Lennon–McCartney
Songwriting partnership between John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Lennon–McCartney is the songwriting partnership between the English musicians John Lennon (1940–1980) and Paul McCartney (born 1942) of the Beatles. It is widely considered one of the greatest, best known and most successful musical collaborations ever by records sold, with the Beatles selling over 600 million records worldwide as of 2004[ [update]]. Between 5 October 1962 and 8 May 1970, the partnership published approximately 180 jointly credited songs, of which the vast majority were recorded by the Beatles, forming the bulk of their catalogue.
Unlike many songwriting partnerships that comprise a separate lyricist and composer, such as George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Kander & Ebb or Elton John and Bernie Taupin, both Lennon and McCartney wrote lyrics and music. Sometimes, especially early on, they would collaborate extensively when writing songs, working "eyeball to eyeball" as Lennon phrased it. During the latter half of their partnership, it became more common for either of them to write most of a song on their own with minimal input from the other, and sometimes none at all. By an agreement made before the Beatles became famous, Lennon and McCartney were credited equally with songs that either one of them wrote while their partnership lasted.
Lennon–McCartney compositions have been the subject of numerous cover versions. According to "Guinness World Records", "Yesterday" has been recorded by more musicians than any other song.
Meeting.
Although McCartney had previously seen and noticed Lennon in the local area without knowing who he was, the pair first met on 6 July 1957, at a local church fête, where 16-year-old Lennon was playing with his skiffle group the Quarrymen. The 15-year-old McCartney, brought along by a mutual friend, Ivan Vaughan, impressed Lennon with his ability on the guitar and his version of Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock". Soon afterwards, Lennon asked McCartney if he would join the Quarrymen; McCartney accepted. The duo's first musical idols were the Everly Brothers, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and they learned many of their songs and imitated their sound. Their first compositions were written at McCartney's home (20 Forthlin Road), at Lennon's aunt Mimi's house (251 Menlove Avenue), or at the Liverpool Institute. They often invited friends—including George Harrison, Nigel Walley, Barbara Baker, and Lennon's art school colleagues—to listen to performances of their new songs. The first song that Lennon and McCartney wrote together, according to Mark Lewisohn, was titled "Too Bad About Sorrows".
Writing chemistry.
Lennon said the main intention of the Beatles' music was to communicate, and that, to this effect, he and McCartney had a shared purpose. Author David Rowley points out that at least half of all Lennon–McCartney lyrics have the words "you" and/or "your" in the first line. In Lennon's 1980 "Playboy" interview, he said of the partnership:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />[Paul] provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the sadness, the discords, the bluesy notes. There was a period when I thought I didn't write melodies, that Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock 'n' roll. But, of course, when I think of some of my own songs—"In My Life", or some of the early stuff, "This Boy"—I was writing melody with the best of them.
Historian Todd Compton has noted that there is some truth to Lennon's statement regarding McCartney's optimism. However, it does not tell the whole story, as some of McCartney's most characteristic songs are tragic, or express themes of isolation, such as "Yesterday", "She's Leaving Home", "Eleanor Rigby" or "For No One".
Although Lennon and McCartney often wrote independently—and many Beatles songs are primarily the work of one or the other—it was rare that a song would be completed without some input from both writers. In many instances, one writer would sketch an idea or a song fragment and take it to the other to finish or improve; in some cases, two incomplete songs or song ideas that each had worked on individually would be combined into a complete song. Often one of the pair would add a middle eight or bridge section to the other's verse and chorus. George Martin attributed the high quality of their songwriting to the friendly rivalry between the two.
As time went on, the songs increasingly became the work of one writer or the other, often with the partner offering up only a few words or an alternative chord. "A Day in the Life" is a well-known example of a later Beatles song that includes substantial contributions by both Lennon and McCartney, where a separate song fragment by McCartney ("Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head ...") was used to flesh out the middle of Lennon's composition ("I read the news today, oh boy ..."). "Hey Jude" is another example of a later McCartney song that had input from Lennon: while auditioning the song for Lennon, when McCartney came to the lyric "the movement you need is on your shoulder", McCartney assured Lennon that he would change the line—which McCartney felt was nonsensical—as soon as he could come up with a better lyric. Lennon advised McCartney to leave that line alone, saying it was one of the strongest in the song.
Though Lennon and McCartney's collaborative efforts decreased in later years, they continued to influence one another. As Lennon stated in 1969, "We write how we write now because of each other. Paul was there for five or ten years, and I wouldn't write like I write now if it weren't for Paul, and he wouldn't write like he does if it weren't for me."
Credit variations and disputes.
Joint credit.
When McCartney and Lennon met as teenagers and began writing songs together, they agreed that all songs written by them (whether individually or jointly) should be credited to both of them. The precise date of the agreement is unknown; however, Lennon spoke in 1980 of an informal agreement between him and McCartney made "when we were fifteen or sixteen". Two songs written (primarily by Lennon) in 1957, "Hello Little Girl" and "One After 909", were credited to the partnership when published in the following decade. The earliest Beatles recording credited to Lennon–McCartney to be officially released is "You'll Be Mine", recorded at home in 1960 and included on "Anthology 1" 35 years later.
Some other songs from the band's early years are not credited to the partnership. "In Spite of All the Danger", a 1958 song that the band (then the Quarrymen) paid to record to disc, is attributed to McCartney and George Harrison. "Cayenne", recorded at the same time as "You'll Be Mine", is a solo McCartney song. "Cry for a Shadow", an instrumental recorded during the Beatles' sessions with Tony Sheridan in June 1961 (one of the only full instrumentals the group recorded), was written by Harrison and Lennon.
By 1962, the joint credit agreement was in effect. From the time of the Beatles' A&R Decca audition in January that year, until Lennon's announcement in September 1969 that he was leaving the band, virtually all songs by McCartney or Lennon were published with joint credit, although, on a few of their first releases, the order was reversed (see below). The only other exceptions were a handful of the McCartney songs released by other musicians (viz. "Woman" by Peter and Gordon in 1966 (McCartney using Bernard Webb as a pseudonym), "Cat Call" by Chris Barber in 1967, and "Penina" by Carlos Mendes in 1969). Lennon kept the joint credit for "Give Peace a Chance", his first single with the Plastic Ono Band.
After the partnership had ended, Lennon and McCartney each gave various accounts of their individual contribution to each jointly credited song, and sometimes claimed full authorship. Often their memories of collaboration differed, and often their own early and late interviews are in conflict. In 1972, Lennon offered "Hit Parader" a list of Beatles songs with comments regarding his and McCartney's contributions to each song. In his response to the article at the time, McCartney disputed only one of Lennon's entries.
 Lennon described the song as co-written in 1965 interviews. In late interviews, he claimed full authorship. McCartney's stated help was on the "countermelody", estimating the song as "70–30" to Lennon. In 1984, McCartney said "John and I wrote it at his house in Weybridge for the film."
 In 1965, Lennon claimed that the song was "three-quarters mine and Paul changed it a bit. He said let's alter the tune." However, in 1980, Lennon said that McCartney's contribution was limited to "the way Ringo [Starr] played the drums". In "Many Years from Now", McCartney said "we sat down and wrote it together ... give him 60 percent of it."
 Lennon's entry for "In My Life" was the only one that McCartney disputed in his response to the "Hit Parader" article. Lennon said that McCartney helped only with "the middle eight" of the song. McCartney said that he wrote the entire melody, taking inspiration from Smokey Robinson songs.
 In the 1997 biography "Many Years from Now", McCartney recalled writing the music to "Eleanor Rigby" on a piano at Jane Asher's family home in Wimpole Street, and then playing it to Donovan, who supported that the song lacked any serious lyrics at that point. In 1972, Lennon said that he wrote 70 percent of the lyrics, but Pete Shotton, Lennon's childhood friend, remembered Lennon's contribution as being "absolutely nil". In 1985, McCartney said that Lennon had contributed "about half a line" to the song, but elsewhere (including a 1966 interview) he describes finishing the song with more substantial collaboration with Lennon. Harrison also contributed to this song. According to journalist Hunter Davies, the last verse was finished with all the Beatles giving suggestions in the studio.
 McCartney claimed to have helped on the lyric, estimating the song as "80–20" to Lennon. In "Hit Parader", Lennon did not acknowledge any contributions from McCartney.
 In "Hit Parader", Lennon said he authored the song and took the words from a circus poster. He did not acknowledge McCartney as a contributor. In 2013, McCartney recalled spending an afternoon with Lennon writing the song based on the poster: "I read, occasionally, people say, 'Oh, John wrote that one.' I say, 'Wait a minute, what was that afternoon I spent with him, then, looking at this poster?'"
Lennon–McCartney vs McCartney–Lennon.
In October 1962, the Beatles released their first single in the UK, "Love Me Do", credited to "Lennon–McCartney". However, on their next three releases the following year (the single "Please Please Me", the "Please Please Me" LP, and the single "From Me to You"), the credit was given as "McCartney–Lennon". According to McCartney, the decision to consistently order the credit with Lennon first was made at an April 1963 band meeting. With the "She Loves You" single, released in August 1963, the credit reverted to "Lennon–McCartney", and all subsequent official Beatles singles and albums list "Lennon–McCartney" (UK) or "John Lennon-Paul McCartney" (US) as the author of songs written by the two.
In 1976, McCartney's band Wings released their live album "Wings over America" with songwriting credits for five Beatles songs reversed to place McCartney's name first. Neither Lennon nor his wife Yoko Ono publicly objected to the flipped credits at the time.
Many years after Lennon's death however, in the late 1990s, McCartney and Ono became involved in a dispute over the credit order. McCartney's 2002 live album, "Back in the U.S.", also used the credit "Paul McCartney and John Lennon" for all of the Beatles songs. When Ono objected to McCartney's request for the reversed credit to be used for the 1965 song "Yesterday", McCartney said that he and Lennon had agreed in the past that the credits could be reversed, if either of them wanted to, on any future releases. In 2003, he relented, saying, "I'm happy with the way it is and always has been. Lennon and McCartney is still the rock 'n' roll trademark I'm proud to be a part of – in the order it has always been."
An in-depth analysis of the legal issues was the subject of a 66-page article in the "Pepperdine Law Review" in 2006.
Subsequent Paul McCartney live albums "Good Evening New York City" (2009) and "Amoeba Gig" (2019) featured original credit to Lennon-McCartney songs. The new Paul McCartney and Wings live-in-the-studio album "One Hand Clapping" (2024) featured reverted credits to the Beatles songs.
Lennon–McCartney and others.
A number of songs written primarily by the duo and recorded by the Beatles were credited as follows:
The German-language versions of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You" were also credited to additional songwriters for assisting with the translation. "Komm, gib mir deine Hand" was credited to Lennon–McCartney–Nicolas–Hellmer, and "Sie liebt dich" was credited to Lennon–McCartney–Nicolas–Montague.
Legacy.
Cultural impact.
Lennon–McCartney, as well as other British Invasion songwriters, inspired changes to the music industry because they were bands that wrote and performed their own music. This trend threatened the professional songwriters that dominated the American music industry. Ellie Greenwich, a Brill Building songwriter, said, "When the Beatles and the entire British Invasion came in, we were all ready to say, 'Look, it's been nice, there's no more room for us… It's now the self-contained group- makes, certain type of material. What do we do?" In 1963, "The Sunday Times" called Lennon and McCartney the greatest composers since Ludwig van Beethoven.
The Lennon–McCartney brand would prove to be a model for several other songwriting teams in the rock genre, including, according to Lennon, the Rolling Stones' Jagger–Richards partnership. Subsequent Beatlesque songwriting teams attracted comparisons in the media to Lennon–McCartney. The new wave band Squeeze's partnership of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook was dubbed the "new Lennon–McCartney" by music writers. Difford and Tilbrook expressed ambivalence about the comparison: Tilbrook felt that they "got a bit pompous" as a result, while Difford noted that, although the tag was "very useful" to Squeeze for getting the attention of radio programmers, the label "might have been a burden" on Tilbrook "because he had to live up to the challenge of [the Beatles'] kind of songwriting, which he didn't need to do because he's such an incredible songwriter in his own right." "Record Mirror" pondered in 1980 whether Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys, the founding duo of electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, were emerging as "the Lennon and McCartney of the electronic world"; music journalists subsequently began to describe the pair as "the Lennon–McCartney of synth-pop".
When McCartney teamed up with Elvis Costello in 1989, Costello's acerbic style earned him comparisons to Lennon in his role as McCartney's collaborator. McCartney, despite conceding that Costello has "got a bit of Lennon in him", characterized the pairing as "a new thing".
Beatles catalogue.
The Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership makes up the majority of the Beatles' catalogue. The first two UK studio albums included 12 cover tunes and 15 Lennon–McCartney songs, with one track ("Don't Bother Me") credited to George Harrison. Their third UK album, "A Hard Day's Night" (1964), is the only Beatles album made up entirely of Lennon–McCartney compositions. The next album released, "Beatles for Sale" (1964), included six covers and eight Lennon–McCartney originals. The subsequent release, "Help!" (1965), had two covers and two Harrison compositions along with ten Lennon–McCartney tracks; it was the last Beatles album to feature a non-original composition until "Let It Be", which included an arrangement of the traditional Liverpool folk song "Maggie Mae". Among the songs in this post-"Help!" output, Harrison contributed between one and four songs per album, and Ringo Starr wrote two songs in total and received a joint credit with Lennon and McCartney for a third ("What Goes On"). In addition, "Flying" and "Dig It" were credited to all four Beatles. The rest of the catalogue came from Lennon and McCartney.
Lennon and McCartney gave songs to Starr to sing, and to Harrison before he started writing his own material. As for the songs they kept for themselves, each partner mostly sang his own composition, often with the other providing harmonies, or they shared lead vocal. If each contributed a fragment to make a whole song, he might sing his portion, as in the case of "I've Got a Feeling" and "A Day in the Life". "Every Little Thing" is a rare example of a Lennon–McCartney song in which one member of the partnership was primary composer (McCartney) but the other sang lead vocal (Lennon). McCartney sings in unison with Lennon on the verses, but Lennon's vocal is more prominent. McCartney sings the high harmony on the chorus.
In January 2017, McCartney filed a suit in United States district court against Sony/ATV Music Publishing seeking to reclaim ownership of his share of the Lennon–McCartney song catalogue beginning in 2018. Under US copyright law, for works published before 1978 the author can reclaim copyrights assigned to a publisher after 56 years. McCartney and Sony agreed to a confidential settlement in June 2017.
Non-Beatles songs.
Several songs credited to Lennon–McCartney were originally released by bands other than the Beatles, especially those managed by Brian Epstein. Recording a Lennon–McCartney song helped launch new performing-artists' careers. Many of the recordings below were included on the 1979 compilation album "The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away". Beatles versions of some of these were recorded; some were not released until after their split, on compilations such as "Live at the BBC" (1994) and "The Beatles Anthology" (1995–96).
In April 2024, the surviving Beatles sons James McCartney and Sean Ono Lennon worked together on the song "Primrose Hill" for McCartney's upcoming album.
Four songs and a soundtrack album were released during this period but credited solely to Paul McCartney:
Unreleased songs.
The following compositions are believed to have been written by Lennon and McCartney, but never officially released by the Beatles or any other artist except as noted below. Many have appeared on Beatles bootlegs, an exception being "Carnival of Light". The list of unreleased songs includes some of the earliest Lennon–McCartney joint works dating back to the Quarrymen, the group that evolved into the Beatles. Several of these songs were revisited during the "Get Back" sessions of early 1969.
References.
Citations.
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Bibliography.
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How Do You Sleep? (John Lennon song)
"How Do You Sleep?" is a song by English rock musician John Lennon from his 1971 album "Imagine".
The song makes scathing personal attacks aimed at his former Beatles bandmate and songwriting partner, Paul McCartney. Lennon wrote the song in response to what he perceived as personal slights by McCartney on the latter's "Ram" album, particularly on the song "Too Many People".
The track includes a slide guitar solo played by George Harrison, and was co-produced by Lennon, Phil Spector and Yoko Ono.
Composition and lyrics.
Lennon wrote "How Do You Sleep?" in the aftermath of Paul McCartney's successful lawsuit in the London High Court to dissolve the Beatles as a legal partnership. This ruling was caused by the publication of Lennon's remarks about the Beatles in a December 1970 interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine, and McCartney and his wife taking full-page advertisements in the music press, in which, as an act of mockery towards Lennon and Yoko Ono, they were shown wearing clown costumes and wrapped up in blankets, which some perceive as being a reference to bagism. Following the release of McCartney's album "Ram" in May 1971, Lennon felt attacked by McCartney, who later admitted that lines in the song "Too Many People" were intended as digs at Lennon. Lennon thought that other songs on the album, such as "3 Legs", contained similar attacks, although McCartney denied the claim.
The lyrics of "How Do You Sleep?" refer to the "Paul is dead" conspiracy theory ("Those freaks was right when they said you was dead"). The song begins with the line "So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise", referring to the Beatles' landmark 1967 album. Preceding this first line are ambient sounds evocative of those heard at the beginning of the "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album.
The lyrics "The only thing you done was yesterday / And since you've gone you're just another day" are directed at McCartney, referencing the Beatles' 1965 song "Yesterday" and McCartney's single "Another Day", released in February 1971. Lennon initially penned the lyrics "You probably pinched that bitch anyway", as a reference to McCartney's claims that he was not sure if he had plagiarized "Yesterday", having asked Lennon, Harrison, George Martin and others if they had heard that melody before. Although Lennon received the sole writing credit for "How Do You Sleep?", a contemporary account by Felix Dennis of "Oz" magazine indicates that Yoko Ono, as well as Allen Klein, Lennon's manager, also contributed lyrics.
Recordings.
Lennon recorded "How Do You Sleep?" on 26 May 1971 at Ascot Sound Studios, during the sessions for his "Imagine" album. String overdubs took place on 4 July 1971 at the Record Plant, in New York City. The song features a slide guitar part played by George Harrison. Aside from Lennon on rhythm guitar and vocals, the track also includes Klaus Voormann on bass, Alan White on drums, acoustic guitar played by Ted Turner, Rod Linton and Andy Davis, as well as additional piano parts by Nicky Hopkins and John Tout. Although he had been united with Lennon, Ringo Starr and Klein, against McCartney, in the recent lawsuit, Harrison recalled that the period was one of "very strange, intense feelings" among all the former Beatles, and he was initially wary of Lennon's invitation to play on the new album. Given this, Harrison added, he was relieved that Lennon was "openly pleased I came".
As with all the tracks on "Imagine", several outtakes of "How Do You Sleep?" became available on bootleg albums and in documentary films about Lennon. A run-through of the song in the 2000 film "Gimme Some Truth" includes what authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter describe as "John's query to Paul", as Lennon faces the camera and sings: "How do you sleep, ya cunt?" Starr visited the studio during the recording of the song and was reportedly upset, saying: "That's enough, John." The final mix version as released on the album is in mono rather than stereo, unlike all the other tracks. In 2018, two versions of the original recording sessions were released in 5.1 surround sound as part of the "Imagine" box set.
Critical reception.
In a contemporary review of "Imagine", Ben Gerson of "Rolling Stone" highlighted "How Do You Sleep?" among the album's three "really worthy, musically effective numbers" but found it "horrifying and indefensible" as a song that "lay waste to Paul's character, family and career". Gerson concluded: "The motives for 'Sleep' are baffling. Partly it is the traditional bohemian contempt for the bourgeois; partly it is the souring of John's long-standing competitive relationship with Paul." Writing in the "NME", Alan Smith said of the track: "Musically, it's tremendous – open, big, powerful, thundering, dramatic – but this is a song which will be remembered for its lyrics …" As its ultimate putdown of McCartney, Smith identified the couplet "The sound you make is muzak to my ears / You must've learned something in all those years." In "Melody Maker", Roy Hollingworth lauded "Imagine" as the best work that Lennon had ever done and described "How Do You Sleep?" as "the unnerving slash at McCartney … a slow funk with Commanche or maybe Sioux flavoured strings".
Thomas MacFarlane wrote about the song:
<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />The space created for "How Do You Sleep?" seems to be a photo negative of the one created for "Imagine". ... Here, it seems as if a storm is brewing, and its awesome power will not be denied.
Aftermath.
A few months after "Imagine" was released, Lennon stated that the song "was an answer to "Ram"" but added: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />There's really no feud between me and Paul. It's all good, clean fun. No doubt there will be an answer to 'Sleep' on his next album, but I don't feel that way about him at all. It works as a complete song with no relation to Paul. It works as a piece of music. I started writing it in 1969, and the line 'So Sergeant Pepper Took You By Surprise ...' was written about two years before anything happened. There was always a musical difference between me and Paul – it didn't just happen last year. But we've always had a lot in common, and we still do. The thing that made The Beatles what they were was the fact that I could do my rock 'n roll, and Paul could do the pretty stuff ... But hardly a week goes by when I don't see, and/or hear from one of them."
Shortly before his death in 1980, Lennon stated in an interview with "Playboy": "I used my resentment against Paul … to create a song … not a terrible vicious horrible vendetta … I used my resentment and withdrawing from Paul and The Beatles, and the relationship with Paul, to write 'How Do You Sleep'. I don't really go 'round with those thoughts in my head all the time".
References.
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I'm Down
1965 single by the Beatles
"I'm Down" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on a non-album single as the B-side to "Help!" in July 1965. The song originated in McCartney's attempt to write a song in the style of Little Richard, whose song "Long Tall Sally" the band regularly covered.
Inspired by 1950s R&B and rock and roll numbers, the song's lyrics sing of an unrequited love, but rather than a lament are instead performed in a hysterical, "celebratory frenzy" of self assuredness. Some commentators interpret the song's tone as partially parodic. Melodically uncomplicated, the composition uses only three basic chords. The Beatles recorded "I'm Down" during sessions for their album "Help!" in June 1965. The first song by the band to incorporate a Vox Continental electric organ, John Lennon plays the instrument in the style of Jerry Lee Lewis, doing glissandos with his elbow. In the decade following its release, the song became a comparative rarity among the band's recordings. It has subsequently appeared on compilation albums such as "Rock 'n' Roll Music"; the UK edition of "Rarities"; "Past Masters, Volume One" and "Mono Masters".
"I'm Down" has received praise from several music critics and musicologists, with several mentioning McCartney's strong vocal and the band's raucous performance. The Beatles regularly performed the song during their 1965 and 1966 tours as the closing number, including an especially chaotic performance in August 1965 depicted in the documentary "The Beatles at Shea Stadium". Beastie Boys and Aerosmith are among the artists that have covered the song.
Background and composition.
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 I could do Little Richard's voice, which is a wild, hoarse, screaming thing, it's like an out-of-body experience. You have to leave your current sensibilities and go about a foot above your head to sing it... A lot of people were fans of Little Richard so I used to sing his stuff but there came a point when I wanted one of my own, so I wrote "I'm Down".
– Paul McCartney, 1997
In November 1963, Paul McCartney moved into the family home of his girlfriend, Jane Asher, located at 57 Wimpole Street in central London. He later recalled writing "I'm Down" in the family music room in the basement of the house. Written in the style of Little Richard, the song began as an attempt to replace "Twist and Shout" and "Long Tall Sally" as the closing number of the Beatles' concert tour set list. In an October 1964 interview, McCartney explained that he and John Lennon had been trying for years to write a song like "Long Tall Sally", and that the closest they had come was with their song "I Saw Her Standing There". Comparing the writing process of Little Richard-like songs to abstract painting, he further explained: "[p]eople think of 'Long Tall Sally' and say it sounds so easy to write. But it's the most difficult thing we've attempted. Writing a three-chord song that's clever is not easy". In his authorised biography, "", McCartney remembers "I'm Down" as entirely his composition, but raises the possibility that Lennon added a few lyrics or made minor suggestions in the writing process. In a 1972 interview, Lennon credits the song to only McCartney, but in his 1980 "Playboy" interview he instead suggests he provided "a little help". Musicologist Walter Everett argues that McCartney often forgetting the song's lyrics in concerts suggests he wrote the song quickly and with little practice.
"I'm Down" is in the key of G major and is in 4/4 (common time). A simple twelve-bar blues number extended into fourteen-bars, the song uses only the chords I, IV and V. One of the few Beatles songs to feature a simple verse form, musicologist Alan W. Pollack suggests that, in the context of the Beatles' 1965 compositions, its simple format is stylistically regressive. The song opens with a solo vocal from McCartney, which music critic Tim Riley sees as the part of the song bearing the most resemblance to "Long Tall Sally", with "one mad voice screaming at the top of its lungs". With neither bass nor drums to clarify the key or downbeat, Pollack writes that "no matter how many times you've heard the song", McCartney's opening vocal is "an effect which retains the power to startle". The repeating refrains incorporate improvisational scat singing and, according to Pollack, get "successively wilder and less structured" with each repeating. Everett writes the concluding coda serves the purpose of "[raising] the rock-and-roll spirit to a higher level of excitement than does the song proper".
The song's lyrics tell the story from the perspective of a pained lover who is frustrated due to an unrequited love. Rather than a lament, the music functions as a "celebratory frenzy" of self assuredness. Pollack writes the song's style originates in a 1950s R&B cliché, being "a semi-improvisatory rave-up" where the lyrics are unimportant compared to the tone in which they are sung. Riley describes the song as an instance of "dancing on your problems", as heard in rock and roll oldies like "That's All Right" and "Blue Suede Shoes". Author Ian MacDonald suggests that, besides being a blues send-up, the lyrics are "a tongue-in-cheek response to Lennon's anguished self-exposure in 'Help!'", opining that the song's "pseudo-hysterics" began as a joke. Riley similarly describes the song as partially parodic, singling out the backing vocals' response of "I'm really down".
Recording.
The Beatles recorded "I'm Down" on 14 June 1965 during a session for their fifth album, "Help!", in which they also recorded McCartney's songs "I've Just Seen a Face" and "Yesterday". Recording in EMI's Studio Two, George Martin produced the session, assisted by balance engineer Norman Smith. The song's basic track features McCartney singing and playing bass, George Harrison on electric guitar and Ringo Starr on drums. On the band's first take, the song did not yet have a definitive ending, McCartney telling Harrison and Starr after the last chorus to "keep it going". The final attempt – take seven – was marked "best".
The band overdubbed several parts onto take seven. Lennon and Harrison provided backing vocals, with Lennon singing in a low register, dropping to G during the choruses. Starr added further percussion with bongos while Harrison added a new guitar solo. Lennon added an organ solo with a Vox Continental electric organ – the first Beatles recording to feature the instrument – playing glissandos with his elbow in the style of American musician Jerry Lee Lewis.
On 18 June, Martin and Scott returned to Studio Two to remix the track, along with the rest of the "Help!" album, for mono and stereo. The mixes are slightly different, with the stereo fading out two seconds earlier than the mono. On the stereo version, another overdubbed guitar solo is slightly audible, likely due to audio leakage from other microphones.
Release and reception.
Capitol issued "I'm Down" in the US as the B-side of "Help!" on 19 July 1965, with EMI's Parlophone label releasing the same single in the UK four days later. While "Help!" reached number one in both countries, "I'm Down" did not chart, but did appear at number 101 on "Billboard" magazine's Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.
"I'm Down" remained relatively elusive among Beatles songs after its initial release, with critics and fans criticising Apple Records manager Allen Klein for omitting it from the 1973 compilation album "1962–1966". Capitol first included the song on an LP in June 1976, appearing on the double album compilation "Rock 'n' Roll Music". While authors Nicholas Schaffner and Robert Rodriguez are each generally critical of the compilation, they count the inclusion of "I'm Down" as one of the album's redeeming features. Rather than using the 18 June 1965 stereo mix, Martin remixed the song for the release from the original four-track tapes. The song has since appeared on the 1978 British compilation album "Rarities", but was omitted from the 1980 US LP of the same name. Parlophone used Martin's 1976 stereo remix when they included the song on the compilation album "Past Masters, Volume One", released on CD in March 1988. The mono mix was subsequently included on the Beatles' "Mono Masters" compilation.
Writing for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls the song "peerless" and that it demonstrated the Beatles' ability to "rock really, really hard". Ian MacDonald describes the song as an American rock-and-roll classic and a "demented raver" which illustrates the musical versatility of McCartney. Journalist Mark Hertsgaard calls the track "a wildly raucous rock 'n' roller" and "a rock 'n' roll raver, pure and simple", with McCartney's powerful vocal evoking "Long Tall Sally" while anticipating "Helter Skelter". Scholar Michael Frontani similarly compares McCartney's vocal to "Long Tall Sally", while also mentioning the "rock and roll shout" of his 1971 solo B-side


I Wanna Talk About Me
"I Wanna Talk About Me" is a song written by Bobby Braddock and recorded by American country music artist Toby Keith. The single was released on August 20, 2001 as the second single from Keith's 2001 album "Pull My Chain". The song was his seventh number one single on the US "Billboard" Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart.
Background.
Braddock ("He Stopped Loving Her Today") initially intended the song for Blake Shelton's debut album, which Braddock produced. When audience testing of the song yielded negative results, Shelton's record label decided against including it on the album. Recalling the spoken-word verses of Keith's 1998 single "Getcha Some", Braddock then decided to pitch it to him.
Keith told "Billboard" magazine that he knew he would get "banged a little" for cutting the song. "They're going to call it a rap, [although] there ain't nobody doing rap who would call it a rap."
Content.
Similar to Keith's 1998 single "Getcha Some", "I Wanna Talk About Me" is cited as an example of country-rap, due to the use of a strong beat and rhythmically spoken lyrics. "I Wanna Talk About Me" tells of a male's frustration in his inability to converse with his partner, who wants to talk about herself. In the chorus, the singer states "I like talking about you, you, you, you, usually / But occasionally / I wanna talk about me". A musical strength of the song is its use of a I-V-vi-IV arpeggio played in a punchy rhythm.
Critical reception.
Ray Waddell, of "Billboard" magazine said that men could relate to the song, "which Keith manages to sell through sheer force of personality." For "The Washington Post", Paul Farhi called the song "a good-natured ditty" whose chorus "is either a justified demand for equal time or the response of an egotistical jerk." In contrast, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide called the song a "mocking macho white-rap" and the "weakest track" on "Pull My Chain".
Reviewing the music video, Edward Morris of Country Music Television called the video a "comic gem and all the proof...that Keith can handle any acting chore."
Music video.
The music video was directed by Michael Salomon and shows Keith in many different situations, including a man shopping with his girlfriend or wife, a police officer, a pimp, a motorcycle rider, and a surgeon. It premiered on CMT on August 28, 2001.
Chart performance.
"I Wanna Talk About Me" debuted at number 51 on the U.S. "Billboard" Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of August 25, 2001.
References.
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Marie Daulne
Belgian singer
Marie Daulne (born 20 October 1964) is a Belgian singer.
Daulne was born in Isiro, Haut-Uele District, Democratic Republic of the Congo to a Belgian who was killed that same year by Simba rebels, and to a local Congolese woman. Daulne and her mother and sisters were airlifted out to Kinshasa in an emergency evacuation by Belgian paratroopers and flown to Belgium because their father had been a Belgian citizen. Daulne was raised in Belgium and as of 2007 calls Brussels home, but lived in New York City for three years starting in 2000.
Daulne is the founder and lead singer of the music group Zap Mama whose second album, "Adventures in Afropea 1," "became 1993's best-selling world music album and established Zap Mama as an international concert sensation." With "over six albums and countless concerts, she continues to pay tribute to the family's saviors." Daulne insists that "one tune on each of her reggae-, soul-, funk- and hip-hop-infused albums be a traditional Pygmy song."
Daulne says her mission is to be a bridge between the European and the African and bring the two cultures together with her music. "What I would like to do is bring sounds from [Africa] and bring it to the Western world, because I know that through sound and through beats, that people discover a new culture, a new people, a new world." Daulne specializes in polyphonic, harmonic music with a mixture of heavily infused African instruments, R&B, and Hip-hop and emphasizes voice in all her music. "The voice is an instrument itself," says Daulne. "It's the original instrument. The primary instrument. The most soulful instrument, the human voice." Daulne calls her music afro-European.
Early life and musical origins.
Daulne was born in Isiro, Haut-Uele District, one of the largest cities in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as the fourth child of a white civil servant, Cyrille Daulne, a Walloon (French-speaking Belgian) and Bernadette Aningi, a woman from Kisangani, formerly Stanleyville, the third largest city in Congo Kinshasa.
When Daulne was only a week old, her father was attacked and killed by Simba rebels, who were opposed to mixed-race relationships. "He did not have a chance to come with us because he was captured," Daulne says. "He said to my mother, 'Escape,' and we escaped into the forest, and the Pygmies hide us while we were waiting to see what happens," says Daulne. "He was a prisoner of the rebels for a while, then they killed him." Her mother was arrested by the rebels but was later set free because she spoke their language. Daulne pays tribute to those pygmies who rescued her family in the song "Gati" from "Supermoon". "They saved my family and many others during the Congolese rebellion," Daulne says, "and they deserve recognition for that." "My promise to them was I used your song to be known in the world and my goal is to talk about you," Daulne added.
After eight months in the interior of the country, Daulne and her mother, brother and sisters were eventually airlifted out to Isiro in an emergency evacuation by Belgian paratroopers and flown to Belgium because their father had been a Belgian citizen. "I think the experience of the political situation is more my mother, who had to survive. I was a baby, and I just was protected by my mother. What I know that I learned from my mother is to be strong and to stay positive in any kind of situation; that's the best weapon to survive. That's what I learned, and this is the main message I pass into my music," says Daulne. Everything was different when Daulne, her mother, five other sisters, and an aunt arrived in Belgium. "When we arrived, it was snowing, and my mother said, 'Look — the country of white people is white!'" says Daulne.
Growing up in Belgium was hard for Daulne. "It was hard as a kid, you want to look like everybody else, and there aren’t many black people in Belgium – compared to England, or America or France," says Daulne. "It became easier as I grew older. There were more black role models about – musicians and sports stars. At school I started to see my mixed heritage as a bonus – I could be part of both the African and Belgian communities."
Interest in European music.
Daulne listened to European music as she grew up. "We had the radio when I was growing up in Belgium, so we heard a lot of French music. And of course, American music was also very popular all over Europe. Since our mother did not want us to watch TV in our home, we entertained ourselves by creating our own music. We were very musical." Daulne was introduced to black music watching television. "When I was growing up, there weren't many black people in Europe -- my family was alone. Then I saw an American musical comedy with black people on TV. And I couldn't believe it. I said, "That's us!" My whole fantasy life was based on that movie." Daulne felt a special connection to blue songs like "Damn your eyes" by Etta James. "When I was a teenager I listened to a lot of American blues," says Daulne. "That song brought me happiness while I was going through the pain of a broken love. It helped me to open the door and see the life in front of me." Daulne said she sang that song as a teenager "alone in my room." "It’s a magic song, it transforms — when I sang that song I cried, and you need to cry to heal." "I sing it now and I hope, in my turn, that I can help another teenager to do the same if they are having pain from love."
When Daulne was 14 she went to England and first heard reggae. "I discovered Bob Marley -- my favorite album was "Kaya". I know that whole album by heart." Then Daulne became interested in the rap music of Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys. "I was into breakdancing at the time. I formed a gang, and we would beatbox like the Americans, like the Fat Boys."
Interest in African music.
"When I was growing up, I refused all this tradition," Daulne says. "It was boring . . . because it was not what we talked about at school, the bands of the moment. Nobody was talking about Pygmies and sounds from Africa. It was a little bit of shame to talk about the African roots." But although Daulne was encouraged to adopt the language and culture of Belgium, her mother kept Congolese music alive in the household. "In Africa, before you eat or do something, you sing to call the spirits of the peace, and my mother teach me that," Daulne says. "I discover that, with my two cultures, I have something very rich in me."
Although Daulne remembers that her mother sang some songs from Congo Kinshasa around the house, her mother did not teach them to the children, stressing mastery of French instead but after Daulne left home she remembered the African songs her mother sang to her as a child. "Our mother would make us learn the polyphonic singing, but at the time we thought it was boring because it was traditional," says Daulne. When Daulne went away to school, here sister and Daulne started to sing African melodies. "When I left home, I missed those songs, and in the school choir, I wondered why we didn't use African harmonising. So my sister and I started to sing African melodies, and Zap Mama was born. I wrote my first song at 15, and my artist friend Nina said that what we were doing was amazing. She helped me to find a gig, and from that day, it has been non-stop."
But Daulne didn't really get interested in singing until an accident she sustained while dancing in a stage show left her unable to participate in athletics. "I wanted to be a runner, but then I broke my leg and I was finished with sports. I stayed at home, listening to music. I was recording sounds all the time -- I would listen to sounds repeating for hours. But there was something that I needed still, and that's when I decided to go to Africa, to the forest."
Return to Africa.
In the documentary film "Mizike Mama", Daulne and her family recall a reverse cultural tug-of-war for her allegiance during her childhood. Her mother feared that Daulne would grow up too African and so did not teach her traditional songs. Daulne first heard a recording of traditional pygmy music when she was 20. "At 20, something happened in me," Daulne says. "When you pass 13, 14, you want to look like the others, but after a certain point you want to be unique. And those sounds did something to me."
Daulne made further trips to Africa. "I go all around Africa. I started where I was born, in the forest of Zaire. After that I branched out to West Africa, South Africa, East Africa. It [is] very easy for me to learn because all African cultures seem to have something in common the music and the voices," Daulne says.
Although Daulne draws inspiration from Africa, she does not call Africa home. "You know when I went back to Congo, I thought I would have a welcome like I was part of the family, part of the country, but that was not the case," Daulne said. "They treated me like a Belgian come to visit as a tourist. I saw that that is not especially a place to call home."
African European music.
Daulne's music is a hybrid of African and European influences. "If people want to know where my sounds are from, I say I’m an African European," says Daulne. "There is the African American, and then there is the African European like me. My background is from Africa, and I grew up in the urban world of Europe. And I would say Afro-urban is easy to understand because it is urban music, but at the same time you have African elements in it." "I think it’s because I’m born of two cultures. From my African heritage, I receive a lot of different harmonies and sounds and ways to express melody and probably all of this makes up what I do," says Daulne. "Some say it’s African music that I do, but definitely not. I’m not African at all. My harmony is from Europe. I use things from all over the place. I use all these sounds and people can hear it. It’s because we are all human-we all want the same things."
Citizen of the world.
Other influences in Daulne's music include Brazil where she visited in 2008. "I fell in love. The weather, the music — I was like a child. It's amazing," Daulne says. Daulne went to Brazil "to first discover the country. The beauty of the city, the people walking, and haircuts — just feel what it is to be a woman in Brazil. I did my braid over there with a woman from the favelas and I have a friend who speaks Portuguese who was able to translate and have conversations. Now my music will have a Brazilian touch on my next album, definitely."
Daulne has traveled the world to seek cultural connections with people around the planet. "Inside me, I feel like a citizen of the world," Daulne says. "In New York, it was the case that I found a lot of people from all over the place and what we talk about is what the human being can exchange as a person. The main thing I want in songs is what the feeling of the human being is."
Zap Mama.
Daulne defines her music over the years as evolving from an a cappella quintet to instruments and a lead voice. "I’m a nomad. I like to discover my sound with different instruments, different genres. For me it’s normal. My name is Zap Mama – it’s easy to understand that it’s easy for me to zap in from one instrument to another, a culture, a style. I’m more a citizen of the world, not an American or Belgian." The word Zap also means to switch TV channels or in this context to switch cultures. Zap Mama have released seven full-length albums: Zap Mama (1991), Adventures in Afropea 1 (1993), Sabsylma (1994), Seven (1997), A Ma Zone (1999), Ancestry in Progress (2004), and Supermoon (2007) that fall into three cycles.
First Cycle: "Adventures in Afropea 1" and "Sabsylma".
Daulne returned to Belgium ready to begin making her own music. "Spending time with the pygmies, all the music came to me," Daulne says. "And when I came back to Belgium, I found all the energy to put it all together, and to find singers to sing with me." By 1989 Daulne had spent several years singing in Brussels in jazz cafes when she decided to create a group to merge the cultures of her life and in 1990 founded the group Zap Mama. "I didn't want to use my own name, I didn't really feel like it would come from me, because it was like the spirit of the ancestors talking to me and using me to translate what's going on," Daulne says.
Daulne auditioned scores of female singers looking for the right combination of voices for an a cappella ensemble. "When I did my first album, I was looking for girls that were the same mix as me--African and European," she says. "Because I wanted to put these two sounds together to prove that to have blood from white and black was perfect harmony on the inside." "I remembered Sylvie Nawasadio because we used to sing together on the train going to school," says Daulne. "I met her again at the university in Brussels, studying sociology and anthropology. I asked her if she wanted to be a part of a cultural singing group. And Sabine [Kabongo] is, like me, a mixture–Zairean and Belgian. After her, I held an audition, and discovered Marie Alfonso, who’s Portuguese and white. Then came Sally Nyolo and the first concert, in November 1989." The original idea of Zap Mama was "five singers who would be one as the pygmy," Daulne said. "There is no chief." "The power of voices was my thing," Daule said. "I wanted to show the world the capacity of five women exploring with our voices and our minds, nothing else." Daulne felt she was channeling the spirit of her Congolese ancestry so instead of using her own name, she called the group Zap Mama. "We have a Zairean memory and a European memory, and together we find the same vibration, because we have European and Zairean music inside," said Daulne.
Combining the sounds of Pygmies with vocal styles of European choral traditions. Zap Mama received initial support from the French Belgian Community Government's cultural department but the group soon came to the attention of Teddy Hillaert when he saw them perform at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels The group began recording their first record "Zap Mama" at Studio Daylight in Brussels. Belgium The album was completed in October 1991 and released by Crammed Discs, the Belgian record label of Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis. Hollander said that Zap Mama "present Western audiences with an impression of Africa which is half-real and half-imaginary. They research and reinterpret certain forms of traditional music, but from a semi-European standpoint, with a lot of humor, and a vision which doesn't lack social and political content."
Luaka Bop Records repackaged the first Crammed Discs release for American listeners in 1993 as "Adventures in Afropea 1". By the end of the year, Billboard announced it was the top seller for "world music." Zap Mama went on tour playing New York's Central Park, Paris' Olympia, the Jazz-festival of Montreux. After the success of "Adventures in Afropea 1", Daulne said the record company "wanted to mould us into a poppy girl band, but I said, 'No, you'll kill me', and I stopped. Everyone was asking why I wanted to stop when we'd finally arrived at the top. But I felt that it was completely wrong. I wasn't ready. I wasn't strong enough. The manager said that if I stopped then, I'd be killing my career, but it was my decision."
The next album "Sabsylma" (1994) contained music with Indian, Moroccan and Australian influences and earned Zap Mama a Grammy nomination for Best World Music Album. Daulne explained that the sharper sound of "Sabsylma" was due to the increasing influence of American music and the sound of being on the road. "We've been touring so intensively. "Zap Mama" was a soft, African record with a natural, round sound. "Sabsylma" is hectic, sharper. Not on purpose, mind you. I can't help it. If you're driving in a van for months, and you constantly hear the sounds of traffic, TV, hardrock on the radio ... those sounds hook up in your ears, and come out if you start to sing." Daulne also broadened her music to embrace other cultures on "Sabsylma". "Before I spoke about the Pygmies and the people around them. Now I want to talk about the people around me," says Daulne. "My neighbor who has nothing to eat–I want to know what’s going on inside his head. Some of the most rewarding travel I’ve done was just ringing my neighbors’ doors. My Moroccan neighbor shared her Moroccan world. The Pakistani man at the grocery showed me Pakistan. That's what this album is about–I suggest that people dream and travel in their own cities by talking to their neighbors."
Daulne used an organic process to improvise her music in the studio. "I'm always looking for sounds. Most of the time, I work with colors. Each sound needs different colors of voices. I dissect sounds, cut them in little pieces, order them, and reassemble them," says Daulne. "The songs themselves come about in a very organic, improvising way. During the rehearsals, we light some candles, start a tape-recorder, close our eyes, and start making up a story. On that, we start adding sounds. We let ourselves go. We are carried away by the music."
At the same time "Sabsylma" was being created, Director Violaine de Villers made a documentary, "Mizike Mama", (1993) that presents a group portrait of Zap Mama. The film focuses on Daulne and discusses the implications of membership in a racially mixed group that consciously fuses African rhythms and vocal tones with European polyphony. The documentary won the International Visual Music award for Best Popular Music TV Documentary.
Second Cycle: "Seven" and "A Ma Zone".
After the success of the first two albums, Daulne put her music on hold for a few years to birth and mother her daughter Kesia. "Adventures in Afropea 1" and "Sabslyma" had both been largely a cappella. In 1996, Daulne decided to dissolve the group and make a formal break from a cappella, retaining the Zap Mama name but looking for new collaborators in the United States. Daulne moved her music in a different direction coming back as the lone Zap Mama to record "Seven", a break with the past for the inclusion of male musicians and vocalists, the increased number of instruments and the number of songs in English. "I made music on "Seven" the same way as on the other albums. I only used acoustic instruments... I'm looking for instruments that have vocal sounds, forgotten instruments like the guimbri... The first and second albums were about the voice, what came before. This album is about introducing those sounds into modern, Western life," says Daulne. Daulne had help on the album from Wathanga Rema, from Cameroon. "I couldn’t have made this album without him!" says Daulne. "I met someone who could sing high female parts and also have that male power... that changed everything!" Daulne's sister Anita also contributed to both songwriting and vocals. "She always knows when I fly too high and when I lose my way," says Daulne.
The title of "Seven" (1997) refers to the seven senses of a human being. Daule had traveled to Mali in 1996 and had learned from a man in Mali that in addition to the five senses known in the west, some have a sixth sense which is emotion. "But not everyone has the seventh. It is the power to heal with music, calm with color, to soothe the sick soul with harmony. He told me that I have this gift, and I know what I have to do with it," Daulne says.
Daulne's next album was "A Ma Zone" (1999). The title is a wordplay meaning both "Amazone," the female warrior, and "A Ma Zone," (in my zone) which "means that I feel at ease wherever I am," Daulne says. "Naturally an Amazon is a rebel, a fighter who, once she has set her heart on something, pulls out all the stops to achieve her goal. I feel this way as well when I'm standing on the stage with the group.- as a team we share the same aim of winning over the audience with our music. I'm a nomad. I'm meeting new people all the time and sealing these friendships with tunes," Daulne says.
Third Cycle: "Ancestry in Progress" and "Supermoon".
Daulne moved to New York in 2000. "I've never been welcome in any country as my own country," says Daulne. "In Europe, they talk to me as if I'm from Congo. In Congo, they act like I'm from Europe. The first time I felt at home was in New York. I said, ‘Here is my country. Everybody is from somewhere else. I feel so comfortable here.'" "Ancestry in Progress" (2000) reflects Daulne's new life in the United States. "The American beat is a revolution all over the world," Daulne says. "Everybody listens to it and everybody follows it. But the beat of the United States was inspired by the beat coming from Africa. Not just its structure, but the sound of it. This is the source of modern sounds, the history of the beat, starting from little pieces of wood banging against one another, and arriving on the big sound-systems today. It's genius. So I wanted to create an album about the evolution of old ancestral vocal sounds, how they traveled from Africa, mixing with European and Asian sounds, and were brought to America."
Daulne collaborated with the Roots collective in Philadelphia who acted as producers for "Ancestry in Progress". "They invited me to do some of my sounds in one of their albums, and that was where the relationship develop[ed]," says Daulne. "The hardest [thing was] that at the time my English was so little that I had no way to express myself, so I didn’t know how it happened in the Philly world or the United States, or the way it work[ed] with studios. I was there, like in the middle of an ocean with my sounds, my spirit and my vibe." "What I like about the Roots is their instruments, the jazz background, which is helping to have a real, acoustic, organic sound," says Daulne. "If you take it and make it groovy, it seems like our life is lighter and easier. ... And I loved the beatbox which some of their members were doing, grooving with only [their] mouth." One of the tracks includes baby sounds from Daulne's youngest child, Zekey. "Ancestry in Progress" (2004), reached #1 on the Billboard World Music Album chart.
Daulne moved back to Belgium after three years in the United States and now calls Brussels home. "I lived in the United States from 2000 to 2004 and it is a place with so many stars. When I met a lot of big celebrities I realized I was not a big star and that I didn't want to be, because your life would be a habit, stuck in this and that. I prefer the singularity. I prefer to be me." Daulne finds life easier in Belgium. "I used to live in New York, and the system in Belgium is much better than in America. It’s much easier for families here." "With my family, my husband, my children, the people I love — that is home." Daulne still draws inspiration from her travels. "Currently, I feel the need to go to England, because a lot of interesting things are happening over there. In my band, there are a lot of young musicians who teach me completely new things. They challenge me - and that is the way I like it," Daulne says. Daulne also found American interests and values different from Europe. "American people are so addicted to music — sports and music," says Daulne. "Where I live, with the French influence, it's the foods that are very important, and literature — all this probably more important than sports and music."
In "Supermoon" (2007), Daulne's vocals take centerstage. "When the audience appreciates the art of the artist, the audience becomes the sun and makes the artist shine as a full moon," says Daulne. "Supermoon" is also one of Daulne's most personal statements with songs like "Princess Kesia," an ode to her daughter and how she is no longer a baby but a beautiful girl. "With Supermoon, I reveal the way I chose to live when I started my career," says Daulne. "It’s very intimate…You’re seeing me very close up. I hope that’s a kind of intimacy that people will understand. I’m opening a door to who I am." "I always used to hide myself, and I'm not complaining about it, but now it is time to show my eyes and my femininity and my delicate side," said Daulne. "I am proud to be so feminine, because I have taken the time to develop the inside of my femininity. Now that I have that, I can face anybody. And if anybody challenges me, there is no problem."
Humanitarianism and activism.
An active humanitarian, Daulne devotes much of her time working to protect human rights and fight global poverty with organizations such as Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, CARE, and the United Nations.
Citations.
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The Gift (1979 film)
The Gift is a 1979 made-for-television film directed by Don Taylor and starring Glenn Ford, Gary Frank and Julie Harris. It was broadcast on the CBS network.
Plot.
Pete Devlin (Gary Frank), a 17-year-old sailor, returns home to Brooklyn on leave from the Navy for Christmas in the 1950s.
Pete's father (Glenn Ford) is an emotionally-distant and heavy-drinking factory worker who lost a leg in an accident. As a Christmas gift, the local VFW post makes Billy an honorary member. The Commander (M. Emmet Walsh) presents a slide show of Billy when he was a young soccer star before the war. Billy interrupts the slide show and tells them to stop.
Pete visits his girlfriend, 17-year-old Kathleen (Allison Argo). He wants to marry her, become an artist, and move to Paris. He learns that Kathleen has a new boyfriend who doesn't talk about "dumb things" like moving to Paris.
Pete visits Patsy (Anthony Ponzini) asking to buy a gun to kill the guy who "moved in on" Kathleen. Patsy refuses to sell a gun to the drunken Pete.
Younger brother Teddy (Kevin Bacon) buys a gun and plans to rob a gas station. Pete takes the gun from Teddy.
Kathleen shows up at a party with her new boyfriend, Eddie Riggs (Jerry Machen). Pete has the gun with him and considers using it, but he throws it out the window. He sucker-punches Eddie and knocks him out. A gun is found on Eddie. Pete says "so long" to Kathleen and walks out of the party.
Pete visits his father at the bar. Pete asks why his father never talks about the accident. "Why didn't you ever let me know you? The worst thing happened in your life and you never said a word about it to me. ... It's like I'm some stranger. I know how hard it is to talk about that. It's hard for you to talk about anything." He yells, "I want you talk to me, damn it."
The father explains he never wanted anyone to feel sorry for him. He explains that, when he was young, he loved soccer more than summer, more than singing, more than whisky. He felt like he was magic when he moved down the soccer field. He tells about his time in the hospital with gangrene and waking up in the operating room as the doctors were cutting off his leg. He cries and tells Pete: "I still her the sound of the saw. That leg, it was magic, a gift from god. Then one day they cut it off. They just took it away."
A young man at the bar calls the father a "gimp". Pete and his father knock them down and throw them out of the bar. The father re-introduces his son to the bar: "This is my son Peter in whom I'm well proud." They drink together and sing Irish songs as they stumble up the stairs to the apartment.
The film ends with Peter leaving to return to the Navy. An older Pete narrates: "My Christmas leave was over. And leaving that morning I felt oddly free. I was going out into the world, on my own at last. And I remember that Christmas I hadn't received much in any ordinary way, but my father loved me back, and there was no other gift I wanted."
References.
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Blá Blá Blá (song)
"Blá Blá Blá" is a song by the Brazilian girl group pop Rouge, and the lead single from her third studio album of the same name. The song was written and produced by Rick Bonadio, and became the girls' first song without the vocals of Luciana Andrade, who left the group in February 2004. It was released by Columbia Records on .
"Blá Blá Blá" has a dominant pop rock style, where the girls sing in a more aggressive tone about the rumors that the media have invented about them. Aline Wirley, just like in the previous single, "Vem Cair na Zueira", makes a rap in the song. The music video also shows the group's more "somber" look, also showing the evolution of the girls. The clip was also nominated for MTV Video Music Brasil 2004. The song was promoted in numerous TV programs. The group have performed the song on their tours, from the "Blá Blá Blá Tour" (2004), "Mil e Uma Noites Tour" (2005), "Chá Rouge Tour" (2017) and "15 Anos Tour" (2018).
Background.
After the success of their second studio album, "C'est La Vie" (2003), on February 11, 2004, Luciana Andrade officially announced her disbandment from the group. "Nothing in life is just roses. There's a moment that we need to change. I felt this very strong these times. I'm at peace with my decision. Each one follows their road", she said. According to sources, the singer left the band due to overworking —there were days the girls had a 20-hour schedule— and low payment. As for others, including by the singer herself, her departure "was a matter of musical ideology. There came a time when her work in the group wasn't fulfilling her wishes", the singer's husband said. "Rouge will go on with four energy-filled girls," affirmed Elisabetta Zenatti, their manager. "It's a big change. Rouge is one. You can't introduce a new member. This reflects in our work. We chose to continue our history as well", Fantine Thó added.
Composition and lyrics.
Musical structure and influences.
"Blá Blá Blá" has a dominant pop rock style, where the girls sing in a more aggressive tone about the rumors that the media have invented about them. Producer Rick Bonadio explained how he composed the song: "When I started composing the structure, I thought of a Broadway musical type that allows the performance of the girls to be well explored. It starts very calm and quiet, with a solo by Patrícia and a beautiful vocal arrangement. Then it changes: it's half black, half dance, it grows on a pop-filled chorus of astral, it comes a rap and finally it ends up returning to the climate of the beginning.In terms of sonority, it has a little influence of Outkast, which is a group that changed the face of the pop scene," points out Bonadio.
And when Rick showed us the song for the first time, we were a little surprised, we thought, "Maybe it's too different." Fantine says, "The arrangements of our songs have always been complex and complicated. elaborate, but rather were more angelic, delicate. In the new disc, they have more weight and footprint, the sound comes more full, with certain aggress