Been wondering when this one would show up. I'm a bit of a Paul girlie, and this is one of my favorites. But I didn't expect it to be too high up on the list, so happy to see it make it this far.
Nice write-up. This is a song that I have mixed feelings about. I don't care for the piano; it's obtrusive. I like the chorus but the verses are just kind of meh. My favorite part is the fade-out round, like Row Row Row Your Boat. But that leads me to my main complaint. Good Day Sunshine comes off as a song for children. I remember liking it better before I got old and jaded. I imagine if I'd sung it with my kids when they were toddlers I would like it better.
This does fall into the "old-timey songs" category. A lot of people really like them, Lady Madonna, When I'm 64, Honey Pie etc., but I do not. They are automatic skips for me. However, of his old-timey songs, this is easily my favorite.
Until recently, it never occurred to me that this was actually of a type with those other songs, but as I mention in the essay, it's something that's actually very obvious as soon as you hear it.
I like those tunes more than a lot of folks, so it's not surprising this one is relatively high for me. And of course Madonna is still to come. I also adore some of his solo songs in the same vein, though I totally get why they fail to launch for a lot of folks. You Gave Me the Answer is a favorite, for example.
I think the granny music feel actually comes indirectly via Daydream, which has an even more vaudeville style. This is toned down by comparison. A good comparison is Honey Pie, which is musically more similar to Daydream, but this time fully leaning in to the vaudeville elements.
I don't think it's quite fair to see it as a song for children.
There are several pretty sophisticated things about it musically: the time signature switches between a straight 4/4 in the verse and some sort of heavily syncopated 8/4 in the chorus which occasionally drops a beat entirely; the key signature floats around without ever quite having a fixed home; there's a lovely bluesy tint to the harmonies. For me that gives it a dreamy quality suggesting that it's not just the sunny weather and the pretty girl putting Paul in a good mood.
Compare that with 95% of pop music in the last 20 years, which is just over auto-tuned nursery rhymes (I too am more jaded than I once was!).
A very joyful song indeed! As you noted, so perfect as the opener after flipping over the L.P that even on the original U.S. version of "Revolver" with a different track list (the last album for which this discrepancy happens, thankfully), this upbeat tune leads off side 2.
This is a good time to mention that our son still gets a kick out of the fact that anytime I play a CD of an album that originally had that two-sided format, I pause for several seconds. Just seems appropriate to me.
It's so funny to me that the US versions of the early albums are different. Like swapping around some chapters in a Jane Auste novel, or putting some bits from Emma into Mansfield Park. It'd still be great! Just kind of baffling.
Only just noticed on this song that after the line 'she feels good' you can hear another voice (John?) repeat the words, and then you can sort of hear Paul laugh as he sings the next line 'she knows she's looking fine'. It's about 1.27 in.
Ahhhh that's amazing. I instantly knew what you meant by the sort of laugh. That's something that clearly imprinted on me even though I'd never noticed the trigger.
It's interesting, I usually like the old-timey stuff--the problem is there's *another* category of Beatles music, "songs that were played to death at events by my parents generation when I was a child," that I just cannot listen to. Basically any song that mentions the sun, unfortunately.
Thinking about its context in the composition of Revolver does make it make a lot more sense to me.
Been wondering when this one would show up. I'm a bit of a Paul girlie, and this is one of my favorites. But I didn't expect it to be too high up on the list, so happy to see it make it this far.
It just makes me really happy.
It's stating the incredibly blindingly obvious but I will never cease to be blown away by the breadth of these guys.
You want a nice tune to whistle on a sunny day? Here you go, and there's more where that came from!
Haven't slept for 43 hours due to an overwhelming and all-consuming romantic obsession? They've got you covered for that too!
Nice write-up. This is a song that I have mixed feelings about. I don't care for the piano; it's obtrusive. I like the chorus but the verses are just kind of meh. My favorite part is the fade-out round, like Row Row Row Your Boat. But that leads me to my main complaint. Good Day Sunshine comes off as a song for children. I remember liking it better before I got old and jaded. I imagine if I'd sung it with my kids when they were toddlers I would like it better.
This does fall into the "old-timey songs" category. A lot of people really like them, Lady Madonna, When I'm 64, Honey Pie etc., but I do not. They are automatic skips for me. However, of his old-timey songs, this is easily my favorite.
Until recently, it never occurred to me that this was actually of a type with those other songs, but as I mention in the essay, it's something that's actually very obvious as soon as you hear it.
I like those tunes more than a lot of folks, so it's not surprising this one is relatively high for me. And of course Madonna is still to come. I also adore some of his solo songs in the same vein, though I totally get why they fail to launch for a lot of folks. You Gave Me the Answer is a favorite, for example.
I think the granny music feel actually comes indirectly via Daydream, which has an even more vaudeville style. This is toned down by comparison. A good comparison is Honey Pie, which is musically more similar to Daydream, but this time fully leaning in to the vaudeville elements.
I don't think it's quite fair to see it as a song for children.
There are several pretty sophisticated things about it musically: the time signature switches between a straight 4/4 in the verse and some sort of heavily syncopated 8/4 in the chorus which occasionally drops a beat entirely; the key signature floats around without ever quite having a fixed home; there's a lovely bluesy tint to the harmonies. For me that gives it a dreamy quality suggesting that it's not just the sunny weather and the pretty girl putting Paul in a good mood.
Compare that with 95% of pop music in the last 20 years, which is just over auto-tuned nursery rhymes (I too am more jaded than I once was!).
A very joyful song indeed! As you noted, so perfect as the opener after flipping over the L.P that even on the original U.S. version of "Revolver" with a different track list (the last album for which this discrepancy happens, thankfully), this upbeat tune leads off side 2.
This is a good time to mention that our son still gets a kick out of the fact that anytime I play a CD of an album that originally had that two-sided format, I pause for several seconds. Just seems appropriate to me.
It's so funny to me that the US versions of the early albums are different. Like swapping around some chapters in a Jane Auste novel, or putting some bits from Emma into Mansfield Park. It'd still be great! Just kind of baffling.
Oh my god Emma would eat Fanny Price alive
Only just noticed on this song that after the line 'she feels good' you can hear another voice (John?) repeat the words, and then you can sort of hear Paul laugh as he sings the next line 'she knows she's looking fine'. It's about 1.27 in.
Ahhhh that's amazing. I instantly knew what you meant by the sort of laugh. That's something that clearly imprinted on me even though I'd never noticed the trigger.
It's interesting, I usually like the old-timey stuff--the problem is there's *another* category of Beatles music, "songs that were played to death at events by my parents generation when I was a child," that I just cannot listen to. Basically any song that mentions the sun, unfortunately.
Thinking about its context in the composition of Revolver does make it make a lot more sense to me.