The Beauty And Magic Of The Beatles

Husky Gawenda

Girl

When I was a kid, we had a Beatles songbook that we kept in the piano stool. My mum and I would sit at the piano after school every day, side by side on the piano stool, and open the book to a random page and sing whatever song we landed on. The first time I heard the song Girl was sitting at the piano, I was 13 or 14 maybe. I played the chords while my mum sang it. She has a beautiful voice and I thought it was the most beautiful song. I still feel the same feeling now when I sing it, the beauty and magic of the melody that I felt that day after school with me mum singing and the piano and that big old book of Beatles songs. 

Marlon Williams

In My Life

In My Life is a standalone track in the Beatles catalogue. Although subject to the usual Lennon/McCartney authorship disputes, it at least comes off as an uncharacteristically unified symbiosis of the two writers' trademark styles. The story goes that Lennon began the lyrics as a rather trite 'this is what I did in my holidays' kind of song after being prompted by journalist Kenneth Allsop to write more about his childhood, was horrified at the initial results and broadened it out to be a broader rumination on his life so far. One assumes this is when McCartney joined the party, fleshing out the harmonic shape and building in a B-part. With a song now complete except for an instrumental, Lennon called in George Martin to write "something Baroque-sounding". Having composed something resembling a Bach toccata for piano, Martin found he was unable to play it at the necessary tempo, so slowed the tape and recorded it at half speed. Sped back up to the original tempo, it sounds almost exactly like a harpsichord, Martin once again showing his worthiness of the title of 'fifth Beatle'. 

My own first attempts at songwriting can pretty obviously be traced to this song, in its earnest, sentimental lyric and its obvious major/minor changes. It's a song that walks the tightrope of tweeness, laughing all the while at its own strengths

Fergus Linacre

Tomorrow Never Knows

This song is special to me because I'm a big fan of psychedelic music — well, the good stuff. Even today in Australia the genre is thriving with bands like Tame Impala and The Belligerents; I could go on, there are so many. I think this song is perhaps where is all started. It's pretty much one chord and they started to experiment with recording techniques, recording the drums at a faster tempo then slowing the tape down, putting John's voice through a Leslie revolving speaker. The song is a continuous drone that I think opened the door for the band into the unknown, where they would create Sgt Pepper's and the White Album and take things to the extreme. Years ago Kingswood played it at a rehearsal, but instead of two and a half minutes, it must have gone on for about half an hour. We never did it live but it was a great moment. When you put this song up against a song like For No One, you wouldn't think they'd fit on the same record. I think a lot of artists these days limit themselves to a certain style and often they end up just sounding like they're churning out the same stuff over and over again. The Beatles have inspired us to keep diversifying our sound; even within a record, there are no rules.

Jordie Lane

I'm Only Sleeping

The Beatles were the first band I really listened to when I was ten years old. Revolver was one such album that really excited me. I was delighted to be chosen to sing I'm Only Sleeping for the show. It's probably my favourite song off the album and I personally identify with the theme so much.

I've always had trouble getting up in the morning. When I'm in that pre-waking intensity of vivid dreams, I want nothing else more than to be left in peace to remain in that alternate world. It's a strange place, sometimes scary, but I feel so disappointed when I'm woken and pulled out of it! So I completely sympathise with John Lennon's lyrics in this song, pushing against being caught in the rat race.

I love the recording. It's spooky because they tracked the music faster and then slowed the tape down for the vocal takes, then sped it up again for what we hear on the record, creating a push and pull between time and space. This won't be possible to literally perform live, so I'm just gonna have to channel those perceptions of time and reality changing between the two worlds.