Beautiful Beatle Ballads By Lennon

Our good friend Paul McCartney is usually thought of as the balladeer of the Beatles while his counterpart John Lennon is usually thought of as the experimental rock guy. Of course as with most generalities this isn’t really the case. Many of the Beatles more rock n roll tracks were by Paul (”Helter Skelter” for the most obvious example) and many of the Beatles most beautiful ballads were indeed by John.

Here are some of my favorites:

“In My Life”

“In My Life” is on 1965’s Rubber Soul which is the album that is usually seen as the breaking point between “early Beatles” (Help! and before) and “mid era Beatles” (Rubber Soul through Magical Mystery Tour.) Rubber Soul is filled with classics but I’m not sure if there’s a bigger classic on it than “In My Life” which may be the quintessential Beautiful Beatle Ballad By Lennon.

The song consists of a gorgeous melody (which McCartney has occasionally claimed credit for) and thoughtful lyrics (which are certainly Lennon’s) and a groovy classical style interlude which producer George Martin played at half speed (and then doubled the speed for the recording) to add an experimental touch to the track. The killer guitar riff which instantly lets you know what song it is can not go without mention. Oh and the drums are great too, the variations throughout the song get me just a tad excited from time to time. I love the thought you can hear put into every part of the song. Even hearing it in the awful sound quality version on YouTube below, the perfectness of the song shines through.

“Julia”

“Julia” is taken from my favorite album ever (by anyone.) That’s The White Album of course. It’s a very simple song as far as instrumentation: Just voice & acoustic guitar. That simplistic arrangement only adds to the songs beauty, it sounds too heartfelt to be adorned with any extra bells & whistles. To give some background on the song: Julia was John Lennon’s mother’s name and the song is for her. She was killed by an off duty police officer (who was drunk) when Lennon was 17 years old. Listen to the song below:

“Dear Prudence”

Another great song on the White Album. In fact from time to time this is my favorite song on the album. Gorgeous throughout & quite orgasmic in parts. Among my favorite parts of the song is actually Paul McCartney’s incredible bass line. Whenever I’m making my case for McCartney being one of the great bass players I point to this song. It’s like a song within a song. Basically all I can say is fucking hell this song is good. I still get goosebumps from this shit and I’ve heard it about 1000 times. Hear it on the YouTubes below:

And then buy The White Album on vinyl:

“Across The Universe”

Originally recorded in 1967, it wasn’t released on a Beatles album until 1970’s Let It Be. The version you’ll hear below is from Anthology II. It includes possibly my favorite Beatles lyric ever “Nothings gonna change my world.” Probably because it wasn’t until I’d been listening to the song for nearly 10 years that I finally “got it.” I never really understood what he meant by that lyric. But when considering the song is about meditation it’s kind of obvious that “nothing” represents meditation. As when you meditate you think about nothing. Nothing is going to change my world. Dig It! Matt Busby!

“If I Fell”

Taken from 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night, the first great Beatles album. The video below is taken from the A Hard Day’s Night film. For those who dismiss The Beatles early songs, really take a listen to this song. It’s gorgeous. Sure the lyrics are a bit cheesy but that doesn’t stop the song from being outstanding, in my opinion. The melody & harmony vocals are among the Beatles best and that’s saying a lot.

“This Boy”

Another one of my favorite early Beatles ballads. This one was actually co-written by Lennon & McCartney but Lennon sang lead which is usually an indicator of who the lead songwriter was as well with The Beatles. It was released as a b-side on the UK single for “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in 1963. The harmonies are awesome in this one. Check it out in the video below:

“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”

From the Beatles 1965 album Help! The video below is taken from the Help! film. This is Lennon at his most Dylan influenced. But as much as I love Dylan, I don’t think his songs have ever been quite as pretty as this one is. As I think this post makes clear, Lennon could definitely do pretty. I’ve read that the song’s lyrics were about the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein who was a homosexual and due to the negative treatment of homosexuals at the time, he very much had to “hide his love away.” I’m not sure how true that it is but considering Lennon’s close relationship with Epstein, it seems like a real possibility. Epstein died of a drug overdose in 1967.

“Sun King”

From the Beatles final album (recorded, not released) 1969’s Abbey Road. Great harmonies. Very spacey sound the production & instrumentation. It sounds like the Beatles doing ’70s Pink Floyd, of course it was 1969. Yes, I’ve always though that Pink Floyd were at least somewhat influenced by this track.

“Cry Baby Cry”

Another great track from The White Album. Among my favorite parts of this track is the little “Can You Take Me Be Back Where I Came From?” bit that comes in at the end which is actually McCartney’s. This leads into “Revolution #9″ on the album. Great sequencing.

“I’m Only Sleeping”

From 1966’s Revolver. Quite fittingly it’s a very dreamy song complete with backwards guitar. Listen to it on YouTube below.

Buy Revolver on vinyl:

John Lennon, The Beatles, 60s

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