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7.26pm
10 March 2017
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No worries, it’s happened to me before, I just didn’t want to derail that other thread so I moved the discussion here.
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11.59pm
24 March 2014
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Dark Overlord said
Anyways, why do you consider Yesterday musically simple Holey, I always thought I was fairly complex, especially with it’s chord progression of:G F#m7 B7 Em Em7/D Cmaj7 D G G/F# Em D C G (technically F Em7 A7 Dm Dm7/C Bbmaj7 C F F/E Dm C Bb F)
In progression numbers, that’s:
I bvii7 III7 vi vi7/V IVmaj7 V I I/#VII vi V IV I
Did you mean it as in there’s not a lot of instruments in the song.
Why do you think it is a complex chord progression? It’s pretty simple indeed.
F major and its minor relative Dm. Simple thing. Paul did something quite similar in “And I Love Her “
Also, you got a few chords wrong. No Cmaj7 as that means the 7th of the chord is major, in this case the 7th of C is B and it is not major at all since it is B flat. So the correct notation is just C7.
Same thing for Bbmaj7
And bvii7 is also wrong. The 7th grade has no b in this case. If you say F and then Em7 then the numbers should be: I – vii7
And not bvii.
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2.11pm
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14 April 2010
Offline Now, when I hear this song, I am always reminded of Paul’s insistence on how the strings were played and glad for it.
After attempting an unrecorded arrangement of Yesterday with John Lennon on Hammond organ, George Martin suggested to McCartney that they use a string quartet – a first for The Beatles.
McCartney was initially skeptical, and insisted the musicians perform without vibrato.
Until I read that, and not being a musician myself, I could never quite put my finger on why I enjoyed the quartet on this track so much more in comparison to other pop songs containing strings. A perfect example would be the Stones’ ‘As Tears Go By’. It’s a tremendous song, but to my ears, it would have sounded much better and a bit more moody had the strings been less frilly.
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2.21pm
10 March 2017
Offline Shamrock Womlbs said
Why do you think it is a complex chord progression? It’s pretty simple indeed.
F major and its minor relative Dm. Simple thing. Paul did something quite similar in “And I Love Her “
Also, you got a few chords wrong. No Cmaj7 as that means the 7th of the chord is major, in this case the 7th of C is B and it is not major at all since it is B flat. So the correct notation is just C7.
Same thing for Bbmaj7And bvii7 is also wrong. The 7th grade has no b in this case. If you say F and then Em7 then the numbers should be: I – vii7
And not bvii.
Can’t believe that i didn’t notice this one. I took the chords from Beatles To A Tee, it’s a very accurate direct to DVD series made by a guy named Rob Taylor who cares about The Beatles and wants to put accuracy into his guitar lessons and he said Cmaj7, not C7 although he could be wrong.
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3.52am
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17 December 2012
Offline Added to The Beatles Vevo Channel, erm, yesterday, the Ed Sullivan performance of Yesterday :
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7.08pm
10 August 2011
Offline “Why she had to go, I don’t know, she wouldn’t say…”
Does anyone think that, on some level, the woman he’s thinking about in this song could be … his mother?
He was only 24 when he wrote the song; his mother died when he was a young teenager.
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7.51pm
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20 August 2013
Online From the previous page:
Shamrock Womlbs said
Is it about Jane Asher or about his mother?Anyways, i think nowadays it might have plenty of other meanings to him… Maybe he thinks a bit of Jane, his mother, John, George, Ringo, The beatles, his father, relatives, George Martin, …ya know…the good old days…
Then…
Zig said
Why she had to go I don’t know she wouldn’t say
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterdayIs Jane Asher really the “she” in the song? This is the first time I’ve read that. If it’s true, may I please have the source?
I always thought “she” was a fictional character, similar to ‘Lovely Rita ‘. If “she” was a real person from his life, it would make more sense to me that it was his mother. I say that because of what Paul said after being told she was dead; “The first thing I said was, What are we going to do without her money?”. To me, his regret over thinking/saying that fits the lyric “I said something wrong”.
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8.48am
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15 February 2015
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I believe I’ve heard that theory somewhere before.
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3.35pm
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1 May 2011
Offline Does anyone know if there is a connection between ‘Yesterday ‘ and the lyric “Well, yesterday was such an easy game for you to play” from the Kinks ‘Where Have All The Good Times Gone’ or if it’s just coincidence?
The Kinks track was released in November 1965 but i have no idea when it was recorded. With ‘Yesterday ‘ out in August I’d imagine Ray Davies knew of the lyrics.
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3.50pm
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17 December 2012
Offline It’s quite possible, @meanmistermustard. It was definitely recorded after the release of Yesterday , dating from the sessions for The Kinks Kontroversy between 23-30 October 1965, and first released as the b-side to Till the End of the Day on 19 November 1965.
It’s very close, just two words inserted, to think it purely coincidental.
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11.37am
15 May 2015
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Forgive me Father McKenzie & Eleanor Rigby for my sacrilege, but “Yesterday ” I find to be a rather insipid song, surely among those rare few Beatles songs I don’t much care for. Sure it has fleeting flashes of poignancy, but overall it is to me underwhelming.
I must add, though, that its potential was brilliantly mined by Ray Charles; indicating that in this case, Paul’s flat affect style, which works well in other songs (e.g., “Here, There, and Everywhere”; or “I Will “), doesn’t suit it.
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3.18pm
26 January 2017
Offline Pineapple Records said
Forgive me Father McKenzie & Eleanor Rigby for my sacrilege, but “Yesterday ” I find to be a rather insipid song, surely among those rare few Beatles songs I don’t much care for. Sure it has fleeting flashes of poignancy, but overall it is to me underwhelming.I must add, though, that its potential was brilliantly mined by Ray Charles; indicating that in this case, Paul’s flat affect style, which works well in other songs (e.g., “Here, There, and Everywhere”; or “I Will “), doesn’t suit it.
I disagree. I think it’s a perfect song – perfect melody, perfect lyric, perfect music. It’s one of those songs that sounds like it wasn’t written, but discovered. As if the song was always there, Paul just happened to be the one to discover it.
That said, the song only has so much emotional value for me, and I’d choose Two of Us or In My Life over it any day.
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10.43am
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20 August 2013
Online Why she had to go, I don’t know
She wouldn’t say
I said something wrong
Now I long for yesterday
Is it narcissistic of Paul to assume that the reason she left is because of something he said?
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9.42pm
30 April 2019
Offline Ahhh Girl said
Why she had to go, I don’t know
She wouldn’t say
I said something wrong
Now I long for yesterday
Is it narcissistic of Paul to assume that the reason she left is because of something he said?
That is possible. Personally I interpret it as he just hasn’t the faintest idea what he could’ve possibly done wrong (
), but it’s actually something stupidly obvious that he should already know is bad.
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15 February 2015
Offline I don’t think it’s narcissistic to blame oneself for something like that, even when it wasn’t anything to do with them really. People often do feel that way, ‘Is it my fault? It must be my fault. I could have, should have, done something differently…’
Or also what Kaniffee said.
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9.53pm
30 April 2019
Offline Beatlebug said
Or also what Kaniffee said.
I had a good long chuckle at that
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15 February 2015
Offline PWT but what you wrote seems reasonable as well, pretty much how I’d have interpreted it. You’re welcome for the laugh. 
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11.04pm
6 May 2018
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9.47am
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15 February 2015
Offline Funnily enough I just saw that video pop up in my YT recommendations yesterday (ha.) I didn’t watch it at the time, but I have noticed that myself and I always sing it close to how Paul does because I disregard sheet music anyway. 
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9.51am
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15 February 2015
Offline hehe this is such an old post and sorry to double-post but
@QuarryMan said
I think it’s a perfect song – perfect melody, perfect lyric, perfect music. It’s one of those songs that sounds like it wasn’t written, but discovered. As if the song was always there, Paul just happened to be the one to discover it.
That said, the song only has so much emotional value for me, and I’d choose Two of Us or In My Life over it any day.
that’s exactly how I feel about this song. It’s almost too perfect for me to form an emotional connection. I also think Paul is responsible for discovering quite a lot of perfect songs, like “Blackbird ” and “Let It Be “, and they’re popular for good reason, but as for emotional resonance with me personally, it’s a bit hit or miss – Blackbird I do certainly feel that, Let It Be not so much.
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