Notes on "Paperback Writer" and "Rain"

• "Paperback Writer"
• "Rain"

Introduction

• Key — both songs "sound" in the key of G, even though the backing track for "Rain" was recorded at a faster tempo and higher key, and slowed down during the mixing phase to playback differently.
• Post-processed special effects — As Lewisohn puts it in his "Recording Sessions" (p. 74): "Both were chock full of all the "Revolver" technical advancements: limiters, compressors, jangle boxes, Leslie speakers, ADT." More specifically, "Paperback Writer" has the tape echo at the end of the alternate verse sections, and "Rain", in addition to the modified tape speed, includes the much talked about played-backwards vocal in its outro.
• Wall-of-sound texture — Even without the special effects, both songs have a noticeably denser, punchier texture than virtually anything else done by the group up until this point, largely the result of the standout drumming, berserk, and heavily over-dubbed vocal harmony on both cuts.
• Drone-like harmony — Neither song is literally built on a pedal point, though both of them use very few chords, and contain sustained passages over the I chord that lend a static feeling to the harmony overall. At other times, the Beatles could delightfully take you by surprise with a novel chord progression, but in this case they seem to be transfixed by an aesthetic of stasis.
• Subject matter — Neither is a love song. "Nowhere Man" was the only other time, to date, where they had tried anything like this, but from this point forward, this tendency to comment on things social or experiential would become increasingly pronounced.

• Tempo — This pair of songs constitute what might be among the fastest and slowest ever songs done by the Beatles to-date. In the case of "Paperback Writer", listen to how fast the "one-two-three-etc." count-in is on the pair of bootlegs that are in the public domain (I use the latter term loosely :-)), and the fact that take 1 of the backing track breaks down because, as George notes on the tape, it keeps getting faster. In the case of "Rain", John's ultra-slow harmonic rhythm and his scanning of the words (see the bullet on 'Prosody') manage to project an almost catatonically measured pace in spite of all furious activity in the textural foreground.
• Perspective on the respective subject matter — Paul's essay is a gritty, journalistic slice of life on the sleazy side, starting off in the first person and cleverly shifting 'round to a self- referential third-person focus as the book is described. Indeed, you must see the photograph of Paul's manuscript for the lyrics, not only written out literally in the form of a letter (opening — Dear Sir [or Madam]), but signed by one "Ian Iachimoe". Talk about vague references or hard trivia questions; who's 'e, eh?? :-) John, true to his own form, turns in an elliptical tirade in the third person about what "they" do when the metaphorical 'rain' comes; inscrutable on the surface but pregnant with deeply embedded meaning.
• Modality of the home key — "Paperback Writer" is quite Mixolydian. For example, the tune places great emphasis on the melodic flat seventh, and the harmony includes I, ii, and IV but not V; if you check the bootleg take 1 you can actually hear them playing V in the intro and refrain sections but in the final mix it's deftly mixed out! "Rain", on the other hand, though it is harmonically much more clearly in the Major mode (check out the I, IV, and V chord vocabulary), manages to convey a modal feel by virtue of its pseudo-pentatonic melody (note how the lead vocal contains no second or seventh scale degree — i.e. no A's or F's), and the open-fifth drone-like harmonies of its refrain sections.
• Prosody of the verbal delivery — "Prosody" is a technical term describing the manner in which words are rhythmically declaimed together with accompanying music. In contrast, say, to the almost deadly four-square delivery heard in a song like "Yellow Submarine", "Paperback Writer" provides as good an example as you'll ever find of syllables pleasurably ricocheting off an underlying beat. "Rain", in contrast, is performed in style in which the words seem to be intoxicatedly, and/or counter-intuitively fighting against the beat. The "Master" (if not outright "inventor") of this technique circa 1966 was Bob Dylan. To the extent that it would become a very Lennonesque trademark as well from this point on is, to me, evidence of a to-date uncharted, overlooked subtle point of Dylan's influence on the Beatles.

Notes on "Paperback Writer"

       Key: G Major
     Meter: 4/4
      Form: Intro | Verse | Verse' | Refrain (intro) |
                  | Verse | Verse' | Refrain (intro) | Outro (fade-out)
        CD: "Past Masters", Volume 2, Track 3 (Parlophone CDP 90044-2)
  Recorded: 13th, 14th April 1966, Abbey Road 3
UK-release: 10th June 1966 (Double-A Single / "Rain")
US-release: 30th May 1966 (Double-A Single / "Rain")

General Points of Interest

Style and Form

Melody and Harmony

Arrangement

Section-by-Section Walkthrough

Intro

      |A capella vocals---------------||Guitar riff-------------------|
      |C      |G      |a      |-      ||G     |-      |-      |-      |
   G:  IV      I       ii               I

   [Figure 91.1]

• The finished recording is mixed to sound as though the intro were performed "ad libitum", but the outtakes prove that it is very much done in tempo. Take 2 contains both a count-in and a metronomic tapping out of the beat on what sounds like a cymbal, not only through the entire first half of the intro but in every other "refrain" where the "a capella" vocal section is repeated. Darn clever how this tapping track is so neatly mixed out of the final version.
• The harmony of the "a capella" section sounds on the finished recording as I've diagrammed it above: just I, IV, and ii. In take 1, though, you can clearly hear a skeletal backing track (placed there, I assume, to provide sotto voce support for the singers at the vocal overdub stage) which shows that they originally intended to have a V chord in the fourth measure. Once you know it's there in the outtake, you start noticing how on the final version it's there as well, but somehow was mixed way down but not quite out, deftly, every time the phrase is repeated; there must be some pretty fast fingers on those faders.

Verse

       --------------- 2X ----------------
      |G       |C       |G       |-       |
   G:  I        IV6/4    I

      |C       |-       |G       |-       |
       IV                I

   [Figure 91.2]

Refrain

Outro

Notes on "Rain"

       Key: G Major
     Meter: 4/4
      Form: Intro | Verse | Verse | Refrain |
                  | Verse | Refrain | Verse | Outro (fade-out)
        CD: "Past Masters", Volume 2, Track 4 (Parlophone CDP 90044-2)
  Recorded: 14th April 1966, Abbey Road 3; 16th April 1966, Abbey Road 2
UK-release: 10th June 1966 (Double-A Single / "Paperback Writer")
US-release: 30th May 1966 (Double-A Single / "Paperback Writer")

General Points of Interest

Style and Form

Melody and Harmony

Arrangement

Section-by-Section Walkthrough

Intro

Verse

      |G           |C     D     |G           |
   G:  I            IV    V      I

      |C     D     |G           |
       IV    V      I

      |C           |-           |G           |-           |
       IV                        I

   [Figure 91.3]

Refrain

    --------------------- 2X ----------------------
   |G      |-      |C      |-      |G      |-      |
    I               IV6/4           I

   [Figure 91.4]

Outro

Some Final Thoughts

Copyright © 1993 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.