Michelle. Boy, who say this one coming. Again, it sounds like the others, but the bilingual thing is a bit of a strech. It's a nice idea of bridging differences and international harmony, but somehow I don't think Paul had that in mind when he was writing it. Apparently, she's his beauty, and those are words that go together well. Well, that's touching, and again, the overall listenability of the song makes it work, but come on Paul, kick it up a notch already.
What Goes On. Here's an idea: take a relatively loose song and get Ringo to sing it. Surprisingly, it works. This is one of the few songs Ringo does better than anyone else would. It's about what men are always thinking but seldom say: what goes on in women's minds? One word: listenability.
Girl: Ooh, a nice one. Good thing we can count on Lennon to deliver. It combine's nicely twisted lyrics with a good, steady melody-harmony base. Brutally honest, it's about the girl that came to stay, but only left when she felt like it. Nice lines include: did she understand it when they said/that a man must break his back to earn his day of leisure/will she still believe it when he's dead. A classic example of Lennon's word-play combined with his overall pessimistic attitude. "Girl" was never released as a single, but would have gone right to number one if it was.
I'm Looking Through You. A McCartney song that could have been written by Lennon. It could be drug-related, but it isn't blatantly so. Looking through people is a nice way of saying that emotional shells break away to reveal the truth. In fact, the more I think about it, the more it seems to be drug-related, because the idea of someone's true emotions and aura coming through refers to some of the effects experinced during acid trips.
In My Life. A classic, and one of my favorites of all time. Lennon's lyrics meet with great music, which must have been written by McCartney. Almost as touching as Imagine, it shows how skilled each songwriter was becoming at his own specific side of the musical coin. The harpsichord solo is done by Beatles' producer George Martin, and quite skillfully at that. In My Life is, in many ways, an early kind of "Imagine". Although it lacks Imagine's social comment and inspiration, "In My Life" seems to show that Lennon was capable of using his poetic senses to write more than just nonsense verse and acid rock. Simple, yet elegant, it does the job and delivers whatever message was intended.
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