THIS WEEK: FIVE UNDERRATED BEATLES SONGS
“It Won’t Be Long“
from the album With the Beatles
1963
The Lennon/McCartney songwriting chops were already intact on their first album, and they were on fire from the steady gigging and fueled by the wild success of their initial conquest of Europe in 1963. “It Won’t Be Long” is the opening track on With the Beatles and it’s a damn good song, where the verse, chorus and bridge are all totally memorable. Paul’s ever-fluid playing, Ringo’s sloshy swing and peerless fills, and George’s cascading guitar riff converge to concoct a feel that stands as a hook unto itself and perfectly supports John’s searing double-tracked wail.
This number’s got guts, soul, yearning. It’s fierce, man, exciting as hell. And the “yeah yeah yeah” motif gives it a moptop-shakability that conjures the spirit of Beatlemania as much as anything they played on The Ed Sullivan Show. And of course, there’s those aeolian cadences. It sounds like nothing else that came before it or after. It’s one of my very favorite Beatles recordings.
What is John singing about anyhow? Bloody hell, who knows? Was he really feeling “so alone” or could it be that he was intuitively addressing America, soon to “belong” to him, along with the rest of the Fabs?
It is written that “It Won’t Be Long” was originally intended to be the Beatles’ follow-up single to “She Loves You.” And though it never saw life as a 45, it was deemed sturdy enough to snare listeners as the leadoff number on their sophomore LP in late ’63. For my money, it’s every inch a hit, and would have stood the test, given the chance.