Its Tuesday in Oz, Mondy in the US and somewhere inbetween in the UK so its time for a new one -
The Wordand the word is .....LOVE
its the anniversary of Rubber Soul this week so a great song from that wondrous album, one of those great songs that both John & Paul both sing on, (and it has a great melisma) tell us what you think of it...
The format used for this song consists of verses and bridges, which has been ultra common throughout the Beatles catalog up to this point. However, there is a strikingly unique similarity between this song and their 1963 sleeper “Little Child” that may surprise many. The verses in both of these songs contain all the harmonies while the bridges are sung solo by John. Also, the usual pattern for bridges in Beatles songs stipulates that the lyrics are identical whenever the bridge is repeated. However, with both of these tracks, the lyrics are different each time the bridge occurs, “The Word” having THREE bridges all with unique lyrics.
For a deeper explanation of the lyrics, John relates: “It sort of dawned on me that love was the answer, when I was younger, on the ‘Rubber Soul’ album. My first expression of it was a song called ‘The Word.’ The word is ‘love.’ ‘In the good and the bad books that I have read,’ whatever, wherever, the word is ‘love.’ It seems like the underlying theme to the universe. Everything that was worthwhile got down to this love, love, love thing. And it is the struggle to love, be loved and express that (just something about love) that’s fantastic. I think that whatever else love is – and it’s many, many things – it is constant. It’s been the same forever. I don’t think it will ever change. Even though I’m not always a loving person, I want to be that, I want to be as loving as possible.”
original coloured lyric sheet by John & Paul