Writing about the Safari EP by The Breeders reminded me that I had long planned to mention this song for a while. It’s by far my favourite song by The Beatles - the connection with The Breeders is that they did an ok cover on their first LP Pod.
Another landmark record in terms of production, this is one of those records that still sounds amazing over 40 years on. Like the previous song on this blog, it has a hook whereby the time signature sometimes changes. Golden Brown adds an extra beat here and there, but Heart of Glass skips a beat. Reportedly the result of an editing accident which was kept when it sounded great, the result is an iconic “middle 8” section which sounds wrong when repeated in normal time in an extended version.
This is the first of a few great songs which add or skip beats in one of their distinctive hooks.
In this case, a song in waltz time introduces an occasional bar of common time in the distinctive intro riff.
This song (approximately, at least) marked the transition from the old twee pop Beatles to the much more interesting act that they became.