Contest #9: Battle of the Epic Late 1966-Early 1967 Social Commentary Songs - "A Day in the Life" vs "Surf's Up"
A Day in the Life - recorded Jan-Feb 1967
"Surf's Up" - recorded Nov 1966, possible early 1967 dates too.
If you're unfamiliar with Surf's Up, I'd recommend listening to it at least a couple times. It's got a steep appreciation curve. I've also put the lyrics below. Not quite as obviously a social commentary song, but maybe later I'll post a link discussing the meaning of the song.
Lyrics:
The diamond necklace played the pawn
Hand in hand some drummed along, whoa
To a handsome mannered baton (bygone, bygone)
A blind class aristocracy
Back through the opera glass you see
The pit and the pendulum drawn (bygone, bygone)
Columnated ruins domino
Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping?
Hung velvet overtaken me
Dim chandelier awaken me
To a song dissolved in the dawn (bygone, bygone)
The music hall a costly bow
The music all is lost for now
To a muted trumpeter swan (bygone, bygone)
Columnated ruins domino
Canvass the town and brush the backdrop
Are you sleeping, Brother John?
Dove nested towers the hour was
Strike the street quicksilver moon
Carriage across the fog
Two-Step to lamp lights cellar tune
The laughs come hard in Auld Lang Syne
The glass was raised, the fired-roast
The fullness of the wine, the dim last toasting
While at port adieu or die
A choke of grief heart hardened I
Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry
Surf's Up
Aboard a tidal wave
Come about hard and join
The young and often spring you gave
I heard the word
Wonderful thing
A children's song
Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
Child, child, child, child, child
A child is the father of the man
A children's song
Have you listened as they played
Their song is love
And the children know the way
Na na na na na na na na
That's why the child is the father to the man
Child, child, child, child, child
That's why the child is the father to the man
Child, child, child, child, child
My verdict: Despite its huge popularity, I've never been a huge fan of Day in the Life. It's a good song, and I respect it for its epic scale and modular arrangement (though the BB's already did that several months earlier on Good Vibrations), but I've never thought it was a "great" song (both of the melodies in the two parts are "meh") - probably half the songs on Pepper alone I prefer more. Surf's Up can take a while to appreciate, but especially with that coda, it really has grown on me, so I'm voting for it in this contest.
Last edited by DriveYourCarDownToTheSea; 09-25-2020 at 06:49 PM.
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