On A Day in the Life and Bo Rhap, Part I

It's official: Constantine's favourite Beatles song is A Day in the Life. Interestingly, it's similar in many respects to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, which has become his trademark song. Some friends and I were analyzing this phenomena, and I've decided to save my thoughts here because (1) posts have a way of disappearing on message boards, (2) these posts took some time to write, and (3) I love anything having to do with both the Beatles and Constantine... so put the two together, and the conversation will never go dry. :)

The italicized parts are questions/comments from a friend... my response follows.

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Yes, A Day in the Life is a great song... I was thinking about it, and there are actually some parallels between this song and Bo Rhap, with regards to the transitions and general flow...

Both begin rather mellow and calm, although the words are intense ("he blew his mind out in a car"... sounds strangely like "put a gun against his head... pulled the trigger, now he's dead").

It's also a little "schizophrenic", in a way (I hate to use that word, but it best describes the phenomena here)... there's the mellow beginning, then the blur and confusion of the music... the later works of by the Beatles are notorious for having strange sound mixtures that don't really make sense...

Here's another interesting comparison... both songs have a transition/bridge, and then break into the drumming piano parts (think: the piano part just before "I see a little silhouette of a man").

Regarding the general flow and path of the song... it seems that Con likes the songs that are a little "out there" in the sense that there's so much to them... many different types of music, all rolled into one. Bo Rhap is out of control here... it starts off sounding pretty tame, then moves to a choir-ish part, then rock... then back to the mellow ballad-sounding music. It's great... A Day in the Life is similar... starts of pretty controlled, with the occasional peak, then goes into an instrumental/mechanical chaos... breaks into a simple piano part and turns to pop
music, and then is back to the original sound... :)

Also, what other Beatle songs do you think he might do great justice to if he sang them?

Hmm... good question... a favorite of mine is I've Just Seen a Face... I'd love to hear him do that... it's an upbeat song, and the guitar parts are great - I think it's a guitar duo... whatever it is, I love it. I could see him handling this song like he did with ITILY (I Think I Love You by David Cassidy). Across the Universe is another favorite... so of course I'd love to see him cover that...

I love Day in the Life. The final chord is one of the legends in rock.

Absolutely... it's so forceful... and final... :)

Oh, and following his liking of violence references in songs (j/k, kind of!), maybe he should sing Happiness is a Warm Gun? :)