Notes on "Misery" (M1.1)
KEY C Major
METER 4/4
FORM Intro -> Verse -> Verse -> Bridge ->
Verse -> Bridge -> Verse -> Outro (fadeout)
GENERAL POINTS OF INTEREST
Style and Form
- "Misery" is one of a group of songs from the
Please Please Me album
sadly fated for obscurity in America, where most people had no familiarity
with it until Capitol released the _Early Beatles_ album in spring '65, a
full two years after it was recorded. And by that point the drift of
popular attention to the group was understandably tilted toward the
really new material.
- This obscurity is particularly unfortunate to the extent that the
song's overall sound, characterized by a shuffling, "washboard"
beat and spare, pseudo-acoustic instrumental texture, represents
a genuine if somewhat under-appreciated facet of the group's early style.
- The melody is in short phrases, punctuated by rhythm guitar obbligato
figures, and the rhetorical interjections of the song's title in the lyrics.
- The form is the standard two-bridge model with one verse intervening.
The relatively short duration of the finished song could have easily
accommodated an additional instrumental-solo verse before the second
bridge, but my theory is that the closed shape of those verse sections,
*especially* built as they are from such a limited set of chords, would
have been a claustrophobic mistake that they wisely avoided.
- The lyrics of the four verses form a familiar pattern of ABCC.
- Three of the four verses and the refrains all begin rhythmically on the
downbeat. The lone exception is the second verse ("I've lost her now"),
which begins with a pickup.
Melody and Harmony
- The first half of the verse tune sports a jumpy pentatonic lick before
the other notes of the scale make their appearance in the second half.
The bridge tune is based unusually on the step-wise descent of an
entire octave.
- Only four chords are used. In order of appearance you have F, G, C, and
'a'; i.e., IV, V, I, and vi, respectively. The vi chord is used in this
song as though it were a full-fledged sub-dominant (in the way it sets
up the V chord) or even as a surrogate dominant (in the way it
sometimes is inserted *between* the I chord on either side). Only
at the beginning of the bridge is it used in its more typecast role
as the relative minor, or "submediant".
Arrangement
- The voice parts are predominantly sung in unison but there are surprise
blossomings into two-part harmony, typically saved for phrase endings.
- Paul uses the same sort of dotted quarter and eighth notes in the bass part
that we saw in FMTY. This also cleverly carries forward into the bass line
the same snapped rhythm that pervades the main melody of the song, as well
as it rescues the bass line from would be otherwise have been a dull,
unrelieved four in the bar.
- The piano edit pieces in the intro and bridge are a relatively small touch,
but one of no small historic interest; aside from the fracas regarding
Andy White's guest drumming stint on the original version of
"Love Me Do",
this is likely the very first appearance of a guest performer on a Beatles
track in order to provide something the Boys could not do for themselves.
Granted, it's a far cry from the likes of the string quartets and solo
brass instruments that would come later, but it's the same concept
nevertheless.
SECTION-BY-SECTION WALKTHROUGH
Intro
- The intro is only four measures long (discounting the opening piano
arpeggio), but it has the full essence of the rest of the song embedded
within in it:
"Adagio" -------------->"A Tempo"
|F |G |C |a G
C: IV V I vi V
- Starting off with a dramatically slow intro may have been a fairly common
technique among the rest of pop/rock music, but L&M very rarely used it at
all. Aside from the contemporaneous
"Do You Want To Know A Secret?",
I can't even think of another example off the top of my head; something
worth keeping an ear out for in the rest of our studies.
- The choice of opening chord progression makes this yet another Beatles song
that opens away from the home key, yet quickly converges upon it.
- In the space of just these few measures were are quickly introduced to
several devices that ultimately characterize and permeate the rest of
the song; e.g., the unison singing which unfolds into harmony, the
decorative use of the piano, and the I-vi-V chord progression.
- Mark for later reference the little chromatic move in the bass line during
the transition from measure 1 to 2 (F -> F# -> G).
Verse
- The verse is a brief and harmonically static eight measures:
|C |F |C |F - |G |C |a
I IV I IV V I iv
- Note how the embellishment of the F chord with "neighbor" tones of D-C-D
in the guitar part lends a jazzy, added-sixth sound to the accompaniment.
- In spite of the few chords used, a subtle syncopation in the harmonic rhythm
is created by sustaining the same chord (i.e., F, the IV) over the two
measures that straddle the mid-verse divide between measures 4 & 5.
- As we saw with
FMTY,
wherever a verse if followed by yet another verse
section, the final measure shifts to the vi chord instead of sustaining
the I chord all the way through, as happens in verses which are followed
by a bridge. I've told you there are formulaic aspects to this sort of
composition.
Bridge
- We have another eight-measure section, one that provides the traditional
contrast to the preceding verses:
|a |- |C |- a |- |G |-
vi I vi V
- The harmonic rhythm is slower than the verse, and the steep scale-wise
descent in the melody here is in contrast to the jumping here and about
seen earlier. Some consistency with the verse is maintained in the way
we still have short, declarative phrases in dotted rhythm, punctuated by
the accompaniment; here the piano, instead of the guitar, provides the
mimicking obbligato.
- The bass line contains two uncanny details that closely unify it with
what is going on elsewhere: the lead-in to the bridge begins with the
same sort of chromatic lick seen in the intro (G -> G# -> A), and the
lead-out of the bridge to the next verse is made up of a descending
scale (G - through C), reminiscent of the vocal part.
- The 'a' minor chord in the first measure of this section sounds at first
as though it *might* be a part of a modulation to that key but it's really
too short-lived to count.
- Unofficial releases of outtakes 1 through 6 of this song are an apt
example of both a prime kind of material not included within the scope
of the Anthology and candid portrait of them operating under the stress
of a series of sloppy mistakes following what otherwise sounds like a
pretty clean first take. Take 6 contains typical Ringo drum fills in
measures 4 and 8 of the bridges. Though nicely performed and not entirely
inappropriate, my guess is that he was asked to eliminate them from the
final version in order to keep unbroken the hypnotic mood of the shuffling
rhythm.
Outro
- This outro is built from several repeats of the last two measures
of the verse into a quick fadeout.
- The vocal parts burst forth in some "oohs" which are more anguished than
passionate for a change, as well as some "lah-lahs." These come across
as impromptu, though we find in take 1 the virtually the identical set of
them as in the final version.
- It is John who takes the lead in these vocal effects, and his move is
all the more effective because it is the first time in the entire song
that we hear a *solo* voice.
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
- This is one of the rare, early L&M originals in which the girl is spoken
of entirely in the third person. Ironically, it appears back to back on
the "Please Please Album" with another one of these rare examples, the
very upbeat
"I Saw Her Standing There".
The uninterrupted flowing beat
of "Misery" provides some forward-looking optimism in counterpoint to
the otherwise downbeat lyrics. In the context of the album lineup,
I believe that this subtle hint in "Misery" of a sun concealed behind
the overcast mitigates what might have otherwise been too stark of a
manic-depressive contrast between those first two tracks.
Regards,
Alan (awp@world.std.com)
---
"Quite right, invites to gambling dens full of easy money and fast women,
chicken sandwiches, and cornets of caviar, disgusting!" 030401#29.1
---
Revision History
072991 29.0 Original release
030401 29.1 Add second-pass observations and copy edit
Copyright (c) 1991, 2001 by Alan W. Pollack
All Rights Reserved
This article may be reproduced, retransmitted, redistributed and
otherwise propagated at will, provided that this notice remains
intact and in place.
