Which day of the week is skipped in Lady Madonna?
Saturday. "Friday Night arrives without a suitcase/Sunday morning creeping like a nun." Perhaps its part of that eight-day-week the Beatles introduced.
Lady Madonna was McCartney's 'come-back' single after critics savaged Magical Mystery Tour. Musically, it's an impressive response, the boogiewoogie piano and handclaps combining to create an infectious driving sound.
Lyrically, it is less successful. The title was inspired by a magazine photograph of an African mother and child captioned Mountain Madonna. This image immediately runs into trouble with a very British reference to paying the rent. Then it turns bizarrely accusatory ('Did you think that money was heaven sent?') before losing all coherence in what Ian MacDonald calls 'acid tinged unreality'.
Macdonald particularly disapproves of the 'pointless allusion to I Am the Walrus' suggesting that this 'wanton self-mythologising ... in the context of the developing 'Paul is Dead' hysteria was playing with fire.'
This is a little harsh - McCartney was, after all, the victim of the crackpot 'Paul is Dead' rumour rather than its instigator. But as Lennon later conceded The Beatles did not achieve what they achieved by modesty and self-effacement. Put simply four years of unremitting Beatlemania had gone to their heads.
The Beatles Digital Teaching Teaching Pack (£1.99)
Lady Madonna was McCartney's 'come-back' single after critics savaged Magical Mystery Tour. Musically, it's an impressive response, the boogiewoogie piano and handclaps combining to create an infectious driving sound.
Lyrically, it is less successful. The title was inspired by a magazine photograph of an African mother and child captioned Mountain Madonna. This image immediately runs into trouble with a very British reference to paying the rent. Then it turns bizarrely accusatory ('Did you think that money was heaven sent?') before losing all coherence in what Ian MacDonald calls 'acid tinged unreality'.
Macdonald particularly disapproves of the 'pointless allusion to I Am the Walrus' suggesting that this 'wanton self-mythologising ... in the context of the developing 'Paul is Dead' hysteria was playing with fire.'
This is a little harsh - McCartney was, after all, the victim of the crackpot 'Paul is Dead' rumour rather than its instigator. But as Lennon later conceded The Beatles did not achieve what they achieved by modesty and self-effacement. Put simply four years of unremitting Beatlemania had gone to their heads.
The Beatles Digital Teaching Teaching Pack (£1.99)
