Boys

The Beatles were no strangers to covers in their early years. Only eight of the fourteen tracks on their debut LP were originals, the remaining six ranging from Broadway selections (“A Taste of Honey”) to pieces penned by legends in the songwriting field (Goffin and King’s “Chains” and Bacharach’s “Baby It’s You”). Although The Beatles would become one of the leaders in the working class revolution of the music business, where more and more artists were given the freedom to record original material, they were however still working within the confines of the system of the time. And in the early 60’s that meant that whatever the suits at the studio allowed you to record, you gratefully recorded without question.

One of the several covers on Please Please Me is “Boys,” a product of the songwriting team of Wes Farrell and Luther Dixon. Penning a song that The Beatles would go on to immortalize would likely be enough for anyone’s career, but Farrell would go on to enjoy a tremendous amount of success for his work with The Partridge Family television show, crafting the show’s theme song while also producing many of the musical numbers featured on the program.

“Boys” was originally recorded by The Shirelles, an all-female American pop group. 1960 saw the release of the song as the B-Side to the enormously successful “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” which made The Shirelles part of history as the first all-girl group to hit number one on the Billboard pop charts.

“Boys” was a regular number on The Beatles’ setlist during their early days at the Cavern Club, as were just about all of the tracks featured on Please Please Me. In the pre-Ringo days, former drummer Pete Best handled vocal duties on the song, handing the job over to Starr when he joined the band in late ’62. Oddly enough, prior to replacing Best, Ringo had regularly sang “Boys” with his pre-Beatles band, the Liverpool-based Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. By the time the lightning-quick recording sessions for Please Please Me were underway, Ringo was more than prepared to belt out the tune, which is said to have been recorded in one amazingly badass take.

When it comes to picking the tune up yourself, you (who I assume would be the amateur musician I spoke of so fondly in my last post) won’t have to bleed your fingers out in order to get this one down. Much like “I Saw Her Standing There,” “Boys” follows a basic blues standard in E. There are a few intricacies here and there, but for the most amateurish of the amateurs, you can play the basics of this song in three chords. That’s right, kids. THREE CHORDS. If you know how to play E, A, and B, you know how to play “Boys.” I’m telling ‘ya, the only way it could get simpler is if they were able to manufacture a faux-guitar with multi-colored plastic buttons that you simply press in sequence and then …. oh wait …

For those of us looking to get into more than just the basics, this song still has a lot of little nuances that provide the guitarist some really fun stuff to work with. George’s opening pickings leading to a pounding B7 and finally the single E strum that kicks off the verse are a blast to play, and that’s less than ten seconds into the song. The verses, initially consisting of single E strums and then moving into a rhythmic alternation of A, G, E, and D during the “Bop-shoo-wop”s, are even more of a rocking good time. Perfecting the rhythm of said “Bop-shoo-wop” section provides a genuine feeling of dancehall craziness that no plastic machine could ever recreate. On top of all that, you get to curl your lip and bust out your best Ringo-impersonating-Elvis impersonation with a resounding “Hey, hey!” here and there.

As far as the chorus goes, I prefer to stick to chords, although there is a steady (and really fun) riff that follows throughout it. I prefer chords for this part simply because it’s easier to keep to the rhythm while singing, but that’s just me. If there’s no singing involved, you can bet your ass my fingers are constantly moving up and down that riff in order to give the song its proper, uh, props.

All in all, “Boys” is a lot of fun to sing, play, and rock your face to. It doesn’t get my blood flowing quite like “I Saw Her Standing There,” but that may just mean I’m a sucker for Lennon/McCartney originals. Nevertheless, I enjoy the hell out of playing this song.

And so with two songs down, I will continue my quest to show kids the way. Rock Band may be fun for a while, but come on … you and I both know that you’re more talented than that. Why pretend to rock when you can just plain rock? By the way, I’m open to any and all feedback on the blog, so let me know what you think. Whether you regard me as a genius writer (true) or an arrogant snob (also true), I want to know what the world thinks about this thing called BeatlesRockBlog.

I Saw Her Standing There

Counting to four isn’t usually the most exciting or groundbreaking event. A grinning vampire puppet (or vampet, perhaps) does this for children worldwide on a daily basis. But nearly 50 years ago, one un-undead dude (depending upon which rock mythologies you adhere to) changed the course of music history with the most important four-count in the history of men counting to four. I say men, of course, because we all know women cannot count that high.

For the giddy young rock’n’roller rushing home to his record player with the debut LP from the UK’s hottest new act, the first sounds to fill his ears were the count-off of a twenty year old Paul McCartney, ushering in a musical revolution with a “One, two, three, FAH!” Indeed, McCartney rocked existence to such an extent that he altered numeric history, replacing the traditional “four” with the much more badass (and more commonly accepted today) “FAH!” Once the young rock’n’roller wrapped his head around McCartney’s counting prowess, he was then forced into involuntary movements of first the limbs, then inward toward the pelvic region, as the rhythmic banging of one George Harrison’s opening chords created little bubbles of joyous rock, rebellion, and premarital sex in the young listener’s mind.

Of course, the young rock’n’roller has just dropped the needle on the very first track of the very first album from the very first global rock’n’roll act. The song: “I Saw Her Standing There.” The album: Please Please Me. The act: The fucking Beatles.

Please Please Me was rushed into UK record stores in March of 1963, just when The Beatles were starting to make a stir throughout Europe. The McCartney-penned “Love Me Do” had been the group’s lead-off national single a couple of months earlier, but it was Lennon’s “Please Please Me,” released in January of ’63, which pushed the Liverpool boys to the top of the charts. The two singles were grouped with twelve other recordings, a mix of originals and covers, and packaged as Please Please Me, a landmark in rock history. Opening up the album is “I Saw Her Standing There”, The Beatles’ unveiling of themselves for the mainstream record-buying audience. Not to mention, it’s a classic tune unto itself.

So now that we have the facts down, let’s spend a little time on the actual performance of the song. Sure, the Beatles can rock the balls out of their own material. But how does it hold up for the amateur musician?

For the amateur guitarist (one who is not paid for his services [although not all professional musicians are prostitutes]) looking to impress the inebriated crowd at a party, the song more than stands the test of time. The best part is the way the amateur musician needs absolutely no knowledge of music to suggest to others that he may be about to break into said classic. Merely holding a stringed instrument and imitating that famous four-count means you’re halfway to rocking.

But Rudy, you might ask, is it that easy to rock? Well … no, but it is that easy to appear to rock. And that’s basically all that’s required to win a VMA. Or to play Rock Band. But I digress…

Luckily, for those of us looking to do more than pose/count, we have one of the most jammingest dance tunes of all time on our hands. I feel that at this point I should stress that this song is damned fun and damned easy to learn. If you’ve got your basic chords down and committed to memory, you can pick this one up in relatively no time at all. I strongly recommend playing along with the track, not only for the sake of helping you pick up the rhythm but also because it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

The song is a standard blues arrangement in E. Like most of the Beatles’ early catalogue, the song is heavy on the open and bluesy sound of 7 chords. One needs only to work out the rhythm of George’s first few strums of the E7 chord to instantly be transported to the world of the Fab Four. There is something wholly Beatles (or possibly Holy Beatles) about the opening, declaring the trademark blues-influenced sound that would define much of the band’s early career.

One of my favorite parts of the song to play is the deviation from what would have been the traditional arrangement of such a song, that being the fleeting C7 following “How could I dance with another…” which leads into the song’s title. What still amazes me about The Beatles was their way of taking an old standard, tying it off at the arm, and slamming it with, as Chuck Berry might suggest, a shot of rhythm’n’blues. The unique thing about The Beatles was that they had their own style of rhythm’n’blues, one that built off of a pre-existing genre of music. That meant, among a multitude of innovations, unusual tempo changes and tinkering with standard chord arrangements.

The result? Some excellent songs that are really fun to rock out to. “I Saw Her Standing There” in particular is one that I highly recommend turning the speakers up for whilst pretending you are being broadcast in black and white along with John, Paul, George, and Ringo. And I’m not talking about playing along with cartoons on your idiot box. I’m talking about feeling the music that you create. Word?

So, please, put down the plastic. Come jam with me.