The Beatles: "Paperback Writer" & "Rain"

The "Paperback Writer" / "Rain" single is pretty notable for a few reasons beyond its pumped up bass sound. It continues the forward momentum of songwriting, and particularly marks an important moment for Paul. John had recently, on the Rubber Soul LP, unlocked the secret to a new kind of writing, bringing to the table a number of songs that finally cast off the obligatory boy-girl narrative that had driven every previous Beatles song to some degree or another. Paul was doing good work, but it was still variations on a theme.

Specifically, this is the first single they wrote that is not even halfway a boy-girl song, it's a song about an an aspiring writer brimming with enthusiasm for his project and trying to sell himself. Does it make it better that it's not about a man pledging his love to a woman? Maybe, maybe not, but I think it was important, especially for that they did in 1966 and 1967, to have new tools in the shed. What's more it does rock. John unfairly slighted this song as being "Son of Day Tripper" which diminishes the things that "Paperback Writer" actually does bring to the table, which apart form its subject matter, also include a neat usage of "Frere Jacques" as a backing vocal, the aforementioned bass (and roaring guitar riff, stinging the refrain) and motormouthed, polysyllabic lyrics. If anything, it might be the bastard offspring of "Day Tripper" and "Help!" If it's a bit of a copy, in that respect, then it's still got its own joys.

Here's the other thing. John was experimenting with his songwriting in ways that allowed him to turn the spotlight on the world around him and his place within it. "Nowhere Man" is social commentary as well as self-examination, "Norwegian Wood" and "In My Life" were self-mythology. Paul's songs are always less keen to reveal the self, and "Paperback Writer" is far from an autobiographical song, it's just... fiction. In music. It's a story about a storyteller, about a character with wants and desires, set to music. What's more, it's not even a story arc, it's just a scene from his life. Paul was becoming adept at seeing moments in the world and painting pictures of them with his words and music, as much as John was at exploding them outwards. While John's music was becoming more grandiose and ambitious - more art for art's sake - Paul embraced a path that seems easier but is riddled with its own difficulties. "Paperback Writer" is, perhaps too fittingly given its subject, a great example of Hemingway's iceberg theory. And it was a strategy he would use all the more the longer the Beatles kept going. John would build a world of his own, and Paul would reflect the one he saw.



Speaking of social critique, here's John's take on a reflection of modern life, a cutting takedown of the stuffy British upper class. John was getting better and better and articulating his worldview through his words and music. I've always liked this song for the way it sets dull, blase attitude about its subjects against a proto-psychedelic wash of guitars and bass and hammering, rat-a-tat drums, a bit of LSD-flavoured unreality impinging on the everyday norms. The difference between this song and "Paperback Writer" would become the key point for the upcoming Revolver album, and a lot of the Beatles' remaining recording career.