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"Martha My Dear" is a Beatles song written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartney), which first appeared on the double album The Beatles (also known as The White Album).
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Style and form
The song features a music hall-inspired piano line that recurs throughout the piece, as well as a brass band. Typical of Beatles songs of the period, the song modulates smoothly through several keys.[1]
The song key is E-flat major, showing up embellished chords with jazzy sprinkled dissonances. The verse is a syncopated replicate of the first melodic section adding two extra beats, a technique similar to that used later by McCartney in “Two of Us”. Though the bridge is in the key of F major, the manner in which it abruptly sets in and exits makes it sound more out-of-the-way than it really is.[1]
Origins
The title "Martha My Dear" was inspired by McCartney's Old English Sheepdog, also named Martha.[2] McCartney has said that the song itself is probably about his longtime love interest Jane Asher. Asher broke off their engagement in mid-1968. McCartney chides her with the lyrics in the song "...when you find yourself in the thick of it, help yourself to a bit of what is all around you..."[3] Asher inspired many of McCartney's songs, including "Here, There, and Everywhere", "For No One" and "We Can Work It Out". (A later "Martha" lyric explains, "You have always been my inspiration..." McCartney has also said, cryptically, that the song is about his "muse"—the voice in his head that tells him what words and music to write.[4])
McCartney's 1993 live album, Paul Is Live, features one of Martha's offspring on its cover.
Personnel
- Paul McCartney – double-tracked vocal, piano, bass, lead guitar, drums, handclaps, brass and string arrangement
- George Martin – brass and string arrangement
- Bernard Miller – violin
- Dennis McConnell – violin
- Lou Soufier – violin
- Les Maddox – violin
- Leo Birnbaum – viola
- Henry Myerscough – viola
- Reginald Kilby – cello
- Frederick Alexander – cello
- Leon Calvert – trumpet, flugelhorn
- Stanley Reynolds – trumpet
- Ronnie Hughes – trumpet
- Tony Tunstall – french horn
- Ted Barker – trombone
- Alf Reece – tuba
- Personnel per Ian MacDonald[2] and Mark Lewisohn[5]
Cover versions
- This song was covered by Will Taylor and Strings Attached, with guest Libby Kirkpatrick. It is featured on their Beatles White Album Live CD,[6] released in 2006.
- Fool's Garden did a cover of this song on their 1997 album Go and Ask Peggy for the Principal Thing.
- Slade covered this song on their début album Beginnings when they were called Ambrose Slade.
- The Brad Mehldau Trio covered this song on their 2005 album Day Is Done.
- The Rutles' song "Another Day" is based on this song.
- Punch Brothers cover the song at live shows with a bluegrass instrument arrangement.
Notes
- ^ a b Pollack 1995.
- ^ a b MacDonald 2005, p. 322.
- ^ Matthews 2008.
- ^ Turner 2005, pp. 157–159.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 159.
- ^ CDBaby.com 2009.
References
- "Will Taylor and Strings Attached - Beatles White Album Live". CDBaby.com. http://cdbaby.com/cd/wtaylorsa2. Retrieved 10 November 2009.
- Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
- MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3.
- Matthews, Brian (2008-02-23). "Interview". BBC Radio 2.
- Pollack, Alan W. (1995). "Notes on Martha My Dear". Notes on ... Series (No. 137). http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/mmd.shtml. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
- Turner, Steve (2005). A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song (3rd ed.). New York: Harper Paperbacks. ISBN 0-06-084409-4.
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