The Beatles, We Can Work It Out - A Classical Musician’s First Listen and Reaction / Excerpts
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- Опубліковано 12 тра 2024
- #thebeatles #johnlennon #paulmccartney #georgeharrison #ringostarr
I really enjoyed this one, both from the perspective of the listening experience as well as the technicalities of the music. The switching back and forth from 4/4 to a 3/4 waltz is so much fun! And the lyrics? Cheery and hopeful, too, but perhaps naively arrogant, since they don’t seem to consider the “other side” of the difficulty.
Here’s the link to the original song by The Beatles:
• The Beatles - We Can W...
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Amy Shafer, LRSM, FRSM, RYC, is a classical harpist, pianist, and music teacher, Director of Piano Studies and Assistant Director of Harp Studies for The Harp School, Inc., holds multiple degrees in harp and piano performance and teaching, and is active as a solo and collaborative performer. With nearly two decades of teaching experience, she teaches privately, presents masterclasses and coaching sessions, and has performed and taught in Europe and USA.
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Credits: Music written and performed by The Beatles
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Can't wait for Rubber Soul!
Me too!!
It's also a perfect example of Paul's optimism "We can work it out" contrasted with John's hard-edged realism "Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting". Another later example is Paul singing "It's getting better all the time" which John undercut with "It can't get much worse"
Yes I agree but tbh it says the same as Pauls lyrics, compared to Getting Better
Interestingly enough, I either read an article or saw video of Lennon saying basically the opposite. "Life is short" section Lennon was saying Paul always had drama, stop wasting time on petty stuff.
I think Paul's voice sounds optimistic though.
First off, im a massive fan and subscriber to your channel. :-) but in terms of the writing for this song, (please see Paul's account ) it wasnt as complicated and theoretical and deeply thought out as you make it out. They didnt sit down and say lets write a new 'piece' where il say X to invoke memories of an e=mc2 and john please come up with a witty retort. respond in the chorus as an ode to Y so we contrast this and that, to create Z then lets switch to 3/4.
Paul said " we sat down and played guitar and hummed out ideas and came up with lyrics by replaying the chords and brainstorming simple quick lyrics. Nothing to do with getting a calculator out and working out transistions and opinions to give the listener a contrasting musical experience when physics, love and hope collide. Look it up! just because i disagree here with your take, doesnt mean i dont respect you and think god wish i could play instruments like yourself. Peace!
It's also a perfect example of Paul's problems with his relationship with Jane Asher. She had her own career, but he wanted her to be a house frau.
@@jnagarya519 Paul still had a lot of growing up to do (so did John, his relationship with Cynthia was awfully dysfunctional too), but they had a lot more respect for their next partners as people.
The Beatles' productivity during this period is staggering. Despite a grueling pace of touring, TV and radio commitments in 1965, the Beatles put enough down on tape to fill two albums (FOUR in the U.S.) and still have enough left over for this amazing double A-side. I'm hoping "Day Tripper" is next.
Don't forget they also filmed and released a movie (Help), write books (A Spaniard In The Works) , Ringo got married and they got their MBEs from the Queen. Busy boys.
Great Beatles song that I have always liked a lot. I really enjoyed your reaction and analysis on several levels. Great ear to recognize the harmonium. Lennon played a Mannborg harmonium on the recording. I liked and agree with your comments in contrasting Paul and John's voices. Informative lessons on appoggiaturas and also on how the waltz time is represented by the quarter note triplets (slow triplets), rather than a time signature change, and showing how smooth Ringo makes this transition from a 4 to 3 feel. I'm glad you enjoyed this one so much. Great reaction. Although poor Paul, not only wasn't he able to get Jane Asher to see it his way, apparently he didn't convince you either.😉
i really get to enjoy your Beatles reactions. I'm from Argentina, and i can say I grow older with them. I never stopped liking them, as it happened with some other artists. They have changed popular music forever. To me, it hasn't been such a major change in music since
would be fun watching you and Paul McCartney together. enjoy your channel.thanks
You have to do the other side of the single, Day Tripper. It was considered the first double A sided single.
Paul's part basically says, "If we don't do it my way then we're going to split up." John's part says, "Life's too short for fighting." The oft-touted idea that Paul's part is light and optimistic and John's is dark and cynical is nonsense - if anything it's the other way around. Except that John's part hands back to Paul's: "I will ask you once again [to] try to see it my way." So really they're both saying the same thing: stop arguing with me and listen.
i've always thought the song was deceptive -- "we can work it out" sounds like it would be about compromise and reaching a middle ground. nope. paul's way or the highway. he is right and she is wrong. the end.
You say this without knowing what they’re supposed to be arguing about in the song. If you jump ahead to 1969 and apply these lyrics to Paul’s attempt to keep John from making Allan Kllein Beatle’s manager, for example, his stance is more understandable.
Para mí de sus mejores canciones, un himno (así fue interpretada por el público en su momento) donde la voz de Paul brilla preciosa. La melodía es un deleite, nunca me canso de escuchar esta canción, desde mi niñez. Me he dado cuenta de que Amy la ha disfrutado especialmente. Buen análisis. Gracias.
I think you talked about appoggiatura in a recent Beatle song, because I haven't heard your Queen reactions. You were circling the score and talking about "leaning" notes, too. I also can't remember which song it was! ....edit: I see other commenters have identified that it was "Yesterday." See, we are listening!
I'm glad you picked up on the arrogance. It's a fun song, but isn't as bending as it tries to sound. John's waltz part is actually more positive, because it doesn't insist "I'm right."
Both John and Paul were very strong willed and had big egos, so it's amazing they got along as long as they did.
Really enjoyed your insights.
I was thinking about Ringo's imput on this track as well: he wasn't capable of flashy bursts of dazzling virtuosity, but he kept time like a machine. He's always perfectly spot on (his pitch too, when singing, despite limited range is so spot on! I think Ringo's singing pitch is the most perfect of all the Beatles, which is very odd, frankly).
He's terribly flat on "Act Naturally" and elsewhere.
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I´m glad you're reacting to the singles, they're very important. You need to react to the b side also. Rubber Soul is going to be amazing
Another great reaction video on a Beatles song 👌😃 A song that I have loved since it came out 👍 I love your explanations on the waltzy part there and the remarks about the tone changes when John Lennon's voice comes in.
For you going through the Beatles songs is a music journey as you say, for me it's a fantastic journey listening to you going through these songs that I have loved since my youth 😍🎹🎼🎵🎶
There should have been a verse that started, "I'll try to see it your way." BTW you mentioned appoggiatura in Yesterday.
You are correct: Lennon played a Mannborg harmonium.
I'm very excited to see this reaction 👍
I believe it was a Beatles video where you previously mentioned the appoggiatura, because i recall it and have not watched any of your Queen videos. I have an idea it may have been 'Yesterday'.
It was “Yesterday.”
I was thinking the same thing when watching this video, and now we have confirmation. Thanks for mentioning it 👍🏻
There's a "live" version video of this song available on youtube. One gets to see some humor from John in it also.
And John is playing the keyboard.
The Beatles had a golden age period from Help! through Revolver, or December 64 to May of 66. They could do no wrong or so it seemed. As an ensemble they were the best. Thanks for the video Amy and Vlad.
I hope you get to react to "Day Tripper" the other A side of this double A side single record .
I'm glad you're doing some of the singles, this song is certainly worth it. Great suggestion by George, it gives the song enough of a change-up to get it back from the minor bridge to the major verse. Love that bridge too, Bm to G5 to F#sus4 to F#. Switching from Bm to F#sus4 to F# is just a matter of moving one finger on the guitar one fret. Bm (x997xx), F#sus4 (x996xx), F# (x986xx). Great contributions by everyone.
It’s curious though, that when the instruments go to that sus4, John’s vocal technically clashes with it by going straight to the third, and skipping the suspension. I’ve never quite understood why, or why it doesn’t sound as wrong as you would expect it to.
@@fromchomleystreet That's a good point. I suppose to me it just sounds like it takes a half measure for the music to catch up to the voices. It does make that part of the song sort of ambiguous.
#1 in 1965, released as a 45 Double-A Single with Day Tripper. Appeared on Compact Disc on Past Masters Volume 2 and recently remixed in 2023 for The Red Album (The Beatles/1962-1964). My Dad, a member of The Greatest Generation would sing the "We can work it out" verse whenever he heard it! :)
You mentioned appoggiaturas when you were reviewing “yesterday” by the Beatles
The Beatles seemed to make up the rules as they went along. I feel that Paul and John’s songs largely reflected their personalities, Paul is a naturally upbeat person and John is more brooding. Ps. It is a harmonium, if you like playful then you’ll love “Hello goodbye”
“Peasant boots” is an expression of which I am unfamiliar.”
Well done. So happy you highlighted the not so subtle arrogance. Dated attitudes of an older male's better perspective? I'm pretty sure our modern songwriter would think twice about putting this to words. Still, the musicality and interplay of the voices is so nice, it remains a most enjoyable song. Can't wait for 'Maxwell."
If a modern songwriter would think twice about putting lyrics like this in a song, then that would at least partially explain why so much of modern music sucks. Art, whether song, literature, movies, or whatever else should attempt to portray real life in all of its flawed complexity. There are real people who are really arrogant in this world that we inhabit. It would be naive and unsatisfying to pretend that arrogance doesn't exist.
i mostly agree, this is the kind of song I can really relate to
Can’t wait to hear her review for “Tomorrow Never Knows”
The quarter note triplet middle hearkens back to the background acoustic guitar on the song "I'll Be Back" and quite a few other songs. Wait until you hear the ultimate example from John on the final full song on "Abbey Road", appropriately named "The End". The Beatles loved quarter note triplets.
This song evokes in me an overwhelming sense of nostalgia for my first girlfriend... we were in Grade 8..we listened to this song a lot.... it didn't work out ... I was the jerk!... there are two great videos of them lip-synching to this song
As a lifelong beatles fan, I love your analysis and hope the younger generations will listen to the whole song to appreciate your efforts
Listening to your analysis of Beatles songs makes me think of how George Martin and his classical background dealt with Beatles songs (especially John’s). There are several accounts of him telling John that something doesn’t make sense musically and John insisting on it because it sounds right to him.
6:10 Your remark on appoggiatura was in your reaction to Yesterday.
it's a great analyses, l love the song very much but i never thought the walts time is actually faster, because it just sounds slower but smooth, now i even appreciate this song more. i love the song because it's very relatable, i think I'm a little bit similar with paul, i can really understand the feeling, knowing things will break up but still placing hope on the thing itself to change, pretending to be good and happy, sometimes it did work but most of the times things just end up in failure, in Paul's particular situation it's arrogant but in many other helpless situations it just give me much relief, i know it's just fake fantasy but it still relieves me from bad moments in life
and i guess next is day tripper, i like that one too, the harmony takes me to another place, it is really interesting because the lead vocalist keep changing, it also have a fantastic guitar riff and an excellent bassline
The Beatles were constantly touring. Paul and Jane had very little time together. Unfortunately, if she pursued her acting career, that would mean even less time together. And they did fall apart before too long.
Paul kept in touch with her brother, Peter too. He was in the Rock band Peter and Gordan. Paul wrote their number 1 song, World Without Love. Peter went on the be a producer and A&R man at the Beatles' Apple Records. He went on as a successful producer, producing hits for superstars James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt.
Just hold on to the Beatles discography because soon Beatles are gonna expand to new heights and experiment a ton. Rubber Soul album was the start of modern music.
Great song from the many great songs of legends, All things must pass, a triple album back in November 1970 by George was my first ex Beatles album I owned, the only other ex Beatle album is Ringorama by Ringo, one of the 20 albums he has released.
Yes John and Paul are not bad solo artists but for some reason George and Ringo are the only Beatles members I thought of buying, I only buy albums, never singles, never have done. My dad used to work in a music story owner by a relative every Saturday morning so was given a few singles (45s) paint it black by the stones being one. The very first was "Tom Dooley" by The Kingston Trio, it's a traditional North Carolina folk song based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina by Tom Dula (whose name in the local dialect was pronounced "Dooley"). One of the more famous murder ballads, a popular hit version recorded in 1958 by The Kingston Trio reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.
The bass is interesting as well
Stevie Wonder's cover of this is also worth hearing.
This positivity - We can work it out, we can work it out, we can work it out! - is typical for Paul McCartney.
Rhythmic intricacies are very John (think of Strawberry Fields Forever and Happiness Is a Warm Gun), that's why I suspect the triptlets/Waltz in this song to have come from him.
"A dramatic upset of the apple cart" -- I expect it's a coincidence, but in the Beatles parody mockumentary "The Ruttles," "upset the apple cart" is a lyric in the song "Ouch!"
See The Beatles Bible for more background and details.
Those “lifts” that aren’t really appoggiatura, moving from the tonic to the second degree and back again in the vocal, are turning what would be a sus4 chord without the vocal into a sus2/4 chord - replacing the missing third with both the second and the fourth simultaneously
'This is the most ... blatant, in your face, exploitation of slow triplets that I've seen the Beatles use to date. ... and its really cool.' Nice line.
1:19 I have never heard 'WCWIO' classified as folk-rock.
6:48 Are you sure we have a Bm chord there? We Can Work It Out starts on a major chord. I think we have D there.
Ringo could turn any idea into a time shift. I would bet that they only needed a couple of run throughs to insert the triplets.
Exploring and soaking in the original Beatles version of "We Can Work It Out" is absolutely the way to go, and I don't mean to imply otherwise, but one of the few covers of Beatles songs that I might like even more than the Beatles' version was done by Stevie Wonder (your newest discovery) in 1970. He doesn't bother with the whole waltz time bit, but his version is, shall we say, funkier.
intenta con los remasters del 2023 UA-cam no bloquea
Surely it was your analysis of "Yesterday" ?
Bm as the first chord? I always assumed it was D then Dsus4. Paul definitely plays a D in live versions.
Compare the Boyce and Hart 1967 song "Girl, I'm out to get you" for not only abrupt tempo changes but a kind of waltz duet between an accordion and electric guitar.
Wait till she gets to 70s prog. The time feel explanations will take several hours per track 😂
And Stevie Wonder did a spectacular version of this song.
Folk Rock?..... I've never heard that before!
Isn’t this a perfect example of the 1960s. Paul is expressing his old fashioned ideas about gender roles and Jane isn’t prepared to be at his beck and call. She wants to go on tour as an actress and forge her own career. Paul is a war baby, Jane is an early boomer. It makes a difference to their outlook on life.
Amy I really think you should rely on the official Beatles Complete Scores for accuracy, specially as their music continues to increase in originality and complexity; makes no sense to me to follow inaccurate scores, even when you are highly capable of detecting said inaccuracies, but just maybe not all.
I also think that, after having started a series on sitting through entire albums, it begs for considering altering the course of this Beatles 150 in order to include at least listening to two entire Beatles albums back to back, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road, due to their importance precisely as albums. I will expand at some other time as to why I think this is justified, maybe other commenters who agree can also provide reasons here.
In the late 70’s many radio stations in my area had polls for rating music. Sometimes they asked, “What is your favorite Beatles song?” Many called and answered, “The Melody” and everyone knew what they meant.
Well yes I'm sure they will though I'm disappointed they missed some of their better ep , single and BBC tracks ! 🤡
yeah well Pauls happier close family upbringing lead itself to a lighter tone in his songs. John had a distressed weird upbringing which lead to darker somber notes and a more melancholy in general, the joke on stage was john would make fun of pauls 'rosey' happy pov which was funny and not really mean in any way. though both boys lost their mothers early in hideous accidents well johns mum atleast, Pauls mother died of an embolism as a complication of surgery for breast cancer.
John Lennon ‘s strong yang metal element gave him one kind of sharpness, which is easily detectable on his song lyrics. His fragile yin wood element gave him gentleness but on the same time his dragon zodiac sign made him powerful. He had the ability to lead the others straight to the battlefield.
Paul McCartney ‘s strong yang water element gave him the special ability to understand music and adapting any kinds of music according to the required style. His double horse signs on his astrological chart (see Paul McCartney ‘s Chinese astrological chart writen previously, he has double horse signs on his astrological chart) made him friendly, sociable, and likable especially on the stage. Then, he also has the strong characteristic of a pioneer who would always seek for new and groundbreaking things.
Harmonium.
Thanks for experimenting with slightly longer musical sections here. I think you might be lucky and get away with this. As it does not allow enjoyment of the musical peace as a whole, it should fall within their definition of fair use/
Would be nice to hear the song for more than 2-3 seconds at a time.
"Life is very short . . ." -- you're hearing Lennon's aggression. And he's bringing the mood down from "romantic" to immediate, insistent.
"The Beatles" were male chauvinist. On the next LP, with the song "Girl" (which Lennon said was his favorite), Lennon begins to change with his clarifying of traditional sex roles -- five years before the beginnings of the women's movement made that a social issue.
Add this one to the “great covers” series…
Stevie Wonder’s cover is the greatest cover version in history
The story I learned was that Paul was cheating on Jane. And even doing it in her parents house. Jane came home and found out what was going on and kicked Paul to the curb. Then Paul wrote this song about it.
How do you spell kerb in the UK?
Curb or Kerb? If you're using British English, or writing for a British audience, it's important to distinguish between 'curb' and 'kerb'. The key is that the raised edge of a pavement or path is known as a 'kerb' in the UK. 'Curb', meanwhile, is typically a verb meaning 'limit or restrain'.20 Oct 2018
Proper English turns out is not simple.
I'm going to take a break from watching your reaction videos. I have enjoyed them in the past. However, your new method for avoiding blocked videos is careless and frustrating. I know that the videos can be blocked very easily. But there's got to be a better way for you to present the music than what you are doing. The same two second segments of the song repeated occasionally during your video is not a good way to do it. There are many other music appreciation presenters who do it a lot better with more enjoyment and pleasure for the listener. One presenter would play the whole song with segments removed occasionally to eliminate the threat of blockage. The music wouldn't stop but it would be edited so that the steady rhythm of the song is still easily experience by the listener. Two second spurts of the music does not work, Your musical knowledge, perceptions and opinions are very much appreciated. Send me a message if you find a better way to do this.
I gave a thumbs up, as it was a positive sentiment but I can also get where if not the why, Amy is playing it over safe to avoid hassle.
What did the constipated mathematician do?
Worked it out, with a pencil.
All I know is that it must have involved the number two somehow.
@@clintonsmith5163 🤣🤓
"Folk Rock" is another MARKETING term. It "happened" when folk musicians bought electric guitars, formed bands, and changed to ROCK. They were no longer "folk".