Talk:Lovely Rita

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Regarding Ringo's "Progressive" Drumming

I can clearly hear a snare drum. Though the hi-hat is the most driving, loudest percussive feature, I can definitely hear a snare drum. I completely disagree with the statement.

The traffic warden's name was "Meta" Davies - is this someone's little joke? Vera, Chuck & Dave 16:55, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, the cymbal thing seems to have been completely fabricated - I've never ever heard that they used two cymbals instead of a snare. The fact that it's not cited tells me that someone is just speculating. I think it ought to be removed.

And I've never heard this explanation for the song before, either. In the Anthology Paul says he read a newspaper article about a meter maid named Rita, and was amused that Americans called traffic wardens "meter maids", so he wrote a song. The sources for the current explanation of "Meta Davis" seem questionable. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.114.164.91 (talk) 16:54, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Fair question. One good resource for confirmation would be the Book A Hard Day's Write by Steve Turner. It's a well researched text that explains the origin behind every one of the Beatles' songs. I wish I had a copy handy... -Verdatum (talk) 22:26, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In Bob Spitz's book it says that McCartney got the idea during a night-time walk with his brother, Mike McCartney, on the Wirral, which is where McCartney's father had a house.--andreasegde (talk) 13:34, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

.....Then, he moves the goalposts again, as usual, and tells Alan Clayson it was because he was ticketed outside of Abbey Rd. studios. Vera, Chuck & Dave (talk) 13:45, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In Barry Miles' book (with McCartney) Macca says that he read about Meter-maids in America, and finished the words in his head on the walk with Mike near Gayton, on the Wirral. Game set and match, methinks. The magazine, and the walk, in two books.--andreasegde (talk) 13:49, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Miles also says that a traffic warden called Meta Davies did once give him a ticket near his house, and signed her full name on it (we've talked about this before, I think) but Macca says it was written after the magazine and the walk.--andreasegde (talk) 14:03, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, Less Heard Van Winkle confirmed the "Meta Davies" bit about a year ago, mark my words, this is another: "I thought up the name The Beatles job!" Vera, Chuck & Dave (talk) 14:19, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Could be a mixture of all of 'em. He probably read the article, got a ticket and asked her name (hold on, was he actually there when she put the ticket on his car?) and then put it all together. Harison said that he [Harrison] could never write anything that wasn't in the first person, and that Macca always wrote about imaginary people, so maybe Macca is being true to form by denying it was about this Meta Davies person. The two stories should be in this article, BTW. --andreasegde (talk) 17:01, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah mixture of both makes sense, and both stories are from very reliable sources Vera, Chuck & Dave (talk) 21:19, 8 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In the Beatles anthology, Paul says he got the idea for Lovely Rita out of the newspaper.76.114.164.91 (talk) 21:33, 9 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"Revolution in the Head", which I haven't found to be wrong on any other point, reads "Based on a friendly encounter with a traffic warden called Meta Davis in Garden Road, St John's Wood, the lyric began as a satire on authority with its heroine a hate-figure -- until, in keeping with the warm mood of the time, McCartney decided 'it'd be better to love her'.)" Take yer pick, eh? 67.180.48.127 (talk) 05:59, 25 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Miscellanious information

There's a lot of random shit in this article, should be removed. Sebastian341 (talk) 06:16, 12 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How does adding random shit on the talk page help? Seriously, if you're not more specific, no one can respond in a meaningful way. — John Cardinal (talk) 21:13, 12 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What's that sound?

There's some sort of horn or orchestral sound crescendoing up on the word "when" in "when it gets dark I your heart away." Anybody know what that is, and who's playing it? Carlo (talk) 00:09, 17 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Love album

On "Octopus's Garden" in the Love album, the song is made up of "Good Night", "Yellow Submarine", "Helter Skelter", "Lovely Rita", and "Octopus's Garden". This article has nothing mentioned about the song being remixed on the Love album. It should.Snowconeboy789 02:56, 27 November 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Snowconeboy789 (talk • contribs)

Genre

The reason why I have added psychedelic pop is because the song is very light-hearted compared to songs such as "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.99.85.232 (talk) 18:58, 5 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Psychedelic pop makes more sense than psychedelic rock because of the songs upbeat, light-hearted and whimsy tone. According to The Revolutionary Artist: John Lennon's Radical Years, John Lennon describes the song as "pop". Why keep psychedelic rock even though there is no consensus or evidence supporting it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.170.151.101(talk) 22:44, 31 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Whether it makes more sense to you or not is irrelevant. WP:V states that we must go by sources, not opinions. You can't say that the song is "psychedelic pop" based on the fact that it is upbeat, light-hearted and whimsy. That's original research. Either find a source that describes the song as "psychedelic pop" or stop adding it. --John of Lancaster (talk) 04:57, 1 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

After doing some research, I have added pop rock because the song is poppy in the sense that its upbeat, light hearted and whimsy in tone but also has rock leanings because it follows a guitar based format.^[1]^[2]^[3] I've also added music hall (which is sourced) to the mix. RubyTuesday1967 (talk) 23:47, 31 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Here's your source for psychedelic pop. The writer in particular describes the long outro as "psychedelic" and, as we have already identified the song as pop as well, it only computes that we combine the terms. http://oldies.about.com/od/thebeatles/a/The-Beatles-Songs-Lovely-Rita.htm — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kbrito162 (talk • contribs) 21:59, 17 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Per WP:SYNTH, "Do not combine material from multiple sources to reach or imply a conclusion not explicitly stated by any of the sources." Dan56 (talk) 03:35, 27 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wait a minute, is music hall actually a genre? Because its Wikipedia page calls it a form of theatrical entertainment, and even if it was a genre, can this song really be possibly labelled that? Just read the article and you'll see what I mean. Y45ed (talk) 21:00, 21 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Parking attendant

Could some-one confirm this assertion? A parking attendant has always meant some-one at a parking lot or some-one doing valet parking: not a meter checker. Kdammers (talk) 02:27, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Apparently the "meter maid" part refers to a parking attendant, which was later made famous by "Lovely Rita". In Tim Riley's book Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music – The Definitive Life he says the song is about a rather buxom parking attendant. Rvd4life (talk) 18:16, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Patrick Cadogan, The Revolutionary Artist: John Lennon's Radical Years,(Lulu.com, 2008), ISBN 1435718631, p.195
^ {{AllMusic}} template missing ID and not present in Wikidata.
^ Olivier Julien, Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: it was forty years ago today, (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008), ISBN 0754667081, p.56

Slide guitar

Found a reference for the alleged slide guitar. Mark Hertsgaard's A Day In The Life, p.219, a short reference to "Harrison's upward lsliding guitar". Is that suffucuent? Or might "upward sliding" be different that "slide"? --Daveler16 (talk) 18:05, 17 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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[1] Patrick Cadogan, The Revolutionary Artist: John Lennon's Radical Years,(Lulu.com, 2008), ISBN 1435718631, p.195

[2] {{AllMusic}} template missing ID and not present in Wikidata.

[3] Olivier Julien, Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: it was forty years ago today, (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008), ISBN 0754667081, p.56

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