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Author Topic: Penny Lane ?  (Read 5192 times)

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I_Will

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #20 on: January 10, 2010, 03:30:30 PM »

I reckon most people favor SSF because they are trying to seem 'deep'. I personally love them both equally, and neither of them are in my list of top Beatles songs.
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emmi_luvs_beatles

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #21 on: January 10, 2010, 03:35:41 PM »

Well, I really like them both. I could see why SFF would be favored, because it was very "For the times" with the tape loops and such. But Penny Lane could be loved during any time. But like I said, I love both songs.
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Wonderland

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #22 on: January 10, 2010, 04:27:15 PM »

Strawberry Fields has my vote. I relate to it more than I relate to Penny Lane, particularly the lyric, 'No one I think is in my tree,'.

Something bizarrely powerful about that line.

AngeloMysterioso

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #23 on: January 20, 2010, 06:08:53 PM »

Too me, it is all too simple. Penny Lane is so Mc Cartney and Strawberry Fields is so Lennon.

It took me longer to dig into Strawberry Fields; whereas Penny Lane got under my skin instantly.

I must say that Penny Lane’s arrangement was viewed as a little cheezy, during a period of time (late 70’s); while Strawberry Fields always remained a classic in that respect.
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Joost

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #24 on: January 20, 2010, 08:01:33 PM »

'Penny Lane' is one of my favorite Beatles songs (as of today I'd say it's my third favorite after 'Here Comes The Sun' and 'Let It Be'), so I like it better than 'Strawberry Fields'. But they're both great, obviously.
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HeyJude18

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #25 on: January 20, 2010, 08:24:49 PM »

Penny Lane, for me, falls into the category of "Happy-Go-Lucky".  You know, one of those songs that you put on when you're in a good mood and just feel like singing and dancing around.  Strawberry Fields, I'm not so sure about it.  It was the first song of John's that I had heard from that period of the Beatles evolution.  I love the song but it also makes me think about what was going on with John when he wrote it, but this is for a totally different conversation.
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cubanheel

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #26 on: January 20, 2010, 09:35:08 PM »

I think that the whole 'Lennon vs McCartney' furore is absolutely epitomised by this 'PL vs SFF' face-off. Do you prefer your songs to have innate musicality and quirkiness, or do you want to be taken somewhere else entirely? Even the recording techniques are symbolic of the 2 sides of the coin. As far as I know the only really notable thing about PL's recording was that famous piccolo solo, whereas we all know that SFF was cut and pasted long before microsoft invented it! Penny Lane is just SO Paul, and SFF is SO John. It's yin and yang. I could go on, I just find it all terribly symbolic of the 2 guys.

That said, it was THE BEATLES who actually recorded BOTH of these songs, John George and RIngo bringing their interpretations to PL, and Paul george and Ringo doing the same for SFF.

Complex stuff, huh?
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I_Will

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #27 on: January 20, 2010, 09:42:09 PM »

I think that the whole 'Lennon vs McCartney' furore is absolutely epitomised by this 'PL vs SFF' face-off.

While I do think this particular single is the most obvious example, I think this can also be seen with "Paperback Writer"/"Rain, "Hello Goodbye"/"I Am The Walrus", and "Hey Jude"/"Revolution".
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Mrs Lennon

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #28 on: January 20, 2010, 10:15:27 PM »

I'm totally opening myself up for mockery, but Penny Lane is one of those songs that just makes me nostalgic, makes me wish I was there back in '67. If not that, it just makes me want it to be summer time again. I get the same feeling with 'Here Comes the Sun' and, for some odd reason, 'Hello Goodbye' I wonder what our own Penny Lane has to say about this song? LOL
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Penny Lane

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #29 on: January 20, 2010, 10:29:55 PM »

I wonder what our own Penny Lane has to say about this song? LOL

LOL...I stumbled upon this thread and was like "Whoa"...sometimes I forget Penny Lane isn't actually my name. :P

But SFF and PL... They're like apples and oranges, no? One is more melancholy and surreal and describes one's state of mind...the other is more upbeat and concrete and describes a place and its inhabitants. Both have a sort of dreamy, nostalgic quality to them, I guess.

Personally, I like PL better (duh) for its melody, mood, and lyrical vignettes. But I like SFF too, especially John's sense of isolation in his lyrics.
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Almighty Doer of Stuff

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #30 on: January 22, 2010, 05:24:46 AM »

For a bit of a change of direction (we can have both conversations at the same time, of course), I present a quote from Paul McCartney, about this song:

Quote from: Paul McCartney
'Penny Lane' is a bus roundabout in Liverpool and there is a barber's shop showing photographs of every head he's had the pleasure to know -- no, that's not true, they're just photos of hairstyles, but all the people who come and go/stop and say hullo. There's a bank on the corner so we made up the bit about the banker in his motor car. It's part fact, part nostalgia for a place which is a great place, blue suburban skies as we remember it, and it's still there.

And we put in a joke or two: 'Four of fish and finger pie.' The women would never dare say that, except to themselves. Most people wouldn't hear it, but 'finger pie' is just a nice little joke for the Liverpool lads who like a bit of smut.

I suspect this was only the tip of the iceberg, as far as double entendres went. Here are a few of my theories:

The fireman keeps a portrait of a queen in his pocket. Most people assume he's talking about money, but there's another portrait often kept in a pocket: a driver's license. The fireman is gay! (Side note: I once read a myth that John Lennon sang "Baby, you're a rich f** Jew!" at one point in "Baby You're A Rich Man". This is false, of course, but I think it was actually Paul making gay jokes! Also, he likes to keep his fire engine clean. Polishing the fire engine is slang for male masturbation.

The banker never wears a mac in the pouring rain. This could be a reference to a condom, or lack thereof. (Interestingly, when seen in this light, the name of John Lennon's supergroup from The Rolling Stone's Rock and Roll Circus, The Dirty Mac, could mean a used condom!)

The barber shows photographs of heads he's shaved. This could mean pubic hair, and when Paul says "And all the people that come and go" he could mean "ejaculate and go". Later in the song, the banker is waiting his turn for a shave and a jerk, and the fireman rushes into the room after having been in the pouring rain, or getting his fix from the barber.

The poppies the nurse is selling could be a reference to selling psychoactive pills illegally.

This is much more speculation than my interpretation of "I Am The Walrus", of course, but it certainly puts an interesting twist on the song!
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Joost

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #31 on: January 22, 2010, 07:53:34 AM »

I'm totally opening myself up for mockery, but Penny Lane is one of those songs that just makes me nostalgic, makes me wish I was there back in '67. If not that, it just makes me want it to be summer time again.

Same here. Couldn't have said it better.
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maywitch

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Re: Penny Lane ?
« Reply #32 on: January 22, 2010, 08:24:05 PM »

In it's own way I think Penny Lane is just as surreal as SFF.  The lyrics really are not straightforward and quite subtly clever.  Even without going so much into the double entendre route(oh it's interesting I was reading this interview with Paul and John from 1966 and Paul actually talks about wanting write a song about places of his youth and he mentions Penny Lane, I thought that was kind of neat in a "wow you can see how it developed" kind of way - he was talking about it before it happened) - there is something surreal about them, like a dream - where things sort of seem normal but are somehow...off.  Not in a nightmarish bad way but just in that way that dreams work, or even memory and childhood.  There are so many things that are remembered in not quite the way they happened or the way a child, who doesn't have clear and understanding of "how things are", hears things or sees things and gets something somewhat skewed from how an adult would understand it.  I think it's just an incredibly well put together song, lyrically and musically.

As for standing in it's shadow, well it didn't when it was released - Penny Lane did better than Strawberry Fields.
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