‘For No One’, the Beatles
- ‘Coney Island,’ Good Old War
- ‘Margaritaville,’ Jimmy Buffett
- ‘Come Sail Away,’ Styx
- ‘Too Shy’, Kajagoogoo
- ‘One Night in Bangkok,’ Murray Head
- Falling Asleep to Kate Rusby
- ‘Mr. Harris,’ Aimee Mann
- ‘Praying for Time,’ George Michael
- ‘God Save the Queen’
- ‘Hey, Soul Sister’, Train
- ‘Northern Sky’, Nick Drake
- I Song I Want Played at my Funeral?
- ‘Near You,’ Teenage Fanclub
- ‘Washing of the Water,’ Peter Gabriel
- ‘From the Morning,’ Nick Drake
- ‘We Are the World’ – USA for Africa
- ‘Planet Telex’, Radiohead
- ‘B.O.S.T.O.N.’, Bleu
- ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ – Band Aid
- ‘St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)’ – John Parr
- ‘Saturday Night,’ The Bay City Rollers
- Least Favorite Band – The Black Eyed Peas
- ‘I Found Love’, The Free Design
- ‘The King Is Half Undressed,’ Jellyfish
- ‘Keeping Awake,’ The Innocence Mission
- ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It’, R.E.M.
- ‘Ah Tutti Contenti’ – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- ‘For No One’, the Beatles
- ‘The Wing and the Wheel’ – Nanci Griffith
- ‘Superkid,’ Candy Butchers
At first listen, the Beatles’ “For No One” dazzles you with its musical brilliance: A descending bass line a la “A Whiter Shade of Pale” with short staccatoed eighth notes on a clavichord. The bridge is purely classical; arpeggioed sixteenth notes on a piano, sounding like a Schubert piece, and halfway through, a French horn joins the mix. It’s Paul McCartney at his creative peak: music so lovely, I played it for my newborn daughters so they could hear perfect music at the earliest possible moment.
But I’ve never listened closely to the words, which paint a totally different picture. Paul wrote it on holiday with his then-girlfriend Jane Asher. Things weren’t going well, and he locked himself in the bathroom and penned the words to the song:
The day breaks, your mind aches
You find that all her words of kindness linger on
When she no longer needs you
The song paints a picture of a relationship that is dead; the two are going through the motions, with no real connection anymore. Paul admits that he still needs her and wants her, but is in denial, even when she says that her love for him is dead.
You stay home, she goes out
She says that long ago she knew someone but now he’s gone
She doesn’t need him
Cried for no one
Paul’s vocal performance is somewhat flat and unemotional – something I had noticed before but hadn’t really thought about. But after reading the lyrics closely, I found that his performance matches the relationship; he is numb to any more pain. He is emotionally spent, and in the song, he simply, almost matter-of-factly, explains the situation.
And in her eyes you see nothing
No sign of love behind her tears
Cried for no one
A love that should have lasted years
The song’s original title was called “Why Did It Die?” and early versions of the song had verses that alluded to finding some way to fix the relationship. But the finished song is less introspective, less hopeful. He tells it like it is, not trying to figure out a way to make it work. It’s beyond repair, and he’s accepted it, and that’s what’s most depressing about the song.
Paul was always known as the cute optimist, the composer of “Good Day Sunshine” and “Obla-Di, Obla-Da.” With “For No One,” he showed that he could be downright depressing in a subtle but brilliant way.
It’s a terribly underrated song, isn’t it? Or neglected, probably because many people are quick to reject McCartney’s ballads as banal. “Here There And Everywhere”, a gorgeous song, is getting much stick. “For No One” just get ignored.
Funny you should mention “Here There and Everywhere” – that was the other song I played for my children upon coming home from the hospital. Those two rank among the top of my all-time favorite Beatles songs.
How can you say, “But I’ve never listened closely to the words,” and then go on to analyze them?
Agreed, agreed. I also feel that one of John and Paul’s finest (if only for the exquisite 2 part harmony) is
If I Fell. But then, as has been pointed out, they just wrote song after cracking song. I used to know someone who described the Beatles as “The world’s most over-rated band”. We haven’t spoken since.