Throughout their history, The Beatles have made their fair share of perfect songs.
Even though there are tracks that might resonate more than others in retrospect, a handful of releases simply couldn’t possibly be improved upon, from the rapid ascent into madness on ‘A Day In the Life’ to the massive grand finale that closes out the back end of Abbey Road.
While George Harrison started writing his masterpieces in the late 1960s, he still thought that one song by John Lennon was the epitome of what the band stood for.
Then again, the Fab Four were far different men than the boys that most had gotten to know in the days of A Hard Day’s Night. Having been a part of the British Invasion, the mop-top styles of the band were quickly starting to become a caricature, with millions of other bands popping up in the meantime, putting their spin on the band’s usual formula.
Adding to the hysteria was the chaos of the band’s live shows, forcing them to leave the road for good in 1966 after they couldn’t be heard over the speakers. Rather than quietly retire, the band found their new creative selves by dipping into the world of psychedelia.
As the counterculture movement was just beginning, The Beatles were leading the way on Sgt Peppers, crafting a brilliant set of songs that could stand alone as a piece of art rather than a collection of singles.
While the band may have been looking to expand their mind however they could, that didn’t stop contractual obligations getting in the way.
When working on their next project, the band were told to submit a song for the Our World broadcast, which would be one of the first internationally televised events to promote unity. Written at the last minute, Lennon came up with ‘All You Need is Love’, which became the go-to anthem for the hippy movement, promoting the idea of love and peace in opposition to the violence of the Vietnam War.
Reminiscing on the song, Harrison recalled that the timing and the melody of the track couldn’t have been better, telling VH1, “It was just a perfect song because it was so simple.
The message was so simple, and it was a good excuse to go right into that culture that was happening and give them a theme tune”.
Although Harrison would talk about the song having a simple chorus, there are a few complex musical ideas that are easy to miss on first listen. During the verses, Lennon often drops beats out of the bar, never playing strictly in 4/4 time and casually getting back in time without anyone noticing it.
Harrison would later talk about how Lennon would approach those strange time diversions, telling Rolling Stone, “John has an amazing thing with his timing. ‘All You Need is Love’ sort of skips beats out and changes from 3/4 to 4/4 all the time, in and out of each other”. Since Lennon didn’t have proper musical training, these subtle nuances in the composition were far more sophisticated than what was happening in rock music.
Outside of the musical complexities, ‘All You Need is Love’ marked a distinct end to The Beatles’ mop-top period, ushering in the psychedelic movement that they would continue until their breakup in the 1970s.
While the band may have slipped in the traditional ‘She Loves You’ chorus at the end, there was no going back to the silly love songs again.
