Yesterday by the Beatles

In an episode of animated show South Park one of the characters takes on the persona of Professor Chaos to get back at those that he feels has shunned him. He has a partner named General Disarray and they go about planning their revenge. Professor Chaos comes up with different schemes and after he explains every one, General Disarray points out his plan was included in an episode of The Simpsons. This becomes a running gag through the show as it becomes clear how much that with a show like The Simpsons around, original plots and ideas are difficult to think of. Also because The Simpsons are have such a central part in our popular culture people are often unknowingly influenced by episodes that they may not have even watched.

The Beatles revolutionized the cultural landscape with their music and redefined what it meant to be a pop star. Anything that pop stars have done since the Beatles, the Beatles probably did it first. Appear in films, make music videos, influence fashion, appear on magazine covers, and sell merchandise, all of these things and more the Beatles did first.

It wasn’t only the business end, as artists they defined the language of pop music. So much of the Beatles music seems unremarkable because of how much what they did has become such an integral part of our modern day pop music. We don’t twice about utilizing a relative minor key in a bridge of a song, but when the Beatles first did this, it was shocking. It’s not a big deal to hear a rock band utilize orchestra instruments but it was revolutionary when the Beatles did this. Now it’s standard for a rock band or a pop singer to have a slow song on an album, but when the Beatles released “Yesterday,” Paul McCartney was embarrassed at the idea of his Beatles a “rock band” releasing such a slow and introspective song.

What makes “Yesterday” a great song doesn’t really have anything to do with the fact that it was one of the first pop songs of its kind. There is a lot of art that is important and has a cultural impact but this doesn’t mean that the piece of art will have a lasting meaning effect or that it will continue to be culturally relevant. There was a photograph called "Piss Christ" by Andres Serrano, which was a photo of a plastic crucifix in a jar of human urine. This was an incredibly controversial piece when Serran released it and forced American culture to reexamine the way that art is funded and the limits of freedom of expression. As important a piece of art this is historically the debate surrounding this work is what most people take away from the work, not a significant personal meaning.

One of the most powerful parts of “Yesterday” is its balanced and nuanced melody. When we think of great melodies they share beautiful contours that move the music forward to peaks that come to places of rest. The melody to “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” is a great example of a balanced melodic contour. The melody starts with a low note and gets to it’s highest note on “little” and then comes down slowly. The rising and falling in the phrase gives us a sense of stability and predictability and the nuances, the small ups and downs in the overall contour are what gives the melody interest.

The word “yesterday” drops down a note and holds before rising up to “far away.” The melody descends rising up slightly “here” before settling down. The placing of longer note value on “far” draws the listener while also providing a sense of anticipation. In the bridge, there is a similar contour with a different feeling. On the words “why she” McCartney’s delays the rise in contour by staying on the same note. This makes it even more moving when on the text “had to go” the melody rises up and falls down on “I don’t know.” There is a sense of stumbling, holding back tears with “I don’t know” because of the change in rhythm that brings more interest by slightly speeding up the descending arc of the contour.

George Martin, the producer for Beatles got his start recording classical music records and his skills with those instruments and his classical sensibility heavily influenced the Beatles’ records. The string quartet accompaniment to this song fills out the harmony when it first enters and develops interesting counter-melodies as the song goes on. In the second bridge right after the phrase “she wouldn’t say” the cello rises up with a remarkable line that is soulful and yearning. The string quartet is something that so effectively sets an intimate and mournful tone to the song that we don’t really think about it. It’s like great make-up in a film. It should be so believable that you are not ever yanked out of the story and think the person on screen is even wearing make-up. The string quartet in “Yesterday” is similar in that it doesn’t draw attention to itself but instead contributes to the emotional meaning of the song.

Paul McCartney is one of the great lyricists in popular music. His lyrics speak to emotions and not situations. We don’t know much about what this person is talking about besides the fact that a girl left him. We may not know his relationship to this girl but the emotional meaning is so genuine, the specific subject becomes irrelevant.

Different mediums of art are different ways of communication. Music is not a good way to communicate facts. The written word does a far better job at telling objective truths. What music does best is describe feeling with a sense of time and motion. Great popular musicians understand this and work to reach the heart more then the minds and it is that which makes music a essential in the our lives.

The line that always gets to me is “suddenly, I’m not half the man I used to be, there’s a shadow hanging over me, oh, yesterday came suddenly.” The figurative language of being half a man and feeling a shadow is so direct and insightful. It is just that moment when things change and you don’t understand the world, when darkness that comes over us. It is scary and frightening and when I hear this line, I think of moments in my life like early my college years where I felt both alone and lost. The amazing thing about this song is that the melody and the simplicity in Paul McCartney’s voice reminds us that we are not alone in our sadness and that somehow that is enough to make us feel better.

This song is not about wishing that the past could last forever and that change would never come. Yes, there are things in my past that I wish could have back. There are feelings and moments that I hope I will never forget that not only sustain me through the trials of the day but comfort me in the night. This song reminds us that yes, yesterday may have been simpler and it’s okay to mourn that.

I believe that our future is meaningless without examining where we have come from. I believe that it is only through reflecting on what we’ve done that we can grow and make better choices in the future and I believe in yesterday.