Listening to 'Hey Jude' for the first time in a while this weekend I had a blinding musical revelation (fortunately not a 'deafening' one - I hate when that happens...). About a minute into the coda section (you know, the 'na na na na-na-na-na' bit) I thought to myself 'wait a minute, this is ... this is ... this is 'Dry the Rain' by golly!'
'Dry the Rain' is probably the Beta Band's best-known and best-loved song, and the it's song in question in the scene in HIGH FIDELITY when John Cusack puts a new album on the store stereo and tells the staff 'I will now sell five copies of THE THREE EP's by The Beta Band.' It's essentially an amiable three-minute intro section leading up to the big payoff - a lengthy three-chord outro driven by a high trumpet pushing sublime yet simple repeated lyrics. You know, kind of exactly like 'Hey Jude,' with a slight sideways twist. Go ahead, play the outro, and sing the 'na na na na-na-na-na' part on top of it. It's a 10-point match, Horatio.
I googled "'Hey Jude' + 'Dry the Rain' similarities" and came up with nothing (but then maybe 'similarities' is too big a word, and I haven't used it yet in this piece...). But I'm surprised this ... um... remarkable correspondence hasn't been remarked on by anyone. I know it's nothing on the level of, say, what's in Hilary Duff's purse, but hey, hopefully I can add a little to the discourse...
And yes, before you point that out, I know that that Beatles pic isn't historically accurate with "Hey Jude" but it worked better in this context...
Posted by: John | February 09, 2005 at 10:54 PM
i know! i took this breakthrough one step further a few months ago and played dry the rain AND hey jude over the speakers while at work. people loved it, just like they did while listening to dry the rain in high fidelity. it was great.
Posted by: kyrsten | March 25, 2005 at 11:07 PM