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Got to Get You into My Life
Composer(s) : Lennon and McCartney
Year : 1966
Chords/Tabs: Got to Get You into My Life
Notes on "Got To Get You Into My Life" (GTGYIML)
KEY G Major
METER 4/4
FORM Intro -> Verse -> Verse -> Refrain ->
Verse -> Refrain -> Refrain -> Outro (fadeout)
GENERAL POINTS OF INTEREST
Style and Form
- We have another wonderful example here of Macca reaching hard for
Something, if not really, New, then something newly *synthesized* out
of everything he knew, could remember, and somehow find a way to
fit into the mix. Go ahead -- make fun of him (and me too, while
you're at it! :-)), but I challenge you to stylistically pigeonhole
this one: is it big-band "pop", neolyte blues, modal contemporary rock,
or whatnot?
- Formalistically the song is unusual for the manner in which the vamping
and potentially self-perpetuating coda develops as an outgrowth of an
extra, extended repeat of the refrain just before the ending.
- The arrangement conjures up visions of a big and brassy stage band, but
true to the form of the rest of _Revolver_, the recording also connotes
a touch of surreality in the way that the "silver saxaphones" and "washed
out horns" are recorded close up to the point of scornful distortion.
(Apologies to Zimmy, but my borrowing of imagery here is partly intended
to get you thinking about unlikely resonances between our song here and
one Blonde-on-Blonde number which bears the distinction of sharing the
same title with one of the tracks on Abbey Road! Think about it ...)
Melody and Harmony
- The tune of the verse is spikey with lots of wide jumps over a
wide range. The tune of the bridge is very bluesy, and though the
vocal line is fragmentary, it ellides seamlessly with the instrumental
rejoinder that follows it; when you hum the song to yourself, you
wind up running it all together -- the fancy technical term for
this effect is a "hocket."
- The harmony is equally changeable: static in the first half of the
verse with jazzy superimpositions over a I-chord pedal; over a walking
chromatic bassline in the second half of the verse; and in the bridge,
there's finally sufficient time for the plain old I-IV-V.
Arrangement
- On very close listening (especially, if you check out the individual stereo
channels), the finished recording seems surprisingly "dirty," with stray
studio talk buried below the music near the beginning, and bleed-ins or
some other kinds of ghostly remnants of earlier tracks not quite entirely
mixed out of the official version. This is a reminder, on the one hand,
of the rather primitive pre-digital techniques and equipment they had
to deal with in the mid 60s, but I'll also stand by my earlier comment
that this crufty audio quality is part of an intentional aesthetic here.
- For all the heavy layering of overdubs and limiting, there's still always
room for the ubiquitous double tracked lead vocal, and a tambourine, of
course! There's also that passion-drenched lead guitar part which is
nicely saved as a surprise for so late in the song that you don't really
expect it.
- The rhythmic pulse is fast, fast, fast; a regular Beethoven scherzo, if
you will :-) The underlying 4/4 beat, itself, is quite more rapid than
a standard quarter-note-equals-120 march beat. But it is the steady,
relentless triplets that fill out those beats, as well as the frequency
of syncopation that give the music its real thrust. Not only do we find
a continuation here of the anticipate-the-downbeat tactic used by George
in the previous track, but at the end of the final phrase of each verse,
we also have a melodic flip which does hit the downbeat, but whose ultimate
point of arrival places the accent on the second beat of the measure.
SECTION-BY-SECTION WALKTHROUGH
Intro
- The four-bar intro is completely instrumental, vamping on the 'I' chord,
and including the 7-9-11-13 embellishment which characterizes the verse
section (see below.)
- This brief introductory section sets both the overall tone of the
proceedings to come as well as the relatively static harmonic style.
Verse
- The verse is a squared-off sixteen measures long, but its internal
phraselogy is broken down into patterns of phrases that are different
in length; i.e. |A |A |B B |C |
------------------------------ 2X -------------------------------
|G |- |- |- |
G: I
harmony |b |- |- |- |
bassline|B B-flat |A G# |B B-flat |A G# |
iii vii-half dim/ iii vii-half dim/
ii ii
harmony |C |a D |G |- |
bassline|C B |A D |G |- |
IV ii V I
- The harmony of each of the A-B-C phrases is distinctive. The first
two phrases establish the home key of G Major by a kind of pedal-point
insistence. Whether you call the chords in the second half of each
of those phrases a "I 7-9-11-13" or you call it "I with flat VII and/
or IV superimposed" it is still experientially the same thing.
- The third phrase features a single sustained chord in the upper voices
(b minor) over a chromatically descending bassline. The last note in
this bass riff (G#) turns the chord into an implicit "half diminished
seventh on G#," which points strongly toward a minor, but the resolution
of this is put off until the middle of the following phrase.
- The repeated chromatic descent from B is followed in the final phrase
by a diatonic descent from C. The effect is akin to your trying several
times to anxiously scale a difficult, slippery mountain peak to finally
succeed on the third try; *sing* this bassline to yourself and you'll
feel what I'm talking about here. This last phrase finally establishes
the home key in harmonically unequivocal terms.
Refrain
- The refrain shifts to a modal and bluesy style with I-IV-V in the
chord progression, B-flat/B-natural clashes between vocal part and
harmonies, and F-natural/F-sharp clashes between the instrumental
obligato and the chords.
- The general tendency toward syncopation in the foreground is carried
through to the background in this section by the way the C chord is
sustained through measures 2 and 3. This gambit forces the refrain
to a slightly unusual extended length of six measures:
|G |C |- |D |
I IV V
|G |- |
I
- When refrain comes back for the second time, it is repeated immediately
one additional time. This repeat is setup by an additional two measures
of vamping on the I chord; the latter, setup in turn, by the surprise
appearance of the lead guitar starting in measures 5 & 6 of the refrain
immediately preceding.
Outro
- The doubled second refrain leads directly into the outro which,
in many respects is an extended reprise of the Intro with the addition
of a pseudo-improvisational vocal.
- The outro goes on for over 12 measures on the I chord before the
complete fadeout sets in, and is suggestive of a spontaneous, ranting
jam session that goes on long past where the the recording fades to
silece; and perhaps it will, in a concert, go on for more than just a
few minutes. IMHO, the impossibly high spikes of the brass easily upstage
Macca's screaming.
- Here, given a tremendous demonstration of the less-is-more aesthetic
in context of the 2-3 minute song medium, you can contemplate this outro
as an example of where the implication is as good, if not better, than the
actuality of the real thing.
- Paul apparently had a sweet spot for these extended outros, even if
"Hey Jude" remains the only example of it to have
made the official
canon. If you go for the so-called unofficial recordings, though, do
take a look at the extended-jamming outtakes of
"She's A Woman," and
"You Never Give Me Your Money."
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
- "Got To Get You Into My Life" is the uncanny antithesis of the
preceding
"I Want To Tell You," in spite of many musical elements
in common between the two songs.
- I talk alot in this series about Paul and John seeming to not just compete,
but to try and come up with their respectively personal "solution" to the
same compositional challenge; the irony being that they never come off
so strongly as their individualized selves as when they they engage in
this directly competitive exericse.
- Whether or not it was done with any pre-meditation, I consider this
one a case of Paul and George having a go at it. Aside from the fast
triplets and predominating syncopation, the lyrics of both their songs
describe similar contexts of anxious, desirous longing for love from
afar.
- Granted, Paul's story here is at least one step up the romantic food
chain from the one that George tells: Macca has at least made direct
unrebuffed contact with the other person. But still, the parallels are
striking. And yet, one song is tied in knots while the other is upbeat,
determined, and jumping out of its skin.
Regards,
Alan (awp@world.std.com)
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"You knew in time we'd meet again for I had told you." 043095#102
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Copyright (c) 1995 by Alan W. Pollack
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