4 ms·

Interesting that they peg "The Word" on McCartney. I'm pretty sure I remember a quote from Lennon where he used it as an example of how he (Lennon) liked to dri

Interesting that they peg "The Word" on McCartney. I'm pretty sure I remember a quote from Lennon where he used it as an example of how he (Lennon) liked to drive one note home. Lennon's sticking on one note is a point made in the article, using "Help" as their example. In "The Word" there are plenty of other notes, the song keeps on stressing the one note where he sings the word "word": Say the word and you'll be free / Say the word and be like me / Say the word I'm thinking of / Have you heard the word is love? In the first three lines "word" is by far the most stressed note, and they are all the SAME note. In the last line the stress is on "heard", which rhymes, and is again the same note. I think there's something wrong with their model where they aren't looking for repetitions of stressed notes, which would actually be totally consistent with their existing characterization of Lennon's melodies.

HenryTheHorse 8y ago
I'm a little conflicted about the authorship of "The Word". The chord progression is very Paul and the chorus is very John. > In the first three lines "word" is by far the most stressed note, and they are all the SAME note. In the last line the stress is on "heard", which rhymes, and is again the same note. That's how it's supposed to work. The downbeat (or the accent) is on "word" in each line and in the last line the lyric changes to "heard" instead of "word. So I'm neither expecting syncopation here nor am I noticing anything unusual there.
- garyrob 8y ago
  > So I'm neither expecting syncopation here nor am I noticing anything unusual there. I'm not either, but that doesn't have anything to do with the point. The point is that their classification model has Lennon staying on the same note, and that happens with "The Word" if you give the importance to the highly stressed note (which, as you point out, is on the downbeat). But, partly because the stressed notes are surrounded by other notes, they are assigning the melody to McCartney.

HenryTheHorse 8y ago

I'm a little conflicted about the authorship of "The Word". The chord progression is very Paul and the chorus is very John. > In the first three lines "word" is by far the most stressed note, and they are all the SAME note. In the last line the stress is on "heard", which rhymes, and is again the same note. That's how it's supposed to work. The downbeat (or the accent) is on "word" in each line and in the last line the lyric changes to "heard" instead of "word. So I'm neither expecting syncopation here nor am I noticing anything unusual there.

garyrob 8y ago
> So I'm neither expecting syncopation here nor am I noticing anything unusual there. I'm not either, but that doesn't have anything to do with the point. The point is that their classification model has Lennon staying on the same note, and that happens with "The Word" if you give the importance to the highly stressed note (which, as you point out, is on the downbeat). But, partly because the stressed notes are surrounded by other notes, they are assigning the melody to McCartney.