Here, There and Everywhere –
Carole Rowley
Original version recorded June 14, 1966.
Roger 3.0 version recorded February 14, 2011.
Carole Rowley: Vocals
Roger Greenawalt: Ukulele
Produced by Roger Greenawalt at Shabby Road Studio in Brooklyn, NY.
Essay by Roger Greenawalt
About the Song
“Here, There And Everywhere” is the quintessential Paul McCartney song from the quintessential Beatle’s album, Revolver.
A gem of a tune, a delight to listen to, and a pleasure to play. It is almost perfect. Not bad for a 23 year old.
Right from the top we get John, Paul, and George singing 3-part harmony “oohs and aahs” together on one mic. Angelic.
Even though vocal harmony is the Beatles best known effect, there are not too many instances where they actually sing 3-part harmony. More typical is for one vocalist to sing lead with a two-part harmony response.
“Here, There and Everywhere” starts off G to B minor, falls out of the key altogether to B flat, hangs there, then does a sneaky A minor/D major resolving to G. Paul sings “to lead a better life” over the first two chords, followed by “I need my love to be here” over an out of nowhere tension chord. He’s unhappy without her around, he’s lost his G spot, wallowing in a pathetic B-flat pity party. Not for long.
McCartney cheers up quickly, as usual.
There’s a nice pun on the downbeat. Paul sings “Here” just as the chord resolves to G, the most at rest chord in the key, the tonic. We also call the tonic chord “Home”. So “Here” is literally “Home”. There’s no place like it.
Verse one starts on G and goes right up the key stepwise, about the brightest and most optimistic of all chord progressions. The melody is euphoric and leaps boldly up. Reinforcing the mood is a choirboy delivery in the highest vocal range of any performance by McCartney. I defy any normal man with descended testicles who’s never been a member of Journey to sing this song full voice. Even Paul has to go into falsetto on the stratospheric final note. The air is thin in Heaven.
“There” begins verse two. It’s a simple and clever construction, using one word of the three-word title to begin each verse. Catchy. Ever the salesman, Paul always gives the listener a fighting chance to remember the name of the tune.
It’s hard to believe that a song this good doesn’t even have a chorus. Instead we get two middle eights, which we would now call bridges. The chords are cunning, a one beat F7 drops us into B flat major. Aha! That’s the nowhere chord from the intro. It wasn’t a nowhere chord, it was foreshadowing. We now explore the melancholy key of G minor. You know you’re a goner when your love object begins to have terrible power over you, when you can’t think of anything else, when it is agony to be separated. This section really expresses that vulnerability beautifully. The D7 chord happens twice; first it goes to G minor, next time it goes to G major, on the word “Everywhere”. Nice maneuver. All’s well that ends well. Another verse, into bridge two. The bridge repeats exactly. He’s young, still a little worried.
Bridge two resolves into the title of the song, sung over the verse chords. This is a pseudo-chorus, but only happens for four bars at the very end. A whole world inside a two-minute, twenty-six-second Faberge Egg of musical genius.
Well, technique is all well and good, but inquiring minds want to know; “Who did he write this song about?” The answer is, the same girl who inspired “And I Love Her” on the upside and “We Can Work It Out” on the downside.
Jane Asher.
Va-Va-Va-Voom!
Jane bore a striking resemblance to John Lennon’s mother, Julia. McCartney has often reported how attractive John’s mother was. Let us not consider this subject any further.
Jane had been a child star and met The Beatles while doing a celebrity interview with them in 1963. She and Paul were soon an item. So much so that McCartney moved into her parent’s house, sleeping in an attic room usually reserved for music lessons. Jane’s father was a prominent doctor and broadcaster, and her mother was a music teacher who taught George Martin, the Beatle’s producer, how to play oboe.
Despite having written three bestselling books, Jane Asher is the only Beatles insider who has never written about them for publication. Selfish bitch. Spill.
Paul thrived in the heady intellectual atmosphere of the Asher family. His social transformation from feral vagabond gypsy musician into billionaire philanthropist peer of the realm is largely due to their crucial early influence.
The recording of “Here, There and Everywhere” is not a total success. The electric guitar is noodly and over emphasizes the backbeat, interrupting the flow of the melody. The drum set seems out of place completely and reinforces the backbeat along with the guitar, conflicting even more with the melodic rhythm.
A better solution would have been to play a gentle strumming acoustic guitar, and only use electric guitar for the charming bridge solo part. And hand percussion like shakers or bongos instead of a full drum kit.
At least there is no incredibly loud tambourine.
Another problem is Paul’s double tracked lead vocal. To double one’s own lead vocal was something that had not been technically possible till the mid 50′s. Like many fairly new techniques, (Autotune, Vocal Sampling, Guitar Effects) it tends to be overused in it’s early years.
While the Beatles had thousands of hours of live singing experience, doubling their own voice was something that could only happen in the studio. And a lot of the early Beatles tracks with doubled vocals are botched, not tight, particularly the ends of phrases. So too on “Here, There And Everywhere”. There are extra “s” sounds and other inaccuracies at the end of various lines. This song is hard to sing and would have been better not doubled. Also, a doubled vocal affects the meaning of pronouns; it is weird for two voices to say “My” instead of “Our”.
The Beatles are using a very limited number of multitracks in this period, only four. Not a lot of room. This leads to the worst technical botch on the tune. During the second bridge, McCartney’s doubled vocal drops out right when the little guitar figure comes in. This was probably done for track maintenance reasons, but the result sounds bad, like something essential has disappeared. Then the doubled voice mysteriously comes back in on the last verse. Makes no musical sense, especially in such a rigorously logical composition.
Can’t win ‘em all.
Carole Rowley is a singer, songwriter, and recording artist in New York. She has worked on over seventy commercial productions, including radio IDs, theme songs, cartoons, and film scores. Her songs have been recorded by Whitney Houston, Bob James, and Tiffany Evans, to name a few.
Kathena Bryant #
Roger did you write this essay and not sign your name to it? I feel as though you took me to Beatles school and music theory class. As always you are insightful and witty. Thankyou. <3