Martha My Dear

"Martha My Dear"
Song by The Beatles from the album The Beatles
Released	22 November 1968
Recorded	4 October 1968
Genre	Pop, music hall[1]
Length	2:28
Label	Apple Records
Writer	Lennon–McCartney
Producer	George Martin
The Beatles track listing
30 tracks Side one "Back in the U.S.S.R." "Dear Prudence" "Glass Onion" "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" "Wild Honey Pie" "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" Side two "Martha My Dear" "I'm So Tired" "Blackbird" "Piggies" "Rocky Raccoon" "Don't Pass Me By" "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" "I Will" "Julia" Side three "Birthday" "Yer Blues" "Mother Nature's Son" "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" "Sexy Sadie" "Helter Skelter" "Long, Long, Long" Side four "Revolution 1" "Honey Pie" "Savoy Truffle" "Cry Baby Cry" "Revolution 9" "Good Night"

"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). McCartney is the only Beatle to appear on this track.

Style and form

The song features a music hall-inspired piano line that recurs throughout the piece, as well as a brass band. 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])

Personnel

• Paul McCartney – double-tracked vocal, piano, bass, 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 Kilbey – 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]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Pollack 1995.
2. ^ ^{a b} MacDonald 2005, p. 322.
3. ^ Matthews 2008.
4. ^ Turner 2005, pp. 157–159.
5. ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 159.

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 (23 February 2008). "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 10 July 2008. 
• 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.