The Beatles catalog contains so much amazing material that it’s easy for individual songs to get lost in the shuffle. Then, when you hear one of those somewhat unsung songs, you’re often floored by its charms. “Martha My Dear,” a lovely, subtly profound number from the White Album, is just such a number.
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What is the meaning behind this track? What canine inspired it? And what was it about the White Album that gave The Beatles the freedom to try tracks like this? Let’s unpack it all as we look back at the creation of “Martha My Dear.”
Be a Dear
Beatle songs emanated from just about anywhere circa 1968, as the creative juices of the Fab Four were flowing at an all-time high. In the case of “Martha My Dear,” the song was essentially a self-challenge issued by Paul McCartney. Although McCartney isn’t a trained pianist, he wanted to push himself by writing something that would take great concentration for him to play.
He came up with a piece that was part classical, part vaudeville. It’s an indication of how the Beatles drew from influences that were far afield from just early rock and roll. That’s one of the many reasons their music sounded so rich and timeless.
The White Album, which was actually entitled The Beatles but was unofficially renamed because of the all-white cover, gave the band the license to try pieces like “Martha My Dear” that might not otherwise have been considered for other records. With two LPs worth of material to fill, the editing process wasn’t as strict. They pretty much threw everything but the kitchen sink into the making of this project, which was why a throwback-type song like “Martha My Dear,” with bold brass and striking strings joining McCartney’s piano, proved more than welcome.
A Dog of a Song
If you’re looking back through McCartney’s biography for a special lady named Martha who inspired the song, make sure not to omit the four-legged candidates. The song was inspired by a pet owned by McCartney at the time he wrote it, as he explained in the book Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now by Barry Miles:
“I had a house of my own in London. More than that, I actually had a housekeeper looking after the house,” he said. “The time was ripe to get a dog. I had always liked the look of Old English sheepdogs, so I went along to a place in Milton Keynes, about an hour north of London, and selected this little dog. I named her Martha.”
The Meaning of “Martha My Dear”
The clever thing about “Martha My Dear” is that the fact Martha is a dog is really spelled out for us pretty clearly. And yet, it’s easy to miss it and think that it’s a simple love song to a human woman. Maybe it’s because Martha isn’t as obvious a moniker for a dog as some other names might have been.
In any case, the fact the narrator has to spend his days in conversation indicates that Martha can’t quite join him in that world. There are also times when McCartney gently chides Martha for her behavior: Hold your head up, you silly girl / Look what you’ve done. The buoyancy of the melody makes it clear that he admires her far more than he resents her for her playful behavior.
McCartney also sneaks in a bit of advice that would serve us humans just as well: When you find yourself in the thick of it / Help yourself to a bit of what is all around you. In other words, mistakes don’t condemn you forever, and you just have to keep after it to find a way out of a jam. “Martha My Dear” stands as one of rock’s greatest odes to man’s best friend, in part because of how McCartney, a noted lover of animals, reciprocated to Martha within the song the kind of unqualified, unconditional love she clearly showed to him.
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