"Care of Cell 44"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

---&---

Yester-day I realized a possible influence on "Care of Cell 44."  In the song, there's the line "writing this letter, hoping you're OK," which reminded me of a post I recently wrote about this same sort of epistolary writing in the Beatles' "P.S. I Love You" and "When I'm Sixty-Four."  I'm not sure if "When I'm Sixty-Four" had been released by the time "Care of Cell 44" was written (although it had certainly been released by the time "Care of Cell 44" was recorded; it was released on 1 June '67 on Sgt. Pepper, and "Care of Cell 44" was recorded on 16 & 17 August '67), but by 1967 "P.S. I Love You" had been out for five years (it was the B-side to the Beatles' first single), and it starts off with the line "as I write this letter."

Epistolary writing certainly wasn't a new concept (at least not as a literary concept; I'm not sure of the extent of its history as far as its lyrical application), but considering how often Rod Argent has mentioned the Beatles' influence, there might be some connection between "P.S. I Love You" and "Care of Cell 44."

I haven't read it for awhile, but I'm pretty sure that Claes Johansen mentions something akin to this in his book The Zombies: Hung up on a Dream.  His point is that both bands have songs that are conversations between two people and that concern a third party ("Tell Her No" and "She Loves You," for examples), which illustrates an-other similar outlook on communication.  It occurs to me that "Friends of Mine" fits into that paradigm too:

When we're all in a crowd and you catch her eye
And then you both smile, I feel so good inside
And when I'm with her, she talks about you
The things that you say, the things that you do

In some ways, "Tell Her No" and "Friends of Mine" are two sides of the same coin.