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12.15am
1 November 2012
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That weird book online called “Truth Contest” which interprets the Beatles as some kind of mystical prophets of our time has some interesting stuff — and some kooky stuff.
One interesting detail I never thought about before is that occasionally, John and/or Paul in song lyrics referred to the girl love object as a “friend”. This is a rather odd thing when you think about it — what young guys now or in the 60s or any decade in between would refer to a girl romantically as “friend”? Sure, the word “girlfriend” is used, but not “friend” by itself.
Thus, “Can’t Buy Me Love ” —
I’ll buy you a diamond ring, my friend,
if it makes you feel all right…
Or: “I’ll Get You ” —
I’ve imagined I’m in love with you
many, many, many times before…
I think about you night and day
I need you, and it’s true…
So, I’m telling you my friend,
I’ll Get You in the end…
Or: “We Can Work It Out ” —
Try to see it my way…
run the risk of knowing that our love may soon be gone…
Life is very short, and there’s no time
for fussing and fighting, my friend…
Etc.
The writer of that weird book extrapolates (and goes off the deep end — but nevertheless, there are some interesting tidbits in his exegesis, just take it with a grain of salt):
There is a sign in their songs to let us know the songs are not just a love song for a girl. The sign is the word “friend” which is not a way that you would address a girl you are singing a love song to.
Examples: The song “I’ll Follow the Sun”, “Though I may lose a friend, in the end you will know I was the one.” The song: “We Can Work It Out”, “Life is very short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friend.” The song “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “I will buy you a diamond ring my friend, if it makes you feel alright.” The song: “I’ll Get You”, “So I’m telling you my friend, I will get you in the end.” They will get us now.
61
In that last song, “I’ll Get You,” they say, “There is going to be a time, when I am going to change your mind.” They mean literally change your mind, from the mind of mankind, to the mind of a spiritual being. See the difference it makes?
They actually say change your mind and make you mine at the same time.
Words with two meanings: Girl, her, baby, honey, she, darling, etc. = receiver. The receiver is female, just as biologically females receive the seed of life from males. Whoever is listening to their music is the receiver, because you are receiving the music. The word; man, he, him, his, etc. = transmitter or sender. The collective unconscious via the Beatles are the transmitters; they are sending the music and message. Home = the Present, God , etc. End = beginning, etc.
This is why metaphorically God is a male. God gives us life; we receive it.
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12.20am
16 August 2012
Offline And the “Truth Contest” religious spam continues…
Here’s why “friend” is used: When you love someone, you consider them your best friend.
That’s it.
Now let’s have no more discussion of this nonsensical website.
E is for 'Ergent'.
12.42am
26 March 2012
Offline
In the early days (63-64), I’d put it down to the fact that it’s a good rhyming word. Slightly later (late 64-65) I’d put it down to their admiration of Dylan. (“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind…”)
SHUT UP - Paulie's talkin'
12.59am
1 November 2012
Offline SatanHimself said
And the “Truth Contest” religious spam continues…Here’s why “friend” is used: When you love someone, you consider them your best friend.
That’s it.
Now let’s have no more discussion of this nonsensical website.
You may do that, but the vast majority of guys don’t do that.
Also, I wasn’t talking about how guys “consider” their female love mates — but how they address them (in love talk, love songs, love poems, etc.).
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1.00am
1 November 2012
Offline Ben Ramon said
In the early days (63-64), I’d put it down to the fact that it’s a good rhyming word. Slightly later (late 64-65) I’d put it down to their admiration of Dylan. (“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind…”)
Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” is not a love song to a girl.
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12.04pm
Reviewers
14 April 2010
Offline My wife is my best friend – nothing odd there.
Friend is a good rhyming word for end, again, send, etc… – nothing odd there.
Besides, in the examples you cited:
‘Can’t Buy Me Love ‘ – the characters were not yet romantically involved. Hence the line “I’ll give you all I got to give if you say you’ll love me too.”
‘I’ll Get You ‘ – the characters were not yet romantically involved. Hence the lines “I’ve imagined I’m in love with you”, “I’ll get (instead of I’ve got) you in the end” and others.
‘We Can Work It Out ‘ – A couple arguing – doesn’t seem like a song dripping with sentiment that would feature words like honey, dear, sweetie or even stud muffin – unless of course they were used sarcastically.
This might be something cute to think about, but I wouldn’t read too much into any of it.
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.
2.35pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Im with Zig and Ben Ramon, its a common usage and nearly everyone would considering their partner (husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend) to be their friend as well.
Outside Beatles
“If we can’t be lovers we’ll never be friends” The Lovers That Never Were – Macca
Outside Beatleword
“How can we be lovers if we cant be friends, how can we start over when the fighting never ends?” How Can We Be Lovers – Michael Bolton
There will be tons and tons and tons and tons of examples of this in music thru the decades – Queen You’re My Best Friend is another.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
4.01pm
14 January 2013
Offline meanmistermustard said
Im with Zig and Ben Ramon, its a common usage and nearly everyone would considering their partner (husband, wife, girlfriend, boyfriend) to be their friend as well.Outside Beatles
“If we can’t be lovers we’ll never be friends” The Lovers That Never Were – Macca
Outside Beatleword
“How can we be lovers if we cant be friends, how can we start over when the fighting never ends?” How Can We Be Lovers – Michael Bolton
There will be tons and tons and tons and tons of examples of this in music thru the decades – Queen You’re My Best Friend is another.
5.19pm
1 November 2012
Offline Zig presented a cogent counter-argument — a relatively rare thing to find on any discussion forum. Not sure I am persuaded, though. I’ll have to think about it.
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5.43pm
Reviewers
14 April 2010
Offline Funny Paper said
Zig presented a cogent counter-argument — a relatively rare thing to find on any discussion forum. Not sure I am persuaded, though. I’ll have to think about it.
Amen, FP…amen. Thanks for the benefit of the doubt.
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.
10.47pm
26 March 2012
Offline Funny Paper said
Ben Ramon said
In the early days (63-64), I’d put it down to the fact that it’s a good rhyming word. Slightly later (late 64-65) I’d put it down to their admiration of Dylan. (“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind…”)Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” is not a love song to a girl.
I’m perfectly aware of that. It has been acknowledged before, I think possibly by John himself, that the use of “my friend” in I’m A Loser , We Can Work It Out and other songs of the period was meant to emulate Dylan’s mature, learned tone.
SHUT UP - Paulie's talkin'
11.28pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline
Maybe a better example for Dylan’s use of “friend” would have been All I Really Want to Do from 1964’s Another Side of… album. Another Side has been cited as an album that had an effect on John’s songwriting in particular, and at the end of every verse in All I Really Want to Do we get, “All I really want to do/Is, baby, be friends with you”. That that was an album John was listening to a lot immediately before the shift in his songwriting on Beatles For Sale , and the acknowledged influence Dylan had on that shift, it’s fair to assume the way Dylan used “friend” in a song like that would have registered with John.
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
11.43pm
24 July 2013
Offline I think the use of friend is a term of endearment, I remember a point in my life when my girlfriend at the time told me I was the best friend she had ever had. Nothing anyone has ever said to me has meant as much as that statement. This, trying to emulate Bob, and the fact is a super easy word to rhyme with make i so prevalent throughout The Beatles catalogue.
12.55am
1 November 2012
Offline mja6758 said
Maybe a better example for Dylan’s use of “friend” would have been All I Really Want to Do from 1964’s Another Side of… album. Another Side has been cited as an album that had an effect on John’s songwriting in particular, and at the end of every verse in All I Really Want to Do we get, “All I really want to do/Is, baby, be friends with you”. That that was an album John was listening to a lot immediately before the shift in his songwriting on Beatles For Sale , and the acknowledged influence Dylan had on that shift, it’s fair to assume the way Dylan used “friend” in a song like that would have registered with John.
***************
Interesting. However that “All I Really Want To Do” song doesn’t really say or imply anywhere that the male protagonist is interested in romantic love. He could just be wanting to be “just friends” with whatever woman he’s singing about.
Also, I note that two of the songs were apparently written before that Dylan album — Can’t Buy Me Love recorded in Jan of 1964 and I’ll Get You in the summer of 1963.
Off topic: I knew Dylan was category-busting and sophisticated for his time, but these lyrics to All I Really Want to Do are amazing for that time — they must have blown John’s mind when he first heard them.
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1.52am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline Funny Paper said
Interesting. However that “All I Really Want To Do” song doesn’t really say or imply anywhere that the male protagonist is interested in romantic love. He could just be wanting to be “just friends” with whatever woman he’s singing about.Also, I note that two of the songs were apparently written before that Dylan album — Can’t Buy Me Love recorded in Jan of 1964 and I’ll Get You in the summer of 1963.
I think that just depends on how you read it. All I Really Want to Do is often referred to as an “anti-love song”. There is another way of viewing it however, placing it in context of the male-female dynamic of the time. “Bob”, at the beginning of a relationship, is assuring the woman that he is not looking to get away with the abuses that were largely acceptable then, but that he wants to be her friend. In that way, that he reels off this whole list of things that men got away with in “romantic” relationships and says that he doesn’t want to be those things to her, that he wants to be her friend, along with calling her “baby”, does imply the early days of a romantic relationship.
And, as for Can’t Buy Me Love and I’ll Get You , I agree with Zig when he says that they are both about trying to get the girl, and when the girl is still a friend.
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
2.26pm
21 November 2012
Offline Never really thought of it as odd, so I agree with Zig and Mja. It’s just a common word and it rhymes with a lot of words. I wouldn’t read too much into it, some things are just as simple as they seem. Not everything is some great big mystery.
10.41pm
5 August 2013
Offline Don’t forget in “Another Girl ” ‘Through thick and thin she will always be my friend’
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