(The title of this 1988 compilation confused me. Past Masters? Aren't The Beatles good enough that we can say that they're still masters, even after all these years?)
Past Masters was released to fill in the gaps in people's collections (unless you were me: I subsequently filled in the gaps around Past Masters). If you had all the albums and this set then you had everything they ever released. (More than thirty years and all sorts of Live at the BBC collections, Anthology releases and deluxe editions later, this now seems very quaint) I didn't know this at the time, I just thought it looked like a cool compilation to have. And it was and still is.
The highlight for me at the time was the first four tracks on the second cassette: "Day Tripper", "We Can Work It Out", "Paperback Writer" and "Rain". Bloody hell. These were taken from brilliant singles that didn't even end up on albums. I don't think I'd ever even heard "Rain" prior to then. Volume One (the first cassette) shows them going through the whirlwind of Beatlemania with some subtle growth occasionally undermined by the odd dismal cover version. (Perhaps it is too forgettable for most to be bothered with but I maintain that the Ringo-sung "Matchbox" is the worst song they ever recorded) Then, Volume Two comes on and there's no stopping them. 1967 isn't represented on Past Masters so we don't get to hear The Beatles at their very best but their full flowering is still evident.
I already knew "Paperback Writer" by then but this was the first time I really listened to it. I had been learning how to play bass guitar for a couple years and was astonished by Paul McCartney's playing on it. I was also fancying myself a poet during this time which may have made the narrative of a struggling writer trying to find a publisher appealing to me. Finally, I was big into comedy back in '93, a devoted fan of The Kids in the Hall and The Simpsons (and, soon, the suddenly popular Seinfeld) so it was cool to discover something by the Fab Four that had some humour. ("Paperback Writer" is a much funnier song than "Drive My Car" though "Good Morning Good Morning" is probably their funniest track of all) This background may then explain why I had the brilliant idea to write a reply song. (I hadn't thought of this until now but it's possible that the final episode of The Wonder Years that May played a part in my renewed interest in The Beatles at that time)
The lyrics to "Paperback Writer II" are, sadly, lost to time beyond the opening of "Dear Paul McCartney, thank you for your book..." but it read as a publisher turning down this crummy novel about a man named Lear (a dirty fellow with a clinging wife and a son who, oddly, also wishes to be a paperback writer: more on this curio in a bit) but in a diplomatic tone. As with every song lyric and/or poem I came up with at the time, I figured it was genius but I eventually came to my senses and abandoned it. (In retrospect, it would have been far more amusing to have had the publisher blow smoke up McCartney's ass only to reveal in the song's final verse that he or she would like him to send them a bundle of cash to get the thing published and in the book shops. The naive aspiring novelist in the original would've definitely been conned by a sleazy vanity press)
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As Beatles' singles go, "Paperback Writer" must be their most divisive. Many young fans at the time were decidedly underwhelmed. As Jon Savage notes in his book 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded, when promotional films for it and B side "Rain" aired on The Ed Sullivan Show, "there was no screaming". (Savage also quotes some longtime British fans who spoke at the time to the Record Mirror and they weren't terribly impressed by it) Their massive fanbase loyally took it to number one around the world but it struggled to stay there for long. While both of the singles the preceded and followed it — the double A sides "We Can Work It Out" / "Day Tripper" and "Yellow Submarine" / "Eleanor Rigby" respectively — each enjoyed four week stays on top in the UK, it held on for just a fortnight while over on the Hot 100 it was displaced by Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night" after just one week before reclaiming the number one position for another seven day stint. (Meanwhile, the RPM chart was still in its unwritten 'one week is enough' period so it had the same length on top as all their other number ones that year) It feels like the first Beatles' single that kids wouldn't have been talking about on the playground the day after catching them on Top of the Pops or on Ed Sullivan.
Still, "Paperback Writer" has its supporters. Tom Breihan, who is open about his disdain for several Beatles' songs, considers it to be a "motherfuck of a pop song" (in the best possible sense, presumably). While not quite as gushing, Tom Ewing is also full of praise. While perhaps a case of "meta-hackwork", he nevertheless has it down as one of his favourite Fabs' numbers. Some pop critics in Britain liked it at the time as well.
On the other hand, there are others who are cooler towards it. Ian MacDonald thought it was relatively "hollow" and that its storyline's "potential poignancy is sacrificed to excitement, word-games, and studio-effects"..Aidan Curran describes it as "paper-thin whimsy" while concluding his review stating that it's "essentially putdownable". Roy Carr and Tony Tyler argue that much of the backlash resulted from "the triviality of the lyric and a slight nagging suspicion that the Beatles were playing at 'being songwriters' at a time when the world was waiting for The Word".
Some praise, some harsh words and that's the thing about this song: I sort of agree with everyone here. I admire much of it and enjoy having it on but I don't quite love it. The narrative might either be at a level of irony that anticipates the Pet Shop Boys by twenty years or it may be the result of carelessness but either way it can get on my nerves if I put too much thought into it. (I suspect that McCartney was being sloppy with his weird 'son who also wants to be a paperback writer' aside but that's up for debate) It's remarkable what they were able to do in the studio which counts for something, only it shouldn't be listened to closely. During the second verse, John Lennon and George Harrison can be heard singing "Frère Jacques" which only underscores how meaningless the whole thing is. It is indeed a motherfuck of a pop record — but it's also something of a mindfuck of a pop record.
It is said that the inspiration for "Paperback Writer" came when one of Paul's many aunties up in Liverpool (perhaps it was "Auntie Jin" who is namechecked in "Let 'Em In") encouraged him to write a pop song that didn't involve the topic of love. He then went and wrote this, a song that is so cutting it could've come from John Lennon instead. What's odd about this exchange — real or fictional — is that his songwriting had reached a peak during this same time and while he would never leave matters of the heart behind, he was composing material on other subjects as well. His contributions to Revolver from roughly the same time — "Eleanor Rigby", "Here, There and Everywhere", "Good Day Sunshine", "For No One", "Got to Get You Into My Life" — are some of the finest songs of his vast career. There's a depth of feeling to all of them in one way or another ("Good Day Sunshine" isn't a big favourite of most fans but it sounds heartfelt to me) which makes "Paperback Writer" seem all the more out of place.
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The one thing just about everyone can agree on it its B side "Rain". Like "You Can't Do That" before it and "Don't Let Me Down" after, it was a John song that got shafted by an inferior, if commercially more viable, work of Paul's. While "Paperback Writer" is good, daft fun but with that inescapable feeling that it's a bit of a throwaway, its flip side is thoughtful while still being a great listen with plenty of musical invention in its own right. Yet, it spent the better part of twenty years as an afterthought, a track that ended up being regularly passed over for inclusion on the bulk of their compilations. When it appeared on Past Masters, everyone seemingly came to the conclusion that it had been their best B side for all those years in secret.
Which leads me to the (belated) conclusion of this review: such a fate would never have befallen "Paperback Writer" itself. For all its flaws, it has always been catchy and glorious. It can be studied by budding bass players, songwriters and, yes, poets or it can be picked to pieces by critics and bloggers or it can be enjoyed as yet another high watermark by generations of Beatles' fans. Warts and all, there's no doing without it.
Score: 8
Nice piece, I think Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out was #1 in the UK for 5 weeks. Rain is great.
ReplyDeleteYou're right! Thanks for the info, I'll have to give it an edit.
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