4 Beatles Songs That Feature Surprisingly Old-Fashioned Instruments
The Beatles not only wrote wonderful songs, but they also constantly innovated in terms of how they recorded them. Listening back to their catalog now, however, it’s fascinating to hear instruments that have long since fallen out of fashion adorning certain tracks of theirs.
These four songs are among the most beloved in the Fab Four catalog. And they all contain a key part from an instrument that’s a bit on the old-fashioned side, at least from our perspective today.
“We Can Work It Out”
Paul McCartney wrote the verses of “We Can Work It Out”. It’s one of several songs that he penned about his relationship with Jane Asher, his girlfriend throughout much of the 60s. John Lennon added the middle eight, his somewhat pessimistic outlook contradicting McCartney’s hopefulness. In terms of the music, it whooshes about behind McCartney’s main melody without calling too much attention to itself. But in the middle eight, which takes on a different rhythm from the rest of the track, you can hear a wheezing, accordion-like sound. That’s a harmonium, an organ-like keyboard with a pumping element that you don’t hear all that often today.
“Strawberry Fields Forever”
Most people who listen to the beginning of “Strawberry Fields Forever” assume that The Beatles hired a flautist. In actuality, that’s a keyboard instrument called a Mellotron. It was the closest thing that 60s bands had to a synthesizer. With recordings of other instruments essentially built into it, the Mellotron could mimic those other instruments without having someone actually play them. But the reproduction wasn’t quite exact, which lent this odd keyboard a kind of haunting quality. “Strawberry Fields Forever” features Paul McCartney playing a Mellotron on a flute setting. The Moody Blues, contemporaries of The Beatles in the British Invasion, made heavy use of the Mellotron in their music.
Source: americansongwriter.com/Jim Beviglia
