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stonehearted
The final song to be recorded for Abbey Road was John Lennon's Because. The song was inspired by Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and featured The Beatles' distinctive three-part vocal harmonies.
Yoko Ono was a classically trained pianist whose interests had moved towards the avant garde. One day in 1969, however, she played Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 – the Moonlight Sonata.
Lying on their sofa listening, John Lennon asked her to play the chords backwards, and wrote Because around the result. While not an exact reversal of Beethoven's piece, it contains a number of musical similarities.
"Yoko was playing Moonlight Sonata on the piano. She was classically trained. I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' and wrote Because around them. The lyrics speak for themselves; they're clear. No bullshit. No imagery, no obscure references."
John Lennon
"John wrote this tune. The backing is a bit like Beethoven. And three-part harmony right throughout. Paul usually writes the sweeter tunes, and John writes the, sort of, more the rave-up things, or the freakier things. But John's getting to where he doesn't want to. He just wants to write twelve-bars. But you can't deny it, I think this is possibly my favourite one on the album. The lyrics are so simple. The harmony was pretty difficult to sing. We had to really learn it. But I think that's one of the tunes that will impress most people. It's really good."
George Harrison
"I wouldn't mind betting Yoko was in on the writing of that, it's rather her kind of writing: wind, sky and earth are recurring, it's straight out of Grapefruit and John was heavily influenced by her at the time."
Paul McCartney
Um, OK?
Belongs in the endless Beatles thread...
Me
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georgie48Quote
stonehearted
The final song to be recorded for Abbey Road was John Lennon's Because. The song was inspired by Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and featured The Beatles' distinctive three-part vocal harmonies.
Yoko Ono was a classically trained pianist whose interests had moved towards the avant garde. One day in 1969, however, she played Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 – the Moonlight Sonata.
Lying on their sofa listening, John Lennon asked her to play the chords backwards, and wrote Because around the result. While not an exact reversal of Beethoven's piece, it contains a number of musical similarities.
"Yoko was playing Moonlight Sonata on the piano. She was classically trained. I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' and wrote Because around them. The lyrics speak for themselves; they're clear. No bullshit. No imagery, no obscure references."
John Lennon
"John wrote this tune. The backing is a bit like Beethoven. And three-part harmony right throughout. Paul usually writes the sweeter tunes, and John writes the, sort of, more the rave-up things, or the freakier things. But John's getting to where he doesn't want to. He just wants to write twelve-bars. But you can't deny it, I think this is possibly my favourite one on the album. The lyrics are so simple. The harmony was pretty difficult to sing. We had to really learn it. But I think that's one of the tunes that will impress most people. It's really good."
George Harrison
"I wouldn't mind betting Yoko was in on the writing of that, it's rather her kind of writing: wind, sky and earth are recurring, it's straight out of Grapefruit and John was heavily influenced by her at the time."
Paul McCartney
Um, OK?
Belongs in the endless Beatles thread...
Me
Yes, I know this info too. It's correct, but Yoko did not contribute to the writing apart from making John aware of the Japanese "Jisei" poetry in connection with diseased people. And this style of writing was used for the song.
Isn't it nice to know that part of the becoming alive of this song is even a bit of a mystery to Paul?
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DandelionPowdermanQuote
georgie48Quote
stonehearted
The final song to be recorded for Abbey Road was John Lennon's Because. The song was inspired by Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and featured The Beatles' distinctive three-part vocal harmonies.
Yoko Ono was a classically trained pianist whose interests had moved towards the avant garde. One day in 1969, however, she played Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 – the Moonlight Sonata.
Lying on their sofa listening, John Lennon asked her to play the chords backwards, and wrote Because around the result. While not an exact reversal of Beethoven's piece, it contains a number of musical similarities.
"Yoko was playing Moonlight Sonata on the piano. She was classically trained. I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' and wrote Because around them. The lyrics speak for themselves; they're clear. No bullshit. No imagery, no obscure references."
John Lennon
"John wrote this tune. The backing is a bit like Beethoven. And three-part harmony right throughout. Paul usually writes the sweeter tunes, and John writes the, sort of, more the rave-up things, or the freakier things. But John's getting to where he doesn't want to. He just wants to write twelve-bars. But you can't deny it, I think this is possibly my favourite one on the album. The lyrics are so simple. The harmony was pretty difficult to sing. We had to really learn it. But I think that's one of the tunes that will impress most people. It's really good."
George Harrison
"I wouldn't mind betting Yoko was in on the writing of that, it's rather her kind of writing: wind, sky and earth are recurring, it's straight out of Grapefruit and John was heavily influenced by her at the time."
Paul McCartney
Um, OK?
Belongs in the endless Beatles thread...
Me
Yes, I know this info too. It's correct, but Yoko did not contribute to the writing apart from making John aware of the Japanese "Jisei" poetry in connection with diseased people. And this style of writing was used for the song.
Isn't it nice to know that part of the becoming alive of this song is even a bit of a mystery to Paul?
What about this part (from the horse's mouth)?
«The lyrics speak for themselves; they're clear. No bullshit. No imagery, no obscure references».
Quote
georgie48Quote
DandelionPowdermanQuote
georgie48Quote
stonehearted
The final song to be recorded for Abbey Road was John Lennon's Because. The song was inspired by Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and featured The Beatles' distinctive three-part vocal harmonies.
Yoko Ono was a classically trained pianist whose interests had moved towards the avant garde. One day in 1969, however, she played Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2 – the Moonlight Sonata.
Lying on their sofa listening, John Lennon asked her to play the chords backwards, and wrote Because around the result. While not an exact reversal of Beethoven's piece, it contains a number of musical similarities.
"Yoko was playing Moonlight Sonata on the piano. She was classically trained. I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' and wrote Because around them. The lyrics speak for themselves; they're clear. No bullshit. No imagery, no obscure references."
John Lennon
"John wrote this tune. The backing is a bit like Beethoven. And three-part harmony right throughout. Paul usually writes the sweeter tunes, and John writes the, sort of, more the rave-up things, or the freakier things. But John's getting to where he doesn't want to. He just wants to write twelve-bars. But you can't deny it, I think this is possibly my favourite one on the album. The lyrics are so simple. The harmony was pretty difficult to sing. We had to really learn it. But I think that's one of the tunes that will impress most people. It's really good."
George Harrison
"I wouldn't mind betting Yoko was in on the writing of that, it's rather her kind of writing: wind, sky and earth are recurring, it's straight out of Grapefruit and John was heavily influenced by her at the time."
Paul McCartney
Um, OK?
Belongs in the endless Beatles thread...
Me
Yes, I know this info too. It's correct, but Yoko did not contribute to the writing apart from making John aware of the Japanese "Jisei" poetry in connection with diseased people. And this style of writing was used for the song.
Isn't it nice to know that part of the becoming alive of this song is even a bit of a mystery to Paul?
What about this part (from the horse's mouth)?
«The lyrics speak for themselves; they're clear. No bullshit. No imagery, no obscure references».
Hi Bard,
That was typically John. Big mouth, but very sensitive guy. It often happens to people, who are basically insecure due to painful/frustrating experiences in life. They hide behind daredevilish/sturdy behaviour. But you can be sure that John was devastated by Brian's sudden death.
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peoplewitheyes
Do you really think they sequenced the album so as to give some elaborate clue with Brian's birthday?
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Rocky Dijon
The numerology bit doesn't interest me in the least since I place no stock in it. What I find most troubling is the claim that "Charles" was a connection between Beatles and Stones before either band was formed. I can't think of anyone Andrew Oldham or Jimmy Phelge or Bill Wyman or Keith indicates as a connection between Liverpool prior to January 1960 when Stu Sutcliffe and The Silver Beatles come together and Dartford or London prior to July 1962 when The Rollin' Stones are formed. At the risk of sounding rude, I suspect "Charles" is pulling Georgie's leg and hopefully not Bjornulf's as well. I think the best advice might be to let it be.
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peoplewitheyes
on the numerology element, it's probably (not) worth mentioning that no Englishman would write a date as month/day...
Now if only they had recorded 28 tracks on that album..
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schillid
Sky of blue sea of green in our yellow submarine
Donovan helped with the lyrics...
Good friend Donovan Leitch relates his input in writing the song. “I helped Paul with the lyrics for ‘Yellow Submarine.’ He came round to my apartment and parked his Aston Martin in the middle of the road with the doors open and the radio blaring. He walked away from the car and came up to my apartment and played me ‘Eleanor Rigby’ with different lyrics and he also said that he had another song that was missing a verse. It was a very small part and I just went into the other room and put together ‘sky of blue, sea of green.’ They had always asked other people for help with a line or two, so I helped with that line. He knew that I was into kids’ songs and he knew I could help. I’m sure he could have written the line himself but I suppose he wanted someone to add a line and I added a line…It was nothing really, but he liked it and it stayed in.”
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Kingbeebuzz
Yes. People with eyes....it is worth mentioning that an English band don,t write dates as Americans do. We still dont to this day.
This story has to be the biggest load of ......I,ve heard this year. Talk about trying to rewrite history. Next georgie48 will be telling us that Paul died in the sixties!
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Kingbeebuzz
Yes. People with eyes....it is worth mentioning that an English band don,t write dates as Americans do. We still dont to this day.
This story has to be the biggest load of ......I,ve heard this year. Talk about trying to rewrite history. Next georgie48 will be telling us that Paul died in the sixties!
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georgie48Quote
Rocky Dijon
The numerology bit doesn't interest me in the least since I place no stock in it. What I find most troubling is the claim that "Charles" was a connection between Beatles and Stones before either band was formed. I can't think of anyone Andrew Oldham or Jimmy Phelge or Bill Wyman or Keith indicates as a connection between Liverpool prior to January 1960 when Stu Sutcliffe and The Silver Beatles come together and Dartford or London prior to July 1962 when The Rollin' Stones are formed. At the risk of sounding rude, I suspect "Charles" is pulling Georgie's leg and hopefully not Bjornulf's as well. I think the best advice might be to let it be.
Hi Bill,
You did indeed read that line very well. And you mentioning those different names, I, as an age old Stones fan, understand that that line "would not make sense". But sometimes in life the truth is harder than fiction. I know much, much more than you could even imagine, but privacy needs to be respected when asked for. We anticipated on mails like yours. Some things in life are very hard to believe and if you're old enough, you would understand what I mean to say with that.
Bjornulf knows that I would never put anything like this on his site if it were not true. I have much better things to do in life, than "selling b*llsh*t".
One day ...
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Hairball
Beautiful song.
Interesting story georgie, but I don't buy it - sounds like those 'Paul is dead' conspiracy theories.
Thanks for posting though.
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georgie48Quote
Hairball
Beautiful song.
Interesting story georgie, but I don't buy it - sounds like those 'Paul is dead' conspiracy theories.
Thanks for posting though.
Thanks Hairball,
I fully understand that you don't buy the story. I've heard stories in my long life, that I couldn't possibly buy, ever. Sharp analysis, sometimes over years, resulted at times in my eyes opening widely. I still hear myself say "never in my lifetime I would ever believe that "it" is true. But hell, it is".
I am fully convinced that you one day will say the same about this true history of "Because".
Meanwhile enjoy all the great music that is around!
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HairballQuote
georgie48Quote
Hairball
Beautiful song.
Interesting story georgie, but I don't buy it - sounds like those 'Paul is dead' conspiracy theories.
Thanks for posting though.
Thanks Hairball,
I fully understand that you don't buy the story. I've heard stories in my long life, that I couldn't possibly buy, ever. Sharp analysis, sometimes over years, resulted at times in my eyes opening widely. I still hear myself say "never in my lifetime I would ever believe that "it" is true. But hell, it is".
I am fully convinced that you one day will say the same about this true history of "Because".
Meanwhile enjoy all the great music that is around!
Lol...just the skeptic in me georgie - maybe some day the story will be proven as truth and fact.
Someone should ask Paul....or even Ringo....
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marianna
American blues records were supposedly hard to find in England back in the early days of both bands. Maybe Charles sold or shared some records with members of each band? I'm just trying to figure out some plausible connection.