Good Morning/Good Afternoon/Good Evening. Song of The Day. Rain is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, credited to Lennon–McCartney and first released in June 1966 as the B-side of the Paperback Writer single. Both songs were recorded during the sessions for the album Revolver though neither appears on that album. Written by John Lennon, Rain has been called the Beatles finest B-side, noted for its slowed-down rhythm track and backwards vocals, both of which were a hint of things to come on Revolver, released two months later. Three promotional films were made for the song Rain. These videos, along with other Beatles videos at the time, sparked George Harrison to say during the Beatles Anthology, So I suppose, in a way, we invented MTV. The inspiration for Rain is agreed on by Neil Aspinall, the Beatles roadie, and John Lennon. They both described the bands arrival in Melbourne, Australia, marked by rain and poor weather. Lennon said, Ive never seen rain as hard as that, except in Tahiti, and later explained that Rain was about people moaning about the weather all the time. Another interpretation is that the songs rain and sun are phenomena experienced during a benign LSD trip. While technologically elaborate, Rain has a simple musical structure. Set in the key of G major (the final mix pitches it about a quarter of a semitone below this, while the backing track was taped in G sharp), it begins with what Alan W. Pollack calls, a ra-ta-tat half-measures fanfare of solo snare drums, followed by a guitar intro of the first chord. The verses are nine measures long, and the song is in 4/4 time. Each verse is based on the G, C, and D chords (I, IV, and V). The refrain contains only I and IV chords, and is twelve measures long (the repetition of a six-measure pattern). The first two measures are the G chord. The third and fourth measures are the C chord. The third measure has the C chord in the so-called 6/4 (second) inversion. The fifth and sixth measures return to the G chord. Pollack says the refrain seems slower than the verse, though it is at the same tempo, an illusion achieved by the change of beat for the first four measures from its erstwhile bounce to something more plodding and regular. After four verses and two refrains, a short solo for guitar and drums is played, with complete silence for one beat. What is heard next is what Pollack calls historically significant reverse lyrics. The Beatles pioneered the fade-out fade-in coda that was later used on Strawberry Fields Forever and Led Zeppelins Thank You. Recording began on 14 April 1966, in the same session as Paperback Writer, and concluded on 16 April, with a series of overdubs before mixing on the same day. At that time, The Beatles were enthusiastic about experimenting in the studio to achieve new sounds and effects. These experiments were showcased in their influential seventh album, Revolver. Geoff Emerick, who was the engineer for both sessions, described one technique he used to alter the sonic texture of the track by recording the backing track faster than normal. When played back, slightly slower than the usual speed, the music had a radically different tonal quality. The opposite technique was used to alter the tone of Lennons lead vocal: it was recorded with the tape machine slowed down, making Lennons voice sound higher when played back. The last verse of Rain includes backwards vocals, one of the first uses of this technique on a record. The backwards vocals are Lennon singing the lyrics of the song: When the sun shines, Rain, and If the rain comes, they run and hide their heads. Both Lennon and producer George Martin have claimed credit for the idea; Lennon said: “ After wed done the session on that particular song—it ended at about four or five in the morning—I went home with a tape to see what else you could do with it. And I was sort of very tired, you know, not knowing what I was doing, and I just happened to put it on my own tape recorder and it came out backwards. And I liked it better. So thats how it happened. ” Emerick confirms Lennons creative accident, but Martin remembers it differently: “ I was always playing around with tapes and I thought it might be fun to do something extra with Johns voice. So I lifted a bit of his main vocal off the four-track, put it on another spool, turned it around and then slid it back and forth until it fitted. John was out at the time but when he came back he was amazed. ” Later, in 1980, John claimed: “ I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana and, as I usually do, I listened to what Id recorded that day. Somehow I got it on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, I know what to do with it, I know... Listen to this! So I made them all play it backwards. The fade is me actually singing backwards with the guitars going backwards. [Singing backwards] Sharethsmnowthsmeaness... [Laughter] That one was the gift of God, of Jah, actually, the god of marijuana, right? So Jah gave me that one. ” Regardless of who is credited for the technique, from that point on, Emerick wrote, almost every overdub we did on Revolver had to be tried backwards as well as forwards. The Paperback Writer/Rain single was the first release to use a new device invented by the maintenance department at Abbey Road called ATOC for Automatic Transient Overload Control. The new device allowed the record to be cut at a louder volume, louder than any other single up to that time. On the final mix of the single, Lennon played a 1965 Gretsch Nashville, Paul McCartney a 1964 Rickenbacker 4001S bass, Harrison a 1964 Gibson SG, and Ringo Starr used Ludwig drums.[3][11] Both McCartney and Starr have been praised for their performances on their instruments in this song. Starr particularly liked his drumming effort. youtube/watch?v=liJbriVSn9o
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 13:34:24 +0000
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