Many have noted the meaning of the small facts, strung along the way. What's the big picture?
John's reading the newspaper. An impression one can't miss at the beginning is the contrast between John's unemotional vocals and diction and the first news item, about a man dying in a car crash, and people being unsure if they know him or not. The alienation of the people from the victim, and the voice of the singer (John, at this point) is jarring. The singer is emotionally dead to what's going on around him.
As he discusses the film, the unemotional tone continues. The singer doesn't respond to the power of death or war.
When Paul takes over, we get a man (the same one who read the news?) rushing to get to work. In the middle of it all, he loses focus on what's going on around him, and goes into a dream. Again, a man detached from life.
John comes back singing (as the same persona?) with another news story and resuming the flat tone.
The final line, which occurred once before, is the most significant statement: "I'd love to turn you on." John's voice warbles teasingly, calling the most attention to this line. Turn you on…with LSD? It doesn't matter. The problem with the persona (or personas) in the first 90% of the song is the detachment from what's going on around him (or them). The statement of the song, the album, and possibly the Beatles' career is that they'd like to wake people up from that detachment.
What this song is about isn't the details of the three or four small anecdotes. It's about the detachment, in John's and Paul's two different ways of narrating it, and how they'd like to turn us on. And for my money, the song, at least in some small way, accomplishes that.
@rikdad thx for this spot-on take. I don't know how so many others can miss this. I understand big picture thinking is not for everyone, but when it's put on a silver platter....c'mon people!
@rikdad thx for this spot-on take. I don't know how so many others can miss this. I understand big picture thinking is not for everyone, but when it's put on a silver platter....c'mon people!
Many have noted the meaning of the small facts, strung along the way. What's the big picture?
John's reading the newspaper. An impression one can't miss at the beginning is the contrast between John's unemotional vocals and diction and the first news item, about a man dying in a car crash, and people being unsure if they know him or not. The alienation of the people from the victim, and the voice of the singer (John, at this point) is jarring. The singer is emotionally dead to what's going on around him.
As he discusses the film, the unemotional tone continues. The singer doesn't respond to the power of death or war.
When Paul takes over, we get a man (the same one who read the news?) rushing to get to work. In the middle of it all, he loses focus on what's going on around him, and goes into a dream. Again, a man detached from life.
John comes back singing (as the same persona?) with another news story and resuming the flat tone.
The final line, which occurred once before, is the most significant statement: "I'd love to turn you on." John's voice warbles teasingly, calling the most attention to this line. Turn you on…with LSD? It doesn't matter. The problem with the persona (or personas) in the first 90% of the song is the detachment from what's going on around him (or them). The statement of the song, the album, and possibly the Beatles' career is that they'd like to wake people up from that detachment.
What this song is about isn't the details of the three or four small anecdotes. It's about the detachment, in John's and Paul's two different ways of narrating it, and how they'd like to turn us on. And for my money, the song, at least in some small way, accomplishes that.
@rikdad thx for this spot-on take. I don't know how so many others can miss this. I understand big picture thinking is not for everyone, but when it's put on a silver platter....c'mon people!
@rikdad thx for this spot-on take. I don't know how so many others can miss this. I understand big picture thinking is not for everyone, but when it's put on a silver platter....c'mon people!