Post by paulclarkson on Apr 14, 2006 16:37:43 GMT
I CALL YOUR NAME
BY
THE BEATLES
Back in 1964, hidden away on an EP called ‘Long Tall Sally’, was this gem of a song called ‘I Call Your Name’ along with 3 other songs, the title track ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘Matchbox’ and ‘Slow Down’. I was 7 years old and my sister bought the EP for around 10s/11d. I loved the other songs but was captivated by ‘I Call Your Name’, I loved it and kept playing it over and over. It wasn’t until many years later, when everyone seemed to be compiling lists of their favourite top ten films or songs, that I was asked as a Beatle fan what my favourite song of theirs was. I gave it a great deal of thought and it had to be ‘I Call Your Name’ as it stood out for me. Every time I hear it I can see John Lennon singing with that arrogant stance he had, squinting out to the audience with his Rickenbacker guitar high up on his chest playing those wonderful chords high up on the fret board.
In Ian Macdonald’s book ‘Revolution in the Head’ he doesn’t rate the song at all describing it as ‘a mess’ lyrically even going on to say that the song ‘wasn’t up to scratch’. This is what I find fascinating about The Beatles and how the fans, music journalists and the world view their music. I personally don’t think there is a bad song in the whole Beatle catalogue but then ask anyone who knows me and they would say I’m biased. I hold my hands up to that one but The Beatles had this knack of writing great songs and then sublimely fantastic songs that will be played long after we’re all gone. ‘I Call Your Name’ is what I call a great song, probably not their best in most peoples opinions but I just love the melody, the guitar sound and best of all John’s voice. The song was originally given to Billy J Kramer and was on the ‘b’ side of his and the Dakota’s number 1 song ‘Bad To Me’ in August 1963. Recorded by The Beatles on Sunday March 1st 1964 it was eventually released as an EP on Friday 19th June. It was intended to be included in the film ‘A Hard Days Night’ but was subsequently dropped.
The song starts brightly with a lovely lead intro and at 3 seconds if you listen closely you can hear John’s fingers slide up the fret board. John’s unmistakeable vocal comes in at 8 seconds with the cowbell joining the song at 11 seconds. I’ve always been a fan of John and his voice in this era of the Beatles was fantastic. In my opinion, with the exception of Ray Davies, no one else could belt out the early 60’s pop song like John could. When you listen to ‘When I Get Home’, ‘Any Time At All’, ‘This Boy’ and ‘I Call Your Name’ you can hear a voice that’s in love and in pain at the same time, when John sings ‘Oh I can’t sleep at night’ at 23 seconds, you can hear the pain in his vocal. Don’t get me wrong, Paul McCartney had many brilliant vocal moments as well but Paul will feature in this series along the way. The ‘middle eight’ comes in at 1 minute 8 seconds and has a definite ‘reggae’ sound to it and I remember reading somewhere that John was quite taken with the song ‘My Boy Lollipop’ by Millie, which was an early ska/reggae song. The song was in the hit parade in March 1964 reaching number 2, the same time as The Beatles were recording ‘I Call Your Name’ at Abbey Road so it would seem that the story of his influence by ‘My Boy Lollipop’ has some truth.
‘Long Tall Sally’ was The Beatles fifth EP release in the UK, the songs were not released in another format in this country until March 1988 with the release of the LP ‘Past Masters Volume 1’. I have only ever heard one cover of ‘I Call your Name’ and that is by The Mama’s & the Papa’s, they give it a great ‘honky tonk’ sound and with Cass Elliott’s wonderful voice it is certainly a fantastic version. The sleeve notes on the original EP state ‘you should dip the record in gold and preserve it for your grandchildren’, I think with the invention of the CD, MP3 and IPOD this song will be preserved for far longer than that.
Paul Clarkson
BY
THE BEATLES
Back in 1964, hidden away on an EP called ‘Long Tall Sally’, was this gem of a song called ‘I Call Your Name’ along with 3 other songs, the title track ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘Matchbox’ and ‘Slow Down’. I was 7 years old and my sister bought the EP for around 10s/11d. I loved the other songs but was captivated by ‘I Call Your Name’, I loved it and kept playing it over and over. It wasn’t until many years later, when everyone seemed to be compiling lists of their favourite top ten films or songs, that I was asked as a Beatle fan what my favourite song of theirs was. I gave it a great deal of thought and it had to be ‘I Call Your Name’ as it stood out for me. Every time I hear it I can see John Lennon singing with that arrogant stance he had, squinting out to the audience with his Rickenbacker guitar high up on his chest playing those wonderful chords high up on the fret board.
In Ian Macdonald’s book ‘Revolution in the Head’ he doesn’t rate the song at all describing it as ‘a mess’ lyrically even going on to say that the song ‘wasn’t up to scratch’. This is what I find fascinating about The Beatles and how the fans, music journalists and the world view their music. I personally don’t think there is a bad song in the whole Beatle catalogue but then ask anyone who knows me and they would say I’m biased. I hold my hands up to that one but The Beatles had this knack of writing great songs and then sublimely fantastic songs that will be played long after we’re all gone. ‘I Call Your Name’ is what I call a great song, probably not their best in most peoples opinions but I just love the melody, the guitar sound and best of all John’s voice. The song was originally given to Billy J Kramer and was on the ‘b’ side of his and the Dakota’s number 1 song ‘Bad To Me’ in August 1963. Recorded by The Beatles on Sunday March 1st 1964 it was eventually released as an EP on Friday 19th June. It was intended to be included in the film ‘A Hard Days Night’ but was subsequently dropped.
The song starts brightly with a lovely lead intro and at 3 seconds if you listen closely you can hear John’s fingers slide up the fret board. John’s unmistakeable vocal comes in at 8 seconds with the cowbell joining the song at 11 seconds. I’ve always been a fan of John and his voice in this era of the Beatles was fantastic. In my opinion, with the exception of Ray Davies, no one else could belt out the early 60’s pop song like John could. When you listen to ‘When I Get Home’, ‘Any Time At All’, ‘This Boy’ and ‘I Call Your Name’ you can hear a voice that’s in love and in pain at the same time, when John sings ‘Oh I can’t sleep at night’ at 23 seconds, you can hear the pain in his vocal. Don’t get me wrong, Paul McCartney had many brilliant vocal moments as well but Paul will feature in this series along the way. The ‘middle eight’ comes in at 1 minute 8 seconds and has a definite ‘reggae’ sound to it and I remember reading somewhere that John was quite taken with the song ‘My Boy Lollipop’ by Millie, which was an early ska/reggae song. The song was in the hit parade in March 1964 reaching number 2, the same time as The Beatles were recording ‘I Call Your Name’ at Abbey Road so it would seem that the story of his influence by ‘My Boy Lollipop’ has some truth.
‘Long Tall Sally’ was The Beatles fifth EP release in the UK, the songs were not released in another format in this country until March 1988 with the release of the LP ‘Past Masters Volume 1’. I have only ever heard one cover of ‘I Call your Name’ and that is by The Mama’s & the Papa’s, they give it a great ‘honky tonk’ sound and with Cass Elliott’s wonderful voice it is certainly a fantastic version. The sleeve notes on the original EP state ‘you should dip the record in gold and preserve it for your grandchildren’, I think with the invention of the CD, MP3 and IPOD this song will be preserved for far longer than that.
Paul Clarkson