At the Lighthouse

I know, I know. Writing a blog entry about The Beatles. I might as well put up an entry that reads “You know what’s really cute? Kittens and bunnies. Kittens and bunnies are really cute.” or titled ”Why Racism is Wrong”. Even so, I’m writing this entry. 

I went through this whole big Beatles-phase in the eighth grade, where my best friend and myself would sit around in each other’s rooms after school and listen our way through every Beatles album ever released. It got really freaky for a while, the way fandom usually does when you’re 13 years old. I remember wearing black and mourning all day on the anniversary of John Lennon’s death, and realizing at some point that I knew the lyrics of every single Beatles song ever written. I also think that thanks to this adolescent Beatles phase of mine, Help! is still the movie I’ve seen the most times.

My friend and I neatly divided the fandom between us so that she liked Paul McCartney the best, and I was all about John Lennon and thought he was the most divine man ever to have lived. I like to think that I’m over that by now, but the truth is I’m really not. I think “Imagine” is an awful song and actually pretty much dislike the entire oeuvre of his solo career, but I still think he was incredibly awesome when co-working with McCartney, and he was undeniably a genius songwriter.

And then he had a singing voice that can still make me all school girl-ishly weak in the knees whenever I hear it. Which is what I really wanted to write about in this entry, my Top 5 Favourite Early Beatles Songs with Lead Vocals by John Lennon, or, more idiomatically, my T5FEBSLVJL. Because John Lennon had such a good singing voice for rock ‘n roll music. And I think people sometimes tend to forget this, focusing mostly on his songwriting abilities, or even his heavy-handed fight for world peace, so I thought I’d bring attention to it in this entry. His voice simply sounded sexy, I think, like leather jackets and five-o-clock-shadows and sweet nothings whispered into your ear at a scruffy bar late at night.  It’s especially prominent in the high notes when his voice sounds like it’s almost about to break, allowing a kind of passionate desperation to creep into his clarinet-like barytone that brings a certain edge to the songs. And while I love the later Beatles songs, I think the earlier songs tended to set off this particular edge the best – perhaps because the early songs otherwise sound relatively innocent to the modern ear. Here are my five favourite examples of this phenomenon:

5. “Mr. Moonlight”
This is not a Beatles song in as much as it’s not written by The Beatles; rather it’s written by Roy Lee Johnson. All in all it’s a pretty forgettable song, but John Lennon’s voice in the intro is so awesome.

4. “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me”
Another song that isn’t actually a Beatles song. It was written by The Miracles, but I think that the Beatles’ recording of it is actually the best there is. John’s vocals seem to be balancing on the upper edge of his high range, truly adding to the desolate ambience of  the lyrics. George Harrison delivers the harmony, but it’s John’s voice that stands out.

3. “You Can’t Do That”
One of John Lennon’s more macho songs, thematically related to “Run for Your Life” , and this makes the aforementioned raunchy sound of his voice even more apt.

2. “Twist and Shout”
It almost seems redundant to mention this one, because it’s so famous, but I’m doing it anyway, because John does that almost-breaking-voice thing constantly in this live cover version of a Top Notes song:

1. “This Boy”
“This Boy” is my favourite example when it comes to John’s voice. Which is funny because I actually find most of the song to be slightly dull and monotonous – but it’s saved by the bridge  where John gets to display the full potential of his voice, as he takes the lead and breaks free from the morose harmonies of the song. The result is incredible. And then  he is just so impossibly cute in the video when he raises his eyebrows while reaching the high note! Eeeee, look at him! I don’t know what all those girls were on about, screaming their lungs out over Paul McCartney with his puppy dog eyes and awkwardly bopping head.