Other Voices, No. 3

[Editor Note: I am fortunate to have friends who write compelling and entertaining items which they graciously allow me to share with you.  Such is the case again this week, with my friend Rob Simbeck‘s take on his favorite song, Penny Lane.

Given Rob’s extensive musical background, I was surprised he chose this song out of the thousands of our shared history as his favorite.  So I asked him to expound on his choice, which he did.  He didn’t write the following with the idea that I’d ask to publish it, but good writers do what they do.  Enjoy.]

To set the stage, I have always been smitten with the strength of singles of all kinds from 1965-67, with the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Rolling Stones all hitting it out of the park pretty much every time.  Lots more from the Animals, Kinks, Byrds, Hollies…

For my money, the Beatles’ Penny Lane has all the elements: sophistication, along the lines of  Eleanor Rigby or Good Vibrations (my #2 of the decade); great orchestration (again like those two songs); wonderful melody; and a brightness and poppiness that make it feel like a quintessentially ‘60s experience.

Yes, Penny Lane is a pop story song, but it transcends that.  It’s got a descending bass line a la the Kinks’ Sunny Afternoon, but whereas that goes where you expect it, the B-minor chord on the word “know” in the first verse of Penny Lane throws a grenade into the progression in the coolest, most artistic way:

It makes it dark, or as dark as McCartney got.  It makes the listener pause on this jaunty sunlit ride and experience a bit of rain, a tension that holds us for a second — and even though the lyrics are still jaunty (“the people that come and go / stop and say hello”), we remain in a holding pattern until the music catches up and gets jaunty again, with “On the corner…”

Light and dark again with the banker, and this time we do get rain, with the lyric on the darker pause.  But this time the release is to the chorus, which is in a brand new key, with a melody jump that makes it feel higher, brighter, joyful…

…with great harmonies through to “in summer,” which leads us to “meanwhile back” which takes us to the verse again.  It just feels like a magical journey all the way, with hidden doors and magic portals.  This time, the nurse whose life is a play anyway, meets the darker chords…

…and in the last verse it’s fire and rain.

Penny Lane is a story but it’s surrealistic, bringing in different scenes, different weather.  It feels music-hall meets psychedelic to me, tying them together, and it just jumps out of the speakers.  The bass line is smooth and complex and almost circusy.  And the piccolo trumpet solo is British and Baroque and wonderful.  And there’s yet another key change toward the end to freshen it up once again.

To me it just synthesizes everything The Beatles did well, everything the ’60s did well, and makes it a fun and palatable and engaging journey.

• • • 

As for others, yes, Eleanor Rigby is brilliant and has a lot of those good elements, but it’s really only two chords.  John did all his most brilliant stuff during this period, and All You Need Is Love may have a claim to being more iconically ’60s — and I love the way it plays with the time signatures — but it doesn’t jump out of the speakers quite like Penny Lane. And Hey Jude was a bigger hit, but it’s not the adventure this is.  It’s more an anthem.

Except for A Day In The Life, I didn’t think the rest of “Sgt. Pepper” continued the upward progression that had led to “Revolver” as their best album.  I didn’t buy “Sgt. Pepper” or anything after that, until I bought everything, probably in my 30s.

Thus endeth my analysis.

[The Beatles single Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever was released February 13, 1967 — 59 years ago today.  Very strange.]