THE BEATLES – "Paperback Writer"

Oh, right. It’s not a double-‘A’ side. Right.

Resurrection Watch: 10CC had a crack at this. likewise The Shadows, Herb Pederson, some guy called Paul McCartney, and — of course — Kris Kristofferson. As with other Beatles songs, soundtrack and advertising use is thin thin thin. Likewise, a fairly popular choice on those Beatles Hits Go… [Latin] / [Moog] etc albums. And somehow, part of a Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers medley.

One of my favourites from the Red and Blue albums as a wean, probably because there’s not only a story, but a a story where you have to fill in lots of gaps yourself. and one of my favourites as a nominal adult, for reasons I’d find harder to explain.

The meta-hackwork idea fits pretty well with the piss-taking “Frere Jacques”es in the backing vox. Goes to show how reliable my ears are. I’d listened to the song over and over again, was told about the Frere Jacques, didn’t believe it for a moment, and then went back.

probably one of my least favourite beatles songs, a smug pseudo-mod trifle with perhaps the most overrated b-side in pop history.

Doctor Mod says,

“Paperback Writer” and its b-side “Rain” are a watershed in the Beatles career–for better or worse, depending on one’s preferences. In the multi-volumed Beatles Anthology CD, there’s a clip of the group performing PW in Japan–bloody awful, and they knew it. By this time they’d started their audio experimentation–the vocals are multi-tracked, in quadruplicate, if I remember correctly–and thus they could no longer reproduce the sounds of their recordings live. This, along with the stress of constant touring for nearly five years, ended their live performances, with the exception of those before a limited audience at the end of their collaboration (e.g., “Hey Jude” and “Get Back”).

I had recently been considering writing a book chapter on British pop satire from the 1960s to the 1990s. Strange, but I’d somehow imagined that the Beatles were among the great rock satirists, but upon looking for examples I realized that satire wasn’t really their strongest suit. The Kinks and the Rolling Stones were far more adept when it came to it. This is probably one of the more notable examples of Beatles satire, surprisingly written by McCartney. (If one wants “Beatles” satire, one should look to Lennon’s solo albums. And yes, yes, I know–one could offer any number of examples, particularly from the White Album, but from a literary point of view, the satire is generally too obvious, too overdone, or not sufficiently sustained.)

This is pretty good satire, though, and probably the most intelligent lyric McCartney ever wrote, inasmuch as it evinces his awareness of a world outside of the emotions–or, for that matter, himself.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this recording, though, is not simply the fact that this is such a radical departure from the group’s previous singles, both lyrically and musically, but that it actually sold so well. I’m not sure that my fellow fifteen-year-olds completely fathomed its meaning, but we were intrigued all the same. (I didn’t hurt that it had a great beat–who says Ringo Starr was not an incredible and innovative drummer?) Still, I don’t think that anyone but the Beatles could have taken such a song to the top of the charts, and I’d argue that it’s compelling evidence of the extent to which they were near-absolute arbiters of style and taste at that time.

The backing vocals are definitely the Beatles ‘doing’ the Beach Boys – and specifically Sloop John B, which charted a couple of weeks before this was recorded, and which had an a capella break (very unusual for the time).
As for Beatles ‘satire’ (if that’s the right word) there’s quite a lot there, especially around this time – a lot of the songs from this period are similar to this. Norwegian Wood, Drive My Car, Taxman, Dr Robert…

marcello – what did “rain” ever do to you? it totally deserves its rep! and “paperback writer,” while seemingly throwaway, does ride a pretty catchy riff, and actually rocks sort of hard.

For me, this song was always encountered at the end of the The Beatles 1962-1966 (the red double album), sandwiched between ‘Girl’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’ (and without ‘Rain’, which I never even heard of until Oasis started banging on about it in the ’90s). In that very quiet, almost hushed setting ‘Paperback Writer’ sounded even more riotously rocking and flat out fun than it otherwise does. Great frickin’ song and record; one that both looks back to early primitivism and the Beatles Hamburg pre-history, but also forward with its developing studio and lyrical smarts to later,’I am the Walrus’-style glories.
I guess I’m a typical Beatles fan in that in that, for me, the Beatles can do no wrong in the Rubber Soul/Revolver period. Essentially every song at the time is some kind of masterpiece that then sets an agenda for other bands to explore. That makes it hard to grade PW (although Tom’s 9 seems reasonable), since I just do tend to think of it as part of this all-good flowering of talent, that itself is one of pop’s pinnacles (sorry about the mixed metaphors).

I hear bits of PW in the Byrds’s equally wonderful ‘So you want to be a rock and roll star’, and XTC’s splendid ‘Mayor of Simpleton’ is basically just PW, right? I’ll have to defer to people who were there at the time about whether PW is at bottom a Kinks knock-off. Even if it is tho’, in my view it’s the sort of knock-off that’s a real contribution to a genre and ongoing pop dialogue. (I love *its* knock-offs and influencees!) Finally, being able to rock anything this hard while being witty is quite an achievement and template. The Byrds and XTC among others rose to the challenge to produce something with this dual quality, and I dare say that that challenge is still open to young bands (Arctic Monkeys, c’mon down!) who want to show themselves both smarter and more muscular than their competition. PW is a terrific, on-going force for pop good. I’m sure of it!

DESERT ISLAND DISC WATCH:

Gareth Edwards, Rugby player(1973)

Jimmy Saville, DJ (1985).

My latest novel, folks. It took me years to write, won’t you take a look?. As with the last one, it’s not for the faint-hearted or easily offended.

Cheers
J

http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/hailing-chiefs/18730924

simultaneously a number 1 in the USA – as noted here.

a stranger number 1 in the USA at the same time as this – as noted here.

At long last, I’ve managed to get my next novel out. As usual, it’s left-field. I can’t really write anything else.

Thanks for letting me cuckoo shamelessly in your nest, Tom. Regards J.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Touch-John-Martin-Somers/dp/1291784667/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412954059&sr=1-4&keywords=john+martin+somers

Another throwaway Beatles tune. 3/10.