Not a Second Time

The above article by music critic William Mann appeared in the Times of London on December 23rd, 1963, ushering in an era of serious critical consideration for the work of the Beatles, an era which has continued to this very day.  (Search for it online and I'm sure you'll find a version that you can actually read - it's a fascinating piece.)  The most famous line in the article uses the phrase "Aeolian cadence" in reference to Lennon's composition Not a Second Time.  John mocked both the phrase and the article over the years, belittling the intellectual approach of dissecting rock and roll, but there is no doubt that Mann was among the first to praise and legitimize the intuitive writing style employed by the Beatles and others who followed, many of whom had no formal music training.

The song was recorded on September 11th, 1963, during sessions for the album With the Beatles.  The mix of the track is such that many have speculated over the years as to whether Paul and George even play on it, though a bass part can faintly be heard.  At any rate, the first five takes concentrated on the rhythm track accompanied by John's lead vocal.  Takes six through nine were for John to double-track his vocal, and for producer George Martin to overdub his low-register piano part, which dominates the mix.  In roughly an hour and a half, this impressive track was complete - pretty standard work for 1963.

When assembling the album, Martin placed it in the unenviable thirteenth slot, just before the final song, the group's rousing cover version of Money (That's What I Want).  American fans, however, had a different experience of the song.  Capitol Records chose it as the closing number of the album Meet the Beatles!  Not only did this give the song a place of prominence, it affected the listener's sense of the album as a whole.  Finishing with this moody, serious number after the high-spirited, high energy tracks that comprise the bulk of the album helped to highlight the group's broad possibilities for the new American audience.  We may not have had an esteemed music critic like Mann assessing their work for us here in the US, but the discerning fans among us heard more than just the simple "yeah, yeah, yeahs" that were so easy for the press to focus on.  What were these guys capable of?  

Quite a bit, as it turned out.