50% fewer pronouns in Beatles songs from early to later years: Words that matter

As I conclude my week of blogs about words – words that matter – I want to share a book entitled, The Secret Life of Pronouns.

James W. Pennebaker’s book makes it hard to stop thinking about pronouns and the other little “function words” that he sees as “the keys to the soul.”

Pennebaker is admirably omnivorous when it comes to looking for material that will show how these stealthy words — which include articles, prepositions, conjunctions and auxiliary verbs — reflect our social psyche. One of his more unexpected sources is the lyrical canon of the Beatles.

He crunches the numbers on Beatles songs using text analysis programs and arrives at some fascinating conclusions. As the band aged their lyrics grew “more complex, more psychologically distant and far less positive.” The increasing complexity of the lyrics is manifested in “bigger words and more prepositions, articles and conjunctions.”

There was also a big drop in the use of first-person singular pronouns, from 14 percent in the group’s early years to 7 percent in the final years. Self-absorption, it seems, gave way to more socially involved perspectives.

Read more in the New York Times review at artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com

2 great song lyrics that inspire

I’m often inspired by great song lyrics that help tell a story.

One of my favorites is "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" which first appeared on The Beatles’ 1965 album Rubber Soul.

"I once had a girl,
or should I say, she once had me."

It is one of several songs on the album referring to an antagonistic relationship with a woman. When asked about the meaning of the lyrics, producer George Martin answered, “My wife is going to give me a hard time for saying this. It was one of John's indiscretions. I remember we were sitting at the veranda outside our hotel rooms in St. Moritz and John was playing at his guitar and working out the text. He felt that Cynthia had tricked him to marry her.” Martin referred to the words as "a very bitter little story."

The song is a lilting acoustic ballad featuring Lennon's lead vocal, signature McCartney harmonies in the middle, as well as the first use of the sitar by a rock band, of course played by George Harrison. The exotic instrumentation and oblique lyric represented one of the first indications to fans of the expanding musical storytelling and experimental approach the group was adopting.

Another favorite song lyric is from Jackson Browne’s “Fountain of Sorrow.” He writes in the opening line,

“Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer,
I was taken by a photograph of you.”

In both these examples, it’s the twist of the meaning and perspective that makes the lyric so memorable.