Somewhere Tonight: Talking Back to "Eleanor Rigby" | Songwriter Storyteller 002

That's really cool.

Um, a couple things that jumped out to me in terms of songwriting is the, uh, you're doing a little bit of, like, math rock stuff in there, right? Where, where you're, you, you've got this, uh, sorta slow eight pattern.

Da, da, da, five, six, seven, eight.

And then it moves to a one, two, three, two, two, three, three, two, three, four, two, three, one, two, one, two, right? So that, that pattern fits into the same duration of space, right? As a drummer, I go, "So, oh," you know? It's like that, that stuff's really cool to me.

That, that, um, and that's not something that you necessarily regularly do.

Um, you know, I, I don't know that I can think of, like, 10 other examples like it, right? But, uh, so there's that interesting flourish.

You also, um, it, it caught me that there's a, like, a key change sort of section late in the song, um, which is another songwriting thing that, um, I really don't mess with and I find interesting.

Um, and then, and then a third is the, the idea of, like, quoting the, the musical conversation that's taking place inside there between, uh, your song and Eleanor Rigby.

And, um, I was curious about, you know, where that...

I'll, I'll, I guess I'll start at the end of those observations, and you can comment on any of 'em.

But I'll, I'll start at the end and say, uh, where did the, um, that musical conversation, you know, lyrical notion stem from?

I'm, I'm not sure where the notion, uh, came from.

Uh, you yourself as a songwriter know that sometimes when you sit down something just comes to you.

And the concept of the song is that someone who's Looking for love and looking for answers, uh, and those answers just aren't related to relationships, they're also related to spirituality and God and purpose and, you know, why am I even here? But anyway, the concept is that this, uh, lonely guy who is searching for love and meaning and connection is traveling down the road, and the Beatles song Eleanor Rigby comes on the radio.

So when you hear that meter change, the intention, although it wasn't...

Um, I could probably produce a version of it that would be closer to what I was imagining, but, um, it would be cool to actually hear the Beatles song Eleanor Rigby being played in the background.

And getting ready for our talk today, I actually recorded that Beatles song Eleanor Rigby, and you can hear what George Martin did with the string arrangements, which I tried to mimic, especially on the 2005 recording of the song, just because I had better strings and, uh, better equipment.

So hopefully that's the one you were listening to.

But anyway, um, it goes, you know, "S- Somewhere tonight, true love is waiting for this broken heart as the radio's playing." And then where, at, right after it says, "As the radio's playing," then it goes into that, uh, that tempo change that you would hear on the Beatles song because George Martin had the staccato strings come in as McCartney's going, "Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church of a wedding." You know, I, I'm not sure how familiar you are with the lyrics, but the concept is that he's traveling down the road, he is who he is.

That song comes on the radio, and for some reason, he ends up in his head having a dialogue with the song.

So he knows the song well enough to have the Beatles song staccato coming in with, you know, "Eleanor Rigby," and he responds, "You've got nothing on me." 'Cause he already knows what th- that song's about.

"You've got nothing on me." And the, the Beatles say, "Picks up the rice in the church of a wedding," and then he cuts off that, uh, line with his response and says, "That should have been mine." So it-

Mm

...

it, it implies as he's listening, he, he knows that song.