Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Metaphysical analysis of the lyrics to the Beatles song Help!

This analysis copyright 2008 to The Bicycling Guitarist.

Here's a wee bit more about John Lennon's song Help! by the Beatles.

It struck me the other day that the lyrics of Help! can be interpreted in a Christian way. Let me be plain that I do not consider myself a Christian, at least not the way that most Christian denominations define themselves. When I say "Christ" in the following paragraphs, one can substitute "awareness of divine consciousness" and be closer to what I understand.

So John sings "When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in any way." Okay. Not strictly true. We humans are social animals, and even those who live alone by choice rely on help from the environment if nothing else to provide food and such. I see each of us as an incarnation of God, and the environment as an incarnation of God, and each of us not truly separate from the environment. This is obviously quite different from mainstream Christian theology where only Jesus is begotten, not made, and where the Creation is separate from the Creator.

"But now these days are gone..." Notice John says these days, not those days. Some philosophers say that only now is real, that all time (past, present and future) is a field of now-moments. When John says these days, it implies the present or recent past. While the recent past can be considered "gone" in a sense, how can one consider the present to be gone? The present isn't gone of course, but the idea of time does not apply to the eternal now.

"...I'm not so self-assured." Self-assured: assured of the self as being a separate ego? If I'm not so self-assured, that might be considered good even though the statement is phrased as a negative. Most if not all spiritual teachings say to let go and let God, to surrender one's will or ego to direction by a higher power.

"Now I find, I've changed my mind and opened up the doors." I had a eureka moment (find), and I've changed my mind from the little mind of the ego-self to what the Buddhists call the Big Mind. I opened up the doors, opening the boundaries so there is no separation. I am reminded of the way Christians describe Jesus knocking at the "door" of your heart, and so on.

"Help me if you can I'm feeling down..." Down can be good. Sometimes you have to hit bottom to realize you are in a bad lifestyle, i.e., thinking you are a separate ego self "poor me" with the universe against you.

"..., and I do appreciate your being 'round." I appreciate that the divine consciousness that is our ground of being is always present. To put it in Christian terms, Christ is always there.

"Help me get my feet back on the ground." I am most struck here that one is NOT asking God to carry you as in the popular story of footprints in the sand where sometimes you only see one set of footprints, etc. Instead, one is asking God (or your own awareness of divine consciousness within yourself) to help you get your feet back on the ground, perhaps so YOU can carry others. Infinite compassion.

"Won't you please, please help me?" Who is asking? Who is being asked? Is there really a difference if you're talking to yourself? Who are you, really, if not an expression of what the entire cosmos is doing at a point called here and now.

"And now my life has changed in oh so many ways." Change is the only constant in the universe. "My independence seems to vanish in the haze." Independence again as a sense of being separate? So this sense seems to vanish? Good!

"But every now and then I feel so insecure. I know that I just need you like I never done before." Now is mentioned in every verse of this song. As for "like I never done before," awareness of the higher power within is not something you get or achieve: it is always there. It is here and now. You don't need to do anything.

The third verse has the same lyrics as the first verse. Then the song ends: "Help me if you can I'm feeling down, and I do appreciate your being 'round. Help me get my feet back on the ground. Won't you please, please help me, help me, help me...oh." Well I don't know if I can help you, John, but you have helped me with your gift of song. Thank you, wherever you are.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

playing HELP! by The Beatles

I've been listening to the Beatles' song Help! a lot lately and playing to it on my guitar.

I adjusted the graphic equalizer of Windows Media Player to emphasize the frequencies of the guitar sounds, and also moved the balance more to the right side where the guitar sound is so I could better hear what parts I play.

Then as if by magic since it had what I had been hoping to find, I found an internet site that is a Tribute to the Beatles film "Help!" This site had free downloads of all twelve studio takes of the title song from April 13, 1965 at Abbey Road. These made it even easier for me to learn the guitar parts played by John Lennon and George Harrison.

Another internet site describes the Help! Recording Sessions. In take 4, George complains that the song is too fast. This was also something John felt according to later interviews. John really liked this song and considered it one of his favorites done with the Beatles. It was a personal cry for Help during what he called his "fat Elvis" period. Apparently the song was written on a dare from a journalist for John to write a song that had words longer than one or two syllables.

I found take 7 best for learning the rhythm of John's guitar part. After take 4, the spiraling arpeggio played by George during the "please, please Help me" part was not played, the time being marked by tapping on the guitar body. There are no vocals in take 7 either. This makes learning the rhythm guitar part much easier. However, take 7 falls apart at the beginning of the third verse.

Take 12 is the version that was used for all the mixdowns of the final song. George Harrison's spiraling arpeggio is more distinct in the studio take than it is in the final mixdown. My fingers get a thrill when they are able to match his notes pluck for pluck in this arpeggio. I can't really explain why I can sit listening to this track over and over again playing along to it on my guitar, except that there is something magical about when what my ears hear matches what my fingers play.

The studio takes are all about a half step down in tuning. Take 7 begins with a guitar being tuned. For playing along, I adjust the graphic equalizer to emphasize the guitar frequencies, move the balance to the right, and keep the headphones slightly off my left ear so I can hear my guitar play along to the song.


For those wishing to learn the song, it is in the key of A. The intro starts with B minor, goes to G (with the D note on 3rd fret of the 2nd string), then to E7, then the spiraling arpeggio played by George Harrison down to A. This is also the chord progression used in the refrain. The verses use an Asus2 as part of the rhythm when playing A, go to C sharp minor, then F sharp minor, then D to G to A.

In the Beatles song, John Lennon's rhythm guitar stops playing while George Harrison plays the arpeggio at the end of the intro and each refrain. When I play the song on my guitar, I play both John's rhythm parts and George Harrison's spiraling arpeggios. I notice that some cover versions of the song, notably by Deep Purple and Oasis, do not include the spiraling arpeggio in their version. To me, this riff is one of the melodic "hooks" of the song. It doesn't sound as good when played at a slower tempo though. Part of its charm is the speed with which the notes flow. What's especially important is the smoothness of the playing.

Deep Purple's version, released in 1968, is in the key of G and is much slower than the original. Noel Gallagher of Oasis also plays Help! much slower. Noel uses the Asus2 exclusively and plays the C sharp minor on the second fret instead of the fourth fret. Noel's voicing of the C sharp minor may be more familiar to some as an A major 7 chord. This voicing sounds "warmer" to me than the way the Beatles played it, and is also easier to play on an acoustic guitar.

Alan W. Pollack analyzes the song Help! as part of his "Notes on..." series on the Beatles songs. All the Beatles shine musically in this song: Paul's bass playing, Ringo's drumming etc. The backup vocals sometimes lead, sometimes follow the lead vocals. There are subtle changes in arrangement for different verse parts. Help! is a good song.

This isn't just my opinion. Granted the Beatles may be overrated as musicians, but the fact is they were the most successful musical group in pop history. As a songwriter myself, I really admire that they helped break ground for musicians to perform their own compositions instead of just playing songs other people wrote as had been the norm in American pop music. The song Help! is number 29 in Rolling Stone's 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs.

I hope you can hear me play this song sometime. I plan to record my own cover version of it. Namaste

Monday, January 21, 2008

Four short essays

These are some of my best academic work, written for various classes at Sonoma State University when I was living in California.

Media Portrayal and Anthropologists' Treatment of Ishi, the Last Yahi is about the last wild Native American, Ishi.

The Choctaw Trail of Tears describes the history of the Choctaw trail of tears, which predated and was a trial run for the more famous Cherokee trail of tears.

Cultural Analysis of Ernest K. Gann's In the Company of Eagles looks at a famous novel about World War One aviation from a cultural perspective.

It's the Same Thing describes the "base metaphor" of the Mescalero Apache people.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Evolution happens

Some people don't like to accept that evolution is as much a fact of nature as gravity is. Usually their opinion is based on misinformation. Even disregarding the overwhelming scientific evidence of the physical world, all one has to do is compare what creationists say evolutionists say to what evolutionists actually say and it is easy to see that creationists are liars. I am especially pleased at the 2005 ruling in the Dover case about teaching "intelligent design" in Pennsylvania, where the judge basically called the creationists liars in his decision. The truth will come out in the end, and eventually the general public will realize they are being LIED to from the pulpits of certain denominations of fundamentalist Christianity.

I wrote a song about evolution some years ago, and an essay about the teaching of evolution in public schools. I have probably received more emails about that essay than all other pages of my web site combined. To answer some of those emails, on the tenth anniversary of having the essay online (1997-2007) I published a page of rebuttals to the most common objections of Christian fundamentalists.

Here are links to the relevant sections of my web site:
The song I wrote is called Evolution.
The essay is Teaching Evolution.
The page of rebuttals is Reply to Christian Fundamentalists.

I have collected many pages of news stories relating to the science of evolution and the controversy about teaching it. I hope to include these links in future posts. Enjoy!

Monday, January 14, 2008

The Bicycling Guitarist

Welcome to 2008!

It's been a few years since I've blogged. So much has happened I am in a much better place to share what interests me. Expect comments on science, religion, politics (and where they all meet as in creationism vs. evolution), updates on my living situation, current musical and other projects, and anything else.

My home page is The Bicycling Guitarist. Namaste.