Behka’s Breakfast with The Beatles Recap: Week of August 4

Every day I start the show off with a bang by playing a song from my favorite band of all time, The Beatles.  Here's a look back at all the songs I played this week and a little bit of the stories behind them. On Monday, I played "What You're Doing".

The lyrics are generally believed to concern McCartney's relationship with Jane Asher. Between McCartney and Lennon, McCartney had typically been the more optimistic or lighthearted of the two when it came to songwriting. However, with this song he is expressing feelings of loneliness and doubt in his relationship, a theme he would be forced to develop more over time as his relationship soured, with songs like I'm Looking Through You and You Won't See Me from Rubber Soul, and For No One from Revolver.

On Tuesday, I played "Not Guilty".

George Harrison wrote "Not Guilty" in 1968 following the Beatles' Transcendental meditation course in Rishikesh, India. As the Beatle who had been most interested in attending the course, led by teacher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Harrison felt responsible for his bandmates' experience there. Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney had each left the ashram early and returned to England, while Harrison and John Lennon stayed on but then departed hurriedly after hearing of alleged impropriety between the Maharishi and a female student. he line "I won't upset the Apple cart" was a deliberate reference to Apple Records and his general dissatisfaction with the Beatles' career at that point, while "making friends with every Sikh" referred to activities with the Maharishi.

On Wednesday, I played "Martha My Dear".

"Martha My Dear" is a song by the Beatles written by Paul McCartney, which first appeared on the double album The Beatles (also known as The White Album). McCartney is the only Beatle to appear on this track. The song features a music hall-inspired piano line that recurs throughout the piece, as well as a brass section. The title "Martha My Dear" was inspired by McCartney's Old English Sheepdog, also named Martha.

On Thursday, I played "All I've Got to Do".

It was one of three songs John Lennon was the principal writer for on With the Beatles, with "It Won't Be Long" and "Not a Second Time". Lennon said that it was written specifically for the American market; the idea of calling a girl on the telephone was unthinkable to a British youth in the early 1960s. For instance, Lennon said in an interview regarding "No Reply": "I had the image of walking down the street and seeing her silhouetted in the window and not answering the 'phone, although I have never called a girl on the 'phone in my life! Because 'phones weren't part of the English child's life."

On Friday, I played "Good Morning, Good Morning".

This one was written by John Lennon for the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Inspiration for the song came to Lennon from a television commercial for Kellogg's Corn Flakes. The line "It's time for tea and Meet the Wife" refers to a BBC sitcom, Meet the Wife. At Lennon's request, George Martin brought in Sounds Incorporated to provide the song's prominent brass backing (they had been an opening act on tour with The Beatles the previous year). Lennon asked engineer Geoff Emerick to arrange the animal noises heard at beginning (and end) of the song so that each animal heard was one capable of devouring (or frightening) the animal preceding it. The final sound effect of a chicken clucking was so placed that it transforms into the guitar on the following track, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)". The chicken sound was inspired by "Caroline, No" that ended The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds album, one of the main inspirations for this whole album. The song begins with the crow of a Rooster. The other animal sounds heard at the end of the song include birds, a cat, a dog, a cow, a horse, a sheep, a lion, an elephant, and a group of bloodhounds accompanying fox hunters on horseback with horns blasting, suggesting that a fox hunt was in progress.

Let me know if there's something you want to hear next week, and I'll get it going at 6:00 a.m. on Monday morning.

Innocently (Get it, "Not Guilty"?) yours,
Behka