Martha, Martha, Martha

I have listened to the Beatles Martha My Dear (from the so-called “White Album”) for years and never really appreciated the lovely complexity of it until I chose it randomly from my song collection to review today. If memory serves, I believe it is a song about the English sheepdog - Martha - that Paul McCartney owned at the time. Cute.

The lyrics - simple and non-rhyming (did you notice that?) - are solid but, IMHO, are not the star of this song. For me, it’s the arrangement - chords, melody and instrumentation.

Thinking back on images of the rag tag quartet that blasted out of Liverpool a few years before the release of this recording, screaming classics like “She Loves You” and “I Wanna Be Your Man”, this song - along with others of the “White Album” period - displays the amazing musical aptitude the Beatles possessed. The rollicking honky-tonk piano that opens the song - with its clever walk-up bass line - immediately tells us this song is going to be… different. 

Once the lyrics start, I’m still fixated on the music - the wandering chord progression and the unexpected, syncopated melody draw me in, buoy me along, and in the end, bring me home. It’s almost impossible to tell what key this song is in! But somehow, it works.

And the brilliant instrumentation (I suspect George Martin was behind this aspect of the song) fits “Martha My Dear” perfectly. In addition to the quasi-ragtime piano, there are horns, strings, and handclaps - oh, yes, and guitars and drums, too. And it all ends in a satisfying walk-down bass guitar to… the tonic chord? Maybe. Hard to tell!

“Martha My Dear” you will always be my inspiration.