In my life

Composition

Lennon began writing the song in 1964, and the first drafts were very different from the final version. In the song “In My Life”, the scale with tones specific to the Ionian and Myxolidian modes is complicated by the melodic major ^[6] . According to Lennon, the idea of ​​writing a song was born after the release of his author’s book “ In His Own Write ” . English journalist Kenneth Allsop gave the musician the idea to write a song about his childhood ^[7] . Subsequently, Lennon wrote a series of poems in which he recalled his childhood. In an interview, Lennon recalled ^[8] :

“In my opinion, In My Life is my first real serious work. Until then, I wrote mountains of songs, but threw them away without a shadow of regret. One part of my mind wrote books, and the second one produced such products as “I love you” and “you love me”, because it was Paul and I’s occupation of that time. I always tried to give some meaning to the words, but it really didn't bother me.

It was the first song I wrote consciously, a song about my life. She was born when I heard a remark by an English journalist and writer after the publication of my book “ In His Own Write ” : “Why don't you start writing songs the way you write books? Or why don't you start writing songs about your childhood? “ First I wrote poetry, and then I made songs out of them. So it was, for example, with songs such as “In My Life”, “ Across the Universe ”, and some others that are noticeably different from the rest. I wrote on the top floor in Kenwood, where I had ten tape recorders interconnected. I dealt with them for a year or two, but I never learned to record real rock and roll there. But any strange rubbish - as much as you want. I started by taking a bus from my house 251 along Menlaw Avenue to the center. I wrote a whole series of poems in which I spoke about everything that is dear to me, about all the places of Liverpool that are memorable to me. These poems later became the song “In My Life” - a memory of former friends and beloved of those years. Paul helped me write music for the middle of the song. ”

Initially, the lyrics for the upcoming song were based on a listing of places in Liverpool such as Penny Lane, Abby Pub in Chidwall, the Old Dutch Cafe and the Liverpool Dockers Umbrella Elevated Railroad - those that lay along the route of a familiar bus Lennon since childhood ^{[9] [4]} . However, Lennon considered that this makes the composition terribly boring, similar to the composition “How I spent my holidays on a bus trip” ^[10] . He reworked the text, abandoning specific memories in favor of general thoughts about the past, and the final version of the song included very few lines of the original version ^[9] . According to Peter Shotton, a friend and biographer of Lennon, in the line of the song “Some [friends] are dead and some are living / In my life I've loved them all” (in English - “Who left and who remained - in of this life, I loved them all ”), Lennon means Stuart Sutcliff , who died in the spring of 1962, and Shotton himself ^[7] .

With regard to the authorship of the music for the song, Lennon and McCartney's memories diverge. According to Lennon, in terms of melody, McCartney brought only harmony and bridge ^[11] , while McCartney himself claimed that he put Lennon’s words to music from beginning to end ^{[12] [13]} . According to the memoirs of McCartney, it was one of the few songs, the composition of which between him and John arose disagreements. This happened only in the case of the song " Eleanor Rigby " from the 1966 album - Revolver ^[14] .

Record Song

The song was recorded on October 18, 1965 completely with the exception of instrumental loss ^[15] . By that time, Lennon had not finally decided which musical instrument he would like to use in this part of the composition, but asked George Martin to play the piano solo, “something in the Baroque style ” ^[16] . Martin composed a loss, turning to imitate Bach , but, as it turned out, could not perform it at the pace of the song. On October 22, Martin found a solution - he recorded a solo on a tape recorder at half the speed, and during the final session the tape was played at normal speed, which not only provided the fragment with a normal tempo, but also increased by an octave , giving it the sound of a harpsichord ^{[17] [ 15]} . George Martin later said ^[8] :

““ In My Life ”is one of my favorite songs because it is in the spirit of John. It is both super-song and an unusually simple thing. There is a passage with which John did not know what to do. And then one day, when they went to drink tea, I recorded a solo on a baroque harpsichord and gave John to listen. I couldn’t play such a complicated thing on the move, so I recorded it at a slow pace, and then I accelerated the recording, and John liked it. ”

Members of the record

• John Lennon - lead vocals , rhythm guitar
• Paul McCartney - backing vocals , bass
• George Harrison backing vocals, 12-string solo guitar
• Ringo Starr - Drums
• George Martin - Piano

The song sounded at the funeral of Kurt Cobain , which The Beatles had an important influence on ^{[18] [ significance of fact? ]} .

• Walter Everett. The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarrymen Through Rubber Soul. - Oxford: Oxford Press, 2001 .-- ISBN 0-19-514105-9 .
• Bob Spitz The Beatles: The Biography. - New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005. - ISBN 1-84513-160-6 .
• Mark Lewisohn . The Beatles Recording Sessions. - New York: Harmony Books, 1988 .-- ISBN 0-517-57066-1 .
• Mark Hertsgaard. A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles. - New York: Delacorte Press, 1996 .-- ISBN 0-385-31517-1 .
• David Sheff. All We Are Saying. - New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000 .-- ISBN 0-312-25464-4 .
• Barry Miles. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now. - New York: Macmillan Publishers , 1997 .-- ISBN 0-7493-8658-4 .
• Todd Compton. Who Wrote the Beatle Songs? A History of Lennon-McCartney. - San Jose: Pahreah Press, 2017 .-- ISBN 978-0-9988997-0-1 .
• Everett True. Nirvana: The Biography. - Da Capo Press, 2006 .-- 688 p. - ISBN 978-0-306-81554-6 .
• V.N. Syrov. Style metamorphoses of rock or the path to the "third" music. - Nizhny Novgorod: Publishing House of the Nizhny Novgorod University, 1997. - 209 p. - ISBN 5-85746-308-4 .

• The Beatles: In My Life Bible
• "In My Life" on Last.fm
• “In My Life” on Songfacts