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The Beatles, Lovely Rita - Amy’s First Listen and Analysis (Patreon)

Published:
2024-12-28 12:38:46
Imported:
2026-06
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Lovely … song! What a fun, humorous, playful piece of music including some really great harmonic and melodic experience along the way.

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Comments

George Brady

"Lovely" seems not to be a common word in The Beatles catalog, is it? Just commenting as I go along...

George Brady

Great, enthusiastic breakdown. No, Sgt. Pepper is not a Rock Album to me, you're right. In fact, it only exists as a singular piece of art for me between the "Peppers", so to speak, with "A Day in the Life" inhabiting another place entirely. It is a wonderful Pop album, unique in all the world, by the greatest Rock Band that ever existed, just to show they could do it, triumphantly. As you'll see, there's not another album ahead that's like it, it doesn't establish a new Beatles sound. One of my favorite things about The Beatles, who wrote more and better love songs than anyone, is their amazing cast of characters who occupy their narrative songs. Rita is a great one, I love this song, and I'm glad you do, too! Thanks, Amy!

Lynn Poole

Paul: vocal, piano, bass, comb and paper; John: backing vocals, acoustic guitar, comb and paper; George: backing vocals, acoustic guitar, comb and paper; Ringo: drums, comb and paper. George Martin: piano solo. You hear Paul accentuating the hard "k" on "book". To this day, he continues to stress hard consonants at the end of words. This is supposedly a Liverpudlian speech pattern. Recently I heard a song where George did the same.

LL W

This has always been my fav song on this album

Lynn Poole

Amy, Your description amplifies musical complexity I've not heard before. And "Meta" vs "Meter".

Lynn Poole

Not maracas. Comb and paper.

Lynn Poole

They changed speeds on "Lucy in the Sky" to make John sound younger too.

Rea Lavi

It struck me this album has only two "love songs". Could that be the least of any of their studio albums?

Rea Lavi

Lots of stuff I hadn't known or noticed before! Great appreciation/analysis

Rea Lavi
>>159591021

Great point about how it was a one-and-done. The Beatles didn't like sticking with anything for too long, even if it was brilliant.

Lynn Poole

We are blessed that Paul did not take piano lessons. He's not hampered by technique or what should be.

Julian Ortiz

Do you know how many times I’ve heard this song over the last 50 years and never before heard the “champagne pop” just after the “had a laugh and over dinner told her I would really like to see her again” part? 🤯 Needless to say, this is another song I have always loved. Even as a kid I picked up on some of the naughty connotations, but I never knew how much more naughty some of the others were. I didn’t know any of the details about the song’s meaning and inspiration so it was nice to get those things I always thought they meant validated. I thoroughly enjoyed the analysis of this song. Thank you Amy and Vlad!

Gustavo Faveron-Patriau

There is a feature of Paul's compositional strategies that Amy noticed earlier and here it is in full display--the conversational start that develops into full melody. I believe she noticed it first with Yesterday and then with Eleanor Rigby and then with Here, There and Everywhere. In this case, "Lovely Rita" is the conversational fragment, that grows melodic into "Meter maid" and fully blossoms in "Nothing can come between us" or "Where would I be without you?" and the other similar phrases. Also, regarding those long traveling lines that seem to take us on a journey off-center, I have always been intrigued by the fact that the second version of them in each stanza involves a beautiful alliteration, like "Made her look a little like a military man" or "Sitting on a sofa with a sister or two"... I wonder what the connection is. Or maybe it is just plain playfulness. Paul, like John, was very much into Lewis Carrol's sound tricks.

Jazz C.

I think that’s a perfect description of the Beatles, just some lads in the street making each other laugh, trying to impress each other by being ridiculous, just being a little jaunty and silly. Just some silly naughty little guys.

Jazz C.

Also it’s so funny to hear the beginning so many times and hearing John moaning and groaning in the background lol. Also I swear Paul sings “book” like bwyook just because to reference the man from their first movie A Hard Days Night… shout out to grandfather McCartney!

Paul D. Hoffmaster III

I heard the song often and never looked into it deeply. I get a kick out of it, but I don't think of ever listening to it off the top of my head, most likely because of hearing it so many times. A good review Amy, I will have to look more into those things you pointed out about the song.

George Brady
>>159647024

Being in a band was the more respectable version of being in a gang, I did it and that's how we were, just as you describe, Jazz.

Lynn Poole
>>159647137

Paul accentuates consonants at the end of words, especially those with hard sounds but it's very prominent on words that end with a "t". Even now, he does that. I have read that it's a Lillipudlian speech pattern. I first noticed it on "I'll Follow the Sun" when he sings "look". Recently I listened to a George song and he did the same.

Rea Lavi
>>159587625

Yes, but it limits one's options, and the Beatles sure loved rhyming

George Brady
>>159587625

I can do it - Short Man Love Your curving breasts are lovely Tho your face floats far above me

Lynn Poole

I'm taking a second listen while on the airplane flying across the country. On Wikipedia, it notes that the "kazoo" sound is made by the comb and paper which they all did and John does "vocal percussion". Maybe that's the maracas sound? Great way to spend an otherwise boring hour.

RAD1

Wow , I feel pretty old now, You've never heard the term Meter Maid. With your background I understand the brilliance of The Beatles even more, Thanks.

Betsy

Amy: Loved your comment about how the lads' music was a way for young people to have fun and all the rest. Very spot on, I think. There was an expectation when I was young that you would become very much a serious adult at age twelve, acting grown up and basically skipping the fun stage. Even from their earliest music in the early 1960s, The Beatles were like a fabulous light shining into a dark box allowing you to be, to play, to grow, to laugh, to think, to be yourself, and we treasured them for that. Also enjoyed all the great little bits you brought out about this song that I'd never noticed before. Great fun.

Don Rohan

One more piece of paper that served as inspiration for a song on this album: the picture drawn by John's son, Julian.

brovold72 .

Amy's comment about the "observational" quality of many of this album's lyrics is especially delicious when one knows that "A Day In The Life" is just around the corner.