Category Archives: With The Beatles

One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded: “Little Child” by The Beatles!!!

As far as I’m concerned, pretty much every Beatles song is One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded!

That’s my starting point when analyzing Beatle tracks!

My radio show, “Theme Attic,”  is on Wednesdays 12PM-4PM ET.

The show can be heard on WHFR 89.3 FM in the Dearborn-Detroit area of Michigan, or it can be streamed with this link: https://www.whfr.fm/streamer/!

The Greatest Songs will pretty much follow the pattern of The Most Awesomest Song of the Day.

I’ll select a song to celebrate and then give my thoughts about it. Nothing really brand new here that hasn’t been done before. But since I have a website, I can collect them and lay out what my own greatest songs are.

Here’s a link to have a look at “The Greatest Songs Ever Recorded”: https://philmaq.com/the-greatest-songs-ever-recorded/! Occasionally, an “awesome song” crosses over to become a “Greatest Song!”

Even though I always emphasize new music and artists, it’s always fun to take a short drive through the legendary artists, since they influenced those other artists!

But a song doesn’t have to be old or done by a legendary Theme Attic Hall of Fame member to be thus honored.

I can think of several songs that are only a few years old or less that I could identify as One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded.

This will be fun, and hopefully you will join me on my journey!

If you like what you see, don’t forget to spread the word by hitting the “like” button on my Facebook page, Phil Maq!

QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ 

A foreword about today’s song:

My selection for today’s One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded is “Little Child” by The Beatles!

Changing times and mores have opened the door to malign the song for its lyrical content.

Modern day criticism tends to look back on “Little Child” as if a lecherous forty year old John Lennon is trying to seduce an underage girl, instead of the character of an underage boy teenager singing to another underage girl singer and pretending to know more of the world than he probably does. I think the song should be looked at in the context of its moment in time.

When I first heard the song, I myself was a “little child” and it spoke to me of that timeframe and was something I could relate to. Thus I have never seen a reason to change that perspective and rewrite history.

The majority of Beatle fans at the time were “little children.”

In retrospect, rightly or wrongly, at the time it was released, it was fairly commonplace for song subjects to be about sixteen or seventeen year olds to tap into the music marketplace of baby boomers.

Also, I am not examining Lennon’s character flaws.

I see it as innocent as the day I first heard it.

If you hear it as something else, I’m not trying to change your opinion.

However, the only thing under consideration here is a song that was part of the music wave known as Beatlemania, no more, no less!

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

The only song on “With the Beatles,” or “Meet The Beatles” that features John Lennon on harp, harmonica, or mouth organ to use his words, “Little Child” is also one that Lennon and Paul McCartney themselves refer to as “filler.”

Being also the shortest venture clocking in at 1:46, it also arguably captures the band at their most raw and truest form!

And “Little Child” is a wall to wall harmonica romp!

Starting with Lennon’s sedate two chord harmonica intro, the song quickly kicks into gear as soon as McCartney’s piano joins in followed by Ringo Starr‘s cymbal crash and drums, along with Paul’s bass! George Harrison takes a back seat to the rest of the guys.

Lyrically, it’s not Lennon and McCartney at their best, however “Little Child” does contain a lot of one Beatlemania phrase: “come on” is used eight times!

My favorite part of the song is the instrumental harmonica solo where the band gets to jam, joyously unrestrained for twelve bars!

The section sounds totally improvised and is possibly the best example of what The Beatles may have sounded like all of the times they were playing live and not being recorded!

It’s that time in a band where everyone is tapping into a “collective brain” and experiencing the same feelings!

“Meet The Beatles!” is the first album that I ever owned!

I received it as a birthday present from my oldest brother and sister-in-law.

As a little kid, one thing my brother did teach me was how to handle records so that I wouldn’t damage or scratch them.

However, I played that first album so much that it did develop a couple of skips. Sadly, one of them was on “Little Child.”

Even though that album has been replaced many times over the years, that skip is ingrained in my brain, and I still expect to hear it!

One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded is “Little Child” by The Beatles!!!

QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ

I have plenty of other musical areas to explore:

Here’s a link for my weekly list of Fave Songs:

https://philmaq.com/phils-lists/phils-faves-songs/

Here’s a link for my weekly Fave Album lists:
philmaq.com/phils-lists/phils-faves-albums

My somewhat unusual Hall of Fame can be explored here: https://philmaq.com/hall-of-fame/!

Lastly, but most importantly, is my Philby Awards link! A Philby is my annual award for outstanding musical achievement! https://philmaq.com/philbys/!

If you like what you see, don’t forget to spread the word by hitting the “like” button on my Facebook page, Phil Maq!

#LittleChild #WithTheBeatles #MeetTheBeatles #PhilMaq #OneoftheGreatestSongsEverRecorded #GSER