Talk:The Word (song)

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the The Word (song) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

The Beatles Low‑importance

This Beatles-related article is within the scope of WikiProject The Beatles, which focuses on improving coverage of English rock band The Beatles and related topics on Wikipedia. Users who are willing to participate in the project should visit the project page, where they can join and see a list of open tasks.The BeatlesWikipedia:WikiProject The BeatlesTemplate:WikiProject The BeatlesThe Beatles articles

Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Songs, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to songs on Wikipedia.

To-do list:

For WikiProject The Beatles

A list of articles needing cleanup associated with this project is available. See also the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Articles on each Beatle tour (Category:The Beatles concert tours). See: Missing articles.
Expand : The Lost Lennon Tapes, notable radio series which has spawned many bootlegs. Apple Records See also: Adopt an article
Stubs : See: Category:The Beatles song stubs
Update : Pics/Graphics wanted: Kenwood.
Verify : Beatle wives
Other : Project: Add {{WikiProject The Beatles}} to the talk pages of all Beatles-related articles. Send a newsletter to members, canvas for new members and coordinate tasks. Enter articles assessed as stubs onto this list, also list articles needing cleanup and other work here.

This article does not yet have a related to do list. If you can think of any ways to improve the article, why not create one?

Written by...[edit]

In the Hit Parader interview John did in 1972, he simply put 'The Word' into the category of songs he and Paul had written together -- NOT among those he'd written alone -- which means Paul must have had quite a bit of input on this one. (I mean, in this interview John completely failed to mention Paul's involvement in the writing of 'In My Life', which naturally leads me to believe that Paul's contribution to 'The Word' must have been even greater than his contribution to 'In My Life', a song John DID give Paul quite a bit of credit for in his 1970 Rolling Stone interview AND in the 1980 Playboy interview. Of course, when 'In My Life' is concerned, John could be guilty of just being forgetful on this occasion.)

In the Playboy interview he also said 'The Word' was written together -- although, being mainly his.

Paul seems inclined to treat this song as a 50/50 composition.

Therefore, just stating that it's 'primarily a John Lennon composition' seems a bit problematic. Saying that they wrote it together, based on John's initial idea, sounds far much closer to the truth.

--84.208.224.234 (talk) 17:51, 6 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Middle Eights?[edit]

Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison sang the song in three-part harmony, while Lennon sang the middle eights.

Middle eights? Being a musician myself, they seem more like verses to me. Democraticmacguitarist (talk) 11:52, 15 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And as these only consist of four bars, the best you could hope for are middle fours.

The Beatles, John especially, were never really into the technicalities of music. John would refer to nearly everything as middle eights.

Are we saying 'The Word' consists of a repeated chorus and the odd four bar verse, then? --84.208.224.234 (talk) 12:24, 23 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The use of the harmonium[edit]

The use of a harmonium in this particular song and its theme surely alludes to a church and marriage therein etc? Would be nice if someone could find a reference confirming that if true. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr gobrien (talk • contribs) 21:05, 28 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Rapid fade out[edit]

The song has a very rapid fade out? Does anyone have an explanation if I'm right about that? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr gobrien (talk • contribs) 21:07, 28 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]