1. Forum
  2. Usenet
  3. REC.MUSIC.BEATLES

  • Re: Wife beating in "Its getting better"?

    From james andrews@21:1/5 to bongo on Tue Sep 6 16:30:57 2022
    On Thursday, July 22, 1999 at 2:00:00 AM UTC-5, bongo wrote:
    In article <37969...@news.highway1.com.au>,
    "chocolate jesus ." <par...@icecream.com> wrote:
    Phonoplay <phon...@aol.com> wrote in message

    john is on a high here...(it comes across to me that way) and
    he's sharing his hopefulness and feeling the freedom of it all
    getting better.
    um, dig the analysis mate, but from memory, isn't this a paul song?
    The chorus definitely is, and all that bouncy optimism is in the chorus.
    I think the verses were a joint effort.
    cheers,
    --bongo
    Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
    Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
    hi

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From geoff@21:1/5 to james andrews on Wed Sep 7 11:51:21 2022
    On 7/09/2022 11:30 am, james andrews wrote:
    On Thursday, July 22, 1999 at 2:00:00 AM UTC-5, bongo wrote:
    In article <37969...@news.highway1.com.au>,
    "chocolate jesus ." <par...@icecream.com> wrote:
    Phonoplay <phon...@aol.com> wrote in message

    john is on a high here...(it comes across to me that way) and
    he's sharing his hopefulness and feeling the freedom of it all
    getting better.
    um, dig the analysis mate, but from memory, isn't this a paul song?
    The chorus definitely is, and all that bouncy optimism is in the chorus.
    I think the verses were a joint effort.
    cheers,
    --bongo
    Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
    Share what you know. Learn what you don't.


    hi

    Are you ?

    Re the post topic, according to songfacts.com :

    "This song was a true collaborative effort for Lennon and McCartney,
    with Lennon adding that legendary part about being bad to his woman. He
    later admitted to being a "hitter" when it came to women. He said "I was
    a hitter. I couldn't express myself, and I hit." "

    geoff

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Zod@21:1/5 to John Stone on Thu Sep 8 16:43:21 2022
    On Tuesday, July 20, 1999 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, John Stone wrote:
    Isn't there a reference to wife beating in "Its getting better",
    something like "I beat her and kept her away from the things that she
    loved" but then he says "Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene and
    I'm doing the best that I can".
    Maybe the Beatles were a little ahead of their time in that they
    acknowledged that wife beating was bad.

    The good old days when women knew their place and if they stepped out of line, a good smack fixed that.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Will Dockery@21:1/5 to Zod on Thu Sep 8 21:00:23 2022
    On Thursday, September 8, 2022 at 7:43:23 PM UTC-4, Zod wrote:
    On Tuesday, July 20, 1999 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, John Stone wrote:
    Isn't there a reference to wife beating in "Its getting better",
    something like "I beat her and kept her away from the things that she loved" but then he says "Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene and
    I'm doing the best that I can".
    Maybe the Beatles were a little ahead of their time in that they acknowledged that wife beating was bad.

    The good old days when women knew their place and if they stepped out of line, a good smack fixed that.

    A nod to simpler times

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From RJKellog@yahoo.com@21:1/5 to NustinXXI on Sun Sep 11 04:31:59 2022
    On Tuesday, July 20, 1999 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, NustinXXI wrote:
    From A Hard Day's Write by Steve Turner:
    Asked about the song years later, John admitted it referred to his aggressive tendencies, "I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has
    learned not to be violent and regrets his violence."
    JMS

    I remember Yoko saying that when John got angry he would hit a pillow. I'm not sure I believe it.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From RJKellog@yahoo.com@21:1/5 to BelleFlyer on Sun Sep 11 04:33:51 2022
    On Tuesday, July 20, 1999 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, BelleFlyer wrote:
    That was one of John's
    earliest examples of his later writing style of dealing honestly and
    openly with his own personal truths in his lyrics no matter how painful >they are. He didn't care what other people thought about his life and
    how he dealt with it, that's for sure.
    A truly admirable man. I can't imagine how anyone could defend his behavior.

    He got pretty worked up over people who thought Yoko was manipulating him.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Zod@21:1/5 to RJKe...@yahoo.com on Mon Sep 12 19:55:36 2022
    On Sunday, September 11, 2022 at 7:32:01 AM UTC-4, RJKe...@yahoo.com wrote:
    On Tuesday, July 20, 1999 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, NustinXXI wrote:
    From A Hard Day's Write by Steve Turner:
    Asked about the song years later, John admitted it referred to his aggressive
    tendencies, "I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has
    learned not to be violent and regrets his violence."
    JMS

    I remember Yoko saying that when John got angry he would hit a pillow. I'm not sure I believe it.

    He should have put the pillow over Yoko's flat face while she slept and kept hitting it for 10 minutes. That would spare us all the horror of having to hear her try to sing.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From RJKellog@yahoo.com@21:1/5 to John Stone on Sat Nov 12 07:17:36 2022
    On Tuesday, July 20, 1999 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, John Stone wrote:
    Isn't there a reference to wife beating in "Its getting better",
    something like "I beat her and kept her away from the things that she
    loved" but then he says "Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene and
    I'm doing the best that I can".
    Maybe the Beatles were a little ahead of their time in that they
    acknowledged that wife beating was bad.

    It's well known that John was violent. Admitting it in a song is unusual and maybe brave. His songs had that diary aspect.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Will Dockery@21:1/5 to RJKe...@yahoo.com on Sat Nov 12 11:38:27 2022
    On Saturday, November 12, 2022 at 10:17:38 AM UTC-5, RJKe...@yahoo.com wrote:
    On Tuesday, July 20, 1999 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, John Stone wrote:
    Isn't there a reference to wife beating in "Its getting better",
    something like "I beat her and kept her away from the things that she loved" but then he says "Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene and
    I'm doing the best that I can".
    Maybe the Beatles were a little ahead of their time in that they acknowledged that wife beating was bad.
    It's well known that John was violent. Admitting it in a song is unusual and maybe brave. His songs had that diary aspect.

    Yes, besides Lou Reed, I can't think of any other songwriter as brutality honest as this.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Curtis Eagal@21:1/5 to RJKe...@yahoo.com on Fri Dec 2 12:02:52 2022
    On Saturday, November 12, 2022 at 7:17:38 AM UTC-8, RJKe...@yahoo.com wrote:
    On Tuesday, July 20, 1999 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, John Stone wrote:
    Isn't there a reference to wife beating in "Its getting better",
    something like "I beat her and kept her away from the things that she loved" but then he says "Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene and
    I'm doing the best that I can".
    Maybe the Beatles were a little ahead of their time in that they acknowledged that wife beating was bad.
    It's well known that John was violent. Admitting it in a song is unusual and maybe brave. His songs had that diary aspect.

    I believe it was McCartney who elaborated in an interview that he meant the lyric as 'beating down' his girlfriend at the time actress Jane Asher, over things like career decisions ("...kept her apart from the things that she loved") - adding the word '
    down' made it clear this was not physical abuse but another sort of domination. Of course co-writer Lennon had his very real history of physical abuse that he struggled to overcome, as so many have become aware.

    The Sgt Pepper project was not focused on introspective personal self-exploration, but was a united presentation as a patchwork-quilt of Faith disguised as Fairy Tales.

    The first misconception was that Jimmy Nichol said the title as his catchphrase: Nichol replaced Starr (suffering tonsillitis) for part of a world tour - so a frequent question for him was to report on Ringo's health status, thus his repeatedly promising,
    "HE'S getting better." This phrasing got transmuted into a summary lyric for Jesus being a Faith Healer, who could make 'Anything Get Better.'

    The vocal repetitions of 'Better, Better, Better' have been compared to the verbalizations of the White Queen in Through The Looking Glass as she transforms into a bleating sheep. Yet the way that sequence is articulated has an aural invocation for the
    Pinocchio story:

    'Whittled -'...
    'By Ge-'
    'PET-to!'

    The drone on an Indian instrument that intrudes at one point implies the extending

    'NOSE' -

    And this is followed by a rhythmic passage suggesting,

    'Grew When -
    He'd Lie'

    The major framework is the Christian story separated into identifiable chunks; the ancillary tangents being potentially formatted appearing in the studio albums emerges with the Zodiac crossover in Rubber Soul (which was a rumor from the 'Seventies, when
    the full British album was not the official US release).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)