Music Blog

I’d Love To Turn You On

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday

Today’s theme is to feature a song you know all the words to. Easy, right? Yes, especially if you’re a girl like me who’s been singing all her life. I’ve sung with bands, at dinner parties, in church, for school plays and more. I even sang on the radio a couple of times. Big whoopty-damn-doo!! That’s not bragging; it’s just the facts. Everyone is good at something; I suck at math but I have a pretty good voice and a good memory for song lyrics. These days I only sing at home, just like when I was a little kid, and I still know all the words to a ton of songs.

The difficult part was choosing just one song to write about. If I wanted to make things easy for myself, I could have combined today’s theme with next week’s; I’m not saying what it is but in my case the two themes go hand in hand. After much back and forth, I finally chose one song I know all the words to – “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles.

I’m sure almost all of you will be very familiar with this song. John Lennon wrote the melody and most of the lyrics in mid-January 1967 with Paul McCartney contributing the middle-eight section and the pivotal line “I’d love to turn you on”.

The song has multiple themes going on. Number 1, the death of Tara Browne, the Guinness heir, which inspired the first two verses. Browne, a friend of John and Paul, died in a car crash in 1966. John said the song wasn’t a copy of the incident but rather an inspiration. The opening line … “I read the news today, oh boy” … combines English tragedy with a Buddy Holly verbal tic (an involuntary sound or word that’s uttered more than necessary).

The second theme, according to Paul, is about remembering what it was like to wake up late and run up the road to catch a bus to school, having a smoke and going into class where he’d daydream. It was a reflection of his schooldays.

Finally, the third theme – Potholes in Blackburn. The song’s final verse was inspired by an article in the Daily Mail about 4,000 potholes in Blackburn, Lancashire that needed to be filled. Lennon originally read that the town would receive 4,000 plastic circles to hang in the Albert Hall to improve the acoustics. A friend of John’s suggested that they would “fill” the Albert Hall instead.

The song became controversial for its supposed references to drugs. On May 20, 1967, during the BBC Light Programme’s preview of the Sgt. Pepper album, disc jockey Kenny Everett was prevented from playing “A Day in the Life”. The BBC announced that it would not broadcast the song due to the line “I’d love to turn you on”, which, according to the corporation, advocated drug use. Other lyrics allegedly referring to drugs include “found my way upstairs and had a smoke / somebody spoke and I went into a dream”. A spokesman for the BBC stated: “We have listened to this song over and over again. And we have decided that it appears to go just a little too far, and could encourage a permissive attitude to drug-taking.”

Due to the multiple takes required to perfect the orchestral parts and the final chord, the total time spent recording “A Day in the Life” was 34 hours. 

Called the greatest Beatles’ song ever written, this is “A Day in the Life” from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Sing along with me!

Lyrics

I read the news today, oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well, I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph
He blew his mind out in a car
He didn’t notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They’d seen his face before
Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords
I saw a film today, oh boy
The English Army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
But I just had to look
Having read the book
I’d love to turn you on

Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, I noticed I was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
And somebody spoke and I went into a dream

I read the news today, oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall
I’d love to turn you on

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul McCartney
A Day in the Life lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Procedural Memory

Big thanks to Jim Adams for hosting another great Song Lyric Sunday this week. Be sure to check out Jim’s site.

Thanks for stopping by. See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2024

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR©2017-present.

49 thoughts on “I’d Love To Turn You On”

  1. 🙌🏼 Great choice of song. I can see why it’s hard to choose just one song to write about when you know all the words to so many. The Beatles’ music is timeless, and this song’s themes of life, death, and reflection are still relatable today.

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  2. Love the song. I remember loving it from the first because it was so different.
    So many (long) songs I know the lyrics to, and sometimes I wonder at how easily I memorized things when I was young. – The End, Like a Rolling Stone, American Pie, Bohemian Rhapsody… Right now, I’m lucky if I can remember my password.

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    1. Hahaha! Steady the boat while I climb in. I am exactly the same way. I have a notebook to remind myself of things I would never have forgotten a few years ago. Bill’s as bad as me; as long as we don’t forget the same things, we should be ok! 😂

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      1. “Here Comes The Sun” is on Abbey Road. George had one song on the album (Within You, Without You) and he had to fight to get that on. He was not a happy camper when they were recording Sgt. Pepper…

        Mr. Kite is an amazing song. Sounds like one of my wilder dreams. I especially love the end, where they got all the calliope music and just took random pieces of it. Nowadays we do stuff like that with a computer; they had to splice it all together from physical tape…

        And I forgot Fixing A Hole…

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  10. I think it is Ringo’s drumbeat that keeps this song moving along (ba, ba, ba, ba, ba) so well which makes it easier to memorize the lyrics for this great song. You never cease to amaze me Nancy with your talents, and you made a great pick today.

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    1. Thank you very much, Jim! You are most kind. 😌

      My method for memorizing anything includes reading whatever it is over and over again, repeatedly practice reciting the words, writing the words, singing without music and singing along with the recording. Ringo’s drumbeat may be a help. I don’t know.

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  12. i love the backstory to this song. Thank you for sharing it. Back in the 60s everything was so risqué according to the government and we would all end up drug addicts if we listened to such songs. It’s almost comical now. ☺️💗

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    1. Thanks, Christine. The backstory for one song may be fascinating while another may be about the lyricist’s dog; it’s all relative! The 60s were happening times, it’s true, but to put them in perspective, here’s a song from 1930 written by Cole Porter which you probably know. People have been scandalized since Adam and Eve saw each other naked for the first time! 😂

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    1. Thanks so much, Marina! There are still some places around the world where music is completely banned. I can’t imagine not having music in my life.

      Last year I was writing for the now-defunct blog called The Rhythm Section; one of my categories was named I’m With The Banned. A lot of songs have been banned, many for the most ridiculous reasons. Now it seems like anything goes! I combined the Rhythm Section posts with this site and they can all be read here.

      Mille grazie!

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    1. Singing for so many years is what gave me a deep appreciation for lyrics; there are some that simply take your breath away. And the same is true for instrumentals. Music as a whole is extremely powerful and moving. As I said earlier, it’s the universal language.

      Thank you, Willow; we are clearly on the same page. ♡🎶♡🎶♡

      PS – have you listened to isolated lyrics?

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  18. a love-ly share , Nancy…🤍

    (Off topic maybe … but the teacher in me always wonders and says to my girls…” You can remember the words of an entire song…but not your school work lol😋🤭😂)

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