In article <19970121205201.PAA27352@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
Rialto <rialto@aol.com> wrote:

>It's got to be I'll Get You, even though it was the group's first million
>seller by virtue of having been the B-side of She Loves You.  It's not on
>any album.  I don't recall offhand but I think it's not even on any of the
>Past Masters or Red/Blue collections.  It's an awful song but charming in
>a way, particularly from historical and songwriting perspectives.  And the
>handclapping percussion is precious.  It's so obscure that Lewisohn's
>Recording Sessions says absolutely nothing about it other than that it was
>originally called "Get You In The End", it was recorded on 1 July 1963,
>edited on 2 July and released on 23 August.

I hate to repeat myself, but if I can convert just one more fan to "I'll
Get You", I'll do it. :-) And in accepting the challenge, I've found that
even a supposedly simple "throwaway" from the Beatles' songbook holds more
surprises than you might expect.

First, it fits wonderfully in the Beatles' earliest canon of love
songs...the type of songs you sing about your very first, most sweet,
most earnestly innocent pursuits. 

This is well before there are greater complexities to fret about---no
overwhelming sense of loss ("You've Got To Hide Your Love Away"); no 
ill-treatment ("I'm Looking Through You", "Girl"); no soul-wrung pain
("I Want You/She's So Heavy"). 

In fact, "I'll Get You" precedes love itself.

Or should we say *mutual* love. For the masculine singer is enthralled
by the lady of his everpresent dreams, but she knows nothing of him...
not yet. He hasn't even revealed his ardor! The song is essentially his
rehearsal for the big event: the declaration, the unmasking, the heart
unwrapped and laid bare for the first time...those long-kept inner
secrets:

	I've imagined I'm in love with you
	Many, many, many times before....

So she's his lady of deep fantasy! Unbeknownst to her, he's long been 
bedazzled by her countenance; cf. The Everlys' more thoughtful, more 
artistically mature treatment of this theme: "Whenever I want you, all I 
have to do/Is dream...." Unlike the melancholy alarm of "Dream", however
("Gee whiz!/I'm dreamin' my life away..."), the message of "I'll Get You"
is more brash, more positive:

	It's not like me to pretend

(viz., I don't intend to make this a *pretend* romance)

	But I'll get you, I'll get you in the end,
	Yes I will...

You might call the singer awkward (the lyrics certainly suggest it!), even
overconfident, in fact---but why not? He's in a real state, preparing
for this much-anticipated conquest; and I dare say, from the sound of
his prose, it'll be his first. But like any careful young swain, he's
exploring all the parameters before he approaches the young lady.

How do we know he's practicing? Well, you'd *never* be so blunt, so
unrelenting, with actual words spoken to your intended enamorata ("I'll
get you"), but, as a would-be lover, you need that built-up self-confidence
to make a successful foray. This is his inner monologue. She won't hear
one word of it; it's all for show.

We already know he thinks about her, needs her; but there's a hint that
she hasn't so much as glanced his way before this, hence the declaration:

	Well, there's going to be a time
	When I'm going to change your mind

Did he try to capture her attention before this? Did she misunderstand?
Did she laugh it off? Or was she involved with another? The lady's 
preoccupation's are dimly understood, but it's clear he won't take
no for an answer, this time:

	So you might as well resign yourself to me
	Oh, yeah....

Or, at least, that's what he tells himself. If his attempts are well-
placed, she'll be able to imagine his feelings ("It's easy 'cause I know"),
and perhaps return them in kind. Sometimes all it takes to generate
love's spark is to be told someone's inflamed by you! Compare another
treatment from a different song by the Fabs, a much more gentle, mannerly,
and intimate approach:

	Closer,
	Let me whisper in your ear,
	Say the words you want to hear....

One can well imagine the young gentleman, having properly psyched himself
into a courageous mind-set via the pep talk of "I'll Get You", changing
his tactics to those demonstrated in "Do You Want To Know A Secret?"

And who, may I ask, could resist such an entreaty? Or perhaps he'd take
a more direct route of "Love Me Do", packed to the brim with simple, 
mantra-like pledges:

	You know I love you.
	I'll always be true.
	So ple-ee-ee-ease,
	Love me, do.

A number of the Beatles' earliest songs revolve around approaching a
first love. Clearly Lennon and McCartney were older and had passed beyond
this state themselves, but it's intriguing that so many of their first
compositions (the ones which came to light at the very dawn of their
belief that they were indeed real songwriters) explored multiple
facets of early romance: visual recognition ("I Saw Her Standing There");
first approach ("I'll Get You", "Do You Want To Know A Secret?", "Love
Me Do"); the primary blush of love's initial warmth ("Ask Me Why", 
"From Me To You"); tentative explorations of passion ("Please Please
Me"); and first heartbreak ("Misery").

These sorts of songs appeal to *all* listeners on the verge of similar
excursions, no matter what their age; they can mean as much to you if
you're fourteen as well as forty-one! But there's so much they leave
out---and rightly so. This is the beginner's packet, the songs that act
as love's primer. Later on there's time enough for more...the realization
that love is "more than just holding hands". 

As the Fabs told us, it's much *much* more than that.  Once you've been
through the mill a few times ("I'm A Loser", "Norwegian Wood"), had your
heart bashed and battered ("I'm Down", "For No One"), been ill-used and
abused ("Yer Blues", "Oh, Darling!"), even found an occasional island of
respite after all those storms ("In My Life", "I Will"), it's easy to lose
sight of simpler pleasures...even simpler pain. 

But that's all right. Let's not terrify the innocent, for now. :-)
-- 
"Well, it's all right, even if you're old and grey; well 
it's all right, you've still got something to say".
--------------------------------------------------------
saki@evolution.bchs.uh.edu * dlm3@midway.uchicago.edu