Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey | Page 2 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Von Bontee said
Hmm, can’t see how it would fit on LIB at all. (But “Across The Universe ” doesn’t fit on that album either, so I guess that’s a kind of justification.)  

Well, since the song is not psychedelic or really innovative (in musical/tape effect -wise) it would fit better on one of their “not-psychedelic-but-more-down-home-and-rough” albums. So that’s why I suggested Let It Be .

The “live a little” interlude in Uncle Albert has an interesting rhythmic effect if you concentrate on the bass while listening to the lyrics.

I took a screenshot of a hand with numbered fingers to illustrate counting out the beats. 

Basically, if we start the counting on finger 3 (middle finger), with the next beat being finger 4 (ring finger), next beat being finger 1 (thumb), 4th beat being finger 2 (index) — and keep repeating — the words that always start on the first beat (finger 3) are

LIVE / BE / GET / (GET) / GET / OFF / LIVE / GET

Here are the full lyrics for reference:

LIVE A LITTLE

BE A GYPSY GET AROUND (GET AROUND)

GET YOUR FEET UP Off The Ground

LIVE A LITTLE GET AROUND

We can break this down according to my beat scheme thus:

LIVE A LITTLE

BE A GYPSY

GET AROUND

(GET AROUND)

GET YOUR FEET UP

Off The Ground

LIVE A LITTLE

GET AROUND

The bass pattern is very simple: 

C – G – C – G –

D – G – D – G –

C – G – C etc.

Correlating the bass with the fingers:

C (finger 3)

G (thumb)

repeat

What’s interesting is that when the whole lyric set is repeated for the second time, the first “LIVE” correlates not with the C bass, but with the G bass — and the “LIVE” now correlates with finger 1 (thumb) rather than finger 3. How did that happen?  How did Paul get that to happen? 

One clue is how many beats intervene between the two sets of lyrics.  Counting from the point of the last “AROUND” as beat 1, there ensue 16 beats before Paul picks up the repetition with “LIVE”.  The thing is, since the bass pattern has become reversed, one would think Paul had to force that reversal by having an unnatural number of beats ensue — but 16 beats is exactly what is logical and normal and does not seem forced or artificial, as if it’s adding or subtracting beats unnaturally.  To my ear, if he waited another 2 beats so he could restart the “LIVE” on finger 3 again, it would sound stilted and forced.

And to finish out Paul’s ingeniousness, since the same pattern ensues after the second iteration, the final “AROUND” lands on finger 3 so that when the whole sequence closes out, the bass appropriately ends on C.