BQRH #10: "I'll Get You" (The Beatles)

Dear readers,

Another one from the Fab Four. Today we'll take a look at another of those obscure Beatles tracks people rarely talk about: "I'll Get You".

Imagine the setting: United Kingdom, 1963. The Beatles had hit the top of the singles charts with their singles "Please, Please Me" (#2) and "From Me To You" (#1), and with their first LP also hitting the top one spot. The band needed to keep the momentum, so a fourth single had to be prepared. From those sessions, the monster hit "She Loves You" was culled, with "I'll Get You" stuck on its b-side.

And what a joyous piece! The Beatles could not sing your usual traditional pop love songs at this point. No. Less than a year after, the innocent days of "Love Me Do" were over, at least lyrically.

"Imagine I'm in love with you / It's easy, 'cuz I know / I've imagined I'm in love with you / Many many many times before."

Here the singer defies the girl, even not admitting at first he is head over heels in love with her. The girl likes the boy, but she will not give him a true chance.

He confesses he wants to stop the b.s. rather quickly, and he makes his main statement ("It's not like me / to pretend / and I'll get you, I'll get you in the end"). So now, the time has come to (kinda) confess his true feelings to her.

"I think about you night and day / I need you and it's true... / When I think about you I can say / I'm never never never ever blue."

And now he defies the girl who rejected him with a very direct, almost arrow-like, statement that hits the climax of the song:

"There's gonna be a time / when I'm going to change your mind / so you might as well resign yourself to me."

To me, the message to the girl is clear: STOP RESISTING ME, HONEY - you might think I'm not right for you, or perhaps you are interested in some different archetype, or you're ambivalent with your feelings towards me. No matter what, you're going to be mine, so why don't you make things easier for the both of us and accept that you like me, and since I'm as passionate as I can be, you're helpless because I will not let you go?

OH YEAH!

Note that this song was never a part of any British LP for The Beatles, relegated to a single b-side release only. In the US, it was included on the long-player "The Beatles' Second Album" on Capitol in 1964, after the a-side "She Loves You" topped the charts worldwide. Other bands and artists would have based their whole careers on songs like this. For the Fabs, this was "just a b-side". Thoroughly enjoyable!

Love to you all, BQ