“And I Love Her” is a simple song on Hard Day’s Night and, like so many songs from that era, is short and to the point. Never a band to sit on their haunches, though, even in such a simple song the Beatles tossed in a few little things that make the song interesting and give me something new to work on – in this case, arpeggios.
The song also offered me a nice chance to keep working on my two new musical interests: recording and the bass guitar. Unlike “All You Need Is Love,” this song only utilizes as many instruments as The Beatles’ foursome could play at once, so other than the drums I was able to record every part – although it wasn’t completely authentic since I don’t have a gut-string guitar on hand. It was also good practice on the bass, as the part was challenging but not impossible.
The arpeggios on the guitar, though, took some practice. It’s not that they are particularly difficult as arpeggios go, but playing high up on the neck while playing (is arpeggiating a word?) the top three strings took a little getting used to. In particular, the chord changes were tough because I just have a hard time getting all of my fingers to move around in the constricted space higher on the neck. I got it down with some practice, but when I listen to my recording the arpeggios remain the part that have a lot of buzzes and missing notes. Thanks to Paul (who wrote the song), though, I did practice and get better at it, which is the point of this whole exercise, after all.
The song also contained one other bit of musical trickery – a totally unnecessary key change. The song is in E Major, and sounds great. Then, just before the solo, it simply changes to F. I’m not sure why. There’s no real musical reason to do so, and it’s not like the tone of the lyrics makes a similar shift. I could understand feeling the need to mix things up if the song were longer, but it’s only two minutes.
Anyway, it’s easy enough to shift everything up a couple of frets, but it was annoying to have to do so, especially since those frets are even closer together than the ones I was already struggling with on the arpeggios. Oh well, maybe Paul did it all in anticipation of fledgling guitarists who need to practice these things.
Other than the arpeggios, the lead guitar doesn’t have to do anything terribly difficult. There are a few bar-chords, but I’m past the point of complaining about them anymore. There’s also a short solo that is basically just a slightly stylized repetition of the vocal melody. It was easy to learn and fun to play, for what it is.
The rhythm guitar is also pretty straight forward. The rhythm doesn’t change for the entire song, and the chords aren’t anything all that unusual, except for the very first E chord (the second chord in the song). It’s just a standard E except for a C# on the 2nd string (making it a Emajor7, I guess). That one chord actually took as much practice as anything else in the song, but once I got past it the rhythm is really pretty easy.
The bass was a different story. There was nothing horrendously difficult, but there is just a lot of different stuff going on (as I’m learning was often the case with Paul’s parts). The biggest problem is that I’m learning all of the songs from a book with tiny print that still manages to take up several pages per song. So, sight reading is pretty much out of the question.
Memorizing all of the different things that Paul does, even in just a two minute song, takes a while – especially when, right in the middle, all of the parts shift up two frets! I was able to get my fingers used to playing the different bass sections quickly, but getting my brain to remember which section went where, then recall all of it on the fly took some doing.
All in all, this isn’t all that remarkable of a song from a technical standpoint, which is appropriate since it’s also not all that remarkable of a song lyrically, either. I don’t mean this as a critique, by any means – the song is meant to be a fairly straightforward expression of love, and it accomplishes its goal. It eschews worn-out cliches for simple expressions of the narrator’s feelings, such as “I give her all my love
That’s all I do,” and also shows that the feelings are mutual with lines like “She gives me everything/And tenderly.” Rather than hyperbole, the song gets its message across with a beautiful melody and gentle, harmonious music.
There is, however, one troubling part in the bridge – the lyrics, that otherwise are always addressed to someone other than his lover, suddenly address the object of his affection directly. He switches from talking about “her” to speaking directly to “you” – although the “you” is “her.” Maybe this explains the key change that happens right after this little mix-up – the awkward musical shift is a result of the awkward lyrical shift.
Whatever the reason, it all adds up to a solid, but not spectacular Beatles song. That’s fine with me, since the spectacular songs tend to be really tough on a novice like me. Case in point – my next song “And Your Bird Can Sing.”
Lyrics – “And I Love Her”
I give her all my love
That’s all I do
And if you saw my love
You’d love her too
I love her
She gives me everything
And tenderly
The kiss my lover brings
She brings to me
And I love her
A love like ours
Could never die
As long as I
Have you near me
Bright are the stars that shine
Dark is the sky
I know this love of mine
Will never die
And I love her
Bright are the stars that shine
Dark is the sky
I know this love of mine
Will never die
And I love her
Learning The Beatles from A-Z 