And everybody spoke and I went into a dream.

“A Day in the Life” is one of Lennon and McCartney’s best collaborations- making it The Beatles’ best song. It was the final song on Sgt. Peppers. By this time, both were very experimental with their lyrics so understanding (let alone interpreting) their songs is difficult. Lennon sings the verses; Paul the bridge.

The verses are made up of rather nonsensical takes on the news. He sings in a dreamy voice. During this part of the song the narrator is dreaming. As we hear the orchestra ascend, the narrator is drifting into consciousness where his is awoken by his alarm clock!

Here, Paul starts singing the bridge. He is very precise with his description of his activity as he gets ready for work and runs to catch the bus. This is a depiction of the narrator’s life. It is rather uneventful, like an average day in the life of any man or woman. He goes back into a dream and then we hear his dream voice again (Lennon’s voice).

The narrator begins to dream about bizarre things that he may have seen or heard throughout the day and it is all scrambled into a weird dream. Then it is almost time for the next day and we get the famous ascending chord again that ends the song right before the next morning—where we would go through the routine again.

Lennon obviously has the best part of the song here as the verse sounds much better than the bridge. But it appears that Paul and George Martin were the key players in the production that it took to make this song happen. It took three times longer to make and produce this song that it did to produce their entire first album. Since they didn’t have to reproduce this sound on stage (since they stopped touring) they were free to create crazy and experimental sounds like “A Day in the Life”.

A Day in the Life Lyrics

I read the news today, oh boy.
About a lucky man who made the grade.
And though the news was rather sad,
Well, I just had to laugh.
I saw the photograph.

He blew his mind out in a car.
He didn’t notice that the lights had changed.
A crowd of people stood and stared;
They’d seen his face before,
Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords.

I saw a film today, oh boy.
The English Army had just won the war.
A crowd of people turned away.
But I just had to look,
Having read the book.
I’d love to turn you on…

Woke up, fell out of bed,
Dragged a comb across my head.
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup,
And looking up I noticed I was late.

Found my coat and grabbed my hat,
Made the bus in seconds flat.
Made my way upstairs and had a smoke,
And everybody spoke and I went into a dream…

I read the news today, oh boy,
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.
And though the holes were rather small,
They had to count them all.
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.
I’d love to turn you on…

written by lennon/mccartney

-“God only knows what I’d be without you.”

“God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys is the Greatest Rock Song of all time. This is peak Beach Boys and we hear a lead vocal from Carl Wilson which is tender and loving. The harmonies are fantastic as with most Beach Boys songs. They are simply the best rock band at harmonizing.

The lyrics speak of the narrator’s love for a woman. He struggles to find the words to say how much he loves her. In fact, even in the song, he stumbles a bit. In a typical love song you might not say “I may not always love you”, but that is how the song starts.

He says that though he could go on living without her he doesn’t really know what he would do or how he would do it. So much so that he is invoking the heavens to show his gratitude and hope that the relationship will last. The only thing he can say is “God only knows what I’d be without you.” There is a sweet simplicity to that.

The structure of “God Only Knows” sounds more complex than your average rock song. There are a few rock songs that reach a higher plane of complexity and this is one of them. The three others I have mentioned are Court of the Crimson King, Bohemian Rhapsody and Good Vibrations. This are songs that transcend Rock or Pop and can almost go up against some of the Beethoven’s and Chopin’s. Almost.

The Beach Boys end “God Only Knows” with a unique set of rounds: like in elementary school, how one third of the class would start singing “row row your boat” and then the next third would jump in from the beginning and so on. I don’t know if I have ever heard that on a rock song before. It has a very similar effect as harmonizing does. If you have voices that blend well it can create quite a beautiful effect.

The production and instrumentation is incredible. Note that it is hard to pick out what type of instruments are being used. We are just overloaded with sound. For example, listen to what is going on with the percussion. There are drums toward the end, but what is that throughout the rest of the song? I’ll leave you to guess.

All of this music was written, arranged and produced by Brian Wilson (like all The Beach Boys music). At this point, he no longer toured with the band, he just wrote their albums. I consider him on the same level as Lennon, McCartney, Elton and Dylan.

God Only Knows Lyrics:

I may not always love you.
But long as there are stars above you,
You never need to doubt it,
I’ll make you so sure about it,
God only knows what I’d be without you.

If you should ever leave me,
Though life would still go on, believe me.
The world could show nothing to me.
So what good would living do me?
God only knows what I’d be without you.

God only knows what I’d be without you.
If you should ever leave me,
Though life would still go on, believe me.
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me?
God only knows what I’d be without you.

God only knows what I’d be without you.

Songwriters: Brian Douglas Wilson / Tony Asher