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notes on ...

Notes on "Misery"

Notes on ... Series #29.0 (M1.0)

by Alan W. Pollack

       Key: C Major
     Meter: 4/4
      Form: Intro | Verse | Verse | Bridge |
                  | Verse | Bridge | Verse | Outro (fade-out)
        CD: "Please Please Me", Track 2 (Parlophone CDP7 46435-2)
  Recorded: 11th February 1963, Abbey Road 2;
            20th February 1963, Abbey Road 1
UK-release: 22nd March 1963 (LP "Please Please Me")
US-release: 22nd July 1963 (LP "Introducing The Beatles")

General Points of Interest

Style and Form

Overall sound is characterized by the shuffling, "washboard" beat and spare, pseudo-acoustic instrumental texture.

The melody is in short phrases, punctuated by rhythm guitar obbligato figures, and the rhetorical interjections of the song's title in the lyrics.

The bridge is repeated but there is only one verse in between the two of them. The relatively short duration of the finished song could have easily accommodated an additional instrumental-solo verse before the second bridge, but my theory is that the closed shape of those verse sections, especially built as they are from such a limited set of chords, would have been a claustrophobic mistake which they wisely avoided.

Harmony

Only four chords are used. In order of appearance you have F, G, C, and a-minor; i.e. IV, V, I, and vi, respectively. The vi chord is used in this song as though it were a full-fledged sub-dominant (in the way it sets up the V chord) or even as a surrogate dominant (in the way it sometimes is inserted between the I chord on either side). Only at the beginning of the bridge is it used in its more typecast role as the relative minor, or "submediant".

The voice parts are predominantly sung in unison but there are surprise blossomings into two-part harmony, typically saved for phrase endings.

Paul uses the same sort of dotted quarter and eighth notes in the bass part that we saw in "From Me To You". This cleverly carries forward into the bassline the same snapped rhythm that pervades the main melody of the song, as well as it rescues the bassline from would be otherwise have been a dull, unrelieved four in the bar.

The piano edit pieces in the intro and bridge are a relatively small touch, but one of no small historic interest; aside from the fracas regarding Andy White's guest drumming stint on the original version of "Love Me Do", this is likely the very first appearance of a guest performer on a Beatles' track in order to provide something the Boys could not do for themselves. Granted, it's a far cry from the likes of the string quartets and solo brass instruments that would come later, but it's the same concept nevertheless.

Section-by-Section Walkthrough

Intro

The intro is only four measures long (discounting the opening piano arpeggio), but it has the full essence of the rest of the song embedded within in it:

      "Adagio" ----------------» "A Tempo"
      |F       |G       |C       |a   G   ||
   C:  IV       V        I        vi  V

   [Figure 29.1]

Starting off with a dramatically slow intro may have been a fairly common technique among the rest of pop/rock music, but Lennon and McCartney very rarely used it at all. Aside from the contemporaneous "Do You Want To Know A Secret", I can't even think of another example off the top of my head; something worth keeping an ear out for in the rest of our studies.

The choice of opening chord progression makes this yet another Beatles' song that opens away from the home key, yet quickly converges upon it.

In the space of just these few measures we are quickly introduced to several devices which ultimately characterize and permeate the rest of the song; e.g., the unison singing which unfolds into harmony, the decorative use of the piano, and the I -» vi -» V chord progression.

Mark for later reference the little chromatic move in the bassline during the transition from measure 1 to 2 (F -» F# -» G).

Verse

The verse is a brief and harmonically static eight measures:

   |C       |F       |C       |F       |
    I        IV       I        IV

   |-       |G       |C       |a       ||
             V        I        iv

   [Figure 29.2]

Note how the embellishment of the F chord with "neighbor" tones of D -» C -» D in the guitar part lends a jazzy, added-sixth sound to the accompaniment.

In spite of the few chords used, a subtle syncopation in the harmonic rhythm is created by sustaining the same chord (i.e. F, the IV) over the two measures which straddle the mid-verse divide between measures 4 and 5.

As we saw with "From Me To You", wherever a verse if followed by yet another verse section, the final measure shifts to the vi chord instead of sustaining the I chord all the way through, as happens in verses which are followed by a bridge. I've told you there are formulaic aspects to this sort of composition.

Bridge

We have another eight-measure section, one which provides the traditional contrast to the preceding verses:

   |a       |-       |C       |-       |
    vi                I

   |a       |-       |G       |-       ||
    vi                V

   [Figure 29.3]

The harmonic rhythm is slower than the verse, and the steep scale-wise descent in the melody here is in contrast to the jumping here and about seen earlier. Some consistency with the verse is maintained in the way we still have short, declarative phrases in dotted rhythm, punctuated by the accompaniment; here the piano, instead of the guitar, provides the mimicking obbligato.

The bassline contains two uncanny details that closely unify it with what is going on elsewhere: the lead-in to the bridge begins with the same sort of chromatic lick seen in the intro (G -» G# -» A), and the lead-out of the bridge to the next verse is made up of a descending scale (G through C), reminiscent of the vocal part.

The a-minor chord in the first measure of this section sounds at first as though it might be a part of a modulation to that key but it's really too short-lived to count.

Rejected take 6 contains typical Ringo drum fills in measures 4 and 8 of the bridges. Though nicely performed and not entirely inappropriate, my guess is that he was asked to eliminate them from the final version in order to keep unbroken the hypnotic mood of the shuffling rhythm.

Outro

This outro is built from several repeats of the last two measures of the verse into a quick fade-out.

The vocal parts burst forth in some "oohs" which are more anguished than passionate for a change, as well as some "lah-lah's". These come across as impromptu, though we find in take 1 the virtually the identical set of them as in the final version.

It is John who takes the lead in these vocal effects, and his move is all the more effective because it is the first time in the entire song that we hear a solo voice.

A Final Thought

This is one of the rare, early originals by Lennon and McCartney in which the girl is spoken of entirely in the third person. Ironically, it appears back to back on the "Please Please Album" with another one of these rare examples, the very upbeat "I Saw Her Standing There". The uninterrupted flowing beat of "Misery" provides some forward-looking optimism in counterpoint to the otherwise downbeat lyrics. In the context of the album line-up, I believe that this subtle hint in "Misery" of a sun concealed behind the overcast mitigates what might have otherwise been too stark of a manic-depressive contrast between those first two tracks.

Regards,

Alan (072991#01M)

Postscript

David Ralley writes in response to my comment about a scarcity of Beatles songs with slow intro's:

I think this is a standard McCartney trick. I can think of a couple of solo examples, as well as "Here, There And Everywhere" and "Honey Pie".

Isn't there an interview around that quotes John, saying that he and Paul were infuenced by older pop tunes like Cole Porter, and that this infuence was the primary reason for the inclusion of slow introductions to some songs?

I can't speak at all about Cole Porter connections, but I did spend a little time looking over my master songlist this afternoon, and was quite surprised at how many songs I just hadn't thought of "The Night Before".

It'a very short in the context of a full list of almost 200 songs, but the specific candidates still surprised me in how far flung they were.

There are actually three categories of song placed on the following punch list:

those which, like "Misery", open with an intro in a clearly slower tempo than the main body of the song;
those which, like "Don't Pass Me By", open with an intro that is ramblingly random and in no clear tempo, in contrast to the body of the song;
those which, like "Paperback Writer", actually start in tempo, but because the backbeat isn't supplied until the second phrase, you hear that first phrase as though it were a slow intro.

The common denominator of all three categories is that in all cases, when the body of the song starts, you experience a stepping-into motion that you didn't feel during the intro. Without further ado:

Type 1 — slow intro

"I'm A Loser" (the only new addition to my earlier short list plus David Ralley's suggestions);
"Misery";
"Do You Want To Know A Secret";
"Here, There, And Everywhere";
"Honey Pie".

Type 2 — rhythmically indistinct intro

Type 3 — intro "in tempo" but doesn't sound that way

Note that all four of the Boys are represented as composers on the above list, and that the songs come from all time period.

Regards,

Alan (072991#01.0-Ma)

Copyright © 1991 by Alan W. Pollack. All Rights Reserved. This article may be reproduced, retransmitted, redistributed and otherwise propagated at will, provided that this notice remains intact and in place.