Beatlesque: what Beatles songs are they referring to?

I've noticed that as much as I like the Kinks that almost all bands that get compared to them are horrible.

Most "Beatlesque" songs though? (as usually defined by writers)

I would say a lot of the harder rocking (relative to their day) songs from their early singles up until Rubber Soul fit best. Happy Just to Dance With You captures their distinctive use of backing vocals the best...I Feel Fine, Tell Me Why, From Me to You, She Loves You, etc. Those songs are completely of their era in many ways and don't immediately remind you of their influences or weren't branched out to form lasting subgenres like some later stuff did. The lovey-dovey lyrics alone were enough to date after the 1960s.

But.... then you get a lot of "Beatlesque" being thrown around in reference to bands like The Apples In Stereo, where it's very definitely that 1967 Beatles sound, "Baby You're A Rich Man" and "Lovely Rita." Giddy period production indulgence over the same taut, bright, two-to-three-minute pop.

Keep in mind that the meaning of the concept, if not the term, has changed over time: In the 70s, Abba, ELO, and Big Star were considered by the rock-critical establishment to be progeny of the big B. I doubt that any critic would describe the former two as "Beatlesque" today, and the deification of Big Star automatically disqualifies the application of the term.

I agree. Also: slightly twee, very sweet, hummable melodies. Not so much of the weirder, "White Album"-ish stuff. "All You Need Is Love" might be the quintessential "Beatlesque" song.

ABBA maybe, but not ELO? I don't think so!

Depends. But certainly nothing from 1968 or later.

I'd say they sounded quite unique from 1963 until 1966, while their 1967 stuff sounds more like whatever else was being done in English twee pop at the time. (Even though they were of course the originators)

Depends which album. "Tone Soul Evolution" is very "Rubber Soul"/"Revolver".

I really disagree with this, actually. Can't think of any other English psych that sounds much at all like "With a Little Help from My Friends" or "Fixing a Hole" or "Getting Better" or "Good Morning Good Morning" or...I could go on and on, really.

I suppose the chorus of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" could be considered to be kind of archetypal freakbeat, but I can't think of much else that falls in that category. "Mr. Kite" maybe, but the Beatles had such a distinctive style. "She's Leaving Home" and "When I'm 64" and "Your Mother Should Know" don't sound much like any other baroque or Music Hall style psychedelia.

"And Your Bird Can Sing" is what comes to my mind.

I like that terms. Although, of course, it might as well have been replaced with the word "good" or "pisses on all other music because it is so much better than anything else".

-- Geir Hongro (geirhon...), May 5th, 2003.

True, but if you heard other music that actually did sound like it you might just call it psychedelia, say that it sounded like something from Sgt. Peppers', call it acid-rock, etc. There are many ways to describe that music because it is more versatile.

The more versatile the Beatles got the more their music couldn't be described in just one word. Beatlesque describes the intangibles that a basic "two guitar, bass, drums" band had when they weren't playing ballads and is convenient to use when you need to try to find a way to separate similarly basic rock songs.

i couldn't have articulated it like that, but apart from the harmonies the chord changes are the things i most identify as beatlesque. i'll not infrequently hear a change in a song and just immediately think beatles. which, it's true, is probably giving them too much credit because it's not like they invented those changes. but they were inventive in applying them in combinations, in a pop context, that made it feel proprietary. (or at least, it seems proprietary if you grew up listening to the beatles.)

The only feature that the Beatles added after 1966 that will get the tag "Beatlesque" today if it is used is probably the way they used strings around Magical Mystery Tour. Although George Martin probably deserves most of the credit for that.

I think you hit it pretty well right there - "Beatlesque" chord progressions often use inner-line chromaticism ("You Won't See Me") and/or borrowed chords and mode mixture ("Yesterday," "In My Life," "I'll Follow the Sun," etc.)

Basically, elegant non-diatonicism. I think The Beatles had a big part in making the iv chord into an easily identifiable pop cliche.

Hmmm...

What minor chords are we talking about, anyway? Surely, a (minor) iv chord in a major key, but what else?

The term for it is mode mixture, which means borrowing from a parallel mode, i.e. minor in a major key or vice versa. The Beatles did indeed do this a lot. I'm not sure I'm convinced that The Beatles "invented it in pop music," though.

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is in G major, but phrase modulates to C major in the bridge

Yeah, I'd consider that a modulation rather than mode mixture. I think a better example from the same song would be the B major chord, which is a V of vi in G. Another example from a different song is the A7 chord in the verse of "For No One," which is a bVII in B major.

What Beatles songs have harpsichord solos? "In My Life" is an electric piano.

Not "solos" per se, but "Piggies" and "Lucy in the Sky w/Diamonds" feature harpsichords prominently.

- sunny hook
- somber bit to "add depth"
- exotic bit where they switch to waltz time.

It's also obvously slapped together and not very coherent lyrically, which makes it a lot like the typical song that gets described as Beatlesque.

Stonesy is easy. The two Stonesiest songs are "Street Fighting Man" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

http://www.marathonpacks.com/2006/05/beatles.html
http://www.marathonpacks.com/2006/05/beatles-ii.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F2lAPb3W84&search=Ikiru%20Michi

I think its more style and sonics--any combined use of heavily compressed stand up piano, chiming Gretsch-ish sounding, open-G type chords, notch filtered vocals, vocals with mannered glissandos, Everly-like close harmony, retro-exotic keyboard (melotron, clav/harsichord) played in a quarter beat, and so on will get the Beatlesque peg.

The ultimate "Taxman" ripoff remains "Start" by The Jam.

What do you mean?

I think its more style and sonics--any combined use of heavily compressed stand up piano, chiming Gretsch-ish sounding, open-G type chords, notch filtered vocals, vocals with mannered glissandos, Everly-like close harmony, retro-exotic keyboard (melotron, clav/harsichord) played in a quarter beat, and so on will get the Beatlesque peg.

I think you could have all of those things and sound nothing like The Beatles.

There's no way you could have all the things I listed and NOT have something Beatles-like. Good example: Cheap Trick's "World's Greatest Lover", which in fact does use all those elements.

Yes, I was discussing it. Are you trying to say that no one is writing songs today that use the same kinds of harmonic maneuvers? Because that's not true.

And I don't know the Cheap Trick song you're referring to. But the list of elements you mentioned seems rather meaningless to me. "Chiming Gretsch-ish sounding, open-G type chords?" "Everly-like close harmony?" You're vaguely listing things that all have to do with arrangement and not composition, and I'm saying it's possible to have an arrangement that sounds sort of like a certain Beatles sound but still have a song that doesn't sound like The Beatles.

i've often wondered...

I just realized the beatles stole that from themselves; it's the same as the drum intro to "what you're doing"

You can also find a very similar drum groove on The Zombies' "She's Not There".

My argument is simply that the Beatles' aesthetic, when filtered through the period's recording technology, creates an instantly identifiable set of sonics.

To use a perhaps more well-known example: Badfinger's "Come and Get it". Even before you've heard a vocal note, it SOUNDS like The Beatles, what with the standup piano, heavily scrunched through those RAF-type Fairchild radio compressors, sounds--literally--like the piano in "Lady Madonna", "A Day in the Life" or any number of Beatles songs using the same technology/style.

In the same sense, try and plug a Gretsch hollow body through a Vox AC-30 and play some open-string-heavy chords and then try to say it doesn't sound like a whole mess o' Beatles sounds.

Mix that with even minor modal switches in the chords and/or melody and you're gonna get Beatles pegged.