My daughter, Natty, loves the Beatles. She always has, at least ever since she discovered YouTube, Napster, iTunes, and could manage her own music playlist.
There’s a song that I love by the Beatles called “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” that features intense, dark chord progressions that support a very repetitive theme. And at first glance you may consider the song as being redundant overkill (after all, how many times can someone sing, say or scream “I want you!! I want you so bad it’s driving me mad!!”?). To say that the lyrics are redundant is an incredible overstatement. Here’s a sample:
I want you
I want you so bad
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad
I want you
I want you so bad, babe
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad
I want you
I want you so bad, babe
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad
I want you
I want you so bad
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad
She’s so heavy
Heavy, heavy, heavy
She’s so heavy
She’s so heavy
Heavy, heavy, heavy
I want you
I want you so bad
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad
I want you
You know I want you so bad, babe
I want you
You know I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad
It’s driving me mad
Yeah
So what makes the song so great? That’s a good question based on the (seemingly) simple lyrics. The answer lies in the music, the chords, and the intensity of the message.
So here are back-to-back versions… 1) the Beatles’ original 1969 homage to John Lennon’s love of Yoko Ono… versus 2) Halestorm’s cover on their 2012 album “A Strange Case of…”.
I just love how Halestorm takes the Beatles’ original intent of the song, which was limited by 1969 instruments and technology, and turns the song into the acid-metal, over-the-top, dark rage tune that the Beatles’ surely must have intended to deliver.
ORIGINAL VERSION (THE BEATLES, 1969)
HALESTORM’S REWORKING (2012)