Notes on “Hello Goodbye” (the Beatles)

General Points of Interest

Style and Form

The style here is campy though it’s not as easily pigeon-holed as, say, “When I’m Sixty-Four” or “Your Mother Should Know”. Yes, it’s infectious and clever beyond what initially meets the ear, but it’s also just a tad over-produced, in my humble opinion.

The form is unusual, with no intro, strictly alternating verse and refrain sections, and an additional outro section.

They were obviously very fond of the fake/second ending gambit; you get to a point where the gesture of it (“The End ... or is it?”) starts to feel like a cinematic cliché. All the same, you must acknowledge how clever those Beatles were at finding multifarious ways of playing this same treat. Think about how different are “Strawberry Fields Forever”, the “Sgt. Pepper inner groove”, “Helter Skelter”, and “Her Majesty” from each other; not to mention the mysterious un-numbered final track on “Anthology”, Volume 3 :-)

Melody and Harmony

The verse sections are in a pan-diatonically luxuriating kind of C Major. The refrain, by contrast broadens both the melodic and harmonic ingredient lists to include blue notes and chords. I believe the only two of the twelve possible pitches to not appear in this song are D-flat and F#; actually, the latter makes a cameo appearance in the chromatically descending bassline of the first outro.

The tune makes heavy use of arpeggio fragments; in fact, I challenge you to find anywhere in the lead vocal where there are two steps in a row, uninterrupted by a jump and/or change of direction.

In keeping with the mixed-message annex approach-avoidance theme of the lyrics, the harmony flirts heavily with intimations of V → I consummation, while its actual cadences turn out to be predominantly plagal or deceptive, the main exception to this being the transition between verse and refrain.

Arrangement

The tape is saturated by the unusual scoring of piano, organ, violas, drums, and miscellaneous percussion instruments captured unnaturally close up. Yes, there’s a mocking-bird kind of lead guitar lick in there too, right before the “oh no!” of each verse. This feeling of immediacy is intensified by the palpitating emphasis on every single beat of the measure in the rhythm track. The latter is especially noticeable on the take 1 instrumental outtake that’s been around on boots for years.

A running scale motif unifies the piece: the downward bassline in both verse and refrain, balanced by the upward line in the background of the refrain.

The backing voices are sparingly used within the body of the song. In the second refrain they start off doubling the upward scale and finish off with a downward bluesy lick. In the third verse, they provide an antiphonal obbligato to the lead vocal. This is a wise tactic, given their more complete participation in the second outro. If they did not appear at all before that outro, their appearance there would seem a bit arbitrary. If they received more exposure in the body of the song, their effect would wear out its welcome by the time the outro arrived.

Dig how those violas double the downward scale (sans backing voices) in second verse.

Section-by-Section Walkthrough

Verse

The verse is an unusual seventeen measures long, though you might say that the final measure overlaps with the start of the refrain.

The internal phrasing is far from four-square in spite of the even harmonic rhythm and the approximately sixteen-measure form. There’s also a hocket effect at the end of the third phrase where the voice drops out and the lead guitar provides that sighing C → A motif.

  Bass:  F                 C
Chords: |d       |-       |C       |-       |
     C:  ii6/5             I

         G                 A G F E  D C B A
        |G       |-       |a       |-       |
         V                 vi

         G
        |G       |-       |a       |-       |
         V

        |G       |-       |-       |-       |-       |C
         V                 13/11    5/3      11/9/7   I

# Hello Goodbye, verse (figure 120.1)
# Seventeen bars; the C at the end is the downbeat that overlaps with the start of the refrain.
# Pollack's bass notes are kept: F under the d (ii6/5), C under C, G under each V, and in the a
# bars the quarter-note descending scale A G F E D C B A (four to a bar).
# The last phrase is one long G pedal: his figures 13/11 and 5/3 are written C/G and G (he says
# the 13/11 may be called C in 6/4 but he hears G as the root), and 11/9/7 as G11.
# Added: the bass A under the second pair of a bars, the G in the last phrase (his "G as the root
# note throughout") and the C at the end.
#? Bass octaves are a choice (F2, C3, G2; the scale from A3 down to A2): check the register of the scale against the record, which might be an octave lower.
key C

system
chords             | d{ii6/5} | - | C{I} | - |
bass "Bass"        | F2 | - | C3 | - |

system
chords             | G{V} | - | a{vi} | - |
bass "Bass"        | G2 | - | A3 G3 F3 E3 | D3 C3 B2 A2 |

system
chords             | G{V} | - | a{vi} | - |
bass "Bass"        | G2 | - | A2 | - |

system
chords             | G{V} | - | C/G{13/11} | G{5/3} | G11{11/9/7} | [Refrain] C{I} |
bass "Bass"        | G2 | - | - | - | - | C3 |

Figure 120.1

Harmonically we have a non-I opening. The theorists are divided on whether to parse the first chord as d-minor seventh in first (ii6/5) inversion, or as an F-Major chord (IV) with added sixth. Either way, it makes for a plagal cadence with the code that follows it.

The first two appearances of V resolve deceptively to vi. The third appearance of V is, indeed, allowed to resolve to I but only after a big-band/late nineteenth century symphonic pedal point build up. Yes, you can label what I call the G 13/11 chord three measures from the end a C-Major chord in second (6/4) inversion, but when you take those three measures in as a sequence, I hear it with G as the root note throughout.

Refrain

The refrain is a true sixteen measures long with a predictable ABAB′ phrasing pattern:

  Bass:  C        B        A        G
Chords: |C       |-       |a       |-       |
     C:  I                 vi

         F
        |F       |A-flat  |C       |-       |
         IV       flat-VI  I

        |C       |-       |a       |-       |
         I                 vi

        |F       |B-flat  |C       |-       |
         IV       flat-VII I

# Hello Goodbye, refrain (figure 120.2)
# Sixteen bars, ABAB'. Pollack types the slow bass descent C B A G, then F, under the first A
# phrase and the start of B. The A-flat and C bass notes in bars 6-7 are the chord roots, added;
# the second half has chords only, as typed.
#? Bars 6-8: bass roots added (A-flat, C); Paul's actual line there is not given.
key C

system
chords             | C{I} | - | a{vi} | - |
bass "Bass"        | C3 | B2 | A2 | G2 |

system
chords             | F{IV} | A-flat{flat-VI} | C{I} | - |
bass "Bass"        | F2 | Ab2 | C3 | - |

system
chords             | C{I} | - | a{vi} | - |

system
chords             | F{IV} | B-flat{flat-VII} | C{I} | - |

Figure 120.2

The bassline of the two A phrases still descends, though four time as slowly as it did before. This contrasts nicely with the upward scale in the accompaniment that mimics the quarter note motion in the scale heard earlier.

The heavy exposure to V in the verse is sufficient to warrant it’s being excluded entirely from the refrain. Not only that, the two B phrases use a different V surrogate to cadence with I. Flat-VI is a plagal substitute, and flat-VII, while arguably a “dominant” substitute for V, has a much more laid back feel to it than the V → I “full” cadence. Imagine how anti-climactic and lame the song would be if V were used here in place of flat-VI and flat-VII.

The downward bluesy lick sung by the backing vocals contains the unusual melodic interval of an augmented fourth:

Ab -> E -> D -> C
Hel-  lo   Good-bye

# Hello Goodbye, the backing vocals' "Hello Goodbye" lick (figure 120.3)
# Pollack types only the four pitches and syllables, no bar or rhythm: written as one bar of four
# equal notes, A-flat dropping to E (the interval he discusses), then D and C.
#? Rhythm and octave are guesses: one note per syllable in even quarters, A-flat4 down to C4.
key C

system
voice "Backing vocals"  | Ab4 E4 D4 C4 |
# lyrics as typed by Pollack are omitted here; x marks each sung syllable
words "Sung rhythm" | x x x x |

Figure 120.3

This provides, by the way, a good object lesson about musical orthography. Although A-flat → E is enharmonically identical to the Major third of G# → E, it feels entirely different in the throat. Try it out: play an E-natural on your instrument of choice and sing the internal of E → G# → E. Then play an F-natural, and sing the “Hello Goodbye” phrase noted above.

Outros

The first outro starts off as a repeat of the refrain, but after six measures it veers off onto a rhetorical tangent as the bassline descends, this time, chromatically (no, those intervening harmonies don’t deserve individual roman numerals):

  Bass:  C        B        A        G
Chords: |C       |-       |a       |-       |
     C:  I                 vi

         F        Ab       -        G
        |F       |A-flat  |-       |-       |
         IV       flat-VI

         Gb       F
        |-       |F       |C       |-       |
                  IV7      I

# Hello Goodbye, first outro (figure 120.4)
# The refrain's first six bars, then the bass slides down chromatically A-flat G G-flat F under the
# held A-flat chord (Pollack: the passing harmonies get no numerals) to IV7 and I.
# Added: the bass C under the final C (not typed). Bass octaves chosen for range.
key C

system
chords             | C{I} | - | a{vi} | - |
bass "Bass"        | C3 | B2 | A2 | G2 |

system
chords             | F{IV} | A-flat{flat-VI} | - | - |
bass "Bass"        | F2 | Ab2 | - | G2 |

system
chords             | - | F{IV7} | C{I} | - |
bass "Bass"        | Gb2 | F2 | C3 | - |

Figure 120.4

The instrumental outtake treats the last two measures above in tempo, proceeding, rather matter of factly, right into the second outro. On the official recording, the amount of time given to that last chord is much more indeterminate, largely because of the way in which Paul slows down his vocal at the last minute. Of course, this very effectively sets up the surprise effect of what follows.

The second outro is built on a vamping four measure phrase that is harmonically on top of a C Major pedal point. The underlying counterpoint in this section contains very typically Beatlesque parallel fifths:

  Vocals: |C       |-     A |G   G   |       |
   Piano: |E       |-     D |C   C   |       |
Bassline: |C       |-       |-       |-      |

# Hello Goodbye, second outro (figure 120.5)
# The four-bar vamp over a C pedal (repeated six times and more into the fade): vocals and piano
# move in parallel, fifths on A/D and G/C. The vocal is placed above the piano.
# Pollack leaves the fourth bar blank in both upper parts; read as the G held over.
#? Octaves (vocals C5 A4 G4 over piano E4 D4 C4) are chosen to make the fifths he describes; check against the record.
#? Bar 4: blank in the chart; held G is a guess (it may be a rest).
key C

system
voice "Vocals"     | C5 | - A4 | G4 G4 | - |
voice "Piano"      | E4 | - D4 | C4 C4 | - |
bass "Bassline"    | C3 | - | - | - |

Figure 120.5

The phrase is repeated six full times before the fade-out sets in, the latter becoming total in the midst of what is the ninth repeat. This little coda occupies 46 seconds of a 3:31 track!

Some Final Thoughts

There is an ironic tension between the lyrics and the musical mood of this song that operates on a deeper level than the irony of the lyrics themselves.

The words sound like a whimsical update of that sentimental favorite of the thirties, “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off”; i.e. “You say tomayto, and I say tomahto ...”

The music, though, has a nervous, pounding, passion that seems to curiously belie the words. After all, I’m left wondering, is this guy in a hurry, a panic, or in some kind of ecstasy of arrival? And is it even possible to imagine that the musical state conveyed here is a combination of all three?

Regards,
Alan (110496#120)