We know that The Beatles influenced rock and roll like no band or artist before or since. In fact, it’s hard to imagine how music might have progressed without the example they set. But it’s also important to note the Fab Four weren’t above borrowing what they liked from others.
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“If I Needed Someone,” found on The Beatles’ landmark 1965 album Rubber Soul, features lyrics that owe a great deal to the unique sensibilities of the song’s writer, George Harrison. But musically, it’s indebted to another ‘60s band of note: The Byrds.
“Someone” Special
By 1965, George Harrison had developed a great deal as a songwriter, and his contributions to The Beatles’ albums started to become a bit more frequent. In the first four albums of the band’s career, he managed just a single solo composition. But on the group’s first album of 1965 (Help!), Harrison earned two writing credits.
He would also write a pair of tracks on Rubber Soul, released at the end of that same year. That was an album where the group took a huge leap in both their songwriting depth and studio wizardry. “If I Needed Someone” delivers on both counts.
The foundational sound of the song is Harrison’s chiming guitar. It likely sounded very familiar to rock audiences when they heard at it, because The Byrds, an American band out of Los Angeles, often utilized it. And while that group often relied upon studio musicians for much of their instrumentation, the guitar came from band member Roger McGuinn, who was also The Byrds’ lead singer.
In the case of “If I Needed Someone,” Harrison admitted after the fact The Byrds’ song “The Bells of Rhymney” was an influence. The Eastern sounds that were beginning to enchant Harrison also filtered into the recording, mostly via the drone of Paul McCartney’s bass.
Behind the Lyrics of “If I Needed Someone”
Lyrically, “If I Needed Someone” is a song that’s hard to imagine coming from anybody else in the group but Harrison. There’s a kind of matter-of-factness and logic to it that’s striking. The narrator doesn’t get too caught up in his emotions as he explains to a would-be suitor how things are going to be.
He needs to make clear to her that nothing can come of their relationship from a romantic standpoint because he’s already taken. If I needed someone to love / You’re the one that I’d be thinking of, he admits, before reminding her that it’s nothing more than a hypothetical situation: If I needed someone.
Considering he probably received plenty of offers of that kind as a member of the biggest band in the world, Harrison likely took some of this song from experience. He tries to be as gallant as possible in letting her down: Had you come some other day / Then it might not have been like this / But you see now I’m too much in love.
The fact that he addresses her as My friend should be a pretty good clue to his intentions. At least he lets her believe that there’s a chance: Carve your number on my wall / And maybe you will get a call from me / If I needed someone.
All these messages are sweetened up by the three-part vocal harmonies, with John Lennon and Paul McCartney piping in right behind the lead vocal. “If I Needed Someone” gave George Harrison a chance to show off a little bit as a frontman, but he wasn’t afraid to share some of that spotlight with an homage to another band he admired.
Photo by REPORTERS ASSOCIES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
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