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(Created page with "{{Infobox song | Name = Baby's in Black | Artist = The Beatles | Album = Beatles for Sale | Released = 4 December 1964 | track_no = 3 | Recorded = 11 August 1964,<br />[[...")
 
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{{cquote|'I'm A Loser' is me in my Dyland period, because the word 'clown' is in it. I objected to the word 'clown', because that was always artsy-fartsy, but Dylan had used it so I thought it was all right, and it rhymed with whatever I was doing. Part of me suspects I'm a loser, and part of me thinks I'm God Almighty.|quotewidth=500px|John Lennon, ''The Beatles Anthology'', p.160|2000}}
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{{cquote|We wanted to write something a little bit darker, bluesy, the title's dark anyway. It's in 3/4 time, one of the first waltzes we wrote, which was interesting for us because most of our stuff's in 4/4.  It was very much co-written and we both sang it. Sometimes the harmony that I was writing in sympathy to John's melody would take over and become a stronger melody. Suddenly a piebald rabbit came out of the hat! When people wrote out the music score they would ask, 'Which one is the melody?' because it was co-written that you could actually take either. We rather liked this one. It was not so much a work job, there was a bit more cred about this one. It's got a good middle.|quotewidth=500px|Paul McCartney, ''Many Years From Now'' by Barry Miles, p.175|1997}}
  
{{cquote|Most of my good songs are in the first person. 'In My Life,' 'I'm A Loser, 'Help!,' 'Strawberry Fields' &#151; they're all personal records. I always wrote about me when I could.|quotewidth=500px|John Lennon, ''The Beatles Anthology'', p.197|2000}}
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{{cquote|For this album we rehearsed only the new ones. Songs like 'Honey Don't' and 'Everbody's Trying to Be My Baby,' we'd played live so often that we only had to get a sound on them and do them. But with songs like 'Baby's In Black,' we had to learn and rehearse them.|quotewidth=500px|George Harrison, ''The Beatles Anthology'', p.160|2000}}
  
{{cquote|I'd started thinking about my own emotions. I don't know when exactly it started, like 'I'm A Loser' or 'Hide You Love Away,' those kind of things. Instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would try to express what I felt about myself, which I'd done in my books. I think it was Dylan who helped me realise that &#151; not by any discussion or anything, but by hearing his work.|quotewidth=500px|John Lennon, ''The Beatles Anthology'', p.158|2000}}
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{{cquote|Written together in the same room.|quotewidth=500px|John Lennon|1980}}
  
{{cquote|Looking back on it, I think songs like 'I'm a Loser' and 'Nowhere Man' were John's cries for help. We used to listen to quite a lot of country and western songs and they are all about sadness and 'I lost my truck' so it was quite acceptable to sing 'I'm a loser.' You didn't really think about it at the time, it's only later you think, God! I think it was pretty brave of John. 'I'm A Loser' was very much John's song and there may have been a dabble or two from me.|quotewidth=500px|Paul McCartney, ''Many Years From Now'' by Barry Miles|1994}}
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==Additional Resources==
 
==Additional Resources==
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_a_loser Wikipedia Entry]
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* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby%27s_in_Black Wikipedia Entry]
* [http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/ial.shtml Alan W. Pollack's Musicological Analysis]
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* [http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/bib.shtml Alan W. Pollack's Musicological Analysis]
  
 
[[Category:Songs]][[Category:John Lennon]][[Category:Beatles for Sale]]
 
[[Category:Songs]][[Category:John Lennon]][[Category:Beatles for Sale]]

Revision as of 20:57, 9 August 2011

"Baby's in Black"
Song by The Beatles
Album Beatles for Sale
Released 4 December 1964
Recorded 11 August 1964,
EMI Studios, London
Genre Country rock
Length 2:02
Label EMI, Parlophone, Capitol
Writer Lennon/McCartney
Producer George Martin
Beatles for Sale track listing
We wanted to write something a little bit darker, bluesy, the title's dark anyway. It's in 3/4 time, one of the first waltzes we wrote, which was interesting for us because most of our stuff's in 4/4. It was very much co-written and we both sang it. Sometimes the harmony that I was writing in sympathy to John's melody would take over and become a stronger melody. Suddenly a piebald rabbit came out of the hat! When people wrote out the music score they would ask, 'Which one is the melody?' because it was co-written that you could actually take either. We rather liked this one. It was not so much a work job, there was a bit more cred about this one. It's got a good middle.

—Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, p.175, 1997

For this album we rehearsed only the new ones. Songs like 'Honey Don't' and 'Everbody's Trying to Be My Baby,' we'd played live so often that we only had to get a sound on them and do them. But with songs like 'Baby's In Black,' we had to learn and rehearse them.

—George Harrison, The Beatles Anthology, p.160, 2000

Written together in the same room.

—John Lennon, 1980

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