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Here, There and Everywhere
Composer(s) : Lennon and McCartney
Year : 1966
Chords/Tabs: Here, There and Everywhere
Notes on "Here, There, and Everywhere" (HTAE)
KEY G Major
METER 4/4
FORM Intro -> Verse -> Verse -> Bridge ->
Verse -> Bridge -> Verse -> Outro (w/complete ending)
GENERAL POINTS OF INTEREST
Style and Form
- This song is remarkable for its bittersweet tune, clever harmonic
scheme, and understated arrangement. It is a landmark triumph of
the soft rock genre. No kidding.
- It opens with one of those (relatively rare-for-the-Beatles) ad-lib
introductions, but the form is otherwise the classic two-bridge model,
with only one verse intervening and no instrumental break.
- The lyrics make a rather John-like structural use of the title words.
Melody and Harmony
- The tune uses a wide variety of rhythmic values to convey an impression
of the naturally spoken word. It also manages to maintain a nicely
fluid melodic feeling through its mix of stepwise motion, long leaps,
rhetorical dwellings on a single note, and some triadic outlines.
- The home key of the song is G Major, but both its Relative minor (e),
as well as the parallel minor (g) and its Relative Major (B flat)
make important appearances. Both Paul and John were fond of these types
of key schemes, and there are many songs we've looked at that use one
or more of these tricks. This is a particularly rare example in which
ALL of them are used in the same song. Granted, in the formal context
of the 2-3 minute song, there is relatively little room for the
full-fledged modulations you'll find in larger forms, but this in
no way precludes a more furtive and no less restless exploration
of alternate tonal centers.
- The opening measures of the verse make use of a jazzy chord stream
of the sort that harkens all the way back to early numbers like
"Ask Me Why" and "P.S.
I Love You."
Arrangement
- The arrangement subscribes to the aesthetic of "less-is-more," with
restrained yet carefully placed details in all departments. This
accomplishment is made to seem ironic and all the more impressive
given the extent to which Lewisohn reports they fussed over the
arrangement in the overdub stage. Even without access to the bootlegs
of so-called Monitor Mixes, you can get a feel for this by simply
listening to each of the stereo tracks on the official release
one at a time.
- Paul's lead vocal was recorded on the low and slow side in order
to make it sound higher and much wispier on playback. Both this lead
vocal and the lead guitar licks of the bridge are selectively
double-tracked. You'll note places in which the second track either
drops out or provides a harmonization with the primary track. Enjoy
discovering these for yourself!
- The backing vocals provide their much talked about, deceptively simple
block harmonies on the phoneme, "ooooh." The slight changes they make
in their articulation of the chord changes in measures 5 and 6 of the
verses make these backing vocals sound somewhat instrumental. And in
the instrumental area we have a subtle patterning of the guitar chords,
and a a bunch of just-right gentle touches in just the right places
from Ringo. Did you ever notice, BTW, the addition of finger snaps
in the final verse and the outro?
SECTION-BY-SECTION WALKTHROUGH
Intro
- The intro gives away, in its first two chords, the secret of what will
soon unfold as the songs characterizing harmonic restlessness. The
B-flat chord provides a pleasantly surprising cross relation against
the B-natural of the preceding G Major chord, and also foreshadows
the later flirtation with this "relative Major of the parallel
minor" that will appear in the bridges:
|G |B-flat |a |D |
G: I flat-III ii V
- There's an interesting comparison to be made between this intro and
the one from the much earlier "Do You Want
To Know A Secret."
Verse
- The verse is a fairly traditional eight measures long, though its
phraseology contains some subtle internal patterning. The overall
structure is 2+2+4, "AAB," but the B section is itself subdivided
into its own "AAB," though the durations are halved down to 1+1+2.
- The harmonic structure of the verse opens up to V after flirting
in the second half with the relative minor, e. According the
"stricter" theorists who argue that the home key isn't officially
established until both I and V have been exposed, this verse doesn't
establish G Major until its very ending:
|G | C |G | C |
G: I IV I IV
e: VI
|f# B |f# B |e a |C D |
ii* V ii* V i
G: vi ii IV V
- The chord on *f# in measures 5 and 6 is a so-called "half-diminshed"
7th; i.e. the triad itself is diminished (F#-A-C) but the 7th (E) is minor.
I "grep" in vain, through all the preceding notes in this series, to
find another use in a Beatles song of this somewhat jazzy chord type.
Bridge
- The bridge is 6 measures long, strictly speaking, but the phrasing
of the melody and words elides right into the start of the next
verse based on a repetition of the second part of the first
phrase, and this obscures your perception of where the actual
section boundary is:
|Bb g |c D |g |c D |
B-flat: I vi ii
g:iv V i iv V
- Stepping into B-flat at the beginning of this section is, indeed,
a "deceptive cadence", and feels at first as though a fourth dimension
opens up. The slip into g minor delivers a melancholy twinge, yet
the deceptive cadence back into the parallel Major at the start
of the next verse is akin to the feeling you get on a day when
the sun comes out in late afternoon, just when you've resigned
yourself to the day being a cloudy one. Paul evidently was proud
of this trick, as he would play it over again, almost identically
in the "Two of Us."
Outro
- The outro is built on top of the first half of the verse
section, but this last time Paul provides a different melody
for it, one that is set to the words of the title. This
special effect lends a sense of closure and summarization
to this outro. We've seen something very similar to this
in "Michelle," even though the latter
song ends with a fadeout.
- The outro finishes off the song harmonically on a "Plagal"
cadence; i.e. I-IV-I. Don't underestimate the extent to which
the absence of the V chord at this juncture allows the music
to end on a more laid-back note than it would with the V chord.
Try the alternative out in your head if you don't believe me.
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
- It seems like the number of resonances spotted in this song
to other McCartney efforts means this one is either unusually
pregnant with resonances, or else we've been writing this series
too long :-)
- In any event, I save my favorite free association, this time,
for last. Now, this song is characterized by the following
gesture that opens each verse: a declarative word, followed
by a pause, and then rhythmically active ascent in the tune,
as in -- "Here (pause) making each day of the year ..."
- An informal page-through of the collected lyrics of Mr. McCartney
reveals the following list of other examples of the same, or at
least similar, gesture. Granted, the grammar of all of these is
not the same, nor is the melodic contour of the consequent phrase,
but still, I think these are interesting, and some of them are
unmistakable:
- Listen (pause) do you want to know a secret
- Eleanor Rigby (pause) picks up the rice
- Day after day (pause) alone on a hill
- Hey Jude (pause) don't make it bad
- Hold me tight (pause) tell me I'm the only one
- Honey Pie (pause) you are making me crazy
- The long and winding road (pause) that leads to your door
- Michelle (pause) ma belle
- Oh darling (pause) please believe me
- Try to see it my way (pause) do I have to keep on talking
- Look (pause) what you're doing
- When I call you up (pause) your line's enagaged
- Yesterday (pause) all my troubles seemed so far away
Regards,
Alan (awp@world.std.com)
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"Do you think I haven't noticed ... do you think I wasn't
aware of the drift?" 112894#96
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Copyright (c) 1994 by Alan W. Pollack
All Rights Reserved
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