this part.

I always assumed it was George. It has the same sound as that found in 'It Don't Come Easy'.

BOT: To me, the medley begins with 'Because' and ends with 'The End'. I do find the theory of two separate medleys interesting, however.

vonbontee on medley(s)?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 06:45:56 +0000

That's interesting...I knew how "Her Majesty" came to be excluded and reinstated by Paul, but I never read anything about the other three being pissed off.

robert on medley(s)?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:18:18 +0000

Regarding the use of the word "medley" I think calling it a "suite" is a better and more accurate term.

Regarding Her Majesty, if memory serves correctly, (as accurately described above) the song was cut, not to be thrown out (per EMI) and tagged onto the end lead tape. When it was played back McCartney was there, the engineer said, "I'll remove that" McCartney told him not to remove it but to leave it. The rest of the Beatles did not know it was there until after everything had been done (including the back cover song listing) and they were pretty ...

meanmistermustard on medley(s)?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 08:53:17 +0000

Right after that line in The End there are harmonies by all 3 so Paul gets the two words but you end with John, Paul and George and their glorious harmonies, a part of their music that still capture onhearers.

There is also the case that Her Majesty wasnt listed on the cover so The End was at the end of the tracklisting, Her Majesty being a hidden track to listeners who would get the shock of their lives hearing that crashing guitar chord after fourteen seconds of silence.

vonbontee on medley(s)?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 06:06:26 +0000

unknown said

And even so, he kind of would have had the last word anyways; The End was mostly his song.

He wrote it, yes. (Somebody had to!) But it feels more like a full band effort, since everybody gets their turn in the instrumental-solo spotlight. An unprecedented and remarkable occurrence in the band's recorded legacy! And finally, the final lyric is sung by Paul, John and George harmonizing together, instead of just Paul alone. exceptthefinaltwowordsyoumakewhichareindeedsungbypaulaloneyeahiknow

LongHairedLady on medley(s)?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:22:24 +0000

unknown said
And even so, he kind of would have had the last word anyways; The End was mostly his song.

True that. Speaking of that, I love this quote:

In his 1980 interview with Playboy, John Lennon acknowledged McCartney's authorship by saying, "That's Paul again ... He had a line in it, 'And in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give,' which is a very cosmic, philosophical line. Which again proves that if he wants to, he can think."^[3] Lennon misquoted the line; the actual words are, "And in the end, ...

unknown on medley(s)?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 04:48:02 +0000

And even so, he kind of would have had the last word anyways; The End was mostly his song.

LongHairedLady on medley(s)?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 04:02:28 +0000

vonbontee said
And then, oddly, Paul gets the last word (kind of annoyingly so.)

I remember reading this before, but I grabbed the quote off wikipedia to be sure:

"The song was originally placed between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam"; McCartney decided that the sequence did not work and the song was edited out of the medley byAbbey Road Studios tape operator John Kurlander. He was instructed by McCartney to destroy the tape, but EMI policy stated that no Beatles recording was ever to be destroyed. The fourteen seconds of ...

Egroeg Evoli on medley(s)?

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:04:04 +0000

meanmistermustard said
I find the space between Bathroom Window and Golden Slumbers to be a touch of genius: its gives me a moment to get a fresh gasp of air before being sucked back in for the breathtaking finale (Her Majesty being the ditty as the curtains raise).

That's a good way of putting it.