Peter & Gordon's "Jokers"

An-other thing I noticed when I listened to a Peter & Gordon compilation album yester-day was some wordplay in "Jokers."  In the last verse, there are the lines "we know / That once they leave the pack / The jokers can't come back."  "Pack" has a dual meaning here.  There's pack in the sense of a group of people, but there's also pack in the sense of a pack of playing cards, which jokers are a part of.  The playing card sense seems to be the primary one here because a later line is "their place will be taken by the jack."

Peter & Gordon's "My First Day Alone"

Yester-day I listened to a compilation album of Peter & Gordon, and I noticed something about the harmonies in "My First Day Alone."  For much of the song, both Peter & Gordon are singing, but during the line "no one's to blame but me," one of them (I'm pretty sure it's Peter) drops out so that the other (Gordon) sings "but me" alone.  Because there's a single voice for that "but me," the exclusivity of the blame is represented musically.

The Beatles' "Here, There, and Everywhere"

Because I just finished re-reading Robert Rodriguez's Revolver: How the Beatles Reimagined Rock 'n' Roll, I'm listening to Revolver.  I'd noticed the line "but to love her is to need her" in "Here, There, and Everywhere," but it wasn't until listening to it now that I realized the reference behind it.

"To love her is to need her" is an extra step started by the line "to know her is to love her" - the title line of "To Know Her Is to Love Her," which was covered by the Beatles on the BBC (and which appears on the Live at the BBC album).  The song was originally written by Phil Spector as "To Know Him Is To Love Him," apparently inspired by the words on Spector's father's gravestone, which goes well with the "death and isolation" theme that Rodriguez traces through Revolver.

Additionally, the song was recorded by Peter & Gordon as "To Know You Is to Love You."  McCartney also had connections to Peter & Gordon - he dated Peter Asher's sister Jane Asher and wrote a few songs for Peter & Gordon.

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I also wrote an-other post on "Here, There, and Everywhere," but it wasn't related to listening to it, merely by comments Rodriguez made in the book, so I've not included it here.

Peter & Gordon's "To Know You Is To Love You"

I listened to Peter & Gordon's Greatest Hits this morning.  I had never noticed the frenetic drumming during the introduction and the final few choruses in "To Know You Is To Love You."  It really adds a lot to the song.  It's the kind of thing you just have to listen to for yourself; I can't describe it.

The only other version I have of "To Know You Is To Love You" is the Beatles' version from Live at the BBC (although it bears the title "To Know Her Is To Love Her" and slightly different lyrics), and it's much less exciting than Peter & Gordon's.  It might not be a fair comparison because the Beatles' version was live and Peter & Gordon's was a studio effort, but I still prefer Peter & Gordon's version.