Talk:Penny Lane

Importance of the intersection

The article currently says "McCartney and Lennon grew up in the area and they would meet at Penny Lane junction to catch a bus into the centre of the city." But I just went on the Magical Mystery Tour in Liverpool and the tour guide said that actually Harrison and McCartney took a bus line every school day for years into their school in the city centre that passed through the Penny Lane junction. The guide cited this as the potential inspiration for McCartney to write the song and why the intersection was significant in his and Harrison's lives, not because after the Beatles formed, McCartney and Lennon met there to ride into town. (In fact, I do not recall the guide mentioning that McCartney and Lennon met there often at all, although that doesn't mean it didn't happen.) Their daily bus rides would have occurred several years McCartney and Lennon officially met, since that happened right before the Beatles formed. Can we add this to the main article, or does it need verification of some sort? xgravity23 (talk) 10:19, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Penny Lane junction was the central location for the area. Both McCartney and Lennon would have travelled on it repeatedly from childhood. Paul B (talk) 00:29, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Lyrics and Music?

I can only assume the "Lyrics and Music" section of the article was written by a wanker. It's utterly superfluous, subjective, and - worst of all - bafflingly useless. Any reason not to get rid of it?

It seems confusing (especially to someone as useless at music as me) but could blossom into a useful section - I'll work on it...... Densock .. Talk^{(Dendodge on a public network)} 12:14, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Keep it. I am a musician and I found it an interesting read. Careful about calling people wankers; civility is the rule here. 69.243.144.144 (talk) 08:07, 2 March 2009 (UTC)Larry Siegel

I find the discussion very interesting, BUT it looks like original research. If these interpretations of McCartney's motives etc. can be attributed to a reliable source, that information should be included. Otherwise, it needs to be removed. Pity, but if WP became a forum for its editors' personal music reviews there'd be no end to it. --GenericBob (talk) 23:40, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

With the case of The Beatles, there should be enough first hand information as to what songs are about. To quote what people have thought about songs would bog wikipedia down.There is no indication that there is simultaneous rain, sunshine, or the coming of winter. The phrase "meanwhile back" indicates a new scene. Lyric and chorus alternate, and to call this a kaleidascope with the intention of proving psychadelia is silly. Second point, the phrase "nurse feels she is if she's in a play, she is anyway" is not LSD-redolent. The theme of being within one's own play is pre-LSD. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Munshiraja (talk • contribs) 02:09, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

Should Move Article

Shouldn't this article be moved to "Penny Lane (song)" instead of just "Penny Lane" like it is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.141.202.174 (talk) 18:31, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Douglas Adams

The story is almost certainly untrue and is an example of Adams' famously "sick" sense of humor. The late Mr. Adams wouldn't have hurt a fly. Text should probably be modified to indicate that it is a joke. 69.243.144.144 (talk) 08:11, 2 March 2009 (UTC)Larry Siegel

I think that it would be good to at least re-word this so that it wouldn't appear to the uninformed that Adams is a child-beater and that he was only about 15 when the song was released. Halberthawkins (talk) 04:30, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

Genre

Sorry, but this song is definitely not baroque pop. Baroque pop includes elements of classical music. This has a more psychedelic theme.

FootyStavros (talk) 23:03, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

That's an interesting viewpoint, but how do you relate it to the two massive chunks of Baroque-style trumpet solo? Best wishes, DisillusionedBitterAndKnackered (talk) 23:39, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

True, a piccolo trumpet is a baroque instrument, but as the the song and backing track had been written before the idea of using the piccolo trumpet, it wouldn't make the song baroque. If McCartney had decided to use a sitar at that stage it wouldn't have made it a raga.--Richhoncho (talk) 00:02, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

I hate to pop up back here after months, but, as a point of fact, a piccolo trumpet is not a Baroque instrument. A Baroque trumpet is a Baroque instrument, and does not have valves; a piccolo trumpet isn't, and does: they were invented rather a long time after the end of the Baroque period. I know what you mean, and yes the picc is used to play the Baroque-style solo, but it might be important to make the distinction one day! :) Best wishes DBaK (talk) 09:42, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

The song is what actually exists, not some Platonic idea of the song. What exists includes the Bach-inspired trumpet solo. However what matters is the meaning of "baroque pop". Is there any meaningful defintion of "baroque pop"? The current article on the topic is feeble. Yesterday is included, even though the instrumentation clearly uses Romantic, not Baroque musical conventions. Paul B (talk) 09:45, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Hi Paul, I don't really know why I joined in this discussion, I find the "genre" thing - as it relates to "pop" music pretty meaningless at the best of times. I suppose if Pet Sounds is going to be defined as Baroque pop, then so should this song. BTW Baroque music is much more illuminating. --Richhoncho (talk) 10:06, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

"Baroque pop" seems to be a term used by musically illiterate journalists to cover anything that uses vaguely "classical" instrumentatation. I agree with you that these debates about pop genres are often absurd, and this is no exception, but I guess we have to go with the terminology used in the field. Paul B (talk) 10:10, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Genre again

Is there any chance of building a consensus towards what it should actually say the genre(s) of this song is/are, or is it a lost cause? I just reverted someone, thinking that there already was a consensus, and now I am not so sure. Is it possible to agree this, or should we just let is flutter in the breeze? I must add that it doesn't worry me very much as I have a rather narrow interest in the song - it's just vaguely irritating seeing it changing from time to time in a sort of slow-motion edit war! :) Best wishes DBaK (talk) 09:45, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

I wish I could help you, because it's too frustrating. PhD's in music theory will create new "genres", anonymous IP's will come along and change them; it's a losing battle. Probably the most unattainable goal on music pages is to come up with "genres" that everyone agrees with, and no one alters. "When you wish upon a star..." Doc9871 (talk) 08:29, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

The song is not really rock, baroque pop is enough. Helpsloose 21:02, 13 June 2010 (UTC)

Penny Lane or Rose Lane

According to a friend of mine who lived most of his life in the area most of the places described in the song (including the barber with headshots of all his customers) actually existed in Rose Lane, which is a more-or-less parallel street in the same area. But didn't scan right... Worth investigation? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Machiajelly (talk • contribs) 20:24, 30 March 2011 (UTC)

Rewrite of Ian Macdonald paragraph

The original wikipedia paragraph does not quite represent what Macdonald said on p177-179 of Revolution In The Head, 1994. In case anyone wants to further edit my changes, here are relevant excerpts from p179:

However, as the film of Yellow Submarine later showed by using similar images in a psychedelic context, the song is every bit as subversively hallucinatory as Strawberry Fields. Despite its seeming innocence, there are few mor LSD-redolent phrases in The Beatles' outpu than the line (sung with an ecstatic shiver of grace-notes) in which the Nurse 'feels as if she's in a play' … and 'is anyway'.

Then, as part of a footnote: The last Beatle to try LSD, McCartney was the first to admit to it (to a Life reporter in May 1967); consequently the usual guess is that he took the drug in early 1967. Penny Lane suggests it may have been towards the end of 1966. However, another version is that he took his first trip on the night of 21st March 1967 after Lennon has accidentally ingested LSD (mistaking the pill for something else) while recording backing vocals for Getting Better. Guyburns (talk) 04:11, 14 August 2011 (UTC)