Friday, January 25, 2013

100 DAYS OF THE BEATLES – TOP 100 SONGS – 75



Photo from GoogleImages

NUMBER 75: "Think for Yourself" (Harrison – December 6, 1965)
Rubber Soul CD Version 
 Track 5 (2:20)

YouTube Video

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (sans footnotes/references) 

"Think for Yourself" is a song by English rock band The Beatles which first appeared on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. Written and sung by George Harrison, it is a warning against listening to lies, and the first of Harrison's songs not to be a love song. In his book I, Me, Mine he writes, "But all this time later, I don't quite recall who inspired that tune. Probably the government." In a departure from all precedent at the time, the song has two bass lines, a normal one and one created by Paul McCartney's then-unique application of a fuzzbox to his bass.

Musical Structure

The song is in the key of G-major, but its musical premise appears to be permanent tonic key ambiguity and restless root movement (musically echoing the title) through extensive borrowing from the parallel G minor. Thus, the G7 introduction appears to ground us in G major (G Mixolydian); yet the verse soon opens ("I've got a word or two") with a ii chord (Am) that suggests we are in A Dorian mode or even A Aeolian mode with the following move to a Dm chord on "word or two" being a iv rather than a v in G major. The immediate shift to B♭ chord (♭III in G major) on "to say" and the C chord (IV in G major) on "about the things" again confuses as the Bb and C chords seem to hint at a ♭Vi- ♭VII rock run in D Aeolian. When we arrive at the chorus ("Think for yourself...") the anticipated tonic-identifying V-I (D7 chord-G7 chord) shift, is preceded (pointedly on "Think") with a strange ♭VI (E♭/B♭)chord in second inversion that undermines its tonal direction. This overlapping of major and minor harmony and restless root movement is an intriguing characteristic of Harrison's songwriting as far back as Don't Bother Me.

Personnel

George Harrison 
 Lead vocal, lead guitar 
John Lennon  harmony vocal, rhythm guitar, electric piano 
Paul McCartney  harmony vocal, double-tracked bass 
Ringo Starr  drums, percussion 
Norman Smith  engineer


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