Hip Hop Fan's First Reaction to The Beatles - A Day In The Life

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[SyedRewinds]

A lot of people have been saying that the song was paused a little too often on this one. It's a suggestion I'll take on board. This was a very early reaction for me, maybe my 2nd or 3rd only being released later due to copyright issues. I've learnt a lot about making videos since then. However, that is the point of this channel, to provide my thoughts as the song plays. If this kind of reaction isn't for you, I'm sure you can find another that is better suited. There are plenty of great ones out there. Have a blessed day ✌️

[sbvzpvy]

Ringo's drumming is perfect. Sometimes his talent gets overlooked but i don't know if any other drummer would have played it the way he did.

[trillionsydney]

Let’s talk about Ringo’s drumming in this song shall we?? Talk about perfect

[mikewarker]

This album was earth shattering at the time. THEY CHANGED THE WORLD FOREVER

[dixiechatty]

John Lennon referred to the crescendos in this song as "war sounds". The lyrics are really quite simple, John's literally relaying some stories he read in the paper. He blended it with a tune Paul had yet to finish and they fit perfectly. This is an example of two musical geniuses at the absolute peak of their creativity.

[henriettaskolnick]

There is a lot to unpack in this song. Most of the lyrics came about from bits of news stories of the time. "He blew his mind out in a car" is Tara Browne, son of British Peer and heir to the Guinness fortune and friend of the Beatles, who died from injuries sustained in a car crash. "I saw a film today, oh boy. The English Army had just won the war. A crowd of people turned away" is about the movie How I Won the War, which John Lennon had a small part in. It got really bad reviews, hence the "crowd" who "turned away". The "woke up, fell out of bed" part was a bit of song Paul McCartney had that he hadn't been able to do anything with, so he and John worked it into this. The "four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire" section was about the bad streets in Blackburn that were full of potholes. The story was the authorities had to count them all and the comment was made that there were so many holes, "they (the holes) could fill the Albert Hall". For the orchestra build-up, they told an orchestra to go from their lowest note to their highest and they were allowed to improvise their way through it. The orchestra thought they were crazy, but they did it. The result was an avant-garde piece that was multi-tracked into the crescendo you heard. The end note was the E major chord played simultaneously on 3 different pianos and a harmonium. It would become one of the most famous end chords in music history. In addition, they also added a high-pitched note that only dogs could hear. This final chord inspired George Lucas (of Star Wars fame) to use a similar chord as part of his THX logo. The BBC banned this song for a long time due to the drug reference of "I want to turn you on". The Beatles were the first to truly turn pop music into an art experience.

[alansouthall]

I'm obsessed with this song.

A wonderful song about detachment that manages to be enthralling. And then the production, the drumming. That crushing e chord at the end.

Lennon, man

[w.geoffreyspaulding]

BTW….that last chord is considered the longest chord in rock and roll. It was the measure of a radio station whether they would let it resonate to its ultimate fade, or if they would cut it off. When you’re stoned, you REALLY want to hear it until ultimate silence. ✌️

[jonk]

This was revolutionary. Nothing before (nothing since, IMO) it was even remotely the same in popular music. They consistently broke new ground throughout their 10 year career. You should do every album.

[riphopfer]

Potentially the best-arranged rock song ever.

[inner-path]

You are remarkably “tuned in” for a younger person…. Respect … keep growing

[edwardthorne]

Yes, I think you should listen to this one again. You also have to hear it in the context of the rest of the ground-breaking album. That final chord was a punctuation mark in the development of music, and of a generation. My guess is that you kinda had to have experienced Beatlemania, the disillusionment of the period of Vietnam, the assasination of JFK a few years prior. New sounds were coming from the radio. Definitley a time of change. That chord carried the weight of the world. The Beatles rode on top through it all.

[reinacarbetta]

Great, thoughtful reaction. Enjoyed that. Yes, as people are commenting, it was born from John reading the newspaper and an unfinished Paul song, but it was clearly meant to sound like a trip (whether they wanted to admit it or not.) John was a big Leary fan and the song was banned from the BBC because of the “turn you on” line. So yeah, I think your interpretation is a good one and we all interpret songs in our own way - which is the point, really. That’s why music is universal. As I’ve learned, a good rule of thumb is… The Beatles did everything first. So, when in doubt, yes… they were the first lol

[scottschienmann]

The first and last verses are literally stories from a newspaper John was reading. The first is about an heir to the Guinness fortune dying in a car accident.The second verse is about the movie " How I Won the War', which John co-starred in. And the third verse is about there being 4, 000 potholes that had to be repaired. Paul's part was an unfinished song he had that they thought would fit. Liked and subscribed. Nice job

[Code]

The entire album is one long trip. And what a trip it was when we were all stoned in 67, listening to it for the first time and having NEVER heard anything like it! It was mesmerizing and truly revolutionary. And keep in mind this was 1967! Analog everything! There was no digital anything! Computers were gigantic buzzing monstrosities that literally took up entire rooms and weren't much good for anything except crunching numbers and spit out calculations. These guys pulled out all the stops and let their creativity run berserk, inventing new ways to tweak whatever they had to work with.

[prospero]

This one should be evaluated as an album. The applause at the beginning is a continuation of the theme.

[bobmessier]

One might say Lennon is the dark side and McCartney the light in most Beatles tunes, but then you get "Helter Skelter" written and sung by Paul, whose lyrics are light, but sung in a dark heavy metal voice or McCartney's "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" which has an opposite effect. Dark lyrics and sung light. Pure genius and unpredictable!

[davidsaldananavarro]

If you want to understand the structure of the song, I recommend that you watch the documentary made for its 25th anniversary. Paul and George Martín, the producer, discuss how this song was made and recorded.
It's simple: Paul and John arrived at the studio that day with an unfinished song. The idea of uniting them with a crescendo marking time by an alarm clock that can be heard perfectly was Martín's. Thus they managed to join two unfinished songs into one.

[hungfao]

I've not looked at your channel before so I have no idea how many other Beatles' tracks you've listened to. The Beatles were well-known from having nearly no bad tracks throughout their career. They came in on top and went out the same. As for this track, as well as the entire album, it changed everything (again). This band had a tendency to do that and the rest of the world tried to keep up. When this album was released, many quit trying. John and Paul were far beyond anyone else. When I first heard this back then, I spent days trying to work out what I'd just heard. It wasn't released as a single and, therefore, was not on the Top 40 revolving playlists of radio stations back then. Personally, I've speculated that you gain IQ points just listening to this song in particular. You've been exposed to a piece of music that is entirely outside of the norm. It makes you ponder other possibilities, nudges you out of your comfort compellingly.

[CuriousGeorge]

My interpretation is the song is about how lost and hypnotized people are by the media--newspaper and cinema:
"He blew his mind out in a car (crashed at an intersection)
He didn't notice that the lights had changed. "

Powerful as important has he was, he missed what was happening in the moment and died, without people even remembering him.

That's why Lennon laughed at the news, and would love to "turn you on"--wake you up to what is real and immediate.


Then Paul sings his snippet of how he too is lost in trivialities... until he turns on.

Then John continues his tale, ending with a rising crescendo of... enlightenment? intoxication? orgasm? death, nirvana?

Hard to say. 😁

Thanks for your thoughtful and thought provoking reaction.