{"id":6867,"date":"2017-01-09T19:18:08","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T00:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?p=6867"},"modified":"2017-01-09T19:18:08","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T00:18:08","slug":"something-we-can-smile-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/something-we-can-smile-about\/","title":{"rendered":"Something We Can Smile About"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the last few months of 2016, we began taking a look at the songs on <\/a><\/span><\/i>Revolver<\/span>\u2026and reminding ourselves why it was such a pivotal LP for the lads. Together (combining our Fest blog and your comments) we scratched beneath the surface of the music and lyrics to uncover new insights. Just as the year ended, we neatly completed our examination of Side One.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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Now\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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\u2026perfect for the beginning of a brand-new year with myriad possibilities is “Good Day Sunshine.” Wisely selected to kick off Side Two of <\/span>Revolver<\/span><\/i>, this buoyant ditty expresses all the optimism contained in every “chance to begin again.” Martin employed its bright melody and uplifting lyrics to woo Beatles fans into the second half of the LP. After the anger rife in “Taxman,”<\/a> the loneliness pervading \u201cEleanor Rigby,\u201d<\/a> and the deeply somber nature of \u201cShe Said She Said,\u201d<\/a> Paul McCartney\u2019s \u201cGood Day Sunshine\u201d offered listeners something heartening, something upbeat, something to laugh (or smile) about.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Furthermore, for those fans who (by the close of Side One) were despairing that The Beatles they knew and loved had vanished \u2013 morphing into <\/span>Revolver\u2019s<\/span><\/i> highly-engineered group of complex musicians \u2013 this song provided a return to The Beatles of yore. <\/span>This<\/span><\/i> is the way young John and Paul used to sound when they performed in Liverpool College of Art\u2019s Room 21 at lunchtime. <\/span>This <\/span><\/i>is the sound of The Beatles, live at the BBC. This is the unplugged sound of The Beatles of old. And fans were glad of it. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Although both John and Paul admitted that Paul wrote 95 percent of “Good Day Sunshine,” the number is, without a doubt, highly influenced by John. But not John Lennon this time: the inspiration came from John Sebastian. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over in America, Sebastian, the Greenwich Village-based lead singer and songwriter for The Lovin\u2019 Spoonful, was hitting America for six!<\/span> In 1965, he\u2019d scored with “You Didn\u2019t Have to Be So Nice” and swiftly followed up with “Do You Believe in Magic?” \u00a0Then in \u201966, he had another big, big, BIG hit: “Daydream.” So, the very observant James Paul McCartney handily employed Sebastian\u2019s easy-does-it, lazy-days techniques in his new composition, “Good Day Sunshine.”<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In keeping with the Spoonful genre, the <\/span>Revolver <\/span><\/i>song\u2019s lyrics were lighthearted and happy-go-lucky: <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cShe feels good! She knows she\u2019s lookin\u2019 fine!<\/span><\/i><\/h3>\n

I\u2019m so proud to know that she is mine!\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

That\u2019s about as simple and content as a lyric line can get. Spoonful-esque! But remembering Russell Reising\u2019s caveat that on <\/span>Revolver<\/span><\/i>, “there are <\/span>no <\/span><\/i>silly love songs,”<\/span>\u00a0savvy listeners long suspected that somewhere in this McCartney number, there was a deeper, hidden meaning. In the volume, <\/span>All the Songs<\/span><\/i>, the collaborative authors suggested that when Paul sang, “I feel good in a special way,” he might have been slyly alluding to his <\/span>Revolver<\/span><\/i> era fascination with marijuana. If this is true, then \u201cGood Day Sunshine\u201d was the predecessor to “Got to Get You Into My Life,” and both songs boasted a second level of meaning. (“More here than meets the eye!”)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But honestly, for original, old-time Beatles fans, added incentives to enjoy “Good Day Sunshine” were not necessary. All of the traditional “fab” ingredients were already present in the mix. The Beatles\u2019 winning love song formula was there. George Martin\u2019s honky-tonk piano lead was expert. The Lennon\/McCartney backing vocals were spot on. And, as Robert Rodriguez pointed out in his insightful book, <\/span>Revolver: How The Beatles Re-Imagined Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll<\/span><\/i>, Ringo\u2019s \u201ccymbal splashes and added percussion touch-ups, such as handclaps\u201d<\/span> were welcome custom. Finally, the entire offering was infused with McCartney magic. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sometimes less truly is more. And this unadorned, joyful ditty proves that rule. Fans who were bewildered and confused by \u201cShe Said She Said\u201d were \u2013 after singing or toe-tapping along with \u201cGood Day Sunshine\u201d \u2013 pulled back into the fold. They leaned in once again, hovering over the turntable and listening\u2026just as George Martin had predicted they would. They reconnected.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Then\u2026the second selection on Side Two began and <\/span>Revolver, <\/span><\/i>once more,<\/span> took a dark and unexpected turn! What was it? And to whom was that next song written?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

See you next time for “And Your Bird Can Sing.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

1.\u00a0For those unfamiliar with this British phrase, “hitting someone for six” means making an impact. It originate in cricket when a player hits six off the bowling.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Turner, Steve, <\/span>A Hard Day\u2019s Write<\/span><\/i>, 112-113.<\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Reising, Russell, \u201c<\/span>Vacio Luminoso,<\/span><\/i>\u201d 127.<\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Rodriguez, <\/span>Revolver: How The Beatles Re-Imagined Rock\u2019n\u2019Roll<\/span><\/i>, 144.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series:\u00a0www.johnlennonseries.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations —\u00a0@910PubRel<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter and\u00a0910 Public Relations<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the last few months of 2016, we began taking a look at the songs on Revolver\u2026and reminding ourselves why it was such a pivotal LP for the lads. Together (combining our Fest blog and your comments) we scratched beneath […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[123,98,111,117],"class_list":["post-6867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baby-boomer-beatles-blog","tag-good-day-sunshine","tag-jude-southerland-kessler","tag-revolver","tag-the-beatles"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6868,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6867\/revisions\/6868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}