{"id":35259,"date":"2026-02-13T01:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T06:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/?p=35259"},"modified":"2026-02-12T19:07:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T00:07:31","slug":"on-penny-lane-by-rob-simbeck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/2026\/02\/on-penny-lane-by-rob-simbeck\/","title":{"rendered":"On Penny Lane, by Rob Simbeck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Other Voices, No. 3<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

[Editor Note: I am fortunate to have friends who write compelling and entertaining items which they graciously allow me to share with you.\u00a0 Such is the case again this week, with my friend Rob Simbeck<\/a>‘s take on his favorite song, <\/em>Penny Lane.<\/em><\/p>\n

Given Rob’s extensive musical background, I was surprised he chose this<\/span> song out of the thousands of our shared history as his favorite.\u00a0 So I asked him to expound on his choice, which he did.\u00a0 He didn’t write the following with the idea that I’d ask to publish it, but good writers do what they do.\u00a0 Enjoy.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

To set the stage, I have always been smitten with the strength of singles of all kinds from 1965-67, with the Beatles<\/a>, Beach Boys<\/a>, and Rolling Stones<\/a> all hitting it out of the park pretty much every time. \u00a0Lots more from the Animals<\/a>, Kinks<\/a>, Byrds<\/a>, Hollies<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

For my money, the Beatles’ Penny Lane<\/em><\/a> has all the elements: sophistication, along the lines of\u00a0 Eleanor Rigby <\/em><\/a>or Good Vibrations<\/em><\/a> (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 \u201860s experience.<\/p>\n

Yes, Penny Lane<\/em> is a pop story song, but it transcends that.\u00a0 It\u2019s got a descending bass line a\u00a0la<\/em> the Kinks\u2019 Sunny Afternoon<\/em><\/a>, but whereas that goes where you expect it, the B-minor chord on the word \u201cknow\u201d in the first verse of Penny Lane<\/em> throws a grenade into the progression in the coolest, most artistic way:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It makes it dark, or as dark as McCartney got.\u00a0 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 \u201cOn the corner\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Light and dark again with the banker, and this time we do get rain, with the lyric on the darker pause.\u00a0 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…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

…with great harmonies through to \u201cin summer,\u201d which leads us to \u201cmeanwhile back\u201d which takes us to the verse again.\u00a0 It just feels like a magical journey all the way, with hidden doors and magic portals.\u00a0 This time, the nurse whose life is a play anyway, meets the darker chords…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

…and in the last verse it\u2019s fire and rain.<\/p>\n

Penny Lane <\/em>is\u00a0a story but it\u2019s surrealistic, bringing in different scenes, different weather.\u00a0 It feels music-hall meets psychedelic to me, tying them together, and it just jumps out of the speakers.\u00a0 The bass line is smooth and complex and almost circusy.\u00a0 And the piccolo trumpet solo is British and Baroque and wonderful.\u00a0 And there\u2019s yet another key change toward the end to freshen it up once again.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2022 \u2022\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for others, yes, Eleanor Rigby<\/em> is brilliant and has a lot of those good elements, but it\u2019s really only two chords.\u00a0 John did all his most brilliant stuff during this period, and All You Need Is Love<\/em> may have a claim to being more iconically ’60s — and I love the way it plays with the time signatures — but it doesn\u2019t jump out of the speakers quite like Penny Lane<\/em>. And Hey Jude<\/em> was a bigger hit, but it\u2019s not the adventure this is.\u00a0 It\u2019s more an anthem.<\/p>\n

Except for A Day In The Life<\/em>, I didn\u2019t think the rest of “Sgt. Pepper” continued the upward progression that had led to “Revolver” as their best album.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t buy “Sgt. Pepper” or anything after that, until I bought everything, probably in my 30s.<\/p>\n

Thus endeth my analysis.<\/p>\n

[The Beatles single <\/em>Penny Lane\/Strawberry Fields Forever was released February 13, 1967 — 59 years ago today.\u00a0 Very strange.<\/em>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 Such is the case again this week, with my friend Rob Simbeck‘s take … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35259"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35904,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35259\/revisions\/35904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}