#149 – I’ll Be Back with Kit O’Toole

On the A Hard Day’s Night album, John is absolutely on fire creatively, and at his most prolific. Tossed off on vacation, possibly as a tribute to Del Shannon’s “Runaway,” “I’ll Be Back” is an oft-overlooked song deserving of way more attention than it usually gets. It’s unique in that on a really upbeat album, it serves as a darker closer than one would expect. It features really smart 3 part harmonies that only serve to add to a real maturity found on this track. With the song’s journey tracked as it moves from an electric waltz, to a straight electric pop tune, to an acoustic and nylon string driven song show the Beatles really working hard at refining what they’re doing to get the best track possible. The end result is an early clue to the new direction, as you get introduced to the Beatles for Sale era right there at the end of A Hard Day’s Night.

Joining us to chat this week is the wonderful Kit O’Toole, a writer, music journalist and video podcaster. She’s the author or of Songs We Were Singing: Guided Tours Through the Beatles’ Lesser-Known Tracks and Michael Jackson FAQ: All That’s Left to Know About the King of Pop, a writer and associate editor for Beatlefan Magazine, among other writing jobs. She also co-hosts Talk More Talk : A Solo Beatles Videocast, which is a wonderful dive in to the solo career of the Fabs. We chat about all manner of things, like never clapping on the 1 and 3, challenging the idea of a pop song, and the multitude of ways the Beatles seem to impact people. On Feb 15, through Monmouth University, Kit is co-hosting (with our pal Ken Womack) a Tuesday Night Record Club event discussing Prince’s Sign O’ The Times, album, its a free event, you can sign up here! Follow along for future courses and events, as well as her upcoming books and more at kitotoole.com, and check out Talk More Talk as well!

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