BEATLES RUNDOWN: "All I've Got To Do" (1963)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgIjlp-x-wI
One of my favorite early songs from the band, this is very much John at his best. The second song on the second album, this was never performed live by the boys as far as I know. Nor was it released as a single, so we only knew it from the album. Even from the start, the Beatles were not landing a hit single and then just sticking it on an album with a lot of mediocre filler (as was the custom); their album songs were good enough to be remembered individually.
John said a few times he was strongly inspired by Smokey Robinson when writing this, and you know, it would be amazing if Robinson had ever done a cover version. Only fair, too, since the Beatles covered his "You Really Got a Hold On Me."
The song has a very interesting structure where it keeps stopping and starting again in a different direction, almost like the later Lennon-McCartney efforts where a fragment of an incomplete song by one of them was incorporated into a song written by the other guy. This makes "All I've Got To Do" fascinating when you hear it for the first time (or in my case, the first time in many years), because you don't know where the song is going to go.
It starts off with the narrator happily stating that his girlfriend is always there when he wants her ("Whenever I want you around, yeah/All I gotta do/Is call you on the phone/And you'll come running home/Yeah, that's all I gotta do"). But then, we find out he's not being smug and bragging. With a little bit more emotion, he declares that he will always do the same for her ("And the same goes for me/Whenever you want me at all/I'll be here, yes I will/Whenever you call/You just gotta call on me, yeah/You just gotta call on me"). It's a healthy mutual relationship. And that's it. I don't see any typical Lennon cynicism that it's not going to work out or anything, it's just confident and honest. A much better choice for a couple as "their" song than many 1960s tunes.
I love John's voice in this, he puts so much effort into getting the emotion and the inflection just right. Looking over the first few albums, it's clear he WAS the leader of the band, with Paul as his slightly younger and less confidant partner. As time went on, John drew back (whether from fatigue, drugs, whatever) and Paul stepped in because bands abhor a power vacuum and we got much more of a Paul element in the albums. Along with John doing the lead vocal, Paul (and George a little) contribute some harmony which adds so much when listening to these songs closely. Going through all the Beatles songs recently, I try listening to each song one time just to follow Ringo, and I'm always pleased by how he provides just enough what the song needs without trying to impress everyone with flash or flourishes. Great stuff.
From what I recall, John brought this song cold into the studio, the others went through it a number of times and recorded the version we hear on WITH THE BEATLES (or MEET THE BEATLES, I wish the US hadn't gotten different versions of the early albums, it complicates things). Pretty impressive that they could pick up on it so quickly, you can tell they had been paying dues with those hundreds of hours onstage in Germany.